Penn Governor will not appeal Marriage Equality ruling (independent, Pennsylvania, election)
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(3) It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to
uphold and defend the constitutionality of all statutes so
as to prevent their suspension or abrogation in the absence
of a controlling decision by a court of competent
jurisdiction.
This is the only out and it doesn't apply here:
Quote:
The Attorney General may, upon determining that it is more
efficient or otherwise is in the best interest of the
Commonwealth, authorize the General Counsel or the counsel for
an independent agency to initiate, conduct or defend any
particular litigation or category of litigation in his stead.
Yes really. It's not for her or any other single person to decide what the law is otherwise you have a dictator. It's mandated by statute that she defend the laws of Pennsylvania, she can't pick and choose which ones they are and neither can the Governor. To change the law it either has to go through the normal legislative process or the courts. Period.
There is small out in that statute that allows the AG in PA to decline for reasons of efficiency, conflict etc. but her refusal was entirely based on her politics.
False. The AG can decline to defend the law if they feel the law is Unconstituional (which is what the reason was) They can't decline to enforce the law, which means they weren't able to issue same-sex marriage licenses when it remained illegal to do so,. However, they were under no obligation to defend legal challenges to the law and spend taxpayer funds to do so, especially under the guidleines of the Constitutionallity
This is the only out and it doesn't apply here:
She may face impeachment yet over this.
The AG doesn't have to defend legal challenges to a law they feel is Unconstitutional. If the GOP even attemtpts to impeach the AG over this, it will backfire big time, even with the uber gerrymandered districts.
It's not for her or any other single person to decide what the law is otherwise you have a dictator.
Quit with the dictator b.s. Unless someone has had their head buried in the sand ... they will understand the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken and has interpreted the U.S. Constitution in a way which says what existed in Pennsylvania violates the Constitution. One need not be a rocket scientist to understand these things.
He should have done this awhile ago instead of hiring private lawyers at $400 an hour with taxpayer $$ to defend the ban before it was overturned, but good move in not appealing. It isn't going to have much impact on his re-election chances with are very slim.
The only thing Tom Corbett seems to love more than gas companies and beer distributors is hiring lawyers. The legal bill for his aborted attempt to privatize the PA lottery cost the taxpayers at least $4.6 million. He's made some really bad moves as governor but he's smart enough to know that appealing the decision isn't going to help in November. It takes a lot of effort for a Pennsylvania Governor to be nearly universally disliked and he's not going to do anything to make his situation worse than it already is.
However, they were under no obligation to defend legal challenges to the law and spend taxpayer funds to do so, especially under the guidleines of the Constitutionallity
Read it again:
Quote:
(3) It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to
uphold and defend the constitutionality of all statutes so
as to prevent their suspension or abrogation in the absence
of a controlling decision by a court of competent
jurisdiction.
It's not up to the AG to decide what the laws are or their constitutionality, that's for the court to decide. Think about this for a second, you are basically suggesting a single elected official should be able to decide what the laws are based simply by someone challenging it. That's not the way it works or should ever work.
There is process for this either through the normal legislative process or the courts and that has to be followed.
Quit with the dictator b.s. Unless someone has had their head buried in the sand ... they will understand the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken and has interpreted the U.S. Constitution in a way which says what existed in Pennsylvania violates the Constitution. One need not be a rocket scientist to understand these things.
Read it again:
Quote:
(3) It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to
uphold and defend the constitutionality of all statutes so
as to prevent their suspension or abrogation in the absence
of a controlling decision by a court of competent
jurisdiction.
It's not up to the AG to decide what the laws are or their constitutionality, that's for the court to decide. Think about this for a second, you are basically suggesting a single elected official should be able to decide what the laws are based simply by someone challenging it. That's not the way it works or should ever work.
There is process for this either through the normal legislative process or the courts and that has to be followed.
She used her prosecutorial discretion to decide that there was no rational defense to Commonwealth's same sex marriage ban. What exactly was the AG's defense of the law going to be if she determines that a law is unconstitutional and the SCOTS has recently ruled that a similar federal law was unconstitutional? It's practically undefendable at this point. Even the private counsel hired to defend the law could only come up with "Because states' rights to decide who can and cannot marry," which is pretty weak stuff.
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