Oklahoma NAACP claims state law shielding drivers who hit rioters will chill peaceful demonstrations instead

OKLAHOMA CITY (CN) — The Oklahoma chapter of the NAACP sued state prosecutors Monday over the state’s new law that shields drivers who injure or kill rioters, claiming it will chill peaceful demonstrations.

The Oklahoma State Conference of the NAACP sued Republican Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor and Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, a Democrat, in federal court in Oklahoma City in opposition to House Bill 1674, which passed mostly along party lines in the spring. Going into effect on Nov. 1, the law protects drivers who “unintentionally” kill or injure rioters if they have a “reasonable belief that fleeing was necessary” to protect the driver from serious injury or death.

The statute the new law amends lays out the penalties for people who participate in riots and punishes all riot participants for any “murder, maiming, robbery, rape or arson” committed during a riot in “the same manner as a principal in such crime.”

HB 1674 strengthens criminal penalties against protesters who obstruct roadways and make them impassable or hazardous. Violations will be deemed misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in state prison with fines of up to $5,000.

Under the new law, organizations deemed “conspirators” with protesters charged under the state’s anti-riot or unlawful assembly laws are fined 10 times what the protesters are fined.

The NAACP chapter deems this provision of the law as an “existential threat” to it and other racial-justice organizations due to the allegedly vague definition of what a conspirator is.

“Through its unconstitutionally vague and overbroad terms, HB 1674 subjects organizations to devastating fines because of their association with third parties who commit unlawful acts by building upon the foundation of Oklahoma’s existing criminal-conspiracy statute, which is itself unconstitutionally vague and overbroad,” the lawsuit states.

The NAACP chapter says it will have to allocate more resources and volunteers to try an ensure its future events will somehow comply with the law’s “vague and overly broad” restrictions.

The lawsuit argues that a person is deemed as participating in a riot if they are “present at any riot” and “refuses to obey” lawful commands to aid in arresting any rioter, meaning they could be charged with rioting even if they “refuses to be involuntarily conscripted” to help police.

“Thus, depending on how many individuals an organization is deemed to have ‘conspired’ with, the organization could be subject to fines totaling millions of dollars for a single event,” the complaint states.

Republican lawmakers proposed HB 1674 after a motorist was surrounded during protests against the police killing of George Floyd last summer.

“The protesters beat at his truck and threw things at it, scaring both him and his family,” the bill’s co-author, state Representative Kevin West, said in March. “The driver was severely chastised for trying to hurt the protesters and he even faced the possibility of criminal charges for his actions in attempting to evade the protesters. This measure would clarify a motorist’s rights in a similar situation going forward.”

Co-author state Representative Kevin McDugle, a Republican, said during debate on the Oklahoma House floor that he was prompted to write the bill after a motorist pulling a horse trailer during the protests had bricks thrown at him, as well as a firebomb that burned his horse.

HB 1674 was signed into law by Republican Governor Kevin Stitt in April.

“House Bill 1674 protects law abiding citizens who find themselves caught in the midst of dangerous and illegal actions at no fault of their own,” West said Monday evening. “This law maintains the constitutional right to peaceably assemble while also reinforcing our citizen’s rights to be secure in their life, liberty and property.”

The Oklahoma NAACP seeks to enjoin HB 1674 and alleges it violates its First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. It is represented by Melvin Hall with Riggs Abney in Oklahoma City, Jonathan Backer, Joseph Mead and Annie Owens with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University and Janette Louard, Anthony Ashton and Joseph Schottenfeld with the NAACP in Baltimore.

Attorney General O’Connor’s office said Monday evening it will “vigorously defend” HB 1674.

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from Courthouse News

20 states sue Biden administration over transgender protections

Demonstrators gather on the steps of the Montana State Capitol to protest anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Helena, Mont., in March. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP)

(CN) — Twenty states are suing the Biden administration to stop the enforcement of what they say is a “regulatory overreach” in federal guidelines that protect transgender individuals from discrimination at work and in school.

Leading the pack is Tennessee’s Republican Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III, who said in a statement, “This case is about two federal agencies changing law, which is Congress’ exclusive prerogative.”

Those agencies are the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Education, both of which have issued guidance stating that, based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, it is discriminatory to require transgender individuals to operate in accordance with their biological sex assigned at birth.

Slatery and others argue that interpretation is erroneous.

“These agencies also have misconstrued the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision by claiming its prohibition of discrimination applies to locker rooms, showers, and bathrooms under Title IX and Title VII and biological men who identify as women competing in women’s sports, when the Supreme Court specifically said it was not deciding those issues in Bostock,” Slatery said.

The complaint, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee on Monday, claims the guidance “purports to resolve highly controversial and localized issues such as … whether individuals may be compelled to use another person’s preferred pronouns. But the agencies have no authority to resolve those sensitive questions, let alone to do so by executive fiat without providing any opportunity for public participation.”

Therefore, the attorneys general say, they are suing to prevent the agencies from “usurping authority that properly belongs to Congress, the States, and the people and to eliminate the nationwide confusion and upheaval that the agencies’ recent guidance has inflicted on States and other regulated entities.”

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the guidance “invalid and unlawful and to prohibit their enforcement.”

States that have joined Tennessee include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia,   Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the guidance “invalid and unlawful and to prohibit their enforcement.”

Last year, lawmakers in several states — many of which are plaintiffs in Monday’s lawsuit — introduced a record number of bills seeking to limit transgender rights, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

But no state’s leaders have gone further than Tennessee’s in enacting new laws targeting transgender people, the Associated Press reported in May. The state now faces at least two separate lawsuits challenging two of those laws.

In one case, the civil liberties union scored a tentative victory when a federal judge temporarily blocked a law requiring businesses to post signs letting patrons know if they allow transgender people to use the bathroom facilities that correspond with their gender identity. Violators would have faced penalties, including up to six months in jail.

In the second case, the Human Rights Campaign sued the state over its so-called bathroom bill that applies to public schools and opens schools to civil litigation if they accommodate transgender people who wish to use restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

That law defines sex as a person’s “immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth.”

Both laws that are challenged were referenced in Monday’s lawsuit as examples of the state maintaining “laws or policies that at least arguably conflict with the Interpretation” of federal guidelines.

“The agencies simply do not have that authority. But that has not stopped them from trying,” Slatery said in a statement. “All of this, together with the threat of withholding educational funding in the midst of a pandemic, warrants this lawsuit.”

