by David Safier
I just posted about the four birthright bills Arizona Republicans are planning to file soon, and their hope the bills will be fought in court, to attack the 14th Amendment.
But the thing is, when you go to court, you pile up court costs.
Remember Kris Kobach? He's the guy who helped write SB1070 and has been working with Pearce and his gang on the current batch of nativist bills. He has a history of helping governments draft this kind of legislation, then tiptoeing out of town when the legal bills start piling up.
The towns that passed nativist laws in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Texas and Nebraska, along with the state of Arizona, have spent millions of dollars to defend them in court, and almost every judicial decision so far has gone against them. One community, faced with skyrocketing legal costs, had to raise property taxes, and another was forced to cut personnel and special events and even outsource its library.
Let's see. No money for life-saving organ transplants. Less than no money for health care for low income Arizonans. Cuts in K-12 funding. Draconian cuts in higher ed funding. But $1.8 million to give some extra cash to for-profit charter schools, and who-know-how-much money to fight anti-immigration battles.
A press release from the Arizona Democratic Party sent out a few minutes ago about the birthright bills pretty much nails it.
At a time when Arizona should be fighting for a stronger future, the Russell Pearce Republicans want to refight the Civil War. When we should be striding into the 21st century, their motto seems to be "Bring Back the Worst Ideas of the 19th century."