#Alabama business attorney

[beardedmrbean]

The Kansas legislature passed a bill Wednesday that would classify organized retail crime (ORC) a felony offense, joining nine other states that have passed similar laws in the last year. 

ORC refers to orchestrated groups of shoplifters who commit smash-and-grab robberies of stores or target cargo carriers.

The state’s upper chamber passed the Substitute House Bill 2144, which would split the felony charges into two tiers. A theft of merchandise valued at more than $3,000 would be classified a felony and those convicted would face between 31 and 136 months behind bars. If the amount stolen exceeds $15,000, the sentence range is between 38 and 172 months. 

'BURGLARY TOURISM' PLAGUES SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AS UNVETTED FOREIGNERS RAID LUXE HOUSES

The bill still has to be signed by Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, before it goes into effect. 

In support of the bill, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach wrote that ORC isn’t "mere shoplifting."

"These crimes typically involve stealing for personal use. It is large-scale theft of retail merchandise that represents a concerted effort to victimize a business, often with the intention of reselling the items for financial gain and often using those financial proceeds to fund additional criminal activity," he said.

A 2023 report from the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail association, found that organized retail crime was a primary driver of the massive amount of "shrink" retailers saw in 2022, with non-employee stealing making up 36%. 

The term "shrink" typically means theft and other forms of inventory losses, and retailers nationwide experienced $112 billion in losses in 2022. 

Texas, Virginia, Alabama, Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Oregon enacted retail theft laws last year, while California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana and North Carolina passed ORC laws in 2022. 

"While theft has an undeniable impact on retailer margins and profitability, retailers are highly concerned about the heightened levels of violence and threat of violence associated with theft and crime," the NRF wrote on its website. 

State Senate Republicans who voted for the bill argued that ORC needs its own category since shoplifters who steal for their own use versus those who are part of a broader organized scheme are charged the same way. 

"Currently we don’t have the proper tools to prosecute that type of crime, so that’s what this bill does," state Sen. Kellie Warren, a Republican, said of the bill, The Topeka Journal reported. 

Some states hit hard by retail theft have gone so far as to create their own law enforcement task forces to address it. The NRF found that Los Angeles was one of the hardest-hit cities in California for ORC, leading the LA County Sheriff Department to create the Organized Retail Theft Crime Task Force.

Meanwhile, opponents of tough-on-crime laws such as these argue the harsher penalties are too extreme for the crimes and could prevent a person from being rehabilitated. Maine’s legislature passed a bill in the House this week that would prohibit charging people who already have two prior convictions of theft if the third theft is worth less than $500. The state’s current law permits a felony charge for the third conviction if the crimes all occur within a decade. 

[rabbitcruiser]

Thomas Jefferson Day

Thomas Jefferson, a founding father of the United States, was born on April 13, 1743. He held many roles and did much during the formative years of the country, including being the main author of the Declaration of Independence and the country’s third president. He wrote his own epitaph, highlighting what he most wanted to be remembered for: “HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.”

Thomas Jefferson Day is a legal observance, but it is not a public holiday. A joint resolution approved on August 16, 1937, authorized the President of the United States to proclaim April 13 as “Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday” each year. The following year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation 2276 to designate the day. Subsequent presidents have made similar proclamations. In Alabama, Thomas Jefferson’s birthday is officially celebrated on Presidents’ Day, along with George Washington’s.

Thomas Jefferson was born at the Shadwell plantation in Albemarle County, Virginia. His mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, was from a prominent Virginia family, and his father, Peter Jefferson, was a planter and surveyor. After graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1762, he began studying law. As there weren’t official law schools at the time, Jefferson studied under a Virginia attorney. He began his work as a lawyer in 1767.

He married Martha Wayles Skelton on January 1, 1772. They had six children, but only two daughters lived to adulthood. Martha died in 1782 at the age of 33, and Jefferson never remarried. Besides keeping himself busy with politics throughout his life, he had many other interests, including gardening, architecture, music, and reading.

Jefferson was a member of colonial Virginia’s House of Burgesses between 1769 and 1775. He wrote “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” in 1774, which brought him to a wider audience. It said that the British Parliament didn’t have the right to use authority over the colonies. He was then selected to be a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. During this time, a panel of five was chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence. Of the five, which also included John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson was chosen to write the draft. It was adopted on July 4, 1776.

In the fall of 1776, Jefferson resigned from the Continental Congress and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, which was formerly the House of Burgesses. In the late 1770s, he drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. It was a notable forerunner to the First Amendment, and Jefferson thought it was one of his most substantial contributions, being important enough to include in his epitaph. After his time in the Virginia House of Delegates, he was Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781.

Following the Revolutionary War, Jefferson was part of Congress, which was known as the Congress of the Confederation at the time. He served from 1783 to 1784, and then became Minister to France in 1785, taking over the position that Benjamin Franklin had held. Because he was overseas, he was not able to attend the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

In the fall of 1789, Thomas Jefferson returned to America and became the first secretary of state. He helped found the Democratic-Republican Party, which opposed Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party, a party which wanted a strong central government with strong powers over the economy. Jefferson believed in a federal government with a limited role and believed in strong state and local governments.

He ran for president in 1796 and received the largest amount of votes after John Adams, so he became vice president. He ran against Adams again in 1800, and this time beat him. But his electoral vote count tied that of his running mate, Aaron Burr, and it was up to the House of Representatives to declare Jefferson as president. Because of this, the Twelfth Amendment, which stipulated separate voting for president and vice president, was ratified in 1804.

Jefferson served two terms as president and was in office from 1801 to 1809. During his first term, in 1803, he helped orchestrate the Louisiana Purchase, in which the size of the United States doubled with the purchase of land for $15 million from France. Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on an expedition, known as the Corps of Discovery, to explore the new land. With this trip, information was gathered about geography, plant and animal life, and American Indian tribes. During his second term, which he secured with over 70% of the popular vote, Jefferson worked to keep the country out of the Napoleonic Wars. He implemented the Embargo of 1807 after merchant ships were getting harassed by France and Britain. It was an unpopular move, though, as it shut down American trade and hurt the economy; it was repealed in 1809. Jefferson did not run for a third term in 1808.

After his presidency, Jefferson retired to his home, Monticello. “Monticello” means “little mountain” in Italian. Indeed the home is located on a small mountain, on the edge of the Shadwell property where Jefferson was born. He had begun clearing the area for a home in 1768. He designed the home and gardens himself, and he continually worked on the house throughout his life. Art and gadgets filled the rooms, and he kept records of everything that went on at the plantation.

During his retirement years, he also helped found the University of Virginia. He helped design both its buildings and its curriculum. He also made sure it wasn’t a religious school and that there wasn’t a religious litmus test in order to attend it.

