OKLAHOMA CITY – State Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Del City, issued the following statement after the passage of House Bill 1236.

“I can’t support the blatantly unconstitutional concept of this legislative body determining the constitutionality of Congressional actions. That’s why we have a judiciary.

“It’s our job to ask Oklahoma’s Attorney General to challenge laws and federal actions we think are unconstitutional. But we can already do that today. In fact, we don’t even need the AG. We successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Governor writing new gaming laws.

“Even if the Legislature had the Constitutional authority to declare something unconstitutional, why only require a simple majority for something so important? It takes the Legislature 68 votes to do something as trivial as making a law take effect early. Why is this worth less to the people of Oklahoma?”

“This bill sets up a challenge with the courts. Besides making a lot of attorneys a ton of money, what will happen when a court overrules the Legislature on an issue of Constitutionality? Will the Legislature then reconvene to overrule the court’s ruling?”

“I fully support empowering the Legislature to challenge issues of constitutionality in the courts. I’m disappointed my colleagues voted down separating this bill into the constitutional and unconstitutional parts.”