November 2020 – National News Roundup

Year 4, Week 45 (November 22-28)

November 30, 2020December 1, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week saw an improbable amount of news, given the holiday in the middle–several things snuck in under the turkey radar while most people weren’t paying attention. (The National News Roundup was paying attention. You’re on notice, SCOTUS.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not an ill-advised partial recount!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Here we go again with another round of Election Rejection, but it’s tentatively looking like Trump is running out of steam. Here’s what I have for you:

Trumped-Up Election Challenges. The cockroach metaphor remains apt for another week as courts fumigate Trump’s election claims, with the 3rd Circuit throwing extra rat poison on Giuliani’s arguments and the PA Supreme Judicial Court mopping up any remaining aftermath. The last-minute Wisconsin recount is also over, and in the end only resulted in 86 more votes for Biden. At this point, all six of the states where Trump tried to contest results have certified their election results for Biden. With the certification game more-or-less over, Trump has pivoted to lashing out at staff again and saying that he’ll step down if the electoral college votes for Biden. It’s tempting to believe we’re truly out of the woods, but his clear and conditional capitulation makes me think he’s got some kind of bananas scheme in place regarding elector appointments.

That said, we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms. Here’s what I have for you:

Pardoning a Turkey. As we were waiting for final word on whether Attorney General William Barr would be allowed to drop Michael Flynn’s criminal charges, Trump went ahead and pardoned Flynn via tweet on Wednesday. Though the move isn’t especially surprising, it does highlight the close relationships between Flynn and Trump, as Flynn’s attorney was handling Trump’s election challenges until she was fired sometime last week. Flynn is not the first Russia investigation associate pardoned by Trump–that honor goes to Roger Stone–but unlike Stone, Flynn still had an active legal case. Ironically, since he accepted a pardon, Flynn now effectively has admitted his guilt again, which was the very thing Barr was trying to avoid.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Unexpected Political Updates. There were a handful of other noteworthy political stories this past week as well. In “I can’t believe this happened, even though it needed to” news, Senator Diane Feinstein announced that she is stepping down as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee after alienating half her party with her handling of the Comey Barrett hearing. Along a similar vein, the Washington Post reports that the NRA straight-up told the IRS about its executives misappropriating funds in 2019–great news in the long run, but you don’t often see a nonprofit just admit its executives were stealing money. It will be very interesting to see what, if anything, happens in the wake of both of these stories.

Your New Normal*:

*Increasingly, I struggle with where to put news about the Biden administration, because much of it isn’t clear-cut enough to be considered ‘good,’ but it isn’t Trump or pandemic levels of bad. And yet it’s not weird, because, well, it’s an overt bid to make things “normal” again. I don’t believe a return to our previous political reality is achievable, but I’m creating a new section to highlight Biden’s choices and reflect that agenda.

Transition Tidings. President-elect Biden continues to name his cabinet staff picks, though many of those choices need to be confirmed by the Senate once he is inaugurated. In the past week, he has named a foreign policy team, including a proposed Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, and National Security Advisor. He also officially nominated his chosen secretary of treasury this week, which made the stock market very happy. And as I type this, he also just announced the first all-female White House communications team. Some of his choices have obvious issues, which we can expect to see highlighted at Senate confirmation hearings, but I’ll address those once they become front-and-center.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. In the awful COVID news bucket, infections are still rising and so are death rates; additionally, hospitalization reached a new all-time high on Sunday, with 93,238 total COVID patients reported. At the time that I type this, we have literally seen two million new cases in the past two weeks and four million new cases in the past month. Though the CDC more-or-less begged people not to travel for Thanksgiving, given those numbers, the TSA reports that they saw about one million people per day in the days leading up to the holiday. It may be a few weeks before we see how all of that travel has impacted the pandemic, particularly because less testing was likely done over the holiday, but it seems likely we can anticipate yet another spike in many places.

