Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation this week dissolving independent oversight boards meant to investigate police departments in the state.

The law will replace the community-led boards with "review committees" that will be comprised of members appointed by a mayor. Those members will then only be able to refer complaints to law enforcement internal affairs, according to the Associated Press.

Nashville residents voted to form one of these boards in 2018, a year after the shooting of Jocques Clemmons. The 31-year-old Black man was shot and killed by a white police officer — identified as Joshua Lippert — during a traffic stop, WZTV, a local Nashville Fox affiliate, reported.

Lippert was not charged in connection to the incident after arguing self-defense. Police claimed that when Clemmons fled from the scene, he had a gun in his possession, the Tennessean reported. The decision not to charge Lippert sparked protests in the community, and residents called on local officials to take action.

Gabriel Malor
@gabrielmalor

11th Cir. holds Alabama death row inmate was properly found to be intellectually disabled and that, as a result, the Eighth Amendment requires that his death sentence be vacated. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202114519.pdf

A nominee to Connecticut’s highest court withdrew her name from consideration Friday after state lawmakers raised questions about a letter she signed in 2017 supporting Amy Coney Barrett for a federal appeals court position.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont released a statement saying Sandra Slack Glover had notified him of her decision to step aside. His announcement came four days after his nominee, a federal prosecutor with no judicial experience, appeared at a confirmation hearing before the Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee. In an unusual move, the panel had held off from voting on her confirmation.

Throughout the week, it become increasingly doubtful Glover had enough support to clear a vote of the committee, despite urgings by the Lamont administration.

“Attorney Sandra Slack Glover would have been an extraordinary justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court” Lamont said in a written statement. “I stand by that, and I stand by her as a lawyer of experience, character, and compassion, while respecting her decision today to withdraw from consideration.”

Email and phone messages were left seeking comment with Glover. Lamont said he will consider other candidates who share his “values” and who are “dedicated to the principles of justice equality and fairness under the law” in the coming months.

As Gov. Tim Walz sat down to sign two new gun restrictions into law, Rachael Joseph was at the back of the large pack of supporters, holding aloft a framed black-and-white photo of her late aunt, Shelley Joseph-Kordell.

"This has been a long time coming," Joseph said. Her aunt was fatally shot at the Hennepin County Government Center in 2003 by someone who purchased a gun at a show for $60 without a background check, Joseph said.

When Walz walked into the crowded reception room to sign the $3.5 billion public safety bill, he said, "There's a reason the room is full because a vast majority of Minnesotans have been waiting too damn long for this."

The new law expands background checks for gun sales at shows and transfers and creates a red-flag-style provision allowing family or law enforcement to petition a judge to take guns away from someone determined to be mentally unstable.

"Minnesota is a better state," Walz said after sitting down to sign the bill with former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., at his side. Giffords survived an assassination attempt in 2011 near Tucson, but was left with a traumatic brain injury. She resigned from Congress in 2012 and started an organization called Giffords to promote gun control.

"Be bold. Be courageous. The nation is counting on you," Giffords said.

A Nebraska bill combining a ban on most abortions after 12 weeks and restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender Nebraskans under 19 is poised to become law after the state’s unicameral legislature voted for its passage Friday.

Nebraska’s LB 574, also known as the “Let Them Grow Act” was first introduced to bar health care providers from performing gender transition surgeries and to restrict access to puberty blocking medication and hormone treatments for anyone under 19. It will also severely restrict most abortions at 12 weeks after legislators added a last-minute amendment to the bill on May 17.

Republican Gov. Jim Pillen has said he will sign the bill into law.

“All children deserve a chance to grow and live happy, fruitful lives. This includes pre-born boys and girls, and it includes children struggling with their gender identity,” he said in a statement after the bill’s passage. “These kids deserve the opportunity to grow and explore who they are and want to be, and they can do so without making irreversible decisions that should be made when they are fully grown.”

The measure passed by a vote of 33-15, just meeting the threshold needed, following lengthy debate and multiple efforts by opponents to delay the final vote. The chants of protesters in the halls of the state Capitol could be heard in the chamber as lawmakers spoke, with the Nebraska State Patrol arresting several people during the debate on charges ranging from disturbing the peace to obstructing a government operation.

