Links - 10/18/21

https://www.pearlandtx.gov/government/administration/clay-pearson#:~:text=Clay%20Pearson%20%2D%20City%20Manager%20%7C%20City%20of%20Pearland%2C%20TX

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/30/joe-manchin-climate-coal-baron-stocks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_or_Controversy_Clause

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/20-1312

https://www.nrapvf.org/grades/Ohio/

https://www.nrapvf.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waves_of_democracy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Johnson_(politician)

https://www.texastribune.org/directory/ann-johnson/

From the Center for American Progress: Drivers of Authoritarian Populism in the United States

A possible substitute for Democracy? 

- Click here for the article.

The term “populism” is often used broadly to encompass political messages and styles that may be viewed as far beyond the mainstream political consensus or transgressive. However, populism also has a narrower, more precise meaning. It denotes political parties and leaders that are anti-establishment and that divide society into two groups: self-serving elites and good, ordinary people.

Not all populism is intrinsically bad. At times, populist ideas and energies have contributed to the advancement and preservation of liberal democracy. But there are rising tides of exclusionary and authoritarian populism that claim to speak on behalf of the people in contrast to various so-called out-groups: immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, and all those who disagree with the populists’ prescriptions. Furthermore, by labeling themselves as the true voice of the people, these populists stake a claim to a perceived legitimacy in dispensing with constraints imposed on majoritarian decision-making in functioning liberal democracies.

Understood in this way, authoritarian populism is a significant challenge to democratic politics on both sides of the Atlantic. An increasing number of extreme populist politicians are making headway across the world’s established democracies. While their success largely stems from their promises to address various social and economic ills by disrupting traditional forms of political bargaining and compromise, in many cases, it also involves jettisoning hard-won commitments to human dignity and freedoms.

In the United States, the appeal of authoritarian populism has gone hand in hand with a decline of trust in government and a rise in partisan polarization. Increasingly in the United States, the government is seen as unresponsive to citizens’ concerns and captured by well-organized special interests. Voters are also acutely aware of Washington’s growing political dysfunction and the federal government’s inability to “get things done” and respond to the public’s policy preferences. At the ballot box, however, voters often re-enforce the extreme partisanship that contributes to this dysfunction.

Starr Forum: Democracies on the Rocks?

From SciTechDaily: Democracy in Distress? Global Trend of Democratic Governments That Collapse From Within

For your paper, if you want.

- Click here for it. 

When the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, it seemed democracy had triumphed among political systems. But more recently, many democracies have run into a common set of troubles, with authoritarian leaders grasping enough power to create illiberal regimes.

Understanding how this happens was the focus of MIT’s October 23, 2020, Starr Forum (see video below), an online event hosted by the Center for International Studies (CIS) in which a series of experts evaluated the condition of democracy around the globe.

“Democracies do not die the way they used to die,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University, during the virtual event. “Democracies used to die at the hands of men with guns. During the Cold War, three out of every four democratic breakdowns took the form of a classic military coup. … Today democracies die in a much more subtle way. They die at the hands not of generals, but of elected leaders, presidents, prime ministers who use the very institutions of democracy to subvert it.”

Indeed, while in the U.S. democratic difficulties are often expected to create a “constitutional crisis,” this can be an “amorphous term” that fails to address the longer-term political dynamics, noted Susan Hennessey, the executive editor of the Lawfare blog, general counsel of the Lawfare Institute, and a Brookings Fellow in national security law.

“In the United States we often think about it as a discrete precipitating event in which the constitutional order is imperiled and then the constitutional order is restored,” Hennessey said. “The more useful analogy of this moment is constitutional rot. We are unlikely at this point to be faced with a single event that shatters the system. Instead what we’re seeing is a slow erosion over time.”

From Wikipedia: Federal Communications Commission

- Click here for the entry. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction over the areas of broadband access, fair competition, radio frequency use, media responsibility, public safety, and homeland security.[4]

The FCC was formed by the Communications Act of 1934 to replace the radio regulation functions of the Federal Radio Commission. The FCC took over wire communication regulation from the Interstate Commerce Commission. The FCC's mandated jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of the United States. The FCC also provides varied degrees of cooperation, oversight, and leadership for similar communications bodies in other countries of North America. The FCC is funded entirely by regulatory fees. It has an estimated fiscal-2016 budget of US $388 million. It has 1,454 federal employees as of July 2019.

Here are backgrounds of some recent commissioners:

- Tom Wheeler: 

Wheeler was born on April 5, 1946 in Redlands, California. He attended Ohio State University.[7] From 1969 to 1976, Wheeler led the trade group Grocery Manufacturers of America.[8] He then went on to work at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association from 1976 to 1984, becoming president of the trade group in 1979. For a year until its closure, Wheeler was president of NABU Network, before spending a number of years creating or running several different technology startups. In 1992, he became the CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, a post he held until 2004.[9] From 2005 Wheeler was a technology entrepreneur and executive at Core Capital Partners.[10][11]

Originally considered a frontrunner for the position,[12] Wheeler was confirmed as the new Federal Communications Commission chief in November 2013[13] following a confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.[14] Despite a letter written by several prominent former Obama administration officials endorsing Wheeler for the position, many people expressed concern over the consideration of Wheeler for the position due to his history of lobbying for industry.[12]

In recognition of his work in promoting the wireless industry, Wheeler was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2003 and in 2009, as a result of his work in promoting the growth and prosperity of the cable television industry and its stakeholders, was inducted into the Cable Television Hall of Fame.[9][15][16] He is the only person who is a member of both halls of fame.[10] Cablevision magazine named Wheeler one of the 20 most influential individuals in its history during cable's 20th anniversary in 1995.[9]

During Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, Wheeler spent six weeks in Iowa aiding his campaign efforts and went on to raise over US$500,000 for Obama's campaigns.

- Ajit Pai:

After law school, Pai clerked for Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1997 to 1998.[4] Pai then worked for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an Honors Program trial attorney on the Telecommunications Task Force. There, he worked on proposed mergers and acquisitions and on novel requests for regulatory relief following the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Pai left his Department of Justice post in February 2001 to serve as Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., where he handled competition matters, regulatory issues, and counseling of business units on broadband initiatives.[4] Pai left Verizon in April 2003 and was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. He returned to the Department of Justice to serve as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy in May 2004. He held that position until February 2005, when he was hired as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.

