As Promised, Thoughts On GA Session

As I previously mentioned, I've kept somewhat up to date by Waldo's RSS feed from the General Assembly.

There are some bright spots in the current agenda, and some real stinkers as well.

One bright spot is a Constitutional amendment to remove from the General Assembly the power to define "Public Use" as it pertains to eminent domain. This would be the power that Senator Reynolds either denies he and his body of legislators wields, or the power Senator Reynolds is ignorant of holding.

A corresponding stinker is that Senator Reynolds' own committee of Priveledges and Elections has held it over until the current stink over Kelo v. City of New London dies down next year.

To counterbalance that stinker is Kenneth Stolle's bill that would quite possibly accomplish the same end but being merely legislation, as opposed to an amendment, it could easily and stealthily be overturned at a later date. Also, Terry Suit has this, which would fall into roughly the same category.

Much has been written about the more prominent amendment banning gay marriages. I could spend considerable time on this one, and will in a subsequent article, but suffice it say for now that I have some (minor) problems with the way this amendment is currently written. I cannot support it as it now stands. This does not mean that I wish to extend full marital status to a gay couple. But I also do not wish to exclude from that couple proper legal remedies such as wills and contracts. I will expand on this subject for your reading (dis) pleasure soon.