Andrew Cuomo isn’t the first New York governor to thumb his nose at Washington
Terry Golway is a senior editor at POLITICO. His most-recent book is “Frank and Al,” a dual biography of Franklin Roosevelt and Al Smith.
Of course, selective enforcement of the Constitution was not exactly new in the 1920s. The 11 states in the old Confederacy had essentially voided the 14th and 15th amendments through Jim Crow and the state-sanctioned terrorism of white supremacists. The 14th amendment’s right to equal protection under the law and the 15th amendment’s abolition of whites-only voting laws were little more than cruel jokes in the South and in other states as well.
After Republicans took control of Albany in the Warren Harding landslide of 1920, they passed several bills that mimicked most aspects of the federal Volstead Act, empowering police in New York to enforce Prohibition. Many considered the statute unnecessary, but the dry forces in New York were intent on making a statement, and indeed included even tougher language than the federal law.
The repeal bill passed the Legislature in early May—the Senate’s back-slapping majority leader, Jimmy Walker, helped win over some crucial but wavering votes in his chamber—and was dispatched to Smith’s desk. And that’s when the eyes of the nation turned to the governor’s second floor office in New York’s state Capitol.
“This disposition of the Mullan-Gage repeal bill will show the mettle of the man,” Harvard law professor Felix Frankfurter wrote to Smith’s closest political adviser, Belle Moskowitz. “If he vetoes the repeal, he will be damned for a comparatively brief time … if he signs it, he would be damned for good.”
Toward the end, though, a prominent Republican, Thomas Douglas Robinson, a nephew of Theodore Roosevelt, delivered an impassioned speech denouncing the Prohibitionists as bigots who claimed to have “a 100 percent mortgage on law and order and Americanism.” He had voted in favor of repeal, Robinson said, and did so as an American.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
How New York is battling a second crisis alongside COVID-19: Mental healthNew York is fighting a second battle aside from the coronavirus: mental health. The NYC branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness saw a 60% rise in calls to its help line in the last two weeks of March.
Read more »
Coronavirus came to New York from Europe, not China: governorNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday research showed that strains of the novel coronavirus first entered his state from Europe, not China, and that travel bans enacted by U.S. President Donald Trump were too late to halt its spread.
Read more »
Coronavirus came to New York from Europe, not China, governor saysNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday pointed to research showing that strains of the novel coronavirus entered his state from Europe, not China, and said that travel bans enacted by U.S. President Donald Trump were too late to halt its spread.
Read more »
Coronavirus came to New York from Europe, not China, governor saysNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday pointed to research showing that strains of the novel coronavirus entered his state from Europe, not China, and said that travel bans enacted by U.S. President Donald Trump were too late to halt its spread.
Read more »
After '21 days of hell' New York governor expands coronavirus testingNew York will on Saturday begin conducting antibody tests for workers at four hospitals hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic and will allow local pharmacies to begin collecting samples for diagnostic tests, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Read more »