Between 2007 and 2011, Pai held several positions in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, serving most prominently as Deputy General Counsel. In this role, he had supervisory responsibility over several dozen lawyers in the Administrative Law Division and worked on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters involving the wireless, wireline, cable, Internet, media, and satellite industries.[4] In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.[4] Pai returned to the private sector in April 2011, working in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Jenner & Block where he was a partner in the Communications Practice.

In 2011, Pai was then nominated for a Republican Party position on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Minority leader Mitch McConnell.[20] He was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a term that concluded on June 30, 2016.[4] Then Pai was designated chairman of the FCC by President Donald Trump in January 2017 for a five-year term.[21] He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the additional five-year term on October 2, 2017

From Wikipedia: Telecommunications policy of the United States

- Click here for the entry. 

For more: 47 U.S. Code Title 47—TELECOMMUNICATIONS.

From Wikipedia: Telecommunications Act of 1996

 For our look at both the media and Congress.

- Click here for the entry.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first significant overhaul of telecommunications law in more than sixty years, amending the Communications Act of 1934. The Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, represented a major change in American telecommunication law, since it was the first time that the Internet was included in broadcasting and spectrum allotment.[1]

According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the goal of the law was to "let anyone enter any communications business – to let any communications business compete in any market against any other."[2] The legislation's primary goal was deregulation of the converging broadcasting and telecommunications markets.[3] However, the law's regulatory policies have been questioned, including the effects of dualistic re-regulation of the communications market.

For UH - terms and concepts from US Chapter: The Media

Media Journalism
Profit Motive
Media Ownership
Media Monopoly
Internet / Social Media
Television
Radio
Newspaper
Broadcast Media
Age Differences in Use of Media
Digital Media
penny press
news aggregators
digital citizen
digital divide
social media
Facebook
Twitter
citizen journalism
pros and cons of online news
fake news
fact checking
media influence
agenda setting
gatekeeping
selection bias
framing
priming
media leaks
adversarial journalism
Federal Communication Commission
regulated media
equal time rule
right of rebuttal

http://flatiswhereitisat.blogspot.com/2006/03/chapter-12-dell-theory-of-conflict.html

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/26/mcdonalds-peace-nagornokarabakh-friedman/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/12/business/global-supply-chain-nightmare/index.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-10-11/supply-chain-disruptions-almost-too-many-reasons-to-count

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/15/texas-greg-abbott-tuition-revenue-bonds/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_Litigation_Reform_Act

https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1983

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/2000cc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Land_Use_and_Institutionalized_Persons_Act

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/21-5592

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-5592/191523/20210907132618678_Cert%20Petition%20filed%20972021.pdf

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-5592/193774/20210927124154545_21-5592acTheUnitedStatesConferenceOfCatholicBishops.pdf

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-5592/193874/20210927183730382_tsac21-5592formerprisonofficials.pdf

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-5592/193872/20210927182906693_21-5592npacUnitedStates.pdf

https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/ramirez-v-collier/

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/13/texas-abbott-patrick-higher-education/

So you want to run for office ...

- Texas Election Code - Title 9 - Candidates.

- Texas Secretary of State's Office - Candidate Information.

- Texas Ethics Commission - Campaign in Texas.

- Harris Votes - Election Division - Candidates and Ethics.

- Harris County Democratic Party - Run for office.

- Harris County Republican Party - Run for office.

Intraparty conflict in Texas

- GOP state Rep. Lyle Larson, who has increasingly broken with his party, won’t seek reelection.

- Mike Collier wants a rematch against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. But first he’s got to beat fellow Democrat Matthew Dowd.

- “It puts a big burden on employers”: Businesses face tough choices after Gov. Greg Abbott bans vaccine mandates.

- Analysis: The 2022 general election is a year away, but many of the issues are already evident.

More Terms and Phrases for UH - TX Chapter 6

legislation that repealed local ordinances
EMILY’s List
soft money.
bribery.
bundling.
measures that are related to civic engagement
policy that is beneficial for their groups
individuals lobbying agencies where they were previously employed
McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
former legislators and government officials
Texas laws dealing with lobbying by former government officials
organizations established to influence the government’s programs and policies
Benefits or incentives are necessary to overcome the free-rider problem
the voice of consumers
interest-group capture occur
government relations
political action committee.
litigating in federal courts
incumbents
issue advocacy
PACs in Texas
Texans for Lawsuit Reform
The Texas Association of Realtors
the largest and most effective public employee interest group in Texas
Dark money
Battleground Texas
The Texas Medical Association
The American Legislative Exchange Council
pluralistic society

Links opened in class - 10/12

 https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=overall

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay#Vietnam_War

https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx

https://www.bsa.org/news-events/media/white-house-proposes-tech-bill-of-rights-to-limit-ai-harms

https://www.equalai.org/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/I-Robot

https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Index.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_v._City_of_Chicago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Lemon

https://www.courthousenews.com/gun-rights-challenge-shot-down-in-maryland/

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1983

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/20-659

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/12/texas-redistricting-doughnut-fort-hood-bell-county/

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/11/texas-greg-abbott-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/

NCSL: How States Define Lobbying and Lobbyist

 https://www.ncsl.org/research/ethics/50-state-chart-lobby-definitions.aspx

The Carousel Pitch from Mad Men Season 1 Episode 13

From the Texas Tribune: Texas Senate passes bill to direct federal relief money to state agencies, hospitals and tourism industry

For our look at fiscal federalism.

- Click here for the article. 

The Texas Senate on Friday advanced its proposal doling about $16 billion in federal coronavirus relief dollars to help shore up people, industries and state agencies that have been financially strained by the pandemic.

The legislation, Senate Bill 8 authored by state Sen. Jane Nelson, a Flower Mound Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, would direct money to state hospitals, food banks and the tourism industry.

It appropriates $7.2 billion to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts for the state’s unemployment compensation fund, which was overloaded last year by record claims. The bill would also provide $3.5 billion to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Texas Department of Public Safety for the salaries and benefits of state employees involved in the pandemic response. Another $2.5 billion would go to the Texas Department of State Health Services to fund items such as local and state hospital surge staffing, the purchasing of therapeutic drugs and regional infusion centers.

