Rep. George Santos appears in federal court on fraud, money laundering charges

NEW YORK -- Prosecutors said they have more than 80,000 pages of evidence against U.S. Rep. George Santos during a court hearing on Friday.

Santos appeared in court for the first time since pleading not guilty last month to charges that he duped donors, stole from his campaign, collected fraudulent unemployment benefits, and lied to Congress about being a millionaire.

The hearing was brief. His attorney, Joseph Murray, asked federal Judge Joanna Seybert if they could review the documents during August, when the House is on recess. She agreed.

Santos' next status hearing will was set for September 7.

The New York Republican, known for fabricating key parts of his life story, is free awaiting trial.



https://abc7ny.com/george-santos-court-fraud-money-laundering/13444064/

Georgia families make last-gasp attempt to block ban on gender-affirming care

Georgia’s transgender children and their families are hoping a last-minute lawsuit will thwart the state’s proposed ban on gender-affirming medical treatments set to kick in Saturday.

The families of four transgender girls from Atlanta and Athens filed the suit in federal court Thursday, two days before the law is set to go into effect. The girls, ranging from 10 to 12 years old, are in different stages of treatment and are waiting for the right time to start hormone treatment. TransParent, a group for parents of transgender children with chapters in 10 states, is also a plaintiff.

If the law goes into effect on July 1 as planned, health care providers in Georgia will not be able to prescribe estrogen for transgender girls or testosterone for transgender boys until they turn 18. Doctors can prescribe such treatments for other reasons. Children who have already began hormone treatment will be able to continue,

Attorneys for the families argue that amounts to a textbook case of sex discrimination under the 14th Amendment because the patient’s sex at birth determines whether they will be restricted from the care their doctor recommends.

“The Ban infringes parents’ fundamental right to make medical decisions in the best interests of their children, and it singles out transgender minors for the denial of essential medical care, contrary to the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the plaintiffs argue in their court filing.



https://georgiarecorder.com/brief/georgia-families-make-last-gasp-attempt-to-block-ban-on-gender-affirming-care/

Michigan lawmakers pass 'historic' voting rights legislation: Here's what it would do

That legislation – Senate Bills 339, 367, 370, and 373 and House Bills 4696, 4697, 4699, and 4702 – would:

Allow clerks in municipalities with at least 5,000 people to process and count absentee ballots eight days before Election Day

Implement at least nine consecutive days of early voting for statewide elections

Require each municipality in Michigan to have at least one accessible absent voter drop box and one for every 15,000 registered voters in the municipality

Provide prepaid postage on absentee ballots

Expand permissible options for photo identity using in voting

Launch an absentee ballot tracking system for voters

Create a single application for voters to automatically receive absent voter ballots for all future elections

Make disclosing an election result from an early voting site before Election Day a felony with a maximum five-year prison sentence

Increase the number of active registered voters in a single election precinct from 2,999 to 5,000 active registered voters



https://michiganadvance.com/2023/06/30/michigan-lawmakers-pass-historic-voting-rights-legislation-heres-what-it-would-do/

Indiana Supreme Court upholds abortion ban, but leaves door open for other legal challenges

Indiana’s near-total abortion ban that prohibits the procedure with only narrow exceptions will go back into effect after the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the law Friday. But justices left open the possibility for other challenges in the future.

In a split decision, the high court nixed a preliminary injunction that has kept the ban on-hold since September.

Justices opined that the plaintiffs — which included Planned Parenthood and multiple other health care providers — unsuccessfully brought a “facial” challenge to the entire law, alleging that the abortion ban is always unconstitutional and should therefore be voided.

The state Supreme Court said the providers “cannot show a reasonable likelihood of success” with that challenge, however.

” … we hold that Article 1, Section 1 (of the Indiana Constitution) protects a woman’s right to an abortion that is necessary to protect her life or to protect her from a serious health risk, but the General Assembly otherwise retains broad legislative discretion for determining whether and the extent to which to prohibit abortions,” Justice Derek Molter wrote in the ruling.




https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2023/06/30/indiana-supreme-court-upholds-abortion-ban-but-leaves-door-open-for-other-legal-challenges/

Supreme Court to weigh right of accused domestic abusers to own guns

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to weigh whether people accused of domestic violence have a right to own firearms in a case that will test the scope of recently expanded gun rights.

