Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed a response brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday defending a Tennessee law that bans “gender-affirming care” on minors – including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and sex-change surgeries.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined Tuesday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show for an exclusive interview where he discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments and rule on whether Tennessee’s law that bans “gender-affirming care” on minors violates the Constitution.
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A Washington D.C.-based left-wing advocacy group called the Human Rights Campaign Foundation is behind a lawsuit against the Williamson County Board of Education challenging a state law that restricts students from using multi-person restrooms that do not match their sex.
The plaintiff, a transgender minor, is represented by two attorneys with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, a nonprofit organization under the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). HRC describes itself as “the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization” on its website with local groups in most states.
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A medical watchdog sued the Montana governor Tuesday over race and sex-based requirements for the state’s top medical board.
The lawsuit was filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public interest law firm, on behalf of Do No Harm (DNH), a medical activist organization, in the United States District Court for the District of Montana Helena Division against Republican Montana Gov. Gregory Gianforte. The PLF is representing an unidentified woman affiliated with DNH who cannot apply to the Montana Board of Medical Examiners due to the sex-based requirements, which PLF alleges violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, according to a DNH press release.
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American businesses have been moving away from using diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) language in the workplace after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in June, according to Bloomberg Law.
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Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday signed two bills into law designed to reform public higher education institutions in Texas. One bans them from implementing DEI policies and another revises the tenure structure.
Both bills, authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, passed the legislature during the regular legislative session. Senate Bill 17 bans public colleges and universities from implementing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies that prioritize gender, race, ethnicity and ideological beliefs as factors for hiring or admission policies. Earlier this year, Gov. Abbott’s chief of staff sent a letter to public higher education institutions and state agencies saying if they were implementing DEI policies, they were violating federal law. In response, the heads of Texas colleges and universities said they were “pausing” and reviewing their DEI policies. The new law requires them to terminate them.
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Americans once said, “As California goes, so goes the nation.” Hopefully after this legislative session, Americans will say, “As Texas goes, so goes the nation.”
The Lone Star State’s leaders are fighting fiercely right now to restore non-discrimination and equal rights under the law. These are American values embedded in U.S. civil rights laws and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, but they’re no longer practiced—or enforced.
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The Department of Justice on Wednesday announced that it had filed a complaint against state law in Tennessee barring certain gender-related treatments for minors.
“The Justice Department today filed a complaint challenging Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), a recently enacted law that denies necessary medical care to youth based solely on who they are,” reads a DOJ press release. “The complaint alleges that SB 1’s ban on providing certain medically necessary care to transgender minors violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.”
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United States District Court Chief Judge Marc T. Treadwell has ruled a Houston County Police Department’s exclusion of a worker’s insurance coverage request for gender reassignment surgery to be “facially discriminatory,” and that her equal protection claim “will proceed to trial.”
“I have devoted more than a decade of my life to a job that I love with the backing of supervisors and colleagues who truly respect my work,” said Houston County Sheriff Deputy, Sergeant Anna Lange. “Despite my dedicated years of service, the County has singled out and excluded the medically-necessary care that I need simply because I’m transgender. I just want to be treated fairly and earn the same benefits as my co-workers who serve on the force.”
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Virginia politics author Jeff Thomas has filed a lawsuit against Department of Elections officials to try to force new House of Delegates elections in 2022. He argues that elections held last year on old lines leave him and other voters under-represented.
“Defendants have deliberately played games with the Court and the people’s rights for political reasons,” Thomas’ states in his lawsuit against Elections Commissioner Susan Beals and State Board of Elections Chairman Robert Brink.
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A three-judge U.S. District Court panel has dismissed with prejudice Paul Goldman’s lawsuit to force new House of Delegates elections in 2022. The Office of the Attorney General had argued that Goldman does not have standing, and the court agreed.
2020 U.S. Census data was delayed, delaying redistricting and forcing 2021 House elections to be held on old lines. Before the election in September 2021, Goldman sued, arguing that population shifts meant that some people would be under-represented, and argued for holding House elections again in 2022. Goldman didn’t gain much outside support and faced opposition from both former Attorney General Mark Herring and current Attorney General Jason Miyares.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed official guest host Grant Henry in the studio for another edition of Grant’s Rants.
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Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has decided on a new political map, and it’s raising questions about race and judicial activism.
The court ruled 4-3 Thursday to adopt the maps drawn by Gov. Tony Evers.
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In response to President Joe Biden’s promise to nominate a black woman to replace outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a Monday petition was launched urging Biden to nominate legal expert and professor Dr. Carol Swain, PhD.
“We, the undersigned, respectfully suggest – and fully support – Carol M. Swain, PhD as your nominee to serve as the next Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court,” the petition says.
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Democratic operative Paul Goldman is asking a federal court to issue a temporary injunction blocking the State Board of Elections from issuing Certificates of Election in the House of Delegates certifying that the winners have the right to a two-year term. Goldman’s motion is part of his ongoing lawsuit arguing that the recent elections were unconstitutional, since they were held on old district lines due to redistricting delays. Goldman filed his suit before the election. He said he didn’t receive support from Democrats, and that Attorney General Mark Herring slow-walked the process. Herring’s office is defending state elections officials in the suit.
“They have specifically avoided dealing with this. Herring could have issued an opinion during the election. They could have had the Supreme Court do a ruling. They didn’t do it. Why? Because the Democrats were trying to get a two-year term,” Goldman told The Virginia Star. “Now this same argument can be used by the Republicans.”
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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich asked the U.S. District Court in Arizona for a temporary restraining order and nationwide preliminary injunction against the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“The COVID-19 vaccine mandate is one of the greatest infringements upon individual liberty, federalism, and the separation of powers by any administration in our country’s history,” Brnovich said in a news release Friday.
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After filing the first lawsuit in the country to stop President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for businesses with over 100 employees, federal employees and federal contractors, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is now amending it to request a temporary restraining order and nationwide preliminary injunction. He cites a lengthy list of problems with the mandate, beginning the 54-page brief by saying, “This case presents circumstances that would have been unthinkable to our Founding Fathers.”
In a statement, Brnovich declared, “Once a vaccine has been administered, it can never be undone. The COVID-19 vaccine mandate is one of the greatest infringements upon individual liberty, federalism, and the separation of powers by any administration in our country’s history.”
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