Courts & Law

It’s lawsuit season against our lawless legislature

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

GavelI don't know whether a study has ever been done to determine which state legislature gets sued the most often for violating its state constitution and laws, but I have to imagine that Arizona's lawless legislature ranks high on the list. Back in May, the Arizona Republic reported on how much this is costing taxpayers. Controversial Arizona laws rack up big legal fees. More often than not, Arizona loses these cases.

Now that the legislative session is over, it's lawsuit season, that time of year when our lawless legislature gets sued for violating Arizona's constitution and laws in pursuit of the Tea-Publican far-right ideological agenda. This comes from the authoritarianism mindset of movement conservatism. Like the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, these Tea-Publican radicals believe "I am the state." Or if you prefer, Judge Dredd , "I am the law."

Just in the past week, three lawsuits have already been filed against our lawless legislature.

Voter ID on trial in Pennsylvania

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The attempt by Pennsylvania Republicans to use voter ID to suppress Democratic voter turnout in the 2012 election was thwarted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which enjoined the new voter ID rules for the 2012 election. The case has now proceeded to trial on the merits.

The Huffington Post has a reporter, Saki Knafo, covering the trial. Voter ID Trial Opens In Pennsylvania – Huffington Post:

On the first day of a
voter
ID trial in Pennsylvania on Monday, the liberal-leaning
plaintiffs got a boost from an improbable ally — a voter who called
former Republican presidential candidate John McCain "my man"
and noted she herself had twice been elected to a local office on the
Republican ticket.

Marian Baker was one of two witnesses who offered videotaped
testimony to start
a trial that will determine the constitutionality of
Pennsylvania's voter ID law, a subject of controversy since it was
passed last spring by a Republican legislature and governor. The law,
blocked by the state Supreme Court until the trial reviews its
constitutionality, requires voters to present photo identification at
the polls.

A grandmother of eight who lives in Reading, Pa., Baker testified
that the law caused her to recently miss an election for the first
time since 1960. Under the new law, she said, she would have to get a
special state-approved photo ID at a drivers' license center, where
lines often stretch down the block. (Her driver’s license recently
expired.)

"I'm never going to be able to go there and stand," she
said, alluding to medical complications that have impaired her
ability to get around.

California grand jury investigating Arizona-based dark money ‘Kochtopus’ groups

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

When last we heard about the Arizona-based "Kochtopus" dark money group Center
to Protect Patient Rights, founded by GOP operative Sean Noble, California's Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) was ramping up its investigation into “the largest contribution ever disclosed as campaign money laundering in California
history.” The Arzona political media has largely made this story disappear.

It now appears that a grand jury has been convened, and the butts of "Kochtopus" dark money contributors are beginning to pucker.

Peter H. Stone at The Daily Beast reports today in an Exclusive: California Grand Jury Probing Shadowy Money Groups:

A grand jury is now involved in a high-stakes California probe that is
looking into whether a PAC and three so-called dark-money
groups—including one with ties to the billionaire brothers Charles and
David Koch—broke a campaign disclosure law by funneling $11 million from
secret sources to influence ballot initiatives in the state’s 2012
election, The Daily Beast has learned.

Attorney General Eric Holder’s speech to the NAACP convention

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the annual convention of the NAACP on Tuesday, and in the wake of the George Zimmerman trial in Florida, he addressed the legitimate concerns of African-Americans that simply being a black male in America renders them a "criminal suspect." Attorney General Eric Holder denounces ‘stand your ground’ laws:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. strongly condemned “stand your
ground” laws Tuesday, saying the measures “senselessly expand the
concept of self-defense” and may encourage “violent situations to
escalate.”

* * *

“These laws try to fix something that was never broken,” Holder told cheering delegates of the annual convention of the NAACP,
which is pressing him to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman.
“The list of resulting tragedies is long and, unfortunately, has
victimized too many who are innocent.”

The attorney general, who
is the first African American ever to hold that position, drew parallels
between his own life and the claims of many here that Zimmerman
racially profiled Martin after spotting the teenager walking through his
father’s neighborhood in a hooded sweatshirt. Martin was African
American. Zimmerman’s father is white, his mother Peruvian.

Holder
recalled being pulled over twice by police on the New Jersey Turnpike
as a young man and having his car searched, “when I’m sure I wasn’t
speeding.” Another time, he said, he was stopped by law enforcement in
Georgetown while simply running to catch a movie after dark.

NRA apologists defend ‘stand your ground’ laws

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I posted about this the other day: the Washington Post reports, Everything
you need to know about 'stand your ground' laws:

The National Rifle Association lobbied hard for the measure, while law enforcement officials like Miami’s police chief opposed it.

* * *

Since Florida became the first state to pass an explicit stand your ground law, more than 30 others
have passed some version of it, with the help of a group called the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a organization that
promotes conservative bills. Here’s a 2012 map of stand your ground laws nationwide.

W-Shooting

In the wake of the Florida case, we can expect an increase in calls to repeal or at least revisit the laws across the country.

I have been waiting to see how long it takes before the push-back begins from the "happiness is a warm gun" crowd at the NRA. Today we hear from "Ms. NRA," Governor Jan Brewer in the senior division, and from "Miss NRA," Arizona Republic columnist Joanna Allhands, in the junior division.