Prop. 122 being used to turn Arizona into Kooksville

Laurie Roberts & Ed Montini of AZ Prop. 122

The little girl's brown eyes reached out to voters from the mailbox and asked: "Will you help me please?"

"Voting Yes on Prop. 122," you were told, "allows voters to help CPS protect children – not bureaucrats."

The ballot measure, according to the campaign mailer, would allow us to opt out of "an unconstitutional federal law that forces Child Protective Services to hide botched investigations of abused kids."

Or not, as it turns out.

Three months after 51 percent of voters approved this proposition giving our leaders license to ignore the federal government, I haven't seen so much as a baby step toward declaring our independence from federal laws on child abuse.

Instead, Prop. 122 is being used to turn the great state of Arizona into Kooksville as our leaders work to declare our independence from federal gun laws, from the Affordable Care Act, from the Environmental Protection Agency, from the Department of Justice, from Barack Obama and from just about anything else associated with the state's most detested f-word.

Federal, that is.

While our state finances are a mess, our public schools are struggling and our national reputation is …. um, yeah, the GOP-controlled Legislature seems determined to go to war with the federal government. Indeed, our leaders delight in doing so, passing bill after bill through committees – each one daring the feds to sue us. (Again, that is.)

"People like Laurie Roberts and the Arizona Republic would call some people down here that love our constitution, that are trying to protect our constitutional rights, the press will say disparaging things about us and that doesn't matter," Rep. Bob Thorpe, R-Flagstaff and author of some of this year's kookiest bills, said during a recent meeting of the House Federalism and States Rights Committee. "That's a badge of honor for me."

A badge of honor for Thorpe and a bunch of lawsuits waiting for happen for the rest of us.

"What Prop. 122 does is gives us the authority to restrict what our state employees and state finances and resources can be used on …," Thorpe told his colleagues. "It's time we start pushing back."

And so we get House Bill 2055, declaring that henceforth the sovereign state of Arizona will not "enforce, administer or cooperate" if the Environmental Protection Agency tries to ensure that water is clean in any Arizona creek, wash or river that runs only part of the year.

And so we get House Bill 2368, declaring that henceforth the sovereign state of Arizona will not enforce any executive orders issued by the president of the United States or any policy directives from the Department of Justice unless they are affirmed by Congress and signed into law.

And we get House Bill 2643, saying we won't lift a finger to help with the Affordable Care Act.

And Senate Bill 1330, which has at least been scaled back from declaring all federal gun laws unconstitutional. Now, it simply declares that the state and local agencies are barred from enforcing any new federal gun laws in Arizona.

And so we get House Bill 2058, declaring that henceforth, the sovereign state of Arizona will not use "any personnel or financial resources to enforce, administer or cooperate with any rule, regulation or policy directive issued by an agency, board, commission, department or other entity of the federal government unless the rule, regulation or policy directive has been affirmed by a vote of Congress and signed into law as prescribed by the Constitution."

All this, because a little girl with brown eyes asked voters: "Will you help me please?" Too bad she didn't say, "Hey, Arizona, just secede already."

It might have been cheaper and it certainly wouldn't be any more embarrassing.

"It's time," Rep. Thorpe said in his call to action, "we start acting like sovereigns."

So that soon, we can start acting like defendants

http://www.azcentral.com/story/laurieroberts/2015/02/24/state-sovereignty-federal-fight-arizona/23942191/