… I hope you don’t have a fever of 103.
(If you do, please stop reading and get that seen about.)
Republicans in statehouses across the country remain awfully hot to put people’s health and lives in danger in service of … supposedly improving the economy? Sticking it to Democratic governors? Kinda depends on the day, really.
The fact of the matter is, Republicans in no fewer than four state legislatures—Maryland, Michigan, Washington, and Wisconsin, specifically—have filed lawsuits challenging their governors’ emergency powers and seeking to overturn stay-at-home orders.
Yes Maryland does have a Republican governor but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Campaign Action
Also, by the by, no new news on that Illinois lawsuit I mentioned last week.
- The furthest along of these is the lawsuit the GOP-controlled legislature filed in Wisconsin, which was heard before the conservative-majority state Supreme Court on Tuesday.
And oh what a hearing it was.
- The justices heard arguments and conferred remotely via videoconference, because, hey, it’s dangerous out there.
- Conservative Chief Justice Patience Roggensack began things benignly enough, noting that “there’s an awful lot of emotion” around the case “because we are in the middle of a pandemic that all sides agree on.”
Sure, okay.
- But later in the hearing, when the attorney representing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and defending the stay-at-home order pointed to a coronavirus spike in a particular county as evidence of how fast the disease is spreading, Roggensack asserted, “These were due to the meatpacking, though. That’s where Brown County got the flare. It wasn’t just the regular folks in Brown County.”
Regular folks.
- But she wasn’t the only all-star of the 5-2 conservative majority on the court.
- Defeated Justice Daniel Kelly will remain on the court and continue to rule on cases until the progressive judge who unseated him in April takes the bench in … August.
- Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley gave her colleague’s reprehensible comment a real run for its money.
- First, she questioned whether the stay-at-home order is “tyranny.”
- And then she compared the life-saving directive to World War II’s Japanese internment camps.
- The Wisconsin Supreme Court has not indicated when they’ll rule on the matter, but with comments like those coming from the majority, it’s no great leap to say the stay-at-home order’s days are numbered.
In Washington, one of the earliest and hardest-hit states by the coronavirus, four Republican legislators are suing Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee to lift the stay-at-home order and attendant restrictions on businesses.
- The complaint, filed this week in federal court, paints the threat posed by COVID-19 as overblown and argues that “the emergency has been contained.”
- … never mind that, while the curve in the state has been flattened a bit, new cases in the state are absolutely not trending downward.
- Inslee described the lawsuit as “biologically ignorant and humanly heartless,” which, well, seems fair.
I mentioned in this space last week that, on top of refusing to reauthorize Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency powers, Michigan’s GOP-controlled legislature also voted to authorize a lawsuit challenging the governor’s emergency powers.
- They got around to filing that lawsuit this week, specifically claiming that Whitmer violated the law when she extended Michigan’s state of emergency despite the legislature’s refusal to reauthorize her emergency powers.
- While the case will initially be heard in a lower court, it’s likely headed to the state Supreme Court, where Republican appointees hold a 4-3 edge.
- For what it’s worth, various legal professors seem to think the case is a loser for the GOP.
- … but since when has that stopped Republicans from spending taxpayer money on partisan pursuits or putting politics above public interests?
A Republican lawmaker in Maryland is leading the charge in a lawsuit against GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, in which he essentially claims that the governor is creating law via his executive orders and would like to remind everyone that this is the legislature’s thing.
- The lawsuit also fingerwags at Hogan by including photographs alleging that the governor has been violating his own order in press conferences and briefings.
And while the GOP-controlled legislature didn’t file the lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court this week upheld Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s executive order that closed all businesses deemed “nonessential” to help control the spread of the coronavirus.
- But while they haven’t actually attempted legal action, Republican lawmakers in the Keystone State are playing dangerous games with people’s lives amid this crisis.
- Late last week, Wolf was forced to veto a measure that would have required insurance companies to cover remote doctor’s visits because GOP lawmakers attached an unnecessary provision restricting women’s access to abortion care.
