Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I want to give kudos to Luige del Puerto at the Arizona Capitol Times for the best analysis to date of the Neoconfederate insurrectionist Tea-Publican package of secession bills moving through the Arizona legislature (and an appropriately snarky caption). Unfortunately, this is a subscriber firewalled article. Arizona Capitol Times » FantAZy Island: Secession-laced bills barging through the Legislature may fail, but they express state's legacy of rage. H/t to Cap Times for their cool graphic (right) as well.
Snippets:
SB1433, one of more than a dozen pending anti-Washington, D.C., measures known colloquially as Arizona’s secession bills, would create a “Joint Legislative Committee on Nullification of Federal Laws” composed of lawmakers.
The group’s task would be to review federal laws and recommend their nullification if they fell outside the scope of the enumerated powers delegated to the federal government. Once nullification is recommended, the Legislature would have to vote on the proposal within 60 days.
And once a majority of lawmakers voted “yes,” Arizona citizens would no longer be obligated to follow the federal law, rule or executive order.
In short, just because the Arizona Legislature declared so, a federal law would be [nullified].
“The bill also says that the nullification committee must see to it that only the U.S. Supreme Court is the arbiter of any dispute that may arise between Arizona and the federal government over a state’s decision to declare a federal law null.”
Wait, that's not true — our de facto governor and self-appointed decider-in-chief of all that is or is not law in Arizona, "King" Russell Pearce, declared last week that "It's not the law of the land when a Supreme Court issues a bad decision, … "It's to be challenged and overturned." Arizona bills a test of federal government authority.
This is really a right-wing think tank lawyer full employment bill to subsidize organizations like the Goldwater Insitute with legal fees paid by the Arizona legislature. The Arizona legislature can't find money for organ donor transplant patients who will die without a transplant, but they can find money to subsidize right-wing organizations like the Goldwater Institute for frivolous "junk" lawsuits. It shows you where their priorities are.
Although defiance of the national government is as old as Arizona statehood… what is new this year is the sheer number of anti-fed bills that thus far have advanced, a reflection of the new political reality at the Capitol after last year’s election gave Republicans complete control of the state government.
Indeed, most of the secession bills have been approved in committee, and a few have already made it out of the Senate, including a measure that enters Arizona into a compact [i.e., a confederacy] with other states that have also enacted laws saying their residents cannot be penalized for not participating in any health care plan.
* * *
The measures that create a multistate compact in various policy areas hinge on another state’s joining Arizona, and ultimately, on congressional consent. Finding a partner-state is possible; getting Congress’ approval for such defiant acts is like punching someone in the nose, then asking him for aspirin because your fist hurts.
* * *
James Weinstein, the Amelia Lewis professor of constitutional law at the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law at Arizona State University, said the chances of the U.S. Supreme Court’s saying it’s all right for individual states to “decide what’s within the federal power and to nullify federal law … is zero.”
“It’s just not in the mainstream understanding of constitutional conversation. And it wouldn’t work either. It’s impractical. Each state can’t decide for itself. It goes against our understanding that it’s the U.S. Supreme Court that’s the final arbiter of the meaning of the Constitution, not each state legislature,” he said.
Nick Dranias, a constitutional attorney for Goldwater Institute, said to use the term nullification is “terrible marketing” on the part of states’ rightists… If it is used as a vehicle of protest by a state, then Dranias said there’s nothing wrong with SB1433.
I told you this is a right-wing think tank lawyer full employment bill to subsidize organizations like the Goldwater Insitute with legal fees paid by the Arizona legislature. Goldwater Institute wants its attorneys fees for frivolous "junk" lawsuits, damnit!
The tension is inevitable because America is unique in its system of dual sovereignty.
That is, its citizens have representations in two simultaneous governments that have, in their respective ways, attributes of sovereignty. However, some scholars have pointed out that if sovereign means the highest authority in the land [see the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution], then states cannot claim it. That’s because states cannot declare war, cannot create a navy, and cannot coin their own currency — some of the defining characteristics of an independent country.
* * *
Some Arizona lawmakers, however, aren’t satisfied with the status quo.
This lament from Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, is typical among states’ rightists: “It’s absolutely out of our hands when the (federal) government controls the air, the water, animals, light bulbs, toilets, washing machines, guns, homes — how you build them, the dust in your state — how to control the dust. The federal government controls every single aspect of our lives, and it costs us money.”
Keep in mind this is the same woman who believes the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that The Flintstones is an animated documentary history of early man. And you wonder where these "crAZy" ideas come from.
And so carrying on a defiant stance, Arizona senators on Feb. 17 approved legislation declaring all goods made or grown in Arizona that don’t cross state lines are not subject to congressional authority to regulate commerce among states.
But what sets SB1178 apart from previous efforts is it goes after public employees who enforce federal regulations here in violation of its provisions.
If the bill becomes law, federal agents who violate it will face a Class 6 felony and a fine that may not exceed $2,000, while state employees will face a Class 1 misdemeanor and a fine of up $500.
The bill’s penalties and fines show that the state is serious about its intention, said Allen, the bill’s author.
What this bill and other provisions actually require is that federal regulatory authorities must notify local law enforcement of their presence and intentions so that local law enforcement can give businesses a heads-up that the federal regulators are coming for a "surprise" inspection — hide your violations! — making local law enforcement agencies an accessory to violations of federal law committed by these businesses. And the federal government will have to pay Arizona counties fees for the privilege of the state helping businesses evade (violate) federal law.
And you thought that Sen. Allen had your health, safety and welfare at heart. Now that's just "crAZy"!
See the Arizona Republic editorial today explaining just how "crAZy" Sen. Allen's bill is. Federal rules aid our economy.
h/t Benson