January, 24 2019, 11:00pm EDT
2019 Is the Year We Slay Gerrymandering
Legal teams taking two gerrymandering cases to the Supreme Court will preview their strategies and path to victory today at third annual Common Cause redistricting conference
WASHINGTON
Leading activists, academics and attorneys in the national redistricting reform movement will convene in North Carolina today and Saturday to plot the demise of gerrymandering in 2019.
The reformers at the third annual Reason, Reform & Redistricting Conference convened by Common Cause are taking an all-in approach - fighting for fair maps in citizen-led ballot initiatives, pushing state legislation and taking two high-profile cases to the U.S. Supreme Court in March -to ensure every vote counts and every voice is heard.
Their goal is to have a new, clear national standard against partisan gerrymandering and clear pathways for states to draw congressional and legislative boundaries that are fair, impartial and responsive to people rather than politicians. Time is of the essence as states will use the 2020 Census to draw voting maps that will impact who is elected and represented for the decade to come.
"This is the year that redistricting as we know it must change. Elections should be decided by voters, not the politicians drawing the maps.We've won at the ballot box, we've won in the courts, and momentum is in our favor as we head to the Supreme Court," said Kathay Feng, national director for redistricting at Common Cause and architect of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, the gold standard in state-based, independent redistricting commissions.
The conference comes about nine weeks before the Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in two partisan gerrymandering cases, Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek. In each case, partisan legislators - Republicans in North Carolina and Democrats in Maryland - stated in public that they drew congressional district lines to disadvantage minority party voters and to maximize the majority party's power.
Common Cause argues that this gerrymandering punishes supporters of the minority party based on their political beliefs and violates the First Amendment. A growing consensus of legal experts agree that these cases provide the single best opportunity for the U.S. Supreme Court to declare partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional.
Several of the key players in the litigation will explain their strategies and path to victory during the conference including Emmet Bondurant, Michael Kimberly and Allison Riggs. Here is their take on the cases and what they mean for the country:
"Rucho v. Common Cause is the perfect test case for partisan gerrymandering," said Bondurant, the lead litigator for the Common Cause plaintiffs in Rucho v. Common Cause. "North Carolina Republican state legislators stated on the record on what they intended to do, precisely how they intended to do it and then did it."
"The Court has been hesitant to wade into the issue of partisan gerrymandering, but there's no way the legislative branches will solve this problem because it's the fox in charge of the hen house," said Kimberly, lead litigator in Lamone v. Benisek. "The Court essentially has two choices: agree that partisan gerrymandering violates the First Amendment, or endorse a practice that openly targets citizens on the basis of their political views, which I don't think they will be willing to do."
"Voters in North Carolina haven't had a fair election in a decade. The Supreme Court has the chance to restore a voice to millions of voters here and nationwide," said Riggs, litigator in Rucho v. League of Women Voters of North Carolina, which is consolidated with Rucho v. Common Cause.
The third annual Reason, Reform & Redistricting Conference is convened by Common Cause, a nonpartisan grassroots organization, in collaboration with Duke University's Center for Political Leadership, Innovation, and Service (POLIS) and the Sanford School of Public Policy. It features 14 panels covering issues including racial equity, quantitative metrics, First Amendment arguments against gerrymandering and lessons learned from reform victories in the states.
Conference participants include Kareem Crayton of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice; Katie Fahey of Voters Not Politicians; Curtis Hubbard of Fair Maps Colorado; David Daley of FairVote; Justin Levitt of Loyola Law School; Celina Stewart of League of Women Voters; Arturo Vargas of NALEO; Sam Wang of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
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New Jersey Governor Signs Freedom to Read Act Barring Book Bans
The law, said the Democrat, "cements New Jersey's role on the forefront of preventing book bans and protecting the intellectual freedom of our educators and students."
Dec 09, 2024
Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday signed legislation protecting librarians and prohibiting public schools and libraries from banning books—a move that came as Republican state lawmakers are proscribing a record number of titles, many of them works addressing sexual orientation, gender identity, and racial injustice.
Flanked by educators, librarians, and other advocates, Murphy signed
A.3446/S.2421—known as the Freedom to Read Act—in the Princeton Public Library.