The spending proposal, passed unanimously in the Senate, now heads to the lower chamber for consideration. Allocating those federal relief dollars, which the state has under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, was among the items on Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session agenda for the Legislature’s third overtime round of the year. The $1.9 trillion federal bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this year, sent direct payment to millions of Texans and billions of dollars in aid for state and local governments and schools.

For more on the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, click below.

- NCSL.
- Congress.gov.

For our look at Iron Triangles and Issue Networks

House Committee hearings - 10/12/21

Committee on Small Business
- Growing the Small Business Supplier Base in Government Contracting.

U.S. House Committee on Financial Services
- Beyond I, Robot: Ethics, Artificial Intelligence, and the Digital Age.

Committee on Veterans' Affairs
- Violent Domestic Extremist Groups and the Recruitment of Veterans.

More on the Salem Witch Trials - accusations and prosecutions

- Accusations and examinations before local magistrates.

- Formal prosecution: The Court of Oyer and Terminer.

Links 10/11/21

https://www.dallasnews.com/sponsored/2020/09/06/idiots-and-lunatics-state-law-controls-voter-qualification/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_compos_mentis

https://www.statista.com/chart/23444/oting-eligible-population-turnout-by-state/

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/11/texas-abortion-bounty-hunters/

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/GV/htm/GV.305.htm

https://www.hennionandwalsh.com/

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/dem/releases/following-8-month-investigation-senate-judiciary-committee-releases-report-on-donald-trumps-scheme-to-pressure-doj-and-overturn-the-2020-election

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Interim%20Staff%20Report%20FINAL.pdf

From CNN: These states are ditching Columbus Day to observe Indigenous Peoples' Day instead

An example of federalism, among other things.

- Click here for the article. 

Columbus Day has been a political lightning rod for states, cities and municipalities around the US for years now. Some have decided to do something about it.

A number of states have moved to officially observe Indigenous Peoples' Day, or some version of it, instead -- a holiday to recognize the native populations that were displaced and decimated after Christopher Columbus and other European explorers reached the continent.

Most prominently, President Joe Biden became the first US president to issue a proclamation commemorating Indigenous Peoples' Day, writing that Monday was a day on which the country "celebrates the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples, recognizes their inherent sovereignty, and commits to honoring the Federal Government's trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations."

Columbus Day is technically a federal holiday, which means it is recognized by the US government and thus brings the closure of non-essential government offices, and, usually, places like post offices and banks.

From Stanford: What is Democracy?

For your 1000 word essay assignment.

- Click here for the article.

Democracy consists of four basic elements:

I want to begin with an overview of what democracy is. We can think of democracy as a system of government with four key elements:

A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections.

2. The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life.

3. Protection of the human rights of all citizens.

4. A rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.

At least in his opinion. LOL

From Wikipedia: Witchcraft Laws

I've been doing some digging into the Salem Witch Trials. Here's a look at the laws they were based upon. I'll add more history a I come across it.

- Click here for the entry. 

As I read it, the Salem trials appear to have been conducted under those passed in 1604.

In 1604, the year following James I's accession to the English throne, the Elizabethan Act was broadened by Edward Coke and others to bring the penalty of death without benefit of clergy to any one who invoked evil spirits or communed with familiar spirits. The Act's full title was An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits, (1 Ja. I c. 12).[9] It was this statute that was enforced by Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled Witch-Finder General.

Supporters of the Act included the Earl of Northumberland, the Bishop of Lincoln, the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, the Attorney General for England and Wales, the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and the Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

The Acts of Elizabeth and James changed the law of witchcraft by making it a felony, thus removing the accused from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts to the courts of common law. This provided, at least, that the accused persons theoretically enjoyed the benefits of ordinary criminal procedure. Burning at the stake was eliminated except in cases of witchcraft that were also petty treason; most convicted were hanged instead. Any witch who had committed a minor witchcraft offence (punishable by one year in prison) and was accused and found guilty a second time was sentenced to death.

From The Week: The myth of civic education

Interesting take

- Click here for the article.  

Civic education is hot again.

In the last year, several states have introduced programs to encourage political literacy. Meanwhile, a panel of centrist scholars proposed an elaborate "roadmap" for teaching American history and government from K to 12. Rival blueprints were developed on the political right, while in higher education, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels issued a call to academic arms in the pages of The Atlantic (which he expands in a forthcoming book). Other plans are sure to follow.

This revival of interest in civics textbooks and instructional styles follows a familiar script. Decades ago, fears of civic ignorance provoked an early outbreak of the culture war. This time, the coincidence of an iconoclastic racial justice movement and conspiracist populism have provoked recurring fears of national dissolution. If only schools and universities cultivated a shared understanding of our past and principles, the thinking goes, we might find it easier to resolve our differences here and now. That's an appealing idea. But it's probably wrong.

Some terms for UH - US Chapter 11

Issue Networks
Iron Triangles
Super PACs
Lobbying Congress and the executive branch
Litigation
going public
protests
free rider problem
selective benefits
ideological groups
material benefits
NAACP
ACLU
AARP
collective goods
public goods
private goods
business interests
FECA of 1971
registered lobbyists
PAC contributions
financial resources
Citizens United v FEC
Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002
Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995
Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1990
Administrative Procedure Act of 1946
1946 Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Inch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush

http://brazoriademocrats.com/

https://brazoriagop.org/

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/07/texas-lawmakers/

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/07/texas-senate-reelection-kel-seliger/

The Lynching of Henry 'Peg' Gilbert

Ex-Slave George Johnson | "Confederate President Jefferson Davis was my ...

Farmer Born in 1842 Talks About Life and Change: Filmed in 1929

Links 10/7/21

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-1/the-government-speech-doctrine

https://www.pearlandisd.org/Page/165

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censure_in_the_United_States

https://www.justex.net/

https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/about-the-court/fifth-circuit-judges

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_suit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Compromise

From The Texas Tribune: Ted Cruz's challenge to campaign finance reimbursement law reaches Supreme Court

More effort to expand spending on campaigns.