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from Courthouse News

Eighth Circuit gives green light to contested Iowa casino

ST. LOUIS (CN) —The Eighth Circuit ruled Monday that a Nebraska Native American tribe’s planned casino in Iowa can go forward, affirming that a 1990 law enabling them to conduct business in the state does not exclude gambling. 

The federal appeals court’s unanimous decision, penned by Donald Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Steven Colloton, detailed its findings that the Ponca Restoration Act, passed in 1990 as part of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska’s re-recognition by the federal government, allows a parcel of land purchased by the tribe in the Iowa city of Carter Lake to be considered restored land without restrictions on the tribe’s ability to conduct gaming there. 

“Congress has shown that it knows how to limit a tribe’s ability to conduct gaming on its land when it wishes to do so,” Colloton wrote. “The Ponca Restoration Act, by contrast, contains no language limiting gaming or the ‘restoration of lands’ for the Tribe.” 

The Nebraska tribe is one of two federally recognized Ponca Tribes, having regained that status with the passage of the Act after 24 years of derecognition by the federal government between 1966 and 1990. An 1858 treaty guaranteed the Ponca a permanent reservation, but the same land was later included in a treaty with the Lakota/Sioux, and the Ponca were soon targeted for removal from their historic lands to Oklahoma in 1877.

The Ponca Restoration Act granted tribe members access to services available to federally recognized tribes, and granted services typically only given to members living on reservations to Ponca living in 15 counties across Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. 

Disputes over the land in Carter Lake have been ongoing in some form since its purchase by the tribe in 1999, when the state of Iowa sought to prevent the Bureau of Indian Affairs from taking the 4.8 acres in trust for the tribe’s benefit. 

That litigation was terminated and the land was put into trust after a 2002 agreement between Iowa and the Ponca in which the tribe promised not to conduct gambling on the land. They instead planned to build a clinic for tribal members. 

The issue returned in 2007 when the tribe sought authorization from the National Indian Gaming Commission to conduct gaming on the land. After a series of appeals, including a first trip to the Eighth Circuit, the tribe received permission from the commission in 2017 only to face a new lawsuit from the nearby Iowa city of Council Bluffs.

The city, soon joined by Iowa and Nebraska as intervenors, argued that the land was not eligible for designation as “restored Lands” under the Ponca Restoration Act and therefore could not be used for gambling. 

“The court need not look any farther than the language used in the Restoration Act to find the answer: Knox and Boyd counties in Nebraska are the only geographic areas specifically identified in the [Ponca Restoration Act] as areas where the secretary can take land into trust for the benefit of the tribe,” Iowa Assistant Attorney General John Lundquist said at oral arguments in April. The land in question lies about 100 miles from those counties. 

Colloton wrote that the Eighth Circuit’s three-judge panel, comprised of himself and fellow Republican-appointed U.S. Circuit Judges Lavenski Smith and Ralph Erickson, took a view closer to the Department of Justice’s contention that the Act allows lands well beyond Knox and Boyd counties to be restored to the Ponca, and that a restored-lands exception for gambling applies to that property.

“That Congress specified a geographic area in which the secretary is required to accept land for the tribe under the Ponca Restoration Act does not mean that only land within that area can be part of the restoration of lands for the tribe. Lands expressly granted to a tribe in the tribe’s restoration act may be the ‘paradigm’ of restored lands, but lands acquired for a tribe through means other than a restoration act also can qualify,” Colloton wrote.

“That [the Act] calls for the acquisition of restored lands in Knox and Boyd counties does not mean that the secretary lacks authority to restore lands elsewhere,” he added. 

Representatives of the Department of the Interior declined to comment on the case, as did the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, and the suit’s other parties did not respond to requests for comment.

from Courthouse News

Feds investigating five states for civil rights violations over mask mandate bans

(CN) — Making good on President Joe Biden’s direction to use “use all available tools” to ensure children have a safe return to school amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. Education Department on Monday opened civil rights investigations in five states that have prohibitions or restrictions on school mask mandates.

The investigations will look at whether those prohibitions discriminate against students who are at heightened risk for severe illness from Covid-19 by preventing them from safely accessing in-person education, a violation of federal law, according to the department.

“The department has heard from parents from across the country — particularly parents of students with disabilities and with underlying medical conditions — about how state bans on universal indoor masking are putting their children at risk and preventing them from accessing in-person learning equally,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement announcing the investigations. 

The states being investigated include Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Chief state school officers in each state received a letter from the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights outlining the department’s concerns.

State mask restrictions may be preventing schools from “meeting their legal obligations not to discriminate based on disability and from providing an equal educational opportunity to students with disabilities who are at heightened risk of severe illness from Covid-19,” the letters state.

Investigations into Florida, Texas, Arkansas, or Arizona have not been opened because the courts have halted those states’ bans on mask mandates, but the Education Department said it would “continue to closely monitor those states and is prepared to take action” if needed.

Under federal law, students with disabilities are guaranteed the right to public education alongside their peers, to the extent appropriate in line with their needs. Federal law also prohibits disability discrimination from public entities, which includes public schools.

As part of its investigation, the civil rights office — a neutral fact-finder — will begin “collecting and analyzing relevant evidence from state education agencies and other sources as appropriate prior to reaching determinations in these matters.”

In Tennessee, for example, Republican Governor Bill Lee signed an executive order on Aug. 16 overriding local school districts’ efforts to require staff and students to wear masks by giving parents the right to opt out of those requirements.

By the following week — just two weeks after the school year began — children made up over one-third of active cases. It was a rate never before seen in children, and the number of new cases and hospitalizations continue to climb in both children and adults, according to Tennessee Department of Health data.

Lee’s office said it received the letter and are reviewing but did not offer any additional comment. Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn did not return a request for comment. 

The governor received an earlier letter from Cardona on Aug. 18 warning that his action “to block school districts from voluntarily adopting science-based strategies for preventing the spread of Covid-19 … may infringe upon a school district’s authority to adopt policies to protect students and educators as they develop their safe return to in-person instruction plans required by federal law.”

In response, Lee tweeted, “Parents know better than the government what’s best for their children.”

“It’s simply unacceptable,”  Cardona said Monday, “that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve. The department will fight to protect every student’s right to access in-person learning safely and the rights of local educators to put in place policies that allow all students to return to the classroom full-time in-person safely this fall.”

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from Courthouse News

Virtual schools saw little disruption, got equal virus aid

BOSTON (AP) — While many schools scrambled to shift to online classes last year, the nation’s virtual charter schools faced little disruption. For them, online learning was already the norm. Most have few physical classrooms, or none at all.

