Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
Trump ‘engaged in an insurrection,’ judge says, but should remain on Colorado ballot
The major decision issued Friday by Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace comes after judges in Minnesota and Michigan also refused to remove Trump from that state’s Republican primary ballots.
These three high-profile challenges against Trump, which had the backing of well-funded advocacy groups, have so far failed to remove him from a single ballot, with the 2024 primary season fast approaching.
However, the 102-page ruling in Colorado offered a searing condemnation of Trump’s conduct, labeling him as an insurrectionist who “actively primed the anger of his extremist supporters,” and “acted with the specific intent to incite political violence and direct it at the Capitol.”
Dutch election: Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders wins dramatic victory
A Wilders victory will send shockwaves around Europe, as the Netherlands is one of the founding members of what became the European Union.
Nationalist and far-right leaders around Europe praised his achievement. In France, Marine Le Pen said it "confirms the growing attachment to the defence of national identities".
He tempered his anti-Islam rhetoric in the run-up to the vote, saying there were more pressing issues at the moment and he was prepared to "put in the fridge" his policies on banning mosques and Islamic schools.
Poll: Biden’s standing hits new lows amid Israel-Hamas war
President Joe Biden’s approval rating has declined to the lowest level of his presidency — 40% — as strong majorities of all voters disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
What’s more, the poll finds Biden behind former President Donald Trump for the first time in a hypothetical general-election matchup, although the deficit is well within the poll’s margin of error for a contest that’s still more than 11 months away.
For one group of trans women, the pope and his message of inclusivity are a welcome change
For the marginalized trans community of Torvaianica, it was just the latest gesture of inclusion from a pope who has made reaching out to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, in word and deed.
“Before, the church was closed to us. They didn’t see us as normal people, they saw us as the devil,” said Andrea Paola Torres Lopez, a Colombian transgender woman known as Consuelo, whose kitchen is decorated with pictures of Jesus. “Then Pope Francis arrived and the doors of the church opened for us.”
Francis’ latest initiative was a document from the Vatican’s doctrine office asserting that, under some circumstances, transgender people can be baptized and can serve as godparents and witnesses in weddings. It followed another recent statement from the pope himself that suggested same-sex couples could receive church blessings.
Federal court threatens to deal a death blow to the Voting Rights Act
The ruling, which applies to Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, found that only the U.S. attorney general is able to bring a suit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The vast majority of Voting Rights Act claims are brought by private citizens and civil rights groups, who foot the bill for time-consuming litigation to protect voting rights. The Department of Justice, with limited staff and resources, typically brings just a small fraction of the cases fought nationally.
The ruling is sure to be challenged — likely to the U.S. Supreme Court — which has limited the voting law's power significantly over the last decade.
Vatican steps closer to allowing transgender people to be baptized as Catholics
In the United States, the national conference of Catholic bishops rejects the concept of gender transition, leaving many transgender Catholics feeling excluded. On Wednesday, the Vatican made public a sharply contrasting statement, saying it’s permissible, under certain circumstances, for trans people to be baptized as Catholics and serve as godparents.
Ron DeSantis refuses to condemn Elon Musk's endorsement of antisemitic conspiracy theory
Musk has seen intense backlash for his apparent support of the theory, drawing widespread condemnation as antisemitism is on the rise in the U.S. and areas around the world against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war.
DeSantis said antisemitism is wrong “across the board,” though he still focused on what he called antisemitism “on the left,” pointing to college campuses, which have reported increases in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents. Compared to the right, DeSantis said, antisemitism comes from “more fringe voices,” but “it’s wrong no matter what.”
Transgender rights are under attack. But trans people 'just want to thrive and survive.'
Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ and specifically anti-trans pieces of legislation are being introduced and passed throughout the country, accompanied by incidents this year that suggest shifting attitudes toward trans people writ large, including TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, who received backlash after Bud Light announced it would feature her on cans and sponsor her videos. Keep in mind that transgender adults make up less than 2% of the U.S. population; about 5% of young adults identify as transgender or nonbinary.
Despite all of the above, transgender activists on the local level continue to fight fiercely for their communities – and truly want the same treatment as everyone else. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation regularly champions and supports these advocates.
Voting Rights Act ruling is latest attempt by Trump-nominated judges to overturn Supreme Court precedent
At stake are the voting rights of Blacks, Hispanics and other racial minorities that have been vindicated under a section of the VRA prohibiting discrimination based on race. Section 2 has helped ensure that states draw legislative and congressional districts fairly and that minority voters have an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.
The Supreme Court – as recently as June – has reaffirmed Section 2. But US appellate judge David Stras, the author of the majority opinion in Monday’s case from Arkansas, observed that Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have called a key provision of the law into question. His ruling Monday could ultimately gut the law’s protections.
Monday’s appellate court ruling – essentially getting out ahead of the high court – seems certain to instigate a new voting-rights showdown as the nation heads into a presidential election cycle.
States Fights
In a swing Wisconsin county, everyone is tired of politics
Similar sentiments abound in Door County, a slice of peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan with a stubborn independent streak. It’s the swingiest place in the perennial battleground of Wisconsin and one of nine U.S. counties that has backed every presidential election’s winner since 2000.
In interviews this fall with The Washington Post, dozens of residents in the community of roughly 30,000 said they’re tired of America’s turmoil. The pandemic and inflation have already rattled folks, and the broader political backdrop — the impeachments, Trump’s torrent of falsehoods about the 2020 election, the Capitol insurrection, the band of hard-right Republicans ousting their speaker — has blocked out notice of what both sides cast as accomplishments, such as the billions of dollars poured into updating the nation’s roads, bridges and ports. Even as the economy grows at the strongest pace in two years, and jobs continue to proliferate, signs of progress are easy to miss amid what voters see as screaming matches.
Vocal Locals
‘Did Trump Change, or Did You?’: We Asked a Pro-Impeachment Republican Why He’d Back Trump
Less than a year ago, Meijer told me that he couldn’t imagine voting for Trump in 2024. At the time, the Michigan Republican was leaving Congress after a single term, having been ousted in a primary challenge after voting to impeach Trump.
It’s something that I’ve grappled with,” said Meijer, the 35-year-old scion of a mega Midwestern supermarket family and an Iraq War veteran, who called Trump “unfit for office” after Jan. 6.
It’s also a significant about-face for a politician who was one of just 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for inciting the Capitol riot, and his rationalizations sounded somewhat tortured. In fact, he seems to blame Trump’s revival more on Democrats and their “cynical calculation” than the GOP voters who remain in his thrall.
All of this is one of the clearest signs yet that even Trump’s critics are coming to terms with — and adjusting their politics to accommodate — the likelihood he’ll once again be the party’s presidential nominee.