In 1815, he sold his 6,700 volume personal library to Congress, to replace the books that had been destroyed by the British in the War of 1812, when they burned the Capitol, which housed the Library of Congress at the time. Jefferson’s books became the foundation of what became the Library of Congress’s new library.

Although Jefferson is revered as one of the founding fathers, he is not a man without contradictions and shortcomings. He was a promoter of liberty and wrote “all men are created equal,” but was a slave owner throughout his whole life, during which he owned a total of about 600 slaves. He believed blacks were inferior humans and didn’t think coexistence would be possible if they were free. And although he never remarried after the loss of his beloved wife, Martha, he went on to father more children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. Some of the slaves that were in his bloodline were freed after his death, but most of his slaves were sold.

Thomas Jefferson passed away at Monticello at the age of 83, on July 4, 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. As if the date of his death wasn’t ironic enough, fellow founding father John Adams died on the same day. Thomas Jefferson died first, but Adams did not know that Jefferson had died, and his last words were “Thomas Jefferson survives.” Jefferson was buried at Monticello. Monticello was sold off following his death to pay debts, but a nonprofit organization acquired it in the twentieth century and it was opened to the public in 1954.

Source

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Nick Anderson Editorial Cartoons Page

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 31, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 01, 2024

Today felt as if there was a collective inward breath as people tried to figure out what yesterday’s jury verdict means for the upcoming 2024 election. The jury decided that former president Trump created fraudulent business records in order to illegally influence the 2016 election. As of yesterday, the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States of America is a convicted felon. 

Since the verdict, Trump and his supporters have worked very hard to spin the conviction as a good thing for his campaign, but those arguments sound like a desperate attempt to shape a narrative that is spinning out of their control. Newspapers all over the country bore the word “GUILTY” in their headlines today.

At stake for Trump is the Republican presidential nomination. Getting it would pave his way to the presidency, which offers him financial gain and the ability to short-circuit the federal prosecutions that observers say are even tighter cases than the state case in which a jury quickly and unanimously found him guilty yesterday. Not getting it leaves Trump and the MAGA supporters who helped him try to steal the 2020 presidential election at the mercy of the American justice system.  

After last night’s verdict, Trump went to the cameras and tried to establish that the nomination remains his, asserting that voters would vindicate him on November 5. But this morning, as he followed up last night’s comments, he did himself no favors. He billed the event as a “press conference,” but delivered what Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times described as “a rambling and misleading speech,” so full of grievance and unhinged that the networks except the Fox News Channel cut away from it as he attacked trial witnesses, called Judge Merchan “the devil,” and falsely accused President Joe Biden of pushing his prosecution. He took no questions from the press.

Today the Trump campaign told reporters it raised $34.8 million from small-dollar donors in the hours after the guilty verdict, but observers pointed out there was no reason to believe those numbers based on statements from Trump’s campaign. Meanwhile, Trump advisor Stephen Miller shouted on the Fox News Channel that every Republican secretary of state, state attorney general, donor, member of Congress must use their power “RIGHT NOW” to “beat these Communists!” 

The attempt of MAGA lawmakers to shape events in their favor seemed just as panicked. Representative Jim Banks (R-IN) posted on social media that “New York is a liberal sh*t hole,” and Jim Jordan (R-OH) today asked Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case against Trump, to testify before the House Judiciary’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about “politically motivated prosecutions of…President Donald Trump.” Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) noted that Trump is a private citizen and Congress has no jurisdiction over the case, but that Jordan is using his congressional authority illegally to defend Trump. 

MAGA senators were even more strident. Republican senator Mike Lee of Utah melted down on X last night over the verdict, and today he led nine other Republican senators in a revolt against the federal government. Lee, J. D. Vance of Ohio, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Rick Scott of Florida, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Marco Rubio of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin issued a public letter saying they would no longer pass legislation, fund the government, or vote to confirm the administration’s appointees because, they said, “[t]he White House has made a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways. As a Senate Republican conference,” they said, although there were only 10 of them, “we are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart.” 

It was an odd statement seemingly designed to use disinformation to convince voters to stick with them. Ten senators said they would not do the federal jobs they were elected to do because private citizen Trump was convicted in a state court by a jury of 12 people in New York, a jury that Trump’s lawyers had agreed to. The senators attacked the rule of law and the operation of the federal government in a demonstration of support for Trump. A number of the senators involved were key players in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. 

Awkwardly, considering the day’s news, a video from 2016 circulated today in which Trump insisted that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who he falsely insisted had committed crimes even as he was the one actually committing them, “shouldn’t be allowed to run.” If she were to win, Trump then said, “it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis. In that situation, we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and, ultimately, a criminal trial. It would grind government to a halt.” 

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo put it correctly: this is not an “outpouring of rage and anger,” so much as “an overwhelming effort to match and muffle the earthquake of what happened yesterday afternoon with enough noise and choreography to keep everyone in Trump’s campaign and on the margins of it in line and on side.”

Still, there is more behind the MAGA support for Trump than fearful political messaging. Trump has been hailed as a savior by his supporters because he promises to smash through the laws and norms of American democracy to put them into power. There, they can assert their will over the rest of us, achieving the social and religious control they cannot achieve through democratic means because they cannot win the popular vote in a free and fair election. With Trump’s conviction within the legal system, his supporters are more determined than ever to destroy the rules that block them from imposing their will on the rest of us. 

Today the Federalist Society, which is now aligned with Victor Orbán’s Hungary, flew an upside-down U.S. flag as a signal of national distress. Their actions were in keeping with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s statement that Trump is being persecuted “for political reasons” and that the cases show “the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.”

Ryan J. Reilly of NBC News reported today on a spike in violent rhetoric on social media targeting New York judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s Manhattan election interference trial, and District Attorney Bragg. Users of a fringe internet message board also shared what they claimed were the addresses of jurors. “Dox the Jurors. Dox them now,” one user wrote. Another wrote, “1,000,000 men (armed) need to go to [W]ashington and hang everyone. That’s the only solution.”

This attack on our democracy was the central message of a crucially important story from yesterday that got buried under the news of Trump’s conviction. In The New Republic, Ken Silverstein reported on a private WhatsApp group started last December by military contractor Erik Prince—founder of Blackwater and brother of Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos—and including about 650 wealthy and well-connected “right-wing government officials, intelligence operatives, arms traffickers, and journalists,” including Representative Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who served as Trump’s secretary of the interior. 

Called “Off Leash,” the group discussed, as Silverstein wrote, “the shortcomings of democracy that invariably resulted from extending the franchise to ordinary citizens, who are easily manipulated by Marxists and populists,” collapsing Gaza into a “fiery hell pit,” wiping out Iran, how Africa was a “sh*thole of a continent,” and ways to dominate the globe. Mostly, though, they discussed the danger of letting everyone vote. “There is only one path forward,” Zinke wrote. “Elect Trump.” Another member answered, “It’s Trump or Revolution” “You mean Trump AND Revolution,” wrote another. 

