States in U.S. Try to Quash Democracy – Part II

Updates and new states in their democracy issues:

Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis begged for federal assistance in disasters, but he voted against $9.7 billion in aid to New York and New Jersey after they suffered from Hurricane Sandy in 2013. Just been sworn in as a House member, he said he didn’t believe in the “put it on the credit card mentality.” No problem with credit cards if help is for Florida. DeSantis also turned down $350 million for assistance to people in climate funding.

Abby Vesoulis vividly described the hurricane’s damage from 125 mph winds, including in areas not formerly affected by hurricanes. Idalia is the first hurricane since DeSantis orchestrated the rewrites of insurance law after Hurricane Ian, creating greater difficulty for victims to sue insurers for failing to pay claims for home damage. More hurricane descriptions here.

Georgia: Gov. Brian Kemp refuses to call a special session for Republican legislators to get rid of Fulton County DA Fani Willis. A new GOP law allows lawmakers to dump DAs who annoy them by accusing them of violating the oath of office. Kemp said that “some inside and outside of this building may have forgotten that” they are “to follow the law and the Constitution.” The fight isn’t over: Republicans plan hearings to investigate Willis’ use of funds.

North Carolina: The state Judicial Standards Commission is investigating and threatening to sanction state Supreme Court justice Anita Earls, the only Black woman on the court, because she discussed “implicit bias” and called for more Blacks and more women to make arguments before the court. Earls is suing the commission, citing her First Amendment right to free speech while protecting herself from the investigation and punishment for her statements. Last March, the commission also investigated her for an anonymous complaint about her disclosing confidential information under discussion in the court.

Alabama: The GOP fury about election fraud ends when it’s a member of their own party, especially a state legislator. Republican state Rep. David Cole was arrested for fraudulently voting at an unauthorized location, using someone else’s address as a resident for his election. The GOP has backed his election; Cole’s opposing Libertarian candidate pointed out the fraud and the legislator’s ineligibility to run from district. Alabama’s Secretary of State certified Cole as a candidate, and Cole’s colleagues ignored any problems with his residency—and fraud.

Nebraska: Gov. Jim Pillen is copying Oklahoma’s anti-transgender executive order with what he calls a “Women’s Bill of Rights,” asserting that “a person’s biological sex is defined at birth,” which can’t be changed. The order uses Pillen’s personal definitions of “woman, “girl”, “man,” and “boy.” It defines a female as a “person whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce ova” and a male as a “person whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize the ova of a female.” Male is “defined solely through its relationship to the female reproductive system,” according to out bisexual state Sen. Megan Hunt who has a transgender child. (My question is how Pillen defines an intersex person with both “reproductive systems.”)

Oklahoma: Democrats are seeking an impeachment probe of Ryan Walters, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, after two weeks of bomb threats to Tulsa’s schools. Threats began after Walters reposted a lie from Libs on TikTok about a high school librarian’s “woke” ideology, one of his “pattern of inflammatory language” in his attempt to make all state public schools religious after he succeeded with a state Catholic charter school.

Wisconsin: A lawsuit accuses Republicans of trying to nullify the election of a liberal state Supreme Court justice by telling her to recuse herself from hearing redistricting lawsuits to avoid gerrymandering in new maps. Republicans complain that the newly-elected justice has voiced criticism about existing maps but aren’t concerned about the large number of opinions from conservative justices regarding cases they may see in the court. Republicans have sufficient numbers in the legislative bodies for impeachment and conviction.

Michigan: Sixteen Republicans have felony charges for serving as fake electors in the 2020 presidential election. They include state GOP officials, an RNC member, mayor, town clerk, and school board member. With eight felony charges, a school board member, Amy Facchinello, faces a recall.

Arizona: The state must pay $2.1 million to the federal government for damage done to federal and tribal land from former. Gov. Doug Ducey paying $95 million to install a four-mile wall of 3,000 shipping containers at the Mexico border to block migrants and another $64 million to tear them down and transport them. The remaining 2,200 containers are for sale. The settlement will be used by the U.S. Forest Service to remedy damage. Texas still has several hundreds of feet of containers on the border near El Paso and Eagle Pass.

