September, 12 2014, 03:30pm EDT
Federal Judge Rules Arizona Must Respect Same-Sex Couple's Marriage
NEW YORK, NY
Today a federal judge ruled that the state of Arizona must respect the marriage of military veterans Fred McQuire and George Martinez, for the purposes of being listed as married on a death certificate. McQuire and Martinez were together for 45 years and married in California in July. Martinez passed away shortly after being diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer, and Arizona state officials refused to list McQuire, the surviving partner, on the death certificate. McQuire, who is also battling a life-threatening illness, is barred from receiving Social Security survivor's benefits or veterans benefits, and is also at risk of losing his home, as a result of not being listed on Martinez's death certificate.
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, released the following statement:
"Couples in America should not have to play 'now you're married, now you're not' depending on which state they are in when a tragedy strikes, and states should not pick and choose which marriages they will respect and which they won't as if we did not have one Constitution protecting all of us. It is good that the court has told Arizona it may not withhold an accurate death certificate from the surviving spouse in this compelling case, but Americans should not have to fight case by case, state by state, year by year for the freedom to marry and equal protection that the Constitution guarantees. It is time for the Supreme Court to take up one or more marriage cases and affirm the freedom to marry nationwide once and for all."
Since the Supreme Court struck down the core of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act in June 2013, 39 state and federal courts have upheld the freedom to marry, with only two courts ruling the other way. Every appellate ruling has been in favor of the freedom to marry, including the Utah and Oklahoma cases in the 10th Circuit, the Virginia case in the 4th Circuit, and the Wisconsin and Indiana cases in the 7th Circuit.
Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Headed by Evan Wolfson, one of America's leading civil rights advocates and lawyers, Freedom to Marry brings new resources and a renewed context of urgency and opportunity to this social justice movement.
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Now End All the Drilling, Campaigners Say as Biden Rescinds Arctic Refuge Leases
"Our sacred land is only temporarily safe from oil and gas development," said one First Nations leader, urging Congress and the White House to "permanently protect the Arctic Refuge."
Sep 06, 2023
Indigenous tribes and climate campaigners applauded the Biden administration's announcement Wednesday that it will cancel all existing oil and gas drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and ban drilling across 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve, while hundreds of groups also called on the U.S. Interior Department to go further on fossil fuel leasing.
Biden's move in Alaska will reverse former Republican President Donald Trump's approval of a 2017 law that required leasing in the Arctic Refuge, the nation's largest area of pristine wilderness which is home to vulnerable species including polar bears, migratory birds, and caribou.
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) holds the last remaining leases in the refuge, after two other lessees canceled drilling plans. AIDEA's leases would have allowed it to drill in 365,000 acres in the Arctic Refuge's coastal plain.
The Biden administration conducted an environmental analysis of the lease sale which found "multiple legal deficiencies."
Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society, said that following the Biden administration's announcement, "our climate is a bit safer and there is renewed hope for permanently protecting one of the last great wild landscapes in America" as Indigenous communities can continue to depend on the porcupine caribou herd, which uses the refuge as its calving ground.
"We are profoundly grateful to the Biden administration for taking this step to protect what the Gwich'in [First Nations people] know as Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit—The Sacred Place Where Life Begins—and we call on Congress to repeal the Arctic Refuge oil and gas leasing provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and take action to permanently protect the coastal plain for future generations," said Williams.
Bernadette Dementieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, added that the tribe knows "that our sacred land is only temporarily safe from oil and gas development."
"AIDEA's leases were economically infeasible, unlawful, and threatened the porcupine caribou herd and the Gwich'in way of life. We thank the Biden administration and Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland for taking this step," said Dementieff. "We urge the administration and our leaders in Congress to repeal the oil and gas program and permanently protect the Arctic Refuge."
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) also said Congress should make the protections permanent.
The protections announced Wednesday will not stop the Willow oil drilling project that Biden approved in March, allowing ConocoPhillips to potentially extract more than 600 million barrels of crude oil over 30 years, leading to roughly 280 million metric tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions.
“The only way to meaningfully combat the climate crisis is by stopping new fossil fuel projects," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "The Biden administration is right to stop these egregious drilling plans—and they must apply the same standard to all other oil drilling and fracking operations in the country."
"Today's action is a reminder that the White House has considerable authority to rein in fossil fuels," she added. "It's time for the president to act on those powers."
Earthjustice expressed hope that the announcement will be "the tip of the iceberg" for protections in Alaska.
The protections will also not stop the Biden administration from allowing drilling elsewhere, including in the National Outer Continental Shelf, where the Interior Department is expected to announce a five-year leasing plan this month which could include as many as 11 offshore oil and gas leases with the potential to emit up to 3.5 billion tons of carbon pollution.
