I didn’t even know they attempted to do this, but I am glad it failed:
Arizona cannot deny health care benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees, the 9th Circuit ruled Tuesday, finding that the state’s money-saving argument rang hollow. The federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld an injunction that bars enforcement of a 2009 law that eliminated health care coverage for domestic partners of Arizona employees. A year earlier, the state passed a voter-approved constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between one man and one woman.
A group of nine gay and lesbian state employees sued Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer and other officials in Phoenix, alleging violations of their rights to equal protection and due process.
The state argued that it had canceled the benefits to save money, but it failed to show how much the benefits actually cost, according to the ruling.
U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick enjoined the law, ruling that it was likely unconstitutional and that the plaintiffs were apt to suffer great harm if it went into effect. The 9th Circuit affirmed unanimously, finding that the state’s justification was doomed to fail even if the state explained its cost-saving theory.
Basically, retrograde teahadist Jan Brewer and company decided to engage in some good old gay-bashing, and attempted to pretend that it was all done for budgetary reasons. The judge looked at them and said “If this is all about balancing the budget, how come you have no idea how much you spend on these benefits? How much will you save? Also, you unrepentant bigots, you aren’t allowed to just single out one group of people and screw them in order to balance the budget.” And then the teahadists squirmed before screaming about activist judges and moving on to Mexican bashing.
Damned Birchers.
Mike Goetz
I suppose this is becoming my mantra for the day, but here it is again: this is why you always vote for Democrats, in every race.
It’s better that way.
c u n d gulag
My favorite is when these assholes tell me that homosexuality is a sin in The Bible.
I tell them, well, I’ll believe you’re serious about that that when you fight as hard to close down Red Lobsters as you do denying gay people their rights.
Shuts the fuckers up every time.
Especially when I have to explain it to them.
Samara Morgan
dude….the whole tea party schitck is fake fiscal conservatism– the teabbaggers are 100% republican white (NHC) christian nativists.
bkny
i’ve said it before … it’s these district court judges who have saved this country from total fascist control by their rulings.
eemom
Pshaw. I got 5 bucks sez the republican majority on the Supreme Court is gonna veto it without regard to legal merits or precedent. Who’s with me?
KC
Agree with bkny.
Man, haven’t been to this place in a while. Dougj still around? John’s no longer a confused Republican?
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Arizona is shocked, SHOCKED that pointing and saying “Ewww, gay people!” is no longer an instant winner in court.
I wonder how the imagined “savings” from cutting their benefits stacks up against the money the state wasted dragging this dog through the courts. Common Sense Conservatism at its finest, ladies and gents.
Linda Featheringill
@bkny:
I haven’t given much thought and attention to the district court system. Perhaps I should.
SenyorDave
Thank God for federal courts (present-day SCOTUS excepted). If anyone ever wonders why many minority groups are backers of a strong federal gov’t it is because the federal courts and federal gov’t will enforce laws protecting minority rights.
If it were up them, some of the deep south states would probably reinstate slavery.
Morbo
@Samara Morgan: Not %100, there are still some chump libertarians in there. Gotta be a solid %99 though.
asiangrrlMN
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen: Exactly. Just as the supporters of Prop 8 in Cali didn’t realize they had to have, you know, actual evidence that same-sex marriage damages the fabric of society when the matter was brought to court.
Troglodytes, the lot of them.
Samara Morgan
@Morbo: oh yeah….i forgot the liberaltarians, classic liberals, neo-liberals, civil libertarians, bleeding heart libertarians and libertarians and Libertarians.
But you are right, that is less than 1% of the electorate so they likely make up ~1% of the GOP.
But why are they so overrepresented in Known Blogspace?
oh yeah, they dont have jobs.
:)
IrishGirl
This is what she did when refusing to pay for life-saving Organ Transplants. However, in that case she knew exactly how much would be saved….only a pittance toward the state’s deficit. She was later able to use the still living patients (two died during the payment moratorium) as hostages when she requested a waiver from the Dept of Health and Human Services to modify Medicaid requirements. The waiver was granted (Sibelius even said that Brewer didn’t really need their permission, and so the hostages were unnecessary to begin with) and now Brewer has denied Medicaid coverage to about 200,000 childless adults and about 5,000 seriously mentally ill patients. So when and if Loughner (Rep. Gifford’s shooter) ever gets released, he can wander around AZ without treatment. Gov. Brewer’s budgeting ideas have ALWAYS targeted to most vulnerable in AZ. After all, shooting sitting ducks is just too easy.
Roger Moore
@Morbo:
Not to mention the token minorities who are too blind to notice the racism, or think their best bet is to play Uncle Tom.
DFH no.6
My adopted home state is, obviously, as batshit insane conservative at it gets, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
If the Latino (almost entirely Mexican-American) citizenry in AZ voted anything close to the percentage that my Scottsdale neighbors do it would be a far different story.
But they don’t, so matoko-Atreides-Samara’s correctly formulated group – republican white Christian nativists – holds almost complete sway.
Which is also why I am not particularly sanguine about matoko-Atreides-Samara’s demographic/electorate prognostications that the brown people will save America from my fascist white brethren. They won’t if they don’t vote.
Still, nice to have this victory for sanity and humanity.
ppcli
@asiangrrlMN: ariangrrlMN! You’re back! Somebody on one of the threads about the interminable ABL versus AL hullabaloo said you had gone away, and I was, like, sad about that.
IrishGirl
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen: I haven’t seen anyone talking about the costs of all the litigation that Gov. Brewer has been defending. I mean if you include all the crap from SB1070, the stuff from Maricopa County and Sheriff Joe (which isn’t state but is supported by Gov. Brewer), this benefits case, etc goodness knows how much taxpayer money has been wasted. I HATE living in AZ.
Roger Moore
@ppcli:
Very unfortunate typo, there, ppcli. But like you, I’m glad AsiangrrlMN is back. But I want to hear all the latest, juiciest gossip about her one true love.
catclub
@Roger Moore: Well, the Aryans are from Asia, so you never know.
cleek
@catclub:
Aryan, Iran
it’s no coincidence those two words sound alike.
makes me giggle every time i hear someone using “aryan” to mean “white”.
Keith G
Just a test
Chet
I can remember, some years back, a Maggie Gallagher column asking why gays would even need things like domestic-partner benefits, since they’re all rich latte-sipping bicoastal elites anyway?
Perhaps homophobia has succeeded anti-Semitism as the principal socialism of fools.