DeSantis signs Florida ‘don’t say gay’ bill into law
ORLANDO, Fla. — Rejecting criticism that it would harm the LGBTQ community, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday the controversial measure derided as the “don’t say gay” bill.
“We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination,” DeSantis said at the Classical Preparatory School in Spring Hill. The school chosen for the bill signing ceremony was founded in 2011 by Anne Corcoran, the wife of state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, who is also a former Republican speaker of the House.
House Bill 1557, officially known as the Parental Rights in Education measure, was passed by the Legislature earlier this month. It will prohibit discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in schools up to the third grade and limits it to “age-appropriate” students in higher grades. Parents will also be able to sue school districts over the issue.
Republicans argued the bill protects parental rights, while Democrats and LGBTQ groups contend it was intentionally vague and could have a chilling effect on teachers, students and the LGBTQ community.
Plans are already in the works to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new law, said Joe Saunders, senior political director for Equality Florida and a former state representative. He expects the suit to kill the bill.
—Orlando Sentinel
No noncitizen voters found in Georgia election review
ATLANTA — Citizenship checks prevented any noncitizens from voting in recent elections in Georgia, though 1,634 people with unverified U.S. citizenship tried to register to vote, according to a review released Monday by state elections officials.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the review shows that citizenship precautions are working.
“We want to make sure that noncitizens aren’t voting in the state of Georgia,” said Raffensperger, a Republican seeking reelection this year. “Hopefully, that’s another allegation of 2020 we can put to rest. Noncitizens are not voting in the state of Georgia.”
The secretary of state’s office compared about 4,500 people whose registrations were pending citizenship verification with a federal program called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. Of those, 1,634 individuals’ citizenship couldn’t be confirmed through SAVE. Election officials will continue to investigate their citizenship status.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate committee sets vote for Supreme Court pick Ketanji Brown Jackson
WASHINGTON — The top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday foreshadowed each side’s arguments about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court, which is now officially set for a panel vote on April 4.
Chairman Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, as expected because of committee rules, announced the delay of one week for a committee vote. That next meeting, set to start at 10 a.m. next Monday, gives the 22 members of the panel the opportunity to make statements explaining their vote on Jackson’s nomination.
Durbin took a few minutes at the brief meeting Monday to offer counterarguments to some of the reasons Republicans have given to oppose Jackson, such as those who suggested she did not describe her judicial philosophy enough.
“Judge Jackson’s philosophy may not be described by catchword, but it reflects the real proper role of the judge in America,” Durbin said. “Listen to parties, approach each case without favoritism, set aside your personal view, and apply the law to the facts.”
Durbin also suggested that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republicans who criticized Jackson because she did not weigh in on whether more justices should be added to the court should note that Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee they voted for, took the same approach during her confirmation hearing.
And Durbin called the suggestion that Jackson is soft on crime “baseless,” and the charge that she let child pornography offenders off the hook as “vile” and an “outright falsehood.”
—CQ Roll Call
UK police to issue at least 20 fines over No. 10 parties
LONDON — London’s Metropolitan Police are set to issue at least 20 fines to government officials close to the prime minister who broke U.K. lockdown rules, according to a person familiar with their thinking.
The first batch of fines are expected to be levied as soon as Tuesday, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing police business. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is unlikely to be touched by Tuesday’s tranche of fines, the person said. Some people may face more than one fine, they said.
The fallout from the so-called Partygate scandal was the most serious in a string of scandals that brought Johnson to the brink during the first weeks of the year as several Tory MPs called for him to step down. Since then, the war in Ukraine has shifted attention away from the prime minister’s domestic problems and offered him a chance to reset.
—Bloomberg News
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