SCOTUS Sea Change. Very early in the morning leading into Thanksgiving, the Supreme Court released an anonymous 5-4 opinion stating that the governor of New York was being prevented from limiting in-person religious gatherings in COVID red zones. This would be concerning enough, given the rapid rise of COVID-related deaths, but as an attorney I really want to stress that this opinion was rife with inconsistencies, bizarre arguments, and legal irregularities that appear to usher in a scary new age for SCOTUS cases. Among the irregularities to note: 1) They granted an injunction, which is designed to be an emergency remedy when harm is imminent, for religious groups that were no longer in red zones; 2) The decision overturned decisions that were issued only a few months before, which is an incredibly fast window to overturn precedent; 3) There were six different opinions written for this decision, which is an unusually high number of separate opinions even for a court known for routinely writing concurrences and dissents; 5) The decision was written anonymously despite the fact that there were six different opinions written and the other five were all signed, leaving only a few justices as the possible author of the per curium opinion. (I’ve seen legal scholars speculate that Amy Comey Barrett probably wrote this opinion, and I think they’re likely correct.) I would disagree with this opinion even if it illustrated none of these irregularities, but the fact that they are there suggests that court processes may be breaking down at the highest level right now in this country. We need to be watching the court’s activity over the next couple of months very, very carefully, especially given the court’s pending case about census apportionment, and we should brace ourselves now for potential fallout.

The Good:

Positive Pandemic Updates. There is still some positive COVID news this week, mostly regarding vaccines. Pfizer might start distributing its first doses as soon as mid-December, and Moderna is now seeking FDA authorization as well–so it might not be far behind. The technology used in both vaccines, which modifies viral RNA, also has a whole host of other promising applications for public health. In other vaguely positive pandemic news, workers are organizing to seek hazard pay at many major retail establishments in light of the risk created by this year’s holiday season. And finally, new research analysis suggests that many people do not remain contagious for longer than seven days, which may result in the CDC shortening their recommended period for self-isolation in cases of exposure.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve these Canterbury Park corgi races and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me uninterrupted sleep!

Year 4, Week 44 (November 15-21)

November 23, 2020November 24, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

I have been doing these roundups every week for nearly four straight years now. I like to think that makes me something of a scholar of Trump era news cycles. And it is with this caveat in place that I inform you that, even by our modern standards, the news this week was bananas. Of course, most of it was also still corrupt and terrible. The news was rotted bananas, y’all.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a golf course!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Unsurprisingly, we all saw yet another week of Election Rejection, and the second verse began worse than the first. Here’s what I have for you:

Trumped-Up Legal Challenges. Despite (or perhaps due to) the underprepared vaudeville act Trump calls a legal team, his challenges to the election results remain like cockroaches–numerous, unwanted, and improbably resistant to pest control. In Michigan, we had over a week of high drama while the administration abandoned its clownish lawsuit in favor of persuading board officials to refuse to certify voting results in Wayne County. In light of public outcry, the board officials walked that back and certified, only to double down by “rescinding” those signatures after receiving encouragement from Trump personally. Finally, after nearly a week of this, a final vote to certify was held today, and that’s the ballgame for official results in Michigan. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Trump keeps losing court cases faster than I lose pen caps–he even lost the one case he had previously won, which allowed ballots with facial defects to be tossed in Allegany County, because it was remanded by the state supreme court. Perhaps it’s unsurprisingly, in light of this, that he also requested a recount in two counties in Wisconsin, both of which skew heavily blue, and by the end of the week he had graduated to trying to get ballots discounted there. In Georgia, a lengthy and expensive hand count came down in Biden’s favor, so Trump went ahead and requested another recount, by a less reliable method, at taxpayer expense. Also, an independent witness came forward and corroborated the Georgia Secretary of State’s account of Lindsey Graham asking him to throw out legally-cast ballots, but with everything else going on we all just kind of forgot about it by the end of the week. Needless to say, these prolonged Presidential attacks on our democratic process are not normal and they do lasting damage to the fabric of our government.

