Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
Attorney disciplinary committee recommends Rudy Giuliani be disbarred for 2020 election legal work
The committee, which weighs cases of legal ethics and attorney misconduct in the District of Columbia, issued the report and recommendation on Giuliani on Friday following a lawyer misconduct hearing for Giuliani in December that functioned like a trial.
“He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it,” the committee wrote. “By prosecuting that destructive case Mr. Giuliani, a sworn officer of the Court, forfeited his right to practice law. He should be disbarred.”
Camp Pendleton Marine and accomplice charged with firebombing Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood
Chance Brannon, 23, of San Juan Capistrano, a Marine stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, and Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine are accused of being the two masked and hooded individuals who tossed a Molotov cocktail March 13, 2022, igniting a blaze. Both were taken into custody without incident early Wednesday and were slated to appear in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana later in the day.
Ergul and Brannon are named in a criminal complaint that charges each with using an explosive or fire to damage real property affecting interstate commerce. The charge carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.
GOP states quit the program that fights voter fraud. Now they’re scrambling.
Top Republican election officials in those states publicly argued the program was mismanaged. The conspiracy theorists who cheered them on falsely insisted it was a front for liberals to take control of elections.
But experts say the program, known as the Electronic Registration Information Center, was among the best nationwide tool states had to catch people trying to vote twice in the same election. Now, those Republican-led states who left — and other states who lost access to their data — are scrambling to police so-called “double voters” ahead of the presidential election in 2024.
Ron DeSantis' presidential bid is giving life to a struggling Florida Democratic Party
The faltering of DeSantis’ presidential campaign — he trails Donald Trump by significant double digits in most public polling — has given a burst of energy to Democrats who desperately needed one.
It’s Official: Trump Will Take His First Step to Renomination on the Only Federal Holiday Honoring a Black Man
“As Republicans,” state GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann told reporters, “we see this as honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King.” He clarified that the committee had not considered the possibility of the caucus falling on MLK day before reaching their decision, according to the Associated Press.
With the start of nominating events now officially just a little more than six months away, available Iowa polls have consistently shown Trump with sometimes overwhelming leads over his 2024 challengers in the state.
Under oath, John Kelly raises serious allegations against Trump
Last fall, the week before Thanksgiving, Kelly told The New York Times that Trump, during his presidency, told his chief of staff to use the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department to target his critics and perceived political foes.
The Times’ report went on to note, “Mr. Kelly said he made clear to Mr. Trump that there were serious legal and ethical issues with what he wanted.” The then-president “regularly” made the demands anyway, leading Kelly to remind his boss what he wanted “was not just potentially illegal and immoral but also could blow back on him.”
Trump asks court to delay setting trial date in documents case
“Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a Presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the Defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication,” the former president’s lawyers wrote in the filing.
“This extraordinary case presents a serious challenge to both the fact and perception of our American democracy,” Trump’s defense team wrote in the filing. “The Court now presides over a prosecution advanced by the administration of a sitting President against his chief political rival, himself a leading candidate for the Presidency of the United States.”
Anticipating Jim Jordan’s Judiciary Committee Hearing with FBI Director Wray
As its name implies, the weaponizaton subcommittee has apparently undertaken its work over the last six months in service of a self-fulfilling prophecy that the FBI and Department of Justice are driven by politics to persecute their ideological enemies, not only through investigations into the mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and into the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but also through collusion with social media companies to stifle conservative voices. Representative Jim Jordan, who chairs both the subcommittee and the full Judiciary Committee, promises that the July 12 hearing “will examine the politicization of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency under the direction of FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.”
The bill also requires schools to inform parents if their child begins identifying as a different gender — a measure that was already included in the legislature’s proposed Parents’ Bill of Rights. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed that last week, though an override is likely by the Republican supermajority. Democrats denounced the new proposal early on Wednesday, with Rep. Julie von Haefen saying it “claims to give rights to parents, but it’s just a license for book banning committees to run rampant and groups like Moms for Liberty to get superintendents fired.”
Here’s what Sen. Tommy Tuberville actually said about White nationalists
The Monday CNN interview was an incredible exchange, which began as an opportunity for Tuberville to explain his Pentagon obstruction as a protest of Biden administration abortion policy. More on that below.
In the White nationalism portion of the interview, Tuberville was being asked to explain comments he made to an Alabama radio station back in May, when he was asked if he thought White nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military.
“Well, they call them that,” Tuberville said back then of people who oppose White nationalists. “I call them Americans.”
Megachurches are getting even bigger as churches close across the country
At a time when empty pews are forcing churches across the country to shutter, these mostly nondenominational houses of worship are largely bucking that trend — attracting younger, more vibrant and more diverse congregations.
The average Christian congregation in the U.S. is in precipitous decline, with just 65 members, about a third of whom are age 65 or older, according to a 2020 pre-pandemic survey. By contrast, a separate 2020 study found that three-quarters of megachurches were growing, many at a rapid clip.