And yet the frantic MAGA spin on the verdict reveals that there is another way to interpret it. Americans who had lost faith that the justice system could ever hold a powerful man accountable as Trump’s lawyers managed to put off his many indictments see the verdict as a welcome sign that the system still works. 

“The American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed,” Biden said today. “Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself. It was a state case, not a federal case. And it was heard by a jury of 12 citizens, 12 Americans, 12 people like you. Like millions of Americans who served on juries, this jury is chosen the same way every jury in America is chosen. It was a process that Donald Trump's attorney was part of. The jury heard five weeks of evidence…. After careful deliberation, the jury reached a unanimous verdict. They found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts. Now he’ll be given the opportunity as he should to appeal that decision just like everyone else has that opportunity. That's how the American system of justice works. And it's reckless, it's dangerous, and it's irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don't like the verdict. Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years and it literally is the cornerstone of America…. The justice system should be respected, and we should never allow anyone to tear it down. It’s as simple as that. That's America. That's who we are. And that's who we will always be, God willing.”

Today the publisher of Dinesh D’Souza’s book and film 2000 Mules, which alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election, said it was pulling both the book and film from distribution and issued an apology to a Georgia man who sued for defamation after 2000 Mules accused him of voting illegally.  

MAGA Republicans confidently predicted yesterday that the stock market would crash if the jury found Trump guilty. Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained almost 600 points.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Chris Geidner at Law Dork:

Just before the close of business Tuesday, items appeared on two court dockets with which Law Dork readers are all too familiar that showed how far removed reality is from the ideal of “equal justice under law” engraved above the U.S. Supreme Court’s doors.

The items show — in shocking if predictable contrast — that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is continuing to aggressively and explicitly encourage and protect forum-shopping for the right while federal courts in Alabama are continuing to aggressively investigate judicial concerns about alleged forum-shopping in LGBTQ civil rights litigation. First on Tuesday, two Trump appointees issued a ruling ordering, yet again, that a conservative ideological challenge to a Biden administration rule must remain within their ultraconservative circuit. Moments later, LGBTQ civil rights lawyers filed a notice that they had complied with the invasive order from another Trump appointee that he be allowed to review a document that they maintain is protected by attorney-client privilege as part of a two-year judge-shopping investigation. This issue is not new — I wrote about this issue more generally on June 10 — but Tuesday’s news developments are particularly stark examples of the differences in result that are the consequences of these differences in treatment.

Heads, the Chamber wins

For conservative forces — here, the Chamber of Commerce fighting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s credit card late fee rule — Judges Don Willett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has twice issued writs of mandamus to stop U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, a fellow Trump appointee, from transferring the challenge to the federal court in D.C. Pittman, after the first go-round, harshly criticized the “landmines” laid by the Fifth Circuit. In Tuesday’s order, Willett’s libertarianism was supported by Judge Kyle Duncan’s Christian nationalism to … protect business interests. [...]

Tails, LGBTQ civil rights lawyers lose

A little more than a 10-hour drive across the South away — across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi and up Alabama — lawyers submitted a document to U.S. District Judge Liles Burke that they insist is protected by attorney-client privilege but that he has now twice ordered the LGBTQ civil rights lawyers to turn over more than two years into a judge-shopping investigation. Burke himself prompted the investigation by questioning in a court order whether parties’ dismissal of two cases challenging the state’s new ban on gender-affirming care for minors and lawyers’ discussion that another challenge would be brought constituted judge-shopping.

Chris Geidner writes in Law Dork how right-wing interests get deferential treatment in various courts, especially the 5th Circuit Court.

[darkmaga-returns]

On November 5 the Decision Will Be Made between Freedom and Tyranny

Paul Craig Roberts

Democrats Continue to Block All Efforts to Restore Electoral Integrity.

Some Democrat courts rule contrary to the law on the books.

The Democrat Nevada Supreme Court ruled contrary to law that non-postmarked ballots that arrive 3 days after the election can be counted. This permits non-mailed mail-in ballots to be filled in after the vote count and used to reverse the electoral result.  The federal US Appeals Court for the fifth circuit ruled that the US Constitution requires ballots to be counted on election day.  The Democrats have declared the US Constitution to be a racist document that they will not abide by despite their oath of office to uphold the Constitution.

Democrat federal district courts required the state of Virginia to restore non-US citizens to its voter rolls. This allows the Democrats to vote the non-citizens. The Democrat Department of Justice (sic) required the state of Alabama to have non-US citizens on the state’s voter rolls. A federal judge dismissed the Republican attempt to have only US citizens on Michigan’s voter rolls.

The Democrat Pennsylvania supreme court illegally ruled that improperly cast mail-in ballots can be counted.

The Democrat district attorney in Philadelphia is suing Elon Musk in an effort to stop Musk’s support of the US Constitution.

Democrat states legalized street corner drop-in ballot boxes that permit anonymous individuals to stuff with fraudulent votes that the Democrats have ruled must be counted. 

O’Keefe Media Group reports that in totally corrupt Maricopa County, Arizona, Democrat election officials instructed poll watchers not to interfere with illegal ballot harvesting or to report any voting irregularities. 

American universities have produced a generation of Woke leftwing business leaders.  The consequence is that the business leaders are no longer Republican, and their money, especially that of billionaires, has gone to the Democrats.  The latest campaign filings  for the first half of October show that Kamala spent  $304.5 million on her election campaign which raised $295.3 million.  Trump came in with less than half of that. Trump raised $117 million and spent $143.7 million.

[mariacallous]

Forty-one state attorneys general penned a letter to Meta’s top attorney on Wednesday saying complaints are skyrocketing across the United States about Facebook and Instagram user accounts being stolen, and declaring “immediate action” necessary to mitigate the rolling threat.

The coalition of top law enforcement officials, spearheaded by New York attorney general Letitia James, says the “dramatic and persistent spike” in complaints concerning account takeovers amounts to a “substantial drain” on governmental resources, as many stolen accounts are also tied to financial crimes—some of which allegedly profits Meta directly.

“We have received a number of complaints of threat actors fraudulently charging thousands of dollars to stored credit cards,” says the letter addressed to Meta’s chief legal officer, Jennifer Newstead. “Furthermore, we have received reports of threat actors buying advertisements to run on Meta.”

“We refuse to operate as the customer service representatives of your company,” the officials add. “Proper investment in response and mitigation is mandatory.”

In addition to New York, the letter is signed by attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.