Transition Trials. Given how the paragraph above was going for him, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Trump also spent the week delaying transition as much as possible. His vaccine team refused to brief President-Elect Biden for another week, and he also implemented a bunch of foreign policy changes that seem designed to make President-elect Biden’s life difficult when he assumes control of the White House. For most of the week, he continued to instruct his head of the General Services Administration to refuse to begin the transition, and she only relented in apparent response to his tweets this evening. By this point, everybody from Republican national security experts to a giant group of CEOs to Chris Christie were telling Trump to give it up already, but he still hasn’t actually conceded the election as I type this.

That said, we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms.Here’s what I have for you:

Fire and the Hole. We saw a continuation of sketchy personnel changes this week, as Trump fired the head of cybersecurity for saying we had a safe election–truly a stunning thing for a sitting President to do. But I would be remiss if I didn’t also give a shoutout to Trump’s decision to skip the G-20 event on global pandemic preparedness this weekend to go play golf in Virginia, as well as his decision to tweet about the election during the portion he did attend. Seriously, I know that we’re inured to his awful behavior by this point, but we unquestionably have the most COVID cases in the world, which I’ll talk more about below, and he literally skipped the world summit about it to go play golf.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Other Election Updates. Trump’s legal team was its own weird this week, featuring everything from impressive lack of legal knowledge to Rudy Giuliani’s melting hair dye to firing one malpracticing attorney but not another. Meanwhile, over 235 organizations are urging President-elect Biden to cancel student loans as a form of economic stimulus on his first day of office. President-elect Biden continues to name his cabinet staff picks, which makes an odd juxtaposition with Trump’s constant terminations, and Biden is expected to give more names tomorrow.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. COVID news falls into two different extremes this week, so I have separated it out accordingly. In the awful news bucket, the U.S. has now surpassed 250,000 deaths from COVID-19, and over 85,700 people were hospitalized today–which is a new pandemic record. Additionally, nearly 12.5 million cases have been reported as I type this, with rates rising in every state but Hawaii; this marks a one million case increase since past Sunday. The CDC is more-or-less begging people not to travel for Thanksgiving, but the TSA reports they’ve already screened about 2 million people in airports. Meanwhile, several forms of federal economic protection are ending at the end of the year, even though several states are shutting down again and we can expect several more months of economic hardship.

The Good:

COVID Vaccine Updates. There was also promising news this week about vaccines, which are starting to look like a concrete reality. In the wake of the Moderna vaccine announcement last week, some news outlets began to note that Dolly Parton personally donated $1M to its early research efforts because she is friends with one of the researchers, which is kind of cool. In more health-related news, Pfizer released full results of its trial 3 study, saying its vaccine is 95% effective in the general population and that the company is seeking FDA approval this week. Additionally, a third vaccine has been found 90% effective, and it is significantly cheaper than the first two. Health officials estimate that distribution may begin for essential workers as soon as mid-December. It will take time for full distribution of any approved vaccine, and many health professionals still want more data before accepting an injection, but having three potential vaccines is excellent news.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this goat hug queue and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me your favorite Brussel sprout recipe!

Year 4, Week 43 (November 8-14)

November 16, 2020November 17, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

It’s impressive how quickly the news seems to find new routines–only a week after we got tentative election results, pretty much every day now follows a script. I don’t much care for the script, mind, because it involves blatant autocracy and a dangerous pandemic. But one has to respect the quick adjustment.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a hand count!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Folks, I think it’s fair to say we officially have a new Constitutional Crisis Corner after the last week and a half, and thanks Trump, I hate it. Everybody say hello to Election Rejection, the constitutional crisis we all knew was coming:

Transition Trials. When Trump signaled that he wasn’t going to accept a peaceful transfer of power, he apparently meant that quite literally, because this administration has been refusing all attempts at transition and just straight-up planning like they’re not going anywhere for the last week and a half. The General Services Administration still hasn’t begun a Presidential transition as I type this, which may end in the Democrats suing them if they don’t give a reason by Wednesday. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referenced “a smooth transition to a second Trump administration” and the White House told officials to move forward with next year’s budget plan. The administration also instructed staff not to comply with Biden’s transition team, which means President-elect President-elect Biden is not getting intelligence reports and the State Department is intercepting his messages from world leaders. Top medical official Dr. Anthony Fauci publicly expressed concern about the lack of COVID transition, prompting our President-elect to warn that this obstruction could kill people–and he’s absolutely right. Officials have also become concerned that Trump might disclose state secrets out of spite if he is forced out.

