https://reason.com/2021/02/24/tennessee-republicans-kneeling-student-athletes-national-anthem/ Tennessee Republicans Call on University Presidents To Punish Student-Athletes for Kneeling These demands obviously violate the First Amendment. All of Tennessee's Republican state senators have signed a letter to the state's university presidents and chancellors asking them to prevent student-athletes from kneeling during the national anthem. "To address this issue, we encourage each of you to adopt policies within your respective athletic departments to prohibit any such actions moving forward," wrote the lawmakers. The inspiration for this letter was an incident at the University of Tennessee at Chatanooga last week, when the visiting men's basketball team from East Tennessee State University decided to kneel during the "Star-Spangled Banner." The players claimed they were trying to call attention to racial inequality. If university administrators followed through on the senators' request, they would be violating student-athletes' First Amendment rights. Students at public universities enjoy broad free speech protections, and officials cannot punish them for engaging in political expression. This is not really an open question: The Supreme Court ruled in the 1943 decision West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that schools may not require students to salute the American flag. Yes, the Court has agreed with limiting K-12 students' rights in some very specific cases—most dubiously, if students' speech appeared to be advocating illegal drug use—but such an exception wouldn't apply to college athletes engaged in a non-disruptive political protest. If the university could force student-athletes to stand for the national anthem, then it could force any student to do so—and this would obviously be unconstitutional. Moreover, it's a particularly galling example of Republicans seeking to use the power of the state to squelch speech that they don't like. With their recent anti-cancel-culture crusade, conservatives occasionally sound as if they would like to be the party of free speech; this kind of behavior exposes them as hypocrites.
It's true and we know why (title of thread) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...ged-help-199-minutes-trumps-pentagon-stalled/ The man ultimately responsible for the delay, Christopher Miller, had been a White House aide before Donald Trump installed him as acting defense secretary in November, as the president began his attempt to overturn his election defeat. Miller did Trump’s political bidding at another point during his 10-week tenure, forcing the National Security Agency to install a Republican political operative as chief counsel. Also involved in the Pentagon delay was Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn, brother of disgraced former Trump adviser Michael Flynn, convicted (and pardoned) for lying to the FBI. Michael Flynn had suggested Trump declare martial law, and he helped to rile Trump supporters in Washington the day before the Capitol attack. The Pentagon had falsely denied to Post journalists that Charles Flynn was involved in the pivotal call on Jan. 6.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/11/politics/arizona-republicans-voter-suppression-bills/index.html Arizona Republican lawmakers join GOP efforts to target voting, with nearly two dozen restrictive voting measures "Not everybody wants to vote, and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they're totally uninformed on the issues," Kavanagh said. "Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well." The Arizona bills are only a fraction of the more than 250 pieces of legislation that would restrict voting that were introduced in state legislatures this year, according to a tally from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Arizona is second only to Georgia in the number of bills to implement new voting restrictions introduced this year, said Eliza Sweren-Becker, voting rights and elections counsel at the Brennan Center. "It is at the top of the heap of states that are trying to restrict voting access," she said. "The magnitude of restrictive voting bills that we're seeing in both of those states is a reflection of the anxiety around the browning of America."
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...icans-back-away-from-some-voting-restrictions Georgia Republicans back away from some voting restrictions Top Republicans in Georgia’s state legislature are backing away from a controversial plan to eliminate no-excuse absentee voting and to do away with early voting on Sundays after increasing criticism from voting rights groups and the state’s largest businesses. In a hearing late Thursday, legislators said their package of election law changes would drop some of the most controversial elements. State Rep. Barry Fleming (R), who heads the Special Committee on Election Integrity, said the new version of the bill would allow up to four weekend days of early voting, more than what is currently required. Fleming and state Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan (R) both said they do not expect the final bill will eliminate no-excuse absentee voting, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The bill would still limit the ability of voting rights advocates to send absentee ballot request forms to voters who have already sought a ballot and would limit a voter’s ability to cast a provisional ballot outside their home precinct. Voters who cast absentee ballots would have to submit their driver’s license number or other documentation attesting to their identity, a new method of verifying ballots that would stand in for a signature-matching process currently on the books. And the bill would limit drop boxes for absentee ballots to the inside of early voting locations. Voters would have to request their absentee ballot at least 11 days before an election. Groups would not be allowed to distribute food to voters waiting in line. (Inb4 water is food in future challenges) Voting rights groups were outraged over provisions to limit no-excuse absentee voting, a method initially passed by an earlier Republican legislature, and Sunday early voting, when Black churches typically run “souls to the polls” programs to inspire their congregants to vote. Those groups won important allies in recent days from the business community. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and Home Depot publicly opposed the new restrictions proposed in the Republican-sponsored bills.
