Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, will veto three anti-LGBTQ+ bills passed by the Republican-dominated Louisiana Legislature.

When asked Thursday at his annual end-of-session press conference, Edwards said it is his “expectation” to veto the bills.

While Edwards had previously declined to commit to reject the proposals, he raised concerns last month that the recent onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation would have a negative impact on the already high suicide rate for transgender Louisianians.

“Members of this community believe they’re being attacked for who they are,” Edwards said at a press conference in May. “Members of the the trans community are much more likely than other young people to have suicidal ideation or attempts or to actually be successful. These kinds of bills do not tend to help with that.”

“And in fact, they aggravate that situation and then cause it to be worse,” Edwards added.

Britain Forsyth, the legislative coordinator for Step Up Louisiana, a progressive organization, thanked Edwards for his impending veto in a statement to the Illuminator.



https://lailluminator.com/2023/06/08/louisiana-governor-to-veto-bills-targeting-lgbtq-youth/

A North Carolina political activist filed a defamation lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Silt in federal court Thursday.

Plaintiffs David Wheeler, who last year publicized information about Boebert in an effort to derail her reelection bid, and the super PAC American Muckrakers claim that Boebert defamed Wheeler by falsely accusing him of defaming her.

Boebert and “John Does,” to be named later, are identified as defendants.

The complaint, filed against the Republican in U.S. District Court of Colorado, alleges that Boebert made “maliciously false statements” about Wheeler and American Muckrakers, of which he is president, on multiple occasions last summer, particularly during broadcasts of TV and radio host Sean Hannity’s shows.

Wheeler in March told Newsline he was considering whether to identify Boebert-aligned media entities, such as Fox News and Hannity, as defendants. Hannity is discussed extensively in Wheeler’s complaint and is alleged to have provided a platform for and amplified false assertions made by Boebert.

Fox personality Tomi Lahren is also singled out in the complaint as having provided a platform for Boebert to allegedly defame Wheeler.




https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/06/08/lauren-boebert-sued-for-defamation-in-federal-court-by-activist/

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs continued to bring down her veto stamp on Republican-backed bills on Thursday, adding five more for a record total of 111 and putting a stop to a contentious transgender bathroom bill.

Hobbs is a Democrat, and with a Republican majority in both the state House and Senate, she by far surpassed the number of vetoes given out by any of her predecessors. Democrat Janet Napolitano, who was in the same position with a Republican majority in the legislature, had the previous veto record of 58 in one year.

Among Hobbs’ latest vetoes was Senate Bill 1040, which would have barred transgender students from using school bathrooms or showers that align with their expressed gender identity and from sharing sleeping quarters on school trips with those of the gender they identify with.

“SB1040 is yet another discriminatory act against LGBTQ+ youth passed by the majority at the state legislature,” Hobbs wrote in a veto letter to Senate President Warren Petersen.

Hobbs had previously promised to veto every bill that came across her desk that she believes is aimed at attacking or harming children.




https://www.azmirror.com/2023/06/08/hobbs-vetoes-transgender-bathroom-bill-reaches-111-vetoes/

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling rejecting Alabama’s voting map will influence the outcome of pending lawsuits challenging district lines drawn in late 2021 here in Georgia.

The 5-4 opinion released Thursday morning offered a surprise blow to the GOP-created congressional maps in Alabama, which had set aside a single majority Black district.

The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the maps violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that discriminate based on race, color or membership in certain language groups.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Trump-nominated Brett M. Kavanaugh joined the court’s three liberal members in keeping the key provision of the 1965 law intact.

By the end of the day, U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones in the Northern District of Georgia had ordered new supplemental briefings in two cases – including one where three lawsuits have been merged – to argue the impact of the Supreme Court decision. The written briefings are due in two weeks.





https://georgiarecorder.com/2023/06/08/ruling-against-alabama-congressional-maps-could-send-georgia-lawmakers-back-to-drawing-board/

“Words matter” – that’s what several of the dozen or so educators and parents gathered in a downtown Atlanta boardroom had to say Thursday in a bid to persuade the Georgia Professional Standards Commission not to change the state’s rules for training K-12 teachers.

The commission had on its agenda a slew of proposed revisions, removing words like “diversity” in favor of less politically fraught verbiage like “differences.”

For example, one change for elementary school educators would call on them to get to know the “unique contexts of children and families,” rather than their “diverse cultural contexts” under the previous rules.

But the speakers’ words did not sway the commissioners, who voted unanimously to approve the changes without discussion.

“History remembers white supremacists,” shouted one speaker as the commissioners voted.

Commission Chair Brian Sirmans said the changes came at the request of the University System of Georgia and are intended to clarify language that had picked up unintended negative meanings over the years.

“These proposed rule amendments are not intended to redefine or remove the care preparation providers place on meeting students’ needs or prescribe the way (education preparation providers) choose to meet the program standards,” he said. “We still expect EPPs to prepare educators who are well-equipped to address the learning needs of all students that they may encounter and who are well-prepared to meet the students where they are within a positive and welcoming learning environment.”



https://georgiarecorder.com/2023/06/08/georgia-education-panel-votes-to-cleanse-teacher-lesson-plans-as-school-culture-wars-rage-on/

Any predictions?

“A second person is expected to be charged alongside former President Donald Trump in the handling of classified documents,” The Messenger reports.

“It’s unclear if the unidentified second defendant will be named in the same indictment as Trump or in a separate charging document.”



https://politicalwire.com/2023/06/08/second-person-expected-to-be-charged-in-trump-case/

I think he is the co-conspirator who may have tuned on TFG to get a break.

https://twitter.com/ettingermentum/status/1666846106838347781?s=61&t=EBEieEaRwHPfxBd3QiH8Ew

Delaware County disenfranchised a handful of eligible voters in the May primary by rejecting their provisional ballots, based on an allegedly incorrect interpretation of state law, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania argued in a new lawsuit.

Following the May 16 primary, Delaware County’s Board of Elections decided not to accept provisional ballots cast in person by voters who had already been told their mail ballots were rejected due to technical defects. That means that these voters were twice rejected, after trying to remedy their mail ballot mistake by voting provisionally at their nearby polling places, and ultimately were unable to have their ballot counted.

While the legal dispute only involves roughly a half-dozen voters, it could have implications statewide for whether voters whose mail ballots get rejected have the chance to vote by other means.

The dispute hinges on a contradiction between Pennsylvania’s vote-by-mail law and the state’s statute governing provisional voting, which, if not resolved, has advocates concerned that it could be used as a way to disenfranchise voters in future elections.



https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2023/06/pa-delaware-county-aclu-lawsuit-mail-provisional-ballots/