Trumped-Up Legal Challenges. As final information trickles in about the 2020 election, it becomes glaringly obvious that Trump’s refusal to transition is both dangerous and baseless. Official records show that President-elect Biden likely flipped five states and won a total of 290 electoral votes even before Georgia’s recount was concluded. Trump had brought lawsuits in several states on the theory that there was widespread voter fraud, but no evidence of that materialized and eventually every lawsuit had either been conclusively lost or dropped. The Supreme Court has not weighed in at the time that I type this, and it’s very possible they never will. Meanwhile, Attorney General William Barr is still investigating nonexistent voter fraud even though a major federal witness recanted and the DOJ’s top prosecutor for election crimes, Richard Pilger, has quit in protest. And news broke this afternoon that South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham asked Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, to throw out entire county batches of legally-cast ballots during the recount, which Raffensberger doesn’t even have legal authority to control. This shows no signs of abating anytime soon, even though some GOP officials have indicated that they think Biden should receive briefings.

That said, we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms.Here’s what I have for you:

White House Revolving Door Still Spins. Following Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s firing last week, several additional Department of Defense officials resigned, and now we have yet more scary staff changes in the Pentagon. The Department of Homeland Security has seen forced resignations as well, and officials describe the staff changes as purging employees who are suspected of incomplete loyalty. The new acting officials are all staunch Trump loyalists, which matches the reports out of the Department of Homeland Security. Needless to say, this has a lot of bad implications during a time of transition, and even if we otherwise transition smoothly it will create confusion to have high turnover just before a new administration comes in. It’s also likely not a coincidence that the administration announced it wants to sell unprecedented arms to the United Arab Emirates in the same week.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Other Election Updates. We saw less scary election updates as well, but many of them were still strange. Georgia confused everybody by conducting a hand recount of all of its ballots, which is both more expensive and less accurate than other methods of recount, and Trump can still demand another recount when it ends. This is particularly baffling, as I noted above, because Biden definitely won this race even if Trump somehow flips Georgia back. Meanwhile, Corey Landowski, who was part of the crew at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, has tested positive for COVID, which means we might continue to see infection among campaign officials even after the campaign has ended. And in comparatively benign election news, President-elect Biden has named his chief of staff, which will be longtime aide Ron Klain.

Affordable Care Act Arguments. The Supreme Court heard arguments about the Affordable Care Act this week, shortly after both a pivotal election and a new justice’s appointment to the bench. The oral arguments appeared to suggest that the court is considering removing the insurance mandate and retaining the rest of the law, which would make legal sense given previous precedent on the matter but suggests that new appointments are not necessarily creating drastic changes on this issue. Nonetheless, it’s 2020 and politics are pretty wild, so we can’t fully predict what is about to happen (and during a pandemic, this case could impact a lot of people). We’ll want to keep an eye on this.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. I know I say this every week, but no seriously, COVID keeps getting worse. Infection rates have risen 81% in the past 14 days, and on Friday we saw 184,000 new infections in one day. Over 68,000 people were hospitalized on the same day. Things are so bad, in fact, that Doctors Without Borders is coming here, considering our pandemic response to be an international health disaster. Unfortunately, things will probably get worse before they get better, especially if people aren’t careful over the Thanksgiving holiday. Several states are restricting business or social activities in response to the surges in infection, and we may see more of that in the coming weeks. In more positive news, early data suggest that Moderna’s COVID vaccine is almost 95% effective, which makes two different vaccines with promising results. Distribution will be difficult since the scale of distribution is unprecedented, but first responders might begin to receive vaccines as soon as next month.

