Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
Federal judge rules Rudy Giuliani defamed Georgia election workers; trial awaits on damages
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell’s ruling means the case can go to trial to determine damages.
The decision came a month after Giuliani conceded he didn’t want to dispute that he made false statements about election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss.
Giuliani has said he made the concession to get past the sharing of evidence in the case and to his argument the case should be dismissed.
US Risks Civil War Over Trump Indictments, Lawmaker Warns
Earlier this month, pro-Trump State Senator Colton Moore called on Georgia Governor Brian Kemp—a fellow Republican who has been in the former president's crosshairs since failing to reverse President Joe Biden's 2020 election win—to declare an emergency legislative session with the purpose of investigating and potentially impeaching Willis.
During a Tuesday interview on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's War Room podcast, Moore claimed that the indictment of Trump and his 18 co-defendants meant that Fulton County was "just like Nazi Germany." While recalling a conversation with a fellow state senator, Moore suggested that he would be forced to take up arms if action is not taken against Willis.
If You Want the Public’s Trust, Broadcast the Trump Trials
If ever there was a moment in American history that should prompt the federal courts to change their outdated policy, surely the prosecution of a former president for attempting to overturn the will of the voters would be it. The time has come for the federal court system to catch-up with the times — many state courts already broadcast live trial proceedings.
The Judicial Conference of the United States, which sets administrative rules and policy guidelines for federal judicial proceedings, has the power to change the rules and allow cameras in federal court rooms. When the conference convenes in September, it should decide to allow Trump’s trials and related federal court proceedings to be broadcast in real-time. Notably, both Trump’s lawyer and a growing number of congressional Democrats agree.
How Vivek Ramaswamy, a Hindu, Is Aligning Himself With Christian Nationalists
These seem like standard talking points on their face. But there were two somewhat remarkable things about the comments. First, Ramaswamy referenced something so distinctly Indian—the Vedas (Hindu religious texts)—when addressing a Republican base that’s overwhelmingly white and Christian. Second, and more strangely, he seemed to praise Modi’s Hindu nationalism—and call for an American equivalent.
An American equivalent can mean only one thing. Hindus represent about 1 percent of the U.S. population; Ramaswamy certainly isn’t advocating for Hindu nationalism in America. Instead, he appears to advocate for a similarly shaped religious nationalism in the U.S. based on the country’s majority faith: Christianity.
Trump Team Defenses of Georgia Phone Call Are Robust Arguments Against Second Trump Presidency
According to Vox, the judge who listened to Meadows’ argument on Monday “appeared skeptical.” There are many problems with the case, but part of the gist is that White House employees are prohibited by law from attempting to influence the outcome of elections, and Meadows can be shown to have known that. As such, one of the things the former chief of staff argued in court on Monday was that he didn’t realize his late 2020 activities were related to partisan campaign efforts to overturn the election—i.e., that he didn’t understand the connection between President Donald Trump’s interest in vote-counting procedures in Georgia (and Michigan) and candidate Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to reverse the results of voting in those states.
The Christian home-schooler who made ‘parental rights’ a GOP rallying cry
Now, speaking on a confidential conference call to a secretive group of Christian millionaires seeking, in the words of one member, to “take down the education system as we know it today,” Farris made the same points he had made in courtrooms since the 1980s. Public schools were indoctrinating children with a secular worldview that amounted to a godless religion, he said.
The solution: lawsuits alleging that schools’ teachings about gender identity and race are unconstitutional, leading to a Supreme Court decision that would mandate the right of parents to claim billions of tax dollars for private education or home schooling.
States Fights
Parents Bawl as Chaotic Tennessee Special Session Comes to Abrupt End
Footage from the state capitol showed the parents of students at The Covenant School bawling as they helplessly held signs in protest—their pleas of the last five months falling on the deaf ears of Tennessee’s deep-red state House and Senate.
The special session came to a chaotic end just before noon, with the House speaker, Cameron Sexton, having to push through a crowd to leave the chambers amid chants of “throw him out.” As Sexton’s entourage left, men that appeared to be his security detail pushed Rep. Justin Pearson, a Democrat, who was trying to hold a sign in front of Sexton’s face.
