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☆ Anti-Abortion Republicans Don’t Want You to Notice Ohio’s Issue 1 - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Ohio has been trending right for years, but gerrymandering ensures that the State Legislature is far more extreme than the population. Instead, some anti-abortion lawmakers want even stricter anti-abortion laws, and one, Representative Jean Schmidt, has said she’d consider a ban on birth control. The November ballot initiative to make abortion a constitutional right is a chance for Ohio voters to circumvent their unrepresentative representatives. With this August initiative, the Republicans are working to head off the voters by essentially asking them to disenfranchise themselves. Just last December, Ohio Republicans voted to effectively eliminate August special elections because of their expense and low turnout.

Persons: we’ve, “, Donald Trump, ”, David Pepper, —, Mike DeWine, Jean Schmidt, she’d Organizations: State Legislature, Statehouse News Bureau, Ohio, Ohio Democratic Party, “ Laboratories, Republican, Republicans, Ohio Republicans Locations: Kansas, state’s, Kentucky, Montana, Arizona , Florida , Missouri, Ohio . Ohio, Ohio, . Ohio, Indiana, gerrymandered

☆ Redistricting battles could determine control of US House in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But a series of legal challenges, including a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling, have cast many of those district lines into doubt. Legal experts said the ruling bolsters similar challenges in Georgia and Louisiana, where voting rights groups have argued that Republican-drawn maps marginalized Black voters. In Ohio, the state Supreme Court appears set to alter course after previously finding Republican maps violated the state constitution’s prohibition on gerrymandering. In Wisconsin, the most expensive state Supreme Court election in U.S. history resulted in a new liberal majority. OTHER BATTLESLast month, the Utah Supreme Court heard arguments over the state’s Republican-drawn congressional map, which carved Democratic Salt Lake County into four separate districts.

Persons: reconvenes, Leah Millis, –, ”, Michael Li, University’s, “, Kathy Hochul, Janet Protasiewicz Organizations: YORK, House, U.S . Capitol, Republican, REUTERS, Republicans, Census, Supreme, Center for Justice, U.S, Democrat, REPUBLICAN, STATE, Democratic, Ohio’s Republican, DEMOCRATIC, Utah Supreme Locations: New York, Utah, U.S, Washington , U.S, New, Black, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, In Wisconsin, Democratic Salt Lake County, New Mexico

☆ Don’t Be Fooled by the Fake Uproar Over Woke Capitalism - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Lydia Polgreen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Netflix, the once unstoppable juggernaut that seemed likely to eat Hollywood for breakfast, is an interesting case in point. As its growth has slowed and the political climate has changed, it reportedly shelved a plan to produce an anti-racist video series. Our systems of government increasingly favor electoral minorities — like gerrymandered state legislatures in a polarized environment — rather than common-sense compromise. rights, we are tilting ever more toward a system that allows a fanatical minority to impose its views as law. But woke capitalism is a paper tiger.

Persons: George Floyd, Thomas Frank, “, Reagan, ” Organizations: Netflix, Elites Locations: America

☆ He Worked for Years to Overturn Affirmative Action and Finally Won. He’s Not Done.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( Lulu Garcia-Navarro | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In addition to this big affirmative action case, you were also behind the landmark voting rights case in 2013, Shelby County v. Holder, which overturned a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Over the years, my outreach has diminished because I guess I’m a more high-profile individual and people contact me. Then if the lawyers believe that there is a cause of action, I go out and try to raise money to pay for the lawyers. I want to understand a little bit about what that matchmaking work looks like day to day. Now that things are online, it’s very easy to look around newspaper articles, press releases, the internet, in which policies are described, new rules and regulations are described.

Persons: Holder, — I’ve, they’re Locations: Shelby County, they’re, Maine

☆ Clarence Thomas isn't happy the Supreme Court went out of its way to shoot down a fringe right-wing elections theory
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Sonam Sheth | John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Supreme Court struck down a fringe right-wing elections theory in a 6-3 ruling. Two lawmakers in the state asked the Supreme Court to take up the case based on the independent state legislature theory. But the balance of power shifted on the North Carolina Supreme Court, which went back and allowed the map. Thomas wrote that with the original case now decided in the lawmakers' favor, the argument before the Supreme Court was "moot." In his dissent, Thomas wrote that the court's purpose is to "resolve not questions and issues but 'Cases' or 'Controversies.'"