Protests and Violence. This wasn’t a great week for protest news. On Saturday, Washington DC hosted a “Million MAGA March” that ultimately resulted in a stabbing as well as twenty people arrested, and featured Proud Boys marching in merch that read “Stand back and stand by.” An FBI report was also released documenting a stark rise in hate crime murders in the past year. Against these backdrops, it’s disturbing to learn that the governor of Florida wants to expand “stand your ground” law to cover protests–the proposed change would almost certainly make stabbings like the one in DC more common as well as creating immunity for them.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We did see a promising federal court case this week. A federal judge ruled that Chad Wolf was unlawfully appointed to head the Department of Homeland Security, and concluded that his decision to refuse DACA applications was therefore unlawful as well. It’s likely that President-elect Biden planned to reinstate DACA when he assumed office, but this will create continuity for DACA recipients, and is a nice piece of news regardless.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this tiny gator chasing a laser pointer and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more sunlight in my living room!

Year 4, Week 42 (November 1-7)

November 9, 2020November 10, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well readers, I was banking on a rapid news cycle to justify the return to our normal schedule, and I sure wasn’t disappointed! Thankfully, most of this week’s news was gentler than last week’s horrorshow, but don’t let that lull you back to sleep–we’re not out of the woods just yet.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a landscaping company!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

We mostly saw some disturbing Presidential election things that landed in this section, but we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms.Here’s what I have for you:

Concession Cancelation. Early Saturday morning, election data began to suggest a conclusive victory for Joe Biden; by mid-afternoon, the Associated Press declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election. A huge chunk of the country began celebrating in the streets, and under a normal administration, this would be the whole story–but it’s the Trump Administration, so nobody’s shocked that this somehow leads to a Constitutional Crisis Corner. Trump is still moving forward on his bogus lawsuits as I type this, refusing to acknowledge the lack of evidence of his claimed voter fraud as he makes it extremely clear that he will not be conceding in this or any other lifetime. To punctuate the point, his person at the General Services Administration flat-out refuses to officially affirm the election results, a necessary step for beginning the transition process. Meanwhile, a number of Republicans are backing his play, and the Department of Justice has authorized a probe of the 2020 election–again, despite the utter lack of evidence to suggest voter fraud was a thing. Needless to say, though Saturday gave us a bit of a breather, we need to be watching election news very, very carefully.

Post Office Election Sketchiness. I said I would keep folks posted on the court case where the U.S. Postal Service failed to sweep USPS locations for ballots left behind, and I do have more updates. Most notably, in addition to the USPS total failure to comply with the order, it became clear by Friday that the U.S. Postal Service processed 150,000 ballots after Election Day, and more than 12,000 were in swing states Trump is suing over. Unsurprisingly, the judge was not impressed, and hinted that he may hold officials in contempt of court.

White House Revolving Door Still Spins. Trump may be a lame duck, but that hasn’t stopped him from venting his spleen by firing people. News began filtering down by Friday that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was preparing a resignation letter because he expected to be fired after the election. And Esper was absolutely correct, because Trump fired him today, making him the fourth official fired in the past week. Esper’s firing is particularly disturbing because it’s believed he was let go in part due to his reluctance to deploy U.S. troops in domestic cities, which has potential implications for the two paragraphs above.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Other Election Updates. Obviously I led with the biggest stuff, but there is still more election news to know, ranging from “unusual result” to “just plain weird”. Both GA senate races are definitely going to a runoff, which will be held on January 5, and it’s honestly an open question who will hold the Senate majority as a result–an unusual result to cap an unusual year. We also still lack conclusive Presidential tallies in several states, though Biden definitely has enough electoral college votes to win. Of course, the lack of finality didn’t stop people from celebrating en masse, and even other countries congratulated us, which seems like something of a referendum abroad. Nonetheless, House Democrats are already fighting about why they didn’t perform better, though they look likely to retain their majority as I type this. And in hilarious weird news, Team Trump held a press conference outside of Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia, right between a sex shop and a crematorium–which, as Ali Davis put it, is where we all are, metaphorically speaking. (One presumes that the team tried to book the Four Seasons Hotel and missed.)

