All session, Mississippi Republicans have been working a pair of conservative bills that would almost surely give them trouble in the courts. With time running out, and with concerns about future court challenges, Mississippi Republicans have handed those bills over to the minority Democrats for a final say.
One bill is an anti-immigration measure styled after the law in Alabama, which was in turn styled after the law in Arizona, and which has given both states fits since they passed them. State Senator Hob Bryan, the Mississippi Democrat whose committee is considering the bill, tells the Jackson Clarion-Ledger it could interfere with the way police officers and sheriffs do their jobs. That might be manners for "no way."
The second bill is one that Mississippi Republicans have hoped would essentially ban all abortions. State Senator Bryan says it doesn't make sense to pass a measure that goes against Roe v. Wade. He says state lawmakers have taken plenty of votes already against abortion:
What we have not done is to pass bill after bill after bill that was obviously unconstitutional just so we could all get on record one more time as casting another vote realizing that what was going to happen was someone would file suit the next day and the legislation would never take effect.
Both bills must pass today, starting with Bryan's judiciary committee, or be gone. UPDATE: Bryan left both bills off the schedule today, so they're toast.
(P.S. If anyone feels up to the challenge of diagramming Sen. Bryan's one-sentence quote, please send the results here.)