#Missouri Senate Judiciary Committee

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A bill that would add child sex trafficking and statutory rape to the crimes eligible for the death penalty was debated Monday in a Missouri Senate committee — despite conflicting with U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

The legislation is sponsored by state Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican who said Monday that one of the “principal purposes of government” is to “punish evil.”

Rape of children under 14 and child trafficking of children under 12 would be crimes eligible for the death penalty under his bill.

“And what’s more evil than taking the innocence of the child during the act of a rape? Children are in large part defenseless and an act such as rape can kill the child emotionally,” he said.

“And so I believe a just consequence, after a reasonable opportunity for defense, is death.”

The Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee heard the bill Monday.

State Sen. Karla May, a Democrat from St. Louis, pointed to Moon’s stance of “believing in life” as an outspoken opponent of abortion without exception for rape or incest, yet supporting expanding the death penalty.

“A 12 year old who gets pregnant, you believe that she should bring that child in the world, am I correct?” May asked.

“What crime did that child, that developing human child, commit to deserve death?” Moon replied.

“…But you believe in killing the father to that child?” May asked, if the father is a rapist.

“Yes,” Moon said. “If an attacker commits a heinous crime such as the ones that I mentioned in this presentation, I believe that if they’re charged and convicted, absolutely.”

The Rev. Timothy Faber testified in support of Moon’s bill, pointing to the “lifelong repercussions” of child rape and trafficking.

“It’s also a well established fact that those who commit sexual crimes seldom if ever change their ways,” he said. “Once a sexual offender, always a sexual offender.”

Elyse Max, co-director of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, opposed the bill during Monday’s hearing.

“If the goal is to overturn established U.S. Supreme Court precedent, it’s far from a guarantee,” Max said, “and the amount of resources the state of Missouri would have to spend as well as the trauma to child victims during the process cannot be understated.”

The U.S. Supreme Court in the 2008 case Kennedy v. Louisiana ruled giving the death penalty to those convicted of child rape violates the constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment unless the crime results in the victim’s death or is intended to. Only homicide and a narrow set of “crimes against the state” can be punishable by death, the court ruled.

“Adding statutory rape and trafficking as death-eligible crimes are a slippery slope,” Max said, “of expanding the death penalty to non-murder crimes that would bring the constitutionality of Missouri’s death penalty into doubt.”

“Instead of spending millions of dollars to possibly change long-standing precedent, Missouri resources should be spent to protect children from abuse in the first place, and ensure survivors have access to mental health treatment and proper support, following the offense,” Max said.

Moon said, regarding the Supreme Court precedent, that it’s worth challenging.

“That’s something that we need to start the conversation about,” he said, “and those things need to be challenged.”

Florida passed a similar law for victims of rape under age 12 last year. It received bipartisan support. In December, prosecutors in that state announced they’d seek the death penalty in a case of a man accused of sexually abusing a child.

Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the state’s bill could lead the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the issue.

Mary Fox, director of Missouri State Public Defender, which provides defense for the majority of death penalty cases in the state, argued Monday that the death penalty is “no deterrent to a crime.”

Fox also noted that an 18 year old dating a 14 year old could be executed under Moon’s legislation because that would be considered statutory rape.

Mei Hall, a resident of Columbia who also said she was a victim of sexual abuse, also testified in opposition.

“I don’t wish my abuser death,” Hall said. “I wish them to be sequestered away and unable to harm more people, for sure. But I don’t think it’s the state’s place to kill people in general and I don’t think it’s the state’s place to make it more difficult for child victims to come forward.”

Lobbyists from Empower Missouri and Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers also testified against the bill. A lobbyist from ArmorVine, testified in support.

Missouri was one of only five states to carry out death sentences last year, along with Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama. There are two executions scheduled for this year.

Three House bills filed this year would eliminate the state’s death penalty, but none has made it to a committee hearing.

[politijohn]

Anti-Trans Legislation: Feb 25-Mar 3 in Review

The following bills were introduced:

Two schooling bills, Florida S1320 and H1223, were pre-filed.

Georgia HB653, an under-18 healthcare ban, was introduced. 

Iowa HSB208, a school-based bathroom bill, was introduced and passed in its subcommittee. 

Iowa HB482, a school-based bathroom bill, was introduced and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Iowa HSB214, an under-18 healthcare ban, was introduced and had a House subcommittee hearing.

Iowa SSB1197, an under-18 healthcare ban, was introduced and had a subcommittee meeting.

Iowa HJR8 was introduced and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. This is a joint resolution attacking marriage.

Iowa HSB222, a schooling/parental rights bill, was introduced and referred to the House Education Committee yesterday.

Maine LD930, a sports ban bill that specifically targets trans girls, was introduced and referred to the Joint Judiciary Committee.

Missouri HB1332, a tax bill that would punish institutions for providing gender-affirming healthcare, was introduced and read.

Missouri HB1364, a drag ban bill, was introduced and read for a second time.

Ohio HB68, a "SAFE" act, was introduced and referred to the House Public Health Policy Committee.

Texas HB2862 and HB3147 were filed. These prison bills would prohibit incarcerated trans and gender diverse folks from being housed in facilities consistent with their gender identity.

The following bills progressed:

Bathroom bills: (A bathroom bill denies access to public restrooms by gender or trans identity. They increase danger without making anyone any safer and have even prompted attacks on cis and trans people alike. Many national health and anti-sexual assault organizations oppose these bills.)

Arizona SB1040, a school-based bathroom bill, passed in the Senate and crossed over to the House.

Arkansas SB270, which would make it “criminal indecency with a child” for trans folks to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, was re-referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Idaho SB1100, a school-based bathroom bill, had a second reading and was filed for a third reading.

Idaho S1016, which already passed in the Senate, had its first reading in the House and was scheduled for a second reading.

Iowa SF335, a school-based bathroom bill, passed committee and renumbered as SF482.

Heathcare bills: (Healthcare bills go against professional and scientific consensus that gender-affirming care saves lives. Denying access will cause harm. Providers are faced with criminal charges, parents are threatened with child abuse charges, and intersex children are typically exempted.)

Florida S0952, the “Reverse Woke Act,” was referred to the Senate Health Policy Committee.

Georgia SB140, an under-18 healthcare ban, had a second reading.

Indiana SB0480, an under-18 healthcare ban, passed in the Senate and crossed over to the House.

