Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
Supreme Court abortion case brings 19th century chastity law to the forefront
The Comstock Act, as the law is known, is not central to the current Supreme Court case. However, comments from Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito showcase how the law is shaping up to be both a flashpoint in the legal battle over abortion and a potential election-year issue for voters.
There are now calls from within the anti-abortion movement for the Comstock Act to be enforced by the next Republican administration to ban the mailing of abortion medication – a move that would not require any action by Congress nor any blessing from the Supreme Court.
RNC officials deny ‘litmus test’ related to 2020 election for those seeking employment
The denials come after CNN reported earlier this week that people seeking employment at the RNC were asked over the past few weeks about their views of fraud during the 2020 election, according to two sources familiar with the questioning.
Election fraud has been a key focus for the Donald Trump campaign and the newly elected leadership at the RNC ahead of the 2024 election. Much of that focus stems from the former president’s dissatisfaction with how the RNC handled claims of election fraud around the 2020 election, multiple sources familiar with the matter have said. There is no evidence of widespread election fraud in the last presidential contest.
Sunday marks both Easter and the Transgender Day of Visibility. Cue the culture war.
As Easter Sunday falls on March 31 this year, conservatives responded furiously, accusing the president, who is Catholic, of attempting to stifle Christian values by highlighting the event during an important religious holiday.
The controversy, which has galvanized conservatives and which transgender advocates say is manufactured, is the latest in a series of social conflicts that has enveloped the political process and current electoral cycle.
Video shows Michigan congressman appear to call for nuclear bombs to be dropped on Gaza
Walberg wasn't pictured in the video. But a voice that clearly sounded like his responded to a constituent's question asking why the U.S. − as President Joe Biden proposed in his State of the Union address this month − would "be spending our money" to build a temporary port off the Gaza coast to move humanitarian aid into that region. Walberg said he disagreed with doing so and that Israel was perhaps America's greatest ally in the world.
"We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid," Walberg said. "It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick." The 47-second video ended immediately after that, so no other comments were captured.
Most Americans identify with a specific religious group: Gallup
A new survey found that the vast majority of Americans identify with a specific religious group, predominantly a Christian religion, although that percentage is declining.
The survey found that over time, the number of people who identify with a Christian religion has declined, while the number of people who do not have a religious preference has grown slightly.
Republicans slam Biden for proclaiming Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter, though it’s yearly observed on March 31
The Transgender Day of Visibility, which was started in 2009 as a day of awareness to celebrate the successes of transgender and gender-nonconforming people, is held annually on March 31. The date of Easter, meanwhile, changes from year to year.
But several Republicans seized on Biden’s proclamation to attack the president.
“It is appalling and insulting that Joe Biden’s White House … formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Trans Day of Visibility,” former President Donald Trump’s campaign said in a statement.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Biden administration had “betrayed the central tenet of Easter” in a post on X. “The American people are taking note.”
Republicans are rushing to defend IVF. The anti-abortion movement hopes to change their minds.
They plan to appeal to evangelical denominations and their leaders to take a firm stance that IVF as practiced in the U.S. destroys human life. That, they hope, will reshape how conservative Christians — and in turn, the officials they elect — view the issue, just as it did on abortion. Ultimately, it could lead to laws that create a patchwork of IVF access in the United States, where the procedure is more accessible in liberal states and more limited in conservative ones.
MAGA’s Ugly, Hateful Response to Bridge Horror Is About to Get Worse
One of the ugliest features of MAGA politics is the eagerness to seize on large-scale accidents, disasters, and pandemics to spread conspiracy theories, invent new culture-war obsessions, and pit one region of the country against another.
Trump 2028
The primary voters and caucus-goers who chose Trump did so in spite of January 6, the prosecution of the former president, or even the popularity in some MAGA quarters of Ron DeSantis. They chose him because they damn well felt like it.
This is democracy in action: The voters surveyed the scene, tuned out the noise, and selected the man the rest of the world loves to hate. What could be more democratic than voting for your preferred candidate against the advice—the warnings, the threats, the fear-mongering—of your betters?
