Thank God for Bob McDonnell

I'm sure many of you have seen this, but I loved hearing about this...thank goodness for those few hundred voters who made McDonnell the Attorney General instead of choosing someone who would have rubber stamped the Kaine administrations attempts at overruling the majority opinion of the state of Virginia on this issue:

Victoria Cobb, Executive Director, Family Foundation
Friday, February 24, 2006

Victory Alert: AG McDonnell Overrules Governor's Executive Order

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell today issued a legal opinion stating that Executive Order No. 1, which included sexual orientation as a protected class in the Commonwealth's nondiscrimination policy, is unconstitutional. The executive order was one of Governor Warner's parting actions and Governor Kaine's first act as governor, signed immediately after taking the oath of office on January 14.

General McDonnell issued the opinion in response to a query by Delegate Bob Marshall (R-13, Manassas) on the constitutionality of the executive order. The opinion states that the executive order aims to change public policy, which constitutionally, can only be changed through the legislative process.

McDonnell wrote in his opinion that the executive order was "permissible to the extent the Governor is ensuring that the laws are faithfully executed," but that the addition of protected class status to a particular group "was intended to, and in fact did, alter the public policy of the Commonwealth. It is further my opinion that changing the public policy of the Commonwealth is within the purview of the General Assembly; therefore, that portion of Executive Order No. 1 is beyond the scope of executive authority and, therefore, unconstitutional."

It was the third stinging rebuke to the homosexual lobby and their allies in state government in less than a month. Previously, the General Assembly defeated a bill to add sexual orientation and expression to the protected class in nondiscrimination policy not only for the state, but for local governments as well. The General Assembly also stripped similar sexual nondiscrimination language out of the state budget submitted in January by former Governor Mark Warner before his term expired. The insertion of such language into the budget by Warner was unprecedented, as he tried to get policy passed into law through the budgetary process where he could not through normal legislative means.

Reversing the Governor's a ctions and working to prevent similar legislastion has been a high priority for The Family Foundation this session.

McDonnell's office also played a role in the recent debate on the propose constitutional amendment defining marriage by defending the amendment's language amid attempts to water down its meaning and to delay the process of getting the amendment cipating such an issue was impossible during his campaign, McDonnell's action today was consistent with his campaign plon the ballot.