The Tap: Monday, May 9, 2016

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The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.

Review of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #16 of The Tap, which was published on May 14, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• Donald Trump announced that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) would chair his presidential transition team to identify candidates for cabinet-level positions and approximately 1,000 other openings in a potential future Trump administration.

• U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) issued a statement expressing his disinterest in serving as Trump’s vice president. “While Republican voters have chosen Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee, my previously stated reservations about his campaign and concerns with many of his policies remain unchanged. He will be best served by a running mate and by surrogates who fully embrace his campaign,” Rubio wrote.

• In response to correspondence from the U.S. Department of Justice indicating that North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law was facially discriminatory, Governor Pat McCrory filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The Justice Department countersued in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. North Carolina House Bill 2 requires individuals to use bathroom facilities that correspond to the biological gender identified on an individual’s birth certificate. The Justice Department asserts that the law violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA). Judge Terrence Boyle was assigned the case filed by the state. Judge Thomas Schroeder was assigned the case filed by the Justice Department. Judge Schroeder will also preside over a separate HB 2 challenge filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. A fourth lawsuit, filed by North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore and President pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate Phil Berger, was assigned to Judge Louise Flanagan of the Eastern District.

• President Barack Obama signed HR 2908 - the National Bison Legacy Act into law. The American bison is now the official mammal of the United States. He also signed HR 1493 - the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act into law. The legislation requires the president to “protect and preserve international cultural property at risk due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters.” The purpose of the legislation is to prevent the self-described Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, from profiting from the sale of looted Syrian archeological and ethnological material.

• The U.S. Department of Education released the Beyond the Box: Increasing Access to Higher Education for Justice-Involved Individuals resource guide, “which encourages alternatives to inquiring about criminal histories during college admissions and provides recommendations to support a holistic review of applicants,” according to a press release from the department. The document is part of the Obama administration’s ongoing effort to help individuals with criminal records integrate back into society by pursuing higher education opportunities.

• Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes attempted to clarify his comments from a recent New York Times article published last week in which he explained how the Obama administration sold the Iran nuclear deal to the press by using journalists who he said “literally know nothing.” Rhodes explained that in order to pass the nuclear deal, he “created an echo chamber. They [reporters] were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.” In an effort to smooth relations with the press, Rhodes wrote, “Every press corps that I interacted with vetted that deal as extensively as any other foreign policy initiative of the presidency.”
  • In response to the article, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wrote in an op-ed, “When you get down to it, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the Obama administration essentially misled the American people on the Iran deal—or at least misled itself.”
  • House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) wants Rhodes to testify about his role in selling the Iran nuclear deal to the press during a hearing next Tuesday, and he “has threatened to use a subpoena to demand his presence,” according to The Hill.
  • In response to the New York Times article, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) filed legislation on Wednesday to limit the size of the National Security Council, according to Reuters.
• For the third time, Senate Democrats voted to prevent the Senate from advancing on HR 2028 - the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016, because of Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) proposed amendment that would prevent the Obama administration from buying heavy water from Iran as part of the nuclear deal.
• The following legislation was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate: S Res 457 - A resolution relative to the death of Conrad Ray Burns, former United States Senator for the State of Montana; S Res 458 - A resolution relative to the death of Robert F. Bennett, former Senator of the State of Utah; S 546 - the RESPONSE Act of 2016; HR 4238 - To amend the Department of Energy Organization Act and the Local Public Works Capital Development and Investment Act of 1976 to modernize terms relating to minorities; and S Res 436 - A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of World Malaria Day.

State

• In response to correspondence from the U.S. Department of Justice indicating that North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law was facially discriminatory, Governor Pat McCrory filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The Justice Department countersued in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. North Carolina House Bill 2 requires individuals to use bathroom facilities that correspond to the biological gender identified on an individual’s birth certificate. The Justice Department asserts that the law violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA). Judge Terrence Boyle was assigned the case filed by the state. Judge Thomas Schroeder was assigned the case filed by the Justice Department. Judge Schroeder will also preside over a separate HB 2 challenge filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. A fourth lawsuit, filed by North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore and President pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate Phil Berger, was assigned to Judge Louise Flanagan of the Eastern District.

• North Carolina Justice Robert H. Edmunds defended his record after a split Supreme Court of North Carolina upheld on May 6 the ruling of a lower North Carolina court that the state’s 2015 retention law for state supreme court justices is unconstitutional. This means that rather than standing for retention in 2016, Edmunds will run in a contested election against three other candidates who filed for the election. Justice Edmunds took no part in the deciding of the case, which was an even tie, 3-3, between the remaining justices. The tie means that the lower court’s ruling will stand, but it also means that this decision gives no precedent for future similar cases. The court did not reveal how the justices voted; while it is possible that it was a 3-3 split between conservative-leaning justices and liberal-leaning justices, this was not necessarily the case.

• Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R) appointed Indianapolis attorney Geoffrey Slaughter as the 109th justice on the Indiana Supreme Court. Slaughter succeeds Justice Brent Dickson, who retired in April before reaching his mandatory retirement age of 75. He will be sworn in and take the bench later this year. This is Pence’s first appointment to the state’s high court. Indiana justices are chosen by appointment and then stand in retention elections thereafter. There are five justices on the court; of the four current justices, three were appointed by former Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) and one was appointed by former Gov. Frank O’Bannon (D). Slaughter is a partner at the firm of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Indianapolis and has served as special counsel to the Indiana attorney general’s office. He will serve two years on the bench before standing in the retention election of 2018 for a full 10-year term if he wishes to remain on the bench.

• The deadline to submit signatures for citizen initiatives passed in Illinois. The group Independent Maps submitted over 550,000 signatures to the Illinois secretary of state late last week for the proposed Illinois Independent Map Amendment. This was the only initiative for which signatures were submitted. The measure would create a multistage redistricting process to appoint an 11-member independent commission responsible for approving the final general assembly district map. Of the total submitted, 290,216 signatures need to be verified as valid for the measure to make the November 8 ballot.
  • A measure designed to require transportation funding to be used for its stated purpose was put on the November ballot earlier this year by the legislature.
  • Since 1998, one measure has appeared on the ballot in Illinois in every even-numbered year except 2014, in which Illinois voters decided five measures.
  • If the independent map amendment reaches the ballot this year, it will be only the second legally binding citizen initiative that Illinois voters have ever decided. The only legally binding citizen initiative ever to reach the ballot in Illinois was an amendment to reduce the number of state representatives, which was approved in 1980.
  • Illinois imposes severe subject restrictions on its citizen initiative process. Initiatives can only alter Article IV of the state constitution, which lays out laws concerning the state’s legislature.
    • A bill designed to expand the state’s initiative power was introduced in the state’s General Assembly in early 2015 and referred to the Rules Committee on May 6, 2016.

• The Arkansas General Assembly adjourned its regular session. In even-numbered years, regular sessions are limited to 30 calendar days. Arkansas is one of 23 states with a Republican trifecta. Republicans control the governor’s office, the House by 29 seats, and the Senate by 13 seats.

• California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) made permanent several rules aimed at conserving water during California’s most recent drought. The rules, which were implemented temporarily in 2014, restrict watering lawns, washing cars and pavement, and using ornamental fountains. Though areas of the state saw more rain in 2015 than in previous years, Brown said that water conservation should “be a part of our everyday life.” California’s most recent drought was one of the most severe droughts in the past several decades.

Preview of the day

There were no items for this day in issue #15 of The Tap, which was published on May 7, 2016. See the "Review of the day" tab for more information.