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Anti-Gay GOP State Lawmaker Unveils New, More Dangerous Weapon Against LGBT Rights

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Expert Says Georgia Senator’s First Amendment Defense Act Is ‘RFRA on Steroids’

If 2015 was the year of RFRA madness, 2016 may be all about FADA fever. 

The bad news is, so-called First Amendment Defense Acts (FADAs) are generally worse than Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs). In fact, one LGBT legal expert called Georgia’s FADA “RFRA on steroids.” 

This week, Georgia freshman GOP state Sen. Greg Kirk — a former Southern Baptist pastor — introduced a state version of a proposed federal law designed to give virtually every individual and entity — from government employees and contractors to for-profit businesses — a license to discriminate against same-sex couples, even legally-maried ones, and their children. Similar bills have been introduced in at least four other states, Illinois and Oklahoma, Virginia and Washington. 

Kirk, who is in his first term, was elected in 2014 and won the GOP primary by just 222 votes. There was no Democratic challenger.

“The consequences of FADA would be devastating, if upheld,” constitutional law scholar Anthony M. Kreis writes at GeorgiaPol.com. “The fear of discrimination against LGBT persons, women, and others, that stokes opposition to the proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Act is – unlike [with] RFRA — a feature of FADA and not a bug.” 

Kirk’s Senate Bill 284 would prohibit government from “taking discriminatory action” based on a person’s belief that “marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman” or that “sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.” 

In other words, SB 284 could allow any “person” — which the bill defines as “any individual, corporation, partnership, proprietorship, firm, enterprise, association, public or private organization of any character, or other legal entity” — to discriminate against gay couples, their children, single parents, unmarried couples, pregnant women and others, based on religion. 

Although some are calling it “the Kim Davis bill,” Kirk maintained at a press conference Thursday SB 284 wouldn’t allow government employees to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

However, Kreis notes that SB 284 doesn’t define “public officer” or “official duties.” Moreover, he writes, the bill would violate free speech and equal protection under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, respectively, because it favors a particular viewpoint and singles out LGBT people. 

“Do not be fooled,” he writes. “FADA is not an accommodation law for religious objectors. It is, however, a blunt tool to browbeat and demean LGBT Georgians, unconventional families, and unmarried individuals deemed morally corrupt.” 

Lambda Legal called Kirk’s bill “divisive” and “dangerous,” saying it would unleash “legal havoc” and effectively treat for-profit businesses like churches. 

“It encourages discrimination, invites litigation, and collides with fundamental rights protected under the US Constitution,” the group said. 

The Human Rights Campaign called SB 284 “despicable” and “reckless,” adding that it “threatens to create a breakdown of state government services.” And Georgia Equality said the FADA “flouts the rule of law.”

“This legislation sets a dangerous precedent — we can’t pick and choose which laws we want to follow based on our personal beliefs,” Georgia Equality wrote. “This bill not only exposes married same-sex couples and their children in Georgia to harm, but it risks imperiling our state’s economy.” 

The bill could cost the state’s economy $1 billion, according to Georgia Equality, which pointed to recent surveys showing damage to Indiana’s business reputation as a result of the state’s passage of a RFRA in 2015. After weeks of intense economic backlash, the Indiana Legislature passed an emergency “fix” clarifying that the RFRA doesn’t sanction anti-LGBT discrimination. 

Kirk claims his bill — which would also nullify local nondiscrimination ordinances — is needed to protect business owners against being “criminalized.” 

Watch Kirk’s press conference below. 

Some responses via Twitter:

 

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Trump Urges Judge Aileen Cannon to Keep Jack Smith Report Secret

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President Donald Trump is urging U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block any release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his investigation into the president’s alleged mishandling of hundreds of classified documents, in a case that had been charged in part under the Espionage Act.

On Tuesday, Trump argued in a court filing that Smith’s report should never be made public, in what would be a deviation from previous practice, Politico reported.

The president urged Cannon, whom he nominated to the bench, “to extend her 11-month-old order blocking the Justice Department from releasing the full report, which Smith submitted shortly before Trump’s second inauguration.”

READ MORE: Trump Seen Struggling to Stay Awake Repeatedly in Cabinet Meeting Video

In the court document, Trump’s attorney, Kendra Wharton, wrote that allowing the report to become public would “perpetuate Jack Smith’s unlawful criminal investigations and proceedings.”

Politico noted that the president’s filing “is infused with the typical disdain Trump has expressed for his former prosecutors, labeling Smith a ‘so-called special counsel’ and saying the case was ‘marred by numerous deficiencies and repeated abuses of office.'”

Smith dropped all charges against Trump after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a highly controversial ruling, found that presidents have extensive immunity from prosecution for official acts.

READ MORE: GOP Touts ‘Gulf of America Act’ in Bold New List of Party ‘Accomplishments’

“Trump’s request is a break from the Justice Department’s handling of all special counsel reports in recent decades,” Politico added. “Typically, those reports are provided to Congress and made public, even when they have included damaging findings about the incumbent administration.”

The day after Trump was inaugurated, Judge Cannon denied the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to share Smith’s report on his investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents with Congress. Her order came just hours after Trump signed an executive order to hold former government officials accountable for “unauthorized disclosure” of “sensitive” information, and “for election interference.”