- Click here for the article.

Sen. Ted Cruz’s challenge to a federal election law limiting how candidates can recoup loans they make to their own campaigns has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high court on Thursday added Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate, et al. to its docket. If the justices affirm lower courts’ rulings in favor of the Texas Republican, the case would mark another conservative legal victory striking down campaign spending limits under the First Amendment.

Under a 2002 federal law, no more than $250,000 in contributions collected after an election may be used to repay a candidate’s loans to their campaign. But the day before the 2018 election, in which Cruz was locked in a close battle with then-U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Cruz loaned his campaign $260,000.

In a motion filed Aug. 6, Cruz’s lawyers argued the law deters candidates from loaning money to their campaigns by restricting their ability to get it back.

“To be sure, the loans may still be repaid in full with funds raised prior to the election, but there can be no question that Section 304’s limit—by substantially increasing the risk that any candidate loan will never be fully repaid—forces a candidate to think twice before making those loans in the first place,” they wrote.

Members of Congress passed the law in part to prevent the appearance of quid pro quo corruption when a recently elected member of Congress is collecting contributions that would be repaid to the member’s personal funds. But Judge Neomi Rao, appointed by former President Donald Trump to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote the government did not prove how it achieves that goal.

“Because the government has failed to demonstrate that the loan-repayment limit serves an interest in preventing quid pro quo corruption, or that the limit is sufficiently tailored to serve this purpose, the loan repayment limit runs afoul of the First Amendment,” Rao wrote for the three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

For more:

Scotusblog: Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate.

The code at issue: 52 U.S.C. § 30116.

Texas abortion law is temporarily blocked by a federal judge — but it’s unclear if that means procedures will now resume

A federal court judge blocksa ...

- Click here for the article. 

A federal judge temporarily blocked Texas’ near-total abortion ban Wednesday as part of a lawsuit the Biden administration launched against the state over its new law that bars abortions as early as six weeks of pregnancy.

But it’s unclear how U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman’s order may affect access to abortions in the state — or if it will at all. The state of Texas quickly filed a notice of appeal and will almost definitely seek an emergency stay of Pitman's order in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is known as perhaps the nation’s most conservative appellate court.

In a press release, the ACLU of Texas pointed to the uncertainty on how Wednesday's order and the state's appeal will affect procedures in the state.

The 5th Circuit Court reinstates it ...

- Click here for the article.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Friday temporarily allowed Texas’ near-total abortion ban — the strictest in the nation — to again be enforced after freezing a federal judge’s temporary block of the law. The state appealed the order just two days after it was issued.

A panel of 5th Circuit justices restored enforcement of the law hours after Texas asked the court to step into a lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department filed against the state. Enforcement of the law will be allowed to continue until at least Tuesday, when a response from the Justice Department is due. After the court considers arguments from both sides, the court can decide whether to continue allowing enforcement of the law or allow a lower court to once again temporarily block it.

The court would not be determining the overall case’s outcome at this point — but it would decide whether the law could continue to stand while court proceedings unfold.

No word yet on the Supreme Court.

Miscellaneous Texas election links

- Texas Constitution - Article 6: Suffrage.

- Texas Statutes - Election Code.

- Texas Secretary of State.

- Harris County Elections Division.

- Harris County Voting Precincts.

Proposed Amendments to theTexas Constitution

For class discussion.

How to find them online: 

- Legislative Reference Library of Texas.

- Constitutional Amendments.

- HRO: Constitutional Amendments.

- TLC: Analyses of Proposed Constitutional Amendments.

From Ballotpedia: Fundraising in Texas state legislative elections, 2020

For our look at campaign finance.

- Click here for the entry. 

Early Localization Native Americans USA

 

From Scotusblog: Houston Community College System v. Wilson

- Click here for the page. 

And for our look at interest group activity in the courts, click on the following links to friend of the court briefs from the following groups.

- THE TEXAS ASSOCIATIONOF SCHOOL BOARDS LEGAL ASSISTANCEFUND.

- Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

- THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION,INSTITUTE FOR FREE SPEECH, ANDTHE RUTHERFORD INSTITUTE.

- AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE.

Texas prosecutor drops charges after migrants claim they were marched to private property, then arrested for trespassing

 https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/05/texas-migrants-arrest-charges-dropped/

- Taft–Hartley Act of 1947.

- Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.

- Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974

- Federal Election Commission.

- Buckley v Valeo (1976)

- Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002

- McConnell v. FEC (2003)

- FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007)

- Citizens United v. FEC (2010)

From The Center for Public Integrity: A MODERN HISTORY OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE: FROM WATERGATE TO ‘CITIZENS UNITED

- Click here for it. 

Trends in Campaign Spending

This is for Virginia, but it probably applies elsewhere. Click here for the source.

From Open Secrets: Elections Overview

For a look at spending totals, click here.

From the The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.: Offshore havens and hidden riches of world leaders and billionaires exposed in unprecedented leak

For our look at political elites and the media.

- Click here for the article.

Millions of leaked documents and the biggest journalism partnership in history have uncovered financial secrets of 35 current and former world leaders, more than 330 politicians and public officials in 91 countries and territories, and a global lineup of fugitives, con artists and murderers.

The secret documents expose offshore dealings of the King of Jordan, the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, the prime minister of the Czech Republic and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The files also detail financial activities of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “unofficial minister of propaganda” and more than 130 billionaires from Russia, the United States, Turkey and other nations.

The leaked records reveal that many of the power players who could help bring an end to the offshore system instead benefit from it – stashing assets in covert companies and trusts while their governments do little to slow a global stream of illicit money that enriches criminals and impoverishes nations.

For more on the The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, click here.

For their website, click here.

For more on offshore finance, click here.

Houston Community College System v. Wilson

A local free speech case involving a single purpose government. 

From ScotusBlog, click here. 

From Oyez, click here.

Facts of the case

The Houston Community College (HCC) System operates community colleges throughout the greater Houston area. HCC is run by a Board of nine trustees, each of which is elected by the public to serve a six-year term without remuneration. David Wilson was elected to the Board as a trustee on November 5, 2013. Starting in 2017, Wilson criticized the other trustees, alleging that they had violated the Board’s bylaws, and made various other criticisms of the Board. As a result, the Board censured Wilson and barred him from holding officer positions on the Board or from receiving travel reimbursements.