Maricopa County (AZ) Republican Committee voted to ask the state GOP to cancel the state’s primary system and hold its own vote on one day—only in-person, no mail-in, a hand-count of the ballots, and managed by the party. And they want the state party to pay the $15 million for the process; currently the state GOP has only $144,000. State law permits political parties to opt out of state-run presidential primary elections. If the state party agrees, they are responsible for finding staffing poll locations. Republicans claim they are stopping election fraud—non-existent, according to the highly expensive audit after the last presidential election.

Texas: Judges are using temporary injunctions to knock down Gov. Greg Abbott’s new punitive laws:

Books ratings: A federal judge appointed by former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) ruled against the law that anyone not marking books sold to schools for “sexual content” will be banned from future sales. The lawsuit stated an unconstitutional restraint on the freedom to read and an untenable burden on book vendors tasked with rating millions of books. The law also permitted the Texas Education Agency to review the vendors’ ratings, forcing the TEA’s ratings on the vendor.

Drag shows: A Reagan-appointed federal judge temporarily blocked the criminalization of public drag shows, ruling that the law likely “violated the First Amendment” and caused “irreparable harm” to the plaintiffs. The judge said his final decision would come two to four weeks after the hearing. Texas is one of six states restricting drag performances; Florida, Montana, and Tennessee have blocked these laws.  

Removal of cities’ power: A Travis County judge declared a new state law unconstitutional that prevents cities and counties from passing ordinances going further than state laws. Called the “Death Star bill,” it may still go into effect, but the ruling eases state lawsuits against challenged ordinances. The new state law blocks ordinances providing sick leave to workers, protections for tenants facing evictions, and mandatory water breaks for construction workers.   

Transgender healthcare: In one loss for democracy and human rights, the state Supreme Court ruling permits the state to ban gender-affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, starting on September 1. Exceptions are for intersex patients and some minors already receiving gender-affirming care who will be forced to “wean off” any drugs for treatment. Other a dozen other states are moving toward this restriction, and a new advisory from Canada warns LGBTQ+ citizens from traveling to the U.S. because of the record number of anti-LGBTQ legislation.  

A federal lawsuit against Texas barriers in the Rio Grande River to keep migrants from crossing the southern border is still not decided. Focusing on brutal treatment of asylum seekers, Abbott has spent $4 billion of the $10 billion granted for “Operation Lone Star.” Part of it is for wire razor fencing and four-foot-wide buoys joined with circular saws on the Rio Grande River which are anchored to the river bottom with 68 concrete blocks weighing 3,000 pounds and nets underneath the buoys to prevent swimming beneath them. They rotate so that people cannot climb over them. At least two bodies have been found. Abbott also buses migrants to blue states, most recently in the middle of California’s Tropical Storm Hillary. Eighty percent of Abbott’s buoys are on the Mexican side, violating a 1970 U.S.-Mexico treaty putting the international boundary in the middle of the Rio Grande.

Abbott has been forced to disband the intelligence wing of Texas National Guard intelligence wing doing illegal surveillance of migrants in Mexico for Operation Lone Star. Two of at least four intelligence officers facing administrative discipline blame senior leaders for setting them up. The two of them warned the leaders about the surveillance legality, but the top brass refused to stop their mission.

 Another National Guard member deployed by Abbott, fired across the Rio Grande border into Mexico, injuring a 37-year-old Mexican man.  In January, a Guard member with Operation Lone Star shot another migrant in the shoulder but claimed he was wrestling with him. The wounded man, supported by other migrants, said the shot came from the kitchen into the living room.

Not enough room now for more Texas anti-democracy moves, but one more story from the state:

The Katy Independent School District (TX) with a population of over 85,000 students, banned new library books in all schools after a board member cited a parent complaining about Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn, a cat that wants to be a unicorn. With starred reviews, the book is one in a series about friendship and accepting oneself, called “sexually explicit” in the complaint with other falsehoods. Winner of many prestigious awards, author Shannon Hale has written over 40 books.