Aziz Huq/POLITICO Magazine:
The Supreme Court Stopped Short of a Radical Act
Both the mifepristone ruling and the Wisconsin judicial election suggest the politics of court reform are shifting.
But Wisconsin’s judicial election earlier this month suggests that the White House’s assessment of how judicial politics plays among Democratic voters no longer holds water. That election may signal a broader shift in the tectonics of voter mobilization in respect to courts and judges more generally.
The most obvious reason for thinking something has changed is that it was Democrats, and not Republicans, who were galvanized by the judicial election. These voters, moreover, were moved by the issue of judicial power but were not motivated as much by the goal of electing Democrats. In a state Senate race held that same day, the Republican candidate eked out a win. That too was a highly consequential election, giving Republicans a Senate supermajority and the votes to oust officials through impeachment.
James Traub/POLITICO Magazine:
The Hottest Political Reform of the Moment Gains Ground
Inside Jeanne Massey’s relentless campaign to fix democracy, starting in Minnesota.
At issue was ranked choice voting, a wonky reform that advocates are convinced will help drain the toxins from our national politics. Ranked choice voting allows voters to list their top three or more candidates, eliminates the last-place finisher and then redistributes votes to the remaining candidates until one emerges with a majority. The approach has been quietly making gains across the country, but it burst into the public consciousness last year after it helped a centrist Democrat thwart Sarah Palin’s bid for Congress in Alaska.
Tim Miller/The Bulwark:
Don’t Daydream of a Third Party President
Plus: The rubber band theory of politics.
[Tim] Miller: And I get it. Really, I do. But in a counterintuitive way, the candidate-quality issues and the extent of our polarization actually make it less likely for third-party success.
Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Ivy Rauch on The Big Bang Theory): Yeah, you’re gonna have to walk me through that.
Miller: There are two main reasons why. One, we’re living in a time of extreme negative partisanship. Negative partisanship is a concept where voters are committed to one side, not so much because they love their candidate, but because they despise the other candidate.
Homer Simpson (from The Simpsons): I hate them so much!
Miller: So if you are the type to (correctly) think that Donald Trump might literally end our democracy, you are less likely to risk “wasting” your vote on a third party, even if you don’t love Joe Biden because you don’t want to take a chance that it could help Trump.
A little overseas news, this from the UK, where a Labour MP gets disciplined:
The Guardian:
Labour suspends Diane Abbott in attempt to stifle fresh antisemitism row
MP loses party whip after writing letter suggesting Jewish, Irish, and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people had not experienced racism
Labour has sought to head off a fresh antisemitism storm by suspending the party whip from Diane Abbott, after the former shadow home secretary played down suggestions of racism against Jewish people.
In comments that were swiftly condemned by senior Conservatives and faith groups, the MP argued that minority groups – such as Jewish people, as well as Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people – faced similar levels of prejudice to people with red hair.
Hours after her remarks about how “white people with points of difference” are discriminated against in society were published, Abbott apologised and claimed they were made in error.
Want to know more about Roma and Traveller groups? I know you do! From TravellerMovement.org:
Gypsy Roma and Traveller History and Culture
Gypsy Roma and Traveller people belong to minority ethnic groups that have contributed to British society for centuries. Their distinctive way of life and traditions manifest themselves in nomadism, the centrality of their extended family, unique languages and entrepreneurial economy. It is reported that there are around 300,000 Travellers in the UK and they are one of the most disadvantaged groups. The real population may be different as some members of these communities do not participate in the census.
The Traveller Movement works predominantly with ethnic Gypsy, Roma, and Irish Traveller Communities.
Did you know Roma languages are more closely related to Northern India than European origin?
From Haaretz, the protests go on:
Former Likud minister: Gov't promised security but only interested in crushing the justice system
Former Education Minister Limor Livnat, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and an outspoken right-wing critic of the government's judicial overhaul plan, accused the government of promising "security, peace and governance" while solely focusing on the "coup to crush the legal system."
Speaking in front of a crowd of demonstrators in Jerusalem, Livnat, who worked alongside Netanyahu for much of his tenure as prime minister, said that she "was born and raised on the right, I have remained in the right-wing camp all my life, and I will never have another ideology, but Likud is no longer my home," arguing that the party's founded, former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, believed in a strong, independent judiciary.
And back to the U.S.
Tara Palmeri/Puck:
The DeSantis Endorsement-ghazi Blame Game
Poor Ryan Tyson. That’s the name I keep hearing from Tallahassee insiders as DeSantis-world reels from the tidal wave of Florida congressmen endorsing Trump over their own governor. Tyson, a top pollster and advisor to DeSantis (who allegedly “never conducts polls”) was deputized to try to shore up support among the Florida delegation for DeSantis ahead of his high-profile visit to Washington this week, following the traumatic defection of Rep. Byron Donalds to Trump. (He and his wife Erika are good friends with Casey and Ron, who offered their support if he wanted to be chairman of the party’s state G.O.P.)
Alas, Tyson wasn’t very successful, because seven more members of the Florida delegation chose to endorse Trump instead—including Reps. Matt Gaetz, Anna Paulina Luna, Brian Mast, Greg Steube, Cory Mills, Vern Buchanan and John Rutherford. The main gripe was that DeSantis didn’t personally make the calls, but left it to Tyson. “Part of the problem with Tyson is that nobody knew who the fuck he was,” said one G.O.P. advisor to a member of Congress who was called. Tyson declined to comment.
But this has always been DeSantis’s problem. He lacks the personal touch, whereas Trump always calls, often for no reason at all. Steube, who recently suffered serious injuries falling off a ladder, told Politico that he made his decision in part because DeSantis, unlike Trump, never called to check in. (This frosty behavior hasn’t been helping DeSantis with donors, either.)
Pen America:
Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools
These efforts to chill speech are part of the ongoing nationwide “Ed Scare” — a campaign to foment anxiety and anger with the goal of suppressing free expression in public education. As book bans escalate, coupled with the proliferation of legislative efforts to restrict teaching about topics such as race, gender, American history, and LGBTQ+ identities, the freedom to read, learn, and think continues to be undermined for students.
Below, PEN America updates its tally and analysis of book bans during the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, from July to December 2022. This research builds on PEN America’s 2022 report, Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools, which covered book bans from July 2021 to June 2022.