Persons: Clarence Thomas, —, Clarence Thomas —, Moore, Harper —, Thomas, Thomas wasn't, Harper Organizations: Service, Republican, Voters, North, North Carolina Supreme Locations: North Carolina

☆ Supreme Court Rejects Louisiana’s Defense of Gerrymandered Congressional Map
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Jess Bravin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-rejects-louisianas-defense-of-gerrymandered-congressional-map-5ba1064d

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ In the Age of Trump, It’s Hard to Be Humble - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Nicholas Kristof | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

OK, now wait, listen, when I hear the words “housing policy,” I tend to sort of doze off. And I’m talking, like, the most regressive, meaning, Texas, which is the conservative bastion of anti-taxes, is more progressive than Washington State, liberal Washington State. So over here in Illinois, which is the quintessential liberal state, there’s this one county that contains the city of Chicago. Blue states are the places where tens of thousands of homeless people are living on the streets. Blue states are the places where economic inequality is increasing most quickly in this country.

Persons: I’ve, they’ll, there’s, Binya Appelbaum, He’s, There’s, it’s, ” “, Binya, ”, “, they’re, Don’t, — you’ve, Let’s, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, It’s, you’re, don’t, We’re Organizations: Republican, Times, Democratic Party, Republican Party, House Democrats, City Council, Palo Alto, Washington State, Democratic, Republicans Locations: U.S, America, California, San Diego County, Palo Alto, Calif, San Francisco, Palo, Washington State, Texas, Washington, Nevada, Illinois, Chicago, Cook County, Connecticut

☆ Justice Kavanaugh switches sides to throw out racially gerrymandered map in Alabama, just a year after he allowed the maps to stand for the 2022 elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Paul Squire | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

In 2022, Brett Kavanaugh let Albama use racially gerrymandered maps in its midterm elections. Kavanaugh joined the liberal justices and Chief Justice John Roberts in ruling against the maps. His opinion backed up the other liberal justices and Roberts, proving to be the crucial vote in the narrow decision. Kavanaugh sided with those justices in February 2022, allowing Alabama to use the maps for the 2022 election. At the time, Kavanaugh said he'd allow the maps temporarily so it wouldn't disrupt the elections in November.

Persons: Brett Kavanaugh, Kavanaugh, John Roberts, —, Roberts, he'd Organizations: Supreme, Justice, Service, Alabama's GOP Locations: Alabama

☆ Clarence Thomas wrote a scathing, nearly 50-page dissent about why the Supreme Court should have gutted voting rights
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Kelly Mclaughlin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas dissented in Thursday's 5-4 ruling on Allen v. Milligan. Thursday's ruling found that Alabama violated the Voting Rights Act's ban on racial gerrymandering. The surprise ruling prevented the court from gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, both conservatives, joined the Supreme Court's liberal-leaning justices in the ruling. Thomas said he's "long been convinced" that the Voting Rights Act only regulates voters' ability to actually get to the ballot or cast it.

Persons: Clarence Thomas, Milligan, Thursday's, —, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Thomas, he's Organizations: Allen, Service, Black, Supreme, Republicans, Alabama Locations: Thursday's, Alabama

On top of the GOP gubernatorial primary in Kentucky, there are other contests taking place on Tuesday that could provide some clues about 2024 — even though it’s hard to draw too many lessons from individual races. Voters are also heading to the polls in Pennsylvania, which is hosting a crowded Democratic primary for Philadelphia mayor. Two races will also provide some insight into voter attitudes in two key counties in two crucial battlegrounds. In other Pence news, he will attend Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst’s “Roast and Ride” event next month, per Fox News (former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is also attending). Jumping in: Former state Rep. Leslie Love jumped into the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan on Monday.

