Wednesday Writs: Mailed-In Edition
However, I have read through the 100ish page (including attachments) complaint by the Trump administration against Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Commonwealth over alleged election improprieties. I’m not going in depth here, but I’ll tell you what I saw:
- A decent set of arguments about the risks and perils of voting by mail.
- Complaints that the observers (all of them, not merely Republicans) were not close enough to the ballot counters to see whether or not anyone was cheating.
- An allegation that some voters were given the opportunity prior to Election Day to “cure” ballots which arrived without a security envelope or a signature on the outer envelope.
What I didn’t see: One single allegation of a specific, identifiable instance of fraud having actually occurred. At best, there are some vague accusations that unnamed persons saw a poll worker do or say something suspicious; it hardly seems reason enough to invalidate the election results of an entire state -er, Commonwealth.
That’s just my take on it- no doubt Trump supporters may read it completely differently. Feel free to check it out yourself, if you feel the need to atone for some past sin.
When you’re finished, here are plenty of other law related tidbits to chew on in between election think-pieces.
L1: The Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week in Brownback v King, a qualified immunity case out of Michigan. James King was walking from one job to another when approached by two plain-clothed officers, one of whom was a federal agent, who asked for his ID (it would turn out that King was not the man they were looking for.) When King declined, the federal agent took his wallet. King ran, believing he was being robbed, and fought the officers when they caught him. He was badly beaten, and charged with 6 felonies for “assaulting” the officers. After he was acquitted, he sued the federal government for excessive force. The lower court granted the officers qualified immunity, but the 6th Circuit reversed: “Any reasonable officer would have known, based on clearly established law, that applying force – tackling plaintiff to the ground, holding him down, choking him, and beating him into submission – was unreasonable under the circumstances.” The Supreme Court granted cert, after denying review in 12 other QI cases this year.
L2: Also this week at SCOTUS, the justices heard arguments in the Affordable Care Act case, and observers think it went well for the ACA advocates. The attorneys general from 18 states want the entirety of the Act struck down, arguing that it was rendered invalid when Congress reduced the penalty for violating the “mandate” to $0. Proponents of the Act argue that the mandate is severable, and the law should stand even without it–a position Justices Kavanaugh and Roberts seemed to agree with.
L3: The Supreme Court is apparently in no hurry to get back into the abortion fight. The conference date for Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health, the dispute over Mississippi’s post-15 week abortion ban has been rescheduled for the 5th time. It was originally scheduled for September and most recently set for Friday, November 6. It has been rescheduled each time. No new date has been announced.
L4: A major victory was won last week- if you are a do-it-yourselfer or independent auto-mechanic business in Massachusetts. Beginning in 2022, all cars sold in the state must permit access to data needed to diagnose and repair a vehicle directly from the vehicle, rather than through the manufacturer. Other states are also mulling over similar “right to repair” laws.
L5: The Louisiana legislature has unanimously passed a bill to address school disciplinary procedures after a 9 year old boy, Ka’Mauri Harrison, faced expulsion for having a BB gun visible on camera during his virtual class. Ka’Mauri’s younger brother had tripped on the BB gun, prompting the older boy to pick it up off the floor and move it out of the way. His teacher saw it and reported it. The child’s family was told that their home became an extension of “school property” during online-learning; immediate expulsion was recommended. After a fight with the school board, Ka’Mauri ultimately received a 6 day suspension. The new law requires schools to revise disciplinary policies to better address online schooling incidents, and expands appeal rights for families.
L6: What do David Bossie, Bill Stepien, and Jason Miller have in common? They are all leaders of Trump’s national “election fraud” legal team. Also: none of them are lawyers. They are, of course, joined by Rudy Giuliani, who still pretends to be.
L7: A new Virginia law will have social workers and mental health providers responding along with law enforcement to mental health crisis calls, in hopes of de-escalation. The “Marcus Alert” law was a response to the 2018 shooting of Marcus-David Peters, a nude and unarmed man killed by police during what family says was a mental health crisis.
