NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD Sunday, December 5, 2021
342nd Weekly Edition
This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this weekly platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads.
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Covid data 12/5/2021 1:00pm EDT
Click here for Covid-19 data from Worldometer Real Time World Statistics.
USA NC Total Cases New Cases Total Deaths New Deaths Total Recovered Active Cases 1,544,544 18,825 1,489,392 36,327
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Please jump the fold for links to stories I hope you find interesting, useful and timely. The floor is yours.
Bracing for a post-Roe South in the region's last three abortion-safe states
Facing South, Elisha Brown, 11/3/2021
If the U.S. Supreme Court rolls back Roe v. Wade in deciding the Mississippi case it heard this week, the only states in the South where abortion would remain broadly accessible are Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. Reproductive rights advocates there are girding for political battle to protect abortion access.
The U.S. Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a high-profile case about the constitutionality of Mississippi's ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The state's Republican-controlled legislature passed the law, which has no exceptions for rape or incest, in 2018, with the intention that it would take effect if Roe v. Wade were overturned. That landmark 1973 case set out a legal framework that protected the right to an abortion until fetal viability at 24 weeks of pregnancy.
The Jackson Women's Health Organization, Mississippi's sole abortion provider, sued the state over the law, and the case ended up at the high court. As the Dec. 1 arguments unfolded there, the majority of justices on the conservative-dominated court appeared sympathetic to the arguments of Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, who rejected the idea of a constitutional right to abortion and said the issue should be left to the states. Katherine Kraschel, a lecturer at Yale Law School and a reproductive health policy expert, told the nonprofit newsroom The 19th that she previously thought Roe would be incrementally gutted but after hearing the oral arguments is now "more convinced that there are five justices poised to overturn Roe v. Wade."
Abortion rights are already severely limited in the South, and 11 of the 26 states likely or certain to ban abortion should Roe fall are in the region, according to a Guttmacher Institute analysis from October: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Ten of those 11 Southern states already have on the books what are known as "trigger bans" — laws or constitutional provisions outlawing abortion that would take effect automatically if the Supreme Court overturns Roe.
Candidate filing to open as planned Monday as judges deny requests for delay
NC Policy Watch, Lynn Bonner, 12/4/2021
A three-judge panel denied requests to delay candidate filing for congressional, state House and Senate districts scheduled to start Monday, questioning arguments that the redistricting plans are unconstitutional gerrymanders.
Superior Court Judge A. Graham Shirley said a Supreme Court redistricting opinion from the early 2000s “makes it clear that partisan advantage can be taken into account in redistricting,” and the three-judge panel had “a reasonable doubt as to whether these acts of the General Assembly are unconstitutional.”
The ruling was on motions in two lawsuits. The League of Conservation Voters is challenging congressional and legislative maps as unconstitutional gerrymanders. Voters supported by the National Redistricting Foundation are challenging the congressional district map.
NC Court of Appeals rules judge can’t force legislature to meet state’s obligation for $1.7B school improvement plan
NC Policy Watch, Greg Childress, 12/3/2021
he plaintiffs in the state’s long-running school funding case were dealt a setback Tuesday when the NC Court of Appeals ruled the judge overseeing the case doesn’t have the authority to require the state to spend $1.7 billion on a public-school improvement plan.
Superior Court Judge David Lee had ordered State Treasurer Dale Folwell, a Republican, State Controller Linda Combs and state Budget Director Charles Perusse to release state money to fund the first two years of a state-wide school improvement plan that grew out of the decades old Leandro v. State of North Carolina. The State Supreme Court ruled in that case that the state was not meeting its constitutional obligation to provide children with sound basic education.
Tuesday’s Appeals Court ruling came on a 2-1 vote with Republican judges Chris Dillon and Jefferson Griffin agreeing that the state Constitution “permits” but does not require the General Assembly to “supplement” existing sources of school funding. Combs had asked the Court to dismiss the order.
Furthermore, the judges said Lee’s order is “constitutionally impermissible and beyond the power of the trial court.”