Yet when Congress sent $190 billion in pandemic aid to schools, virtual charters received just as much as any other school because the same formula applied to all schools, with more money going to those in high-poverty areas, an Associated Press investigation found.

“It’s scandalous that they’re getting that much money,” said Gordon Lafer, an economist at the University of Oregon and school board member in Eugene, Oregon. “There were all kinds of costs that were extraordinary because of Covid, but online schools didn’t have any of them.”

The infusion of federal relief has inflamed a decadeslong debate about the role of the nation’s 200-plus fully virtual charter schools, which are publicly funded schools that operate independently or under the umbrella of public school districts. They generally offer classes through online learning platforms provided by private companies.

Leaders of online schools say virtual charters offer a valuable option for students who don’t do well in traditional classrooms. But critics say they drain money from other schools and often lead to poor outcomes for students.

Using data provided by state governments, The Associated Press tracked more than $550 million that went to virtual charters across the country over three rounds of pandemic relief. The analysis, which covered allocations to 76 virtual schools in 10 states, showed that some online charters received among the highest funding rates in their states, getting as much per student as some of the poorest districts.

The federal government has not released nationwide data on the money given to virtual charters. Some states, including Wisconsin and Texas, said allocations for online schools were managed by local districts and not tracked by the state.

Most of the pandemic aid was distributed using the same formula as Title I money, the largest federal funding source for public schools. But some states also used discretionary pools of federal money to send additional help to virtual charters, including in Idaho, Minnesota and Ohio.

Of the 76 virtual schools tracked by the AP, more than a third are operated by the industry’s two largest companies, Stride Inc. and Connections Academy. Others are run by different for-profit companies, while some are run by nonprofits or state or local governments.

Officials at virtual schools say the money was needed to serve a wave of students who transferred from traditional schools during the pandemic. But leaders of some traditional schools wonder why any aid went to virtual charters that were mostly conducting business as usual and did not have to worry about social distancing or sanitizing.

In Philadelphia, the Esperanza Cyber Charter School received $11,300 per student, the highest rate among virtual schools tracked by the AP. That’s compared with $12,300 in Harrisburg public schools, one of Pennsylvania’s poorest districts, and $7,500 in Pittsburgh schools.

Esperanza, operated by a local nonprofit, teaches about 800 students in Philadelphia’s Latino neighborhoods, with more than 90% coming from poverty.

When the pandemic hit last year, Esperanza never halted classes. Teachers started working from home instead of at the school’s single building, but little changed for the student experience, said Jon Marsh, the school’s CEO.

Marsh said he sees both sides of the debate over federal relief. His school’s transition to pandemic teaching was relatively smooth, he said, but there were some new costs. The federal funding helped purchase computers and monitors for teachers, for instance, and new software to help students who are learning English.

Still, Esperanza’s funding was immense for its size. It received nearly $9 million, more than the school spends in a typical year. And so far, it has spent less than half of that sum, leaving school officials wondering how to use the remaining $5 million.

“I would love to have the ability to distribute this money to families in need, but you can’t. That’s not on the list,” Marsh said.

Other states with online schools include Ohio, where virtual charters received $101 million in federal funding, and Oklahoma, where they got $82 million. Smaller amounts went to virtual schools in states including Arizona, California, Idaho and Michigan.

Pennsylvania, long a battleground in the cyber school debate, saw the largest sum, with $235 million going to 11 virtual schools. Those allotments rankled leaders of some traditional schools who said the money was desperately needed in public districts.

“It just doesn’t add up to me when you look at the intent of the legislation,” said Chris Celmer, who until recently served as acting superintendent in Harrisburg, which used its money to buy computers for students and is now improving ventilation across the district’s 12 building. “Those dollars could have been distributed across the other 500 school districts across the state of Pennsylvania.”

Commonwealth Charter Academy, the largest virtual school in Pennsylvania, saw its enrollment double last school year, to nearly 20,000 students.

Commonwealth was awarded about $4,000 per student, totaling more than $60 million. Much of the early funding was used to hire new teachers and buy laptops for students. More recent funding will be used to help students who are behind in reading, said Timothy Eller, a school spokesperson.

“Cyber charter school students are not second-class students,” Eller said. “Just because they attend a cyber charter doesn’t mean they should receive less funding.”

For the online schooling industry, the pandemic has delivered an unprecedented financial boost.

In April 2020, as students flocked to online charters, the financial chief for Stride Inc. told investors that Covid-19 would bring “a lasting tailwind to online education.” Virtual schools, some of which spend millions of dollars a year on advertising, promoted themselves as a better alternative to public schools that were struggling to offer online classes.

Stride’s latest financial reports showed a 48% increase in revenue since last year, with most of it coming from contracts with schools. The company did not respond to a request seeking information about its schools’ federal aid.

The cost of adding new students is typically covered by schools’ state funding, Lafer said, and virtual schools are designed to scale up services at a low cost.

“As far as I can see, the money is 100% pure profit,” said Lafer, who has researched online charter schools.

Recognizing that virtual charters have lower costs, some states routinely fund them at lower rates than traditional schools. Some states applied the same logic when they disbursed discretionary pools of pandemic aid.

In South Carolina, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster gave charter schools $9 million to offset enrollment increases. But while traditional charters received $220 per student, virtual schools were given $116 per student.

Even some virtual charters are questioning whether they need their full allotments. At Agora Cyber Charter School, a Pennsylvania school affiliated with Stride, officials said they have no plans to use the full $38 million the school was awarded. Agora officials are exploring whether it’s possible to return unused money.

“We’re trying to be very deliberate to make sure that any dollar we take from this is focused on servicing students,” said Richard Jensen, the CEO. “That’s the end game for me.”

__

By COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press

from Courthouse News

Fumigate Texas

Strangers are always asking me, “Bob, what’s the worst state in the union?” To which I reply, “Let me see your hands.”

Ha ha! Just a bit of levity during a pandemic in a heavily armed nation!

I could reply: “Do you mean the lowest per capita income? That would be West Virginia, Mississippi and Arkansas.”

Or: “Do you mean the lowest percentage of people fully vaccinated? That would be Alabama, Mississippi and Wyoming.”

Or: “Do you mean the highest percentage of people in prison? That would be Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.”

Or: “Do you mean the highest rates of infant mortality? That would be Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia.”

Or I could reply: “Do you mean which state has the most racist, sniveling, arrogant, corrupt and idiotic high-ranking elected officials? That would be Texas.”

Let’s narrow this snark hunt down to events of the past few weeks.