L8: Doing stupid things at Yellowstone National Park is an American tradition. Some of these things are dangerous, and others are just clucking ridiculous.
L2 This is probably the most weak sauce of the challenges to the ACA. From standing to the demand to literally legislate I don’t see this going anywhere. Were I a Justice I’d throw it out on the standing issue alone.
L5 I think we need to have a national discussion on qualifications for school administrators. It seems like they want the dumbest, most petty, authoritarian people they can find.Report
The basis for this challenge is that the original ruling upholding the Constitutionality of the mandate was explicitly premised on it being a tax. If the tax is zero, then the ostensible basis for that decision falls through. Of course, the actual basis for the decision was that a majority of the Court wanted to uphold the ACA, so the ostensible basis falling through is not that big a deal.Report
Yes, yes I forgot all decisions are subterfuge for the political preferences of the judges. You should write a book on how you suss out their true motivations. It would make practice so much easier and you’d be rich.Report
Yes, yes I forgot all decisions are subterfuge for the political preferences of the judges.
Which logically would apply to both sides, no? Not sure why a conservative would want to take that position but ok.Report
L5: This is freaking insanity. Are you fucking kidding me? Like seriously? I’m a district administrator and this is just kinda like…UGH.
The problem is that the people that most get promoted to principal are the most boring, basic ass folks in the history of mankind who fetishized rule-following for themselves. And now they practice their fetish with others.Report
It’s really unfortunate. On the one hand I’m a strong supporter of discipline in schools. But there’s maintaining order and there’s harming children for no reason via pointlessly strict yet also expansive interpretations of the rules. Even if a punishment was merited and I really don’t see how it was under the circumstances expulsion is beyond crazy.Report
Discipline also does a lot of work. My experience in education is that the gender and racial imbalances make it so certain kinds of work atmospheres are valued and certain ones are not – and that the current model values a lot of compliance and silence. I have this conversation teachers I’m coaching all the time, but within the charter school world, its hard to break out of this.
I remember co-observing with a principal a classroom and they wanted to focus the teacher’s attention in our debrief meeting to the two boys that were whispering to each other in the corner. I pointed out that when I walked over to hear them, they were talking about WWII tanks in a lesson about the Cold War – so maybe it was fine for that day to let them be a little off task. I also pointed out that the real issue was that the lesson was relatively low rigor and had kids mostly working on taking notes and memorizing dates.
The conversation then went back to ‘holding kids to high behavial standards’.
My professor in undergrad once said that the teaching profession is obsessed with ‘teacher-pleasing behaviors’ that are mediated by class, race, and gender.
ie – boys of color really get screwed in our current system.Report
Great comment. I’m a teacher myself and have struggled to articulate this phenomenon. Thank you.Report
This is nuts, but given my experiences growing up, it’s not beyond the norm.
I sometimes wonder if school admins shouldn’t have to be screened for authoritarian fetishes.Report
L1: This isn’t like when the cops stole from the guy. They were *REASONABLY* chasing down a black guy and beating him up! Good cops wouldn’t be able to do their jobs if cops weren’t able to do this!
L5: Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.Report
Dude was white in this instance. But yeah.Report
What’s he complaining about, then?Report
The Times called Democratic and Republican election officials in dozens of states. There was no evidence of voter fraud. This is Trump throwing a temper tantrum because he lost, there is nothing he can do about it, and a good chunk of the GOP has been radicalized enough to see any Democratic victory as illegitimate.*
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/us/politics/voting-fraud.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
*Hi GeorgeReport
L4 is huge too. Massachusetts is a good start. I understand that farmland communities have a surprisingly lively firmware black market.Report
Last time we visited in-laws in rural Kansas, my nephew and I, who have never agreed on any public policy, were playing out the bit in Alice’s Restaurant, jumping up and down and chanting, “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Both in favor of right to repair at the same level of fervor.Report