☆ Opinion: Why expelling me from the legislature backfired on Tennessee Republicans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Justin J. Pearson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Editor’s Note: Tennessee Rep. Justin J. Pearson is a Democrat and former community activist in Memphis. And yet, calls for common sense gun reform measures fall on deaf ears in our legislature where a Republican supermajority is wildly out of step with most people’s values. People in Tennessee aren’t even required to purchase a permit to publicly carry guns in the state of Tennessee. And we are required by the Tennessee State Constitution to object to policies injurious to the well-being of our constituents. My constituents sent me to the Tennessee State House to continue this work in their name.

☆ Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Results
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court election carries bigger policy stakes than any other race in the country this year. It will decide whether conservatives (like Justice Kelly) or liberals (like Judge Protasiewicz) control the otherwise evenly divided court, which will determine the fate of abortion rights, gerrymandered political maps and a range of voting rights issues in the battleground state. Full results from the primary election ›

☆ Voting-Rights Decisions Get Second Look in North Carolina
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Laura Kusisto | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

State lawmakers petitioned the state North Carolina Supreme Court to reconsider two of its recent election-law decisions. North Carolina’s highest court this week will reconsider two of its recent election-law decisions that endorsed a broad view of voting rights, an unusual move that comes after the November elections flipped the court to a Republican majority. The cases, involving the swing state’s voter-identification requirements and the shape of its electoral maps, resulted in rulings last year against the GOP-led state legislature. In one, the North Carolina Supreme Court said lawmakers in 2021 unlawfully gerrymandered congressional and state legislative districts for partisan advantage, in violation of the state constitution. In the other, the court ruled the ID law was intended to discriminate against voters of color, who were more likely to struggle to meet the new requirements.

☆ Wisconsin Republicans block 'conversion therapy' ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Wisconsin Republicans voted Thursday to again allow therapists, social workers and counselors to try to change LGBTQ clients’ gender identities and sexual orientations — a discredited practice known as conversion therapy. A ban on conversion therapy was passed in 2020 by a state board within the Democratic governor’s administration overseeing licensing for mental health professionals. At least 20 states and the District of Columbia have outlawed conversion therapy for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a pro-LGBTQ rights think tank. He said that’s all that’s at issue, not whether conversion therapy is morally or ethically right or wrong. “(The ban on conversion therapy) is necessary to protect the mental health of children in our state,” Herstand said.

They were victorious in all six states that featured ballot initiatives around abortion access this year. If approved, it would require a 60% threshold of support for future ballot measures to pass, as opposed to the current majority. Ballot initiative groups say that’s the point. Critics have alleged the measure amounts to a test run for a more comprehensive measure that would raise the threshold for all such constitutional ballot initiatives. “They’re trying to use ballot measures — to change ballot measures,” said Fields Figueredo of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

☆ Kevin McCarthy's impossible GOP math
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is far from assured of winning sufficient support in his party to become House speaker next month. The tiny GOP House majority that takes over in January, after a disappointing midterm performance, would mean a fragile governing mandate for any party at any point in American history. McCarthy’s impossible mathFrom a broader political perspective, it might be in McCarthy’s interest to stand up to the most extreme members of his conference. The path to the GOP majority went through comparatively moderate seats in places like New York that will be most at risk in the 2024 election. But it also reflected Greene’s growing personal power, after she broke with some radical GOP members and lined up to support McCarthy’s speakership.

☆ Trump isn’t the only thing that could rock American democracy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

In a rare bright spot for democracy in the wake of the US Capitol insurrection, Walker – unlike Trump after 2020 – conceded his loss. But looking to the next election, there’s a brewing fight over which states should have the first say in the presidential primary process. The most core question raised this week is being put to Supreme Court justices. Removing a check from the systemThe leap from Trump’s call to end the Constitution to the independent state legislature theory isn’t that far. Under the map approved by the state Supreme Court and after last month’s midterm elections, the delegation will be an even 7-7 when the new Congress is seated in January.

☆ Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Congressional District Maps
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Jess Bravin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Supreme Court is taking up an electoral-map case that originated in North Carolina. WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court considers Wednesday whether the Constitution renders state courts powerless to remedy gerrymandered maps drawn by state legislatures, having ruled in 2019 that federal courts have no authority to do so. If the court agrees to end state-court efforts to review electoral maps, it will leave but one check on state legislatures: Congress, which under the Constitution gets the last word on the rules for congressional elections.