Kansas SB233, which already passed in the Senate, was referred to the House Health and Human Services Committee. This is also an under-18 healthcare ban.

Nebraska LB574, again an under-18 healthcare ban, was placed on general file, meaning it is now on the floor. 

Oklahoma SB129 passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor. A reminder that this bill had an emergency added, so it would immediately go into effect if it passes.

Texas HB776, an abortion and under-18 healthcare ban, was referred to the House Public Health Committee. 

Utah HB0132 returned to committee yesterday after it failed in committee in January. This is also an under-18 bill.

Public performance bills: (also known as "drag bans" restrict access for folks who are gender non-conforming in any way. They loosely define "drag" as any public performance with an “opposite gender expression,” as sexual in nature, and inappropriate for children. This also pushes trans individuals out of public spaces.)

Arizona SB1698 passed in committee and is headed to the Senate.

Arkansas SB43 was signed by the Governor. This is the drag ban bill that was largely amended to only cover public nudity.

Montana HB359, which already passed in the House, had its first reading in the Senate.

Oklahoma SB503, an obscenity bill, passed in committee.

South Dakota HB1116 an "obscenity bill" that prohibits "lewd or lascivious content," which already passed in the House, passed in committee.

Tennessee SB0841 had its action deferred until 3/14.

Texas HB708 was referred to the House State Affairs Committee.

Schooling bills: (Schooling, or so called “parental rights” bills force schools to misgender or deadname students, ban instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, and make schools alert parents if they suspect a child is trans. They remove life-saving affirmation and support for trans youth.)

Arizona SB1001 passed in the Senate and was transmitted to the House.

Arkansas SB294 is headed to its final vote in the House.

Florida H1069 was sent to another education subcommittee in the House.

Indiana HB1608 passed in the House and crossed over to the Senate where its first reading is scheduled for Monday.

Iowa HSB222 passed in its subcommittee.

Missouri HB1258 had a second reading.

Oklahoma SB503 passed in committee this morning and is headed to the Senate floor.

Tennessee HB1269 was referred to the House Finance, Ways, & Means Committee.

Utah SB0283, an anti-DEI bill for higher education, passed in its Senate Revenue and Taxation Hearing and is now headed to its second committee.

Sex designation bills: (Sex designation bills make it harder for trans folks to have IDs, such as birth certificates, that match their gender identity. They can force a male or female designation based upon sex assigned at birth. Some ban a non-binary “X” marker or require surgery to qualify for ID updates.)

Montana SB458,passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor.

Tennessee SB1440 passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor.

Sports ban bills: (Most sports bills force schools to designate teams by sex assigned at birth. They are often one-sided and ban trans girls from playing on teams consistent with their gender identity. Some egregious bills even force invasive genital examinations on student athletes.)

Arkansas HB1156 was re-referred to the Senate Education Committee. 

Florida H0999 was sent to another education subcommittee. 

Wyoming SF0133, which already passed in the House, passed in the Senate and will now head to the Governor for signature.

Other anti-trans bills:

Kentucky HB470 passed in committee. This bill defies our categorization system; it's a healthcare bill, but also functions as a bathroom, sports, name change, and a sex designation bill; it packages anything attacking trans youth. A live-tweet of the hearing is here, as can the many Kentucky residents who testified against it.

West Virginia HB3042, a “religious freedom” bill, passed in the Senate and is headed to the Governor for signature. 

Texas SB559, a “religious freedom” bill, passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor.

[todaysdocument]

Memorial of the inhabitants of Nauvoo in Illinois, praying redress for injuries to the persons and property by lawless proceedings of citizens of Missouri (Joseph Smith, et al)

Record Group 46: Records of the U.S. SenateSeries: Committee Papers of the Committee on the JudiciaryFile Unit: Petitions and Memorials Referred to the Judiciary Commiteee Relating to Various Subjects in the 28th Congress

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives [large and bolded] of the United States in Congress assembled The Memorial of the undersigned inhabitants of Hancock County in the State of Illinois respectfully sheweth: That they belong to the Society of Latter Day Saints, commonly called Mormons, that a portion of our people commenced settling in Jackson County Missouri in the Summer of 1831, where they purchased lands and settled upon them with the intention and expectation of becoming permanent citizens in Common with others. From a very early period after the Settlement began, a very unfriendly feeling was manifested by the neighboring people; and as the Society increased, this unfriendly Spirit also increased until it--- degenerated into a cruel and unrelenting persecution and the Society was at last compelled to leave the county. An account of these unprovoked persecutions has been published to the world, yet we deem it not improper to embody a few of the most prominent items in this memorial and lay them before your honorable body. On the 20th of July 1833, a mob collected at Independence, a deputation or Committee from which, called upon a few members of our Church there, and stated to them that the Store, Printing Office, and all Mechanic Shops belonging to our people must be closed forthwith, and the Society leave the county immediately. These conditions were so unexpected and so hard, that a short time was asked for to consider on the subject before an answer could be given, which was refused, and when some of our men answered that they could not consent to comply with such propositions, the work of destruction--- commenced. The Printing Office, a valuable two story brick building was destroyed by the mob and with it much valuable property; they next went to the Store for the same purpose, but one of the owners thereof, agreeing to close it, they abandoned their design. A series of outrages was then commenced by the mob upon individual numbers of our Society; Bishop Partridge was dragged from his house and family where he was first partially stripped of his clothes and then tarred and feathered from head to foot. A man by the name of Allan was also tarred at the same time. Three days afterwards the Mob assembled in great numbers, bearing a red flag, and proclaiming that, unless the Society would leave "en masse" [underlined], every man of them should be killed. Being in a defenceless situation, to avoid a general massacre, a treaty was entered into and ratified, by which it was agreed that one half of the Society should leave the county by the first of January, and the remainder by the first of April following. In October, while our people were gathering their crops and otherwise preparing to fulfill their part of the treaty, the mob again collected without any provocation, shot at some of our people, whipped others, threw down their houses, and committed many other depredations; the members of the Society were for some time harassed, both day and night, their houses assailed and broken open, and their women and children insulted and abused. [Full transcription at link]

[titleknown]

Do you think Section 230 is pretty much going to be passed? I've been thinking about leaving the internet completely over this.

...Well, like many things, the answer is "It's Complicated,"

Firstly, for the most part, efforts to screw up Section 230 aren't direct repealing all of it so much as carve-outs that majorly weaken it, in ways that could still deeply screw up free speech.

