Reports: Pennsylvania AG Will Refuse To Defend State's Marriage Law Against ACLU's Pro-Gay Marriage Suit

The parade of lawlessness continues across the country.

Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane will not defend the state in a federal lawsuit filed this week challenging the constitutionality of the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, lawyers involved in the case said.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday on behalf of 23 Pennsylvania residents, including 10 couples, a widow and two children. The Philadelphia Daily News first reported Kane’s decision, which she is expected to announce Thursday.

Republican Governor Tom Corbett is also a named defendant so presumably he will be able to have counsel to defend against the suit. This won't be a Prop 8 style case where no one has standing to defend the law (it's a law passed by the legislature, not through referendum or constitutional amendment).

We can debate the danger of the underlying suit at another point but this notion that public officials get to pick and chose which laws they will enforce or defend is getting out of control and must stop.

According to Pennsylvania law, the Attorney General does not have any discretion in which laws he or she has to defend (pdf).

(3) It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to uphold and defend the constitutionality of all statutes so as to prevent their suspension or abrogation in the absence of a controlling decision by a court of competent jurisdiction.

She should be impeached. But of course she won't be because pandering to liberal sensibilities is far more important these days than defending such quaint notions as the rule of law.

posted by DrewM. at 09:16 AM

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