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Critics of the Utah bill fear that it might lead to an increase in deadly car attacks on protesters, as happened in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017. (Photo: Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images)
As vaccinations against COVID-19 increase and with the CDC’s recently-released relaxed outdoor masking standards for vaccinated people, the U.S. appears to be inching towards normalcy. Meanwhile, many state legislatures across the country are working to ensure that one aspect of our society does not return to normal--by criminalizing protest. Clearly jarred by the power and the depth of the protests against systemic racism and against police brutality that erupted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis Police last year, right-wing, Republican-controlled state legislatures are passing laws specifically targeting dissent. At the same time, chillingly, many of these laws include provisions legalizing violence against protestors, granting immunity to people who drive their cars into crowds.
Robinson’s group is tracking these frightening legislative trends, with close to 100 anti-protest bills proposed nationwide and five already enacted since George Floyd’s murder.
“These are really extreme laws,” the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law’s Nick Robinson said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “For example, in Florida, if you’re with 25 or more people or you’re obstructing traffic, it becomes a felony and an aggravated riot, punishable by 15 years in jail....There’s five years in jail if you deface a monument. If you tag a Confederate monument, it’s a super serious charge under the Florida bill.”
Robinson’s group is tracking these frightening legislative trends, with close to 100 anti-protest bills proposed nationwide and five already enacted since George Floyd’s murder. Florida’s 61-page “Combating Public Disorder” bill, signed into law by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on April 19th, vastly expands the definition of ‘riot’ to just three people, and denies people arrested for ‘rioting’ release on bail until after their first court appearance. It gives the governor veto power over municipalities seeking a reduction in police department budgets, and shields from civil liability anyone accused of causing “personal injury, wrongful death, or property damage,” if those who they injure or kill were guilty of so-called “rioting.”
In Oklahoma, Republican Governor Kevin Stitt has just signed an anti-protest bill into law that protects drivers who injure or kill protesters by running into them with their cars from both civil and criminal prosecution.
“It’s declaring open season. It’s a hunting license,” Susan Bro said on Democracy Now! Her daughter, Heather Heyer, was killed on August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, while peacefully protesting against the violent, white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally. James Alex Fields Jr., a 24-year-old neo-Nazi, slammed his car into a crowd of anti-racist counter-protesters, killing Heather and injuring at least 35 others. Susan Bro now runs the Heather Heyer Foundation in her daughter’s memory, providing scholarships to students working for social justice.
Heather Heyer’s killer is currently serving two life sentences in prison. Susan Bro said she relives the lethal attack on her daughter every day:
“Heather’s friends were hurled into the air. The young gentleman whose shoe was seen dangling from the front bumper of the car as he retreats was Heather’s friend, Marcus Martin. He was two people behind her. He reached and moved [his fiancee] Marissa out of the way. He’s cried over and over that he could not get to Heather. And I’ve just said, ‘Marcus, you can’t help that.’ I have a photograph of the split second before he hits Heather. I have seen footage of him hitting Heather, but my brain will not absorb it, even now. To say that that is not criminal, that that is not an offense--since when do we allow the public to become judge, jury and executioner? Because that’s what this amounts to: Let’s go hunt protesters.”
The current slew of anti-protest laws follows similar legislation prompted by the massive, indigenous-led protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. Desperate to avoid similar mass protests, many states have enacted “pipeline protection” laws, criminalizing the type of nonviolent civil disobedience at the heart of the Standing Rock resistance . It isn’t only Republicans pushing these, either. Democratic Kansas Governor Laura Kelly recently signed a law banning trespassing near pipelines and other “Critical Infrastructure Facilities.” (Kansas is one of 16 states where Republicans hold a veto-proof majority in the state legislature.)
The AP reported that the Kansas bill “was introduced at the request of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers association.” Oil, gas, and other polluting industries and trade groups are driving many of these anti-protest laws, with help from the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.
Protest has driven every significant social change in this country. The right to dissent is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These dangerous anti-protest laws that are sweeping the country have to be resisted and overturned.