Cannon refused to allow members of Congress to review Smith’s final report. Trump was investigated for alleged unlawful removal, retention, and refusal to return sensitive, classified, and top-secret documents, reportedly including nuclear and defense secrets. The FBI executed a lawful search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and residence to retrieve some of the documents.

READ MORE: ‘No Republicans Willing to Negotiate’: Health Care Subsidy Deal in Doubt

 

Image via Reuters

 

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Trump Seen Struggling to Stay Awake Repeatedly in Cabinet Meeting Video

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Once again, President Donald Trump appeared to struggle to stay awake, this time during his mid-Tuesday televised Cabinet meeting. At several points, the president was filmed with his eyes closed, occasionally reopening them while seeming disengaged.

In one 30-second clip, the president’s eyes close numerous times, then Trump nods when he is mentioned. In a shorter clip, Trump also struggles to keep his eyes open, as his hand holds up his head.

In a 23-second clip, the president is hunched over, slouching in his chair, his eyes closed in what could be described as appearing to nod off.

Trump slouches and appears to try to listen as HUD Secretary Scott Turner speaks, in this 79-second video.

READ MORE: GOP Touts ‘Gulf of America Act’ in Bold New List of Party ‘Accomplishments’

In a 17-second clip, journalist Aaron Rupar wrote, “Trump’s face is becoming contorted as he desperately tries to cling to consciousness.” In another, he called the president “Dozy Don.”

But in perhaps the most extreme capture of the president appearing to doze off, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks, Trump is totally hunched over, his eyes closed, his head then falls forward, and he appears to try to wake up before seemingly falling back asleep.

While this is not the first time the president has appeared to fall asleep on camera, it comes after a massive late-night social media spree, in which Trump posted or reposted over 150 times, as Alternet reported.

Axios’ Marc Caputo noted that “Trump went on a Truth Social bender last night, posting 158 times from 9pm Monday to 12am Tuesday Just before 5:30 am, he started hitting social media again.”

The media is beginning to notice.

READ MORE: ‘No Republicans Willing to Negotiate’: Health Care Subsidy Deal in Doubt

Last week, The New York Times published an in-depth look at Trump’s “signs of fatigue.”

“Mr. Trump appeared to doze off during an event in the Oval Office,” one week after Halloween, the Times noted.

The president “has fewer public events on his schedule and is traveling domestically much less than he did by this point during his first year in office, in 2017, although he is taking more foreign trips,” according to the Times. “He also keeps a shorter public schedule than he used to. Most of his public appearances fall between noon and 5 p.m., on average.”

“During an Oval Office event that began around noon on Nov. 6,” the Times added, “Mr. Trump sat behind his desk for about 20 minutes as executives standing around him talked about weight-loss drugs.”

“At one point, Mr. Trump’s eyelids drooped until his eyes were almost closed, and he appeared to doze on and off for several seconds. At another point, he opened his eyes and looked toward a line of journalists watching him. He stood up only after a guest who was standing near him fainted and collapsed.”

READ MORE: Student’s Bible-Based Essay Grade Leads University to Put Instructor on Leave

 

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GOP Touts ‘Gulf of America Act’ in Bold New List of Party ‘Accomplishments’

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Speaker Mike Johnson in a House Republican leadership press conference on Tuesday told reporters, “Republicans are not just going to hold onto the majority,” in 2026. “We’re going to grow it.”

Earlier, during their conference meeting, Johnson “told House Republicans that he expects the GOP to defy history in 2026 — win more seats/not lose majority — due to their performance this year,” Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported. “The party in power usually loses seats in a midterm.”

At the press conference, as reported by The Hill’s Emily Brooks, Republicans displayed three large posters detailing “House GOP Accomplishments.” The three posters list less than three dozen successes. Many of them are not related to what President Donald Trump ran on — mainly, reducing the cost of living for Americans.

READ MORE: ‘No Republicans Willing to Negotiate’: Health Care Subsidy Deal in Doubt

Among the thirty-plus accomplishments is the passage of the “Gulf of America Act,” which directs federal agencies to observe President Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.

The posters also brag that they defunded USAID, NPR, and PBS.

Reports, including from The New Yorker, charge that defunding USAID has or will lead to the death of hundreds of thousands, including children:

“As of November 5th, it estimated that U.S.A.I.D.’s dismantling has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.”

In July, the UCLA Newsroom reported that “USAID cuts may lead to more than 14 million deaths globally, including 4.5 million children under 5 by 2030, researchers say.”

READ MORE: Student’s Bible-Based Essay Grade Leads University to Put Instructor on Leave

The House GOP’s posters also brag that they passed President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which is responsible for gutting about $1 trillion from Medicaid. It also effectively forces cuts of hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, and takes a large chunk out of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The posters also claim the GOP passed 331 bills, codified 67 executive orders, and accomplished the “Total Defeat of Government Shutdown.”

Bloomberg News’ Erik Wasson added that “One of the accomplishments is passing 3 out of 12 annual spending bills that were due Oct. 1.”

READ MORE: Fox Host Urges Defense of America’s ‘Christian Culture’ Against Communism

 

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