The recent Kids Online Safety Act/EARN IT Act is being pushed for, and while it's not in committee, given the former was sent to the Commerce Committee last time and the latter to the Judiciary Committee, they're probably gonna send it next time, and you're probably going to want to call your senators if they're in said committee to tell them to kill those bills.

The membership of the Commerce Committee:

Maria Cantwell, Washington, Chair

Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota

Brian Schatz, Hawaii

Ed Markey, Massachusetts

Gary Peters, Michigan

Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin

Tammy Duckworth, Illinois

Jon Tester, Montana

Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona[a]

Jacky Rosen, Nevada

Ben Ray Luján, New Mexico

John Hickenlooper, Colorado

Raphael Warnock, Georgia

Peter Welch, Vermont

Ted Cruz, Texas, Ranking Member

John Thune, South Dakota

Roger Wicker, Mississippi

Deb Fischer, Nebraska

Jerry Moran, Kansas

Dan Sullivan, Alaska

Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee

Todd Young, Indiana

Ted Budd, North Carolina

Eric Schmitt, Missouri

J.D. Vance, Ohio

Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia

Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming

The membership of the Judiciary Committee:

Dick Durbin, Illinois, Chairman

Dianne Feinstein, California

Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island

Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota

Chris Coons, Delaware

Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut

Mazie Hirono, Hawaii

Cory Booker, New Jersey

Alex Padilla, California

Jon Ossoff, Georgia

Peter Welch, Vermont

Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, Ranking Member

Chuck Grassley, Iowa

John Cornyn, Texas

Mike Lee, Utah

Ted Cruz, Texas

Josh Hawley, Missouri

Tom Cotton, Arkansas

John Kennedy, Louisiana

Thom Tillis, North Carolina

Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee

So yeah.

I may as well add, If you've got the misfortune to be calling a Republican, be sure to bring up how KOSA will be used as a way for Big Government to spy on people via mandated age verification, and how EARN IT will be used to censor conservative speech.

That'll get the bastards attention. And no matter what you do, don't shut up about it, because silence means the fuckers win, just look at FOSTA/SESTA...

...Tho, in better news, the questioning in those Supreme Court suits tackling Section 230 seem to show that the justices are at least reluctant to try and do much to 230, very specifically because of how much it could fuck up.

Which begs the question, if even these fucking demons know why fucking with Section 230 is a godawful idea, what excuse do these senators have?

Point is, the efforts to undermine it aren't all at once so much as gradual and insidious. Call your senators folks, and stay vigilant.

[transformationsproject]

Trans rights are still under attack in the United States. Please visit our website linked below to learn about your state and contact your reps. Here's a thread of today's updates:

A bathroom bill denies access to public restrooms by gender or trans identity. They increase danger without making anyone any safer and have even prompted attacks on cis and trans people alike. Many national health and anti-sexual assault organizations oppose these bills.

Iowa SF335, a school-based bathroom bill, was introduced and referred to the Senate Education Committee.

Arizona SB1040, a school-based bathroom bill which passed in both of its Senate committees, was placed on the Senate floor calendar.

Healthcare bills go against professional and scientific consensus that gender affirming care saves lives. Denying access will cause harm. Providers are faced with criminal charges, parents are threatened with child abuse charges, and intersex children are typically exempted.

Florida S0952 was pre-filed. This bill, the so-called "Reverse Woke Act," would force employers who provide coverage for gender-affirming healthcare to also cover detransition care indefinitely, even when employees no longer work at the same company.

Arkansas SB199 passed committee and will now head to the Senate floor.

Oklahoma HB2177 passed committee and will now head to the House floor. It also had an emergency added.

Kansas SB233 passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor.

Missouri SB49 was combined with SB164 and SB236 and passed committee and will now head to the Senate floor.

Mississippi HB1125, which already passed in the House, passed in the Senate today. It will now head to the Governor for signature.

Schooling / Parental Rights bills force schools to misgender or deadname students, ban instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, and make schools alert parents if they suspect a child is trans. They remove life-saving affirmation and support for trans youth.

Arkansas SB294 was introduced and referred to the Senate Education Committee yesterday and had a hearing this morning. This is a sweeping educational reform bill that includes an "indoctrination" section that would ban, among other things, classroom instruction on sexual orientation/gender identity for K-5 students.

Arkansas HB1468, a forced misgendering bill, was introduced and sent to the House Education Committee.

Montana SB413, a "Don't Say Gay" bill for K-6 students, was introduced and referred to the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee.

Indiana HB1608 passed in Committee and is now on the House floor.

Iowa HF8 passed committee and was renumbered to HF348.

Sex designation bills make it harder for trans folks to have IDs, such as birth certificates, that match their gender identity.

They can force a male or female designation based upon sex assigned at birth.

Some ban a non-binary “X” marker or require surgery to qualify for ID updates.

Kansas SB180 passed committee and will head to the Senate floor.

Missouri SB14 passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor.

These are other negative bills that attack trans rights outside of the bill types above.

Book ban North Dakota HB1205, which already passed in the House, was introduced in the Senate, had its first reading, and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

We also have good news to share! These are either updates on positive bills which protect and affirm trans individuals or updates on anti-trans bills that have failed.

Maryland HB359, a sports ban bill, failed in committee.

It's not too late to stop these and other hateful anti-trans bills from passing into law. You can go to http://transformationsproject.org/ to learn more and contact your representatives

[mariacallous]

(JTA) – Nazi book burnings, antisemitic attacks on high school students and Shylock were all invoked during a Senate hearing on school book bans Tuesday morning. 

The hearing brought to Capitol Hill the debate over how much control parents should have over what kinds of books their children can access in their school and public libraries — and whether it constitutes a “ban” when a book is removed because of their activism.

The hearing comes as a national movement of “parents’ rights” groups, stoked in some cases by Republican lawmakers, have brought challenges against thousands of books in school libraries, saying that they are not appropriate for children. The vast majority of the challenged books deal with topics of race, gender and sexuality; Jewish books have also been ensnared, with the Holocaust-themed “Maus” and an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary among the highest-profile book removals.

“Extremists continue to fight popular graphic novels like ‘Maus’ and other books,” Illinois Democratic Dick Durbin, the judiciary committee chair, said during his opening remarks. Art Spiegelman’s comic-book memoir about his parents’ survival of the Holocaust was the first book named at the hearing, closely followed by texts including Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”

“Limiting access to a book about antisemitism or racism does not protect students from the actual history or the reality that hate still exists,” Durbin said, before introducing Illinois’ Democratic secretary of state as a witness. Illinois recently passed a law aimed at curbing book bans. It would revoke state funding to libraries that remove books for partisan or ideological reasons.

