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Post by Webster on Sept 5, 2023 13:28:07 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Federal court strikes down GOP-drawn Alabama congressional map, againA three-judge federal court panel struck down Alabama’s new congressional map, saying the Republican-dominated state again violated the Voting Rights Act. The judges wrote that they were “deeply troubled” the state’s effort to redraw its map did not fix issues it identified. The supreme court had in June ruled that Alabama must draw a second majority Black congressional district, which would likely give Democrats another seat on the southern state’s congressional delegation. But rather than go along, GOP lawmakers attempted to sidestep the ruling by approving new maps that still included only one district where a majority of voters are Black – an effort the federal judges just rejected.
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Post by Webster on Sept 5, 2023 13:30:19 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Republican lawmakers have been on a losing streak lately, as judges strike down congressional maps drawn by the party that disadvantage Black lawmakers, the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reports: A judge in Florida has ruled in favor of voting rights groups that filed a lawsuit against a congressional redistricting map approved by Ron DeSantis in 2022. Voting rights groups had criticized the map for diluting political power in Black communities.
In the ruling, Leon county circuit judge J Lee Marsh sent the map back to the Florida legislature to be redrawn in a way that complies with the state’s constitution.
“Under the stipulated facts (in the lawsuit), plaintiffs have shown that the enacted plan results in the diminishment of Black voters’ ability to elect their candidate of choice in violation of the Florida constitution,” Marsh wrote in the ruling.
The ruling is expected to be appealed by the state, likely putting the case before the Florida supreme court.
The lawsuit focused on a north Florida congressional district previously represented by the Democrat Al Lawson, who is Black. Lawson’s district was carved up into districts represented by white Republicans.
DeSantis vetoed a map that initially preserved Lawson’s district in 2022, submitting his own map and calling a special legislative session demanding state legislators accept it. Judge Marsh rejected claims from Florida Republicans that the state’s provision against weakening or eliminating minority-dominant districts violated the US constitution. “This is a significant victory in the fight for fair representation for Black Floridians,” said Olivia Mendoza, director of litigation and policy for the National Redistricting Foundation, an affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, in a statement.
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Post by Webster on Sept 5, 2023 13:34:25 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Here’s more from the Guardian’s Sam Levine on a decision by federal judges today rejecting an attempt by Republican legislators in Alabama to defy a supreme court ruling and keep Black voting power in the state diluted: A panel of federal judges struck down Alabama’s redrawn congressional map on Tuesday, saying the state clearly continued to violate the Voting Rights Act and had ignored a clear mandate from the federal judiciary to increase the political power of Black voters in the state.
The panel said that a court-appointed special master and cartographer would draw a new map ahead of the 2024 election. Alabama is expected to appeal the decision to the US supreme court, which upheld an earlier ruling ordering the state to redraw its map.
The decision is a win for Black voters in Alabama, who have long had their political influence cracked among several congressional districts. "We do not take lightly federal intrusion into a process ordinarily reserved for the state legislature,” the panel wrote. “But we have now said twice that this Voting Rights Act case is not close. The law requires the creation of an additional district that affords Black Alabamians, like everyone else, a fair and reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.”
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Post by Webster on Sept 5, 2023 13:36:01 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Speculation about Mitch McConnell’s future as Republican leader is bound to continue despite the congressional physician Brian Monahan’s assurances. After McConnell’s first freeze in front of reporters, at the Capitol in late July, other falls including a “face plant” at an airport were widely reported. Senate Republicans have avoided openly questioning their leader’s fitness to serve but some, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said it is increasingly at issue. Public polling shows that most Americans think their leaders are becoming too old, with majorities in favour of upper age limits. Majorities also think that at 80, Joe Biden is too old to run for re-election as president. Smaller majorities are concerned about the age of his likely challenger, Donald Trump, who at 77 has 14 fewer years on the clock than he faces criminal indictments. In the Senate, the oldest on record, the evidently deteriorating health of the 90-year-old senior Democrat from California, Dianne Feinstein, has long been a subject of controversy, particularly during her own lengthy, health-enforced absence. Feinstein will retire next year. McConnell has repeatedly said he intends to complete his seventh term in office, which ends in 2026. If the seat became vacant, Kentucky state law says the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, must pick a Republican replacement. Asked if he would seek a way round that requirement, Beshear has avoided comment.
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Post by Webster on Sept 8, 2023 13:22:56 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Sept 13, 2023 14:03:16 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Romney will not seek second term in US SenateUtah’s US Senator Mitt Romney, who as the Republican nominee lost the 2012 presidential election to incumbent Barack Obama, has announced that he won’t seek a second term. He told the Washington Post it was time for a new generation to “step up” and “shape the world they’re going to live in”. Romney twice voted to impeach Donald Trump and the 76-year-old told the Post that he believed a second term, which would take him into his 80s, would be “less productive” than his work now.
Utah senator Mitt Romney, who told the Washington Post he will not be seeking reelection in 2024, also announced his intentions in a video statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate and governor of Massachusetts, said it was “time for a new generation of leaders”. The 76-year-old said: At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-80s. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders. They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in.Romney said neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump are leading their parties to confront issues on deficits and debt, and took aim at Trump for calling global warming “a hoax”. -- The next generation of leaders must take America to the next stage of global leadership. While I’m not running for re election, I’m not retiring from the fight. I’ll be your United States senator until January of 2025. I will keep working on these and other issues and I’ll advance our state’s numerous priorities. I look forward to working with you and with folks across our state and nation in that endeavour. It really is a profound honour to serve Utah and the country.