- Earlier this week, GOP state Rep. Chris Dush compared Wolf’s handling of the coronavirus crisis to “the socialist playbook” used by Nazi Germany and the USSR.
- Late Wednesday night, Republican House Speaker Mike Turzai shared a letter he’d penned to his colleagues openly questioning the accuracy of the coronavirus death toll in the state.
- In his letter, Turzai pointed out that many of those who had died from COVID-19 also had other conditions, including hypertension and diabetes.
- Of course, the idea that these conditions are death sentences without the onset of coronavirus is both absurd and ghoulish.
- He also points out that the majority of those killed by COVID-19 lived in nursing homes or assisted living facilities and that the average age of those who have died in the state is 79.
Because they were just going to die anyway because they were old I guess and shouldn’t count somehow?
- Turzai is demonstrating a genuinely disturbing trend among GOPers across the country.
- Over the course of just three weeks, the percentage of Republicans nationwide who believe the official count of coronavirus deaths is incorrect and inflated has risen from 45% (already not great) to 59% (a healthy majority—or unhealthy, I guess, in this case).
Pretty staggering to think that the number of people killed by the coronavirus is a partisan issue, but here we are.
While we’re on WTAF items, Ohio Republican state Rep. Nino Vitale is taking a principled stand against wearing face masks to protect himself and others from the spread of the coronavirus.
And by “principled,” I actually mean “incredibly stupid.”
Stupidity can be a principle
- Asserting that “we are all created in the image and likeness of God” and “that image is seen the most by our face,” Vitale has proclaimed that he “will not wear a mask.”
- Vitale’s faith does not seem to extend to science and medicine, as he also believes that precautions about the coronavirus are “fear and propaganda” and that COVID-19 is “more like the flu.”
This man makes laws
- In Maine, Republican Sen. Stacey Guerin thinks that cutting the state’s minimum wage during a pandemic is a great idea, because yes, let’s pay people less when the economy is already in the toilet.
- … not to mention that many of his state’s frontline workers, like those in grocery stores, try to make ends meet while earning at or near that minimum wage.
- Geurin, dedicated to making it absolutely clear whose side he’s on in this crisis, also wants to shield employers from lawsuits resulting from the coronavirus epidemic.
Programming note: I'm going to be away taking care of some personal nonsense next week, so I’d like to leave you with a couple of bigger-picture items to chew on in my absence, maybe, if you want.
- First, did you think Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s narrow, tainted 50-49 win over Democrat Stacy Abrams means that the legislature might be in play this fall?
Sorry
But let me leave things on a brighter note.
- As an erudite reader of this missive, you’ve probably noticed that Democrats have performed pretty well in state legislative elections since Donald Trump became president.
- But more importantly than just winning seats, Democrats have been winning majorities in statehouses.
- And having the majority means you have the power.
- In all but a handful of circumstances, close don’t cut it.
- After the GOP controlled redistricting in most states after 2010, Democrats had a tough row to hoe back to power across the country.
- But since 2016, Democrats have gained complete control over the governments in nine states (as shown in this cool map here) and have broken the GOP’s hold on another five.
- Some of those changes were because Democrats winning state legislative elections, and others were by virtue of Democrats winning gubernatorial races.
Fun fact! These 14 states represent 29% of the country’s population!
- This expansion of Democratic power in states has helped usher in a new era of progressive governance.
- Take Virginia, for instance, where the newly Democratic legislature has passed a raft of bills to protect voting rights, increase the minimum wage, expand healthcare and abortion access, and implement gun safety measures.
And with that, I bid you adieu for a bit.
Look after yourself in the meantime, okay?
Do it for you. Do it for the people who care about you. Do it for the person you don’t know but waved to from a responsible social distance this week because even non-contact human contact is so delicious right now. Do it for the ghosts of all the pants you’ve already cut into shreds because PANdemic sounds an awful lot like PANTSdemic and you just can’t be too careful.