An opening video at the hearing produced by Senate Democrats also emphasized the widely publicized case of a Tennessee district that removed “Maus” from its middle school curriculum, and featured a quote from Spiegelman. “Maus” has also been removed or nearly removed from additional districts in Missouri, Iowa and elsewhere. 

One of the Democratic majority’s witnesses on the panel was a Jewish college student and book-access activist named Cameron Samuels. Samuels, who is nonbinary and uses they/their pronouns, described how a challenge to “Maus” at their Katy, Texas, high school felt like an attack on their Jewish identity.

“When Katy targeted Art Spiegelman’s ‘Maus,’ I could not fathom how cartoon mice walking shamefully naked towards the gas chambers were considered sexual by the book’s challengers,” Samuels, a Brandeis University undergraduate who has received a Teen Tikkun Olam award from the Helen Diller Family Foundation, told the panel. 

“My ancestors fled religious persecution in Eurasia. I faced too many antisemitic remarks in school to remember,” Samuels continued. “Classmates told me the Holocaust did not exist. Many could not name a Jewish person so they learned about Judaism through media representation, often dominated by stereotypes. Books like ‘Maus’ teach accurate reflections of Jewish identity. 

“If a friend knew the real extent of the Holocaust,” Samuels continued, “maybe they would have thought twice before spraying cologne in my face, saying he was ‘gassing the Jew.’”

Durbin and Samuels further invoked the book-burning activities of Nazi Germany in their objections to parental challenges. But conservatives at the hearing, in addition to disputing the definition of “book ban,” also fought the Nazi comparison.

“My public school did not carry ‘Mein Kampf.’ Was it banned? I don’t know,” Max Eden, a research fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute who was a witness at the hearing, testified, referring to Hitler’s manifesto. “I’ve read a few books about this era since, and I’ve so far missed the part where the Nazi Party forced schools to relocate books to guidance counselors’ offices.”

Nicole Neily, president of the conservative parents’ rights activist group Parents Defending Education, also disputed the comparison, claiming, “Headlines and research papers by activist organizations have intentionally muddled the waters between World War II book burning and what is happening in America’s K-12 schools.” 

Later, referencing Muslim parents in Maryland and Michigan who have organized to protest books about sexuality in their school districts, Neily added, “To conflate that issue, that I don’t want my child to be forced to read something with a book that is being burned in Nazi Germany, is disingenuous and false.”

During her testimony, Neily also claimed that librarians and freedom-to-read activists were on a mission to “extract a pound of flesh” from book-challenging parents by having them “pilloried in the public square.” The phrase “pound of flesh” comes from William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” which features Shylock, an antisemitic depiction of a Jewish money-lender who demands a pound of flesh from a client unable to pay his debts.

Present at the hearing were Republican Senators from Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri and South Carolina, all states where Jewish books including “Maus” and Bernard Malamud’s “The Fixer” have been challenged or removed from public schools. None addressed those books. Instead, many of them used their time to accuse publishers, tech companies and the Biden administration of silencing conservative voices, or pivoted the hearing to a debate over immigration reform. John Kennedy, a Republican senator from Louisiana, turned heads when he used his allotted time to read sexually explicit passages from frequently challenged LGBTQ-themed books “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” into the Congressional Record.

The hearing wasn’t the first time “Maus” bans had been invoked on Capitol Hill. Earlier this year, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared, “Extreme MAGA Republicans want to ban books on the Holocaust,” while holding up a copy of “Maus” during a press conference. Jeffries was opposing a House bill passed by Republicans that would grant parents greater influence over their children’s educational materials.

[ausetkmt]

Death of Tyre Nichols revives calls in Congress for policing reforms

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023. - The US city of Memphis released January 27, 2023 graphic video footage depicting the fatal police assault of a 29-year-old Black man, as cities nationwide braced for a night of protests against police brutality. Five Memphis officers, also all Black, were charged with second-degree murder in the beating of Tyre Nichols, who died in hospital on January 10 three days after being stopped on suspicion of reckless driving. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

Jeff Kowalsky | Afp | Getty Images

After officials in Memphis released graphic footage Friday depicting the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, at the hands of police, members of Congress said Sunday they need to revive their effort to pass substantial police reforms.

The five officers involved in the deadly encounter were charged with murder, kidnapping, assault and other charges on Thursday. All five officers were dismissed from the police department, and the specialized policing unit they were a part of was disbanded Saturday.

Police reform talks fell apart in Congress in 2021 after lawmakers failed to strike a bipartisan deal. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Sunday that while passing those reforms would be "the right starting point," it is ultimately "not enough."

Durbin said that while he knows law enforcement officers risk their lives for Americans every day, many of these same officers are engaging in "horrible conduct" that needs to be changed for the better.

"What we saw on the streets of Memphis was just inhumane, horrible," he told ABC's "This Week." "I don't know what created this rage in these police officers that they would congratulate themselves for beating a man to death. But that is literally what happened."

Durbin added that he would not rule out a federal investigation into the entire Memphis Police Department following Nichols' death.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said he thinks that while there is reform that can happen, no amount of legislature could account for the "evil" and "lack of respect for human life" that he saw in the footage. He said he does not believe those five officers represent the vast majority of law enforcement.

"We'll look at what we think makes sense to help this, to make sure they have the proper training, but no amount of training is going to change what we saw in that video," Jordan told NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.

Some policing reforms were already in place in Memphis at the time of Nichols' death, including a requirement for officers to de-escalate situations where they saw others using excessive force. Ben Crump, the attorney representing Nichols' family, said Sunday he thinks the culture of policing is to blame, as it has normalized the use of extreme force.

"Just as much those officers are responsible for the death of Tyre Nichols, so is the implicit bias police culture that exists in America," Crump told ABC's "This Week."

Crump said he thinks this culture will only begin to change if federal police reforms are implemented. Without them, he said, "We're going to continue to see these hashtags proliferate."

While reforms and training can have an impact, another effective deterrent to this behavior is when officers around the country see what will happen to them if they engage in this kind of violence, said Jason Armstrong, former Ferguson, Missouri, police chief. Armstrong led the Ferguson police force after it was overhauled following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in 2014.