Et Tu, Fox News? One incredible consequence of the past week has been absolutely no media tolerance for Trump nonsense, even in corners of traditional support. Several networks straight-up cut away from his remarks on Wednesday or called his statements ‘lies’ or ‘falsehoods,’ which is a substantial shift in tone. Even Fox News, frustrated by the administration’s criticism, blatantly cut away from the White House Press Secretary mid-sentence today. “I just think we have to be very clear that she’s charging [that] the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting,” said Fox anchor Neil Cavuto as he cut the feed. “Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this.”

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. As I noted last week, COVID numbers look really bad–case numbers are continuing to set new records, and hospitalizations are rising quickly too. The White House continues to have high-profile infections: Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tested positive sometime last week, apparently asking people not to disclose this fact, and as of today Ben Carson tested positive as well. The stimulus legislation is also going nowhere as I type this, though that might change in the coming weeks. Nonetheless, we have more positive news on this front than we’ve had in a long time, because Pfizer announced their early vaccine data suggests 90% effectiveness. (Unsurprisingly, the stock market loved this news.) President-Elect Biden also announced his COVID-19 advisory board today, which is full of very qualified medical professionals.

Au Revoir, Paris Agreement. The United States officially left the Paris Agreement this week, formalizing a Trump decision that has been several years in the making. Of the 200 countries that signed this agreement, we are the only ones to walk away, making the whole thing even more painful. President-Elect Biden has signaled that he will rejoin the agreement as soon as possible, but it may take time for this to occur.

The Good:

Promising Biden Beginnings. Despite not taking office until January at the earliest, President-Elect Biden is already moving forward on several key issues. As I mentioned above, he announced a COVID-19 task force today, and speaking as a health law professional I am very reassured by its members. He also signaled he will issue executive orders to undo damage on several critical issues upon assuming office, such as rejoining the Paris Agreement, undoing the Muslim ban, and revoking the global gag rule. Not everything can be undone by executive action, but given his extensive political experience I do trust President-Elect Biden to know exactly what can be remedied quickly.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this compilation of election memes and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me photos of your pets again!

Year 4, Week 41 (October 25-31)

November 4, 2020November 5, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

I’m gonna level with you all: I really hate this mad tea party ride we’re all trapped on for the week. We do have some relatively firm facts, which I will certainly report on, and I feel very confident that there was a lot of voter suppression and racism this year. Beyond that? We’re stuck reading tea leaves as I write this, even the day after a major election. And that’s hard to sit with, but I’m here if I can be a support, and I think we all deserve to have the good news first this week.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a polling place!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

The Good:

LGBT Representation. As I mentioned above, we may not know much, but we do know we hit some LGBT representation landmarks yesterday! In Ohio, a police officer fired for being gay became the new sheriff in her county, beating out the guy who fired her. Additionally, we know there will be at least eleven openly-LGBTQ representatives in the 117th Congress, including our first-ever openly gay Black representatives. Additionally, San Diego is poised to elect its first-ever openly gay mayor, though that region still has votes to tally. Progress!

Substance Use and Recovery Reform. Oregon voted by referendum to pass an incredibly progressive piece of recovery legislation yesterday, and I’m really excited about it! The referendum decriminalized personal possession of several types of narcotics and created a state-funded recovery program that will be subsidized in part by taxation of marijuana. An Oregon official described the approach as “like taking a sledgehammer to the War on Drugs,” because the approach heavily prioritizes a public health framework for recovery rather than a criminal one. I’m honestly really really excited to see this approach pioneered!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

We did see some disturbing Presidential election things that landed in this section, but we also saw more Original Flavor Disregard of Governing Norms this week. Here’s what I have for you:

I Hereby Claim You Are The Worst. As foretold by prophecy, Trump didn’t even wait for election results to begin messing with them. By Tuesday night he was issuing some disturbing tweets and a preemptive acceptance of victory, which state officials simply ignored as they resumed counting on Wednesday morning. (Twitter, for its part, applied warnings to his tweets labeling them as election misinformation.) When it became clear that counting was continuing on Wednesday, and that pausing the counting would actually lose him the election, Trump pivoted to suing for recounts in three states, despite the lack of official results in those states. He also announced on Twitter that he was “hereby claiming” three states’ electoral college votes, despite absolutely no legal authority to do so. Needless to say, we knew this part of his re-election plan was coming, but that doesn’t make it fun to see in action, and I have suggestions for response below.