we can't have sensible gun laws but Georgia needs 100 page changes to election law. This bill literally removes the Secretary of State from the election process. But only after Kemp, as Secretary of State, helped himself when he was running for Governor. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/kemp...ry?id=76677927 Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a nearly 100-page omnibus bill Thursday that will make sweeping changes to election law, impacting voters, local election administrators and the board overseeing elections. With just days left before the legislative session ends, Republican lawmakers in both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly passed the bill, SB 202, on a party-line vote in the House first and then the Senate. 1. New voter ID requirements for absentee ballots 2. Empower state officials to take over local elections boards 3. Limit the use of ballot drop boxes 4. Make it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water The bill would expand early voting for primary and general elections, but not for runoffs, which is how Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock secured their Senate seats -- and the Democrats' majority -- in January, breaking a decades-long streak of Democrats losing in statewide runoff elections. For primaries and general elections, counties would be required to have advance voting on both Saturdays and have the option to do it on the two Sundays that fall in the three-week period, too. Current law only mandates one Saturday of early voting. Another omnibus election bill awaiting final votes, HB 531, originally banned early voting on Sundays, but it was changed following fierce pushback from Democrats and the faith community who called it a direct attack on Black voters who participated in "Souls to the Polls" events after Sunday service. However, this bill would shorten the period between elections and runoffs from nine weeks to four weeks, and while counties would be able to start early voting "as soon as possible," the bill only requires it be offered Monday through Friday the week before the election -- a much shorter mandate that includes no weekend days. Complicating this further is the possibility that the week lines up with Thanksgiving, when many are traveling. This bill also bans early voting on holidays. One provision of the bill would make it a crime for someone who is not an election worker to give food or beverage to any elector waiting in line to vote, a practice known as "line warming," except for self-service water stations. In the June 2020 primary, voters in Georgia's largest metro counties -- Democratic strongholds with large minority populations -- waited in line for up to eight hours. Another provision bans out-of-precinct voting until 5 p.m., and electors arriving after that point must sign an affidavit saying they cannot get to their assigned precinct in time to vote. Currently, voters who show up to the wrong precinct can vote a provisional ballot and their votes will be counted for races they were eligible to vote for, like statewide races. The bill would also eliminate the signature-matching process to verify mail ballots and instead require voters to provide their driver's license or state ID number, or a photocopy of another accepted identification if the elector lacks those. Another provision would ban portable polling facilities, like the mobile voting buses Fulton County used last cycle, except in emergencies that force a polling precinct to close. Additionally, third-party groups would be barred from sending absentee ballot applications to any voter who has already requested, received or voted a mail ballot. Doing so subjects them to sanctions by the State Election Board. The board would also get its own overhaul and the General Assembly would gain new power over elections. The secretary of state would become a nonvoting member of the board and no longer chair it. Instead, the Republican-controlled General Assembly would elect a chair by a majority vote. Since the legislature already appoints two board members, under this bill they would appoint three of five voting members to the board that oversee elections and refers potential election law violations to the attorney general or relevant district attorney. Among the board's new authorities is the ability to suspend county election superintendents and appoint temporary replacements. But the board's power to enact emergency rules would be curtailed because the House and Senate Judiciary Committees would have the power to suspend rules put in place because of public health emergencies, like the one sanctioning drop boxes in the 2020 cycle. Two provisions of the bill would add new burdens for county election divisions. While counties would be allowed to begin processing absentee ballots weeks ahead of time, on election night workers would no longer have the ability to stop counting ballots until they are finished, excluding the few categories of ballots that can be accepted until the Friday after the election. The bill also changes when counties must complete certification, moving up the deadline by four days -- a change that will most impact the large, metro counties that typically certify on or close to the current deadline.
"OK Guys, we need a photo op for signing this law to restrict black voting. Ooh, I know... let's make it all white dudes. Even better, let's do it under a painting of a PLANTATION. "