Before state legislatures adjourn for the year, they have worked hard to ensure that rights are for only part of their constituents. Here are some samples:
Alabama: Mercedes-Benz defeated the UAW by 597 votes to keep the union from the plant—for now. Last month, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted to unionize. UAW president Sean Fain accused Mercedes of pressuring employees to vote against the union by calling employees into meetings to hear anti-union talking points. Several Southern governors, including Alabama’s Kay Ivey, also denounced the UAW.
Arkansas: According to its residents, new GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders takes little interest in governing her state, more concerned with her federal political possibilities. Conservative Politico reporter Dana Liebselson, wrote:
“She shows little trust in the media. She cruises between events in a black SUV with tinted windows, accompanied by a state police detail in suits and a comms director who worked for Trump and his 2020 presidential campaign. At open-press events, she takes so few questions, Arkansas reporters are fatalistic about the idea of asking many…. She reaches her audience on her terms, including on Fox News, or Instagram and Elon Musk’s X, where she has over 2.3 million collective followers.”
Colorado: The state GOP emailed parents to take their children out of public schools because they turn them trans, a conservative reaction to a new law requiring school policies prohibiting discrimination for using students’ chosen names on unofficial documents such as rosters and name tags.
Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) took credit for bridge funding in her district, but Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg pointed out she opposed the law, calling it a “waste” and “garbage.” Although claiming she would “be there” for her arrested 19-year-old son Tyler, she didn’t attend his court appearances for almost two dozen charges including a string of car burglaries and identity thefts. Instead, she attended DDT’s criminal trial.
Florida: No longer running for president, Gov. Ron DeSantis meddles in state politics, hating rainbows. In a state with no freedom, he has declared “Freedom Summer.”
Bridges customarily using a colorful array can now use only red, white, and blue until September.
Abortions restricted to “six weeks” means limiting an embryo of only four weeks development, forcing women to travel as far as Virginia, Illinois, or Washington, D.C. for healthcare.
Almost exactly 142 years after the U.S. passed the Chinese Exclusion Act barring citizenship for people from China, Chinese citizens can no longer buy homes in Florida.
References to climate change are eliminated in the state with hurricanes, extreme heat records, massive toxic algae blooms, and rising sea levels.
State grant programs supporting energy conservation and renewable energy are banned as well as offshore wind turbines while reducing regulations on gas pipelines are reduced.
All schools must teach “the evils of communism,” but not fascism, yet 20 percent o schools don’t even teach physics.
Unqualified Christian “chaplains” are replacing licensed school counselors.
Local civilian police oversight boards cannot investigate allegations of police misconduct.
In 1964 activists, mostly from the North, went to Mississippi in June to register Black voters for Freedom Summer. In “a white nationalist hide-out,” DeSantis bans books, drag shows, diversity, equity, inclusion, etc. and calls it “Freedom Summer.”
Louisiana: After Jeff Landry replaced a Democratic governor, new GOP leadership is gutting coastal protections by removing climate goals—even any reference to climate change. The state has already lost over 2,000 square miles of land and will lose the same amount in the next 50 years. Wasting almost $1 billion, Landry also stopped restoration of coastal wetlands in a the diversion of a part of the Mississippi River, bringing new sediment to the area.
For the first time in the U.S., Louisiana classifies abortion medication, mifepristone and misoprostol, as controlled dangerous substances. Possession without valid prescriptions or medical orders can have a five-year sentence. Medical professionals object because the law can delay the use of these medications that aid in labor and delivery, treat miscarriage, and prevent gastrointestinal ulcers.
In April, the state Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, ruled that priests have the right to not be sued by their sexual assault victims. Utah and Colorado have made the same ruling.
Landry may replace the current state constitution with a new governing document although he didn’t explain why he wants to do it. The Senate president said legislators could convene an August convention. Instead of using elected delegates as the state did in 1973, the convention may be made up of legislative members and Landry appointees. Lawmakers plan to leave the unconstitutional definition of marriage between one man and one woman, hoping that the Supreme Court ruling of marriage equality will be overturned. About 62 percent of Louisianians support same-gender marriage. Even the ultra-conservative 5th Circuit Court ruled against the Louisiana definition of marriage.
Minnesota: In a primary race of seven candidates, the state GOP picked conspiracy theorist, misogynist, homophobe Royce White to run against Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar. The primary election is August 13. Respected in the past for his work in mental health, the pro basketball player now follows Alex Jones and Steve Bannon. Denouncing the “Jewish lobby” and the “Jewish elite,” he complains that “women have become too mouthy” and calls the LGBTQ movement “Luciferian … the brainchild of radical feminists and their cucked men.” During his 2022 campaign for a state House seat, White used donor funds to pay bills at a strip club in 2022, mysterious wire transfers and checks, limo services and expensive hotels in seven states, sporting goods, and purchases of personal items like clothing.
Mississippi: Cisgender people can sue trans people for their presence in any facility that doesn’t match their “biological sex.”
Tennessee: Rep. Andy Ogles’ lies includes his keeping $25,000 donated for a “children’s burial garden” and wildly inflating his résumé, but he had to correct the one from last fall, that he made a $320,000 personal loan to his campaign. Among 11 corrections to his campaign finance reports going back two years is his loaning his campaign only $20,000. His colleagues stayed silent.
Teachers and staff members can carry concealed handguns on school grounds, a pracice that 34 states ban. Despite a 2008 Supreme Court ruling, a new law permits the state to execute child rape convicts. Only a parent or guardian can take a minor out of the state for an abortion or transgender-affirming treatment. In Idaho, anyone helping a minor leave the state for an abortion can go to prison for two to five years.
Texas: During National Police Week, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned Daniel Perry for murdering a Black Lives Matter protester, Air Force veteran Garrett Foster, in 2020. Perry, who had posted violent and racist messages with intentions to “shoot looters,” now has the right to own a gun. He accelerated his car into a group of protesters before he shot Foster four times with a .357 Magnum pistol. Foster’s partner said that Abbott shows that “only certain lives matter.” DDT said that Abbott is on his VP shortlist.
Like Florida, Texas blocks localities from mandating heat-illness protections for employees, such as rest breaks and drinking water, in extreme heat situations.
After Crystal Mason’s conviction was overturned, Tarrant County wants her back in prison. She mistakenly cast a provisional ballot in 2016 that was never counted and sentenced to five years in prison. The ruling found no proof that she knew was ineligible to vote. Throughout the U.S., white male Republicans illegally voting in states receive light or no sentences although they knew they were breaking the law.
Vermont: GOP Gov. Phil Scott vetoed an update for the state’s 2015 Renewable Energy Standard dictating the amount of power electric utilities must purchase from renewable resources. It would require large utilities to reach 100 percent renewable power by 2030 and smaller ones by 2035, much of the new power coming from solar. By 2035, the average electric bill would increase between $4.50 and $13.50.
Virginia: Elected as governor three years ago, Glenn Youngkin claimed to be a moderate; he just wanted to get elected. Earlier this month, he vetoed bills to ensure contraception access and close tax loopholes for Confederate heritage groups. He blocked banning guns from psychiatric hospitals, prohibiting the sale or possession of “ghost guns,” and requiring schools to notify parents about their responsibility to store weapons away from children’s access. In Newport (VA), six-year-old brought his mother’s gun to school and shot his teacher. His 201 vetoes this year cemented his record as a hard-right Republican.
After a six-hour meeting, Shenandoah County School Board reinstated Confederate names for two schools.
Tune in on Monday for good news!
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