Yet, even if Trump returns to the White House this November, the Twenty-second Amendment will bar him from standing for re-election in 2028. Ratified in 1951, the amendment is largely seen as a kind of constitutional course correction following the four consecutive presidential terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Republican blame game heats up as their majority thins
The internal blame game has highlighted both the deep divisions dogging the House GOP — where conservative agitators are bashing moderates as apostates, and moderates are bashing the hard-liners as obstructionists — and the minuscule majority that’s made it all but impossible for Republican leaders to unite the warring camps for the sake of passing the party’s policy priorities.
A Night Out With Donald Trump’s Favorite “Alpha Male” Influencer
I’d come that night for a talk by Nick Adams, a conservative influencer from Australia whose viral social media posts have earned him prominence in the MAGA movement. He’s been an official surrogate for Trump since the 2020 election, appearing on talk shows across the political spectrum to defend the ex-president with a pit bull’s determination. On his website, Adams calls himself “the Godfather of the ‘Alpha King’ movement,” inspiring his “3M+ social media followers to ‘level up’ in every aspect of their lives.” This event was a stop on his book tour for Alpha Kings, his seventh volume to date.
Fake right-wing panic about "trans" Easter is part of Trump's push for Christian nationalism
Embedded in all this performative outrage is an argument: It's justified for Republicans to adopt Christian nationalism, and even fascism, on the grounds of self-defense. The supposed threats to Christianity are so great, the thinking goes, that the only way to "protect" the faith is to end religious liberty and democracy. And, of course, their political opponents are "demonic" and subhuman, thereby violence against them is permissible, even desired.
Trump aims to be a fearless warrior for White advantage
On Monday, Axios reported on the extent to which a second Trump term would seek to unwind rules and processes meant to address historic racial disadvantages faced by Black Americans in particular. A quote from Trump spokesman Steven Cheung summarizes the intent: The former president “is committed to weeding out discriminatory programs and racist ideology across the federal government.”
Here, “discriminatory programs” refers to those that attempt to address systemic racial disadvantages. It is an evolution of the idea that affirmative-action policies meant to eliminate those imbalances are, in effect, racist against White people.
Judge rejects Trump’s bid to get Georgia election subversion case dismissed on free speech grounds
“The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in his order.
McAfee’s ruling is the latest step inching the state racketeering case against Trump forward. But while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has suggested she would be ready to go to trial as soon as August, the judge has still not set a trial date for Trump or his remaining 14 co-defendants in the Peach State.
States Fights
They came for Florida's sun and sand. They got soaring costs and a culture war.
Florida has had a population boom over the past several years, with more than 700,000 people moving there in 2022, and it was the second-fastest-growing state as of July 2023, according to Census Bureau data. While there are some indications that migration to the state has slowed from its pandemic highs, only Texas saw more one-way U-Haul moves into the state than Florida last year. Mortgage application data indicated there were nearly two homebuyers moving to Florida in 2023 for every one leaving, according to data analytics firm CoreLogic.
But while hundreds of thousands of new residents have flocked to the state on the promise of beautiful weather, no income tax and lower costs, nearly 500,000 left in 2022, according to the most recent census data. Contributing to their move was a perfect storm of soaring insurance costs, a hostile political environment, worsening traffic and extreme weather, according to interviews with more than a dozen recent transplants and longtime residents who left the state in the past two years.
Florida six-week abortion ban to start as state Supreme Court clears ballot measure
The ballot measure would guarantee abortion access through viability, often 24 weeks of pregnancy. With this, Floridians have the chance to essentially vote on whether to reinstate what was once the federal standard set by Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark case in 2022.
The decision Monday in Florida also gives abortion access advocates the chance to add to their list of state-level victories.
Oklahoma voters kick out local official tied to white nationalist groups
Judd Blevins lost his position as Enid’s ward 1 council member, according to Oklahoma’s state election board. The move comes months after Blevin was shown to have attended a deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and was later shown to have led an Oklahoma chapter of the white nationalist group Identity Evropa.
Blevins denied he was or ever had been a white supremacist, and said he was motivated by “the same issues that got Donald Trump elected in 2016”.
Governor threatens scholarships after LSU women miss anthem at NCAA tournament
Louisiana’s Republican governor has called for the scholarships of college athletes who are not present for the national anthem before games to be revoked. His announcement came after the LSU women’s basketball team were absent during the pre-game ceremonies on Monday night ahead of their eagerly anticipated NCAA Tournament contest with Iowa.