“Scammers use every platform available to them and constantly adapt to evade enforcement. We invest heavily in our trained enforcement and review teams and have specialized detection tools to identify compromised accounts and other fraudulent activity,” Meta says in a statement provided by spokesperson Erin McPike. “We regularly share tips and tools people can use to protect themselves, provide a means to report potential violations, work with law enforcement and take legal action.”

Account takeovers can occur as a result of phishing as well as other more sophisticated and targeted techniques. Once an attacker gains access to an account, the owner can be easily locked out by changing passwords and contact information. Private messages and personal information are left up for grabs for a variety of nefarious purposes, from impersonation and fraud to pushing misinformation.

“It's basically a case of identity theft and Facebook is doing nothing about it,” said one user whose complaint was cited in the letter to Meta's Newstead.

The state officials said the accounts that were stolen to run ads on Facebook often run afoul of its rules while doing so, leading them to be permanently suspended, punishing the victims—often small business owners—twice over.

“Having your social media account taken over by a scammer can feel like having someone sneak into your home and change all of the locks,” New York's James said in a statement. “Social media is how millions of Americans connect with family, friends, and people throughout their communities and the world. To have Meta fail to properly protect users from scammers trying to hijack accounts and lock rightful owners out is unacceptable.”

Other complaints forwarded to Newstead show hacking victims expressing frustration over Meta’s lack of response. In many cases, users report no action being taken by the company. Some say the company encourages users to report such problems but never responds, leaving them unable to salvage their accounts or the businesses they built around them.

After being hacked and defrauded of $500, one user complained that their ability to communicate with their own customer base had been “completely disrupted,” and that Meta had never responded to the report they filed, though the user had followed the instructions the company provided them to obtain help.

“I can't get any help from Meta. There is no one to talk to and meanwhile all my personal pictures are being used. My contacts are receiving false information from the hacker,” one user wrote.

Wrote another: “This is my business account, which is important to me and my life. I have invested my life, time, money and soul in this account. All attempts to contact and get a response from the Meta company, including Instagram and Facebook, were crowned with complete failure, since the company categorically does not respond to letters.”

Figures provided by James’ office in New York show a tenfold increase in complaints between 2019 and 2023—from 73 complaints to more than 780 last year. In January alone, more than 128 complaints were received, James’ office says. Other states saw similar spikes in complaints during that period, according to the letter, with Pennsylvania recording a 270 percent increase, a 330 percent jump in North Carolina, and a 740 percent surge in Vermont.

The letter notes that, while the officials cannot be “certain of any connection,” the drastic increase in complaints occurred “around the same time” as layoffs at Meta affecting roughly 11,000 employees in November 2022, around 13 percent of its staff at the time.

[chloe-doust]

Chloe Doust’s Dedication to Personal Injury and Consumer Advocacy

Chloe Doust stands as a beacon of hope and resilience for individuals facing personal injury and consumer rights issues. As an attorney at the esteemed Gillespie Law Firm, Chloe's dedication to her clients extends across North Carolina, Alabama, and Minnesota. Her commitment to justice and unwavering support for those in need make her a standout figure in the legal community.

A Passion for Advocacy

Chloe Doust's legal career is rooted in her profound passion for helping people. Specializing in personal injury and consumer rights law, she navigates the complexities of these fields with expertise and compassion. Her firm handles an array of claims, ensuring that every client receives the attention and justice they deserve.

Expertise in Personal Injury Law

Personal injury cases often bring emotional and financial turmoil to the victims and their families. Chloe's expertise covers a broad spectrum, including automobile, truck, and motorcycle accidents. She meticulously investigates each case, ensuring that every detail is accounted for to build a strong claim. Her clients find solace in her thorough approach and her relentless pursuit of fair compensation for their suffering.

Championing Consumer Rights

In addition to her personal injury practice, Chloe is a staunch advocate for consumer rights. She tackles issues such as unlawful eviction and property law claims, safeguarding her clients' rights and ensuring they are not taken advantage of by powerful entities. Whether drafting lease agreements or fighting for consumer protections, Chloe's legal acumen and dedication shine through.

Beyond the Courtroom: Supporting Small Business

When she is not in the courtroom, Chloe Doust turns her attention to her small business in South Carolina. Her experience and knowledge in international trade law, bolstered by an LLM from Nottingham School of Law in England, equip her to handle the complexities of business negotiations and day-to-day operations. Her dual role as a business owner and attorney provides a unique perspective, enriching her ability to serve her clients with a well-rounded understanding of both legal and business landscapes.

A Heart for Service

Chloe's dedication to service extends beyond her professional obligations. She volunteers at Baptist South Church, offering her legal expertise to those who might not otherwise have access to it. Her commitment to pro bono work underscores her belief in making legal services accessible to all, irrespective of their financial standing.

Free Consultations and Compassionate Care

At the core of Chloe's practice is a genuine desire to help. Her motto of offering free consultations and services whenever possible is a testament to her selflessness and dedication. She believes that everyone deserves quality legal representation, and she strives to provide that to the best of her ability.

Conclusion

Chloe Doust's dedication to her clients and community is inspiring. Whether navigating the intricacies of personal injury and consumer rights law, supporting her small business, or volunteering her time and expertise, Chloe's impact is profound and far-reaching. She exemplifies what it means to be a compassionate advocate, tirelessly working to ensure justice and support for those in need.

[alabamaworkerscomp]

In the bustling city of Huntsville, Alabama, the roadways are always busy with vehicles commuting to and fro. Unfortunately, with this constant flow of traffic, car accidents are inevitable. Whether it's a minor fender-bender or a serious collision, being involved in a car accident can be a traumatic experience, both physically and emotionally. In such challenging times, seeking the assistance of a skilled car accident attorney in Huntsville, AL can make all the difference.

1. Legal Expertise:

Navigating the complexities of car accident laws and insurance claims can be overwhelming for anyone unfamiliar with the legal system. This is where a car accident attorney steps in. With their in-depth knowledge and expertise in handling similar cases, they can provide invaluable guidance throughout the legal process.

2. Protection of Rights:

After a car accident, insurance companies may try to minimize payouts or deny claims altogether. A car accident attorney acts as a staunch advocate for their clients, ensuring that their rights are protected and that they receive the compensation they rightfully deserve.

3. Investigation and Evidence Gathering:

Proving liability in a car accident case often requires thorough investigation and gathering of evidence. From obtaining police reports to interviewing witnesses and collecting medical records, a car accident attorney has the resources and experience to build a strong case on behalf of their clients.

4. Negotiation Skills:

Many car accident cases are settled through negotiation rather than going to trial. A skilled car accident attorney knows how to negotiate effectively with insurance companies to secure a fair settlement that covers medical expenses, lost wages, and other damages.