Armstrong said since the five officers were fired and charged, officers are seeing that this behavior is not going to be tolerated. He said for some officers, it doesn't matter if they are wearing body cameras or if there are witnesses, they are still going to resort to violence and that culture is what needs to be rooted out.

"Unfortunately, violence is what was natural for these individuals in this instance," Armstrong told ABC's "This Week" Sunday. "And that's where we have to do a better job as law enforcement leaders, is identifying these individuals that are inside our organizations and our police departments and getting them out of the profession before something like this happens."

[opedguy]

Coney Barrett Jokes about Roe v. Wad

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Nov. 13, 2022.--Speaking to the Federalist Society in Washington, D.C., 50-year-old Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett joked about protesters making noise near her Virginia home after the Jun. 24 ruling ending 1973 Roe v. Wade together with five of her conservative colleagues.  “It’s really nice to have a lot of noise made not by protesters outside of my house,” Coney Barrett told the Federalist Society.  Coney Barrett ruled with Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch that Dobbs v. Jackson did not afford a constitutional right to abortion.  Coney-Barrett let her Christian theology get the best of her Constitutional decision-making by ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson that the Constitution affords no inherent right to abortion, deliberately misinterpreting Roe v. Wade that afforded women the right of medical decision-making.

While the Federalist Society at the 2022 National Lawyers Convention cheered Coney Barrett, her ruling, above anything else, hurt conservatives’ political party, the GOP, in the Midterm elections.  Post-election analysis showed the voters under 40 and single moms were turned off by the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling ending Roe v. Wade.  So, Coney Barrett and the Federalist Society can hoot-and-holler all they want, but the Dobbs ruling hurt GOP prospects, now on the verge of losing the Senate and possibly the House, though that still looks more promising.  But the convenient scapegoat in the Nov. 8 Midterm election was 76-year-old former President Donald Trump.  Right wing author Anne Coulter, 60, blamed the poor GOP Midterm performance on Trump, telling Trump to “Shut the F-Up, forever” in a Tweet.  Coulter like other anti-Trumpers, blame Trump for everything.

When a draft of the Dobbs ruling was leaked in May, protesters were furious, staging a “Handmaiden’s Tale,” dressed in long purple robes and white bonnets, shouting they did not nominate “People of Praise,” the charismatic Christian sect that Coney Barrett practices.  But to be fair with Amy, all other Associates Justices voting for Dobbs v. Jackson were not part of Coney Barrett’s religious sect.  In Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court ruled that there’s no inherent right in the Constitution for abortion.  But the High Court used Dobbs v. Jackson to invalidate Roe v. Wade, that had to do with a women’s right to choose medical decision-making, not specifically  abortion.  Protesters at Coney Barrett’s home displayed banners that said “reproductive rights are human rights” with picures of Barrett’s face saying, “liar.”

When Coney Barrett finished her confirmation hearing Oct. 13, 2020, she told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she considered Roe v. Wade “settled law” or “established precedent.”  But in deciding Dobbs v. Jackson, conservatives on the court found the red herring to invalidate a nearly 53-year-old court precedent.  Roe v. Wade was not about abortion but the right to medical decision-making without government interference.  Ending Roe v. Wade returned the abortion decision to states, something clearly they’re not prepared to administer.  Some states like Texas, Louisiana and Missouri, have outright bans while other states like Indiana, Iowa and Kansas have strict conditions based on the weeks of gestation. Roe v. Wade ended a state’s arbitrary and capricious rules for performing abortions, giving women, whatever the reason, the right to medical treatment.

While some anti-Trump Republicans want to blame Trump for the GOP’s poor performance in the Midterms, Republicans have no one to blame but themselves with conservatives pushing for nearly 53 years to end Roe v. Wader.  Nothing could be more retro, returning to a time when women seeking medial care must have their treatments decided by state bureaucrats, not between themselves and their doctors.  Taking a women’s right to choose medical care away, drove untold numbers of young people and single moms away from the Republican Party.  So when it comes to assigning blame for the poor showing on Nov. 8, Republicans have no one to blame but themselves.  Pushing all these years to take away hard-fought women’s rights sent an ugly message to women considering which political party to represent their interests.

Democrats can target Coney Barrett, get even nastier about her faith, but the decision to end Roe v. Wade was a 6-3 majority, not just a few justices.  Coney Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch had one thing in common, they all agreed at their confirmation hearings that Roe v. Wade was “settled law” or “established legal precedent.”  Finding a case in Dobbs v. Jackson to invalidate Roe v. Wade was inappropriate because Roe v. Wade was not about abortion but about a woman’s right to choose medical treatment freely.  Unless there’s a change in the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Republican Party can expect to loose backers in the future, largely because the vast majority of women agree that government bureaucrats should not meddle in health decisions.  Republicans got what they deserved pushing for nearly 53 years to end Roe v Wade, a women’s right to choose.

About the Author

  John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

I highly recommend reading the whole article. It doesn't take long, but it's well worth it. There are so many parts I want to highlight.

Professor Bridges absolutely owned that court room:

"Republican Senator Tom Cotton asked panelists testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 12 July whether they condemn violence against so-called crisis pregnancy centres, nonmedical facilities intended to deter people from seeking an abortion.

“'I condemn violence,' said Ms Bridges, a professor of law at University of California Berkeley School of Law and reproductive health scholar. 'And I would like to note that forced birth is an act of violence.' "She pointed to an increase in the number of assaults, barricades and suspicious packages outside abortion clinics, as abortion rights advocates face escalating threats to abortion care following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark, half-century precedent in Roe v Wade. "Heidi Matzke, executive director of the Alternatives Pregnancy Center in California, said crisis pregnancy centres like hers – nonmedical facilities intended to dissuade people from seeking an abortion – have been “targeted for violent assaults of vandalism, and hateful attacks online and in the media.” "Dr Colleen P McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, also condemned violence – then read the names of nine abortion providers and clinic workers who were killed for providing abortion care. “'I absolutely condemn violence against everyone, including abortion providers,' she said."

And then

"She stressed that 'people of color, specifically Black people, will feel the impact of the court’s decision in Dobbs more than any other racial group,' pointing to reporting from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that finds that Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related causes than white women.

....

"Texas Republican John Cornyn asked Ms Bridges whether she believes “there ought to be more Black babies aborted”.

“'[Black people] have agency, they have intelligence, they know what is best for themselves and I would love to create the conditions under which they can live lives that are filled with dignity and humanity,' Ms Bridges said."