First, we had Gov. Greg Abbott testing positive for Covid-19, less than three hours after he greeted an unmasked crowd north of Dallas — Abbott described it as “standing-room only” — while more than 13,000 Texans were hospitalized with Covid. The Chairman of the hosting Collin County Republican Club described Abbott’s behavior at that event as “friendly and energetic.”

Abbott, by executive order in May, barred cities, counties, school districts and public health authorities from mandating masks or vaccines during the pandemic.

On Aug. 9 he asked other states to send doctors and nurses to Texas to help treat Covid patients at Texas’s overwhelmed hospitals. On Aug. 17, he tested positive for the virus.

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan quickly put out a press release saying he was praying for Abbott’s recovery.

Well, that ought to fix it.

But wait, there’s more. On Aug. 19, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — who under Texas law has as much or more power than the governor — claimed that Black folks are primarily responsible for spreading Covid in Texas. And Patrick — who claimed that same-sex marriage would lead to legalization of incest — added that Black folks “vote for Democrats.”

“The last time I checked, over 90 percent of them vote for Democrats in their major cities and major counties,” Patrick told The Washington Post. (After the 2016 Orlando shooting at a gay nightclub that killed 49 people and wounded 53, he tweeted: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”)

Actually, as the Post pointed out, Black folks account for 13% of Texas’ population, and 10.2% of its Covid deaths. And unvaccinated white Texans outnumber unvaccinated Black folks 3 to 1.

So let me get this straight: Is the Loot Guv saying that if we prevent Black folks from voting (for Democrats) “in their major cities and major counties,” that would be a giant step toward public health?

Slithering on down the greasy pole of Texas politics, we get to Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been under felony indictment since 2015 for securities fraud and influence-peddling, but has staved off his trial for 6 years by legal tap dances. Paxton this week announced with great brouhaha that anonymous people in his own office had investigated him — their boss, and found him innocent.

The criminal prosecution against Paxton proceeds.

And let us not forget Sen. Ted Cruz, who claims:“Joe Biden and the Democrats hate red states like Texas and Florida, that we reopened … because we protect people’s freedoms. Joe Biden is trying to play politics with the pandemic.”

Playing politics with public health in a pandemic! “The horror! The horror!” *

Texas and Florida, of course, lead the nation in new Covid-19 infections. Florida has averaged 21,673 per day in the past week, and Texas 17,022 (a new infection every 40 seconds). They also lead the nation in patients hospitalized with Covid: Florida with 17,183 on Thursday, and Texas with 13,478. No other state had even 9,000 hospitalized Covid patients on Thursday.

Let’s pause now for a moment and let me rephrase our opening statement.

Which state most brazenly proclaims its stand for racism, ignorance, and spitting upon public health?

Texas.

(Sorry, Florida, maybe you can do worse next week.)

* Mr. Kurtz, he dead.

from Courthouse News

Man at center of US Supreme Court decision sentenced to life

(CN) — Jimcy McGirt — the Oklahoma man who’s state conviction resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that led to thousands of other convicts demanding their release — was sentenced to life in federal prison Wednesday on child rape charges.

U.S. District Judge John Heil in the Eastern District of Oklahoma sentenced McGirt, 72, concurrently on two counts of aggravated sexual abuse in Indian Country and one count of abusive sexual contact in Indian Country.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Wilson said Wednesday McGirt is not eligible for parole and that the sentencing “will ensure the defendant will never be able to victimize another child” again.

“We are elated Judge Heil followed the government’s recommendation and sentenced the defendant to a term of life imprisonment, which was above the advisory sentencing guideline range of 210-262 months,” Wilson said in a written statement.

McGirt was originally convicted in Oklahoma state court in 1997 of first degree rape of a four-year-old child and sentenced to two 550 year terms in state prison. One of his appeals argued that Congress never dissolved the Native American reservation his crimes took place on and that Oklahoma therefore lacks criminal jurisdiction in his case.

McGirt is a member of the Seminole Nation and his crimes took place on Muscogee (Creek) Nation land. The U.S. Supreme Court stunned Oklahoma officials in July 2020 when it ruled 5-4 in McGirt’s favor and tossed his conviction, setting off a domino effect of thousands of other state convicts with similar circumstances filing post-conviction appeals demanding their release from Oklahoma prisons.

Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor and Governor Kevin Stitt, both Republicans, have implored Congress to pass legislation to allow Native American nations to compact with the state on sharing criminal jurisdiction, but no deal has materialized. In that absence, federal prosecutors have been forced to intervene and file federal charges to stop the release of violent criminals on a post-conviction technicality.

Federal prosecutors in Tulsa were forced to charge former Tulsa cop Shannon James Kepler with murder in November after he filed his own McGirt appeal. Kepler, 60, was convicted of manslaughter in 2017 and sentenced to 15 years in state prison for shooting and killing his daughter’s boyfriend, Jeremy Lake, 19. Kepler is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the killing took place on tribal lands.

Federal charges are also pending in the high-profile case of Shaun Bosse, a death row inmate convicted of killing girlfriend Katrina Griffin and her two young children Christian Griffin and Chastity Hammer in 2012. All three victims were Chickasaw Nation members while Bosse is not. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 5-0 in March to toss Bosse’s conviction under McGirt. Bosse was soon after transferred to federal custody and was assigned to a federal public defender.

In spite of tossing Bosse’s murder convictions, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled two weeks ago that McGirt does not apply retroactively to pre-existing convictions. The high court cited the “disruptive and costly consequences” of voiding hundreds of convictions and the emotional toll on crime victims.

“We cannot and will not ignore the disruptive and costly consequences that retroactive application of McGirt would now have: the shattered expectations of so many crime victims that the ordeal of prosecution would assure punishment of the offender,” the 31-page opinion stated. “[T]he trauma, expense, and uncertainty awaiting victims and witnesses in federal re-trials; the outright release of many major crime offenders due to the impracticability of new prosecutions; and the incalculable loss to agencies and officers who have reasonably labored for decades to apprehend, prosecute, defend, and punish those convicted of major crimes; all owing to a longstanding and widespread, but ultimately mistaken, understanding of the law.”

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from Courthouse News

Some governors use federal virus aid to expand school choice

(AP) — When Congress sent states billions of dollars early in the coronavirus pandemic to help make schools safe, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee saw an opportunity.

He used part of the windfall to further his goal of offering school choice options for parents, sending millions to charter schools that operate without traditional public oversight. That included funneling more than $4 million to new charters that are not scheduled to open until at least next year.

