GOP Delegate Wants to Force Attorney Generals to Defend Unconstitutional Laws

Cretin Republican Brenda Pogge

Williamsburg, Virginia is not only the home of Virginia's colonial capital, but is also the home of William & Mary, the second oldest university in America.  In general, Williamsburg is a somewhat sophisticated and educated locality with many well to do retirees and others who tend to congregate around college and university towns.  This education and enlightenment sadly doesn't extend to the moronic Brenda Pogge, a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates.  Like more and more Virginia Republicans, Pogge is unable to grasp the concept that the attorney generals of Virginia are bound by not just the Virginia Constitution, but also the United States Constitution which trumps the Virginia Constitution.  Hence Pogge's introduction of a bill that would force Virginia attorney generals to defend whatever batshitery Virginia Republicans might enact no matter how unconstitutional.  The Rappahannock News looks at Pogge's latest idiocy.  Here are highlights:

A Republican legislator from Williamsburg is pushing for a law to require the state attorney general to defend the Virginia Constitution — which the current officeholder, Democrat Mark Herring, declined to do regarding the commonwealth’s ban on same-sex marriage.

House Bill 1573, which was proposed last week by Del. Brenda Pogge, would add this passage to state law:

“Except in cases where it would be improper for the Attorney General’s office to render legal services due to a conflict of interests, the Attorney General has the duty to represent the interests of the Commonwealth in any proceeding in which the constitutionality or validity of a provision of the Constitution of Virginia or of any law or regulation of the Commonwealth is contested or at issue.”

The bill is in response to Herring’s decision last January not to contest a lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Herring, who was elected in 2013 and took office last January, has not publicly addressed Pogge’s bill. However, the website of the attorney general’s office addresses the case that struck down the gay marriage ban. It also addresses the duties of the attorney general.

The website states that as the attorney general, Herring has a duty to protect the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of Virginia. However, when a state law or the state Constitution conflicts with the federal Constitution, the federal Constitution prevails as the law of the land, the website says.

There's more, but the take away is that to be a Republican in Virginia requires that one be a religious extremist, a racist or have had a lobotomy.  In Pogge's case, I suspect it is the later.  The woman is an idiot.