Civil & Human Rights

‘Crazy’ Carl Seel wants to return to the dark days of Russell Pearce

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Back in the dark days when disgraced and recalled former Senate President Russell Pearce was at the zenith of his anti-immigrant reign of terror, he and his good buddy Kris Kobach from the Immigration Law Reform Institute and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) were proposing bills to deny undocumented immigrants access to health care, public education, rental properties, public services. etc. Many of these anti-immigrant measures were first beta-tested by Kris Kobach in the City of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

SealRussell Pearce, who is now the First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, still has his loyal acolytes willing to carry out his anti-immigrant hysteria in the Arizona legislature.

"Crazy" Carl Seel — you remember him, one of the sponsors of the "Birther" bills in 2011 and 2012 Arizona's Penis-Free "Birther" Bill Is Back in Action — has filed HB 2192 (.pdf), a bill that would declare it "an unlawful use of public resources if the person uses any public resource while present in this state in violation of any [law] that has determined that the person is not lawfully present in this state…"

Rep. Seel is the only sponsor of this bill, and his bill has not yet been assigned to a committee. Arizona's business community has made it abundently clear in recent years that it does not want to revisit the dark days of Russell Pearce's reign of terror. So will the business community punish Seel for his sin?

Update on Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship voter registration form case

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona Attorney General Tom "banned for life by the SEC" Horne and Secretary of State Ken "Birther" Bennett are in U.S. District Court in Kansas, Kris W. Kobach et al. v. United States Election Assistance Commission (13-4095-EFM-DJW) suing the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and threatening to impose a two-tier system for voting in Arizona and Kansas based upon whether you registered to vote with the Arizona voter registration form or the federal motor-voter form (NVRA).

Last month the EAC filed with the Court a detailed 46-page EAC Final Decision on Proof of Citizenship Requests (.pdf). In its decision, the EAC found that added documentation results in an overall decrease in registration of eligible citizens — undermining the core purpose of the National Voter Registration Act. The EAC essentially told Arizona and Kansas to "go pound sand."

The AP reports this week Kansas, Arizona rekindling lawsuit over proof-of-citizenship voter registration:

Kansas and Arizona have rekindled a lawsuit seeking to force the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to require residents to show proof-of-citizenship when registering to vote, arguing that a recent agency decision to deny the requests was unlawful.

In a filing late Friday in a case with broad implications for voting rights, the two states asked U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren to order federal officials to include state-specific requirements in federal voter registration forms.

ENDA bill filed by Democrats in the Arizona Legislature

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In analyzing the Religious Bigotry bills approved in the House Government Committee earlier this week, I pointed out that:

The Arizona legislature has regularly refused to amend the state civil rights act to extend employment non-discrimination and non-discrimination in public accommodations and public housing to gays and lesbians since 1996. Since there is no cause of action under either the state or federal civil rights acts for gays as a protected class, this bill is a proactive right to discrimination.

A bill to amend the Arizona Civil Rights Act to add non-discrimination against gays and lesbians (and also transgenders) has been filed every year since 1996, to the best of my recollection, and this year is no exception.

Democrats have once again filed the state version of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), SB 1443 (.pdf), which would amend the Arizona Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of "gender, gender identity or expression, and sexual orientation."

Virginia is for Lovers: federal judge promises a decision ‘soon’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On Tuesday, Virginia Solicitor General Stuart A. Raphael compared his state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages to the commonwealth’s previous defense of segregation, a ban on interracial marriage and resistance to admitting women to VMI — all decisions overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Quick ruling pledged on Va. gay marriage ban:

Equal“We are not going to make the mistakes our predecessors made,” Raphael told U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen.

Wright Allen did not ask a question of any of the five lawyers who addressed her during the nearly two hours of arguments but said she will rule quickly on an issue that all agreed will ultimately be settled by the Supreme Court.

“You’ll be hearing from me soon,” she said, emphasizing the last word.

At issue is a question the Supreme Court justices left unanswered in June in their first consideration of same-sex marriage: Does a state’s traditional role in defining marriage mean it may ban same-sex unions without violating the equal protection and due process rights of gay men and lesbians?

The case in Wright Allen’s courtroom marked the first time such a challenge has advanced so far in a state that was part of the Old South.

New Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) infuriated Republicans and conservatives in the state when he decided soon after taking office last month that he would not defend the ban.