News Roundup: Attacks on Civil Rights

Each week brings more troubling news about attacks on civil rights in states across the country.

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Each week brings more troubling news about attacks on civil rights in states across the country. From efforts to further restrict abortion access to calls for banning books, 2023 has already seen several such stories, and this week was no different.

Following last summer’s Dobbs decision, anti-abortion rights activists have set their sights on medication abortion, calling on conservative leaders to restrict access to pills. While earlier this year the Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule making the pills more available in pharmacies, abortion-rights advocates are warning about a potential court ruling in Texas that could ban the medication.

In Idaho, a new bill would add the helping of minors seeking abortion outside the state to Idaho’s criminal human trafficking law.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee proposed creating a $100 million grant program for anti-abortion rights groups known as “crisis pregnancy centers.”
The 19th reported on an analysis that found that 1 in 10 Florida minors seeking a “judicial bypass” of requirements for parental involvement in abortion decisions are denied.

Conservative leaders have increased their attacks on LGBTQ people, with many states taking a page from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ book. “The state-policy debates,” reported the Washington Post on Thursday, “underscore how Florida now rivals Texas a laboratory for conservative policies, giving Republican legislators elsewhere a model for how to turn their principles on social issues into law.”

The South Dakota Senate passed a bill prohibiting gender-affirming medical care for minors, sending it to Gov. Kristi Noem for final approval. An Idaho House committee also voted this week to make such care a felony.
NPR reports that at least nine Republican-led state legislatures want to restrict or criminalize drag shows.

The anti-LGBTQ attacks have extended to public education and students’ access to books and materials that don’t conform to conservative ideology.

The North Carolina Senate passed a bill that would in most circumstances require public school teachers to notify parents before calling a student by a different name or pronoun.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and conservative lawmakers spoke at a “parental rights” event this week, promising to pass legislation banning LGBTQ materials in schools.
The New Yorker took a look at why several Florida schools were removing books from libraries.
Louisiana’s attorney general has called for legislation to restrict what minors can check out at public libraries.

At the same time, conservative leaders are also pushing measures that would stymie progress on racial justice, as well as provide greater control over local governance. Here are some headlines:

Gov. Greg Abbott tells state agencies to stop considering diversity in hiring (Texas Tribune)
Montana bill that would ban diversity training gets first hearing (Daily Montanan)
Lawmakers attempting takeover of funds for Jackson’s water system, federal manager warns (ProPublica)
‘Only in Mississippi’: White representatives vote to create white-appointed court system for Blackest city in America (Mississippi Today)
House passes bill to allow for state takeover of Missouri prosecutor offices (Missouri Independent)

On the Records

The ‘Constitutional Sheriffs’ Movement
We’ve been investigating the “constitutional sheriffs” movement — a fringe theory that holds that sheriffs have more law enforcement power in their home counties than any other government body or individual — and its ties to election denialism, submitting records requests in more than a dozen states to sheriff’s offices for communications with election conspiracy theorists and activists.

In November, we sued Sheriff Dar Leaf of Barry County, Mich., who led a baseless review of the 2020 election, for the release of communications, including with voter-fraud alarmist group True the Vote.
The office had previously confirmed those communications existed, but withheld them under an exemption in the state’s public records law for records related to law enforcement proceedings. We argued that those communications did not constitute legitimate law enforcement work, given the lack of any credible evidence of widespread fraud and the group’s propagation of misinformation.
Last month, and in response to our litigation, Leaf’s office released a partial response to our request, which included communications with True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht and additional constitutional sheriffs.
You can read more about our investigation here.

Partisan Influences Behind DeSantis’ Redistricting Plan
We obtained more records reflecting the partisan influences behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2022 redistricting plan, which eliminated three Democratic counties and gave a substantial advantage to Republicans in the state.

In text messages, DeSantis’ general counsel Newman and former Trump DOJ official John Gore discussed finding an expert witness to present on DeSantis’ map proposal during a Florida House subcommittee meeting in February 2022.
Gore sent Newman the contact information for voter-fraud alarmist Hans von Spakovsky, and also suggested attorneys Chris Coates and Robert Popper. Popper ultimately served as the expert witness.
Last year, ProPublica reported on records we obtained that revealed how DeSantis aides teamed up with operative Jason Torchinsky to create a new congressional map after the state legislature proposed a map that DeSantis felt was insufficiently partisan.

News Roundup: Attacks on Civil Rights

On the Records

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