On its face, Moore v. Harper, the case being considered by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, deals with whether the North Carolina Supreme Court acted within its rights last year. In 2021, the state's highest court overturned the congressional redistricting maps drawn by the GOP-controlled state Legislature for being gerrymandered along partisan lines. The Independent State Legislature doctrine could open the door to giving state legislators the power to decide, for example, which presidential candidate will receive their state’s Electoral College votes. With the Supreme Court potentially lending their imprimatur to ISL this spring, each state legislative election could put the integrity of our democracy at risk. For those of us who believe in democracy, that means only one thing: We cannot rest on our laurels.

☆ New York Democrats Help GOP to a Congressional Majority
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( Tunku Varadarajan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Republican Party has eked out a slender House majority, likely 222-213, four members more than are needed for control. The GOP should direct its gratitude to Misha Tseytlin , a soft-spoken Chicago lawyer who helped engineer the margin of victory in an unlikely place—New York state. Kathy Hochul approved a gerrymandered electoral map drawn by Albany Democrats that could have handed them victory in as many as 22 of the Empire State’s 26 districts. Mr. Tseytlin, 41, filed suit the same day, arguing that the map violated a 2014 constitutional amendment against gerrymandering that had been championed by, among others, the late former New York City Mayor Ed Koch , a Democrat. The state Senate at the time was under Republican control, the Assembly was Democratic, and Democrat Andrew Cuomo was governor.

National Democrats were fairly happy on Election Day as they dodged a predicted trouncing at the polls, but state Democrats might have even more to celebrate. And Democrats appear on track to flip the state House in Michigan, as well as in Pennsylvania and Minnesota, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), the nonpartisan organization that represents legislative chambers. Democratic wins this cycle signals a shift in state legislative priorities that could have major ramifications on contentious issues. The Republican-controlled state legislatures in Pennsylvania and Michigan had entertained election denial conspiracies after the 2020 election, for example. "Success does beget success," she said, noting that many state legislative candidates outperformed those competing at the federal level.

A newly redrawn congressional district put Kaptur's political career in jeopardy, but she was victorious. Longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur defeated Republican newcomer J.R. Majewski for Ohio's 9th Congressional District. 2022 General EmbedsOhio's 9th Congressional District candidatesNo woman in the US House has served longer than Kaptur, who has served Ohio's 9th Congressional District since 1983 — when President Ronald Reagan was just halfway through his first term. J.R. Majewski, Republican candidate for U.S. Representative for Ohio's 9th Congressional District, takes the stage at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on September 17, 2022. For the past decade, Kaptur has easily dispatched her Republican opponents in this solidly blue-collar and Democratic district.

☆ There have only been 2 Black elected governors in US history, but the 2022 midterm elections could usher in unparalleled change
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

There have only been two Black elected governors in US history, but that could change on Tuesday. With the victory, Wilder became the first Black elected governor in the United States, generations after P.B.S. He said people brag about him as the first Black governor elected in America. However, this year, Black gubernatorial candidates weren't overly reliant on the party leadership to help them land the nominations in their respective states. At the end of the day, if that's what I accomplished, that's not enough," Moore told Insider.

☆ Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas is the latest member of Congress to violate a federal conflict-of-interest law
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, was days late disclosing four stock purchases. Congress is actively debating whether to ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks. I continue to hold the same seven individual stocks acquired long ago," Doggett said. A certified congressional disclosure from Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, indicating he was days late reporting he purchased stock shares in four companies. "I am supportive of a ban on active trading of individual stocks," he said.

☆ Rep. Marcy Kaptur seeks to defend seat against Republican J.R. Majewski in turbulent Ohio congressional race
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A newly redrawn congressional district has put Kaptur's political career in jeopardy. Ohio's 9th Congressional District candidatesNo woman in the US House has served longer than Kaptur, who has served Ohio's 9th Congressional District since 1983 — when President Ronald Reagan was just halfway through his first term. The National Republican Congressional Committee has since bailed on Majewski in a sign that GOP brass have left him to fend for himself. J.R. Majewski, Republican candidate for U.S. Representative for Ohio's 9th Congressional District, takes the stage at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio., Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. For the past decade, Kaptur has easily dispatched her Republican opponents in this solidly blue-collar and Democratic district.

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