April 13, 2011: Montana Governor Uses Branding Iron to Veto Controversial Legislation

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer uses a branding iron to ‘veto’ a number of tea party-sponsored bills passed by the Montana legislature. [Source: Montana Cowgirl (.com)]Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D-MT) vetoes seven Republican-passed bills, most sponsored by tea party-affiliated legislators. Schweitzer goes farther than merely signing his veto statements with a pen. He also indulges in what the local press calls “one of the most spectacular pieces of political theater in” his six-year history as governor, using a red-hot “VETO” branding iron on wooden plaques engraved with the bill’s Senate or House number. “These bills are either frivolous, unconstitutional, or in direct contradiction to the expressed will of the people of Montana,” he tells a cheering crowd and a throng of reporters and television cameras. Standing somewhat outside the crowd are a small number of the Republican legislators who ushered the bills through Montana’s legislature. Some of the bills, if signed, would have eliminated same-day voter registration, allowed open-pit gold and silver mining using the environmentally hostile “cyanide leach” process, given local sheriffs authority over the federal government in terror investigations, rewritten the definition of renewable resources, downgraded energy efficiency and code adoption requirements in building codes, gutted human-sexuality courses in Montana public schools, cut legal damages that can be sought in motor vehicle accidents, stopped the creation of a health insurance exchange, scaled back consumer protection laws, and repealed a citizen-passed medical marijuana law. Schweitzer promises to veto more bills soon, saying, “When I swore to uphold the Constitution I meant it.” [Great Falls Tribune, 4/13/2011; KTVQ-TV, 4/13/2011; Montana Cowgirl, 4/13/2011]