terry goddard Archives - KEYTLaw's Blog

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s Statement on Obama’s Decision to Challenge Arizona’s Immigration Law

Here is the text of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s June 18, 2010, press release on President Obama’s challenge to Arizona’s immigration law, SB 1070, and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard acknowledgment that he will not represent Arizona in defending the law.

“Because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Ecuadorean television on June 8th that the Obama Administration had decided to sue Arizona over its recently passed anti-illegal immigration law, SB1070, it will come as no surprise if recent media reports are accurate and if the president’s policies now, in fact, include filing a lawsuit against the State of Arizona.

“Though not surprising, that decision is, nevertheless, outrageous.

“Our federal government should be using its legal resources to fight illegal immigration, not the law-abiding citizens of Arizona. Despite the law’s rigorous safeguards against racial profiling and carefully crafted language to avoid usurping federal authority, several lawsuits have already been filed.

“Because the Arizona Legislature had no confidence that the Attorney General would vigorously defend this legislation, subsequently giving me the authority to hire outside counsel – and because the Attorney General has now withdrawn as counsel for the State — I will ensure the immigration laws we passed are vigorously defended all the way to the United States Supreme Court if necessary, where this reasonable law will ultimately be found constitutional.”

Terry Goddard, Arizona’s Spineless Attorney General, Betrays His Base of Supporters

Phoenix New Times: “Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who recently slipped Sand Land’s Hispanic population an ice pick to the kidney by vowing to ‘vigorously defend’ the law if and when the feds file suit. See, Goddard, a Democrat, wants to be governor, just like his daddy was long ago. But since Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 on April 23, she’s shot past Goddard in the polls, as if someone spiked her prune juice with crystal meth.”

Arizona Governor Brewer to Attorney General Terry Goddard: You’re Fired from Defending Immigration Law

Wow! Arizona Governor Jan Brewer took her gloves off on Friday when she fired Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard from defending Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070. You can’t blame her, however, after Godddard’s statements that he opposed SB 1070 and would not defend it. The last straw apparently was Goddard’s secret meeting with the U.S. Justice Department about the law followed by his press conference.

Here is the text of Governor Brewer’s May 28, 2010 press release:

“Today the legal team I have appointed to defend the State of Arizona in the legal challenges to Arizona’s new immigration laws met with senior officials from the United States Department of Justice. The meeting was held at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice.

“The Department attorneys were advised that I believe the federal government should use its legal resources to fight illegal immigration, not the State of Arizona. They were further advised that on behalf of the State of Arizona, I will ensure the immigration laws we passed are vigorously defended all the way to the United States Supreme Court if necessary.

“For some inexplicable reason, the Department of Justice officials met with the Arizona Attorney General hours before meeting with the State of Arizona’s legal team, and then allowed the Attorney General to hold a press conference to discuss the meeting. This level of coordination between the Attorney General and the Obama Administration is disturbingly similar to the coordination with Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords earlier this week on President Obama’s still unclear plan to deploy up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the border.

“Due to the Attorney General’s opposition to Arizona’s immigration laws as set forth in S.B. 1070, the Legislature required Attorney General Goddard to act at the direction of the Governor in any challenge to S.B. 1070 as amended by H.B. 2162. The Legislature also gave the Governor authority to hire outside counsel if necessary to defend the law on behalf of the State instead of using the Attorney General.

“The Legislature gave me this authority because of its lack of confidence in the Attorney General’s willingness to vigorously defend this legislation that is so critical to protecting the safety and welfare of Arizona’s citizens. Last year, I instructed the Attorney General to change his position on behalf of the State of Arizona in the Horne v. Flores case involving a challenge to the Arizona’s English language learner laws. He refused and the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately rejected his position.

“Due to Attorney General Goddard’s curious coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice today and his consistent opposition to Arizona’s new immigration laws, I will direct my legal team to defend me and the State of Arizona rather than the Attorney General in the lawsuits challenging Arizona’s immigration laws.”

See “Arizona governor Brewer removes attorney general from defense of immigration law.”

Florida Suit Poses a Challenge to Health Care Law

Don’t tell Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, but the New York Times article “Florida Suit Poses a Challenge to Health Care Law” says:

“Some legal scholars, including some who normally lean to the left, believe the states have identified the law’s weak spot and devised a credible theory for eviscerating it.”

Arizona’s Attorney General refused to do his job and cause Arizona to sue to overturn Obamacare. In a press release, Gooddard said:

“My Office has carefully examined both the federal health care legislation and the lawsuits challenging it. Our lawyers agree with the overwhelming majority of constitutional scholars of both parties that the lawsuits have little merit”

See “Arizona Attorney General Won’t Challenge Obamacare.” Mr. Attorney General should order his constitutional scholars to read carefully the New York Times article in hopes they might learn something. Because of the Attorney General’s dereliction of his duty, the Arizona legislature was forced to pass a law authorizing Governor Brewer to hire non-attorney general lawyers to sue on behalf of Arizona to overturn Obamacare. Twenty states that lacked the wisdom of Arizona’s Attorney General’s constitutional scholars have now sued to overturn the new healthcare law.

Pretending that No Law Professors Question Obamacare

I doubt that David Kopel, the author of “Pretending that No Law Professors Question Obamacare” had Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard in mind when he wrote the blog post, but when I read the post, I immediately thought of Terry Goddard. In refusing to do his job as the lawyer for the state of Arizona and sue to overturn Obamacare, the man who was never a constitutional law scholar or law professor said this in a March 29, 2010 press release:

Constitutional experts across the country have reviewed the law and the claims made in the lawsuit and have concluded that those claims are legally weak and have little chance to prevail. This conclusion is shared by many scholars on the conservative side, who see the lawsuit as much more about politics than the law.

In a March 24, 2010, press release, Mr. Goddard said:

My Office has carefully examined both the federal health care legislation and the lawsuits challenging it. Our lawyers agree with the overwhelming majority of constitutional scholars of both parties that the lawsuits have little merit and that participating in them would be a waste of scarce taxpayer dollars.

I note that in both of his press releases, the AG failed to include citations to his claims. In his post, Mr. Kopel discusses and links to a number of law professors who have stated that they believe Obamacare is unconstitutional. In fact, one of the law professors, “Ilya Shapiro has just posted an offer to debate Obamacare anywhere, anytime.” I would love for the Goldwater Institute or somebody else to pay Professor Shapiro’s expenses to fly him to Phoenix to debate Terry Goddard. I suspect, however, that former Phoenix Mayor Goddard would not agree to the debate.

See Randy Barnett’s excellent article called “Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Is Unprecedented and Unconstitutional” that examines in depth the constitutional issues.

P.S. The Arizona attorney general also said another reason he declined to do his job was because it would be a waste of taxpayer money. I guess the AG picks and chooses how he wants to waste taxpayers’ money. See for example his waste of taxpayers’ money in defending the Arizona fish police, aka the Board of Cosmetology. The AG is in court defending the Arizona fish police’s statewide ban of carp fish pedicures, one of Arizona’s most pressing health problems.

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