Wilson sued HCC, alleging that the censure violated his First Amendment right to free speech. The district court ruled against him, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed. In holding for Wilson, the Fifth Circuit concluded that the First Amendment precludes community college boards from censuring members for their speech.

Question

Does the First Amendment restrict the authority of an elected body to issue a censure resolution in response to a member’s speech?

From the Hill: Alabama clears plan to use COVID-19 relief funds to build prisons

I thin this fits under new federalism.

- Click here for the article. 

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on Friday signed legislation enabling the state to use COVID-19 relief funds to build prisons.

“Folks, this is a pivotal moment for the trajectory of our state’s criminal justice system,” Ivey said during an event where she signed bills enabling the state to use the funds.

“Let me be clear, while more reform of the system can and does need to be addressed in the future — and I am committed to that as are many legislators — today’s bill signing on the construction part of this issue is a major step forward,” Ivey continued.

The legislature opened a special session on Monday to consider a $1.3 billion construction plan to build three new prisons and renovate others. Of the funding, the state would use $400 million of its allocation from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to partially finance the projects.

The legislature passed two bills on Friday allowing the state to move forward with the plan, according to The Associated Press.

Ivey’s plan drew backlash from Democrats, who say that the coronavirus relief funds were not meant for prison reforms.

Rep. Teri Sewell (D-Ala.) said she was “deeply disturbed” by the legislature’s plan.

Links - 10/5/21

bis.org/publ/econ32.htm

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=billrates

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_debt_ceiling

https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-markets-financial-institutions-and-fiscal-service/debt-limit

https://www.alvinisd.net/Page/15605

https://www.alvinisd.net/Page/4636

https://www.alvinisd.net/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=5716&ViewID=7b97f7ed-8e5e-4120-848f-a8b4987d588f&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=48838&PageID=5189

https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-federal-budget-breakdown-3305789#:~:text=In%20May%202021%2C%20President%20Joe,%2C%20through%20September%2030%2C%202022.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Pinto_County,_Texas

https://redistricting.capitol.texas.gov/publications

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/04/texas-supreme-court-abortion-lawsuit/

https://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/27/analysis-2016-could-see-voter-turnout-spike/

https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization/

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021

https://ballotpedia.org/Texas_Supreme_Court

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_delegations_from_Texas

https://dvr.capitol.texas.gov/Congress/0/PLANC2101

 

United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas

George Washington's Farewell Address

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington%27s_Farewell_Address

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/04/karankawa-corpus-christi-texas-artifacts/

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/04/texas-redistricting-racial-representation/

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/04/texas-redistricting-tarrant-county/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karankawa_people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvar_N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez_Cabeza_de_Vaca

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/jones-creek-battle-of

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/bailey-james-briton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Worth,_Texas#History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenback_Party

Historical Election Results

- United States Presidential Election Results.

- Party Divisions of the House of Representatives, 1789 to Present.

- History of Congressional Elections.

- Party divisions of United States Congresses.

- Electing the House of Representatives.

 https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/01/texas-election-official-hood/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hood_County,_Texas

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-counties/states/tx

https://www.google.com/search?q=us+house+of+representatives+districts&rlz=1C1GCEB_enUS972US973&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBjs-J2anzAhUQk2oFHS4WCOkQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1536&bih=754&dpr=1.25#imgrc=-gGRKPr5PVytjM"

https://www.google.com/search?q=2020+federal+government+budget&rlz=1C1GCEB_enUS972US973&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQqOeY0KnzAhW7kmoFHS8HAMYQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1536&bih=754&dpr=1.25#imgrc=QGMaXtFOOcGzsM

https://transportation.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/assessing-the-federal-governments-covid-19-relief-and-response-efforts-and-its-impact_part-ii

https://www.apta.com/advocacy-legislation-policy/

https://www.iaem.org/History-of-IAEM

https://ttd.org/

https://www.houstontx.gov/council/

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3684

https://www.alvinisd.net/cms/lib03/TX01001897/Centricity/Domain/289/SBAC%20General%2011-9-15.pdf

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-11/suits-against-states

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Pitman

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/30/texas-abortion-law-legal-challenges/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Western_District_of_Texas

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/tobacco-in-colonial-virginia/

https://www.alvin-tx.gov/upload/page/0041/docs/Council_Districts_2012.pdf

Policies and Problems of the Confederation Government

- Click here for it. 

Dispossessing Loyalists and Redistributing Property in Revolutionary New York

- Click here for it.

Background on the authors of the Federalist Papers

All from Wikipedia

- James Madison:

James Madison, Jr. was born on March 16, 1751 (March 5, 1750) Old Style) at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway in the Colony of Virginia, to James Madison Sr. and Nelly Conway Madison. His family had lived in Virginia since the mid-1600s.[1] Madison grew up as the oldest of twelve children,[2] with seven brothers and four sisters, though only six lived to adulthood.[3] His father was a tobacco planter who grew up on a plantation, then called Mount Pleasant, which he had inherited upon reaching adulthood. With an estimated 100 slaves[1] and a 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) plantation, Madison's father was the largest landowner and a leading citizen in the Piedmont. Madison's maternal grandfather was a prominent planter and tobacco merchant.[4] In the early 1760s, the Madison family moved into a newly built house that they named Montpelier.

