Posted Apr 18, 2011, 5:26 pm
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill Monday that would have required presidential candidates to provide their birth certificates to appear on the ballot, and another that would have allowed guns to be carried on school grounds.
Brewer also vetoed a bill that would have directed the governor to set up an alliance with other states to regulate health care, in a challenge to the federal government.
'Birther bill'
HB 2177, the "birther" bill, "creates significant new problems while failing to do anything constructive for Arizona," Brewer said.
The bill would have required presidential candidates to present their birth certificates or other birth records to be eligible to be on the ballot.
"As a former Secretary of State (sic), I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically-motivated decisions," Brewer wrote in her veto message to House Speaker Kirk Adams.
"In addition, I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for President (sic) of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to submit their "early baptismal or circumcision certificates" among other records to the Arizona Secretary of State. This is a bridge too far," Brewer wrote.
If the bill had become law, candidates could have substituted those records for a birth certificate to prove eligibility.
So-called "birthers," pushing a theory that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen as required by the Constitution, want to force candidates to disclose their birth certificates. The irony, of course, is that Obama's opponent in the 2008 election, Arizona Sen. John McCain, was likely ineligible to hold the nation's highest office because of the circumstances of his birth, while Obama was born in Hawaii to a mother who was a citizen.
Guns at school
SB 1467 was vetoed "because it is so poorly written," Brewer said.
"Bills impacting our Second Amendment rights have to be crystal clear so that gun owners don't become lawbreakers by accident," she wrote in her veto message to Senate President Russell Pearce.
The bill didn't define the "public right of way" where weapons could be carried on school campuses, and included K-12 schools where firearms are prohibited by federal law, Brewer wrote.
While the bill was "widely advertised" as applying to colleges and universities, it expressly superseded a law that allows school districts to enforce prohibitions against weapons on school grounds, she wrote.
"While I support the thoughtful expansion of where firearms should be allowed, the actual legislation that does so must be both unambiguous and clear to protect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. Senate Bill 1467 is neither," Brewer wrote.
Brewer, given an A-Plus rating by the National Rifle Association, has previously signed several laws expanding where and when firearms can be carried. Last year, she approved a measure that allows anyone to carry a concealed weapon, without the background check and training that used to be required.
The faculties of all three Arizona public universities opposed the bill.
Brewer has until Thursday night to act on SB 1201, a firearms omnibus act that would require state and local government buildings to either permit firearms or be secured with metal detectors and armed guards.
Health care compact
Brewer's veto message on the interstate health care alliance bill said the measure would violate the Arizona Constitution.
"By directing the Governor (sic) to sign a compact, Senate Bill 1592 violates the separation of powers requirement established by Article 3," she wrote to Pearce.
"I am also concerned with the structure of the compact, which would result in additional fiscal challenges for our health care system," Brewer wrote.
The law would have set up a compact with other states as a challenge to the federal government's health care reform law.
Editor’s note: An eagle-eyed reader corrected our earlier phrasing of “native-born” to “natural-born,” and was also kind enough to point that our link to HB 2177 pointed to an earlier, unrelated version of the bill.
Latest comments on this storyRead all 13 »
Meanwhile she has another bill to decide on which continues our march backwards. IF you liked 19th century government HERE it comes. The theme for the past number of months has been Republicans want to return to the 19th century. There’s a great book, “Plunkett of Tammany Hall,” which everyone should read as it will now be a guide to AZ government. The central theme of the book can be stated in one phrase, “I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em.”
Here is a straight forward simple bill http://bit.ly/dG4q47 that ends the civil service for county workers in Arizona (except Maricopa and law enforcement). This means AZ counties will be subject to the ravages of political whim and greed if the wrong officials get elected. If an official does not like the way parks are mowed, good by parks employees.
If an elected official does not like enforcement of clean air laws, so long environmental protection employees. If elected officials want contracts for their friends, they will get them. If your supervisor wants a favor for some illogical reason, and you resist, good bye you.
Like shoddy construction? Well if a building inspector has to choose between his job and approving a poorly constructed building. He will pick the building every time. Balanced budget, if an elected official wants to hear the budget is balanced, they will be told it does whether of not it does. Oh and perhaps you would would like your county’s funds held in a bank run by friends of the Politicians.
2004 NEWSPAPER PROOF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR7EziYspXM&feature=share
Very disappointing that she would not sign the bill, however the “writer” of the bill shut it down by demanding information that doesn’t apply to eligibility. Also, Tucson has recently had a violent shooting incident that may have made Jan Brewer fear for her life, a dead federal judge and a congresswoman shot in the head….may strike fear into anyone that disagrees with the administration in the Washington White House. Everyone involved seem to be living in fear for their lives from the administration….Federal judges, congresswomen, senators, What are they all afraid of? Are they just protecting their jobs or their lives; or their families? What’s going on? Lt. Com.Terrance Kakin is sitting in a military prison for daring to ask who is (Steve-Barack-Barakeh-Hussein-Dunham-Soetoro-Soebarkah-Obama?) Are we living through a Coup d etat?