Democracy Clips: December 7, 2022

 

BIG LIE AND ELECTION DENIALISM

 

House January 6 Committee Has Decided To Make Criminal Referrals, Chairman Says. “The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has decided to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters Tuesday. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said the committee has not narrowed down the universe of individuals who may be referred. Asked whether Thompson believed any witnesses perjured themselves, he said, ‘that’s part of the discussion.’” [CNN, 12/6/22]

 

Jan. 6 Committee To Recommend DOJ Pursue Criminal Charges, But Hasn't Yet Decided On Names. “The House committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, has decided to recommend the Justice Department pursue criminal charges, but has not yet identified who should be targeted, the chairman told reporters Tuesday. The panel has already made four criminal referrals against four people accused of contempt of Congress for defying committee subpoenas, and the department charged two of them. But additional committee recommendations could reach as high as former President Donald Trump and cover crimes beyond the riot such as perjury or witness tampering.” [USA Today, 12/6/22] 

 

Justice Dept. subpoenas Ariz., Mich., Wis. officials in Trump Jan. 6 probe. “Special counsel Jack Smith has sent grand-jury subpoenas to local officials in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states that were central to former president Donald Trump’s failed plan to stay in power following the 2020 election — seeking any and all communications with Trump, his campaign and a long list of aides and allies. The requests for records arrived in Dane County, Wis.; Maricopa County, Ariz.; and Wayne County, Mich., late last week, and in Milwaukee on Monday, officials said. They are among the first known subpoenas issued since Smith was named last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the Jan. 6 Capitol attack case as well as the criminal probe of Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents at his Florida home.” [Washington Post, 12/6/22] 

 

Rudy Giuliani doubles down on false Pennsylvania election fraud claims in disciplinary hearing. “Two years after Rudy Giuliani failed in court to produce any evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania, he was back at it again Monday — this time with his law license on the line. Facing possible professional sanctions, the once-lauded mayor of New York City turned mouthpiece for former President Donald Trump doubled down on his false claims of a stolen election during a disciplinary hearing before a committee of the Washington, D.C., bar.” [Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/5/22]

 

Opinion: RAPHAEL WARNOCK'S VICTORY IS A 2024 WARNING SHOT FOR REPUBLICANS. Eric Lutz wrote, “If that’s a long way off still, the midterms — and Warnock’s run-off victory Tuesday — give some cause for optimism in the meantime. J.D. Vance aside, most of Trump’s highest-profile midterm picks failed. And, other than Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, most of the election denier candidates conceded their own races. Walker was among them: ‘I want you to believe in this country, believe in our elected officials, and most of all, stay together,’ the former football star said in a brief concession speech. Warnock, meanwhile, won his fifth election in two years for the same seat, and now has a full term in front of him — a major victory for national Democrats, who will enjoy an absolute majority in the upper chamber for the next two years, but also for the state of Georgia.” [Vanity Fair, 12/7/22]

 

VOTER SUPPRESSION AND INTIMIDATION

 

Ohio Lawmakers Are Considering Major Changes In The Way Ohioans Vote In The Future. “Ohio lawmakers are debating a couple of bills to change election laws, including a potential adjustment to the early voting schedule and a voter photo identification requirement. Majority Republicans in the Ohio Legislature have long wanted some of the provisions in the legislation being considered but Democrats are against many of the proposals because they said it would disenfranchise Ohio voters. Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) is sponsoring a bill that he said ‘does about 15 different things.’ For starters, he said it would take three practices currently being used by boards of elections under a directive by Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, and put them into law.” [State News Bureau, 12/6/22]

 

Houston Sued By LULAC Over Violation Of Voting Rights. “On Monday, Dec. 5, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) — the country’s oldest Latino civil rights organization — filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Houston in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas.  They accuse Texas’ most populous city and the nation’s fourth largest city of refusing Latinos adequate representation by allowing its voters to elect five councilmembers.  ‘LULAC says basta after generations of Latinos have endured deliberate and systematic discrimination for years through the good-ol’ boy system of the past controlled by a few,’ said Domingo Garcia, LULAC president in a statement.” [AL DIA, 12/6/22]

 

GERRYMANDERING

 

Supreme Court's Redistricting Case Is A Threat To Democracy. “On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Moore v. Harper, through which North Carolina’s Republican legislators are fighting to protect an ‘aggressively gerrymandered congressional map’ thrown out by that state’s Supreme Court on constitutional grounds. But while the case is, on its face, about gerrymandering and congressional elections, it’s really about the power of state courts and presidential elections. For decades, states’ rights have been one of the central tenets of modern Republican Party politics, animating everything from the crusade to topple Roe v. Wade to the fight against Covid vaccine mandates and the discharge of student loan debt.” [MSNBC, 12/6/22]

 

How North Carolina’s Political Warfare Could Impact The Entire Country. “North Carolina is no stranger to making political waves, and in the weeks ahead, the Tar Heel State’s internal battles could create ripple effects across the country. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Moore v. Harper, which stems from the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision to reject a congressional district map drawn by the state legislature that the court found to be so extremely gerrymandered, it was unconstitutional. The former’s pending ruling could have major ramifications for the division of power over elections in every state in the country. It’s also the culmination of a decade-long effort by North Carolina Republicans to cling onto power.” [FiveThirtyEight, 12/5/22]

 

Supreme Court to Hear Case That Could Transform Federal Elections. “The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday about whether to adopt a legal theory that would radically reshape how federal elections are conducted. The theory would give state legislatures enormous and largely unchecked power to set all sorts of election rules, notably by drawing congressional maps warped by partisan gerrymandering.” [New York Times, 12/7/22]

 

SCOTUS SHADOW DOCKET

 

What to know about Moore v. Harper, the high-stakes elections case before the Supreme Court. “’Whatever the court's motivation for taking the case is, it's going to be very difficult on the back end for a majority of the court to endorse the theory,’ he said. ‘Why? Because under any rubric that a Supreme Court justice might care about, the [independent state legislature theory] is clearly wrong.’ Wolf said the ‘major motivating force’ in getting the idea before the Supreme Court has been some of the justices themselves. The theory was primarily presented to the court in recent cases on its so-called ‘shadow docket,’ the term for emergency actions taken by the Supreme Court without full briefing and oral argument. Wolf said the justices now have before them thousands of pages of briefs from a range of scholars and election law experts, in addition to the 90 minutes of oral argument set for Wednesday, (although arguments this term have stretched far past their allotted time).” [CBS, 12/7/22]