Parliament…or Oklahoma politics

by Bill O'Brien
Special to The Gayly

_{Democratic Oklahoma State Senator Kay Floyd reminds me, in many ways of the late Helen Suzman. A member of the South African Parliament, Suzman fought courageously against the Apartheid policies of that nation’s government that were put in place by the Nationalist Party that ruled there from 1948 until the first all-race election that took place in 1994.}

_{Suzman represented the affluent Johannesburg suburb of Houghton from 1953 until 1993, and often spoke on behalf of the disenfranchised Black, Indian, and mixed race population of South Africa. Suzman, who was born in 1917 to Jewish parents who were immigrants from Lithuania, was known for the pointed questions that she presented to the ministers of the Nationalist government during the question and answer sessions that were held in Parliament.}

_{When Suzman would approach the government bench to ask her questions very often the Nationalist parliamentary representatives would begin to chant in unison “go back to Israel or Lithuania,” to which she would coolly reply, “I am not from either of those states.”}

_{Her inquiries frequently dealt with issues such as the number of South Africans who were being held in detention without trial and the conditions under which prominent political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela were being held.}

_{On one memorable occasion the minister she was questioning said that her questions were causing embarrassment to South Africa, she replied, “It’s not my questions but your answers that are a source of embarrassment to our nation.”}

_{Similarly, Oklahoma State Senator Kay Floyd (D-46) has recently raised an important question that she believes should be of concern to the citizens of the state. In recent years the Republican controlled Oklahoma legislature has enacted legislation on matters such as abortion that have subsequently been found by the courts to be an illegal infringement on the rights of the citizenry.}

_{Floyd, who represents a district in Oklahoma City, has requested a legislative study to ascertain the costs to the state of Oklahoma to defend those laws. The legislator points out that when the legality of laws is challenged, it is the legal duty of the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office to defend them in court.}

_{As state government in Oklahoma has been subject to draconian cuts with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services cutting services to the underprivileged, Floyd wonders if the time and money devoted to defending legislation of dubious legality constitutes a waste of the state’s meager resources.}

_{The lawmaker, who is an attorney and formerly served as an administrative law judge for the Oklahoma Merit Protection Commission, reports that she has maintained a list of measures enacted that she believed would be subject to challenge in court and that most of them have in fact been found unconstitutional. In addition, she is concerned the passage of bills that are subsequently ruled to be invalid may serve to erode the public’s trust in state government.}

_{While the answer to Senator Floyd’s question may not be an embarrassment to the state, it may provide food for thought to the Republican legislative leadership and others as to the financial costs of some of the measures that they support.}

-
Bill O’Brien is an Oklahoma City attorney and writer.

Copyright 2016 The Gayly - 10/26/2016 @ 5:33 a.m.