Courts & Law

Marriage Equality breaks out in New Mexico

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Something remarkable is happening in New Mexico over the past week. After a state court judge ruled last week that the state's constitution prohibits discrimination against same-sex couples, several counties in New Mexico have begun issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. N.M.
judge orders county to issue same-sex marriage licenses:

An Albuquerque judge on Monday ordered the clerk of New Mexico’s most
populous county to join two other counties in the state in issuing
marriage licenses for gay and lesbian couples.

State District Judge Alan Malott ruled that New Mexico’s
constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation.

The Bernalillo County clerk’s office in Albuquerque plans to start
issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Laura
Schauer Ives, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of New
Mexico, called it a “monumental ruling” and said the group didn’t expect
such a broad decision by the judge.

Republicans who want to restore the Voting Rights Act

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It's a start. GOP’s Sensenbrenner vows to repair Voting Rights Act:

Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is a longtime advocate of the Voting Rights Act. As chair of the House Judiciary Committee when the law was reviewed in 2006,
the Wisconsin legislator oversaw extensive deliberations which
ultimately affirmed the VRA’s continuing necessity–and resulted in a
25-year reauthorization.

So when the Supreme Court effectively gutted
the VRA in June by voiding the requirement for certain states to get federal “preclearance” before changing their voting laws, Sensenbrenner was displeased.

“Voter discrimination still exists,” he wrote in a June op-ed for USA Today, “and our progress toward equality should not be mistaken for a victory.”

* * *

“The first thing we have to do is take the monkey wrench that the court
threw in it, out of the Voting Rights Act, and then use that monkey
wrench to be able to fix it so that it is alive, well, constitutional
and impervious to another challenge that will be filed by the usual
suspects,” Sensenbrenner said Monday at an RNC event held to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington.

Video below the fold.

AIRC Update: Tea-Publican deadbeats sue the AIRC with your tax dollars to overturn Prop. 106 that created the AIRC

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I posted about this last year, AIRC Update: Tea-Publican deadbeats sue the AIRC with your tax dollars to overturn Prop. 106 that created the AIRC, and They're baaack! Tea-Publican lawsuits against the AIRC.

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports today, 3-judge panel to hear 2nd redistricting challenge:

Three federal judges have been appointed to hear a constitutional challenge to the state’s redistricting commission process.

The Republican-controlled Legislature led by Senate President Andy
Biggs and House Speaker Andy Tobin filed suit in federal court in June
2012.

They argued that the U.S. Constitution gives state Legislatures the
right to regulate congressional elections and that voter-approved
Proposition 106 in 2000 took that power away. The law created the
Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission to draw district maps.

The three judges were appointed Monday by Alex Kozinsky, chief judge
of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They are Senior Circuit Judge
Mary Schroeder and District Judges Paul Rosenblatt and Murray Snow.

(Update) Lawsuit to challenge the initiative to bankrupt the City of Tucson

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last week, Judge James E. Marner ruled in the case of Yolanda Parker et al. v. City of Tucson et. al. (C20134029), the lawsuit to challenge the sufficiency of the initiative petitions filed by the
Committee for Sustainable Retirement, the local front group for ballot
initiative activist Paul Jacob and the
Liberty Initiative Fund.

Judge Marner struck a number of the petitions submitted as invalid
for the reasons stated in his ruling. The Tucson City Clerk was ordered
to remove these invalid petition sheets and to recalculate the number of
signatures eligible for verification and submit the appropriate number
of signatures in the form of random sample to the Pima County Recorder's
Office for determination of an error rate as mandated by A.R.S.
§19-121.01. The Tucson City Clerk was to accomplish this by no later than
August 23, 2013 (today).

Counsel for the
Committee for Sustainable Retirement, Lisa Hauser, who never much cares for what a Judge has to say, filed a Motion For Stay and Motion For Reconsideration on August 22, 2013 — which is her way of saying "sorry Judge, but you are wrong and I am right, as always." You can read the motion Here.

The Court has set a time for hearing of the motion on Wednesday, August 28, 2013 at 9:00 a.m. You can read the Ruling
Here.

U.S. Department of Justice sues Texas over Voter ID

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The U.S. Department of Justice has previously filed a Section 3 claim under the Voting Rights Act against the State of Texas for its discriminatory redistricting maps.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice dropped the other shoe, as anticipated, suing the State of Texas for its Voter ID law. You can read the DOJ complaint
Here.

The Washington Post reports Justice Department sues Texas over voter ID law:

The Justice Department on Thursday redoubled its efforts to challenge
state voting laws, suing Texas over its new voter ID measure as part of
a growing political showdown over electoral rights.

The move marked the latest bid by the Obama administration to
counter a Supreme Court ruling that officials have said threatens the
voting rights of minorities. It also signaled that the administration
will probably take legal action in voting rights cases in other states,
including North Carolina, where the governor signed a voter ID law this
month.