"The Freedom to Read Act cements New Jersey's role on the forefront of preventing book bans and protecting the intellectual freedom of our educators and students," said Murphy. "Across the nation, we have seen attempts to suppress and censor the stories and experiences of others. I'm proud to amplify the voices of our past and present, as there is no better way for our children to prepare for the future than to read freely."
According to a statement from Murphy's office:
Under the law, boards of education and governing boards of public libraries are barred from excluding books because of the origin, background, or views of the material or of its authors. Further, boards of education and governing boards of public libraries are prevented from censoring library material based on a disagreement with a viewpoint, idea, or concept, or solely because an individual finds certain content offensive, unless they are restricting access to developmentally inappropriate material for certain age groups.
The legislation "also provides protections for library staff members against civil and criminal lawsuits related to complying with this law."
New Jersey Association of School Librarians President Karen Grant said that "the Freedom to Read Act recognizes the professionalism, honor, work ethics, and performance of school and public library staff" and "promotes libraries as trusted sources of information and recognizes the many roles that libraries play in students' lives."
"The bill will protect the intellectual freedom of students as well as acknowledge that school libraries are centers for voluntary inquiry, fostering students' growth and development," Grant added. "Additionally, we are grateful for the broad coalition of support from so many organizations for this legislation."
The leader of one of those groups—Garden State Equality executive director Christian Fuscarino—said, "Gov. Murphy just made it clear: In New Jersey, censorship loses, and freedom wins."
"At a time when access to diverse and inclusive materials is under attack across the nation, this legislation sends a powerful message that New Jersey will stand firm in protecting intellectual freedom and fostering a culture of understanding and inclusion," Fuscarino added.
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During a 76-minute interview with NBC News' Kristen Welker, Trump said he "absolutely" intends to end birthright citizenship, potentially through executive order, despite the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Among many lies the Republican told, he also falsely claimed that the United States is the only country to offer citizenship by birth; in fact, there are dozens.
In response,
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Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) similarly stressed that "birthright citizenship is enshrined in the Constitution as a cornerstone of American ideals. It reflects our belief that America is the land of opportunity. Sadly, this is just another in the long line of Trump's assault on the U.S. Constitution."
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, said in a statement: "'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.' It is important to remember who we are, where many of us came from, and why many of our families traveled here to be greeted by the Mother of Exiles, the Statue of Liberty."
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Although Republicans are set to control both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives next year, amending the Constitution requires support from two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and three-fourths of the state legislatures, meaning that process is unlikely to be attempted for this policy.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) highlighted the difficulties of passing constitutional amendments while discussing Trump in a Monday appearance on CNN. The incoming chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was born in the Dominican Republic and is the first formerly undocumented immigrant elected to Congress.
As Mother Jones reporter Isabela Dias detailed Monday:
Critics of ending birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants argue it would not only constitute bad policy, but also a betrayal of American values and, as one scholar put it to me, a "prelude" to mass deportation.
"It's really 100 years of accepted interpretation," Hiroshi Motomura, a scholar of immigration and citizenship at UCLA's law school, told me of birthright citizenship. Ending birthright citizenship would cut at the core of the hard-fought assurance of equal treatment under the law, he said, "basically drawing a line between two kinds of American citizens."
Trump's NBC interview also addressed his long-promised mass deportations. The president-elect—whose first administration was globally condemned for separating migrant families at the southern border and second administration is already filling up with hard-liners—suggested Sunday that he would deport children who are U.S. citizens with undocumented parents.
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Under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which opened the refuge for oil and gas drilling, the Biden administration announced the second of two lease sales, set to be held on January 9, 2025.
The first Trump administration held the initial lease sale in 2021, but with banks and insurance companies increasingly reticent to back drilling projects in the area, it generated little interest and led to less than 1% of the projected sale revenue.
Releasing its final record of decision, the Interior Department said Monday that 400,000 acres of wilderness in the refuge's 1.6-million-acre northwest Coastal Plain would be put up for bidding at a minimum price of $30 per acre—despite vocal opposition from the Gwich'in Nation and the Iñupiat Alaska Natives.
The land supports local communities as well as porcupine caribou herds and polar bears.
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The record of decision concludes the Bureau of Land Management's process for developing a supplemental environmental impact statement, which was required after President-elect Donald Trump's first administration completed an analysis with "fundamental flaws and legal errors," as the Sierra Club said Monday.
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