McDaniel Defends Michigan AG In Detroit Free Press Guest Editorial

Former Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel was a guest writer on the editorial page in Saturday’s Detroit Free Press.

McDaniel defended Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who is defending that state’s constitutional definition of marriage in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

While McDaniel hopes Schuette loses, he says the exercise of a state attorney general defending the state’s constitution is a centuries-old necessity.

From the Free Press:

Schuette Is Right To Defend Michigan’s Constitution

Since the 13th Century, attorneys general have been representing governmental interests for kings and democracies alike. Today, each state’s attorney general swears an oath that he or she will support and defend that state’s constitution.

Attorneys general are given special standing in the Supreme Court of the United States and in virtually every state’s own courts to make arguments to defend the state’s interests. This is especially true when the constitutionality of state actions, executive orders, statutes or the state constitution itself is challenged.

Lawyers represent their clients. Attorneys general are no different, other than that their clients are states with the power to incarcerate criminals, regulate business, educate kids, tax anything and everything and seize lands for its own purposes. States are complex clients governed by millions of voters and their representatives. When laws are passed or constitutions are amended, many will dissent, but the attorney general must represent the will of the majority.

Public defenders are paid by the taxpayers to provide a defense for those who cannot afford one. In our system, we believe that no justice is fair unless all, including the worthy and the unworthy, are given representation. This fundamental premise is why our tax dollars go to defend rapists, terrorists, child abusers and cop killers. But the greater good is obvious. The innocent are defended, and the convictions of the guilty withstand scrutiny because the integrity of our system is preserved by providing a proper defense to all.

The attorney general is like the public defender of the state’s constitution — hired every four years in elections by the people to defend their laws, whether he or she likes the laws or not. The governor gets a veto, but attorneys general should not exercise a de facto veto by ignoring his or her duty to defend laws that are challenged in court.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is defending his state’s constitutional definition of marriage in a case that will be argued this week before the U.S. Supreme Court. Obergefell v. Hodges will finally determine whether the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same gender.

I hope the court rules in favor of marriage equality. I believe that it is time to put laws that discriminate against LGBT Americans into our past. But when I was attorney general, I defended Arkansas’s constitutional definition of marriage. I set my personal feelings aside and participated in the adversarial court system of our nation as I swore to do. Schuette is doing the same thing.

In Michigan, 59% of voters amended the constitution to define marriage. I know that Schuette is getting pressure to just walk away and let the case end. However, if he did that, he would not only breach his duty to defend the state’s constitution, but also the Supreme Court would be again denied the opportunity to hear and decide a case that is ripe.

Allowing an attorney general to ignore the constitution could seriously undermine our political process and cause even greater cynicism among voters toward their government. It is a temptation that must be avoided.

I hope Bill loses this case, but I am proud of him and applaud him for seeing it through to the end.

Dustin McDaniel served as the Democratic attorney general of Arkansas from 2007-2015. He is the former co-chairman of the Democratic Attorneys General Association.