It was an easy way for the Republican governor to advance a long-held priority. For Lee and some other GOP governors, the discretionary money was a chance to sidestep their state legislatures and advance school choice, which typically involves funding charter schools or offering vouchers so parents can use taxpayer money to pay private school tuition.

Teachers unions and other critics view the efforts as a way to siphon money away from traditional public schools.

“This feels like he’s taking advantage of the pandemic and the pandemic relief to further his ideological goal of defunding the traditional public schools,” said state Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Democrat and retired teacher.

In a series of bills since the Covid-19 outbreak began last year, Congress has allocated $190 billion to help public and private schools weather the pandemic. Although there is no centralized way to see how districts and private schools are spending the aid, The Associated Press tracked most of that money to determine how much was received by virtually every school district in the country and to analyze the ways governors distributed the assistance they were free to dole out as they wished.

In the initial wave of funding, governors were given $3 billion with few strings attached but the expectation that it be used to help schools and colleges “most significantly impacted by coronavirus.”

They used that money in a variety of ways: New Jersey supported colleges. Oregon used it to make sure even tiny rural districts received minimum amounts of aid. States including Indiana and Colorado established competitive grant programs for school districts.

This week, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced he was using a separate pot of federal pandemic aid to create a $10 million grant initiative similar to the state’s existing private school voucher program. It was the Republican governor’s latest attempt to push back against public school districts that are defying a state ban on mask mandates. The funding allows grants up to $7,000 per student if their public school requires masks, orders quarantines due to Covid-19 exposure or gives different treatment to vaccinated students.

In Tennessee, Lee has long been an advocate of launching more charter schools — institutions that are publicly funded but operate outside traditional school districts. In a feature that appeals to many conservatives, they usually do not have unionized teachers.

Of the nearly $64 million in discretionary pandemic education money that came to his office, Lee dedicated $10 million to charters. The governor used it to make sure every charter received some aid and to help existing schools add grades. He reserved a chunk of it — $4.4 million — to help launch new charters, none of which is scheduled to welcome students until at least 2022.

Lee spokeswoman Casey Black did not directly respond to a question from the AP about funding for charter schools that are not yet open but said the use of the money would help provide families with access to a high-quality education. Brian Blackley, a spokesman for Lee’s state Department of Education, said the charter school funding is meant to give families more options.

“Education is not one size fits all, and the pandemic showed us just how important it is to provide families with better access to high-quality school options,” he said in an email.

Beth Brown, president of the Tennessee Education Association, criticized the spending.

“Using pandemic relief money to open new charter schools is an insult to the public school teachers who have worked tirelessly since March 2020 to keep public schools open,” said Brown, a high school English teacher in rural Grundy County.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat who serves as chair of the House Labor and Education Committee, said the federal money was not intended to be used that way.

“The 5% or 10% that end up in charters may or may not improve their education situation,” he said. “It’s hard to make an argument that reducing the money available to public schools helps the 90% to 95% of those who are in public schools.”

Oklahoma’s GOP governor, Kevin Stitt, used $10 million of the nearly $40 million in his governor-controlled fund to create a stay-in-school program that funded scholarships for lower-income students who already attend private schools.

The state education secretary, Ryan Walters, said the state was hearing from parents who lost income early in the pandemic and could not keep paying private-school tuition.

“Moving them in the middle of a pandemic to a brand-new school would create even more trauma for them,” he said.

Most Oklahoma private schools are religious. One exception is Positive Tomorrows, an Oklahoma City school exclusively for students in families experiencing homelessness.

The school usually costs around $3 million a year to run, with many expenses paid through donations. It got about $350,000 from Stitt’s program, plus another $250,000 in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans from the federal government to keep paying teachers and staff. Public schools did not have access to the forgivable loans.

“Because of the role that we serve, I think we deserve some government funding,” said Susan Agel, president of the school. “This is a kind of thing that I’d really like to see more of, particularly for our school.”

State Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, a Democrat who was a public school teacher until he was elected in 2017, said there are still major needs in public schools that should be met before taxpayer money is considered for private schools.

“If you want to go to a private school, you have that choice,” he said. “You’re private for a reason.”

Governors in Florida and New Hampshire also used portions of their discretionary money for private-school scholarship programs.

A South Carolina program championed by GOP Gov. Henry McMaster was larger — $32 million — and scholarships were planned for students who were not already in private schools. But the scholarships were never awarded because the program was blocked unanimously by the state Supreme Court.

Shaunette Parker, board chairwoman for the Second Baptist Christian Preparatory School in Aiken, said McMaster’s proposal could have been a toehold for establishing a broader voucher program in South Carolina, something that has never been adopted in the Legislature.

“We were hoping the success of that one-year funding would have shown people how this wasn’t going to create a mass exodus of the public schools,” Parker said. “It would have improved education all around.”

After the court rejected McMaster’s effort, he redirected the money to other programs, including launching regional computer labs, boosting technical colleges, funding summer and extended-day programs for 4-year-olds — and helping helping public charter schools where enrollments have risen.

__

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press

from Courthouse News

Biden nominates first Native American to run National Parks Service

WASHINGTON (CN) — Charles “Chuck” F. Sams III, who has worked in nonprofit environmental preservation roles for more than 25 years, became the first Native American nominated to lead the National Park Service late Wednesday.

President Joe Biden announced Sams’ nomination alongside four other picks for key roles in various federal agencies.

Sams is a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla and served as that Oregon-based group’s deputy executive director, communications director and environmental health and safety officer. He holds a master’s degree of legal studies in indigenous people’s law from the University of Oklahoma.

He most recently had been serving as a member on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a committee created by Congress in 1980 to monitor energy’s role in the environment in Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington. The group’s main responsibility is to create regional power plans and fish and wildlife programs in those states.

Sams also has responsibilities as a board member on two environmental-related organizations: the Gray Family Foundation and the Oregon Cultural Trust. Both support Oregon-based investment in environmental stewardship and state culture.

Brian Rogers, the Oregon Cultural Trust’s executive director, said in an interview Thursday that Sams has been instrumental in providing direction for developing culturally-inclusive programs — especially for the tribal community.

“He’s also helped us out with our strategic plan that we developed a couple years back,” Rogers said. “All of our board is involved in that, but Chuck gave a lot of great insight about the kinds of activities that we should be doing to be more inclusive and equitable.”

Rogers, who is also executive director of the Oregon Arts Commission, said one of Sams’ major contributions was altering how the leadership of both groups interacted, creating a joint committee for more-cohesive planning.