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As vaccinations against COVID-19 increase and with the CDC’s recently-released relaxed outdoor masking standards for vaccinated people, the U.S. appears to be inching towards normalcy. Meanwhile, many state legislatures across the country are working to ensure that one aspect of our society does not return to normal--by criminalizing protest. Clearly jarred by the power and the depth of the protests against systemic racism and against police brutality that erupted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis Police last year, right-wing, Republican-controlled state legislatures are passing laws specifically targeting dissent. At the same time, chillingly, many of these laws include provisions legalizing violence against protestors, granting immunity to people who drive their cars into crowds.
Robinson’s group is tracking these frightening legislative trends, with close to 100 anti-protest bills proposed nationwide and five already enacted since George Floyd’s murder.
“These are really extreme laws,” the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law’s Nick Robinson said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “For example, in Florida, if you’re with 25 or more people or you’re obstructing traffic, it becomes a felony and an aggravated riot, punishable by 15 years in jail....There’s five years in jail if you deface a monument. If you tag a Confederate monument, it’s a super serious charge under the Florida bill.”
Robinson’s group is tracking these frightening legislative trends, with close to 100 anti-protest bills proposed nationwide and five already enacted since George Floyd’s murder. Florida’s 61-page “Combating Public Disorder” bill, signed into law by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on April 19th, vastly expands the definition of ‘riot’ to just three people, and denies people arrested for ‘rioting’ release on bail until after their first court appearance. It gives the governor veto power over municipalities seeking a reduction in police department budgets, and shields from civil liability anyone accused of causing “personal injury, wrongful death, or property damage,” if those who they injure or kill were guilty of so-called “rioting.”
In Oklahoma, Republican Governor Kevin Stitt has just signed an anti-protest bill into law that protects drivers who injure or kill protesters by running into them with their cars from both civil and criminal prosecution.
“It’s declaring open season. It’s a hunting license,” Susan Bro said on Democracy Now! Her daughter, Heather Heyer, was killed on August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, while peacefully protesting against the violent, white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally. James Alex Fields Jr., a 24-year-old neo-Nazi, slammed his car into a crowd of anti-racist counter-protesters, killing Heather and injuring at least 35 others. Susan Bro now runs the Heather Heyer Foundation in her daughter’s memory, providing scholarships to students working for social justice.
Heather Heyer’s killer is currently serving two life sentences in prison. Susan Bro said she relives the lethal attack on her daughter every day:
“Heather’s friends were hurled into the air. The young gentleman whose shoe was seen dangling from the front bumper of the car as he retreats was Heather’s friend, Marcus Martin. He was two people behind her. He reached and moved [his fiancee] Marissa out of the way. He’s cried over and over that he could not get to Heather. And I’ve just said, ‘Marcus, you can’t help that.’ I have a photograph of the split second before he hits Heather. I have seen footage of him hitting Heather, but my brain will not absorb it, even now. To say that that is not criminal, that that is not an offense--since when do we allow the public to become judge, jury and executioner? Because that’s what this amounts to: Let’s go hunt protesters.”
The current slew of anti-protest laws follows similar legislation prompted by the massive, indigenous-led protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. Desperate to avoid similar mass protests, many states have enacted “pipeline protection” laws, criminalizing the type of nonviolent civil disobedience at the heart of the Standing Rock resistance . It isn’t only Republicans pushing these, either. Democratic Kansas Governor Laura Kelly recently signed a law banning trespassing near pipelines and other “Critical Infrastructure Facilities.” (Kansas is one of 16 states where Republicans hold a veto-proof majority in the state legislature.)
The AP reported that the Kansas bill “was introduced at the request of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers association.” Oil, gas, and other polluting industries and trade groups are driving many of these anti-protest laws, with help from the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.
Protest has driven every significant social change in this country. The right to dissent is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These dangerous anti-protest laws that are sweeping the country have to be resisted and overturned.
As vaccinations against COVID-19 increase and with the CDC’s recently-released relaxed outdoor masking standards for vaccinated people, the U.S. appears to be inching towards normalcy. Meanwhile, many state legislatures across the country are working to ensure that one aspect of our society does not return to normal--by criminalizing protest. Clearly jarred by the power and the depth of the protests against systemic racism and against police brutality that erupted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis Police last year, right-wing, Republican-controlled state legislatures are passing laws specifically targeting dissent. At the same time, chillingly, many of these laws include provisions legalizing violence against protestors, granting immunity to people who drive their cars into crowds.
