Wet Hot American Statehouse edition

I'm starting to think that maybe SCOTUS is never going to issue a ruling in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. I know that's not true, though, so I've spent some time thinking about possible outcomes, which you can check out here, if the mood strikes. Basically, a decision in favor of the Arizona State Legislature will affect at least 62 districts, and it could impact as many as 152 districts. Either way, it's a BFD.

Anyway, that's for tomorrow, or possibly Monday. For now, though, it's time for some fun in the sun.

• Summer Madness: Maine Democrats are about done with Gov. Paul LePage. A handful of House members have announced plans to launch impeachment proceedings against the GOP governor. 
• How did we get here? Well, this week Gov. LePage  took a quick break from his veto-palooza to screw the Democratic Speaker of the state House of of a job. 
• On June 9, the Good Will-Hinckley School hired House Speaker Mark Eves as its president (over the scathing objections of Gov. LePage). Eves was to officially begin his job on July 1. 
• On Wednesday, the school withdrew its job offer after Gov. LePage reportedly threatened dire cuts to its funding. 
• In a statement released to the press on Thursday, Gov. LePage actually admitted that he would deny over $500,000 of the school's funding (which would trigger a loss of $2 million in private funding) if Eves became president of the Good Will-Hinckley school.
• This isn't the first time LePage has used fiscal tactics to bully educational institutions in the state. Earlier this year, the president of Maine's community college system resigned after LePage demanded his dismissal and threatened to withhold the system's funding unless he complied.

• In other Gov. LePage news, on Wednesday the governor joked about shooting Bangor Daily News political cartoonist George Danby when Danby's son asked LePage a question at a Maine Boys State event.

• Summer Love: Two GOP lawmakers in Michigan aren't going to be caught flat-footed by a SCOTUS decision legalizing same-sex marriage, no siree bob. 
• State Rep. Todd Courser is pushing a package of bills that will take all state officials out of the marriage process entirely and will only allow marriages to be performed by members of the clergy. 
• Meanwhile, Rep. Gary Glenn wants to protect religious officiants' rights to refuse to marry same-sex couples. 

So clever, you guys!

• Cruel Summer: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker reportedly requested that a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks -- passed by the GOP-controlled state Senate on a party-line vote earlier this month -- exclude exemptions for victims of rape or incest. SB 179 hasn't yet been scheduled for a committee hearing in the state Assembly, but Walker has pledged to sign the legislation when it arrives on his desk. 
• This week, the Ohio state Senate also passed a ban on abortions after 20 weeks without rape or incest exceptions. 

• Summertime Blues: Reverend and South Carolina state Senator Clementa Pinckney and eight other souls were brutally murdered last week by a racist psychopath. Sen. Pinckney's funeral is on Friday, and President Obama will be delivering the eulogy. 
• These terrible deaths have spurred a sudden, somewhat frenetic (and long overdue) conversation about the Confederate battle flag that flies at too many state capitols and what that flag actually represents (lol heritage NOPE). 
• But as Sen. Pinckney is laid to rest, it's important to think past a flag of bigotry and remember what the man himself stood for as a servant of his community. 

• Sen. Pinckney made headlines earlier this year for his passionate fight for the adoption of body cameras by law enforcement in the wake of the police shooting of Walter Scott. He wanted to make it easier for the public to monitor the activities of police officers through citizen video. He also fought for measures to combat racial profiling, and he advocated for raising the state’s minimum wage. He tried to restore the voting rights of ex-felons and establish early voting in the state.

• Sen. Pinckney also supported common-sense gun safety legislation. He sponsored measures to prevent the mentally ill from purchasing handguns and to require more stringent background checks on purchasers. Also, he opposed legislation that would have allowed concealed weapons in day care centers, restaurants, and churches. 

• Sen. Pinckney stood for compassion and equality both in the pulpit and on the Senate floor. Supporting measures that uphold these principles in both statehouses and communities is the best way to honor his memory. 

• One of Sen. Pinckney's Republican colleagues in the South Carolina House thinks that the shooting victims maybe shouldn't have just sat around letting themselves get shot by "one skinny person." 

This was his response to a reporter asking whether the lawmaker thought the Confederate flag should be removed from Capitol grounds.

• Another legislator who's against the Confederate flag's removal doesn't want "mean people" like the racist psychopath who shot nine people in cold blood in a church after praying with them to make folks focus "on the wrong things."

Sigh.
 

For the Week of June 25, 2015 

The following 15 state legislatures are meeting actively this week: CALIFORNIA, DELAWARE, ILLINOIS, MAINE, MASSACHUSETTS, NEW HAMPSHIRE, NEW JERSEY, NEW YORK, NORTH CAROLINA, OHIO, OREGON, PENNSYLVANIA, RHODE ISLAND, WASHINGTON and WISCONSIN.

Also meeting: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, GUAM, PUERTO RICO and UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS.

