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AZ Republic endorsement of Ducey is a giant FU to women and naive besides

October 13, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

I expected this since the AZ Republic endorsed three Dems for statewide races and the publisher of the paper, and publisher John Zidich is known to be a pal of Ducey, but I was struck by the sheer obtuseness of their endorsement of Doug Ducey for Governor.

He speaks of the need to streamline an executive branch that sprawls across an organizational chart. He promises to be a vigorous and visible salesman for the state, speaking the language of CEOs.

He knows what national business leaders look for, and that’s why we have no fears that a Ducey administration would usher in anything like SB 1062, the right to refuse service bill. For one, when Ducey led Cold Stone, the company provided insurance for the unmarried partners of its employees. “The things that are the right thing to do are good for business,” he says. “That’s how you attract good people.”

For another, he knows when SB 1062 did the most damage to Arizona’s image: after it was passed but before Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed it. “I’d rather it not get to my desk than have it get there and have to veto it,” he says.

Prop 122 & Backers Ducey & Brnovich Are Too Extreme for Arizona

October 13, 2014 by Pamela Powers

Brought to you by the Goldwater Institute and the Koch Brothers, Proposition 122 is the worst idea since the Civil War, and true to form with other Koch Brothers initiatives, it is being sold to us with lies and dark money.

Prop 122 would amend the Arizona Constitution to: 1) confirm that both the state and federal governments must follow the US Constitution; 2) give “Arizona” the right to determine what is Constitutional (instead of the Supreme Court); and 3) give the state government authority to stop all levels of government (state, county, city, town or other political entity) from using personnel or finances to “enforce, administer or cooperate with a federal action or program if the people or their representatives have exercised their authority to restrict such action or use,” quoting Arizona’s Election Guide from the Secretary of State’s office.

In other words, if “the people or their representatives” decide that a federal law is unconstitutional, the state can stop, all levels of government in Arizona from cooperating with the federal government on that law.

This is sedition, it is un-American, and it is backed by our state’s Republican leadership, including gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey. attorney general candidate Mark Brnovich, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, disgraced former Senate President Russell Pearce, Republican Congressional representatives, and …

Editorial opinions condemn the GOP war on voting

October 13, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie

The Neocon Washington Post, never to be confused with a “librul” newspaper — see Fred Hiatt’s Hiring Hall For Unemployable Conservatives on the op-ed page — nevertheless delivers a stinging rebuke to the GOP war on voting in an editorial opinion. Suppressing the vote:

Responsible politicians should be doing all they can to encourage people to exercise their most precious of rights. Instead, Republican leaders in states around the country are continuing their war even on what should be uncontroversial, small-scale reforms, in a transparent attempt to depress turnout among poor and minority — that is, Democratic — voters.

The Supreme Court has ruled that GOP efforts to roll back voter-access measures in Ohio will take effect before next month’s vote. Last week the court said the same thing about crimped voting rules in North Carolina, a state whose Republican majority rushed to add barriers to the ballot box right after the court weakened the Voting Rights Act last year. Not every GOP restriction will be implemented next month; the justices halted a strict voter ID requirement in Wisconsin, where some absentee voters would have had to show up with identification after mailing in their ballots. On the same day, a district court judge in Texas repudiated that state’s voter ID law, though Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) — who is on the November ballot for governor — is promising to appeal.

U.S. District Court for Alaska strikes down state’s same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional

October 13, 2014October 13, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie

On Sunday night, a federal judge ruled that Alaska’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, paving the way for same-sex couples to begin marrying in the state for the first time. As you might expect, the state immediately said it would appeal the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess.

The Alaska Daily News reports, State vows to appeal after Alaska’s same-sex marriage ban ruled unconstitutional:

“The court finds that Alaska’s ban on same-sex marriage and refusal to recognize same sex marriages lawfully entered in other states is unconstitutional as a deprivation of basic due process and equal protection principles under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” Burgess wrote in a order in the case Hamby v. Parnell, released Sunday.

Read the Opinion Here (.pdf).

The Hamby suit was filed in May by five same-sex couples. It challenged the state’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman, approved by voters in 1998. Both parties in the Hamby case made oral arguments in the case on Friday.

In an email, the state said it will appeal Burgess’ ruling.

Conservative icon Judge Richard Posner blasts voter ID laws he once approved

October 12, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie

I have been catching up on the numerous election law case briefs moving through the federal courts recently. I finally had time to review the 7th Circuit Court 5-5 split denying en banc review of Wisconsin’s voter ID law, which the U.S. Supreme Court has since stayed for this election.

I don’t recall this receiving national news media attention at the time, but it should have: conservative icon Judge Richard Posner, the author of the appellate court opinion in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board upholding Indiana’s voter ID law, has made an 180 degree turnabout and wrote a blistering dissent against Wisconsin’s voter ID law. Judge Posner asked for the en banc review vote himself, and wrote a 28 page dissent to the refusal of the 7th Circuit to take up the case en banc.

The Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel reported, Appeals court dissenters blister state’s voter I.D. law:

Just 14 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Wisconsin’s voter ID law for the Nov. 4 election, five appeals court judges Friday issued a blistering opinion calling allegations of voter impersonation fraud “a mere fig leaf for efforts to disenfranchise voters likely to vote for the political party that does not control the state government.”

“Some of the ‘evidence’ of voter-impersonation fraud is downright goofy, if not paranoid, such as the nonexistent buses that according to the ‘True the Vote’ movement transport foreigners and reservation Indians to polling places,” wrote Judge Richard A. Posner of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.