I have been around the NC General Assembly long enough to know that it thrives on rumors. Many of them are phony trial balloons and many turn out to be accurate predictions of the future. This week, there is a rumor that Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam (R-Wake) will be appointed to a judgeship by Governor Pat McCrory. While it might be a relief to get such narrow and closed-minded ideology out of the Legislature, his departure would not solve the problem completely.
As I've observed for 20 years, Rep. Stam seems to spend an inordinate amount of his time and intelligence on proposals that are hateful, discriminatory and potentially unconstitutional. This is a man with an agenda who has used his considerable power to see it achieved. North Carolinians are paying an enormous price in legal fees - through our taxes - to defend his vanity and that of the NC GOP.
His fingerprints are on legislation to deny healthcare to women, provide medically inaccurate sex education to our students, exclude the very people from protection against bullying who need it most, blatant partisan political retaliation directed at the teachers' professional association, allow the state to sanction one political viewpoint over another, allow public funds to be used to pay for private and parochial school tuition and create statutory barriers to the ballot box.
The idea that he would move from the legislative branch to be an activist judge is intolerable.
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