GROUPS

The Western Governors' Association will hold its Annual Meeting June 24-26 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. 

Women in Government will hold its Midwestern Regional Conference June 25-27 in Kansas City, Kansas. 

CALIFORNIA

The Senate Committee on Judiciary met June 23 to discuss A.B. 465, which prohibits an employer from requiring an employee, as a condition of employment, to agree to the waiver of any legal right, penalty, forum or procedure for any employment law violations.

FLORIDA

The Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public meeting June 26 to discuss a study on the expansion of the use of reclaimed water, storm water and excess surface water. 

MISSOURI

The City of Kansas City held a general election June 23 for Mayor and ten of the twelve City Council seats. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE

The deadline for the Legislature to act on all conference committee reports was June 24.  

VERMONT

The Department of Liquor Control held a public hearing June 24 to discuss amendments to its rules concerning the sale of alcoholic liquor. 

via Stateside Associates, Project Vote, BillTrack 50

Raising Arizona

Tomorrow’s another SCOTUS day! I know we’re all waiting with bated breath for the Obamacare and same-sex marriage decisions, which are going to be huge deals, obviously, and their outcomes will touch the lives of millions.

But Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission could drop tomorrow, too (in fact, that’s what I have in my office pool). What if the Court sides with the sore loser Arizona Republicans (they deemed a congressional map with multiple competitive districts "losing") and declares redistricting commissions unconstitutional?

The impact is pretty impossible to predict -- it all depends on the scope of the ruling. The Arizona and California commissions were created by voters and are completely independent of legislators or the legislative process, so if Arizona’s goes, they both go.

This alone means that 62 congressional districts are about to be redrawn by state lawmakers. 

But the decision could be more broad. A ruling that takes out the appointed commissions (legislators appoint a majority of members but aren't directly involved in actual map-drawing process) will change the redistricting process in Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, and Washington.

That's another 27 congressional districts in the hands of state legislative map-drawers.

What if the decision wipes out backup commissions (which draw congressional maps if the legislature deadlocks), too? That's Connecticut and Indiana, an additional 14 congressional districts.

And what about advisory commissions? In Iowa, Maine, and New York, these commissions draft the congressional maps and submit them to the legislature for approval. In Ohio, the commission "supports the work of the legislature." Iowa's commission involves no state legislators, while the Maine, New York, and Ohio commissions are mostly made up of and/or are appointed by state lawmakers. If the Arizona decision does away with these commissions, state legislators will have sole authority to draw 49 additional congressional districts.

A decision in favor of the Arizona State Legislature will affect at least 62 districts, and it could impact as many as 152 districts. Either way, it's a BFD.

Could a legislature still give away its own authority to draw maps to a non-legislative commission? If a couple of legislators were on the commission, would that be sufficient? What if an independent commission drew the map, but a legislature has to approve it (the Iowa model)? Do governors even have authority to veto congressional maps (they already don’t in some places – North Carolina, for example)?

Or maybe SCOTUS will decide in favor of the IRC and all my math and speculation are for jack. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Importance of Being Roberts edition

All the world's a stage, and all the state legislators merely players. They have their sine dies and their convenings, and one lawmaker in a session proposes many bills...

While we wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to begin the second act of Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (as well as the Obamacare and same-sex marriage cases), let's check out what's been going on around the country during intermission.

• The Misanthrope(s): The North Carolina legislature has successfully overriden the governor's veto of SB2 -- more infamously known as the "religious freedom" bill. The measure allows some public officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages and takes effect... well, today.  

• Les Miserables: That's what a lot of kids in Michigan are going to be when GOP lawmakers allow adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples who want to adopt children. 
• On Wednesday, the state Senate suddenly took up a package of bills that allow publicly funded adoption agencies to deny service to LGBT parents on religious grounds. All of the chamber's Democrats (and one Republican) opposed the legislation, but the Senate's GOP majority gave final approval to the bills. 
• And Gov. Snyder has just signed them into law. #onetoughbigot

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead...and if they lived in Florida, maybe they could have been saved by healthcare coverage made available by Medicaid expansion, but the Republicans in the state House killed that on Friday, so they're out of luck.
• The state Senate has been fighting with the House for months over the former's effort to expand Medicaid coverage under Obamacare (the House even fled Tallahassee at one point to avoid voting on it). Late last week, the House killed a Senate proposal that would have covered as many as 650,000 Floridians.
• Americans for Prosperity would like to take credit for bullying Florida Republicans into submission.
• Many Republican lawmakers argue that "expanded healthcare would create a taxpayer-funded entitlement program."

Fun fact! Florida taxpayers subsidize state legislators' "Cadillac healthcare plans" to the point that they only cost lawmakers $50 a month.

Funner fact! My law school classmate and current state Rep. Matt Gaetz thinks he and his fellow lawmakers deserve low-cost healthcare as part of their "compensation." For their PART-TIME JOBS. 