In a statement Wednesday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland – the first Native American to serve in that role – lauded Sams’ nomination and emphasized the importance of protecting the country’s natural resources. The National Park Service is an agency within the Department of the Interior.

“The diverse experience that Chuck brings to the National Park Service will be an incredible asset as we work to conserve and protect our national parks to make them more accessible for everyone,” Haaland said in a statement. “I look forward to working with him to welcome Americans from every corner of our country into our national park system.”

The National Park Service hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed director since former President Barack Obama nominated Jonathan Jarvis in 2009. He held that role until January 2017.

Former President Donald Trump’s administration cycled out various acting directors for the National Park Service, including David Vela, whose nomination never got to the Senate floor for a vote. Vela resigned after less than a year on the job after a legal challenge to his appointment was filed in Washington federal court by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Western Watersheds Project, who alleged the Interior Department violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act by appointing Vela.

Will Shafroth, CEO of the National Park Foundation, the charitable arm of the Park Service, stressed the importance of having a Senate-confirmed director in the post.

“Having a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed director in place to lead the more than 20,000 employees of the National Park Service is essential to the health, wellbeing and overall success of our parks,” Safroth said in a statement Wednesday. “Mr. Sams brings a significant background of experience that prepares him exceptionally well to take on and advance the mission of this critical federal agency.”

The Senate is set to return from summer recess on Sept. 13, and is expected to take up Sams’ nomination soon after.

The other nominees announced by the Biden administration on Wednesday evening include Scott A. Nathan, nominated to be CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation; Viquar Ahmad for assistant secretary for administration and chief financial officer of the Department of Commerce; Matthew Axelrod for assistant secretary for export enforcement at the Commerce Department; and Robert Gordon for assistant secretary for financial resources at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Follow Jack Rodgers on Twitter

from Courthouse News

Global sizzling: July was hottest month on record, NOAA says

(AP) — Earth sizzled in July and became the hottest month in 142 years of recordkeeping, U.S. weather officials announced.

As extreme heat waves struck parts of the United States and Europe, the globe averaged 62.07 degrees (16.73 degrees Celsius) last month, beating out the previous record set in July 2016 and tied again in 2019 and 2020. the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday. The margin was just .02 degrees (.01 Celsius),

The last seven Julys, from 2015 to 2021, have been the hottest seven Julys on record, said NOAA climatologist Ahira Sanchez-Lugo. Last month was 1.67 degrees (0.93 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average for the month.

“In this case first place is the worst place to be,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a press release. “This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”

“This is climate change,” said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann. “It is an exclamation mark on a summer of unprecedented heat, drought, wildfires and flooding.”

Earlier this week, a prestigious United Nations science panel warned of worsening climate change caused by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas and other human activity.

Warming on land in western North America and in parts of Europe and Asia really drove the record-setting heat, Sanchez-Lugo said. While the worldwide temperature was barely higher than the record, what shattered it was land temperature over the Northern Hemisphere, she said.

Northern Hemisphere temperatures were a third of a degree (.19 degrees Celsius) higher than the previous record set in July 2012, which for temperature records is “a wide margin,” Sanchez-Lugo said.

July is the hottest month of the year for the globe, so this is also the hottest month on record.

One factor helping the world bake this summer is a natural weather cycle called the Arctic Oscillation, sort of a cousin to El Nino, which in its positive phase is associated with more warming, the NOAA climatologist said.

Even with a scorching July and a nasty June, this year so far is only the sixth warmest on record. That’s mostly because 2021 started cooler than recent years due to a La Nina cooling of the central Pacific that often reduces the global temperature average, Sanchez-Lugo said.

“One month by itself does not say much, but that this was a La Nina year and we still had the warmest temperatures on record … fits with the pattern of what we have been seeing for most of the last decade now,” said University of Illinois meteorology professor Donald Wuebbles.

While the world set a record in July, the United States only tied for its 13th hottest July on record. Even though California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington had their hottest Julys, slightly cooler than normal months in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire kept the nation from approaching record heat levels.

The last time the globe had a July cooler than the 20th century average was in 1976, which was also the last year the globe was cooler than that normal.

“So if you’re younger than 45 you haven’t seen a year (or July) where the mean temperature of the planet was cooler than the 20th century average,” said Princeton University climate scientist Gabriel Vecchi.

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By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

from Courthouse News

Dogs for the Prosecution

If you’re like me, which god forbid, you’ve often asked yourself: “Bob, is a dog’s evidence admissible in court?”

I reply, as who would not: “Depends on what state you’re in. Stay out of Nebraska, unless you’re a criminal defendant, in which case, sure, beat feet to the Cornhusker State. A bloodhound can’t testify against you there.”

The bloodhound is the only dog whose evidence is admissible in U.S. courts. So far as I know. But only under certain conditions.

I hardly need tell you that the controlling cases regarding admissibilty of a bloodhound’s evidence in court rest upon Hodge v. Alabama (98 Ala. 10, Alabama Supreme Court (1893)); and Buck v. Oklahoma, (OK CR 65, 138 P.2d 115, Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (1943)).

These rulings, and 61 others our crack team of researchers at Courthouse News have found in 44 states, affirm that “Evidence of the trailing of human beings by bloodhounds is admissible as a circumstance to corroborate other evidence offered by the state.” (Buck, citing Hodge.)

Hodge was charged, and convicted, of murder.

“In that case the death penalty was upheld, and the evidence of tracking by the dog to defendant’s home was sustained as competent evidence,” according to the unanimous three-judge panel, upholding the death penalty in Buck. 

“Since this case in 1893, many courts have passed upon the question, and by the great weight of authority it has been held that the evidence is admissible under certain rules and conditions, as will be hereinafter stated.”

Harvey the bloodhound keeps an eye on Cherry Creek, Colorado. (Photo by Brooks Holliday for Courthouse News)

These conditions are (all from Buck, often citing Hodge):

• “The bloodhound in question must be shown to have been trained to follow human beings by their tracks and to have been tested as to its accuracy in trailing upon one or more occasions.” • The evidence of the bloodhound’s nose “may be received merely as a circumstance or corroborating evidence against a person toward whom other circumstances point as being guilty of the commission of the crime charged.” • The bloodhound must be of pure breed. (The CCLU is litigating this.) • “(P)referably out of the presence of the jury,” the judge shall hear evidence “as to the blood, training and experience of the dog, and determine as a matter of law whether it is such as to permit its introduction before the jury.” (Hereinafter: “The Infamous Dog Secrecy Exclusion.”)