Groups including Earthjustice, Defenders of Wildlife, and Oil Change International were among more than 200 groups that wrote to the Interior Department on Wednesday calling for the plan to include no new leases.
"Today's youth should not have to grow up in and inherit a world plagued by oil spills," wrote the groups. "We implore you, please end offshore drilling leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and all U.S. oceans, so we can start to undo the damage from decades of leaks and spills, protect our shores forever from a catastrophic oil spill, and enjoy a livable future."
Raena Garcia, a senior campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said Wednesday's announcements by the Interior Department, while laudable and important, do not wipe away the shortcomings of Biden's overall climate policy and "simply don't go far enough."
"Lease sales like those in the ANWR that were put forth by the Trump Administration should have never happened in the first place," said Garcia. "Small measures like the ones the Department of Interior put forward won't erase President Biden's incredibly disappointing climate record with respect to oil and gas leasing. If the Administration is truly committed to protecting our people and the planet, they will halt climate-destroying projects like Willow altogether."
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Watchdog Sues to Keep Trump Off Ballot in Colorado, Citing 14th Amendment
"As a longtime Republican who voted for him, I believe Donald Trump disqualified himself from running in 2024 by spreading lies, vilifying election workers, and fomenting an attack on the Capitol," said one plaintiff.
Sep 06, 2023
A government watchdog and lawyers for six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to ban former President Donald Trump as a candidate on the state's 2024 GOP presidential primary election ballot and any future ballot, based on the January 6, 2021 insurrection and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
As advocacy groups and legal scholars across the political spectrum have highlighted since the embattled ex-president and GOP front-runner confirmed his candidacy last year, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars anyone who has taken an oath to the Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding any civil or military office.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and firms representing the voters—Tierney Lawrence Stiles LLC, KBN Law LLC, and Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC—argue that "Trump is constitutionally ineligible to assume the office of the president" because he "knowingly and voluntarily aided and incited the insurrection" before and on January 6.
"As a longtime Republican who voted for him, I believe Donald Trump disqualified himself from running in 2024 by spreading lies, vilifying election workers, and fomenting an attack on the Capitol," plaintiff Krista Kafer, a Denver Post columnist and GOP activist, said in a statement. "Those who by force and by falsehood subvert democracy are unfit to participate in it."
Other plaintiffs include ex-elected officials who live in the state. Among them is former Colorado House and Senate Majority Leader Norma Anderson, who left the GOP to become an Independent in 2021.
"Spending 19 years as a state legislator and serving in leadership gave me the opportunity to work across the aisle and to always work to protect the freedoms our Constitution has given us as citizens," she said. "I am proud to continue that work by bringing this lawsuit and ensuring the eligibility of candidates on Colorado ballots."
The other four plaintiffs are former GOP Congresswoman Claudine (Cmarada) Schneider; Kathi Wright, a previous member of the Loveland City Council; Christopher Castilian, an ex-deputy chief of staff for the state's last GOP governor; and Michelle Priola, "who has been active in Republican politics and is also married to Republican-turned-Democratic state Sen. Kevin Priola," according toThe Denver Post.
"In my decade of service in the House of Representatives, I certified multiple presidential elections and saw firsthand the importance of ethics, the rule of law, and the peaceful transfer of power in our democracy," said Schneider. "This lawsuit is crucial to protecting and fortifying those fundamental democratic values, and I'm honored to be a part of it."
"If the very fabric of our democracy is to hold, we must ensure that the Constitution is enforced and the same people who attacked our democratic system not be put in charge of it."
While there have not been many applications of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment throughout U.S. history, CREW has previously documented some and last year was involved with a successful legal battle in New Mexico to remove Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin from office for participating in the January 6 insurrection.
"If the very fabric of our democracy is to hold, we must ensure that the Constitution is enforced and the same people who attacked our democratic system not be put in charge of it," CREW president Noah Bookbinder declared Wednesday. "We aren't bringing this case to make a point, we're bringing it because it is necessary to defend our republic both today and in the future."
"While it is unprecedented to bring this type of case against a former president, January 6th was an unprecedented attack that is exactly the kind of event the framers of the 14th Amendment wanted to build protections in case of," Bookbinder added. "You don't break the glass unless there's an emergency."
The Colorado lawsuit was filed a day after Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison—the longest insurrection-related sentence so far, followed by 18 years for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes. They were both convicted of seditious conspiracy.
