Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Press release from the Brennan Center for Justice: Federal Court in KS to Hear Arguments on KS, AZ Voter Reg Restrictions The U.S. District Court in Wichita will hear arguments tomorrow, December 13, in Kris W. Kobach et al. v. United States Election Assistance Commission, which seeks to undermine federal voter protections … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Neo-Confederate Birthers-Birchers-Secessionists of the Tea Party are gearing up for the next session of the Arizona Legislature with yet another state sovereignty and nullification of federal law measure.
These Neo-Confederate dead-enders just never give up their long discredited theories of interposition, nullification and secesssion in their never-ending insurrection against the federal government.
Sen. Kelli Ward (R-Lake Havasu City), who last session sponsored model legislation for the Firearms Freedom Act and Federal Gun Laws Nullification, this session plans to introduce model legislation to nullify the capabilities of the National Security Agency (NSA) in Arizona — you know, the spy agency that keeps Americans safe from the Hezbollah Muslim terrorists and Chicoms these same paranoid teabaggers believe are invading the U.S. across the Mexican border.
The Arizona Capital Times (subscription required) reports Senator hopes to curtail NSA activities in Arizona:
Arizona may be the first state to consider legislation designed to hinder the National Security Agency’s ability to spy within its borders.
Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City, announced Monday she’ll introduce legislation next session that would “nullify” the NSA’s capabilities in Arizona by encouraging state agencies, counties, municipalities and local law enforcement to refuse to cooperate with NSA operations.
Information collected by the NSA in Arizona without a warrant would be banned from use by law enforcement and deemed inadmissible in court, Ward said.
Agencies and companies would face penalties if they aid the NSA and state funding would be cut off in the case of agencies and municipalities. Companies that, for example, provide water or electricity to NSA facilities in Arizona would be banned from contracting with the state at any level of government.
Ward said the 4th Amendment Protection Act, model legislation pushed by constitutional-rights organization the Tenth Amendment Center, isn’t meant to punish local governments and state agencies, but is more of a disincentive to the NSA if it wants to conduct surveillance in Arizona.
I would dispute the "constitutional-rights organization" characterization of what this "Tenther" organization is about. It promotes state sovereignty ("states' rights"), interposition and nullifcation of federal laws, theories long discredited since the end of the Civil War and the adoption of the 14th Amendment. Not to mention the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
Posted by AzBluMeanie:
Last week, a federal judge approved the Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy for the city of Detroit. Detroit eligible for nation's largest municipal bankruptcy filing, federal judge rules. The target of this bankruptcy are the public employee pensions.
Initial reports are that the Detroit bankruptcy proposal would leave pensioners with 16 cents on the dollar. This is despite the fact that Michigan’s state constitution, like those of many other states (including Arizona), specifically protects the pension rights of public employees.
U.S. bankruptcy judge Steven Rhodes set a crucial precedent on a municipality’s right to cut pension benefits through the Chapter 9 process. Detroit judge's pension ruling is no panacea for beleaguered cities:
“Municipal pension rights are contract rights, and…the impairment of such contract rights in a municipal bankruptcy case is a regular part of the process,” Rhodes concluded, according to a court-issued summary of his findings. “Because the State of Michigan authorized the filing of this case, municipal pension rights in Michigan can be impaired in this bankruptcy case, just like any other contract rights.” (Rhodes read his eligibility ruling from the bench; a written opinion is to follow.)
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Chris Hayes on his program All In has been doing a series this week called "Bizarro Congress," a Congress that actually does its job addressing the needs of the country, instead of the less than "less than do nothing" 113th Congress we actually have now — the Worst. Congress. Ever.
Last month Senate Democrats finally exercised the constitutional option (aka the nuclear option as preferred by the media villagers) to end the Senate's super-majority cloture rule for debate, colloquially known as the filibuster. This weapon of mass destruction had been used by Tea-Publicans to paralyze the U.S. Senate and to render it entirely dysfunctional.
Today, ending the filibuster finally bears fruit by restoring some functionality to the U.S. Senate. Senate Democrats confirm judge using new rules to thwart filibusters:
Democrats successfully utilized new Senate rules Tuesday to confirm one of President Obama's picks to serve on a key federal court and to proceed with final debate on another nominee to lead a federal housing agency.
Under new rules requiring just a majority of senators to agree to proceed to final debate on most confirmation votes, senators voted 56 to 38 to confirm Patricia A. Millett to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, one of the nation's most influential federal courts. She will be the first of three picks by Obama to join what is broadly considered the second-most important federal court in the nation because it handles cases regarding federal regulations.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Two critical lawsuits will get a hearing in December.
The lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of 36 Republican legislators and a pair of citizens by lawyers for the Goldwater Institute contends the hospital assessment in the law is a tax that required a 2/3 vote of the Legislature under the state Constitution. It also alleges that allowing the director of the state's Medicaid program to set the assessment and exempt some providers gives him taxing authority that properly belongs to the state Legislature. Judge sets date to hear Medicaid expansion lawsuit:
Maricopa County Superior Court judge Katherine Cooper set a Dec. 9 date to hear the suit filed in September on behalf of 36 Republican state lawmakers and a pair of citizens.
* * *
Brewer's lawyers want Cooper to throw out the suit. They say the plaintiffs don't have standing to sue and lawmakers could sue to stop any law it moves forward.
The Arizona Republic reported, Brewer’s lawyers: Suit challenging Medicaid expansion has no merit:
Arizona lawmakers on the losing side of the Medicaid expansion vote have no legal authority to stop the new law that broadens eligibility for low-income residents, attorneys for Gov. Jan Brewer argued in a court filing Wednesday.
Brewer’s attorneys asked Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper to dismiss the lawsuit, filed last month by the conservative Goldwater Institute, saying the court should not get involved in a legislative dispute.
The Republican lawmakers “are a disgruntled faction within the Legislature that was outvoted by a bipartisan coalition,” wrote Douglas Northrup, an attorney with Fennemore Craig. “Legislators’ alleged injury is a loss of legislative and political power.”
Three other plaintiffs — two constituents and the state director of Americans for Prosperity — also lack authority to sue, he argued, largely because they can’t show they’ve suffered any harm from the portion of the law that’s being challenged, which is an assessment on hospitals to help pay for expansion.
“If the court found that standing to challenge a law’s constitutionality is found with such tenuous allegations of injury, every constituent whose legislator voted against an allegedly unconstitutional bill would have standing,” Northrup wrote.
He argued that the Arizona Supreme Court recognized the limits of legislative standing in a 2003 case, ruling that individual legislators did not have authority to challenge then-Gov. Janet Napolitano’s line-item veto authority.