Espresso Pundit’s concern is duly noted

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Commenter “Robert” alerted me to an “in-depth analysis” of Friday’s court decision dismissing the anti-Medicaid expansion lawsuit by Arizona’s Own Espresso Pundit. EP warns liberals like myself not to be too sanguine about the judge’s ruling that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing.

Be Carefull(sic) What you Wish For….

…The lefty blogs are gloating that a group of Conservative Legislators has been thrown out of court for lack of standing, but think about it for a second. The ruling says that a minority of the legislature can not petition the courts if the minority’s rights are violated. The Republicans have held the Arizona House of Representatives since 1968…do Democrats really want the courts to say that it takes an affirmative vote of both the House and Senate in order to challenge a legislative action? Don’t you guys understand that if this ruling stands, the majority can do anything that it wants and you will have no recourse?

The court will overturn the ruling….and you had better hope that it does.

You know, as thrilling as I find the prospect of Ruben Gallego and Katie Hobbs suing over their rights as minority legislators being violated every time the GOP majority passed some terrible law, there really do need to be stricter criteria than “I don’t like it! Wah!” to determine the standing of legislators in such actions. The judge determined that the legislative plaintiffs lacked standing not just because the whole body didn’t authorize the suit, but also because the members couldn’t cite a specific injury to themselves.

The judge also rejected their claim that the expansion being decided without a supermajority gave them standing. The plaintiffs are planning to continue to be litigious nuisances with that argument and, speaking as a card-carrying lefty, I hope they lose. Prop 108 (the 1992 ballot initiative requiring a 2/3 majority vote in the Legislature to raise revenues) was a boneheaded idea that has devastated the state’s ability to meet it’s own needs. Quite frankly, I’m fine with a simple majority for everything.