Rubio's "Scarlet Letter" vote

See ShrinkRap for June 11 on Jeb Bush's shame-promoting moralism toward unwed mothers, citing The Scarlet Letter as a better way to deal with out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

Thanks to Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post for coming up with this epilogue to that story.    In 2001, when Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, there was a controversial bill that passed by an overwhelming majority that would require an unwed mother to post the details of her recent sexual encounters in the newspaper before putting the baby up for adoption -- ostensibly to ensure that the biological father would be informed, even in the case of rape.

This bill could have been written by the same man who wrote that "The Scarlet Letter" chapter of Jeb Bush's 1995 book.   It seems logical to think that he approved of the bill, although apparently he let it become law without his signature.   At least he did not publicly oppose it.  My guess is that he did not oppose it, but he knew it would be declared unconstitutional by the courts.   As it later was.

One of the legislators who voted for this draconian law in 2001 was the young Marco Rubio, protege of then Gov. Jeb Bush.

In fairness, some lawmakers later were later horrified to find that this newspaper notification was in the bill, saying they would never have voted for it, if they had known.  Sen. Rubio has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Ralph