A Win And A Loss With The Courts

With judge shopping we are seeing a wide swing in rulings coming from lower courts especially in Republican states. Depending upon the party we see judges who are throwing the book at us or who smooth the road for us.

Idaho's Transgender Bathroom Ban to Take Effect After Judge's Ruling
The law will take effect next month.
The Advocate
By Donald Padgett
October 16 2023

A federal judge on Thursday refused to extend his stay on an Idaho law denying trans and gender-nonconforming K-12 students from using multi-occupancy bathrooms, locker rooms, and sleeping facilities aligned with their gender identity.

The law, S.B. 1100, requires schools and districts to base usage of such facilities based upon a student’s biological sex rather than gender and had been challenged by an anonymous 12-year-old transgender girl, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, and a student support group. The law also allows students to sue schools for up to $5,000 for every violation. The law will now take effect next month.

Chief U.S. District Judge David Nye issued a stay on the law in August to better examine the case after both sides provided more evidence to support their claims. On Thursday, Nye declined to extend the stay beyond an additional 21 days, and only then to provide schools and districts the time to ensure their facilities comply with the new law. He found the plaintiffs had failed to provide enough evidence to suggest their case would win at trial.

Do you want to want to guess who appointed the judge?

The plaintiffs had argued the law was unconstitutional because it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and their right to privacy. Idaho argued a similar defense, saying the law did not discriminate against the plaintiffs because the “common sense” law was based on what it termed biological sex. They further argued the law was protecting the privacy of students as well.

Now take a look at what this court ruled!

Judge places temporary pause on Tennessee order banning drag performances in public
The Hill
By Lauren Irwin
October 21, 2023

A federal judge has temporarily blocked city officials in Murfreesboro, Tenn., from enforcing an ordinance that is designed to ban drag performances from taking place in public areas.

The order, issued Friday by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr., bars the city from enforcing the rule during the pride festival scheduled for next weekend in the town.

The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed a lawsuit on behalf of the organization running the festival.

Want to guess who appointed this judge? He was nominated to the court by President Barack Obama.
The legal challenge is the latest in the ongoing political battle over LGBTQ rights in Tennessee and across the country. Conservative activists argued that the 2022 drag performance during the festival “sexualized children,” according to the Associated Press.

Organizers denied the claims, arguing the performers were fully clothed.

Justice shouldn’t depend who appointed the judge, we never had this before where one blocked the other party nominations and then to pack the court with their judges just days before the elections.

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The Republican House is forcing a loyalty pledge on its member… You will follow the party line or else!

House Republicans push unity ‘pledge’ to guarantee a speaker
The GOP is wary of another fiasco on the House floor.
Politico
By Katherine Tully-McManus, Olivia Beavers and Jennifer Scholtes
October 21, 2023

A majority of the House Republicans vying for the speakership signed a pledge Saturday aimed at saving the GOP’s next pick from the vote-counting trap that sank Reps. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan’s bids.

Seven lawmakers have launched campaigns for the gavel ahead of a Sunday deadline, as House Republicans scramble — yet again — to select their new speaker, nearly three weeks after Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the top post. And five of the announced candidates have committed in writing to a plot to ensure the next speaker-designate can rally 217 votes on the floor.

The device: A simple two-paragraph pledge, spearheaded by Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), to vote “yea” on the floor for whoever wins the House Republican conference’s backing in the initial secret-ballot election scheduled for Tuesday. To pick up more commitments, Flood is organizing a bloc of Republicans to withhold support from candidates unless they press their backers to sign the pledge.

It is our way or the highway!

Now here is the scary part.

NBC News reported that…

Fmr. Rep. Charlie Dent and Yale Professor Joanne Freeman join Ali Velshi to discuss the dangerous theatrics that unfolded during the GOP’s speaker vote chaos this week, including threats of violence to Republican members and family members who refused to vote for Jim Jordan. “What we’re seeing now is those kinds of threats, that kind of violence, interwoven with the process of government. That’s alarming,” Freeman says. They also discuss the significance of 8 of 10 Republicans who have declared or are running for Speaker being election-deniers. "People who are not accepting outcomes are not accepting democracy."

These are the people who back the insurrection and they want to be third in line for the presidency!

 

These Republicans are not interested in country only in the party and themselves.

Matt Gaetz, the Republican firebrand furthering division within his party
Florida congressman's ousting of the House speaker underscored the willingness of the GOP’s right flank to sow chaos in its own backyard
The Telegraph
By Rozina Sabur
October 22, 2023

When Matt Gaetz, a hard-Right Florida congressman, rose to speak at a Republican meeting last week, he faced down anger from his own side.

Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker he had ousted just weeks before, told him to “sit your a-- down” and another Republican “lunged” at him, according to a source in the room.

Asked about it afterwards, Mr McCarthy said: “I think the entire conference screamed at him. Listen, the whole country, I think, would scream at Matt Gaetz right now.”

Mr Gaetz has no problem being left out in the cold in his party. Like his hero Donald Trump, he believes he can be sustained by support from the Right-wing grassroots.

His bombshell move underscored the willingness of the Republicans’ right flank to sow chaos in its own backyard, but it may also have exposed the limits of his power.

 The Republican Clown Car is getting very full!