GOVERNOR COOPER VETOES REPUBLICAN VOTER SUPPRESSION BILL
Blue NC, 12/2/2021
Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a Republican-backed bill Thursday that would force elections officials not to count any mail-in ballots that arrive after polls close. “The legislature ironically named this bill ‘The Election Day Integrity Act’ when it actually does the opposite,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “Election integrity means counting every legal vote, but this bill virtually guarantees that some will go uncounted.” One of the GOP sponsors of the bill, Sen. Paul Newton of Cabarrus County, said in a press release that he believes moving up the deadline would improve voters’ confidence in elections.
And again, the only reason voters' confidence was shaken is because Trump and his enablers spread outright lies about his election loss. That grace period was in place even before DeJoy intentionally disrupted mail delivery, forcing an extension of said period, so all of this can be dumped right in their laps. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article256219177.html
To get better pay NC teachers may need to march in the streets locally
The Robesonian, Tamika Walker Kelly, 12/3/2021
Since the beginning of this school year and through the final four months of state budget negotiations, we at the North Carolina Association of Educators advocated for meaningful salary increases, increased classroom funding and a fulfillment of the Leandro mandate. But above all, we fought for recognition of what’s happening in our public schools across the state.
Teachers and support staff are exhausted, overworked, and their frustration has reached a boiling point. We fear the budget is too little, too late for too many.
It’s been more than 10 years since education funding was slashed during the Great Recession, and it’s never recovered. It’s been three years since the last pay raise for educators. And it’s been almost two years since public education was fundamentally altered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a leading UNC epidemiologist reiterates the benefits of vaccination, conservative legislators push for Ivermectin
North Carolina Policy Watch, Clayton Hinkle, 12/2/2021
On the same day the U.S. confirmed its first case of the omicron variant, UNC epidemiologist Justin Lessler found himself back before a legislative commission answering questions about ongoing efforts to end the pandemic.
“I remain cautiously optimistic about the direction things are going in the state, but with emphasis on the caution,” Lessler said.”I think we need to be prepared for the possibility of a significant winter wave at this point.”
Lessler, an infectious disease expert at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, said as more people gather indoors for holiday festivities there’s much that remains unknown about the new variant.
“Even with significant immune invasion, it’s important to remember that vaccination will likely remain the most effective way to prevent severe disease and hospitalization even if it doesn’t fully prevent infection,” Lessler testified Wednesday.
Right-wing extremism hits new lows but “responsible” conservatives remain largely silent
NC Policy Watch, Rob Schofield, 11/30/2021
These are, by any fair estimation, divided times in our country. Especially since the onset of the pandemic, the level of venom and bitterness that’s gripped millions of Americans is a sometimes-frightening phenomenon to behold.
This troubling reality has clearly been fueled at times by the relative anonymity provided by internet, but it’s also the case that many of those voicing and spurring on aggression, hatred, and even physical violence are only too happy put their names and faces out there.
From attention-grabbing politicians and loud-mouthed TV and radio talking heads, right on down to the January 6 insurrectionists, and mask-mandate defying and gun-toting vigilante activists, there’s been no shortage of people willing to publicly espouse a message of hostile and violent confrontation.
Rep. Madison Cawthorn calls women 'earthen vessels' in weird anti-choice rant
Daily Kos, Aldous J Pennyfarthing, 11/3/2021
Wow. This guy. Seriously. I know that the potentially seismic Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Court case could vaporize Roe v. Wade and its precedents once and for all, so this is the anti-choice crowd’s Empire Strikes Back moment, but sheesh. Is this really the way to reach out to women who may be feeling just a bit marginalized as the 66% Catholic Club (aka SCOTUS) signals it will likely, at the very least, sand Roe down to a nub?
All y’all with female partners: What do you think would happen if you called her an “earthen vessel,” even in jest? I have an inkling that said “vessel” would be shut down for repairs pretty much indefinitely. Personally, I prefer “Play-Doh Fetus Factory,” but what the eff do I know?
Then again, I’m not nearly as savvy as North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn.
Thanks for reading and contributing, I hope you have a safe week. Panthers have a bye.