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Post by Webster on Sept 18, 2023 17:04:50 GMT -5
(The Guardian) In domestic political news, NBC News reports that the far-right Republican troublemaker Matt Gaetz is highly likely – in the estimation of one source, “100% in” – to run for governor in Florida in 2026. By then, the current hard-right Republican governor, the presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, will either be in the White House or at the end of his two-term time in state office. On Monday, NBC quoted one “longtime Florida Republican lobbyist” as saying that at a reception in Tallahassee on Sunday, “there was a lot of talk about it … and Gaetz was telling people to basically expect him to be in”. Another “Florida Republican operative” was quoted as saying: “He’s 100% in. I think Gaetz is an instant frontrunner and from what I hear he’s already won the Trump primary”, meaning Donald Trump’s endorsement. Gaetz, 41, told NBC: “Many did encourage me to consider running for governor one day.” He also aimed a dig at DeSantis, saying: “But we have an outstanding governor who will be in that position through 2026.” Gaetz’s “only political focus right now”, he added – other than opposing almost everything Kevin McCarthy does as US House speaker, including proposing ways to fund the federal government – “is Trump 2024”.
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Post by Webster on Sept 25, 2023 14:14:12 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Bob Menendez expected to say he will run for re-election as he will reportedly hold press conferenceSenator Robert Menendez had a rough weekend after his indictment on charges related to using his position to corruptly aid Egypt. A fellow Democratic congressman announced he would run for Menendez’s seat representing New Jersey, while the calls to resign from fellow Democrats from the state and elsewhere continued to roll in. But the senator has no plans to go along. This morning, the New Jersey Globe reports Menendez will hold a press conference where he’ll vow not to resign, and instead stand for re-election next year – even though he may be setting himself on a course to do so without the backing of the Democratic party. There may be more immediate repercussions to the charges against Menendez, which accuse him of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars to use his influence to Egypt’s benefit. As the Guardian’s Ruth Michaelson reports, groups in Washington are now calling to reassess foreign aid to Cairo, a major ally in the Middle East with a troubling human rights record, due to the allegations they illegally collaborated with the senator.
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Post by Webster on Sept 25, 2023 14:14:37 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Sept 25, 2023 14:15:21 GMT -5
(The Guardian) From Friday, here’s the Guardian’s Maya Yang on the charges against Robert Menendez, and the senator’s vow not to step down: Several Democrats including his own state governor are calling on their fellow party member Robert Menendez to resign after federal authorities charged the New Jersey US senator and his wife with accepting bribes. However, the defiant senator has rejected those claims and is refusing to step down.
Authorities on Friday revealed charges alleging that Robert and Nadine Menendez illegally accepted gold bars, cash, a luxurious Mercedes-Benz car and other gifts in exchange for favors benefiting three businessmen as well as influencing the Egyptian government.
In response, the Democratic congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota told CNN he was deeply disappointed in Menendez and that the senator needed to resign. Phillips said that was his position despite his belief that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
“Yes, I am a Democrat and so is Senator Menendez, but based on what I have seen, I am disappointed and yes, I think he should resign,” Phillips said. He continued: “I’m appalled. Anybody who pays attention – I don’t care [about] your politics, Democrat or Republican, you should be appalled. A member of Congress who appears to have broken the law is someone who I should believe should resign.”
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Post by Webster on Sept 25, 2023 14:21:24 GMT -5
(The Guardian) As Menendez was speaking, another Democratic lawmaker called on him to step down. “Senator Menendez must resign. Corruption is corruption. Bribery is bribery,” freshman House representative Summer Lee of Pennsylvania said in a statement. She likened the allegations against the senator to concerns surrounding conservative supreme court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and their ties to parties with interests in the court’s decisions: We can’t talk about holding Thomas and Alito accountable for selling out our freedoms for luxury vacations and private jet flights if we fail to hold a Senator accountable for selling out his chairmanship to a dictator gifting gold bars and cash to keep military aid flowing to Egypt as its government violates human rights. Menendez is of course owed due process, but the American people are owed trust in our institutions. Our fight against right-wing fascism depends on that trust.
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Post by Webster on Sept 25, 2023 14:21:56 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Sept 25, 2023 14:22:37 GMT -5
(The Guardian) One thing to note about Robert Menendez’s statement to the press today: he did not explicitly say he was running for re-election. Rather, he said he would be exonerated and “still will be New Jersey’s senior senator”. That’s as good a signal as any that he doesn’t plan to resign, as several fellow Democratic lawmakers have called for him to do, but he didn’t specify what his future would be beyond next year, when his current term in office expires.
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Post by Webster on Sept 26, 2023 12:14:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Supreme court rejects Alabama GOP's attempt to avoid drawing second majority-Black congressional districtThe supreme court has turned down an attempt by Republican lawmakers in Alabama to defy a recent ruling and avoid drawing a second majority-Black congressional district in the state, CNN reports: In June, the supreme court ordered Alabama to draw a second congressional district where a majority of voters are African American, a decision expected to benefit Democrats, who tend to be favored among the group. The 5-4 decision citing the Voting Rights Act was something of a surprise, since it was signed on to by two of the court’s conservative majority, which is often skeptical of the landmark civil rights legislation. The decision was expected to affect other southern states and likely help Democrats in their quest to retake the majority in the House in next year’s elections. But rather than follow the decision, Republican lawmakers in Alabama drew new congressional maps that, like the previous version, included just one majority-Black district. Lawsuits were then filed against the maps, which have reached their conclusion with today’s supreme court decision.
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Post by Webster on Sept 26, 2023 12:26:21 GMT -5
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