Also, according to Rep. Gaetz, "the healthcare [they] receive is too good." #humblebrag

• Speaking of lousy things in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott has just signed a bill requiring two clinic visits and a 24-hour abortion waiting period into law. You know us ladies -- we just can't be trusted to arrive at difficult decisions in our own time!

And speaking of waiting periods...

• Glengarry Gun Ross: The GOP-controlled Wisconsin legislature gave final approval this week to a repeal of the state's 48-hour waiting period for handgun purchases -- a restriction that's been in place for 40 years. Gov. Walker will sign it into law, of course -- he's running for office, for Pete's sake!

Always

Be

Cocking your gun 

• Who's Afraid of Paul LePage? The governor of Maine is being his reasonable self these days, which is to say that he's... being a little unreasonable.
• Gov. LePage's crusade during this year's legislative session has been to eradicate the state's income tax. Such a move would eliminate half of Maine's revenue, and LePage has neither proposed a plan to make up the funds through other means nor outlined the drastic cuts to state spending that would be required. 
• Democrats in both the House and the Senate have blocked this irresponsible scheme from winning the two-thirds vote it needs to move forward.
• LePage's completely reasonable response has been to veto every Democratic-sponsored bill that has arrived on his desk (10 so far). 
• Lawmakers have already overridden nine of those vetoes.

How long will LePage's spiteful veto spree continue? Place yer bets!

• Waiting Room for Godot: The Democratic Senate in Oregon has just passed legislation to require most of the state's employers to provide workers with paid sick leave (up to five days a year for employers with 10 or more employees). The measure now moves to the House, where it's expected to pass as early as Friday. 

• Court on a Hot Tin Roof: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed into law a measure that effectively eliminates the independence of the state's judiciary. 
• The backstory:
• In 2014, following some judicial rulings the legislature's conservatives didn't much like, Brownback approved a law that removed some powers from the state's Supreme Court. A state judge is challenging the constitutionality of that measure. 
• Brownback and his fellow conservatives in the legislature didn't want to risk that challenge not going their way. So they passed this new law -- the recently signed one referenced above -- that stipulates that the state's judiciary branch will lose its funding if that 2014 law is struck down.
• Meanwhile, when GOP lawmakers aren't busy bullying the state courts, they're trying desperately to fill a massive hole in the state budget in session overtime. 

Fin.

For the Week of June 11, 2015 

The following 21 state legislatures are meeting actively this week: ALASKA, CALIFORNIA, DELAWARE, FLORIDA, ILLINOIS, KANSAS, LOUISIANA, MAINE, MASSACHUSETTS, MICHIGAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE, NEW JERSEY, NEW MEXICO, NEW YORK, NORTH CAROLINA, OHIO, OREGON, PENNSYLVANIA, RHODE ISLAND, WASHINGTON and WISCONSIN.

Also meeting: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, GUAM, PUERTO RICO and UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS.

GROUPS

June 16-18, 2015
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ATTORNEYS GENERAL
Summer Meeting
Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines
San Diego, California

June 17-18, 2015
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION
Northeastern Policy Conference
Greenwich, Connecticut

June 19-22, 2015
UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORS
83rd Annual Conference of Mayors
San Francisco, California

June 19-21, 2015
COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS
DC Meeting
Washington, D.C.

ARKANSAS

The Health Reform Legislative Task Force will meet June 11 to receive updates from the Department of Human Services and the Stephen Group. 

CALIFORNIA

The Committee on Health met June 9 to discuss S.B. 277, which eliminates the exemption for school vaccines from existing specified immunization requirements based upon personal beliefs. 

The Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee met June 9 to discuss S.B. 142, which extends liability for wrongful occupation of real property and damages to a person who operates an unmanned aerial vehicle below the navigable airspace over the real property without permission. 

DELAWARE

The Senate Banking and Business Committee met June 10 to discuss H.B. 119, which removes the prohibition on selling an alcoholic beverage to a person with a mental condition or mental disability. 

LOUISIANA

The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn June 11. 

MICHIGAN

The Senate Natural Resources Committee met June 10 to discuss S.C.R. 13, which urges the President of the United States, the United States Congress and the United States Environmental Protection Agency to abandon the promulgation of currently proposed carbon emission reduction regulations. 

NEW MEXICO

The Legislature convened for a special session June 8 to discuss a capital outlay package which will fund state highway and local infrastructure projects and tax incentives.

PENNSYLVANIA

The Senate Finance Committee met June 10 to discuss proposals to increase the sales and use tax. 

TEXAS

The City of Dallas will hold a runoff election June 13 for four City Council seats. 

The City of Irving will hold a runoff election June 13 for one City Council seat. 

The City of San Antonio will hold a runoff election June 13 for the position of Mayor and one City Council seat. 

VIRGINIA

A primary election was held June 9 for state House and Senate seats. 

via Stateside Associates, Project Vote.