Tuesday, April 12, 2011

WATCH: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer On Fox News Last Night; "Keep Us Posted"

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer sat for a 5 minute interview with Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren last night, to discuss yesterday's Ninth Circuit appellate decision upholding a stay keeping most of anti-illegal immigration law SB 1070 from going into effect.

Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne are trying to decide whether to ask for the rest of the Ninth Circuit judges (not "justices", as mentioned in the interview) to review the decision, or go straight to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Van Susteren - an attorney-turned-talk-show-host - occasionally tried to coach the governor as to what she thought the best arguments would be.  When Brewer used her tried-and-true line about SB 1070 mirroring federal law - "Are the feds going to change their laws?!?!" - Van Susteren quickly noted that the better argument is that the federal government is not fulfilling their responsibilities and that that is forcing Arizona's "constitutional gesture - an unconstitutional gesture - if the federal government did its job."

Governor Brewer also made another national television appeal for donations to the quasi-governmental legal defense fund that is presumably being used to pay private attorneys to represent the state.  The large and prestigious law firm of Snell & Wilmer (and top attorney John Bouma) represented the Governor in this appeal, and this does not fall under their pro bono policy.  According to the website, the fund has already raised more than $1.5 million.

At the end of the interview, Van Susteren thanked Governor Brewer and said she would follow the case closely.  To which the Governor replied, "Keep us posted."



(Previous reports:  Brewer/Horne news release: http://bit.ly/hdwsnx
Quickie Analysis of Ruling: http://bit.ly/edaWFC )

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