Trump Tax Redux. In the wake of the election, surprise, we’re back to this again! Current news is that Deutsche Bank is now trying to sever ties with 45 after the election, apparently because they are tired of the liability he creates. This is particularly noteworthy because several of his giant loans from them become due in the next few years. And just in case we forgot, the New York Times would also like to remind us that Trump has not, in fact, paid income tax most years (despite his recent claims otherwise). As Deutsche Bank appears to be sensing, all of these things are likely to carry consequences for Trump if he’s kicked out of the Oval Office in January.

The U.S.: Not A Party. A federal judge issued his full ruling this week explaining that Trump can’t make a defamation case go away by adding the U.S. Government as a party and then claiming sovereign immunity applies. This means E. Carroll’s lawsuit can go forward, at least for now, and we have more precedent clarifying that Trump isn’t acting in his official capacity as President when he says mean things about private citizens on the Internet. Which sure is a thing we have to build precedent about, because 2020 is the year that never stops giving.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Other Presidential Election Updates. There is plenty of Presidential race news other than Trump’s twitter tantrums, of course. In the days leading up to the election, there was a giant rush of court cases about voting laws, several of which did make their way to the Supreme Court. At the time that I type this, outlets are estimating Joe Biden has anywhere from 253 to 264 of 270 needed electoral college votes, with several swing states still inconclusive–in North Carolina and Pennsylvania’s cases, because the Supreme Court mandated full counting of ballots in said court cases. There was also a court case ordering the U.S. Postal Service to reverse mail collection limits and sweep USPS locations for ballots left behind–and the USPS did not comply. It’s not fully clear what this means for the 2020 election, other than “more evidence of voter suppression,” but the case is ongoing and I’ll keep folks posted.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19. Our eyes were fixed on election news this week, but COVID news remains quite bad, and it deserves our attention as well.On Friday, the United States broke a global record with a horrifying 100,000 new COVID cases in one day and over 9 million cases total. Many of these jumps are biggest in swing states, where Trump rallies have created superspreader events. Nonetheless, the administration claimed in the week leading up to the election that it “END[ED] THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC”–a truly stunning claim even from an administration known for its blatant lies–and that a daily death rate of nearly 1,000 was “almost nothing.” There is also some indication it is obfuscating which hospitals have reached capacity, as hospital admissions are also increasing. Top health official Dr. Anthony Fauci, unsurprisingly, is warning that we are reaching “a critical point” as we head into the winter, and describes the U.S. as “in a bad position” with regard to the virus. Equally unsurprisingly, Trump is already openly talking about firing Dr. Fauci, even though he can’t legally do that.

Black Lives Still Matter. There was a lot of unrest in Philadelphia in the week leading up to the election due to the shooting of Walter Wallace Junior in front of several family members who say they were trying to de-escalate the situation. Philadelphia imposed a curfew and called in the National Guard by mid-week, but protests continued for the entire week. The situation was further inflamed when Philadelphia police seized a toddler and used him for a photo op. This contextualized Philadelphians’ unrest today after the election, when Black communities protested both voter suppression and extrajudicial shootings as one interrelated issue.

The Potentially Very Bad:

Senate Race Updates. Control of the Senate is looking way tighter than we want it to, and we’ll have to sit with that for at least a week. At least five races still require voter counts as I type this, though the exact number of confirmed seats is varying from outlet to outlet. North Carolina may count through November 12, and Alaska will take at least a week as well. We may get full results sooner in Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona, particularly because some outlets are already calling the Arizona race. Compounding that long wait, several close races resulted in states staying red, and only one net gained seat (Colorado) has been confirmed by every outlet. We’re definitely stuck with Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham another term, and Susan Collins is the presumed victor in Maine as well. The Democrats may end the election season with a slight majority in the Senate, but it’s absolutely possible that they won’t, and that would make rebuilding very hard even if Biden does take the Presidency.