Robinson’s group is tracking these frightening legislative trends, with close to 100 anti-protest bills proposed nationwide and five already enacted since George Floyd’s murder.
“These are really extreme laws,” the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law’s Nick Robinson said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “For example, in Florida, if you’re with 25 or more people or you’re obstructing traffic, it becomes a felony and an aggravated riot, punishable by 15 years in jail....There’s five years in jail if you deface a monument. If you tag a Confederate monument, it’s a super serious charge under the Florida bill.”
Robinson’s group is tracking these frightening legislative trends, with close to 100 anti-protest bills proposed nationwide and five already enacted since George Floyd’s murder. Florida’s 61-page “Combating Public Disorder” bill, signed into law by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on April 19th, vastly expands the definition of ‘riot’ to just three people, and denies people arrested for ‘rioting’ release on bail until after their first court appearance. It gives the governor veto power over municipalities seeking a reduction in police department budgets, and shields from civil liability anyone accused of causing “personal injury, wrongful death, or property damage,” if those who they injure or kill were guilty of so-called “rioting.”
In Oklahoma, Republican Governor Kevin Stitt has just signed an anti-protest bill into law that protects drivers who injure or kill protesters by running into them with their cars from both civil and criminal prosecution.
“It’s declaring open season. It’s a hunting license,” Susan Bro said on Democracy Now! Her daughter, Heather Heyer, was killed on August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, while peacefully protesting against the violent, white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally. James Alex Fields Jr., a 24-year-old neo-Nazi, slammed his car into a crowd of anti-racist counter-protesters, killing Heather and injuring at least 35 others. Susan Bro now runs the Heather Heyer Foundation in her daughter’s memory, providing scholarships to students working for social justice.
Heather Heyer’s killer is currently serving two life sentences in prison. Susan Bro said she relives the lethal attack on her daughter every day:
“Heather’s friends were hurled into the air. The young gentleman whose shoe was seen dangling from the front bumper of the car as he retreats was Heather’s friend, Marcus Martin. He was two people behind her. He reached and moved [his fiancee] Marissa out of the way. He’s cried over and over that he could not get to Heather. And I’ve just said, ‘Marcus, you can’t help that.’ I have a photograph of the split second before he hits Heather. I have seen footage of him hitting Heather, but my brain will not absorb it, even now. To say that that is not criminal, that that is not an offense--since when do we allow the public to become judge, jury and executioner? Because that’s what this amounts to: Let’s go hunt protesters.”
The current slew of anti-protest laws follows similar legislation prompted by the massive, indigenous-led protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. Desperate to avoid similar mass protests, many states have enacted “pipeline protection” laws, criminalizing the type of nonviolent civil disobedience at the heart of the Standing Rock resistance . It isn’t only Republicans pushing these, either. Democratic Kansas Governor Laura Kelly recently signed a law banning trespassing near pipelines and other “Critical Infrastructure Facilities.” (Kansas is one of 16 states where Republicans hold a veto-proof majority in the state legislature.)
The AP reported that the Kansas bill “was introduced at the request of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers association.” Oil, gas, and other polluting industries and trade groups are driving many of these anti-protest laws, with help from the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.
Protest has driven every significant social change in this country. The right to dissent is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These dangerous anti-protest laws that are sweeping the country have to be resisted and overturned.
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday vowed to fight back against US President Donald Trump's efforts to attack and dismantle liberal and progressive organizations.
Led by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the Democrats introduced the No Political Enemies Act aimed at protecting organizations' free speech rights from retaliation from the federal government.
During his speech touting the new legislation, Murphy recounted recent actions by Trump and his administration, including the president's threats to "arrest members of the Soros family simply for funding groups that oppose his agenda," as well as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr's pressure campaign to get ABC to fire late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
Murphy then said that the No Political Enemies Act was necessary because "Donald Trump is right now instructing his Department of Justice to go on the hunt for his political enemies" for challenging him.
"Trump is making it 100% clear that he is going to ramp up his efforts to use the power of the federal government to punish his critics," he said. "This is legislation that makes sure that the law is on the side of free speech and the right to dissent."
