Civil & Human Rights

How do you like your Hobby Lobby now, Doug Ducey and other GOP candidates?

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Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com

hobby lobby

Per Ian Millhiser:

Citing Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court’s decision last June holding that the religious objections of a business’ owners could trump federal rules requiring that business to include birth control coverage in its health plan, a federal judge in Utah held last week that a member of a polygamist religious sect could refuse to testify in a federal investigation into alleged violations of child labor laws because he objects to testifying on religious grounds…

…The federal child labor investigation arose from a CNN report investigating claims that Jeffs “ordered all schools closed for a week so children could go to work picking pecans off trees at a private ranch” in Utah. The report included video of “hundreds of children, many of them very small” working on the ranch. When the reporters arrived, CNN also caught video of the FLDS children fleeing the cameras.

Yet, according to an order signed by Judge David Sam, a Reagan appointee to a trial court in Utah, the federal officials investigating this alleged violation of child labor laws will not be able to require an FLDS member named Vernon Steed to provide information that could aid the investigation because Steed objects to giving certain testimony on religious grounds. Steed claims that he’s made “religious vows ‘not to discuss matters related to the internal affairs or organization of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.’” According to Judge Sam’s opinion, that’s enough to exempt him from providing the testimony he does not want to give.

Whoops.

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They’re shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

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Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com

claude rains

Let’s say you are Sean Noble, a Koch-ed up dark money operative who has been the focus of some negative attention for your activities. You’d probably prefer to be known for something else in the midst of a heated general election cycle in Arizona, where you are the manager of the GOP candidate for Attorney General. Then it comes to your attention that former AZ Senate President Russell Pearce has said some vile things in public, as he is wont to do. And as right wingers are wont to do so often, Pearce focused his wrath on poor women. In this case Pearce says that poor women on public assistance should be forcibly sterilized.

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Fixing Arizona’s image: tolerance and inclusion

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Brewer-ObamaThe Arizona Republic today posits that the Next governor will aim to fix Arizona’s image.

Arizona’s image to businesses and to people who would relocate here has been severely harmed by Arizona’s far-right ideological extremism, from Jan Brewer embracing the anti-immigrant “papers please” SB 1070 to gain election in 2010, to Gov. Brewer and the Tea-Publican legislature enacting anti-government Neo-Confederate “states rights” legislation routinely struck down by the courts as unconstitutional, to Gov. Brewer showing disrespect to the president by waving he boney finger in his face, to this year’s “right-to-refuse-service” aka Religious Bigotry bill, SB 1062, that caused such a national furor.

Brewer’s would-be successor as the next chief executive must repair this state’s reputation and avoid future embarrassments that damage the state’s potential for economic growth. From The Republic:

Repairing the state’s image has come up at nearly every major governor’s forum, including Wednesday’s debate. Pollster Mike O’Neil said the issue resonates with many in the business community and ­offers an opportunity for DuVal to attract ­independents and “country club” Republicans — those less concerned with the social issues behind recent ­Arizona controversies.

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Oh look, another nonexistent attack on reproductive rights by a Republican!

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

pearce

I crosspost what I post at Democratic Diva over at Blog for Arizona, and a lot (not all by any means but a lot) of what I blog about is reproductive rights. I do so because I pay close attention to the issue as it’s something I care deeply about and consider hugely important but also because I assume that anyone who pays only a modicum of attention to US and Arizona politics has noticed how intent anti-choice activists and their allies in the Republican party have been on ruthlessly attacking women’s reproductive rights. These attacks take a variety of legal forms – arbitrary late term bans, waiting periods, TRAP laws, attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, so-called “conscience clauses”, the Hobby Lobby SCOTUS decision, women actually being prosecuted for stillbirth and miscarriages, etc. – and I don’t expect the average person to be up on all of them. I would expect, however, expect the average person who is motivated to comment on a liberal political blog to be aware of at least some of them. But apparently this is too much to expect, as I have Blog for AZ commenters informing me that Roe v Wade settled everything in perpetuity and that abortion and contraception will always be available. Okay.

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U.S. District Court for Arizona orders state to issue a death certificate to same-sex spouse

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U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick decided not to delay until a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issues an opinion on state same-sex marriage bans. Judge Sedwick today ordered the state of Arizona to issue a death certificate for George Martinez that lists Fred McQuire as his legal spouse. The Arizona Capitol Times reports, Federal court rules Arizona must recognize widower’s gay marriage:

AzEqualJudge John Sedwick rejected arguments by attorneys for state that the “public interest” would be harmed by requiring Arizona to recognize the pair were legally married in July in California. Martinez died a month later.

Sedwick was careful to spell out that today’s ruling is limited solely to McQuire and does not mean that other Arizona couples who were legally married elsewhere are entitled to have their unions recognized here. That fight remains for another day.

But that other day could come soon for Arizona: Sedwick is currently considering lawsuit seeking to overturn the state law and the 2008 voter-approved constitutional amendment defining marriage as solely between one man and one woman. And the judge, to be able to grant McQuire’s request, had to conclude that those challenging the ban ultimately likely to succeed.

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