7 votes

Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of May 17

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Tags: usa, politics, recurring.weekly

This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

4 comments

  1. HotPants
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    Mississippi Supreme Court overturns voter-approved medical marijuana initiative, based on a technicality that the ballot law assumed five congressional districts in effect in the 1990s....

    Mississippi Supreme Court overturns voter-approved medical marijuana initiative, based on a technicality that the ballot law assumed five congressional districts in effect in the 1990s.

    Mississippi voter ID law could be struck down by anti-medical marijuana ruling because the restrictive voter laws also relied on the same ballot laws.

    More likely the Supreme Court of Mississippi could try to claim that laws that have been in place for a while are somehow immune, so they can keep their restrictive voter laws but stop future voter driven ballot initiatives.

    Because fuck democracy, right?

    7 votes
  2. [2]
    spit-evil-olive-tips
    Link
    After conservative criticism, UNC backs down from offering acclaimed journalist tenured position I'll be right here waiting for all the people outraged about "cancel culture" and "suppression of...

    After conservative criticism, UNC backs down from offering acclaimed journalist tenured position

    UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media pursued Hannah-Jones for its Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, a tenured professorship. But following political pressure from conservatives who object to her work on “The 1619 Project” for The New York Times Magazine, the school changed its plan to offer her tenure — which amounts to a career-long appointment. Instead, she will start July 1 for a fixed five-year term as Professor of the Practice, with the option of being reviewed for tenure at the end of that time period.

    I'll be right here waiting for all the people outraged about "cancel culture" and "suppression of free speech on college campuses" to get upset about this.

    4 votes
    1. Akir
      Link Parent
      Ah yes, I heard she was denied because of her endorsement of Critical Race Theory, which I have been told by thousands of Conservatives on the internet is “totally racist” and bad, and yet none of...

      Ah yes, I heard she was denied because of her endorsement of Critical Race Theory, which I have been told by thousands of Conservatives on the internet is “totally racist” and bad, and yet none of them could define exactly what it is except that it’s somehow Marxist in nature.

      2 votes
  3. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
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    1. spit-evil-olive-tips
      Link Parent
      More coverage in Slate: The Supreme Court is taking direct aim at Roe v. Wade Comment I made almost exactly two years ago with some background about this question of whether SCOTUS would go with a...

      More coverage in Slate: The Supreme Court is taking direct aim at Roe v. Wade

      This decision indicates that the ultra-conservative five-justice majority is prepared to move aggressively against Roe v. Wade rather than tinker around the edges of abortion rights. The court will take on state laws that seek to outlaw abortion at early—and perhaps all—stages of pregnancy. It seems likely that the justices took this case for the express purpose of overturning Roe and allowing the government to enact draconian abortion bans that have been unconstitutional for nearly half a century.

      First, there is no split between the lower courts on the question presented in Dobbs. The Supreme Court typically takes up cases that have divided courts of appeals so the justices can provide a definitive answer that applies nationwide. Here, however, no court has claimed that, under current precedent, a state may outlaw abortions at 15 weeks. Even Ho had to admit that binding precedent “establishes viability as the governing constitutional standard.” There is no reason for the Supreme Court to hear Dobbs unless it wants to abolish this standard, which has been the law of the land for almost 50 years.

      Second, Mississippi gave the justices several options for a more limited ruling; its petition to the court included a question that would’ve let the court modify the standard for abortion restrictions without overtly killing off Roe. But the justices rejected that alternative and agreed to consider the central question in the case: “Whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.”

      Comment I made almost exactly two years ago with some background about this question of whether SCOTUS would go with a narrow or broad ruling about abortion rights.

      And an NYT article from Oct 2020: What Happens if Roe v. Wade Is Overturned?

      5 votes