Evening Wrap

Let’s just get this out of the way: Yes, it is officially a presidential election year. No, we are not going to talk about that today, both because no one wants to talk about that today and also because we need to talk about state legislatures. Thirty-seven (!) of them will reconvene this month, five of which will be underway by the time this newsletter hits your inbox. (What a time to be alive!) 

The next time we see each other, it will be 2024 and officially presidential election season. What an exciting opportunity to watch democracy in action! 

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones vowed Wednesday to decide “very quickly” whether Georgia lawmakers complied with an order to un-gerrymander state legislative and congressional maps, which in court time means “in about a month,” per the Georgia Recorder. Specifically, before Jan. 25, when election officials will begin preparing for the 2024 presidential election.

The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday barred Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s presidential primary ballot under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause, an unprecedented ruling that will inevitably end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 4-3 decision, the court affirmed that Trump engaged in insurrection by fomenting a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, disqualifying him from seeking the presidency under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, per Colorado Newsline.

Congress is unlikely to reach a deal on immigration before the holidays, a truly shocking turn of events for a complex and highly polarizing issue that has stymied federal lawmakers for nearly four decades. The impasse is the predictable result of a Republican plan to demand border security measures in exchange for supporting President Joe Biden’s $110 billion supplemental funding package, which includes aid for Ukraine and Israel. Absent a holiday miracle, those negotiations will be punted to January, when lawmakers will also be fighting over funding (or not funding) the federal government, our D.C. bureau reported. 

I may have been sleeping, but I was at least at school, which has become somewhat of an anomaly in Indiana. Last year, 19.3% of the state’s students were chronically absent, down 2.8% from the year before but nowhere near the pre-pandemic rate of 11.2%. It’s a national problem with no clear solution —  and that is a big problem for state Republicans, who are pushing education overhauls they say will improve student literacy rates and career readiness, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported.

Your view of this depends a lot on your politics. More than 70% of Democrats believe K-12 schools have a positive effect on the country, compared to just 37% of Republicans. The parties are even more divided on the societal impact of higher education — 76% of Democrats believe colleges and universities are a benefit to the country; 76% of Republicans view them negatively.

When Republicans advance bills that target trans kids or roll back child labor laws, they typically claim it’s to help, or protect, kids. Some of them probably believe that, though it’s hard to understand how. I can’t discern what’s in someone’s heart, but I can debate the merits of legislative proposals — and based on that, it’s hard to understand how Republicans might seriously think they’re helping anyone.

The universe is testing me this week, frequently, in a variety of imaginative and infuriating ways, and I am dealing with it (mostly by swearing), but it has not been fun. And that was before this morning, when the U.S. Supreme Court woke up, surveyed the wreckage it made of abortion, cracked its knuckles and decided to do some more damage. 

The U.S. Supreme Court took a rare opportunity to Not Be The Literal Worst, which it (briefly) seized by declining Monday to hear a legal challenge against Washington state’s ban on conversion therapy. (More on who managed to be The Worst Court this week shortly). The decision allows the law to remain in place but does not guarantee its long-term survival, according to a pair of dissents penned by the perennial buzzkill duo of Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who argued that the law restricts speech by silencing one side of the “debate,” which should warrant “careful scrutiny,” the Washington State Standard reported. 

“Criminal justice system” is somewhat of a misnomer, as it’s less a centralized network than a patchwork of policies and agencies spread across the federal government, all 50 states and thousands of counties and cities. This is partly why wholesale reform has proven so elusive. Without a real system, it’s pretty hard to enact system-wide changes.

Sometimes, that journey comes with a roadmap — or a neon flashing sign warning you of the danger ahead. On Thursday, that alert came from former members of Congress, who warned about the increasing potential for political violence ahead of the 2024 election, our D.C. bureau reported.