States Fights
Lawsuit filed over Idaho Republicans’ ‘cruel’ transgender bathroom law for schools
The lawsuit was filed Thursday night in Idaho’s federal district court. The complaint charges that the new law, one of many that Republicans used to target LGBTQ+ rights in the 2023 session, violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Title IX standards by “discriminating on the basis of sex and transgender status, and by outing students as transgender.”
The law, Senate Bill 1100, passed during the 2023 legislative session. Signed by Gov. Brad Little on March 22, the bill went into effect on July 1. SB 1100 requires students to use the bathroom or locker room aligned with their gender at birth, rather than their current gender identity. Students may receive accommodations from a school for alternative facilities.
Judge throws out lawsuit for reparations over 1921 Tulsa race massacre
Tulsa County District Court Judge Caroline Wall dismissed the case in a written order after reviewing complaints from the city, the regional Chamber of Commerce and other local agencies. They argued the plaintiffs’ request to compensate residents for the destruction of the prominent Black neighborhood would impose a significant burden on the government’s financial stability.
Religious right gets blindsided by angry parents in a Southern California school district
After just six months in office, those officials face a recall effort on top of a civil rights investigation launched by the state’s Democratic-led education department. Students have held protests, and irate parents and teachers are swarming the board’s meetings, feeling that their town — the fast-growing, politically diverse suburb of Temecula in Riverside County — has become consumed by partisan warfare.
“We’re the Antidote”: Minnesota DFL Chairman Ken Martin on the “Minnesota Miracle”
But we shouldn’t forget to look for some good news. And in Minnesota, there’s plenty of it. Last November, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor, or DFL, Party recaptured control of the state Senate by one vote, while it held its majority in the state House (by four seats) and the governor’s mansion (incumbent Tim Walz). Seeing that the political stars were aligned, they decided to make the most of it.
The result was what a lot of people are calling the “Minnesota Miracle.” As The New Republic reported last week, the state has passed: stronger abortion protections, a paid family leave policy, a new child tax credit, restored voting rights for ex-felons, driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, the banning of “conversion therapy,” a $1 billion affordable housing bill, $1 billion for schools, and more. “We’re the antidote to a lot of what we’re seeing in states like Texas and Florida,” Martin says. It’s an amazing story—especially given that, as Martin noted, Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic was diagnosed with ovarian cancer during the session.
Iowa Republicans pass six-week abortion ban
Republican lawmakers, which hold a majority in both the Iowa house and senate, passed the anti-abortion bill after the governor, Kim Reynolds, called a special session to seek a vote on the ban.
The bill passed with exclusively Republican support in a rare, one-day legislative burst lasting more than 14 hours.
The legislation will take immediate effect after the governor signs it on Friday and will prohibit abortions after the first sign of cardiac activity – usually around six weeks, with some exceptions for cases of rape or incest. It will allow for abortions up until 20 weeks of pregnancy only under certain conditions of medical emergency. Abortions in the state were previously allowed up to 20 weeks.
NC bill would help parents remove school leaders, prosecute librarians
The bill also requires schools to inform parents if their child begins identifying as a different gender — a measure that was already included in the legislature’s proposed Parents’ Bill of Rights. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed that last week, though an override is likely by the Republican supermajority.
Democrats denounced the new proposal early on Wednesday, with Rep. Julie von Haefen saying it “claims to give rights to parents, but it’s just a license for book banning committees to run rampant and groups like Moms for Liberty to get superintendents fired.”
Vocal Locals
Hair Salon Owner Says She’ll Turn Away Anyone Who Specifies Their Pronouns
In a rambling Facebook post, the owner of Traverse City-based Studio 8 Hair Lab, Christine Geiger, said she would decline service to customers who requested a specific pronoun be used, The Kansas City Star reported. “If a human identifies as anything other than a man/woman please seek services at a local pet groomer. You are not welcome at this salon. Period,” the post reads.
A Mom Who Is Actually for Liberty Shames Tennessee School Board
“You don’t deserve to live.”
“My parents say you’re a pervert and if I beat you up, they wouldn’t care.”
“You should kill yourself.”
“Die!”
Those are some of the things that Tennessee mom Lindsey Patrick-Wright says were shouted at her sixth grader, Pippy, at West Wilson Middle School in Mount Juliet this year. Patrick-Wright recited the list during the public comment session at the Wilson County School Board meeting over the weekend.
Since 2015, the Tennessee legislature has enacted 19 anti-LGBTQ+ bills, more than any other state. Senate Bill 1440 legally defines a gender as “a person’s immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth and evidence of a person’s biological sex.”
Right-wingers with ties to such extremist groups as Moms for Liberty have begun showing up at Wilson County School board meetings. They denigrated the public schools and called for banning books with any LBGTQ+ content.
Patrick-Wright noted that many of the agitators do not even have a kid in the local public school system.