Ohio's congressional redistricting case moves back to state supreme court

In an expected move, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday sent back an Ohio congressional redistricting case for reconsideration by the state’s highest court.

Following its decision in Moore v. Harper, in which a majority of the court rejected the concept of the independent state legislature theory, the court entered a short order regarding the Ohio case, directing the state supreme court to reconsider the case “in light of Moore v. Harper.”

The Moore v. Harper decision essentially rejected all of the arguments attorneys for Huffman and GOP leadership made for legislative authority over district maps.

Using a very old and often rejected legal theory, arguments were made in the North Carolina case that a state legislature holds power over the administration of elections, therefore rise above the scrutiny of the judicial system when setting voting districts.

SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts said the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution “does not insulate state legislatures” from judicial review.

But the Ohio case, listed under the lead parties Senate President Matt Huffman and district map challenger Meryl Neiman, is headed back to a state supreme court with a new chief justice, one who led the dissent in each of the court’s rejections of congressional (and, for that matter, statehouse) redistricting maps. Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy would have upheld the very first map presented to the court nearly two years ago, and every map thereafter.




https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/briefs/ohios-congressional-redistricting-case-moves-back-to-state-supreme-court/

Michigan authorities arraign third alleged gubernatorial signature fraudster

The third of three people charged in a signature gathering scheme that knocked half the Republicans running for governor off last year’s primary ballot has turned himself in after being at large for a week.

Willie Reed, a Florida resident, turned himself in to Michigan authorities on Thursday, June 29. He was arraigned the same day on 27 felony charges before Judge John Chmura in the 37th District Court in Macomb County.

Another two people, Shawn Wilmoth and Jamie Wilmoth-Goodin, were arraigned last week on identical charges while Reed remained on the run.

Reed stands accused of taking part in a criminal enterprise with the two Wilmoths during the 2022 election cycle through their petition gathering businesses: Petition Reed’s LLC, Mack Douglas LLC and First Choice Contracting.

Prosecutors allege the three charged multiple campaigns over $700,000 for valid signature collection efforts during the election cycle, then, upon taking the money, forging thousands of signatures on candidates’ nominating petitions which were later submitted to the state for review.



https://www.mlive.com/politics/2023/06/michigan-authorities-arraign-third-alleged-gubernatorial-signature-fraudster.html

MI-07: Hertel resigns as Whitmer legislative affairs director ahead of likely congressional run

Curtis Hertel Jr. has officially left the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer administration, furthering speculation that he will announce a run for Congress to replace U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Lansing), who’s launched a U.S. Senate bid.

In a press release Friday, Whitmer announced that Hertel had stepped down as her director of legislative affairs, a position the Democrat had held since being term-limited from the Michigan Senate in 2022.

He was part of negotiations on the $82 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget, which the Legislature finished passing this week.

“I am so grateful to my friend Curtis Hertel, Jr. for his service to the State of Michigan and for everything he has done bringing Republicans and Democrats together to make a real difference in people’s lives,” said Whitmer. “Curtis helped deliver $1 billion in tax cuts for Michiganders by securing a repeal of the retirement tax and expanding the Working Families Tax Credit. He led efforts to create thousands of good-paying American jobs, bringing investment and supply chains back home from overseas. And every Michigander now has more freedom and rights thanks to Curtis’s work in the legislature to strengthen the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.”

Hertel, the former Ingham County register of deeds who served as a state senator for Michigan’s 23rd District from 2015 to 2022, has not officially declared for Congress.



https://michiganadvance.com/2023/06/30/hertel-resigns-as-whitmer-legislative-affairs-director-fueling-speculation-of-congressional-run/

Bonus Tweet of the Day

U.S. Supreme Court Declines To Review Mississippi's Jim Crow-Era Felony Disenfranchisement Policy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Friday, June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition seeking review of Mississippi’s strict felony disenfranchisement provision (Section 241) that was enshrined in the state’s 1890 constitution. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously upheld the constitutionality of the state’s felony disenfranchisement scheme in August 2022.

The Jim Crow-era provision of the Mississippi Constitution at issue in the petition — which strips the right to vote for life from anyone convicted of bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretenses, perjury, forgery, embezzlement or bigamy — was originally challenged in a consolidated lawsuit, Harness v. Watson. The lawsuit was filed by individuals with past felony convictions who alleged that the challenged provision was constructed and enacted with the intent to discriminate against Black voters and to prevent them from exercising their right to vote in violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.




https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/u-s-supreme-court-declines-to-review-mississippis-jim-crow-era-felony-disenfranchisement-policy/

Supreme Court declines to hear case of transgender woman housed with men in jail for months

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear the case of a transgender woman who sued county officials in Virginia under the Americans with Disabilities Act after being housed in jail for months with male inmates.

