Arizona AG Draws a Line, Warns Biden Administration to Keep 'Radical Agenda' Out of His State
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wants the Biden administration to keep its power-grabbing mitts off of Arizona.
One day after Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that the federal government is going to put five states through the investigative wringer over state laws that ban school mask mandates, Brnovich warned Cardona not to add Arizona to the list.
“[M]y office will not tolerate any effort from the federal government to undermine or interfere with Arizona’s sovereignty,” Brnovich wrote in a Tuesday letter to Cardona.
“We stand ready to defend against any overreach.”
The Department of Education is putting its unique spin on the Biden administration’s pro-mask agenda by claiming that banning mask mandates impacts the civil rights of students with disabilities.
A departmental news release said Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah are going to be under the federal microscope.
A letter to those states cited in the release says state bans on mask mandates “may be preventing schools…from meeting their legal obligations not to discriminate based on disability and from providing an equal educational opportunity to students with disabilities who are at heightened risk of severe illness from COVID-19,”
The letter claimed that the department’s Office of Civil Rights will be a “neutral factfinder.”
The first year of the Biden administration, we have seen historic threats and attacks on powers reserved for the states. This could soon render the Ninth and Tenth Amendments irrelevant, and that should alarm every American. https://t.co/jeyAjdvttn
— Mark Brnovich (@GeneralBrnovich) September 2, 2021
Brnovich said the English translation is that the federal government wants to run roughshod over state powers, contrary to what the Founding Fathers intended in the Ninth and 10th Amendments to the Bill of Rights, which reserved powers to the states.
“The past 18 months have given countless Americans a greater appreciation of our Founding Fathers’ and the structure they chose to balance power within our constitutional republic,” Brnovich wrote.
“They understood the wisdom of instituting a horizontal balance of power between the three branches of government, while also guarding the vertical balance of power between the federal and state governments.”
Brnovich said the balance has shifted over time.
“It is true that over many generations, this crucial balance has been tested as the federal government has grown beyond its original intent,” he continued.
“It has perhaps never been more of an issue than in this first year of the Biden Administration though, where we have seen historic threats and attacks on powers reserved for the states,” he wrote.
“Our legislators and courts will ensure that our state Constitution is followed, not your radical agenda.”
Florida, Texas, Arkansas and Arizona are not included in the initial effort to investigate bans on masks because they are either not in effect or face court challenges. The Department of Education, however, has said it “will continue to closely monitor those states.”
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