And

"Ms Bridges also fired back at Senator Josh Hawley after the Republican senator from Missouri appeared to dismiss that transgender people could become pregnant, underscoring the myriad, far-reaching impacts of dissolving legal abortion care that the committee sought to uncover, from the legal ramifications to what committee chair Dick Durbin called a looming health crisis."

[contemplatingoutlander]

WATCH: Jackson tears up, as Sen. Booker says she’s earned her historic Supreme Court nomination | PBS NewsHour | March 23, 2022

This video is well worth watching. It’s good to see something positive coming from the Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court hearings. Here are also some excerpts from an interview with Cory Booker by Russell Berman in The Atlantic:

By the time Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey brought Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to tears yesterday, the Supreme Court nominee had been answering questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee for more than 20 hours over two days. [...] “I’m just sitting here saying, ‘Nobody’s going to steal my joy. Nobody’s going to make me angry,’” Booker said as Jackson blotted her eyes with a tissue. “You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American.” By the time he had finished, not only Jackson but members of her family and even a staffer sitting behind Booker were wiping away tears.“

The energy in the room was really just not good,” Booker told me over the phone this afternoon. We spoke a day after the Democrat had delivered the instant highlight of the week-long hearings, a speech that began as a rebuttal to the GOP’s attacks on Jackson and then morphed into something resembling both a pep talk and a tribute to the first Black woman nominated to the nation’s highest court. [...] Yet beneath Booker’s beaming smile was a more painful recognition of how Black people, and especially Black women, were processing the particular tone of the Republicans’ treatment of Jackson. “You feel that familiar hurt,” Booker told me. “This is obviously a Supreme Court nomination, but I have yet to meet an African American woman this week who hasn’t come up to me and said she couldn’t relate to her, to what she was experiencing.” [...] During his speech yesterday, Booker noted that he was the fourth Black person popularly elected to the Senate in American history. He referred to the indignities Jackson had suffered as a Black nominee and called the attacks by Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and others “beyond the pale,” “dangerous,” and “a new low.” Yet unlike many of Jackson’s supporters, he would not label his fellow senators racist. “I’m not going to try to get into the head of my colleagues to understand what’s motivating them. It’s a fool’s errand,” he told me. “I’m trying not to meet the frequency of that room. I was trying to change the frequency of that room.

“I was not trying to center their negative attacks,” he continued. “I was trying to center her positive candidacy, her extraordinary light. I knew that those 20 minutes, those precious 20 minutes, were an opportunity to change the frequency from the negative back to the positive, to refocus the light on her glory.” Booker added that “as soon as someone makes a charge of racism, people fall into their defensive camps. I’m not talking about racism. I’m talking about decency.” [emphasis added]

[robertreich]

Accountability for the Attempted Coup

Call me old-fashioned, but when the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress, in order to remain in power, I call it an attempted coup.

Last week’ rampage left five dead, including a Capitol Hill police officer who was injured when he tangled with the pro-Trump mob. We’re fortunate the carnage wasn’t greater.

That the attempted coup failed shouldn’t blind us to its significance or the stain it has left on America. Nor to the importance of holding those responsible fully accountable.

Trump’s culpability is beyond dispute. “There’s no question the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame,” said Rep. Elizabeth Cheney, the third-highest ranking Republican in the House.

He should be impeached, convicted, and removed from office – immediately.  

To let the clock run out on his presidency and allow Trump to seek the presidency again would signal that attempted coups are part of the American system. If Senate Republicans can install a new Supreme Court justice in eight days, Trump can be removed from office within ten.

He should then be arrested and tried for inciting violence and sedition (along with Trump Jr. and Rudy “trial-by-combat” Giuliani).

Those who attacked the Capitol should also be prosecuted. They have no First Amendment right to try to overthrow the U.S. government.

Trump’s accomplices on Capitol Hill, most notably Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, should be forced to resign. Knowing Trump’s allegations of voting fraud were false, Cruz and Hawley nonetheless led an attempt to exclude Biden electors, even after the storming of the Capitol.

The United States Constitution says that “no Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress” who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against" the Constitution, “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

Both Cruz and Hawley are eyeing runs for the presidency in 2024. They should be barred from running.

Other abettors are now trying to distance themselves, but their conversions come too late.

Senator Lindsey Graham now says Trump must “understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution," and criticizes the White House for making “accusations that cannot be proven.”

Graham had been one of Trump’s key attack dogs, even bullying state election officials to change voting tallies. If Graham is not forced to resign, he should at least be censured and stripped of his ranking membership on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Michael Pence finally broke with Trump, but only after remaining mute as Trump lied and bullied his way through the last eight weeks, thereby signaling agreement with his preposterous claims.

McConnell should also resign or be censured and stripped of committee assignments. Pence should be barred from any future public office.

Some administration officials have already resigned in response to the attempted coup. Transportation secretary Elaine Chao said it was “entirely avoidable,” and education secretary Betsy DeVos told Trump there was “no mistake the impact your rhetoric had.” Other Trumpers are reportedly jumping ship, too.

Yet before Wednesday most of them defended Trump’s antics, lavished him with praise, and willingly did his dirty work. Their complicity should forever haunt their reputations and consciences.

Other accessories are Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, and Sundar Pichai,CEO of Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company.

For four years, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have functioned as Trump’s megaphones, amplifying his every lie and rant. When pressured to remove Trump’s fabrications about the election, they labeled them “disputed.”  

Twitter has now permanently suspended Trump, preventing him from sending messages to his more than 88 million followers “due to the risk of further incitement for violence.” Facebook has banned him indefinitely. YouTube should be next.

But why did it take an attempted coup for them to act?

Many business leaders who are now denouncing the violence enthusiastically bankrolled Trump’s re-election campaign, knowing full well who he was and what he was capable of doing. And they’ve had no qualms about advertising on his largest megaphones, including Fox News. All are complicit because they knew Trump would stop at nothing.

Fox News’s mendacious hosts and producers have no excuse. After repeatedly telling Trump supporters the election was stolen, they’re now saying the attempted coup was “understandable” because Trump supporters believed the election was stolen. Morally, if not legally, they share responsibility for this travesty.

All are all part of the ecosystem that led to Trump’s sedition. That ecosystem is still in place.