And finally:

• “It should be shown that the dog so trained and tested was laid on the trail, whether visible or not, concerning which testimony has been admitted, at a point where the circumstances tend clearly to show that the guilty party has been or upon a track which such circumstances indicate has been made by him.”

I find no problem with the reasoning of the courts. And I thank the courts for bringing it to our attention.

In State v. Hall (3 Ohio N.P. (1895)), the court ruled, wisely, against an appeal of the reliability of a bloodhound’s evidence, in a case of burglary and larceny.

Citing the Encyclopædia Britannica (9th Ed., 1895), the appellate court found in Hall that “The bloodhound is remarkable for its acuteness of scent, its discrimination in keeping to the particular scent on which it is first laid, and the intelligence and pertinacity with which it pursues its object to a successful issue. These qualities have been taken advantage of not only in the chase, but also in the pursuit of felons and fugitives of every kind. According to Strabo, [Greek geographer, 63 B.C.-23 A.D.] these dogs were used in an attack upon the Gauls. In the clan feuds of the Scottish Highlands, and in the frequent wars between England and Scotland, they were regularly employed in tracking fugitive warriors, and were thus employed, according to early chroniclers, in pursuit of [Sir William] Wallace [1270-1305]* and Bruce [Robert the Bruce, 1274-1329]. The former is said to have put a hound off the scent by killing a suspected follower, ‘on whose corpse the hound stood.’’’**

Laugh if you will, but both men — Buck the arsonist, who burned down his neighbor’s barn, and Hodge, the murderer — lost their appeals, against the truth, honesty and fidelity of bloodhounds.

Why, then, have we kept them in prisons since the 1800s? In case after case, the sheriff sends to the local prison for a bloodhound, but … oh, wait a minute … I get it.

Footnotes

* Wallace, a hero of Scottish independence, defeated an invading English army, bloodhounds and all, at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, in September 1297.

** Unlikely, probably garbled in the telling, and apocryphal. Had Robert the Bruce done this, he [not the bloodhound] would have stood upon the body of a dead comrade, hoping to throw the bloodhound off the scent. But surely, the bloodhound(s) would have continued to traipse over the corpse. And where would Robert the Bruce be then? Still alive, with a bloodhound on his trail.

from Courthouse News

Oklahoma appeals court rules McGirt decision does not apply retroactively

(CN) — Oklahoma’s highest criminal appeals court decided Thursday that the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling that the state lacks criminal jurisdiction on Native American tribal lands does not apply retroactively. The decision may stem the flow of thousands of post-conviction appeals by convicts wanting to be released on the technicality.

In a 4-0 decision, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reversed a post-conviction dismissal of a murder case against Clifton Parish, a member of the Choctaw Nation. Parish was convicted of felony second-degree murder in 2010 for killing Robert Strickland on Choctaw land. A lower court threw out the case after McGirt v. Oklahoma held last year that large sections of Oklahoma remain Native Americans lands due to Congress never dissolving the reservations and that the tribes retain criminal jurisdiction.

Judge David Lewis, a Democrat appointee, wrote the lower court’s vacating of Parish’s murder conviction was “unauthorized under state law” in spite of McGirt.

“We cannot and will not ignore the disruptive and costly consequences that retroactive application of McGirt would now have: the shattered expectations of so many crime victims that the ordeal of prosecution would assure punishment of the offender,” the 31-page opinion states. “[T]he trauma, expense, and uncertainty awaiting victims and witnesses in federal re-trials; the outright release of many major crime offenders due to the impracticability of new prosecutions; and the incalculable loss to agencies and officers who have reasonably labored for decades to apprehend, prosecute, defend, and punish those convicted of major crimes; all owing to a longstanding and widespread, but ultimately mistaken, understanding of the law.”

Oklahoma officials cheered the Thursday’s ruling, as they have implored Congress to pass legislation allowing the Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations to compact with the state on criminal jurisdiction.

Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor thanked the judges for handing “a significant victory” to Oklahomans.

“There are thousands of cases that would have to be retried if the State had lost this case,” O’Connor said in a statement. “In many of those cases, the crimes were committed long ago. Witnesses may be gone. Evidence may be lost. Re-prosecution might be barred by statutes of limitations.”

Governor Kevin Stitt, a fellow Republican, touted the ruling as a win for public safety and for crime victims.

“I am pleased that the Court agreed that retroactively applying McGirt to tens of thousands of cases would unnecessarily traumatize victims and give dangerous criminals opportunities to fall through the cracks,” Stitt said in a statement. “While today’s ruling is a significant step forward, McGirt still presents major challenges that threaten the future of Oklahoma.”

The post-McGirt burden has since fallen on federal prosecutors to assert criminal jurisdiction and bring federal charges against those with voided convictions. Federal prosecutors have been tasked with charging Shaun Bosse, who was convicted to death in 2012 for killing  girlfriend Katrina Griffin and her two young children, Christian Griffin and Chastity Hammer, in a mobile home south of Oklahoma City on Chickasaw Nation land. The Court of Criminal Appeals threw out his conviction five months ago, citing the state’s lack of jurisdiction to prosecute under McGirt.

Federal prosecutors were forced to charge former Tulsa cop Shannon James Kelper last November after he demanded his release under McGirt. He was convicted of manslaughter in 2017 and sentenced to 15 years in state prison for shooting and killing Jeremy Lake, 19, his daughter’s boyfriend.

Judge Lewis said the reversal of Parish’s final conviction “would not be justice” even if it is a “monumental” victory for him. Lewis was joined by judges Robert Hudson, Gary Lumpkin and Scott Rowland — all Republican appointees. In a concurring opinion, Hudson criticized Congress for missing the opportunity to “implement a practical solution which, at this point, seems unlikely” to come.

“It is now up to the leaders of the state of Oklahoma, the tribes and the federal government to address the jurisdictional fallout from the McGirt decision,” Hudson wrote.

Follow David Lee on Twitter

from Courthouse News

Schools reopen with masks optional in many US classrooms

MCDONOUGH, Ga. (AP) — As Tussahaw Elementary opened this week for a new school year, teary-eyed mothers led in kindergartners dwarfed by backpacks and buses dropped off fifth graders looking forward to ruling their school. The biggest clue to the lingering Covid-19 crisis was the masks worn by students and teachers — but not all of them.

Georgia, like most states, is leaving it up to local schools to decide whether to require face coverings. And 43,000-student Henry County, like many districts worn out by months of conflict over masks, has decided not to insist on them.

Instead, they are “highly recommended.”

