by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
The good people of Oklahoma just can't seem to help themselves when it comes to ensuring that their state will always serve as a national punchline. One would think that being represented in the Senate by Tom Coburn and James Mountain Inhofe would bring the state more than its share of humiliation, but for some of the state's craziest cretins, there is always room for so much more.
Oklahoma is the birthplace and current abode of the grandmother of the Tea Party, nutbag Anita Bryant. It was also the only state in the union in which every single county voted against Barack Obama - leading more than a few observers to speculate that the state might be just a tad concerned with skin tone.
Or maybe they believed the Fox rumors that Obama was a Muslim. These goobers aren't much on religious tolerance either.
Just last week, in fact, Oklahomans voted on an amendment to their state's constitution that prohibited the state's courts from using any type of laws in making decisions other than state law or federal law. The amendment specifically forbid the state courts to ever use international law or Sharia law (Islamic law) in making decisions. Obviously no state court in Oklahoma has ever used Sharia law in making any decision, nor would a state court ever have a need to do so. But that was not the point. The point was Oklahomans do not like the Islamic religion or Muslims, and they wanted to show their bigotry through a vote...something that would get them some press and remind the rest of the nation just how stupid Oklahomans really are.
Oklahomans were, not surprisingly, successful in their attempt to legislate hate and stupidity. The measure that would ban Sharia law from being practiced in the Oklahoma courts passed by just over 70% (695,568 to 296,903).
While Oklahomans tend to take pride in their stupidity, it has to be noted that nearly one-third of the electorate couldn't be suckered into voting for the odious piece of race-baiting legislation. It should also be noted that while Barack Obama lost every county in the state, he also received votes in every county and came close to carrying a few. And while the people of Oklahoma are much more likely to elect people like Coburn and Inhofe to office, the state has also sent Fred Harris to the Senate and Mike Synar to the House. It would seem that sanity can prevail occasionally, even in places like Oklahoma. By and large, however, Oklahomans are never proud of their saner moments!
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What the Oklahoma vote did,other than rousing the rabble, was to tread into an exclusive domain of the the courts.
Courts use "other law" a lot. Typically this takes place in disputes over contracts. If the contract was entered into in Missouri and the breach occured in Oklahoma, then the Oklahoma courts would use Missouri law to decide the case. Here Oklahoma is called the forum state, since that's where the case is being tried. This is the choice of law question.
Agreed, it is highly unlikely that two Pakistani businessmen will end up with a breach of contract question before the trial judge in Ada, Oklahoma.
What is more important is that the Oklahoma ballot question was a ruse designed to whip up the Republican base. Missouri did it in the primary with the question on the ballot of whether or not Missouri would be bound by "Obamacare".
Missouri's ballot initiative wasn't to establish legal precedence, because neither states nor persons can opt in or opt out of the laws they want to obey.
These measures are like red meat being tossed to the wolves and are designed to make sure that the base of the Republican voters go to the polls on election day.
To be fair, Democrats tend to do really well when minimum wage issues are on the ballot.
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