Thank goodness Governor McCrory stood up to silliness

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory is due a huge round of applause for his veto of two bills that passed both houses of the General Assembly and landed on his desk for signature. Or for veto, which he swiftly did, saving face for North Carolina as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars the citizens would have paid to defend the law all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The adult in the room is McCrory, not those in charge at the General Assembly.

Today, the Governor (a Republican), who is seeking re-election next year, turned his back on close to three-fifths of the NC House of Representatives (mostly Republicans) and sixty-six percent of the members of the NC Senate (nearly all Republicans) when he vetoed Senate Bill 2. The law, if he had signed it (or not and let it become law without his John Hancock), would have allowed magistrates to opt out of performing marriages on religious grounds. In other words, it the magistrate disagrees with marriage between two men or two women (strictly on religious beliefs, of course, which is a lame excuse), the magistrate could have legally refused to perform the civil ceremony. McCrory also vetoed a bill that would have slowed undercover investigations in the workplace.

With the veto of the magistrate bill, McCrory did the smart thing by putting laws of the United States above Biblical interpretations behind which many people live to avoid whatever they want to avoid and disagree with whatever they wish to disagree. Despite his personal conviction that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, McCrory sided with laws of the state. “Whether it is the president, governor, mayor, a law enforcement officer, or magistrate, no public official who voluntarily swears to support and defend the Constitution and to discharge all duties of their office should be exempt from upholding that oath,” said the Governor prior to vetoing Senate Bill 2.

Good for Governor McCrory who could see his veto overridden. He could also see a near halt come to some of the good ideas he has for North Carolina, ideas which need to be passed as legislation by the General Assembly which prefers to deal with social issues instead of issues that will help grow the economy of North Carolina. There’s another social issue that will probably land on his desk, and that’s about abortion (requiring a woman who has thought and thought about aborting a birth being made to wait another three days though her mind was made up three days earlier), a word that could easily be applied to actions by the General Assembly. Thank goodness the Governor stood up to the silliness this time, and let’s hope he keeps the stamp available to use again.

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