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Year: 2023

Court strikes down improperly-numbered Tennessee Senate map

Court strikes down improperly-numbered Tennessee Senate map

A Republican-drawn map for Tennessee’s Senate seats violates the state Constitution because lawmakers incorrectly numbered the legislative districts in left-leaning Nashville, which affects which years those seats are on the ballot, a panel of judges ruled Wednesday. The ruling centers on maps passed by the Republican-supermajority Legislature in 2022 during the once-a-decade redistricting process. Tennessee’s constitution dictates that districts must be numbered consecutively in counties that have more than one district. The newly drawn redistricting plan does not do that in Davidson County, which encompasses Nashville. Instead, it’s numbered 17, 19, 20 and 21. OHIO REDISTRICTING OVERHAUL PLAN ONCE AGAIN PERMITTED TO GATHER SIGNATURES AFTER SECOND ROUND OF APPROVALS The numbering matters because the four-year Senate terms are staggered, putting some districts on the ballot in presidential election years, others in gubernatorial election cycles. Currently, those four districts are represented by three Democrats and one Republican. There are 27 Republicans and 6 Democrats in the state Senate. According to Wednesday’s ruling, the state’s attorneys “conceded” that they would not defend the Senate map in court and instead focused their attention arguing that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to sue. Tennessee’s state House map was also challenged in the lawsuit, though the state did defend those boundaries. Ultimately, the three judges panel upheld the House map and ordered the Tennessee Senate to come up with a new district layout by Jan. 31, 2024. A spokesman for Senate Speaker Randy McNally, a Republican who previously defended the Senate map as legally sound, did not immediately return an emailed request for comment. “Today’s court ruling against the gerrymandered state Senate map is a clear win for the Tennessee Constitution,” said Democratic Sens. Raumesh Akbari and London Lamar in a joint statement. “Even when a political party has a supermajority in the legislature, its members must still follow the law.” Akbari and Lamar added that they looked forward to advocating for a “fair map and transparent process” over the following weeks. Separately, Democrats had argued that the House map also divides more counties than needed to create districts with roughly equal populations, and that it dilutes the power of minority voters. The map splits 30 counties, the maximum permitted for the state House. The Tennessee Democratic Party said Wednesday that it would continue fighting the ruling on upholding the House map. “Our fight for a constitutional State House map is not over,” said Hendrell Remus, chairman of the state’s Democratic Party, in a statement. “Composing a constitutional map is like piecing together a complex puzzle because one may not focus on a single factor to the exclusion of other constitutional factors…The nature of constructing a puzzle whose pieces have inherent conflict means that a perfect map will never be constructed by, nor required of the General Assembly,” the judges wrote in their ruling. Three voters filed the lawsuit in 2022, which was backed by the Tennessee Democratic Party. The state had argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue over the maps, but the panel of judges allowed the case to proceed with one plaintiff eligible to challenge the House map, and another allowed to contest the Senate map. FEDERAL COURT SELECTS NEW ALABAMA CONGRESSIONAL MAP, LIKELY HANDING DEMOCRATS A SEAT AT NEXT HOUSE ELECTION In April 2022, the panel of state trial-level judges blocked the Senate map from taking effect. The state appealed, and within a week, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned that decision and let the maps stand. The justices reasoned that the lower court judges didn’t properly consider how blocking the map and extending the candidate filing deadline would harm elections officials and cause voter confusion. A legal challenge against Tennessee’s redistricting maps is still pending in federal court, as well. The federal lawsuit alleges that the U.S. House districts and those for the state Senate amount to unconstitutional racial gerrymandering under the 14th and 15th amendments. The challenge of the congressional map focuses on how the map split Nashville three ways, turning a Democratic seat there into a Republican pickup in 2022. The Senate challenge focuses on the boundaries in majority-Black Shelby County, including part of Memphis. A Republican represents the seat in question. That lawsuit, however, is not scheduled to make its way to trial until April 2025.

Liberal columnists call for Americans to ‘decolonize Thanksgiving’, promote ‘Truthsgiving’

Liberal columnists call for Americans to ‘decolonize Thanksgiving’, promote ‘Truthsgiving’

