Roy Cooper ready to toss NC’s voters under the bus?
The SBI has been horribly mismanaged. The state crime lab has botched case after case after case. The feds had to come in and prosecute cases against Mike Easley and John Edwards. Despite that sorry record, Attorney General Roy Cooper got a free pass from the North Carolina Republican Party in 2012.
In May 2012, North Carolina’s voters overwhelmingly approved — 61 to 39 percent — an amendment to the state constitution codifying the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman. (It’s a statement about the sad state of our society when you actually have to do that.)
Now comes word that Roy Cooper will not oppose efforts by the ACLU to roll repeal of the state’s marriage amendment into a pending case about gays adopting children.
Before we dig too much further into this, let’s review the AG’s job description as posted on the NC Department of Justice’s web site:
[…] As head of the North Carolina Department of Justice, the Attorney General provides legal representation and advice to all state government departments, agencies and commissions. The Attorney General also provides legal opinions at the request of other public officials and handles all criminal appeals from state trial courts.When the state’s public interests are at stake, the Attorney General can take legal action on behalf of North Carolina’s citizens. […]
[…] The ACLU and Cooper’s office said Cooper won’t fight the civil-rights organization expanding its lawsuit against a state law that says unmarried couples cannot be recognized as equal parents. Cooper, a Democrat, is defending the state in that lawsuit.
“We aren’t opposing this motion because both of these matters will be litigated and combining them into one case will be more efficient,” said Noelle Talley, Cooper’s spokeswoman.
A federal judge overseeing the case in Greensboro also must approve expanding the adoption lawsuit to add the marriage amendment challenge.
Cooper is making a mistake, said NC Values Coalition executive director Tami Fitzgerald. She said the constitutional ban was favored by six in 10 North Carolina voters in May 2012.
“The constitutionality of the amendment is outside of the scope of a lawsuit regarding adoption by gay couples,” said Fitzgerald, who helped direct a coalition of Christian and conservative groups that led North Carolina to become the 30th state to adopt such a constitutional ban. […]
While one would not want this twit defending the case, because he would probably deliberately throw it to the other side, I wonder if this would be grounds to impeach him and remove him from office, and if anyone in the legislature has the ‘nads to do it.
Copper has proven to be a lazy AG – don’t forget his lack of response on O’care with basically the same comment of let the other states fund and fight that battle, if they win – we benefit.
We – are you listening Claude / Joyce – need to start recruiting his replacement – NOW.