America's Most Evil Governor Asks Supreme Court to Take Health Care Away from Gays

In a country packed from sea to shining sea with crappy governors doing nutty local things like betting bales of meat that their local team will beat another governor’s team in a sporting event that will lead to mild rioting on both sides, a few idiot statesmen really stand out. Among them is Arizona’s Jan Brewer, the scowling force behind SB1070, or the “show me your papers, Mexicans” law. Bored with working to be a dick to immigrants (or people whose darker than white skin makes them appear to be in this country illegally), Brewer has set her sights on a new disenfranchised group to bully: same-sex domestic partners.

Jan Brewer actually ascended to the position of Arizona governor because of President Obama; when he appointed former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano Secretary of Homeland Security, the state’s laws of succession dictated that the next highest elected official in the state would become governor. There was no lieutenant governor at the time, and thus then-Secretary of State Brewer began her reign of terror and Tea Party babbling. Thanks to her support to SB1070, she won reelection with 55% of the vote, buoyed by the support cranky snowbirds.

Before Napolitano headed to Washington, she extended partner benefits for Arizona state employees to same-sex couples, a move that didn’t sit well with Brewer’s brand of conservatism (which, in the decades leading up to this, was just called “being a hater”). She attempted to revoke same-sex partner benefits in 2009, but that move was blocked when a court ruled that rescinding benefits from domestic partners would cause state employees financial hardship and emotional trauma. Bickering over the ruling continued until September of last year, when the 9th Circuit Court ruled that the state of Arizona didn’t have a right to take health care away from gay couples. Now, Brewer wants the Supreme Court to get involved, three years after she first signed a law eliminating same sex partner benefits and after a handful of increasingly high court rulings siding against the state of Arizona. Taking health care away from gay couples is just that important to her.

For those curious, this year’s America’s Evilest Governor competition was a close contest indeed, with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, and Florida Governor Rick Scott nipping closely at Brewer’s heels.