5. Litigation Representation:

In cases where a settlement cannot be reached, having a car accident attorney who is prepared to take the case to court is essential. With their litigation experience, they can effectively represent their clients in front of a judge and jury, fighting vigorously for their rights.

6. Peace of Mind:

Dealing with the aftermath of a car accident can be incredibly stressful. By entrusting their case to a reputable car accident attorney, clients can have peace of mind knowing that their legal matters are in capable hands, allowing them to focus on their recovery.

7. Cost-Effective Solutions:

Contrary to popular belief, hiring a car accident attorney is often more cost-effective in the long run. Many attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, meaning they only get paid if they win the case. This eliminates the financial burden on clients while incentivizing attorneys to achieve the best possible outcome.

8. Local Knowledge:

Choosing a car accident attorney who is familiar with the local laws and court system in Huntsville, AL, can be advantageous. They understand the unique nuances of practicing law in the area and can leverage this knowledge to benefit their clients.

In conclusion, hiring a car accident attorney in Huntsville, AL, is not only advisable but also crucial for anyone who has been injured in a car accident. From providing legal expertise and protection of rights to negotiating settlements and representing clients in court, a car accident attorney plays a pivotal role in ensuring that justice is served. If you or a loved one has been involved in a car accident, don't hesitate to contact us for expert legal assistance.

Contact us today for a free consultation and let us help you navigate through this challenging time.

[tieflingkisser]

Lawsuit alleges Alabama prisons using forced labor

Alabama’s prison labor program system is a form of modern-day slavery, according to a 126-page lawsuit filed by former and currently incarcerated Alabamians, unions and civil rights organizations on Tuesday morning. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery, alleges that Alabama prison labor is sustained by punishing those who refuse to work or those who encourage other prisoners to refuse to work. It also accuses public and private entities, ranging from local governments to fast food restaurants and grocery stores, of benefitting from the labor. “They have been entrapped in a system of ‘convict leasing’ in which incarcerated people are forced to work, often for little or no money, for the ‘benefit of the numerous government entities and private businesses that ’employ them,’” the lawsuit alleged. The Alabama Department of Corrections said Tuesday it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit — who include currently and formerly incarcerated Alabamians, three unions representing service industry employees and the Woods Foundation, a civil rights organization — are asking the court to issue an injunction, ending Alabama’s current practice of “forced [prison] labor;” to release individuals qualified for parole; require the state to pay the plaintiffs what they earn through working in the prison system, as well as monetary damages to be determined at trial.

[...]

Janet Herold, legal director at Justice Catalyst Law and an attorney representing the plaintiffs, compared the current system to Alabama’s convict-leasing system, which ran from the 1870s to 1928. Under convict-leasing, private companies paid the state for uncompensated labor by state inmates, most of whom were Black, to work in degrading and often deadly conditions. The lawsuit claims Alabama made almost half a billion dollars from prison labor in 2023. “We’re not talking here today about a new Jim Crow, we’re talking here about the old Jim Crow,” Herold said. The lawsuit also alleged that the state grew these programs by favoring white over Black prisoners in parole decisions for release. It further alleges that the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, which has sharply curtailed parole grants in recent years, has “unlawfully refused to release people from prison and further skewed the racial composition of the incarcerated population by wrongfully denying parole to thousands of Alabamians—and to Black Alabamians in particular.”

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: The Quillette Editorial Board

Published: Dec 23, 2023

The Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was founded in 1971 with a mission to fight poverty and racial discrimination. Its early litigation campaigns, which targeted the Ku Klux Klan and other overtly racist organizations, met with success, and the group soon came to be seen as an authoritative source in regard to right-wing extremism more generally. 

Another form of expertise the organization developed was in the area of marketing—especially when the market in question consisted of deep-pocketed urban liberals. As former SPLC staffer Bob Moser reported in a 2019 New Yorker article, the group has consistently taken on attention-grabbing urgent-seeming causes that its leaders knew could be leveraged as a means to gain publicity and—more importantly—donations. It’s no coincidence that the SPLC’s co-founder and long-time fundraising guru, Morris Dees, had previously operated a direct-mail business that sold cookbooks and tchotchkes. “Whether you’re selling cakes or causes, it’s all the same,” Dees told a journalist in 1988.

Dees’ big fundraising break at the SPLC came when he got access to the direct-mail list from the 1972 presidential campaign of Democrat George McGovern. The SPLC co-founder went on to maximize the SPLC’s revenues through what would now be known as targeted methods. According to one former legal colleague, for instance, Dees rarely used his middle name—Seligman—in SPLC mailings, except when it came to “Jewish zip codes.”

Thanks to Dees’ slick marketing expertise, the SPLC was eventually taking in more money than it paid out in operational expenses. (As of October 2022, its endowment fund was valued at almost US$640 million.) But over time, his hard-sell tactics began to alienate co-workers, as there was an obvious disconnect between the real class-based problems they observed in society and the fixations of the naïve northern donors whose wallets Dees was seeking to pry open.

“I felt that [Dees] was on the Klan kick because it was such an easy target—easy to beat in court, easy to raise big money on,” former SPLC attorney Deborah Ellis told Progressive writer John Egerton. “The Klan is no longer one of the South’s biggest problems—not because racism has gone away, but because the racists simply can’t get away with terrorism any more.”

On March 14, 2019, Dees—by now 82 years old, but still listed as the SPLC’s chief trial lawyer—was fired amid widespread rumors that he’d been the subject of internal sexual-harassment accusations. His affiliation was scrubbed from the group’s web site; and the organization’s president, Richard Cohen, cryptically (but damningly) declared that, “when one of our own fails to meet [SPLC] standards, no matter his or her role in the organization, we take it seriously and must take appropriate action.” (Less than two weeks later, Cohen himself left the organization, casting his resignation as part of a transition “to a new generation of leaders.”)

In describing his tenure at the SPLC during the early 2000s, Moser argued that the very structure of the organization betrayed its hypocrisy: Here was an entity dedicated to social justice (as we would now call it), yet which was run by an extremely well-paid, almost exclusively white, corps of lawyers, administrators, and fund-raisers who ruled over a mixed-race corps of junior staff. As far back as the 1980s, Dees was openly admitting that he saw the fight against poverty as passé, and admitted that the “P” in SPLC was an anachronism. Jaded staff began ruefully referring to their own flashy headquarters as the “Poverty Palace.”

Dees and Cohen may have left the Poverty Palace, but the SPLC’s tendency to betray its founding principles clearly remains a problem, as illustrated by a new SPLC report released under the auspices of what the group dubs “Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Through Accessible Informative Narratives.” (This verbal clunker seems to have been reverse-engineered in order to yield the acronym, “CAPTAIN.”)

