Quotehttps://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jeff-reynolds/2020/10/12/feds-to-portland-take-your-fine-and-shove-it-n1040367?fbclid=IwAR3l8RTkrqy2F0wZPMIJC_fUg9uEGvLAp6vxyEItogy7WRsCuW8F7cvT__M

Need more proof that Portland City Commission lives in la-la land? Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has issued the maximum fine allowed—$500 every 15 minutes—to the federal government for the fence around the federal courthouse at the center of nightly riots, because the fence blocks bike lanes. Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who is in charge of PBOT, issued a statement announcing the fines, and it's full-on crazy train.

The Department of Homeland Security has racked up millions of dollars in fines — on paper — from two city bureaus irked by the iron barricade wrapped around the city's federal courthouse.

The feds have no intention of paying.

In fact, Homeland Security says the financial penalties imposed by the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Bureau of Environmental Services are unlawful, citing an argument straight from a civics textbook: the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

In letters to both bureaus, David A. Hess, an assistant director for the Federal Protective Service, pointed to the clause — which says that, in most cases, federal law trumps a conflicting state law.

"The Federal Government is absolutely immune from fines or penalties issued by local governments unless there is a clear waiver of sovereign immunity by Congress," Hess wrote, according to copies of the letters obtained by Pamplin Media. "There has been no such waiver here."