Arizona Lawmakers Assert State's Rights

Arizona lawmakers have proposed more than a dozen bills this year to reassert state’s rights or fix problems the federal government hasn’t, the Arizona Republic reported today.

They have proposed laws to allow Arizona to build its own wall along the Mexican border, change how the state issues birth certificates of children born to illegal immigrants and create a committee to decide which federal laws the state should ignore. Many of these bills have made it out of committees, the first step in the lawmaking process.

"Virtually everyone agrees that the status quo is unacceptable, except for the federal government," state Sen. Rick Murphy, a Peoria Republican, told the newspaper. "How many years should we wait before we fix the problem ourselves or at least make an effort to do so?"

Much of the push for the new laws comes from the Republican supermajority voted into the state House and Senate in November, along with the re-election of Gov. Jan Brewer. Many of the new lawmakers are self-proclaimed Tea Party candidates who are advocating a more conservative agenda.