DISCOUNT FOR ILLEGALS: On July 19, a lawsuit was filed challenging Kansas' new law allowing illegal aliens to pay in-state tuition rates at Kansas public universities. The new law means that American citizens from out of state pay more than illegal aliens who live in Kansas. "The suit is being filed on behalf of 24 American citizens who claim they are being denied the same benefits that Kansas is offering to illegal immigrants," reported the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) on July 16. "The suit seeks to enjoin the law from taking effect, or to require the state of Kansas to extend in-state tuition benefits to everyone attending a public university in the state." Chris Kobach, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City Law School, will represent the plaintiffs. "Prof. Kobach was formerly a senior advisor to the U.S. Department of Justice on immigration and homeland security," said FAIR. BLOATED HIGHWAY BILL STILL KICKING: Congressional negotiators were still debating last week over how much to bloat the six-year transportation funding bill. President Bush has threatened to veto any bill that goes much over $255 billion, but the House passed a version costing $284 billion and the free-spending Senate one costing $318 billion. Senate negotiators proposed a $301-billion bill on July 20, which the House may not accept and which seemed destined for a Bush veto if it ever passed Congress. House Transportation Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Oberstar (D.-Minn.) said, "The White House has proved to be more resistant than any of the House or Senate leadership anticipated." If agreement cannot be reached, Congress might pass another temporary extension of transportation funds and attempt a long-term solution next year. PARENTS' RIGHTS: Some people think that parents should know if their minor daughters obtain an abortion. On July 19, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, chaired by Rep. Steve Chabot (R.-Ohio), held a hearing on the Child Custody Protection Act (HR 1755) sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R.-Fla.). The bill would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines in order to circumvent a state parental consent or notification law. The bill passed the House in 2002 by 260 to 161, but the Senate refused to act on it, and is unlikely again this year. MORE VOTES? A filibuster stopped the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) from reaching the Senate floor on July 14 (see rollcall, page 26.). Only 48 senators voted to end it, and even fewer might vote for the actual amendment-but Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) told HUMAN EVENTS that "we have 52 votes for sure" for an alternative FMA idea that Hatch supports. It's an alternative to Colorado GOP Sen. Wayne Allard's SJRes 40, which was what the Senate filibustered. The alternative was proposed by Sen. Gordon Smith (R.-Ore.) and is considered by many conservatives to be more accommodating to civil unions for homosexuals because it includes only the first sentence of the Allard version. The Allard version says: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman." Critics of the alternative say that omitting the second sentence means courts could impose civil unions on the states. BARR SPEAKS: Former Rep. Bob Barr (R.-Ga.) continues to fight the efforts of most of his fellow conservatives to stop the judicial imposition of same-sex "marriage" on the country via a constitutional amendment. At a senatorial press conference after the vote preventing the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) from coming to the Senate floor, a Barr representative handed out a statement from the former congressman saying that "the Senate today is refusing to undermine the rights of states to decide such fundamental issues as marriage for themselves, even when an overwhelming majority of senators oppose same-sex marriage (as do I). Protecting the rights of states even when one state is making a bad decision is the best test of our federalist system of states' rights," said Barr, the primary sponsor of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which most legal experts, including Hatch, believe will be declared unconstitutional by the federal courts.