In all the years I worked for Barack Obama, I didn’t think enough about the burdens of being America’s first Black president – in part because he bore them so gracefully.

There were bracing moments, of course, like the day, relatively early in his campaign for the White House, when Secret Service agents became a constant presence in his life, given the inordinate number of death threats against him.

There were the overtly racist memes about his citizenship and faith and worthiness, fueled by demagogues and social media, that continued throughout his presidency.

There was the startling outburst from a Southern congressman, who shouted “You lie!” during a presidential address to Congress – an intrusion that has since become more common but back then was a stunning departure from civic norms.

Among Obama’s staff, we dealt with these moments mostly as political challenges to navigate. And while he addressed issues of race, Obama rarely spoke, publicly or privately, about the unique pressures he faced personally.

It took someone else to open my eyes and cause me to think more deeply about the extraordinary burden – and responsibility – of being a trailblazer at the highest of heights in a nation where the struggle against racism is ongoing.

Sandra Slack Glover withdrew Friday as Gov. Ned Lamont’s nominee for the state Supreme Court, unable to overcome legislative questions about her commitment to upholding Connecticut’s strong reproductive rights laws.

Glover, 52, the appellate chief for the U.S. Attorney of Connecticut, was wounded by a letter she signed in 2017 on behalf of Amy Coney Barrett, the conservative destined to play a pivotal role in ending a woman’s federal right to an abortion.

Lamont is not expected to make another nomination before the General Assembly’s annual session ends on June 7.

“Attorney Sandra Slack Glover would have been an extraordinary justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court,” Lamont said. “I stand by that, and I stand by her as a lawyer of experience, character and compassion, while respecting her decision today to withdraw from consideration.”

The withdrawal came four days after the legislature’s Judiciary Committee declined to vote on her nomination Monday night, unswayed by her strong defense of abortion rights during an arduous seven-hour hearing.

Josh Gerstein
@joshgerstein

JUST IN: Biden admin asks 11th Circuit for stay of judge's orders blocking post-#Title42 immigration policies on parole of asylumseekers and 'alternatives to detention.' Doc: https://documentcloud.org/documents/23817771-posttitle42staymotca11051923

Earlier:

politico.com
Florida federal judge temporarily blocks Biden’s migrant parole policy
The ruling comes as the pandemic-era Title 42 public health restriction expires.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ legal team filed a motion Friday to disqualify U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker from handling the Walt Disney Company’s federal lawsuit against him, alleging statements Walker made in other cases show the judge is biased in favor of the entertainment giant.

The defendants claim remarks by the judge made in open court on at least two occasions could “imply he has prejudged the retaliation in question.”

The motion states: “Because that question is now before this Court, and because that question involves highly publicized matters of great interest to Florida’s citizens, the Court should disqualify itself to prevent even the appearance of impropriety.”

The DeSantis’ legal team pulled statements by the judge in two separate hearings, including in a case against former Florida education commissioner Richard Corcoran, in which plaintiffs said they feared they would face punishment as a result of “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” surveys required by a 2021 state law.

In the other case, plaintiffs claimed state officials would take action against plaintiffs’ schools if they expressed opinions that violated the Individual Freedom Act, dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act” by DeSantis.

According to the motion filed on Friday, Walker brought up Disney in the context of asking whether a record exists of people taking action against those described as “woke” and a pattern of “punitive actions.”

Since Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., left the Democratic Party last year, she’s shed hundreds of donors who now give to the Democrat hoping to take her place in the U.S. Senate.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., has raised at least $393,000 in the first quarter of 2023 from more than 300 donors who previously gave to Sinema’s Senate campaign, according to an analysis of campaign finance records from the Arizona Republic.

The sum represents about one in four dollars Gallego raised from publicly disclosed donors in the first quarter, per the Republic, and was more than the $307,000 Sinema raised in the same time period from her own former donors.

“Sinema has repeatedly broken promises and left working Arizonans behind,” Rebecca Katz, a top consultant to the Gallego campaign, said in a statement to Deseret News. “She’s lost their trust — that’s why her donors are lining up behind Ruben and his vision for Arizona’s future.”