Los Angeles County boycotts Arizona

Before it was the City of Los Angeles that declared economic war on a state of the Union. Now the County of Los Angeles has followed suit, ending county-paid travel to Arizona, terminating contracts with Arizona-based companies, and divesting the county pension fund of Arizona state and municipal bonds. The story is from the L.A. Times:

After heated debate, Los Angeles County supervisors voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to boycott Arizona in response to the passage of its controversial illegal immigration law, a decision that came the same day the Los Angeles Unified School District condemned the law.

“This law simply goes too far,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina, the primary sponsor of the county boycott. “A lot of people have pointed out that I am sworn as an L.A. County supervisor to uphold the Constitution. All I can say is that I believe that Arizona’s law is unconstitutional.”

Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mark Ridley-Thomas joined Molina to back the boycott, which was opposed by Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe.

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Michael S. writes:

You wrote:

“Now the County of Los Angeles has followed suit, ending county-paid travel to Arizona, terminating contracts with Arizona-based companies, and divesting the county pension fund of Arizona state and municipal bonds.”

That made me wonder what legal basis they had for canceling legally binding contracts unilaterally. But the story says:

“The boycott … calls for a report within two weeks on how the county might terminate contracts with Arizona-based companies … “

So they don’t know yet whether they have a legal basis. Perhaps they’ll make one up. And no doubt The Obaminator will see to it that the theories pass scrutiny in federal court.

LA replies:

Thanks for the correction.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 02, 2010 07:57 PM | Send