The
ACLU of Arkansas has joined families with transgender children and doctors in filing the promised lawsuit today against Arkansas’s new law to
prohibit gender-affirming care for transgender children.
The case was filed in federal court in Little Rock. The law had no emergency clause and doesn’t take effect until the end of July. The suit seeks an injunction against it taking effect.
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The plaintiffs include four transgender children and their parents and two doctors who say the law prevents them from providing medically necessary care or even referring children to others. The law also prevents the use of state money (such as Medicaid) or private insurance coverage for this health care to people under 18. Defendants are Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who’ll relish the spot as a backer of anti-transgender legislation, and the director and members of the state Medical Board. This is the legislation vetoed by Governor Hutchinson as overbroad (though he
Credit YouTube
The race for Arkansas Attorney General just added another candidate. Attorney Jesse Gibson announced Tuesday he would seek the Democratic nomination for the state’s top legal post.
Gibson will be challenging Democrat Jason Davis for the nomination. Lt. Governor Tim Griffin and Leon Jones have announced for the Republican nomination for the position. Current Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is term-limited and is running for Governor.
Gibson said consumer protection will be one of his biggest priorities in seeking the office.
“We expect politicians to do the right thing, but too often they end up protecting their own power over ours. I’m done waiting around for someone else to get this right. I’ve taken on the big guys in the courtroom, so I’m ready to do the same in Little Rock as Attorney General,” Gibson said. “The people in charge now play by different rules and bully anyone who tries to call them out or challenge them. That’s about to change.”
Why Arkansas Is a Test Case for a Post-Trump Republican Party
Sarah Huckabee Sanders seems likely to bring the Trump brand to Arkansas politics in a big way. But the state is a testing ground for different possible futures for the party.
A business in downtown Clinton, Ark., in October 2019. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has positioned herself as a Trump loyalist as she runs for governor in a state the former president carried by 27 points last year. Credit.Audra Melton for The New York Times
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. For decades, Arkansas punched above its weight in politics and business.
In the 1990s, it was home to the president and the world’s wealthiest family. In the 2000s, three onetime Arkansans ran for president. A decade later, the state claimed its sixth company on the Fortune 500 list.
May 24, 20212:02 pm
Georgia is the latest state in which a federal court has held unconstitutional a state law meant to punish anyone who won’t promise to not encourage boycotts of Israel.
The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Georgia), CAIR Legal Defense Fund and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) today welcomed a “major victory” in their lawsuit against Georgia’s Israel boycott law after a federal district court ruled that the State of Georgia’s 2016 law punishing boycotts of Israel is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.
In an order released today, Judge Mark Cohen ruled that the University System of Georgia violated journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin’s constitutional rights when it cancelled her speaking engagement on a college campus because she refused to sign a state-mandated oath pledging not to engage in boycotts of Israel. Martin is a well-known advocate of the Boycott, Divestme
State Board of Apportionment meets on legislative redistricting
State Board of Apportionment meets on legislative redistricting
May 24, 20214:07 pm
STARTING WORK: Shelby Johnson, director of the state Geographic Information Office, talks about past timelines for drawing legislative districts.
The
state Board of Apportionment governor, attorney general and secretary of state met today to begin the process of redrawing legislative districts to reflect the 2020 Census.
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The Census isn’t completed and final figures aren’t expected until Sept. 30, which will give the board a short period to draw lines by the end of the year. Counties then will have to scramble to redraw voting precincts in line with legislative district lines (including county offices) in time for the May primary elections.