Kesha Williams, a transgender woman, was initially assigned to women's housing but was then reassigned when officials learned she was transgender. She was denied requests to shower privately and to have body searches conducted by female deputies, according to court records.

Williams sued the county sheriff after her release, alleging in part that the treatment violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The decision by the Supreme Court on Friday leaves in place a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last year that was the first from a federal appellate court to rule that the landmark disability law protects people with gender dysphoria.

Calling the 4th Circuit's opinion "questionable," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in dissent that the Supreme Court should have granted the case and decided it next term.




https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/06/30/lgbtq-rights-supreme-court-transgender-woman-jail-with-men/70334261007/

New study estimates Texas abortion restrictions contributed to nearly 9,800 additional births

Senate Bill 8, the Texas law that banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, contributed to adding 9,799 live births in 2022 alone, a new study estimates.

The study from Johns Hopkins University used provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics, looking at live births between April and December 2022 — the first group of infants who would have been conceived after SB 8 went into effect in September 2021. It was published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

For comparison, the study’s authors created a model of the expected number of births in Texas had SB 8 not been passed. To do so, they considered birth statistics from before the law’s implementation — January 2016 to March 2022 — along with birth rates in other U.S. states. They adjusted the model to account for other factors that may have affected fertility rates, including the COVID-19 pandemic, during which there were notable fluctuations in the birth rate.

Study author Suzanne Bell, an associate professor at John Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, said her team's findings could be a sign of trends that will emerge in other states following the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which rescinded the federal right to abortion.

“[SB 8] was the earliest and most restrictive ban at the time … it went into effect,” Bell said. “It was the first place … where we could start to examine what happens to live births in a state that imposes this sort of abortion restriction or ban.”




https://www.tpr.org/bioscience-medicine/2023-06-29/new-study-estimates-texas-abortion-restrictions-contributed-to-nearly-9-800-additional-births

OH: Republican lobbyist Matt Borges sentenced to 5 years prison for role in bribery scandal

CINCINNATI, Ohio — Former Ohio Republican party chairman Matt Borges was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison in connection with the Larry Householder-led political corruption scandal that engulfed state politics for years.

Borges, 51, worked as a lobbyist for FirstEnergy Solutions and alongside Householder — the former Ohio House Speaker who is now a federal prisoner — to scuttle opposition to a law that gave FirstEnergy a $1 billion bailout for two aging nuclear powerplants owned by a subsidiary of the Akron-based utility in exchange for $60 million in bribes.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Black sentenced Borges one day after putting Householder behind bars for 20 years, the maximum allowable under federal law, for the largest political corruption scandal in state history. It’s the second time in two decades Borges has been convicted of a corruption-related crime.

Borges was taken into custody immediately following the hearing to be sent to prison.

Federal prosecutors asked Black to sentence Borges to between five and eight years in prison. Borges’ attorney asked for a year in prison.




https://www.cleveland.com/politics/2023/06/republican-lobbyist-matt-borges-sentenced-to-5-years-prison-for-role-in-bribery-scandal.html

Contraceptive access remains an uphill battle in Alabama amid near-total abortion ban

In a state like Alabama, with a near-total abortion ban, access to contraception is critical for young women.

But getting it can be difficult, and without the right resources, nearly impossible.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found nearly 75% of Alabama women aged 18 to 24 in 2019 needed contraceptive services. 60% of women aged 25 to 34 needed those services, and 49.2% of women aged 35 to 44 needed them.

But according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Alabama does not pursue policies making contraception easier to obtain, such as requiring insurers to pay for contraception, allowing pharmacists to dispense it or making some contraceptives available over the counter.

“Certainly folks who could afford it, who can afford private insurance and those sorts of things are going to have access to other ways of getting their contraception,” said Christina Okarmus, executive director of the Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health.



https://alabamareflector.com/2023/06/30/contraceptive-access-remains-an-uphill-battle-in-alabama-amid-near-total-abortion-ban/

Voter registrars in Alabama learning new version of election system

Registrars around Alabama will have to get acquainted with upgrades to a new election system as a new set of registrars begin their terms at the end of September.

Current registrars are learning the new system ahead of the implementation of a new state congressional map later this year.

“Because of the newness of the system, we are addressing that more than any other issue,” said Don Milligan, board chair of the Voter Registration Advisory Board, in an interview at the conclusion of a meeting on Thursday.

Jeff Elrod, director of elections with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office said the changes to the system were mostly “cosmetic.”

“The layout, the design of the system, the way that you navigate the program,” he said. “It was just a decision by the company, our vendor (Election Systems & Software), that it was time to update and make it more functional from a web-based perspective.”

The updated system is available and is in the process of getting released to the different boards of registrars in the various counties in the state.



https://alabamareflector.com/2023/06/30/voter-registrars-in-alabama-learning-new-version-of-election-system/