I posted about Virginia State Senator Amanda Chase (R-Theocratic Nutjob Wing) the other day, specifically about her theological/homophobic musings regarding how god didn’t intend for there to be “Adam and Steve,” and also regarding her support for the utterly discredited, heinous practice of “conversion therapy” for LGBT people. Chase also frequently posts about her favorite Bible verses (mostly about smiting her adversaries), about her speech at the virulently anti-LGBT Family Foundation, about her campaigning for her BFF Dave Brat, etc. Oh, and back in July, she mused that “the ERA Amendment is nothing more than a ploy by the left to eliminate gender altogether.”
Anyway, now Chase is at her craziness yet again. Check this out from a few hours ago on her Facebook page.
This, of course, is wrong on multiple levels. First off, the U.S. Supreme Court is meeting right now, and will continue to meet until next June, so who the heck knows what Chase means by “the U.S. Supreme Court not meeting until the Spring.”
Second, it absolutely does NOT look – at least at the moment, one can’t conclude that – that “members of the Virginia House of Delegates will run for office next year under the existing maps.” In fact, what has happened so far is that (bolding added by me for emphasis):
“The Virginia House of Delegates and Kirkland Cox, the speaker of the House of Delegates, appealed to the Supreme Court, which announced [Tuesday] that it would review their appeal. (Redistricting cases are among a narrow set of cases with an automatic right to appeal to the Supreme Court.)
The Virginia board of elections and department of elections and several state officials filed a separate brief, represented by Virginia’s solicitor general, Toby Heytens. Heytens urged the justices to dismiss the legislature’s appeal, telling them that the House of Delegates and Cox lack a legal right to appeal because Virginia’s attorney general is responsible for representing the state in cases like this one. The fact that Mark Herring, Virginia’s attorney general, has declined to appeal the lower court’s decision to the Supreme Court does not, Heytens contended, allow the legislators to do so instead.
[Tuesday] morning the justices announced that they would review the district court’s decision, but they also ordered the parties to address the question broached by Heytens — whether the legislature and Cox have a legal right to bring their appeal — in their briefs.”
I chatted with several sources this morning about what Sen. Chase said on her Facebook page. Their reaction was that:
- Yesterday’s action by the Supreme Court changes nothing about what the three-judge court and the Special Master are doing. The redistricting is continuing as ordered; this was a routine action that does not change anything.
- This is a redistricting case, which the Supreme Court is required to consider under federal law; given that, they didn’t “decide” to grant an appeal – they had to do so.
- The Supreme Court has not issued any kind of stay, at least not yet (and maybe never), which is “a key point.”
- Meanwhile, the “Special Master” is continuing his work on drawing maps for the lower court, which are due on December 7. The lower court still has a hearing scheduled on January 10 to consider those maps. Hopefully, those maps will be approved by the lower court by the end of March.
- Just because Virginia House Republicans have spent a lot of taxpayer money to be “defendant-intervenors” in this lawsuit does not automatically mean that they can bring an appeal. There’s also the big question about whether Kirk Cox and his merry band of House Republicans have “standing,” which appears dubious and is being vigorously contested…
- As for Sen. Chase, all of my sources said she doesn’t understand what she’s talking about. Obviously, the Supreme Court IS meeting and one certainly can NOT conclude that “members of the Virginia House of Delegates will run for office next year under the existing maps.”
Other than all that, Sen. Chase really nailed it, huh? LOL But seriously, this ignoramus and theocratic nutter is rumored as a potential candidate for U.S. Senate against Mark Warner in 2020??? Pleasepleaseplease Virginia Republicans, bring it on; this will be so much fun! LOL
P.S. By the way, note that Sen. Tim Kaine won Chase’s district on November 6 by a 49.6%-48.8% margin, so Chase might very well be seeking god’s intervention in her 2019 election…LOL
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