Arizona may be making headlines these days for putting the AZ in CRAZY, but it’s definitely not the only state that’s been passing legislation that’s controversial, misguided, or just plain bizarre.
As we documented, Arizona has introduced a wave of conservative legislation over the past year or so, leading up to a law that makes it a state crime to be an illegal immigrant, and requires law enforcement officials to demand papers from anyone they suspect to be in the country illegally.
This got us thinking — Arizona can’t be the only state that’s produced some head-scratchers recently. And with the help of TPM readers, we found that we were right…
⢠Georgia:
April 28, 2010: The state General Assembly passes a law allowing those with licensed firearms to bring their weapons into airports. Under the current state law, people can carry their firearms up until the airport curb, but the new law would allow them to carry them up until they reach security checkpoints, which are run by the federal government.
⢠South Carolina:
February 2010: State Rep. Mike Pitts (R) introduces legislation that would ban federal currency in his state, and replace it with gold and silver coins. Pitts explains that “the Soviet Union didn’t think their system would collapse, but it did. Ours is capable of collapsing also,” and using coins as legal tender would create a “base of currency,” were that collapse to happen.
April 28, 2010: In a 74-37 vote, the state House overrides Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R) veto of legislation allowing law enforcement officials to conduct warrantless searches of people on probation or parole. The state Senate had already overridden Sanford’s veto, which means the warrantless searches may very well start soon.
⢠Virginia:
February 1, 2010: State Delegate James Edmunds (R) is upset about a state law that prohibits possession of “any wild bird or wild animal or the carcass or any part thereof, except as specifically permitted by law.” Edmunds had wanted to hang a pair of deer antlers is his office, but discovered that they were considered contraband by the state. So he introduces a bill that would exclude “possession of shed antlers” from this law. It passes 95-1.
⢠Oklahoma:
March 10, 2010: The state Senate passes a bill that aims to prevent local and state authorities from “sharing information about hate crimes with federal authorities if the state of Oklahoma did not recognize the crime as a hate crime by its own statutes.” It’s a response to President Obama’s signing of the Matthew Shepherd Act, which expanded hate crimes protections. Unfortunately, the Senate accidentally cited the section of U.S. code that describes racial and religious protections, and not protections for gays and lesbians, thereby stripping a different group of minorities of their rights to federal protection from hate crimes. Oops!
⢠Minnesota:
April 21, 2010: Republicans in the state Senate introduce an amendment requiring a two-thirds majority vote by the state legislature to approve any federal laws before they are enacted. The bill contends that “Minnesotans enjoy inherent, natural, God-given rights,” and “citizens of Minnesota are sovereign individuals, subject to Minnesota law and immune from any federal laws that exceed the federal government’s enumerated constitutional powers.”
⢠Louisiana:
March, 2010: Another challenge is brought against Louisiana’s rather Draconian florist licensing law, which stipulates that aspiring florists must pass a test for a federal florist license in order to operate a flower shop. Critics say the law hinders free market competition among florists, but similar challenges have been struck down in past (usually springtime) legislative sessions.
⢠New York:
December 2009: State Sen. Joseph E. Robach (R) introduces legislation that would allow each of New York State’s 62 counties to vote on a 2010 referendum that asks: “Do you support the division of New York into two separate states?”
⢠South Dakota:
February 2010: The state House passes a resolution that “urges” public schools to teach global warming as “a scientific theory rather than a proven fact,” and to be sure to include the “astrological” (among other) factors that could be effecting global weather patterns. The state Senate later amends this bill slightly, but still contends that the “global warming debate” has “prejudiced” scientific study of climate change.
⢠Utah:
February 2010: State Sen. Mark Madsen (R) introduces legislation to honor Utah native and “gun pioneer” John Moses Browning, who founded the Browning Arms company. The hitch? Madsen pushed to celebrate Browning’s contributions on the same day as Martin Luther King Day. “I see them as complementary,” he said.
And one more from Arizona, because it’s just too good to pass up: On March 2, 2010, the state Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill that would make it illegal to attempt to create a human-animal hybrid in a laboratory. Someone has to think of these things, I guess.
Then there’s the smorgasbord of increasingly restrictive abortion laws that have been passed across the country. Here are some from April alone:
Oklahoma now allows doctors to withhold ultrasound information about birth defects from women to discourage them from seeking abortions…The Florida Senate passed a law requiring women who are seeking abortions to pay for their own ultrasounds, except if they are victims of rape or incest — though the women would have to provide evidence of that first…The Louisiana House approved a law preventing insurance companies from covering most abortions…Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) signed a law prohibiting abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy…and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) proposed a state budget amendment that would withhold “state money for abortions, including cases in which the health of the mother is at risk or the child might be born with a deformity.”
And, lest we forget, there are the microchips: Over the past few years, lawmakers in eight states have introduced legislation to ban forcefully implanted microchips, a problem that seems to be borne of right-wing paranoia, and probably not any real epidemic of secret microchip implantation. California, Wisconsin and North Dakota have all passed legislation to combat the “problem.”
Thanks to all the TPM readers who submitted tips.