The report purports to demonstrate “the perils of anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience” and “anti-trans narratives and extremism.” Much like the dramatically worded hard-sell direct-mail campaigns that the SPLC started up under Dees, it’s marketed as a matter of life and death: According to the deputy director of research for the SPLC’s “Intelligence Project,” the “anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience” uncovered by the SPLC has “real-life, often life-threatening consequences for trans and non-binary people.”

At this point, it should be stressed that there is certainly nothing wrong with the SPLC—or anyone else—campaigning for the legitimate rights of people who are transgender. Such a campaign would be entirely in keeping with the SPLC’s original liberal ethos. Just as no one should be denied, say, an apartment, a marriage license, or the right to vote based on his or her race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation, no trans person should be denied these rights and amenities simply because he or she experiences gender dysphoria.

But the SPLC’s report hardly confines itself to such unassailable liberal principles. The real point of the project, it seems, was to catalogue and denounce public figures who’ve expressed dissent from the most extreme demands of trans-rights activists—specifically, (1) the demand that children and adolescents who present as transgender must instantly be “affirmed” in their dysphoric beliefs, even if such affirmation leads to a life of sterility, surgical disfigurement, drug dependence, and medical complications; and (2) the demand that biological men who self-identify as women must be permitted unfettered access to protected women’s spaces and sports leagues.

The SPLC’s authors seek to cast their ideological enemies as hate-addled reactionaries whose nefarious activities must “be understood as part of the historical legacy of white supremacy and the political aims of the religious right.” And it is absolutely true that some of the organizations they name-check are hard-right, socially conservative outfits that endorse truly transphobic (and homophobic) beliefs.

But many of the supposed transphobes targeted by the report aren’t even conservative—let alone members of the religious right. In a multitude of cases, they’re simply parents, therapists, and activists who argue the obvious fact that human sexual biology doesn’t evanesce into rainbow dust the moment that a child—or middle-aged man—asserts that he or she was “born in the wrong body.”

It’s also interesting to note who gets left out of the SPLC’s analysis. The most influential figures leading the backlash against (what some call) “gender ideology” are women such as author J.K. Rowling and tennis legend Martina Navratilova, both of whom come at the issue from explicitly feminist perspectives. Being successful public figures, neither woman needs a cent from the conservative think tanks that the SPLC presents as being back-office puppet-masters of the alleged anti-trans conspiracy outlined in the CAPTAIN report.

In keeping with the conspiracist motif that runs through the document, the authors have provided spider-web diagrams that set out the connections binding this (apparently) shadowy cabal. In this regard, it seems that Quillette itself served as one of the SPLC’s sources: In a section titled, “Group Dynamics and Division of Labor within the Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Network,” the authors footnote “an August 23, 2023 podcast for Quillette,” wherein

it was revealed that [Colin] Wright is in a relationsihp [sic] with journalist Christina Buttons, who is an advisoary [sic] board member of [the Gender Dysphoria Alliance] with Drs. Lisa Littman and Ray Blanchard, an editoral [sic] board member of Springer’s Archives of Sexual Research [a mistaken reference to the Archives of Sexual Behavior] with J. Michael Bailey. Notably, Buttons and Wright are interviewed by host Jonathan Kay. In addition to hosting Quillette’s podcast, Kay serves on FAIR’s board of advisors.

We’ve chosen to highlight this particular (typo-riddled) text from the report not just because of the absurd suggestion that our publication has enlisted in an imaginary “anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network,” but also because the above-quoted roll call of supposed gender villains illustrates the intellectual dishonesty that suffuses the whole report.

Let’s go through the references one by one, in the order in which they are presented. The Gender Dysphoria Alliance (GDA) is a group led by people who are themselves transgender, and who are “concerned about the direction that gender medicine and activism has taken.” Are we to imagine that its members are directing transphobia—against themselves? Lisa Littman, formerly of Brown University, is a respected academic who’s published a peer-reviewed analysis of Rapid Onset Gender Disorder. Ray Blanchard is a well-known University of Toronto psychiatrist. The Archives of Sexual Behavior is a peer-reviewed academic journal in sexology. Michael Bailey is a specialist in sexual orientation and gender nonconformity at Northwestern University. Colin Wright is a widely published writer (including at Quillette) with a PhD in evolutionary biology from UC Santa Barbara. (The SPLC’s claim that he is in a relationship with journalist Christina Buttons, who also writes about gender issues, is completely true. But the fact that the group saw fit to report this fact as if it were evidence of sinister machinations says far more about the report’s authors than it does about either Wright or Buttons.) FAIR, the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism, is a classically liberal group led by a Harvard Law School graduate named Monica Harris. Do any of these people or groups sound like extremists?

The fact that the SPLC is attempting to market its report as a blow against the “anti-LGBTQ+” movement, writ large, is itself quite laughable, since many of the activists who’ve been arguing for a more balanced approach to gender rights are themselves either gay (as with Navratilova and Julie Bindel) or (as with the founders of the GDA) transgender.

Others on the SPLC gender-enemies list are author Abigail Shrier, and therapists Sasha Ayad, and Stella O���Malley. These women openly broadcast their views in best-selling books, as well as mainstream magazines and newspapers. The idea that the SPLC has successfully “exposed” these women through some kind of investigation, as suggested by the title that’s been slapped on the CAPTAIN report, would be ludicrous even if they’d said anything scandalous (which they haven’t).

And what course of future action does the SPLC endorse? For one, it concludes that educators should stigmatize gender-critical views as analogous to “racism, sexism, and heteronormativity.” The report's authors also want academic journals to sniff out groups that “espouse an anti-LGBTQ+ ideology” (as that latter term is speciously defined by the SPLC). And in a final flourish, the group urges reporters to “be aware of the narrative manipulation strategies and the cooptation of scientific credentials and language by anti-trans researchers when sourcing stories about trans experiences.”

With this last point, we get to the real nub: The apparent goal is for this report to be read as a catalogue of people, ideas, and groups that must be shunned. Indeed, the authors explicitly cite the work of one Andrea James, a once-respected arts producer who, as Jesse Singal has documented, now runs a creepy (“stalker” is the word Singal uses) web site called Transgender Map, which lists personal details of anyone whom James deems a gender heretic. When it comes to one-on-one communication, James’ manner of dealing with critics is exemplified by an email sent to bioethicist Alice Dreger, in which James referred to Dreger’s then-five-year-old son as a “womb turd.”

One way to describe the CAPTAIN report is as an SPLC-branded rehash of the information contained on Transgender Map. And one can understand why the authors thought that such a gambit might work. The SPLC already publishes other curated lists of hatemongers—e.g., its “Hatewatch” service, “Hate Map,” and “Intelligence Report.” It wasn’t such a long shot to imagine that this new report might convince readers to treat the listed “Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Network” acolytes as equally disreputable.