- Alexander Hamilton:

Hamilton became a clerk at Beekman and Cruger, a local import-export firm that traded with New York and New England.[24] He and James Jr. were briefly taken in by their cousin Peter Lytton; however, Lytton took his own life in July 1769, leaving his property to his mistress and their son, and the Hamilton brothers were subsequently separated.[23] James apprenticed with a local carpenter, while Alexander was given a home by Nevis merchant Thomas Stevens.[25] Some clues have led to speculation that Stevens was Alexander Hamilton's biological father: his son Edward Stevens became a close friend of Hamilton, the two boys were described as looking much alike, both were fluent in French and shared similar interests.[23] However, this allegation, mostly based on the comments of Timothy Pickering on the resemblance between the two men, has always been vague and unsupported.[26] Rachel Faucette had been living on St. Kitts and Nevis for years at the time when Alexander was conceived, while Thomas Stevens lived on Antigua and St. Croix; also, James Hamilton never disclaimed paternity, and even in later years, signed his letters to Hamilton with "Your very Affectionate Father."[27][28]

Hamilton, despite being only in his teenage years, proved capable enough as a trader to be left in charge of the firm for five months in 1771 while the owner was at sea.[29] He remained an avid reader and later developed an interest in writing. He began to desire a life outside the island where he lived. He wrote a letter to his father that was a detailed account of a hurricane that had devastated Christiansted on August 30, 1772. The Presbyterian Reverend Hugh Knox, a tutor and mentor to Hamilton, submitted the letter for publication in the Royal Danish-American Gazette. The biographer Ron Chernow found the letter astounding for two reasons; first, that "for all its bombastic excesses, it does seem wondrous [that a] self-educated clerk could write with such verve and gusto," and second, that a teenage boy produced an apocalyptic "fire-and-brimstone sermon" viewing the hurricane as a "divine rebuke to human vanity and pomposity."[30] The essay impressed community leaders, who collected a fund to send Hamilton to the North American colonies for his education.

- John Jay:

The Jays were a prominent merchant family in New York City, descended from Huguenots who had come to New York to escape religious persecution in France. In 1685, the Edict of Nantes had been revoked, thereby abolishing the rights of Protestants, and the French Crown proceeded to confiscate their property. Among those affected was Jay's paternal grandfather, Auguste Jay. He moved from France to Charleston, South Carolina and then New York, where he built a successful merchant empire.[2] Jay's father, Peter Jay, born in New York City in 1704, became a wealthy trader in furs, wheat, timber, and other commodities.[3]

Jay's mother was Mary Van Cortlandt, of Dutch ancestry, who had married Peter Jay in 1728 in the Dutch Church.[3] They had ten children together, seven of whom survived into adulthood.[4] Mary's father, Jacobus Van Cortlandt, was born in New Amsterdam in 1658. Cortlandt served in the New York Assembly, was twice elected as mayor of New York City, and also held a variety of judicial and military offices. Both Mary and his son Frederick Cortlandt married into the Jay family.

Jay was born on December 23, 1745 (following the Gregorian calendar, December 12 following the Julian calendar), in New York City; three months later the family moved to Rye, New York. Peter Jay had retired from business following a smallpox epidemic; two of his children contracted the disease and suffered blindness.

From the Texas Tribune: How much Texas gets from multistate, $26 billion opioid settlement hinges on how many local governments sign on

More state / local conflict in the state.

- Click here for the article. 

The state's top lawyer is pressing local governments to join a multibillion-dollar legal settlement that would partially fund responses to the opioid epidemic, but also protect drug companies from future lawsuits.

In July, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that Texas had joined a $26 billion, multistate opioid settlement with the country’s three major drug distributors — McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen — as well as drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. The agreement could yield the state and many of its local governments up to $1.5 billion.

The distributors, which are supposed to monitor prescription drug shipments, are accused in hundreds of lawsuits of turning a blind eye while pharmacies across the country ordered millions of pills for people over the last two decades. Johnson & Johnson is accused of downplaying the addictive properties of its opioid products to doctors as well as patients.

From 1999 to 2019, nearly half a million people died from overdoses involving opioids, including prescription drugs and illegal street opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, opioid overdose deaths hit a record high of more than 93,000. All four companies participating in the settlement have denied wrongdoing.

“We recognize the opioid crisis is a tremendously complex public health issue, and we have deep sympathy for everyone affected. This settlement will directly support state and local efforts to make meaningful progress in addressing the opioid crisis in the United States,” Michael Ullmann, executive vice president and general counsel for Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement after the settlement agreement.

From the Texas Tribune: Matthew Dowd, former George W. Bush strategist, to run as Democrat for Texas lieutenant governor

Hints of a possible realignment in the state?

- Click here for the article. 

Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for George W. Bush’s presidential reelection campaign who later split with the former president publicly, is running for lieutenant governor as a Democrat.

Dowd also has worked for Bob Bullock, who in 1994 was the last Democrat elected as Texas lieutenant governor, and faces an uphill battle to unseat Republican Dan Patrick, the state’s second-highest-ranking official who has steered Texas politics into the far-right fringes of the GOP.

In a two-and-a-half minute campaign announcement video, Dowd said GOP politicians have failed the state, zeroing in on Patrick, who he called “cruel and craven” and denounced as a divisive figure who puts his political ambitions over the needs of everyday Texans.

From the Texas Tribune: Days after disclosing election “audits” in four Texas counties, secretary of state’s office gives some details of their scope

- Click here for the article.

In the five days since the Texas secretary of state’s office announced it is auditing the 2020 general election in four counties, local officials indicated they were in the dark about what the reviews would entail.

Now, they’ve learned they cover some of the standard post-election procedures local officials are already required to undertake.

On Tuesday night, the state agency that oversees elections offered the first glimpse of what it has dubbed a “full forensic audit” of the election in Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties, but it appears the scope of the effort may be more limited than what the term may suggest. The secretary of state's documentation explaining the parameters of the reviews notes the first phase includes partial manual counts of ballots and security assessments, which all counties are already required to undergo.

The second phase, which is slated for “spring 2022,” will be an examination of election records “to ensure election administration procedures were properly followed.” That includes reviews of records of voting machine accuracy tests, rosters for early voting, forms detailing chain of custody for sealed ballot boxes and other election materials maintained by the counties.

But the secretary of state also indicates it will review records that counties already provide to the office, including the “reasonable impediment declarations” filled out by voters who indicate they lack one of the photo IDs the state requires voters to present to cast a ballot.

The reviews were announced last week hours after former President Donald Trump pressed Gov. Greg Abbott to add a “Forensic Audit of the 2020 Election” to the agenda for the ongoing special legislative session. The ask served as a continuation of his baseless effort to cast doubts on the outcome of the election despite no evidence of widespread fraud — as well as his victory in the state.