Many parents Wednesday in this suburb south of Atlanta had mixed feelings about the policy. Some kept their children home in disagreement with it. Others sent their youngsters to class with face coverings.

Shatavia Dorsey, the mother of a kindergartner and a fifth grader, said her children are going to wear their masks at school regardless of the rules.

“They’re not vaccinated because they’re too young, and I don’t know if someone else is carrying it in,” said Dorsey, who is doubtful about the school system’s ability to maintain in-person instruction amid rising infections.

With the delta variant spreading rapidly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics have advised in recent weeks that everyone in schools wear masks in communities with substantial or high transmission.

Educators have had to contend with strong resistance to masks from some parents and political leaders. Some consider mask rules an intrusion on parents’ authority to make decisions about their children’s health.

California, Louisiana, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington state intend to require masks for all students and teachers regardless of vaccination status. At the other end of the spectrum, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah have banned mask requirements in public schools.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said Thursday the decision of whether to wear masks in school should be made by parents, adding: “What are the harmful effects of putting a kindergartener in a mask for seven hours? Have they talked about the emotional, the academic, the physiological? Why isn’t CDC studying that?”

Outbreaks that have hit schools at the very start of the year have added to calls for more mask requirements.

In Marion, Arkansas, over 800 students and staff members have been quarantined because of exposure since classes began last week in the 4,000-student district.

Marion Superintendent Glen Fenter urged lawmakers to overturn the state law banning masks, warning that a “full-blown crisis” could lie ahead. And Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson expressed regret over signing the ban in the first place and asked that it be lifted. But the GOP-controlled Legislature left it in place Friday.

From the beginning of the pandemic to the peak of infections in January, CDC data showed children 15 and under had the lowest infection rates. Now, though, school-age children have infection rates higher than adults 50 and older.

Henry County recorded 111 cases of Covid-19 in children ages 5 to 17 in the two weeks ending July 28. Its per capita rate is one of the highest in Georgia and higher than the nationwide figure.

Henry County Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis said she believes schools have learned how to prevent transmission, citing intensified cleaning, air filtration and use of hand sanitizer. The district is also offering its 6,000 employees $1,000 bonuses to get vaccinated.

“We are highly recommending that individuals opt for a mask as an added layer of prevention, but we also know so much more today than we did a year ago,” Davis said, wearing an “I got vaccinated” sticker. “And what we know today is that schools are not catalysts for community spread.”

At least 28 of Georgia’s more than 180 school districts are requiring masks, encompassing more than 38% of the state’s public school students.

At Tussahaw Elementary, more than 60% of students were wearing masks in four classrooms visited by a reporter Wednesday, though some had pulled them down. In only one room, where the teacher was also unmasked, were a majority of students without face coverings.

What parents at Tussahaw really wanted was some normalcy — an end to trying to help children at home learn virtually, or cycling between in-person school and quarantine.

“We weathered the storm, but it’s a lot better being back in the classroom,” Bryant Thigpen said after dropping off his son for the first day of fifth grade. He said he thinks the school system should require masks — “at least until the cases go down.”

Daniel Denny sent both his children to Tussahaw with masks but said face coverings should be up to parents.

“To each his own,” he said. “You take care of your household how you choose.”

Kimberly Vining, a parent of two middle school students, strongly approved of the policy, saying it will make things much easier for children with asthma or anxiety about wearing masks.

“I have faith in God and I’m not going to live in fear for a virus that has a 98% survival rate,” she said.

Overall, 90% of Henry County students are back in person, while 10% are opting for all-virtual instruction or a combination of both.

Holley Freeman’s 8-year-old daughter, Kalani, is one student who will be staying home and learning virtually. Freeman said that members of her household have health problems and that with no mask mandate, it would be unsafe for her daughter to go to school.

“I feel really upset that we didn’t have a safe choice,” Freeman said. “I feel really upset that our community betrayed us.”

She said her daughter took the news hard: “She cried all the way home and cried all night and cried this morning, knowing she had to go online again.”

—

By JEFF AMY Associated Press

Associated Press writer Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.

from Courthouse News

First Amendment Rights

Here’s something you probably haven’t thought about: Would you go to court to protect your right to pass out bologna sandwiches?

Is the distribution of bologna a religious act or expression protected by the First Amendment? (Insert your own joke here about people spewing baloney.)

You’ve guessed by now that we have litigation about this issue. Members of the New Life Evangelical Center in St. Louis sued after police officers cited them for passing out the sandwiches without a permit.

According to a federal judge’s ruling last week, “The Incident Report stated that Officer Ogunjobi observed Ohnimus handing out prepared sandwiches from a cooler that did not have ice in it.”

That’s one sharp-eyed cop doing his duty.

Bologna can go bad and the city didn’t want the homeless to get sick. Hungry is OK, but not sick.

Imagine for a moment that you’re the lawyer for the evangelicals. When your clients present you with this scenario, shouldn’t your first advice be: “Consider peanut butter?”

Or maybe, “comply with the requirements to make your food safe?”

Maybe the lawyer(s) here did that — I don’t know — but instead we got a lawsuit attacking the city ordinance as interference with religious freedom and expression.

Noted the ruling: “Redlich (one of the plaintiffs) admits that he can communicate his message that God loves the homeless by distributing food other than bologna sandwiches, and there’s nothing about a bologna sandwich in and of itself that can communicate God’s love as opposed to a different kind of sandwich.”

Unless, of course, you’re with the Church of O. Mayer, patron saint of processed meat.

I think what happened here is that someone really likes bologna. Or maybe needs to give it away.

Be that as it may, the dispute, amazingly, produced a 42-page federal court ruling.

Someone may have been bored.

Meanwhile, another federal judge in Oklahoma last week ruled that the First Amendment also fails to protect the right to express yourself by exhibiting animals.

I’m not exactly sure what expression would be, but I suppose caging beasts does express a feeling about animal freedom. The owners of (or at least lawyers for) Tiger King Park in Thackerville, Oklahoma, seemed to be saying this in response to being sued for violating the Endangered Species Act and the Animal Welfare Act.

Yes, it’s that Tiger King Park — the one in the Netflix series.

The court didn’t have any trouble with this one: “Defendants have wholly failed to identify any expressive element in their exhibition of animals.”

They should have put signs on the cages.

Sentence of the week from a Los Angeles Times front-page article about professional wrestling shows with actual audiences in Japan: “But she said she felt far safer about wrestling events than she did about the Olympic Games.”

Sometimes I think all of reality is kayfabe.

from Courthouse News