Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
Dems have a problem with their democracy argument, not with the Supreme Court
“It’s pretty clear to me what the former president was trying to do on Jan. 6, and his followers,” Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, told POLITICO. “But I still think in terms of giving the people the chance to vote on this, it’s just the best way to put it to rest.”
But the ruling was significant in another way. It exposed the limitations of a critical component of the Democratic case against Trump: that the ex-president was and is bad for democracy. While the justices did not rule on whether Trump engaged in an insurrection in his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, they rejected the effort by his critics to disqualify him on those grounds. It comes at a time where recent polling shows Democrats have struggled to portray Trump as a threat to democratic governance.
The glaring omissions and telling fractures in the Trump ballot ruling
Just a few months ago, it looked like March 4 would be the first day of Donald Trump’s criminal trial on federal charges of subverting the 2020 election.
Instead, he spent the day celebrating a legal victory that kept him on state ballots — and preparing for Super Tuesday, when he’s expected to sew up the Republican nomination.
Abortion, the Bible, and Us: The Evangelical About-Face on Abortion
While the rhetoric of the abortion debate focuses intensely on the figures of the fetus and the mother, the ethics and politics of abortion have implications that connect very strongly to these traditional hierarchies. I have more research to do here, but I have a hunch that opposition to abortion has proved so powerful a galvanizing force because its intense focus on the fetus—usually portrayed as a baby no matter the gestational age being discussed—easily obscures its connections with less palatable and less popular conservative political priorities.
Abortion, History, and the Beginning of Life
Those who seek to ban abortion frequently claim that they’re trying to restore the values, and laws, of the past. But did past generations always think that human life began at the moment of conception? Did older laws always treat abortion as murder? The historical record shows otherwise.
The idea that life begins at conception is a relatively recent one. For much of the last two millennia, discussions about abortion have involved making a distinction between fully-developed and undeveloped fetuses.
Trump’s Super Tuesday victory speech: grim visions of an American apocalypse
Donald Trump swept to victory after victory on Super Tuesday, all but clinching the Republican presidential nomination, but you wouldn’t have known it from his joyless victory speech.
Then, after 10pm, into this gaudy pageant walked the Grim Reaper, raining on their parade with a 19-minute speech laden with doom and gloom about the state of the nation.
This was Trump as Eeyore.
Liberty University penalized $16M tied to Clery Act, culture of fear reporting sexual assault
“Through today’s action against Liberty, we're sending the message that we will hold schools accountable if they fail to follow the important requirements of the Clery Act,” said Richard Cordray, the head of the agency’s Federal Student Aid office.
In addition to a $14 million fine, the Christian university will be required to spend $2 million over the next two years “for on-campus safety improvements and compliance enhancements.” And it will be under federal monitoring through April 2026. The agency conducted its investigation under the Clery Act, a federal law that requires universities to track crimes on their campus and warn students of danger.
GOP’s Ernst wants to stop Biden from delivering the State of the Union
As President Joe Biden prepares to deliver his latest State of the Union address, it stands to reason that there are Republican members of Congress who aren’t eager to hear the Democrat’s remarks. But more notable are the GOP lawmakers who’d like to prevent the speech from even happening.
Last week, for example, Rep. Scott Perry raised the specter of rescinding Biden’s invitation. “He comes at the invitation of Congress, and Republicans are in control of the House,” the Pennsylvania Republican told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “There’s no reason that we need to invite him to get more propaganda.”
Trump takes bizarre turn as he ratchets up racist rhetoric against migrants
Reaching for racist rhetoric bizarre even for him, Donald Trump compared undocumented migrants to the US to Hannibal Lecter, the serial killer and cannibal famously played by Sir Anthony Hopkins in the Oscar-winning 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.
States Fights
Georgia state House passes bill allowing police to arrest anyone suspected of being in country illegally
The bill comes after the killing of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley in Athens, Ga. The suspect in her death is Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan citizen whom authorities say crossed into the U.S. unlawfully in 2022.
Riley’s death has sparked outrage among the community and some Republicans have used her death as an opportunity to call out President Biden and Democrats on the subject of immigration. Democrats are arguing that her death shouldn’t shape broad immigration policy.
Appeals court slams Florida’s ‘Stop-Woke’ law for committing ‘greatest First Amendment sin’
“By limiting its restrictions to a list of ideas designated as offensive, the Act targets speech based on its content,” Judge Britt C. Grant, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in the opinion. “And by barring only speech that endorses any of those ideas, it penalizes certain viewpoints — the greatest First Amendment sin.”
‘Our prayer is that it doesn’t even reach the ballot’: Inside Arizona’s abortion battle
As abortion rights groups race to collect more than 400,000 signatures by July to put a measure protecting access to the procedure before voters in November, Arizona conservatives are mobilizing early to correct what they see as one of their biggest mistakes over the last two years: waiting too long to jump into the fray.
As abortion rights groups race to collect more than 400,000 signatures by July to put a measure protecting access to the procedure before voters in November, Arizona conservatives are mobilizing early to correct what they see as one of their biggest mistakes over the last two years: waiting too long to jump into the fray.