The proposed law would give political organizations and individuals new tools to combat political harassment from the federal government, and would allow them to both recover attorney fees and more easily file lawsuits against federal officials who abuse their authority for political purposes.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who also expressed support for the legislation, put the stakes facing Americans in stark terms.
"We are in the biggest free speech crisis this country has faced since the McCarthy era," he said. "The murder of Charlie Kirk was a horrific crime, and it's clear that Trump wants to hijack that horrific crime to silence anyone who disagrees with the president about any issue."
Casar, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, also took a shot at major corporations who have been caving to the president's demands in recent months.
"As we saw last night, far too many billionaires and corporate-owned media companies are bending the knee: Disney and ABC, Paramount and CBS, the Washington Post editorial board, Facebook," he said. "Let's be clear, the ultrawealthy men who own these companies are making a choice. David Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bob Iger—these men are enriching themselves, auctioning off the United State's First Amendment to a wannabe dictator and tyrant."
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) pointed out that the FCC's pressure campaign on ABC to fire Kimmel is particularly nefarious given that Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which is the network's largest affiliate, is currently involved in merger talks that will need FCC approval.
"All of this ties back to money and people enriching themselves, and bending the knee to Donald Trump to make it happen," he said.
The Democrats' proposed legislation comes after Trump announced late Wednesday night that he planned to designate “antifa,” a movement of autonomous individuals and loosely affiliated groups who oppose fascism, as a “major terrorist organization."
It also comes comes days after Trump adviser Stephen Miller began pushing a plan to "dismantle" the organized left using the power of the federal government.
During a recent appearance on Fox News, Miller described the entire left as a "domestic terrorism movement in this country," and vowed "to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence."
President Donald Trump's Department of Education has announced that it will partner with right-wing think tanks and organizations to develop a new curriculum for “patriotic education” in American classrooms.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration redirected $137 million initially meant for programs aimed at minority students toward what it described as "American history and civics education."
Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced Wednesday that the money will be directed toward discretionary grants aimed at K-12 schools that adopt a new curriculum being drawn up by the 250 Civics Education Coalition—a consortium of more than 40 right-wing groups that launched on same day. The goal, McMahon said, was to advance education that "emphasizes a unifying and uplifting portrayal of the nation's founding ideals" in advance of the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026.
It is not Trump's first crack at instilling the nation's youth with a "patriotic education." In the waning days of his first term in office, Trump unveiled the 1776 Report, which, education columnist Jennifer Berkshire recently noted in The Baffler, "was widely panned by actual historians for its worshipful treatment of the Founding Fathers, its downplaying of slavery, and its portrayal of a century-old 'administrative state' controlled by leftist radicals."
While little has been publicized yet about what McMahon's new endeavor will look like, it is known who will be crafting it. The initiative is being led by the America First Policy Institute, a MAGA-aligned think tank that has been responsible for staffing Trump's second administration and has received over $1 million from his political action committee, the Save America PAC. Until 2023, McMahon herself served on the board of AFPI.
In 2022, the group presented a piece of model legislation for a "Civics Course Act" to be introduced in states. It included requirements for students to spend ample time studying the nation's founding documents and figures while banning the teaching of what it called the "defamatory history of America’s founding," which suggests that slavery or inequality are in any way inherent to the nation's institutions.
It also banned the concepts of "systemic racism" and "gender fluidity" and forbade teachers from giving students course credit for engaging with "social or public policy advocacy."
Also included in the coalition is Hillsdale College, a private Christian liberal arts school in Michigan that has proposed its own K-12 curriculum, which Vanity Fair notes "has been criticized for revisionist history, including whitewashed accounts of US slavery and depictions of Jamestown as a failed communist colony."
Another participant is PragerU, the overtly partisan and often factually loose YouTube channel that has been tasked with creating children's educational content in nearly a dozen red states.
The group has produced content venerating figures notorious for practicing slavery, like colonist Christopher Columbus and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Its videos have argued, among other things, that climate change is a myth, that European fascism was a "far-left" ideology, and that Israel has "the world's most moral army."
The pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA will also be involved in crafting the curriculum. Its longtime leader, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in Utah last week, went on a crusade last year to, in his words, "tell the truth" about Martin Luther King Jr., whom he described as "an awful person," while claiming his signature achievement, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, was a "huge mistake."
An offshoot of Kirk's group, Turning Point Education, said Kirk's assassination has increased its resolve to promote a "God-centered, virtuous education" in US public schools.
The 250 Civics Education Coalition has not yet published a curriculum. But according to the Department of Education, it will be rolling out "a robust programming agenda" over the next 12 months.
During Trump's second term, he has undertaken an effort to purge federal museums and national parks of what one executive order called "improper ideology," which has resulted in the erasure of exhibits and monuments to Black and Native American history. Last month, he lamented that the Smithsonian Museum focuses too much on "how bad slavery was" and ordered a review of the museum's content.
Federal websites, meanwhile, have systematically eliminated many pages that acknowledged the accomplishments of nonwhite historical figures or important events in women's and LGBTQ+ history.
Critics in the education world view Trump's effort to use grants to induce them to adopt his preferred curriculum as an illegal effort to propagandize children.
"The law is clear," said education historian Diane Ravitch in a blog post. "Federal officials are prohibited from seeking to influence or direct curriculum in any way."
Since 1970, the federal government has been barred by law from "any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum" of public schools.
"Civic education is and must be non-partisan," said Ted McConnell, the executive director of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. "While the funding is long sought, this is the wrong approach and smacks of authoritarianism."
On the US Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave her Republican colleagues a choice: undo the damage they caused to the healthcare of millions of Americans by slashing Medicaid and insurance subsidies, or explain to the public why they refuse to do so—even if it means shutting down the government.
Warren (D-Mass.) spoke about a proposal released by the Democrats Wednesday night to keep the government running through October 31—averting a shutdown at the beginning of next month—if the GOP agrees to restore the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts and extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies to keep out-of-pocket premiums from rising by an average of 75% for millions of people who purchase health insurance through the ACA.
A Congressional Budget Office analysis released Thursday found that making the ACA subsidies permanent would increase the number of insured people by nearly 4 million.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have said Democrats will not vote for Republicans' proposal to extend government funding at its current level through November 21, including the cuts in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, unless the GOP opens bipartisan talks on the legislation.
So far, GOP leaders have not asked the Democrats for input—but the Republicans will need at least 60 votes to pass the spending proposal in the Senate and will require Democrats to vote with them.
On the Senate floor, Warren told the Republicans how they can ensure that result.
"Before working moms go broke from a cancer diagnosis, Congress must act. Before community hospitals are forced to shut down, Congtess must act," said the senator. "That is why Democrats are saying: 'If Republicans want our votes, they need to restore healthcare for Americans.'"
While Schumer has demanded bipartisan talks and called for the GOP to make concessions on healthcare, he told The Washington Post Wednesday that the Democrats do not have a "red line."
Schumer angered progressive lawmakers and many of his own constituents in March when he joined the GOP to advance a spending bill that kept the government open—but cut $13 billion in nonmilitary federal spending and did nothing to rein in President Donald Trump and his then-adviser, Elon Musk, as they eviscerated government agencies.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said Tuesday that the current "alignment of Democratic leadership and appropriators in recognition of this moment of leverage is heartening."
“A budget deal should be contingent on addressing Americans’ top economic priority—the cost of and access to healthcare. If Republicans refuse to negotiate and move away from their cost-increasing agenda, then they are the ones who will be forcing a government-wide shutdown," said Gilbert. "There should be no deal without assurances that the budget will be honored and not impounded, and that it will begin to return care to the American people.”
By refusing to meet with the Democrats thus far, said Kobie Christian of Unrig Our Economy, GOP leaders are thus far showing that "if it isn’t about giving the ultrarich another tax break, Republicans in Congress aren’t interested."
“Every day that Congress does not take action to prevent increases in health insurance premiums, more and more Americans are at risk of facing higher healthcare costs and losing coverage," said Christian. "It’s time that congressional Republicans come to the table and find a solution to help all Americans, not just the ultrawealthy.”
On her way to the Senate floor Thursday, Warren said that "if Republicans want our votes for this budget, they've got to restore healthcare for millions of Americans."
"It's really that simple," she added.