As Ralph Luker at Cliopatria has pointed out, for example, Gerald Allen, a state legislator in the county where I live, is sponsoring a silly bill to withdraw tax funds from any non-fiction work that"appears to condone homosexuality." For my part, I have lamented the attack on the first amendment by the Faculty Senate at the University of Alabama, where I teach, which has proposed a draconian speech code.

For this reason, it was refreshing to see that Alabama has struck a blow for liberty in a very uncharacteristic way. According to a news report in The Chicago Sun-Times, the state government has filed a legal brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of California's medical marijuana law.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King states"I could not disagree more with the public policy that underlies the California law....But if somebody can go in and tell California you can't regulate drugs the way you want to regulate them in California, the next step is they would come to Alabama and tell us we can't do it."

It is a sight for sore eyes to see a southern politician actually use a states rights argument for this purpose. Troy King deserves the highest kudos for taking this stand.

Hat tip to my fellow Alabamian Alina Stefanescu.

David T. Beito - 12/15/2004

Don't be sure that states rights are the wrong approach. If anyone has the right to speak for the "people" of the U.S. right now it is George Bush. He is the same man who wants to trump states rights not only on pot but gay marriage and in education (as in no child left behind). Under present circumstances, a states rights approach makes the most sense on a host of civil liberties.

For this reason, King's (largely principled) defense of states rights is an important step forward and represents a hopeful sign that not all conservatives are in lockstep with the theory behind Dubya's new centralism.

I certainly agree, however, that Alabama is retrogressive on the drug issue. I served on jury duty for a week about a month ago and was in the pool for five cases during that time. Three of them were drug possession cases.

Chris Rasmussen - 12/15/2004

While it is nice to see the AG of your state, David, supporting California - my home state - I feel that there are more things wrong with what Mr. King said than are right. First, the AG (and obviously, this is to be expected from any state official) seems to feel that rights belong to states and not to the people first. Secondly, and this relates to the first, the AG's "support" comes with the rejection of the rights of anyone - Californian or Alabaman - to use marijuana. Thus, I think it is premature to declare this as a victory for anyone.