Florida Officials Wanted Multiple ‘Viewpoints’ on Enslavement
According to a recent review of internal communications, state education officials weren’t too thrilled about students being taught that Africans were ripped from their home continent for the capitalistic convenience of Europeans colonizing the Americas. In fact, state officials claimed that the well-documented history “may lead to a viewpoint of an ‘oppressor vs. oppressed’ based solely on race or ethnicity.” Officials said those historical accounts “may only present one side of this issue and may not offer any opposing viewpoints or other perspectives on the subject.” Nonetheless, the Florida Department of Education completely rejected the academic outline when state officials claimed the content was “unsuitable” for students.
Iowa’s Book Banning Law Is Causing Anxiety And Confusion Among Teachers
The law went into effect on July 1. Starting in January, anyone who violates it could be subject to a written warning and a disciplinary hearing.
However, the Iowa Department of Education offers no guidance on how to ensure books comply with the law, leaving each school district to their own interpretation. It’s unclear whether the department will be providing guidance in the future. The Iowa Department of Education did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
“One of the unintended consequences is that there is a wide variance of interpretation of the law,” said Mike Beranek, the president of the Iowa State Education Association, the state’s only teachers union. “The anxiety and the angst and the worry about the consequences if they do something wrong is very burdensome.”
GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin scheme to remove elections chief
The state Senate is set to hold a hearing Tuesday on Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the first step in what is likely an attempt to remove her from her position. Democrats say Republicans want to drive Wolfe out of office as retribution for decisions the commission made in 2020.
The brawl over Wolfe illustrates how, nearly three years after then-President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election in 2020, election misinformation still has a grip on arguably the most important swing state on the map — with Trump potentially on the ticket again.
How Florida law could trip up Trump if he’s convicted before the 2024 election
Meade is executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which works to restore voting rights in the state to former felons. Florida has long been one of the states that have made it most difficult for former felons to recover the ability to vote. In 2018, the coalition led a successful effort to pass a constitutional amendment to make it easier for those residents to regain that right.
Ron DeSantis, then a candidate for Florida governor, opposed that amendment when it appeared on the ballot. And then in 2019, as governor, DeSantis supported and signed Republican-backed legislation that significantly diluted the amendment’s impact by adding a requirement that former felons pay any fines or fees they owed before they could vote again in the state.
DeSantis knows how to handle a hurricane. The racist shooting poses a bigger dilemma.
Already, DeSantis’ attempts to show leadership in the immediate aftermath of the Saturday shooting were poorly received by some Black lawmakers, Democrats and residents in Florida. In the hours after a 21-year-old white man killed three Black Floridians near a historically Black college in Jacksonville, several state Democrats blamed DeSantis, who is running for president, for creating an environment, through policies such as loosening gun laws and ending diversity programs, that helped hate fester.
Georgia Republicans Say They'll Move to Remove Fulton County DA Fani Willis From Office With New State Law
But more concerning than Jordan’s gambit is a play on the state-level by Georgia Republicans to remove Willis to get Trump’s case thrown out: In a Facebook post earlier this week, State Senator Clint Dixon accused the DA of prosecuting the ex-president to become “some sort of leftist celebrity,” and said he would call on a newly-formed committee of political appointees to “take action” against her. That commission, approved by Republican Governor Brian Kemp in May, was ostensibly created to make it easier to oust progressive, reform-minded DAs. “I am not gonna stand idly by as rogue or incompetent prosecutors refuse to uphold the law,” the governor said ahead of the law’s signing. In this case, of course, Dixon and the Republicans are seeking to use the law to target Willis not for any reform efforts, but explicitly because she brought charges against Trump and his allies. In his Facebook post, Dixon acknowledged the “reality” of the Trump indictment in Georgia “is one of the reasons we passed a law.”
Vocal Locals
A theocracy in Rocklin: School board president calls for ‘Christ centered’ parents
Last week, Hupp posted on her official, political figure Facebook page — not her personal account — about work done by the Rocklin Unified School Board to “insist that important decisions (such as new curriculum) involve our parents.” Hupp’s decision to post her plea for Christian parents on her professional Facebook page is especially concerning as it shows that the school board president feels it appropriate to bring her personal religious beliefs into her professional role as an elected official for California’s public school system. California is not a theocracy, and religion does not belong in our government or our classrooms.