The suit also comes as Trump has been indicted this year due to two federal investigations led by Special Counsel Jack Smith as well as probes in Georgia and New York. The Georgia case and one of the federal cases involve his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
So far, polling has indicated Trump's legal issues have not dissuaded many GOP voters, and the candidate has used the 91 felony charges against him to rally supporters—as a campaign representative did in response to the new suit. As NBC Newsreported:
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung slammed the voters behind the lawsuit, saying in a statement that they're "people who are pursuing this absurd conspiracy theory and political attack on President Trump."
They "are stretching the law beyond recognition much like the political prosecutors in New York, Georgia, and D.C.," Cheung added. "There is no legal basis for this effort except in the minds of those who are pushing it."
Democratic Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold—named as the defendant in the lawsuit because of her position—said in a statement that "I look forward to the Colorado Court's substantive resolution of the issues, and am hopeful that this case will provide guidance to election officials on Trump's eligibility as a candidate for office."
Griswold is among election officials in several key states who have recently received letters from Free Speech for People and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund urging them to keep Trump off the ballot because of the 14th Amendment.
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GOP Lawmakers Move to Block Biden's Helping Hand to Student Loan Borrowers
"We condemn this move to block a plan that will provide significant financial relief to low-income borrowers and communities of color," said one advocate.
Sep 06, 2023
Just as the Biden administration announced this week that 4 million people have enrolled in its new income-driven repayment plan for student loan borrowers just two weeks after it was launched, Republican lawmakers in Congress announced plans to rip the debt relief away from Americans—saddling them with a continued financial burden that has left many working people unable to purchase homes, provide for a family, and save money.
Led by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and John Cornyn (R-Texas), 17 Republican senators said Tuesday that they would use the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a tool members of Congress can invoke to overturn final rules set by federal agencies, to repeal the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan.
The plan bases student debt monthly payments on borrowers' income and family size, allowing those who earn $15 per hour or less to avoid any monthly payment. An estimated 1 million people are expected to have no monthly payments under the plan and other borrowers are expected to save at least $1,000 per year compared with other income-driven repayment plans.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Tuesday that Americans are submitting new applications for the SAVE plan each day "so that they, too, can take advantage of the most affordable student loan repayment plan in history."
"This is real money President [Joe] Biden is putting back into the pockets of working families," Cardona said last month when the program was launched. "And when borrowers struggle to make ends meet, we're not going to kick them while they're down."
But Republicans including Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), who have introduced a companion bill to Cassidy's in the U.S. House, claim the program is "illegal" and will "leave mountains of debt at the feet of taxpayers while absolving millions of borrowers of their loans."
Jaylon Herbin, director of federal campaigns at the Center for Responsible Lending, said Wednesday that lawmakers should "oppose the CRAs to repeal SAVE."
"Senate Democrats will strongly oppose this Republican measure should it come to the floor for a vote, and we will stand with student loan borrowers as we continue to push for as much relief as possible."
"We condemn this move to block a plan that will provide significant financial relief to low-income borrowers and communities of color," said Herbin. "SAVE provides hope for borrowers as the administration continues to fight alongside advocacy groups to find other ways to achieve broad-based student loan relief. We continue to support President Biden in his quest to make our educational finance system fairer for all borrowers and oppose harmful legislation, such as these CRAs, that will set our already flawed student loan repayment system back to the pre-pandemic era."
Debt relief campaigners and legal experts have said for years that the Biden administration is legally able to wipe out student debt—going much further than the SAVE plan does—using the Higher Education Act of 1965, which allows the education secretary "to enforce, pay, compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand" related to federal student loans.
Republicans including Cassidy previously tried to block Biden's debt relief plan which would have canceled up to $20,000 in debt for some student loan borrowers, before the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the proposal.
The GOP announced its latest plan to stop borrowers from benefiting from the income-based repayment plan as the administration works on a broad relief plan under the Higher Education Act, and just days after interest on federal student loans began to accrue again following a pause that began during the coronavirus pandemic.
About half of student borrowers in a poll released by Life and My Finances said they would not be able to afford monthly payments when they resume next month.
While "Democrats work hard to find new ways to provide relief for borrowers in need," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), "Republicans, instead of working with us to find a fix to our broken student loan system, immediately shoot them down."
"Republicans use the same old, tired excuse: that student loan relief only helps the few, the wealthy. That's utter nonsense," said Schumer. "President Biden's SAVE plan will benefit the Americans who need it most: working and middle-class families, students of color, community college students, and borrowers working in public service."
"Senate Democrats will strongly oppose this Republican measure should it come to the floor for a vote," he added, "and we will stand with student loan borrowers as we continue to push for as much relief as possible."
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