Steve Schuh Does the Right Thing

Last month I wrote about legislation introduced by Anne Arundel County Councilman Andrew Pruski that violated the civil liberties of all property owners in Anne Arundel County. Pruski’s legislation was racist, discriminatory, anti-liberty, and put undo hardships on victims of domestic violence, among other things.

The bill passed the County Council, with Republican John Grasso joining all three Democrats supporting the racist legislation. But fortunately, Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh vetoed the bill:

Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh vetoed legislation Friday that would have given the police chief power to close down businesses where there are repeated crime and nuisance complaints.

An effort to schedule a possible override is already underway.

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The bill was aimed at curbing crime in and around hotels along Route 198 in west county where repeated incidents have been happening for years….

…”I cannot in good conscience affix my name to a piece of legislation that is unconstitutional, as doing so would violate the oath I took upon taking office,” Schuh wrote Friday in his formal veto message to the council.

It’s nice to see that that Schuh followed through with his veto of a bill that the administration opposed from the start. Anne Arundel County should as much as possible to stop the drug trade, stop prostitution, stop human trafficking, and deal with the serious issues that are facing West Couty. But we cannot do these things by enacting legislation that is racist, that is discriminatory, and a violation of the civil liberties of property owners. Why Pruski and the other County Councilmembers who voted for this legislation in the first place thought that the solution to fix problems was to codify racism, discrimination, and the limitation of property rights into the county code is reprehensible.

We’ll see going forward if the majority of the County Councilmembers who voted for the will try to override Schuh’s veto. But let’s hope that these members have seen the error of their ways and don’t try to push their racist legislation over the County Executive’s veto.