Dowd for Texas Announcement

 https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/29/matthew-dowd-texas-lieutenant-governor/

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/29/texas-opioid-settlement-cities-counties/

https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Gramm#Early_life_and_university_career

https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1997/jun/15/pro-se-tips-and-tactics-declaratory-relief/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison#Early_life_and_education

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divide%20and%20conquer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide_and_rule#:~:text=During%20the%20Gallic%20Wars%2C%20Caesar,tactic%20to%20counter%20the%20rebels.

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Divide_and_rule

http://proximityone.com/images1/sbisdelpcthisp.gif

http://proximityone.com/sd/1/sd1954841100.htm

http://proximityone.com/aad_48_41100.htm

https://www.divorcereality.com/houston-area-school-districts/

https://www.springbranchisd.com/about/board-of-trustees/elections/current-elections

https://www.txs.uscourts.gov/page/address-hours-phone-information

From ABC13: Spring Branch ISD has never elected a minority to its school board, lawsuit aims to change that

An example of federalism, voting rights, and the 14th Amendment, among other things.

- Click here for the story. 

Every parent wants the best education for their child, and in Spring Branch ISD, that desire for whatever defines "the best," has frothed into a battle being waged in the courtroom, in front lawns, and at school board meetings.

Allegations of racism, classism and elitism are typed up in court documents and flash across phones in GroupMe chats.

The unofficial dividing line for the two sides: I-10 running through the district.

With two boys in the district, Carla Cooper-Molano has seen the battle scars, and she wants someone on the school board who represents her family living north of I-10.

"If I communicate to the board, these are my needs, this is what I need, this is what my community at school needs, they are drowned by a much larger vested interest from the south," said Cooper-Molano.

Cooper-Molano said the majority of SBISD students come from lower-income, working-class families, whose struggles range from paying rent to buying school supplies, to putting food on the table every night.

The disconnect comes when you look at the makeup of the current SBISD school board. According to a recently filed federal civil rights lawsuit, the majority of SBISD's board members live south of I-10, in more affluent and less diverse neighborhoods. In fact, a person of color has never won a seat on the school board. According to the district's own data, SBISD's student body is 59% Hispanic, and 27% white.

Let's walk through the lawsuit in class.

- Click here for it.

District Population Analysis with County Subtotals

For detail on each of the proposed districts: 

- Click here. 

The proposed map for the new Texas congressional districts

 

Compare this with the current map: 

Catching up on redistricting in Texas - 9/28

All From the Texas Tribune: 

- Texas reduces Black and Hispanic majority congressional districts in proposed map, despite people of color fueling population growth.

- Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher is about to find out how badly Texas Republicans want her out of Congress.

- After losing to a Democrat in 2020, former GOP state Sen. Pete Flores seeks election in newly drawn Republican district.

- GOP state Rep. Phil King announces he'll run for new Republican-friendly Senate seat held by Democrat Beverly Powell.

From Harris Votes: The 2021 Sample Ballot

- Click here for it.

Links 9/27/21

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act

https://www.restoringjustice.org/

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CR/pdf/CR.11.pdf

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/cn/htm/cn.1.htm

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/27/texas-border-migrants-jail/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_members_of_the_United_States_Congress_by_wealth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Rio,_Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_Verde_County,_Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinney_County,_Texas

https://www.trla.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_peasant_revolts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_members_of_the_United_States_Congress_by_wealth

From the Texas Legislative Reference Library: Analyses of Proposed Constitutional Amendments

- Click here for it. 

Political Eras and Critical Elections

Wikipedia: Political eras of the United States.

Wikipedia: Political realignment.

- A Theory of Critical Elections.

Federalist 10

- For review in class. 

From History,com: How Coffee Fueled Revolutions—And Revolutionary Ideas

- Click here for it. 

Sultan Murad IV decreed death to coffee drinkers in the Ottoman Empire. King Charles II dispatched spies to infiltrate London’s coffeehouses, which he saw as the original source of “false news.” During the Enlightenment, Voltaire, Rousseau and Isaac Newton could all be found talking philosophy over coffee. The cafés of Paris sheltered revolutionaries plotting the storming of the Bastille and later, served as the place authors like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre plotted their latest books.

. . . Pasqua Rosée opened the first coffee house in London in 1652, prompting a revolution in London society. “British culture was intensely hierarchical and structured. The idea that you could go and sit next to someone as an equal was radical,” says Markman Ellis, author of The Coffee House: A Cultural History. The defining feature of English coffee houses were communal tables covered with newspapers and pamphlets where guests would gather to consume, discuss and even write the news. “Coffeehouses were the motor of the news industry in 18th-century London,” Ellis explains.

King Charles II’s father, Charles I, had been decapitated during the English Civil War, so he was understandably paranoid about his subjects gathering to talk politics. On June 12, 1672, Charles II issued a proclamation to “Restrain the Spreading of False News, and Licentious Talking of Matters of State and Government,” which read in part: “men have assumed to themselves a liberty, not onely in Coffee-houses, but in other Places and Meetings, both public and private, to censure and defame the proceedings of State by speaking evil of things they understand not."

The Origins of the Doctrine of Sedition

- Click here if interested. 

From Wikipedia: Alien and Sedition Acts

The first step to a legal two party system.

- Click here for the entry. 

The Alien and Sedition Acts were four acts passed by the Federalist-dominated 5th United States Congress and signed into law by President John Adams in 1798.[1][a] They made it harder for an immigrant to become a citizen (Naturalization Act), allowed the president to imprison and deport non-citizens who were deemed dangerous ("An Act Concerning Aliens", also known as the "Alien Friends Act" of 1798)[2] or who were from a hostile nation ("Alien Enemy Act" of 1798),[3] and criminalized making 'false statements' critical of the federal government ("Sedition Act" of 1798).[4] The "Alien Friends Act" expired two years after its passage, and the "Sedition Act" expired on 3 March 1801, while the "Naturalization Act" and "Alien Enemies Act" had no expiration clause.

