West Virginia and Liberty
“Hurrah for the son of Kentucky, the hero of Hoosierdom through, the pride of the suckers so lucky, for Lincoln and liberty too.” Those words begin Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 campaign song. Father Abraham, as you might recall, had more to do with West Virginia becoming a state than just about any other single person.
In the last few weeks, five West Virginians have ratified Mr. Lincoln’s belief in our state by their bravery and foresight. Four are United States district judges. The other is West Virginia’s Secretary of State.
Over a period of less than a month, US District Judges Robert Chambers, Joseph Goodwin, Thomas Johnston and Irene Berger handed down decisions that reaffirmed our country’s Constitution. Each presided over a case in which people accused of being illegal immigrants were arrested by federal agents. In each case, those federal agents were found by the judge to have broken the law when detaining the suspects. The judges in all the cases eloquently explained that everybody in this country enjoys the protection of the US Constitution, including all the amendments to said document. The first ten of those amendments are the Bill of Rights, without which the Constitution would not have been ratified by the states.
To repeat, it’s not only citizens that are protected by that document, which is to my mind the finest articulation of the responsibilities of government ever written by human beings. Every person in this country, including citizens (both native born and naturalized), guest workers, tourists, legal immigrants and even illegal immigrants are guaranteed those protections.
Full disclosure, I know two of those judges and have met one of the others. Judge Chambers was Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates for ten years, during four of which I was a member of that body. I knew Judge Goodwin as a lawyer in Charleston before he ascended the federal bench. It was my pleasure as a radio co-host to interview Judge Johnston when he was US Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia. I’ve never met Judge Berger, but I would surely be pleased to do so some day.
Judges Berger, Chambers and Goodwin were appointed by presidents who were Democrats. Judge Johnston was appointed by a Republican president. All four read the law the same way, the Bill of Rights applies to all. In the case before Judge Goodwin, the person arrested was stopped for having a clear plastic covering over the car’s license plate. The other cases showed similar flimsy reasons for detainment.
Judge Goodwin said from the bench that federal agents “are seizing persons for civil immigration violations and imprisoning them without any semblance of due process.” He called such actions “an assault on the constitutional order.” All three other judges made similar comments. Being in this country illegally is not by itself a crime, it’s a civil offense.
In West Virginia, as in most (maybe all) other states, the office of Secretary of State includes responsibility for supervising elections. Under the US Constitution, the federal government does not have the responsibility for conducting elections. That authority rests solely with the states.
Kris Warner, a Republican, was elected our state’s Secretary of State in 2024. He is a mountain of a man physically, and his performance in office so far indicates his heart may be of equal size. He is without doubt a conservative philosophically.
When US Attorney General Pam Bondi asked him and 49 other state election officers for private information regarding voters, including addresses, birthdates and drivers’ licenses, he refused. “West Virginians entrust me with their sensitive personal information. Turning it over . . . simply will not happen,” he said. He added that he would not betray that trust for “brownie points from the federal government.”
I believe I can safely say that three of these five West Virginians are Democrats and two are Republicans. Clearly all five believe in the rule of law and have the courage to stand up for the rule of law. If our beloved country is to continue as a democratic republic, we must all do so.
This article was published in the Martinsburg Journal on Mar. 11, 2026
