I have to admit: I wasn’t happy with Kathleen Kane, there were things in her background that disturbed me. But as the PA AG, she’s turned out to be pretty good:
Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane will not defend the state in a federal lawsuit filed this week challenging the constitutionality of the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, lawyers involved in the case said.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday on behalf of 23 Pennsylvania residents, including 10 couples, a widow and two children. The Philadelphia Daily News first reported Kane’s decision, which she is expected to announce Thursday.
The decision was confirmed by lawyers involved in the case, who asked not to be identified because Kane had not made a public announcement.Kane is named as a defendant in the suit, along with the state’s governor Tom Corbett (R-Penn.). Kane is the first woman and the first Democrat ever elected to the position of Pennsylvania state attorney general, which became an elected office in 1980.
It is unclear how the decision will affect the lawsuit, since a third party could potentially step in to defend the law. Proponents of California’s Proposition 8–the ballot initiative banning gay marriage in the state– stepped forward to defend the ban in that state after then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) and current governor Jerry Brown (D), who at the time served as California’s attorney general, declined to defend the proposition.
The state will sue. The state will lose. Done deal. But what about all of that wasted taxpayer lawsuit money? That’s the illegal pandering part.
Agreed. Losing is a foregone conclusion. If the lady has any higher political ambitions. She can make her non-defense a noisy point of contention between herself and the Governor. High visibility combating a wasteful expenditure of taxpayer money on a highly controversial and unpopular position. Gubernatorial primary here she comes.