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Caught in a time loop

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Caught in a time loop

Sep 16, 2022 | 8:00 pm ET
By Clay Wirestone
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The U.S. Supreme Court, which remains unchanged during all incarnations of the time loop. No one knows why, but they suspect Elana Kagan is a secret master of time magic. (Susan J. Demas)

On the days I’m lucky enough to fill in for the inestimable Kate Queram on this very newsletter, I’ve developed something of a morning routine. I head over to News from The States site while sipping my (extremely healthy) Diet Coke and suss out connections between recent stories.

Today, however, I found myself wondering time and again: Didn’t we do this already?

Then it struck me. Like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day,” like Tom Cruise in “Edge of Tomorrow,” we’re all stuck in a time loop. Whether we want it or not, we’re seeing familiar political and social battles fought again and again.

The Big Takeaway

On the days I’m lucky enough to fill in for the inestimable Kate Queram on this very newsletter … shoot! Broke out of a newsletter time loop just there.

Let’s start with the Michigan Advance headline: “Experts warn of anti-democratic peril from upcoming SCOTUS case.” And which Supreme Court case might that be? The one where justices cleared unlimited corporate spending on elections? The one where they decided that most gerrymandering was A-OK? How about the one where they took an ax to the Voting Rights Act?

Nope! Those were all previous rounds of the time loop.

The U.S. Supreme Court, which remains unchanged during all incarnations of the time loop. No one knows why, but they suspect Elana Kagan is a secret master of time magic. (Susan J. Demas)
The U.S. Supreme Court, which remains unchanged during all incarnations of the time loop. No one knows why, but they suspect Elana Kagan is a secret master of time magic. (Susan J. Demas)

Today we’re looking at the previously fringe Independent State Legislature Doctrine, which holds that “legis­latures are the sole state entity that can regu­late federal elec­tions, and as such can overrule state courts, and even state consti­tu­tions, on such matters.”

Experts quoted in the article raised alarm about the case, which ostensibly centers on North Carolina’s congressional redistricting. If state legislatures truly have untrammeled power to set election law, what would prevent them from, say, overruling presidential results?

“This case is about whether the Supreme Court is going to continue to reinforce the system of checks and balances that has existed in this country since it’s beginning centuries ago, or whether it’s going to initiate a new rule that says for the first time that state legislators only get to decide what the rules for federal elections are,” said the Brennan Center for Justice’s Deputy Director of Democracy Tom Wolf.

Clearly nothing to worry about, then.

Over to the east in Maine, a new poll shows that incumbent Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has a healthy 49.2% to 38.3% lead over her GOP challenger, Paul LePage. And if those names look familiar, blame the time loop.

LePage, a bombastic conservative who laid the track for Donald Trump’s campaign, ran and won in 2010 and 2014 before term limits forced him to take a time out. But he’s back!

So, for that matter, is a statewide debate over abortion rights. And just as we’ve seen in other places (cough, Kansas, cough), it turns out they’re pretty popular! “On the question of abortion, 60% of respondents said they disagreed with the court striking down Roe v. Wade, which opened the door to some states (but not Maine) banning abortion,” reports Maine Beacon.

Finally, we head up north for another attack of deja vu, as Alaska candidates for the U.S. House debated one-time vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s rhetoric about a “bridge to nowhere.” One of those candidates happens to be Palin herself, the Alaska Beacon reported.

“When you mention Sarah Palin, it’s the first thing people think about … It’s synonymous,” said Jeremy Bynum, a member of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough and candidate for state House, about the bridge. 

More cycling around and around from the time loop file: Ohio chief justice: ‘We do not have a Constitution that will end gerrymandering’‘Waiting for the test case’: lawyers say prosecutions inevitable under Tennessee abortion ban (Arizona) Lawsuit alleges True the Vote hacked data(Maryland) Debate-hungry challengers accuse Reps. Harris, Sarbanes of avoiding tough questions

Also Trending

On the days I’m lucky enough to fill in for the inestimable Kate Queram on this very newsletter, I’ve developed something of a – dang, it happened again, didn’t it?

Our shared time loop has persisted into the backup section of this newsletter, where I’ll point out that transgender folks and their families are still fighting for basic recognition and respect from state governments. In Florida, the Florida Phoenix tells us, they’ve stepped up to file a lawsuit against a new state rule, “which bans coverage for gender-affirming health care for transgender and non-binary Floridians who receive their health insurance through Medicaid. The rule could force as many as 9,000 transgender Medicaid beneficiaries to forego medical care that their doctors have prescribed as medically necessary treatment, according to advocates.”

Fearful that it’s being ignored in the “who can be more unjustifiably cruel” contest, Montana has decided to enforce a rule barring trans people from changing the gender on their birth certificates – even though a district court judge has directly ordered otherwise.

Students protesting at the Florida Capitol Building in March. Not shown (and perhaps hiding): The adult politicians trying to use these kids as political props. (Danielle J. Brown)
Students protesting at the Florida Capitol Building in March. Not shown (and perhaps hiding): The adult politicians trying to use these kids as political props. (Danielle J. Brown)

From The Newsrooms

One Last Thing

On the days I’m lucky enough to fill in for the inestimable Kate Queram on this very newsletter, I’ve developed something of a morning routine. I head over to … okay, okay. Let’s close this particular time loop. At least for today.

Until next time, though, you can keep yourself occupied with this list of the nine best time loop movies from the “Mary Sue” website. It will definitely be a list of 10 once this newsletter is adapted into cinematic form.

The No. 1 choice on that list of best time loop movies isn’t really up for debate. At least not for this fellow. (Sherman Smith)
The No. 1 choice on that list of best time loop movies isn’t really up for debate. At least not for this fellow. (Sherman Smith)

This edition of the Evening Wrap published on Sept. 16, 2022. Subscribe here.

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