Those who say we should “look forward” to a new administration and forget or dismiss what occurred last week are delusional. Unless all who participated in or abetted the attempted overthrow of the United States government are held accountable, it will happen again. Next time it may succeed.

[glamboyl]

"The man directly responsible for the chaos of today is Donald Trump, who has made it clear that he will do anything to remain in power – including insurrection and inciting violence," Sanders said in a tweet. "Trump will go down in history as the worst and most dangerous president in history." Bernie Sanders

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Guardian - Robert Reich - Trump attempted a coup: he must be removed from office and punished for his crimes along with all those who were complicit and aided and supported him.

Call me old-fashioned, but when the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress, in order to remain in power, I call it an attempted coup.

The rampage on Wednesday left five dead, including a Capitol police officer who was injured when he tangled with the pro-Trump mob. We’re fortunate the carnage wasn’t greater.

That the attempted coup failed shouldn’t blind us to its significance or the stain it has left on America. Nor to the importance of holding those responsible fully accountable.

Trump’s culpability is beyond dispute.

“There’s no question the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame,” said Elizabeth Cheney, the No3 House Republican.

Trump should be impeached, convicted and removed from office – immediately.

To let the clock run out on his presidency and allow Trump to seek the office again would signal that attempted coups are part of the American system. If Senate Republicans can install a new supreme court justice in eight days, Trump can be removed from office within 12.

He should then be arrested and tried for inciting violence and sedition – along with Donald Trump Jr and Rudy “trial-by-combat” Giuliani.

Those who attacked the Capitol should also be prosecuted. They have no first amendment right to try to overthrow the US government.

Trump’s accomplices on Capitol Hill, most notably the Texas senator Ted Cruz and Missouri senator Josh Hawley, should be forced to resign.

Knowing Trump’s allegations of voting fraud were false, Cruz and Hawley led the move to exclude Biden electors – even after the storming of the Capitol – thereby lending Trump’s claims credibility.

The United States constitution says “no Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress” who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the constitution, “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof”.

Both Cruz and Hawley are eyeing runs for the presidency in 2024. They should be barred from running.

Other abettors are trying to distance themselves, but their conversions come too late.

Senator Lindsey Graham now says Trump must “understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution”, and criticizes the White House for making “accusations that cannot be proven”.

Graham was one of Trump’s key attack dogs, even bullying state election officials to change voting tallies. If Graham is not forced to resign, he should at least be censured and stripped of his ranking membership on the Senate judiciary committee.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and Vice-President Michael Pence finally broke with Trump, but only after remaining mute as Trump lied and bullied his way through the last eight weeks, thereby signaling agreement with his preposterous claims.

McConnell should also resign or be censured and stripped of committee assignments. Pence should be barred from public office.

Some officials have resigned in response to the attempted coup. The transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, said it was “entirely avoidable” and the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, told Trump there was “no mistake the impact your rhetoric had”. Other Trumpers are reportedly jumping ship too.

Yet before Wednesday most of them defended Trump’s antics, lavished him with praise and did his dirty work. Their complicity should forever haunt their reputations and consciences.

Other accessories are Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook, and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company.

For four years, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have functioned as Trump’s megaphones, amplifying his every lie and rant. When pressured to remove Trump’s fabrications about the election, they labeled them “disputed”.

Twitter has now permanently suspended Trump, preventing him from sending messages to his more than 88 million followers “due to the risk of further incitement for violence”. Facebook has banned him indefinitely. YouTube should as well.

[transformationsproject]

Arkansas SB43, a drag ban bill, passed in the Senate and is now going to the Governor for signing. As a reminder, this bill was amended to remove any reference to drag and is now essentially a public nudity ban. Drag bans restrict access for folks who are gender non-conforming in any way. They loosely define drag as any public performance with an “opposite gender expression”, as sexual in nature, and inappropriate for children. This also pushes trans individuals out of public spaces.

Missouri SB598 is an under-18 gender-affirming healthcare ban intro'd yesterday. Arkansas SB199 was intro'd and sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. A medical malpractice bill restricting gender-affirming care for youth. It has a hearing tomorrow 2/8 at 10am in Rm 171. Tennessee HB1378, an under-18 gender-affirming healthcare ban, was assigned to the Health Subcommittee. Montana HB303, a "religious exemption" bill that would allow healthcare discrimination against trans folks, was scheduled for a third hearing. Healthcare bills go against professional and scientific consensus that gender affirming care saves lives. Denying access will cause harm. Providers are faced with criminal charges, parents are threatened with child abuse charges, and intersex children are typically exempted.

Tennessee intro'd 2 school bills: HB1269, a misgendering bill and HB1414, a parental rights bill. Arkansas HB1156 has passed committee and is on the house floor. In Virginia HB1387 and HB2432 passed committee this morning with amendments and are on the house floor Schooling bills force schools to misgender or deadname students, ban instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, and make schools alert parents if they suspect a child is trans. They remove life-saving affirmation and support for trans youth.

Texas HB1952 was filed yesterday. This bill forces a designation of male or female on birth certificates determined by sex assigned at birth. Sex designation bills make it harder for trans folks to have IDs, such as birth certificates, match their gender identity. They can force a male or female designation based upon sex assigned at birth. Some ban a non-binary “X” marker or require surgery to qualify for ID updates.

Virginia HB1387, a K-12 and collegiate sports ban, passed in the House today and is now moving to the Senate. An action item for next week: Nebraska LB575 has a hearing scheduled for Monday 2/13 at 1:30 pm in Room 1525. This bill bans access to locker rooms and bathrooms consistent with gender identity, in addition to banning trans athletes from school sports Most sports bills force schools to designate teams by sex assigned at birth. They are often one-sided and ban trans girls from playing on teams consistent with their gender identity. Some egregious bills even force invasive genital examinations on student athletes.

The following bills are all in committee in Oklahoma as of today: OK SB30 (forced outing/misgendering bill), healthcare bills OK SB129, OK SB250, OK SB252, OK SB345, OK SB613, OK SB614, OK SB408 (sex definition bill), and OK SB731 (abortion bill with sex definition language)

It's not too late to stop other hateful anti-trans bills from passing into law. YOU can go to <http://transformationsproject.org/> to learn more and contact your representatives

[anavirable]

What’s going on with the Equality Act right now?

