The Pulse: Criminal Justice Under a Republican State Supreme Court, More Lessons from the Midterms, and Same-Sex Marriage Gains Bipartisan Support in US Senate: The Week’s Top Stories on Policy Watch
This article features Government Accountability Project whistleblower client claims and was originally published here.
In this issue:
1. Voters to politicians: Leave abortion rights alone
So now what? What are we to make of the results of the 2022 midterms now that they are – at least for the most part – finally in the books?
While most everyone agrees that the results generally defied expectations given the much-smaller-than-anticipated size of the Republican “red wave” (and the best performance by a sitting president’s party in more than 40 years), triumphant claims of ideological victory and mandates have been understandably scarce.
Many at the national level, of course, have pronounced Donald Trump, as The Wall Street Journal put it, last week’s “biggest loser.”
And indeed, while some diehard MAGA people remain unrepentant and as fiercely loyal to their diminished dear leader as ever, it’s clear that a reckoning on some sort is underway in the Republican Party, where a sizable bloc is interpreting last week as a repudiation of the Big Lie about the 2020 election and the crazy conspiracy theories and candidates to which it helped give rise. [Read more…]
Five Black incumbent legislators lost elections in eastern North Carolina districts last week, contributing to an overall decline in Black representation from rural counties with significant African-American populations.
Two of the incumbent House candidates who were defeated last week, Democratic Reps. Howard Hunter III of Hertford County and James D. Gailliard of Nash County, said new district lines, a barrage of negative ads and mailers, and lower turnout among Democrats contributed to their losses.
“Everyone was surprised, but folks didn’t get out the vote,” said Hunter, whose district includes areas his father represented for 18 years as a member of the House. [Read more…]
3. Worries abound for criminal justice under a Republican state Supreme Court
Many advocates for reform are concerned about the high court’s rightward shift.
Republicans took control of the North Carolina Supreme Court last week, winning two seats and flipping the court from a 4-3 Democratic majority to a 5-2 Republican one.
The Republican majority is guaranteed through at least 2028. That could mean more gerrymandered maps that favor the GOP, a reversal of the landmark Leandro ruling that is currently on course to provide a massive increase in education funding across North Carolina, and further restricted access to abortion.
Less clear is the impact on criminal justice. There are so many topics within the justice system — policing, prison conditions and asset forfeiture, to name a few — that they span the ideological spectrum and can cross political party lines. [Read more…]
4. Bill protecting same-sex marriage gains bipartisan support in U.S. SenateBurr and Tillis are among the 12 GOP ‘yes’ votes
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate cleared a key hurdle to passing a marriage equality bill Wednesday, garnering even more than the 60 senators from both political parties needed to move past a legislative filibuster.
The bill, which could win final passage in the Senate as soon as this week, would ensure same-sex and interracial couples continue having their marriages recognized regardless of future Supreme Court rulings. The U.S. House passed the measure earlier this year, but will need to vote once more after the Senate changed the bill to include a so-called religious liberty amendment. [Read more…]
5. Chancellors discuss challenges of their roles as UNC Board of Governors eyes searches
As the UNC System’s Board of Governors mulls further changes to its chancellor search process, it is tackling the challenges of hiring and retaining chancellors, which has become more difficult.
“The college chancellor has no true analogue in the private sector,” board member David Powers, chairman of the Committee on Strategic Initiatives, said. “The number of constituencies and stakeholders involved, the high visibility of decision-making and the need to execute on a complex, three part mission of education, research and service make for a uniquely challenging role.”
The board of governors has itself sometimes publicly clashed with university chancellors in the last few years, memorably during the controversy over the Silent Sam Confederate monument at UNC-Chapel Hill. The board’s conflict with former Chancellor Carol Folt exploded publicly shortly before she resigned.[Read more…]
6. NC Appeals Court moves on voter ID constitutional amendment case
An update to the story published yesterday about lawyers for the state NAACP trying to get the Court of Appeals to move the constitutional amendments case back to Wake County Superior Court.
After lawyers for the NAACP petitioned the state Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus – essentially asking the high court to order the Appeals Court to act – the Appeals Court sent the case back to Superior Court.
The Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling, said in August that legislatures with illegally racially gerrymandered districts don’t automatically have the power to ask voters to amend the constitution. The state NAACP is challenging amendments requiring voter photo ID and capping the state income tax.
The high court sent the case back down to the trial court to have more questions answered. [Read more….]
7. Could election results spur an immediate reversal of a landmark state Supreme Court ruling?
The North Carolina Supreme Court – or at least a slim majority of its members – invoked its solemn duty to uphold constitutional rights when it agreed in a Nov. 4 ruling that the state must spend more money to upgrade its system of public education.
The General Assembly – or at least the Republicans who run things in the legislative branch’s mid-century modern temple in Raleigh – now is gearing up to invoke its solemn power to convince the court to buzz off.
It’s the legislature, and the legislature alone, that makes spending decisions in the Tar Heel state, those Republicans maintain. No quartet of Supreme Court justices – a Democratic quartet at that – is going to lecture them about constitutional violations and tell them what they have to do.
Did we mention that the crux of the issue is whether North Carolina’s public school students can count on access to an education that meets a reasonable standard of adequacy in preparing them to face the world? [Read more…]
8. First Asian American women elected to the NC legislature
Voters elected Asian American women to the North Carolina legislature for the first time.
Maria Cervania won House District 41 with nearly 64% of the vote. The district includes parts of Cary and Apex. She is in her first term as a Wake County commissioner and is the first Asian American/Pacific Islander elected to that board.
Ya Liu won adjoining House District 21 with more than 67% of the vote. The district includes Morrisville and parts of Cary. Liu is in her first term as a member of the Cary Town Council.
Both are Democrats who won open seats. [Read more…]
9. Migrant women endured medical mistreatment at Georgia ICE facility, U.S. Senate report finds
WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate on an investigation panel on Tuesday grilled federal immigration officials about a bipartisan report that detailed how migrant women at an immigration detention center in Georgia underwent questionable gynecological procedures.
The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations released an 18-month bipartisan report that found migrant women who were detained at Irwin County Detention Center, known as ICDC, in Georgia were subjected to “excessive, invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological procedures,” and many of the women did not consent or understand the procedures they underwent.
Following the release of the report, the panel held a hearing to question Assistant Director Stewart D. Smith of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Health Service Corps at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Pamela Hearn, the medical director at LaSalle Corrections, which has federal contracts to operate detention centers across the country, including one at ICDC. [Read more…]