National Roundup

Alabama
State’s new transgender care felony faces federal test

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge will hear arguments Thursday on a challenge to Alabama’s plan to outlaw the use of gender-affirming medications to treat transgender youth.

U.S. District Judge Liles Burke has scheduled a hearing on a request to block the law’s enforcement while it’s challenged in court. The law, which would otherwise take effect on Sunday, makes it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for medical providers to give puberty blockers and hormones to people under age 19 to help affirm their gender identity.

Four families with transgender children, two doctors and a member of the clergy filed a lawsuit challenging the law as an unconstitutional violation of equal protection and free speech rights and an intrusion into parental decisions. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked to join the case.

“No other state has ever passed a law like the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act and for good reason. The Act takes the unprecedented step of taking away the opportunity for parents to obtain well established medical care for their children,” lawyers for plaintiffs wrote in the motion seeking a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order against the law.

The state is asking Burke to allow the law to go into effect.

“If the court enjoins this act, Alabama children face irreversible damage from unproven, sterilizing, and permanently scarring medical interventions pushed by ideological interest groups,” lawyers for the state wrote.

 

Louisiana
Lawyer: Abortion bill could subject women to homicide charge

NEW?ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana House committee voted Wednesday to make abortion a crime of homicide for which a woman ending her pregnancy could be charged, along with anyone helping her.

The bill also declares that any federal law, regulation or court ruling that allows abortion is void and that any judge who blocks enforcement of the bill’s provisions could be impeached.

“Is Roe vs. Wade the law of the land? We believe the answer is no,” anti-abortion attorney Bradley Pierce told the committee during a hearing at the Capitol in Baton Rouge.

Even one committee member who voted for the bill said it would likely be struck down by state or federal courts if it became law. The bill was approved for full House by a 7-2 vote of the House Criminal Justice Committee.

Rep. Danny McCormick’s bill, introduced in the House in March, came up for a hearing less than two days after the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion indicating the high court is preparing to overturn decisions upholding a constitutional right to abortion. The bill’s supporters declared that their legislation would outlaw abortion even if the draft leaked Monday night isn’t eventually adopted by the Supreme Court.

Louisiana already has a “trigger law” criminalizing abortion should Roe v. Wade be overturned, which would subject doctors or others who perform abortions to up to 10 years in prison. But the law does not call for prosecution of the pregnant woman.

McCormick’s bill, which would amend homicide statutes, has no exception and abortion rights attorneys said it would subject women to prosecution.

“This is saying that people can be charged with murder for any act that they take against their own pregnancy,” said reproductive rights lawyer Ellie Schilling.

In addition to amending homicide law, the bill by McCormick, a Republican from Oil City, would change the state’s legal definition of person, which now includes a fertilized egg that has become implanted in the womb, to simply a fertilized egg.

Opponents of the bill also said the measure would criminalize in vitro fertilization that involves destruction of some eggs that have been fertilized outside the womb, and many forms of contraception.

Rep. Tony Bacala said he would vote for the bill but also said the bill is likely to be struck down by courts if made law. “While I intend to vote for this bill, I would suggest that there may be better options that can actually go into practice instead of concepts that I feel like are probably going to be struck down. “

 

Massachusetts
Satanic Temple asks city to fly flag after court ruling

BOSTON (AP) — The Satanic Temple is requesting to fly a flag over Boston City Hall after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that the city violated the free speech rights of a conservative activist seeking to fly a Christian flag outside the downtown building.

The Salem-based group tweeted a request filed Tuesday with the city property management department to raise a flag marking “Satanic Appreciation Week” from July 23-29.

Mayor Michelle Wu’s office declined to comment on the group’s request other than to say it’s reviewing the high court’s decision while also evaluating its flag-raising program.

Lucien Greaves, the organization’s co-founder, said in an email Wednesday that the group wants to show that religious liberty must mean respect for “all forms” of religious practice and religious opinion.

“When government officials are able to impose arbitrary restrictions on claims of conscience, or to abridge the civic capacities of some based on their religious identity, we fail to be a free, democratic republic,” he wrote in part.

The organization hasn’t decided which of its official flags it will ask the city to fly, Greaves said, but one likely option echoes the American flag, only with black and white stripes and an emblem of a pentagram and goat skull where the 50 stars would be.

The Satanic Temple is separate from the Church of Satan, which was founded in the 1960s. Founded in 2013, the Satanic Temple doesn’t believe in Satan and describes itself as a “non-theistic religious organization” that advocates for secularism.

It has lodged freedom of religion challenges nationwide, including a federal lawsuit arguing the Boston City Council’s traditional opening prayer at its public meetings is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that Boston discriminated against activist Harold Shurtleff because of his “religious viewpoint,” even though it had routinely approved other flag raising requests.

In 2017, Shurtleff and his Camp Constitution wanted to fly a white banner with a red cross on a blue background called the Christian flag to mark Constitution Day on Sept. 17.