This is a follow-up to my post about the Equality Act. The Equality Act was reintroduced in the House of Representatives this year - now with a fighting chance under a Biden presidency. The bill was reintroduced on February 18, 2021, and voted on and passed a week later, on February 25, 2021. Usually bills get a longer period in the House before they’re voted on. There are a few reasons it might’ve gotten rushed:

The Democrat-controlled House passed the last (virtually identical) version of the bill during the last Congress, so they might not have felt a need to debate it.

Biden promised to pass the Equality Act within 100 days of taking office. 

The more people learn about the effects the gender identity provisions of the Equality Act will have, the less they’ll support it.

Having passed the House, the bill moves to the Senate on March 1, 2021. It was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which held a hearing with surprisingly short notice on March 17, 2021. The full hearing can be viewed here.

The sad thing about the Senate hearing is that leaders of several feminist organizations, including FIST and WHRC USA, fought for a chance to speak at the hearing. All were turned down. Following in the good ol’ tradition of blatant partisanship, the Democrats only called witnesses in support of the Equality Act. The Republicans, of course, are even less fond of feminists than the Democrats. They invited several speakers to testify against the Equality Act on the basis of protecting religious freedom. They did allow gender critical journalist Abigail Shrier to testify, and she did a fantastic job. But she was testifying against the stance of the Democratic Party. The main takeaway I got from this is that both parties are actively undermining women’s rights, and feminists in the United States are truly politically homeless.

But it isn’t over yet! Right now, the bill is still in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats don’t have enough of a lead in Senate to pass the Equality Act without bipartisan support, so it’s less likely to get rushed through here. Until it gets approved by the Judiciary Committee and called for a vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee can amend the Equality Act.

This is what feminist organizations are working on. FIST has written Feminist Amendments to the Equality Act. FIST has formed an alliance with LGB Alliance USA to promote these amendments. WHRC USA has published its own alternative, the Equality for All Act. Both of these proposals maintain or expand the protections for same-sex individuals proposed in the Equality Act; they maintain sex-based rights that the Equality Act would undermine; and they maintain or strengthen protections based on gender nonconformity. Although gender identity is removed, trans people are still protected from discrimination based on gender nonconformity, which is the material basis on which trans people are discriminated against.

This is a major opportunity to shape history for the better. If you would like to help, please look more into FIST and WHRC. We can’t propose the amendments ourselves; we need a Senator to sponsor and propose them for us. As you might guess from my description of the Senate hearing, we’ve been struggling to find a Senator on either side who will cross the aisle far enough to support us. Women are not a priority for either party. But with enough numbers, we can force them to listen to us.

Please share this post, and contact your Senators. This is especially important if you live in a state with a Senator currently on the Judiciary Committee: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Vermont. There are sample phone scripts, letters, and emails here and here if that helps.

[elizabethbanks]

Hi all,

I ask you to join me in demanding basic integrity and fundamental fairness from our representatives in Congress. The President serves after losing the popular vote. He has already installed two Supreme Court Justices. Our democracy demands that the Republican standard that denied President Obama a vote on Merrick Garland be applied fairly so that all Americans be represented on The Supreme Court. Otherwise, we are not living in a democracy anymore.

You can find the letter from the Judiciary Cmte here:

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/3/7/3794b05a-089e-4189-990a-18ada53c1856/85EE07772C4042162149A34C10980331.letter-to-graham-on-rbg-vacancy.pdf

You can find contact information here:

https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Some quotes to use in mail/emails/tweets:

Friends in Texas, South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Colorado, and Wisconsin, please reach out to your Senators to remind them of their own words:

2016, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): “It has been 80 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year. There is a long tradition that you don’t do this in an election year.”

2018, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): “If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait to the next election.”

2016, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): “I don’t think we should be moving on a nominee in the last year of this president’s term - I would say that if it was a Republican president.”

2016, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.): “The very balance of our nation’s highest court is in serious jeopardy. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will do everything in my power to encourage the president and Senate leadership not to start this process until we hear from the American people.”

2016, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa): “A lifetime appointment that could dramatically impact individual freedoms and change the direction of the court for at least a generation is too important to get bogged down in politics. The American people shouldn’t be denied a voice.”

2016, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.): “The campaign is already under way. It is essential to the institution of the Senate and to the very health of our republic to not launch our nation into a partisan, divisive confirmation battle during the very same time the American people are casting their ballots to elect our next president.”

2016, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.): “In this election year, the American people will have an opportunity to have their say in the future direction of our country. For this reason, I believe the vacancy left open by Justice Antonin Scalia should not be filled until there is a new president.”

2016, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.): “The Senate should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice until we have a new president.”

2016, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Col.): “I think we’re too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes this decision.”

2016, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio): “I believe the best thing for the country is to trust the American people to weigh in on who should make a lifetime appointment that could reshape the Supreme Court for generations. This wouldn’t be unusual. It is common practice for the Senate to stop acting on lifetime appointments during the last year of a presidential term, and it’s been nearly 80 years since any president was permitted to immediately fill a vacancy that arose in a presidential election year.”

2016, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.): “I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate.”

MODERATE REPUBLICAN SENATORS:

Some of the email forms on these Senator’s sites seem to have all but locked out anyone who’s not a resident of their state. So you may need to take the fight analog and send actual letters – let’s inundate their mail bags!

Lisa Murkowski: 522 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-6665

Susan Collins: 413 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-2523

Angus King: (independent) 133 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-5344

Lamar Alexander: 455 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-4944

Mitt Romney: 124 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-5251

Mike Lee: 361A Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-5444

Rob Portman: 448 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-3353

Jerry Moran: 521 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-6521

Your Name Your Address

Date

Senator Jerry Moran 521 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510

Dear Senator Moran,

Filling the shoes of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a trailblazer and a powerful voice for equal justice and the rights of all Americans, should be done with the utmost respect for our institutions and her legacy.

With that in mind, please do not consider any nominee to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat until after the next President is inaugurated.

When Justice Scalia died on February 13, 2016, Senate Republicans refused to consider Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to fill that seat. Senate Republicans immediately argued that the vacancy should not be filled until a new president was in office.

Two years later, Lindsay Graham reiterated that the standard Republicans established in 2016 should apply equally in 2020. He noted, “[i]f an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait until the next election.”

There cannot be one set of rules for a Republican President and one set for a Democratic President, and considering a nominee before the next inauguration would be wholly inappropriate.

We get the representation we demand. I demand basic integrity and fundamental fairness. Applying standards only when they are convenient or advantageous is blatantly un-American.

Thank you for taking this into consideration.

Sincerely, Signature