What We Can Do:

Protect the Counting Process. This one shouldn’t be a big deal, but thanks to the scary tweets that Trump has been issuing and threats to send armed federal officers into voter counting locations, it is–we need to make sure state officials actually count all valid votes under their own election laws. Some GOP officials are already breaking with Trump on this one, and Democrats are calling for every vote to be counted en masse. Several cities are seeing protests or rallies on this topic as well, advocacy tools like Count All Votes are starting to pop up, and Democracy Docket can keep you up to speed on all of Trump’s lawsuits. Especially if you live in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, or Wisconsin, please call your reps and state party to keep up pressure on this issue and find out what is being done to protect the counting process!

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this soothing Townsend video and the world’s largest devil’s toothpaste experiment, as well as an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me a Tums value pack!

Tiny Troubleshooting Manual: Safely Voting in the 2020 General Elections Edition

November 3, 2020November 3, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Hi folks! Welcome to the follow-up installment of the Tiny Troubleshooting Manual, a series I made up in 2018 and we still need in 2020. I do a lot of social troubleshooting in my day-to-day work as an advocate, and though my ordinary bag is social determinants of health, civic engagement is more important now than ever! Obviously I cannot fix all forms of voter suppression or all issues created by the pandemic, but I wanted to take the time to address some of the more common fixable problems people encounter while voting.

(Note: This guide is not intended to be legal advice; rather, it is a resource compilation designed to point people towards appropriate entities for assistance.)

If your trouble is…

Needing to identify your polling place or nearest voting drop box: You can check that by going to 866 Our Vote’s election protection website at 866ourvote.org and clicking on your state or by going to Headcount.org.
Needing to check if you’re registered to vote: You can check that at vote.org or by selecting your state on the 866 Our Vote election protection website.
Needing a mask, PPE, or other health-related accommodation to stand in line: Some programs, like the Election Defender program I’m volunteering with this year, will provide masks, hand sanitizers, and other pandemic-related supports to people on the line at polling locations. Look for people wearing gold outside of your polling location.
People are engaging in illegal voter intimidation or electioneering outside of your polling place: This is another issue that the Election Defender program has sent volunteers to address. Look for people wearing gold outside of your polling location. Poll workers can also assist with these issues if they’re made aware that they are happening.
Needing info on who and what’s on your ballot: You can get good, detailed information on your specific ballot at BallotReady.org or at HeadCount.org.
A technical issue at your polling place: Call the Election Protection Hotline run by 866 Our Vote (which, conveniently, is 1-866-OUR-VOTE) to document the issue and see if it can be addressed today in real time. You may also be able to work with staff at your polling location to get it addressed.
Needing time off from work to vote: Thirty different states require an hour or more of leave time be provided on request on Election Day; you can learn more about your state’s rights at WorkplaceFairness.org and get assistance in exercising your rights by contacting the Voting Rights branch of your local ACLU or 866 Our Vote.
Needing an absentee or mail-in ballot: You may have missed the boat on this, but 866 Our Vote will have information on your state’s deadline if you click on your specific state. Many states have more expansive remote voting programs this year due to the pandemic, and most drop box locations are accepting ballots today. DO NOT MAIL IN YOUR BALLOT TODAY if you still have one; please drop it off at an official election drop box, which you can confirm online at 866 Our Vote’s site.
Something else went wrong with your registration: Check whether your state will permit same-day registration; fourteen states and the District of Columbia do!
Election protection information generally: Check out the resources at 866 Our Vote’s site. You may be noting a trend here–they are an excellent resource!

If you have an additional question, feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to me directly! I’ll try to keep this a living document or at least point people in the right direction.