Several online publications and social media users are urging Americans to reconsider the Thanksgiving holiday while alleging the holiday is a symbol of “colonization” and “racism.” “Let’s drop the lie of Thanksgiving and begin a Truthsgiving,” a social media post from The Nation read this week that linked to an article with the headline: “Should America Keep Celebrating Thanksgiving?” In the article, author Sean Sherman, argues that Americans should “decolonize Thanksgiving.” “For many Americans, the image of Thanksgiving is one of supposed unity: the gathering of ‘Pilgrims and Indians’ in a harmonious feast,” Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, explains. “But this version obscures the harsh truth, one steeped in colonialism, violence, and misrepresentation. By exploring the Indigenous perspective on Thanksgiving, we can not only discern some of the nuances of decolonization but gain a deeper understanding of American history.” 5 COMMON MISTAKES WHEN COOKING A TURKEY ON THANKSGIVING: CHEF LEAH COHEN REVEALS HOW TO AVOID THEM Sherman writes that Americans, in order to avoid the “tremendous distress to those of us who are still reeling from the trauma” of the Pilgrims landing in America, by promoting the “nutritional and culinary diversity” of Native American foods and “centering the Indigenous perspective and challenging the colonial narratives around the holiday.” The Nation’s social media post drew strong pushback on social media from users rejecting that Thanksgiving is a symbol of colonization.  INDUSTRY EXPERT WARNS THANKSGIVING FLIGHTS COULD BE ‘UNSAFE’ AS RECORD NUMBER OF TRAVELERS PREPARE FOR TAKEOFF “It’s starting to sound like ‘decolonization’ just means ruining any and every tradition and fun time, to be replaced by the narcissistic, jargon-filled rantings of 20-somethings whose infallible knowledge of the world is informed by TikTok,” writer and podcaster Meghan Murphy responded on X. Other outlets have run similar headlines, including Delish.com, which posted an article in late October titled: “The Dark Truth Behind The Origins Of Thanksgiving.” In the story, the author outlines how the holiday is “not what you learned in school” and provides ways for Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving differently. “For example: Seek out Native American authors, activists, artists, and chefs, and support in their work,” the author writes. “Listen to and uplift their perspectives and make sure your support goes beyond Thanksgiving and holidays like Indigenous Peoples Day.” CRINGEWORTHY THINGS YOUR FAMILY DOESN’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS THANKSGIVING This week, an article by Jason Nichols with the headline “Decolonize Thanksgiving” was published in Newsweek that argued Thanksgiving is an important holiday that should not be lost but “truth should triumph over nationalistic narratives.” “And the truth about Thanksgiving should be learned by all Americans, as it is a part of our complicated history of savage betrayal and removal of indigenous people and the colonization of their land,” Nichols, a full-time lecturer in the African American Studies department at the University of Maryland, College Park, wrote. “Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to spend with family and friends, but we owe it to our indigenous forefathers to know its history,” Nichols wrote while pointing out, “even if the initial feast was dedicated to peace, the settlers decimated the Wampanoag and other New England indigenous groups soon after through war and disease.” Abraham Lincoln, in a stirring call to spiritual unity amid the carnage of the Civil War, issued an emotionally powerful Thanksgiving proclamation on Oct. 3, 1863.  The president invited Americans at home and abroad “to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”  The tradition of Thanksgiving in America dates back to the first Pilgrim and Wampanoag feast of 1621. President George Washington proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving exactly 74 years before Lincoln’s decree on Oct. 3, 1789.  Fox News Digital’s Kerry J. Byrne contributed to this report

Gun ownership hits record high with American voters, poll finds

Gun ownership hits record high with American voters, poll finds

A record high number of American voters say they or someone in their household owns a gun, according to a new survey. An NBC News national poll finds that a majority — 52% — of respondents say that they or someone in their home owns a firearm. It is the highest number since NBC started asking in 1999.  Just four years ago, 46% of Americans said they or someone in their household owned a gun in a 2019 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. And a decade ago, in 2013, that number was 42%. “In the last 10 years, we’ve grown [10 points] in gun ownership. That’s a very stunning number,” Micah Roberts of Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies, who conducted the poll with Democratic pollster Hart Research, told NBC News.  GUN PURCHASES BY JEWISH AMERICANS SURGING SINCE OCT. 7 HAMAS TERROR ATTACK, SAYS STORE OWNER “By and large, things don’t change that dramatically that quickly when it comes to something as fundamental as whether you own a gun,” he said. The poll finds gun ownership remains highly partisan, as it has for years. In November, 66% of Republican voters surveyed said that they or someone in their home owns a gun. Just 45% of independents and 41% of Democrats said the same.  Although Republicans have always owned guns at higher rates than Democrats, this year the highest number of Democrats since at least 2004 said they or someone in their home had a firearm. FEDERAL COURT STRIKES DOWN MARYLAND GUN LICENSING LAW Gun sales nationwide spiked last month, which was the third-highest October on record for federal background checks for gun transfers, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), an industry trade group.  An NSSF report released Nov. 2 found that more than 1.3 million gun checks were completed in October, which was an 8.4% increase over the same month in 2022.  Mark Oliva, an NSSF spokesperson, told The Reload earlier this month that increased sales “demonstrate the value Americans place on their Second Amendment rights.” He observed that the Oct. 7 massacre of innocents by Palestinian terrorists in Israel, followed by the recent mass shooting in Maine, may have influenced some people to buy their first gun. “This is telling, given the stark reminders of the importance of the Second Amendment protecting the right for law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms and protect themselves and their loved ones,” Oliva told the outlet. “The horrific attacks on Israel followed by the escalating hate speech toward Jewish Americans, coupled with the tragic murders in Maine, are reminders that every American has the right to legally purchase a firearm to provide for their own defense.” ARMED HOMEOWNER WHO DEFENDED FAMILY IN DRIVEWAY SHOOT-OUT SAYS HE’S BEEN STRIPPED OF GUN PERMIT Eric Fletcher, a gun store owner in Burbank, California, previously told Fox News he’s seen a surge in Jews and Israelis buying firearms for the first time.  “No one wants to be feeling like they’re helpless, especially not in their own home, especially not in their offices or where they go every day. People want to feel safe,” Fletcher said on “The Faulkner Focus” Nov. 3. His store, Burbank Ammo and Guns, processed 203 firearms safety certificate tests in October 2023 compared to 45 last year, marking a more than 450% increase. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “We see many, many individuals from the Jewish community who are first-time buyers. And not just the men, but women as well, mothers especially. They want to know what they can do and what they are allowed to do to defend themselves,” he said. The same trend has been observed in Georgia, where a gun store owner reported a 30% increase in business fueled mostly by Jewish Americans buying their first guns.  Fox News Digital’s Madeline Coggins contributed to this report.