Yesterday, Mayor Coleman of Columbus made big news by announcing the city will no longer pay for any official trips to Arizona due to their new immigration law.
It was so big we even saw it splashed up on Drudge.
So I have three questions…
1) Is this why Columbus needed a tax hike? How many silly trips do city officials take to Arizona anyway? Can’t the money be spent in better ways anyway?
2) Has he read the bill? From the National Review yesterday: “Let’s be clear on what this criticism amounts to: The enforcement of existing federal law by state police, made possible by a standing DOJ policy memo, and under the well-established legal standards of reasonable suspicion, could lead to “harassment” and put police in a position to make “troublesome” judgment calls. Well, I suppose this is technically true of the Arizona law. But it’s also true of most or all proactive policing measures. We pay police to make tough judgment calls that balance the imperative of public safety against the daunting civil/criminal rights lawsuit industry. This is no different.”
3) This is obviously a huge news story. So where do Ohio’s two most high profile state elected officials stand on it? What say you, Ted Strickland and Lee Fisher?