When it comes to
federal-state relations, we suppose Arizona Republicans figure they have
nothing to lose by posturing against the feds. After all, there’s a
Democrat in the White House.
But the situation has clearly gotten
out of hand. GOP legislators aren’t just wagging fingers, a la Gov. Jan
Brewer. They’re requiring legislative staff to draft actual bills, then
hold hearings that cost money as well as time.
And when some of
the bills get signed by Brewer, taxpayers get stuck paying for legal
defenses against claims of unconstitutionality — almost all of which the
state has lost.
If the Republicans were consistent in their
defense of self-determination, at least Arizona cities like Flagstaff
could rest easier in the knowledge lawmakers would leave them alone. But
just the opposite has taken place in recent years as the Republican
majority has played Big Brother to municipalities in setting local
election dates, gun laws and rules for traffic cameras.
As a
result, it’s difficult not to conclude that Republicans are simply
playing obstructionist politics with federal laws and programs they
don’t like, including voter registration, health insurance, immigration
and wolf reintroduction.
Attacking federal property, prerogatives
Some
of the bills are a frontal assault on federal property and
prerogatives. One that passed the Senate last year said Arizonans should
have the right “to reject a federal action that the people determine
violates the United States Constitution.” State Sen. Chester Crandell
has long wanted Arizona to take over most federal lands within state
boundaries — never mind how the state would pay to manage 25 million
acres (minus military bases, national parks and Indian reservations).
The
GOP has also wanted to take over immigration enforcement, a plan ruled
unconstitutional (yes, the clause in SB1070 allowing police to ask about
immigration status was upheld, but the law is still enforced by INS).
Now,
there’s a bill to let ranchers kill an endangered Mexican gray wolf
suspected of harming cattle — no questions asked. That’s also outside
the Legislature’s purview — the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service runs the
wolf reintroduction program. (And don’t most Arizona ranchers have at
least some of their grazing rights on federal lands?)
Sometimes,
the GOP is content just to play obstructionist. If a federal agent wants
to collect information or inspect a mine, Crandell wants him to check
in with the local sheriff first, get a permit and pay a fee. We’d
believe Crandell were sincere in his “Stay out of our business” claim if
it also applied to a city that wanted, say, a state gas station or cash
register inspector to check in with the local police chief first.
Otherwise, could it be that Crandell simply doesn’t like the fines that
federal mine safety inspectors have been handing out lately?
OBSTRUCTING OBAMACARE
Most
Republicans are also intent on obstructing so-called “Obamacare” since
they have had little success in curtailing or repealing it. Arizona
Republicans have refused to set up a health insurance policy exchange,
so the feds have done it for them. Now, lawmakers want to require
so-called “navigators’ — counselors who help people get insurance
through the exchanges — to be licensed by the state after passing a
background check. Not that any complaints of identity theft or other
problems have surfaced so far.
What has surfaced is a pattern of
states that have opted out of the federal exchanges in opposition to
Obamacare enacting cumbersome navigator requirements — at least one
federal judge has suspended them as an unlawful interference with a
federal program. Putting state roadblocks in the way of health agencies
attempting to help citizens use the federal exchange is transparently
political. Would Republicans have imposed the same burdens if Arizona
had set up its own exchange?
Many state legislatures simply don’t
allow such bills to be drafted — they are transparently
unconstitutional. Such assertions of state jurisdiction set up a
conflict for political purposes — there is no policy outcome except a
lawsuit. At the least, it hinders the effective delivery of government
services while it is being litigated.
Worse, demonizing federal
employees for the sake of making a political point — it’s the policies
the state disagrees with — can endanger their safety, as we’ve seen in
other western states.
Such attitudes also can endanger ordinary
citizens. As Paul Bender, a constitutional law professor at Arizona
state University’s law school, told the Associated Press:
“These
kinds of statements that we’re free from federal law, don’t obey this
federal law, can be really dangerous,” Bender said. “If they rely on
what the Legislature says, they might end up committing a federal crime.
If they want to express that feeling they should just pass a resolution
— but when they’re telling people they don’t have to obey a federal
law, that’s dangerous.”
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