The media villagers have decided that we are all supposed to sing the praises of Governor Doug Ducey for ordering the Department of Child Safety to reverse a policy that blocked legally married same-sex couples from jointly adopting or being foster parents, a policy adopted in February on the legal advice of Attorney General Mark Brnovich that somehow escaped the Governor’s attention until now. Good on Ducey for putting kids before politics.
So are we supposed to praise Gov. Ducey “for going against his party” like the editors of The Republic say, or for doing what any fair-minded decent human being would have done? If a liberal or progressive does this it is to be expected. But if a Tea-Publican does this, we are supposed to throw him a celebratory parade because he went against the mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging neanderthals of the far-right in the GOP?
Why does simply doing the right thing merit such praise? Shouldn’t this be what is expected from our elected leaders?
Before I am ready to praise Gov. Ducey for his “enlightened” views on adoption, there are three related matters about to become hot button issues between now and the end of June on which Gov. Ducey can take a position to demonstrate just how “enlightened” he is by going against his party and Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the same-sex marriage appeals from the Sixth Circuit. It is widely believed, though not a certainty, that the Court will recognize a constitutional right to same-sex marriage under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, and states will be required to recognize the lawful same-sex marriages entered into in other states under the full faith and credit clause, Article IV, Section 1, of the Constitution.
This anticipated ruling will affect only the right of marriage, and rights attendant to marriage. It does not give gays legal protections in employment, public accommodations, and housing as a protected class under the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, nor the Arizona Civil Rights Act.
The response to the anticipated Supreme Court decision from the far-right will be a renewed demand for so-called “religious liberty” bills aka a licence to discriminate that recently roiled Indiana and Arkansas, and put Arizona in a negative national spotlight last year with SB 1062. Rest assured that Cathi Herrod and the CAP are coming back with a renewed version of SB 1062 in the next legislative session.