But if that was the authors’ goal, it doesn’t seem to have been achieved. The SPLC report landed with something of a thud—and has attracted little attention on social media except insofar as it was mocked by its intended targets.

This may have something to do with the report’s timing. For several years now, a backlash against this kind of gender agitprop has been building within many of the same liberal and progressive circles that the SPLC has traditionally targeted for donations. The trend is reflected by the rise of such groups as the LGB Alliance, a coalition of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who are fed up with the ideological takeover of LGBT groups by a militant subset of trans activists.

The same trend is playing out internationally. While the SPLC does its best to heap blame on America’s conservative Christians, many of western Europe’s governments (none of which are in thrall to the Heritage Foundation or the Charles Koch Foundation) have been following a more gender-critical path for years.

Just a week after the SPLC put out its report, in fact, the UK government published new guidelines advising teachers that they have no duty to automatically “affirm” a child’s assertion that he or she is transgender; and that, in considering such situations, teachers should speak with a child’s parents and consider whether the child is under undue influence from social media or peers. Sweden, Finland, and Norway—hardly bastions of Christian conservatism—have also rolled back policies that rush children into transition. In Canada, several provinces have recently enacted rules that require parents to be notified when a child seeks to transition, even in the face of a sustained media campaign that repeats lurid claims to the effect that such policies will cause an epidemic of trans suicides. Are all of these foreign governments also complicit in the vast “junk-science and disinformation campaign” against trans people that the SPLC claims to have “exposed”?

The SPLC would hardly be the first progressive organization whose reputation has suffered by going all-in on the gender issue. The American Civil Liberties Union, which also was rooted in traditional liberal values before succumbing to more faddish progressive tendencies, has attracted ridicule due to its parroting of slogans such as “men who get their periods are men,” and the claim that males have no “unfair advantage” over females in sports.

These organizations have never been shy about angering conservatives and reactionaries; indeed, they wear such anger as a badge of pride. But their cultish refusal to engage with the reality of biological sex also antagonizes progressive feminists seeking to protect female spaces from biological men, and LGB activists who see the attempted erasure of sex-based attraction as a species of progressive homophobia.

Which is to say that the SPLC’s report seems not only intellectually dishonest, but also self-destructive. While the SPLC leaders who green-lit this project once may have been able to bank on the popularity of pronoun checks and esoteric gender identities among the wealthy white coastal progressives who comprise the bulk of their donors, this is an ideological movement that’s decidedly past its peak. It’s a marketing error that the savvy Dees likely never would have made.

The SPLC obviously does a lot more than lend its name to sloppily edited gender propaganda: A review of its press feed shows that it still has staff working traditional legal beats such as voters’ rights, police accountability, and humane treatment for prisoners. But when an organization publishes misleading materials in regard to one issue, the natural effect is to raise serious questions about the group’s values and credibility more generally—questions that SPLC supporters will want to think about the next time one of the group’s fundraisers hits them up for a donation.

==

This is what institutional capture looks like.

[whatisonthemoon]

Foreigners give babies to ‘Moonies’ The Anniston Star January 23, 1989

MOBILE (AP) – An investigator with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Department remains baffled by three adoption cases involving foreign couples that a Unification Church member said was motivated simply by love. “Why have these people come from these different countries to give their children to these particular people?” said Lark Dodd. But Ms. Dodd said her investigation into the cases was closed since no wrongdoing was discovered. Two of the foreign couples who traveled to Mobile to have their babies gave custody of the newborns to Unification Church members. A third couple returned to Canada with their infant son after the state launched an investigation. An attorney for the Unification church said the church has not arranged the adoptions or instructed members to have babies and give them to church members. “To the best of my knowledge these relationships were developed by the individuals themselves,” with no guidance from the church, said David Hagar, an attorney at the Unification Church’s New York office. Workers at Spring Hill Memorial Hospital told The Birmingham News that the Canadian woman refused to look at the 9-pound, 12-ounce baby boy she gave birth to on Sept. 21 and told them another woman would pick up the infant.

The bewilderment of hospital officials heightened when a 58-year-old woman appeared, saying she would take custody. “They had no adoption papers,” said Brenda Hutchison, clinical supervisor of the hospital’s pediatric department. “We had nothing that said this woman could have the baby.” While pondering the situation, hospital workers recalled a similar case just two weeks before. A woman from France had a baby boy and said she was giving the baby as a gift to a woman who would pick the child up. That case did have legal adoption papers. “They said, ‘God told me to do this’,” Ms. Hutchison said. “They both said these babies were gifts.” Interviews with law enforcement, hospital and Unification Church officials revealed the adoption cases involved the “Moonies” – followers of Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon. Church members in Bayou La Batre, a hub for Unification Church activity in Alabama, paid for couples to fly to Mobile from Austria, Canada and France to have their babies born as U.S. citizens. Then church members in the coastal community filed for adoption, authorities said. “There’s nothing strange or unusual about the church,” said Martin Porter, president and chairman of Master Marine Inc., a Unification Church-owned shipbuilding business in Bayou La Batre.

Porter said that includes bringing church members from other countries to Mobile to have their babies and give them to Porter and Master Marine’s vice president, Paul Werner. 

Porter explained the motive for such a gift simply: “Why would you do that (give a baby up for adoption to a specific person)?” he asked. “It would be because you have a very deep love for the person. It would only be because they wanted to.” In addition to the babies born in September that Porter and Werner filed to adopt, four months earlier Werner filed for adoption of a baby boy whose mother came from Austria and gave birth at the University of South Alabama Hospital, said Ms. Dodd.

The three adoption cases prompted the state Department of Human Resources to investigate. 

The couple from Canada were forced by a court order to remain in the United States while the case was investigated and their baby was put in state custody. After nearly two months, the couple dropped the adoption procedure.

“They were just blown away… by the legal machinery that was going to come at them,” said Hagar, who flew to Mobile at Werner’s request: “Any time a petition for adoption is filed, we are obliged to make an investigation and report to the (probate) judge,” said Jerry Milner, supervisor of the Department of Human Resources’ office of adoptions. He declined to comment on the case specifically. But it appears the two babies adopted and living with Porter and Werner will remain in their custody, Ms. Dodd said. She said all people involved in the adoption cases were Unification Church members who knew each other personally and could have arranged the adoptions outside official church channels. It would be illegal for the church to play a role in arranging the adoption, she said. 

Ms. Dodd also said Werner told her that he and Porter paid the expenses of the couples who had their babies in Mobile. To pay them a fee would violate state law against child-selling, she said.

