Sheriff Baca – Are you a lawyer?

I’m not sure if it’s just because I’m a criminal defense attorney that I find today’s article in the LA Times about LA County Sheriff Lee Baca, funny.   What I found particularly funny wasn’t his stance against the legalization of marijuana (predictable, snoooooze), but the fact that Baca predicted that Prop 19, if passed, would be superseded by federal law (true) and would be found unconstitutional (huh???).

When did Sheriff Baca become an attorney?  And why exactly does he believe that it is within his purview to enforce laws that are no longer in existence simply because he believes that they could be found unconstitutional at some later point?  That’s preposterous.   His job is to enforce the laws of the State of California – he doesn’t get to choose which laws are enforced and which are not based upon his own personal opinion of what might happen at a later date in some appellate court that he will not even be permitted to argue in front of.