The justices agreed to hear a Biden administration appeal in defense of a federal law that prohibits people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing guns.

In doing so, the justices will examine how broadly they will interpret the landmark ruling a year ago, powered by the court's conservative majority, that for the first time recognized that the Constitution's Second Amendment includes a right to bear arms outside the home.

The case will be argued in the court's next term, which begins in October and ends in June next year.

The case concerns Zackey Rahimi, a drug dealer in Texas whose partner obtained a restraining order in February 2020.



https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-guns-domestic-abuser-rcna90220

Tweet of the Day

She warned us.

As US maternal mortality rates surge, Idaho abandons panel investigating pregnancy-related deaths

On July 1, Idaho becomes the only state without a legal requirement or specialized committee to review maternal deaths related to pregnancy.

The change comes after state lawmakers, in the midst of a national upsurge in maternal deaths, decided not to extend a sunset date for the panel set in 2019, when they established the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, or MMRC.

The committee is composed of a family medicine physician, an OB-GYN, a midwife, a coroner and a social worker, in addition to others who track deaths in Idaho that occur from pregnancy-related complications. Wyoming studies its maternal deaths through a shared committee with Utah. All other states, as well as Washington, D.C., New York City, Philadelphia, and Puerto Rico, have an MMRC, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research group.

A majority of the state committees were established within the past decade as federal officials scrambled to understand state and local data to address gaps in maternal care. The committees review deaths that occur within a year of pregnancy and identify trends, share findings, and suggest policy changes.

Liz Woodruff, executive director of the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians, said she was “incredibly disappointed” by the Idaho Legislature’s decision to scuttle the committee.

“It seems relevant that the state of Idaho supports a committee that works toward preventing the deaths of pregnant women,” she said. “This should be easy.”




https://idahocapitalsun.com/2023/06/30/as-us-maternal-mortality-rates-surge-idaho-abandons-panel-investigating-pregnancy-related-deaths/

Rep. George Santos set to appear federal court on fraud and money laundering charges

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Rep. George Santos is set to return to court Friday for the first time since pleading not guilty last month to charges that he duped donors, stole from his campaign, collected fraudulent unemployment benefits and lied to Congress about being a millionaire.

The New York Republican, known for fabricating key parts of his life story, is free awaiting trial. He is scheduled to go before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert in a Long Island courthouse at noon. The hearing is expected to focus on the timing of future court dates as the case against the Republican congressman moves forward.

Federal prosecutors have charged Santos with 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to Congress. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Taken together, the allegations suggest Santos relied on “repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself,” according to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace.



https://apnews.com/article/george-santos-indictment-b8bd9b6c9cdf85126271138ded11bca6

Positive polling, past successes don't guarantee victory for abortion rights at the ballot box

Polls show that most Americans, even in red states, oppose the strict abortion bans Republican state lawmakers have enacted in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

Emboldened by that fact, abortion rights advocates in multiple states might propose ballot initiatives for voters to consider in next year’s election, if not before. Last year, voters in six states — including conservative Kansas, Kentucky and Montana — endorsed abortion rights when presented with abortion-related ballot questions.

But in several states, Republicans have scrambled the political calculus by making it more difficult to place initiatives on the ballot or by requiring a supermajority of voters to approve them. GOP lawmakers had mixed success with such efforts this year, but they are likely to continue to push them in hopes of raising the barriers before the 2024 election.

GOP officials also could short-circuit ballot measures by, for example, tinkering with their language or rejecting the signatures on petitions, abortion rights supporters worry.

Maryland and New York are so far the only states where abortion rights measures are officially on the 2024 ballot. Each of those initiatives, placed on the ballot by legislators, would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Voters in those deep-blue states almost certainly will approve them.

Everywhere else, the prospects for getting a citizen-generated abortion rights measure on the ballot, let alone winning voters’ approval, is murkier.




https://stateline.org/2023/06/30/positive-polling-past-successes-dont-guarantee-victory-for-abortion-rights-at-the-ballot-box/