“There’s no financial remuneration passing to anybody,” Hagar said. “This isn’t a baby auction.” Alabama Watchman Fellowship Director Craig Branch, whose evangelical ministry monitors the Unification Church, contends the adoptions must have been orchestrated by the church.

[bruceadamslawal]

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[lawyersdatascraping]

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[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 21, 2023 (Friday)

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUL 22, 2023

On June 8 the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of a lower court blocking the congressional districting map Alabama put into place after the 2020 census, agreeing that the map likely violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act and ordering Alabama to redraw the map to include two majority-Black congressional districts. 

Today the Alabama legislature passed a new congressional map that openly violates the Supreme Court’s order. By a vote of 75–28 in the House and 24–6 in the Senate, the legislature approved a map that includes only one Black-majority district. 

Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and many of the other members of Alabama’s congressional delegation had spoken to the Republicans in the state legislature about the map. Editor of the Alabama Reflector Brian Lyman reported that the map’s sponsor said he had spoken to House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) too: “It was quite simple,” the sponsor said. McCarthy “said ‘I’m interested in keeping my majority.’ That was basically his conversation.” 

Alabama governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed the bill into law. 

Today, assistant U.S. attorney general Todd Kim and U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas Jaime Esparza wrote to Texas governor Greg Abbott and Texas interim attorney general Angela Colmenero warning that the actions of Texas in constructing a barrier in the Rio Grande between the U.S. and Mexico “violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties.” 

The floating barrier violates the Rivers and Harbors Act, which prohibits the construction of any obstructions to navigation in U.S. waters and requires permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before constructing any structure in such waters. Abbott ignored that law to construct a barrier that includes inflatable buoys and razor wire.

Mexico has also noted that barrier buoys that block the flow of water violate treaties between the U.S. and Mexico dating from 1944 and 1970, and has asked for the barriers to be removed. So has the owner of a Texas canoe and kayaking company, who says the buoys prevent him from conducting his business. And so have more than 80 House Democrats, who have noted Abbott’s “complete disregard for federal authority over immigration enforcement.”

Unless Texas promises by 2:00 Tuesday afternoon to remove the barrier immediately, the U.S. will sue. 

Abbott has made fear of immigration central to his political messaging. He is now faced with the reality that Biden’s parole process for migrants at the southern border has dropped unlawful entries by almost 70% since it went into effect in early May, meaning that border agents have more time to patrol and are making it harder to enter the U.S. unlawfully. 

Abbott’s barrier seems designed to keep his messaging amped up, accompanied as it is by allegations that troops from the National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety have been ordered to push migrants, including children, back into the river and to withhold water from those suffering in the heat. There are also reports that migrants have been hurt by razor wire installed along the barrier.

Abbott responded to the DOJ’s letter: “I’ll see you in court, Mr. President.” 

Yesterday, on the same day that Shawn Boburg, Emma Brown, and Ann E. Marimow added to all the recent stories of Supreme Court corruption an exclusive story showing how then-leader of the Federalist Society Leonard Leo funded a “a coordinated and sophisticated public relations campaign to defend and celebrate” Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance a bill that would require the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt a binding code of ethics. 

“We wouldn’t tolerate this [behavior] from a city council member or an alderman," committee chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) said. “It falls short of ethical standards we expect of any public servant in America. And yet the Supreme Court won't even acknowledge it’s a problem.” “The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act,” Durbin said, “would bring the Supreme Court Justices’ ethics requirement in line with every other federal judge and restore confidence in the Court.”

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) disagreed that Congress could force the Supreme Court to adopt an ethics code. “This is an unseemly effort by the Democratic left to destroy the legitimacy of the Roberts court,” he said, although he agreed that the justices need “to get their house in order.”

Today, Dahlia Lithwick and Anat Shenker-Osorio noted in Slate that voters of both parties strongly support cleaning up the Supreme Court.

As signs of an indictment for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election grow stronger, Trump has taken to threats. When asked about incarceration, Trump said earlier this week: “I think it’s a very dangerous thing to even talk about, because we do have a tremendously passionate group of voters, much more passion than they had in 2020 and much more passion than they had in 2016. I think it would be very dangerous.”

His loyalists are working to undermine the law enforcement agencies that are supporting the rule of law. On July 11, 2023, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to chair of the Committee on Appropriations Kay Granger (R-TX) asking her to defund Biden’s immigration policies as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which investigates crime.

It is notable that, for all their talk about law and order, the Republican-dominated legislature of Alabama and the state’s Republican governor have just openly defied the U.S. Supreme Court, which is hardly an ideological enemy after Trump stacked it to swing to the far right. 

The Republican governor of Texas is defying both federal law and international treaties. After rampant scandals, the Republican-dominated Supreme Court refuses to adopt an ethics system that might restore some confidence in their decisions. And, aided by his loyalists, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination is threatening mob violence if he is held legally accountable for his behavior. 

The genius of the American rebels in 1776 was their belief that a nation could be based not in the hereditary rights of a king but in a body of laws. “Where…is the King of America?” Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense. “I'll tell you Friend…that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.” 

Democracy is based on the rule of law. Undermining the rule of law destroys the central feature of democracy and replaces that system of government with something else.

In Florida today, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon set May 20, 2024, as the date for Trump’s trial for hiding and refusing to give up classified national security documents.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

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Wendell Potter

Oct 16, 2024

Forcing health insurance companies to do the right thing for patients and their doctors takes time, often many years, whether through changes in public policy, the marketplace, or litigation. So hats off today to the attorneys who spent a dozen years and millions of dollars moving an antitrust lawsuit against Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans forward. Their tenacity has paid off. Big time. 

The nation’s Blues plans and their PR and lobbying group, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), agreed this week to the largest settlement in U.S. antitrust health care history. If approved by a federal judge in Alabama – and there is every indication he will – the Blues will pay $2.8 billion to resolve allegations that they collaborated to cheat physician groups, hospitals and other health care providers in a way that increased both their profits and the overall cost of health care.  

This monumental settlement, in the making since 2012, also commits the Blues to allocate an additional $500 million to change their business practices, especially with regards to a controversial “BlueCard” program at the heart of the litigation. 

BCBSA agreed to the settlement four years ago but it also required approval of the boards of all the Blue Cross Blue Shield companies across the country, including those that are part of Elevance (previously known as Anthem Inc.) and Health Care Services Corp., both of which own and operate many of the plans. Elevance, whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, had a lousy day on Wall Street yesterday. Its shares lost nearly 5% of their value after the settlement was announced.

The anti-trust claims allege that the insurers conspired and carved up the country in a way that assured the Blues plans would not have to compete with each other, which the plaintiffs contend increased premiums and out-of-pocket requirements and created administrative burdens and costs for doctors and other health care providers.