The Federalists argued that the bills strengthened national security during the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war with France from 1798 to 1800. Critics argued that they were primarily an attempt to suppress voters who disagreed with the Federalist party and its teachings, and violated the right of freedom of speech in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[5]

The Naturalization Act increased the residency requirement for American citizenship from five to fourteen years. At the time, the majority of immigrants supported Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans, the political opponents of the Federalists.[1] The Alien Friends Act allowed the president to imprison or deport aliens considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States" at any time, while the Alien Enemies Act authorized the president to do the same to any male citizen of a hostile nation above the age of fourteen during times of war. Lastly, the controversial Sedition Act restricted speech that was critical of the federal government. Under the Sedition Act, the Federalists allowed people who were accused of violating the sedition laws to use truth as a defense.[6] The Sedition Act resulted in the prosecution and conviction of many Jeffersonian newspaper owners who disagreed with the government.[6]

The acts were denounced by Democratic-Republicans and ultimately helped them to victory in the 1800 election, when Thomas Jefferson defeated the incumbent, President Adams. The Sedition Act and the Alien Friends Act were allowed to expire in 1800 and 1801, respectively. The Alien Enemies Act, however, remains in effect as Chapter 3; Sections 21–24 of Title 50 of the United States Code.[7] It was used by the government to identify and imprison allegedly "dangerous enemy" aliens from Germany, Japan, and Italy in World War II. (This was separate from the Japanese internment camps used to remove people of Japanese descent from the West Coast.) After the war they were deported to their home countries. In 1948 the Supreme Court determined that presidential powers under the acts continued after cessation of hostilities until there was a peace treaty with the hostile nation. The revised Alien Enemies Act remains in effect today.

From the Legislative Information Institute: Right of Association

- Click here. 

“It is beyond debate that freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the ‘liberty’ assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which embraces freedom of speech. . . . Of course, it is immaterial whether the beliefs sought to be advanced by association pertain to political, economic, religious or cultural matters, and state action which may have the effect of curtailing the freedom to associate is subject to the closest scrutiny.”601 It appears from the Court’s opinions that the right of association is derivative from the First Amendment guarantees of speech, assembly, and petition,602 although it has at times been referred to as an independent freedom protected by the First Amendment.603 The doctrine is a fairly recent construction, the problems associated with it having previously arisen primarily in the context of loyalty-security investigations of Communist Party membership, and these cases having been resolved without giving rise to any separate theory of association.604

Freedom of association as a concept thus grew out of a series of cases in the 1950s and 1960s in which certain states were attempting to curb the activities of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In the first case, the Court unanimously set aside a contempt citation imposed after the organization refused to comply with a court order to produce a list of its members within the state. “Effective advocacy of both public and private points of view, particularly controversial ones, is undeniably enhanced by group association, as this Court has more than once recognized by remarking upon the close nexus between the freedoms of speech and assembly.”605 “[T]hese indispensable liberties, whether of speech, press, or association,”606 may be abridged by governmental action either directly or indirectly, wrote Justice Harlan, and the state had failed to demonstrate a need for the lists which would outweigh the harm to associational rights which disclosure would produce.

Applying the concept in subsequent cases, the Court, in Bates v. City of Little Rock,607 again held that the disclosure of membership lists, because of the harm to “the right of association,” could be compelled only upon a showing of a subordinating interest; ruled in Shelton v. Tucker608 that, though a state had a broad interest to inquire into the fitness of its school teachers, that interest did not justify a regulation requiring all teachers to list all organizations to which they had belonged within the previous five years; again struck down an effort to compel membership lists from the NAACP;609 and overturned a state court order barring the NAACP from doing any business within the state because of alleged improprieties.610 Certain of the activities condemned in the latter case, the Court said, were protected by the First Amendment and, though other actions might not have been, the state could not infringe on the “right of association” by ousting the organization altogether.

From the Constitution Center: Right to Assemble and Petition

- Click here for it. 

Assembly

Assembly is the only right in the First Amendment that requires more than a lone individual for its exercise. One can speak alone; one cannot assemble alone. Moreover, while some assemblies occur spontaneously, most do not. For this reason, the assembly right extends to preparatory activity leading up to the physical act of assembling, protections later recognized by the Supreme Court as a distinct “right of association,” which does not appear in the text of the First Amendment.

The right of assembly often involves non-verbal communication (including the message conveyed by the very existence of the group). A demonstration, picket-line, or parade conveys more than the words on a placard or the chants of the crowd. Assembly is, moreover, truly “free,” since it allows individuals to engage in mass communication powered solely by “sweat equity.”

The right to assemble has been a crucial legal and cultural protection for dissenting and unorthodox groups. The Democratic-Republican Societies, suffragists, abolitionists, religious organizations, labor activists, and civil rights groups have all invoked the right to assemble in protest against prevailing norms. When the Supreme Court extended the right of assembly beyond the federal government to the states in its unanimous 1937 decision, De Jonge v. Oregon, it recognized that “the right of peaceable assembly is a right cognate to those of free speech and free press and is equally fundamental.”

Petition

The right to “petition the Government for redress of grievances” is among the oldest in our legal heritage, dating back 800 years to the Magna Carta, and receiving explicit protection in the English Bill of Rights of 1689, long before the American Revolution. Ironically, the modern Supreme Court has all but read the venerable right to petition out of the Bill of Rights, effectively holding that it has been rendered obsolete by an expanding Free Speech Clause. As with assembly, however, the right to petition is not simply an afterthought to the Free Speech Clause.

The right to petition plays an important role in American history. The Declaration of Independence justified the American Revolution by noting that King George III had repeatedly ignored petitions for redress of the colonists’ grievances. Legislatures in the Revolutionary period and long into the nineteenth century deemed themselves duty-bound to consider and respond to petitions, which could be filed not only by eligible voters but also by women, slaves, and aliens. John Quincy Adams, after being defeated for a second term as President, was elected to the House of Representatives where he provoked a near riot on the House floor by presenting petitions from slaves seeking their freedom. The House leadership responded by imposing a “gag rule” limiting petitions, which was repudiated as unconstitutional by the House in 1844.

One of the risks of representative democracy is that elected officials may favor the narrow partisan interests of their most powerful supporters, or choose to advance their own personal interests instead of viewing themselves as faithful agents of their constituents. A robust right to petition is designed to minimize such risks. By being forced to acknowledge and respond to petitions from ordinary persons, officials become better informed and must openly defend their positions, enabling voters to pass a more informed judgment.