Watch Columbia State student Grant Marsh respond to Senator Kerry Roberts, who called for higher education to be removed to “save America” in a rage last week in response to testimony he didn’t like at the Tennessee abortion ban hearings.
He has since told NBC News he was “joking”, but Marsh says that doesn’t matter – his words carry weight, and he also says Roberts is wrong, and invites him to spend the day with him to prove it.
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-3.05.29-PM.png5901030Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-12 20:06:552019-09-12 20:07:44COLUMBIA STATE STUDENT: "Doesn't Matter If Senator Roberts Was Joking About Higher Ed, His Words Matter"
Today a federal court has blocked the unprecedented Tennessee law passed this past session that restricts voter registration drives, subjecting people to unprecedented civil and even criminal penalties simply for turning in insufficient voter registration forms.
The bill was pushed through the Tennessee legislature by Secretary of State Tre Hargett after the Tennessee Black Voter Project registered over 90,000 people in 2018.
A judge had just struck down Hargett’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by voter registration groups earlier this week, undressing the bill as a naked attempt to suppress the vote. READ OUR POST about that HERE, where we went into the back story of the ugly law. In that ruling, Judge Trauger echoed many of the criticisms levied against the bill when it was being debated in the legislature.
This was a big win for the voting rights groups.
BREAKING: Federal court has blocked #TN law restricting voter registration drives. Huge victory for our clients and huge thanks to this amazing team of lawyers @CampaignLegal@aclutn@ACLU@fairelections
Here’s the federal court’s opinion in its entirety. A win for democracy. Hopefully it will hold.
“[T]hat voting is the ‘political right . . . preservative of all rights,’ is not just a comforting aphorism; it reflects … that, in the American system of governance, every decision to grant, preserve, or take away a right can be traced … back to an election.”
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/img_5392.png10722048Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-12 15:24:342019-09-12 15:24:34BLOCKED! Sec. Hargett's Voter Registration Criminalization Bill Blocked By Federal Court
“You’ve been able to effectively train your people to believe I don’t care about myself, my baby, my community, and as long as you can keep that going there will never be an opportunity for white Tennesseans to believe they have something in common with black Tennesseans.”
And below you can watch Cherisse read the full testimony she tried to give during the #TNAbortionBan Senate committee hearings before Senator Mike Bell cut her off. He let a man who said he “remembers being born” go on much longer.
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-4.03.17-PM.png5861038Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-10 21:06:082019-09-10 22:13:03VIDEO: Cherisse Scott Fires Back At Senator Kerry Roberts
In the aftermath of his opposition to higher education becoming national news, Senator Kerry Roberts called his heated, triggered rant a “joke” and “hyperbole”… but here’s his pal Senator Mark Pody saying the same things DURING A DEBATE.
Sure seems to be what they actually believe. Why run from it?
FLASHBACK: Watch TN GOP Senator @mark_pody tell the same “joke” about abolishing state-backed higher education during his campaign against @ElectMaryAlice.
Is this “hyperbole” too, @kerryeroberts? Sure seems to be what y’all believe. Why lie??
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-11.27.06-AM.png456810Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-10 16:28:342019-09-10 16:28:34FLASHBACK: Senator Pody Also Wondered If We Should Do Away With State-Backed Higher Ed
Watch a group of immigrants in Nashville turn out to vote for immigrants running for office in Nashville.
Election Day is September 12th!
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-10.18.18-AM.png472830Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-10 16:01:152019-09-10 16:01:15VIDEO: "HATE WILL NEVER WIN" - TIRRC Votes Day of Action On Immigration
In response to passionate abortion ban hearing testimony from Cherisse Scott of Sister Reach – a pro-reproductive freedom witness who called Republican legislators to account for failing to expand medicaid, raise the wage to a living wage, support public education, and other public policies that should be supported by anyone who is truly “pro-life” – State Senator Kerry Roberts called for ending higher education in Tennessee on his radio show.
Presumably because that’s where Cherisse and others learn to support policy positions Roberts opposes. Yes, he lays abortion squarely at the feet of Tennessee’s colleges.
Watch and Share, and feel free to holler at Senator Roberts HERE.
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-09-at-2.20.23-PM.png7421324Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-09 19:25:522019-09-09 19:25:52VIDEO: Senator Kerry Roberts Wants to "Get Rid" of Higher Education in America
A federal judge today said a lawsuit from the League of Women Voters, the American Muslim Advisory Council, Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, Rock the Vote, Memphis Central Labor Council, and Headcount challenging Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s new voter registration criminalization bill – which passed this past session despite outcries from protestors about the constitutionality – is allowed to proceed, striking down Hargett’s motion to dismiss the suit.
The bill came on the heels of the Tennessee Black Voter Project registering over 90,000 voters in 2018, a fact Hargett insisted had no bearing on his decision to push it through. A likely story.
NEW VIDEO: “KEEP VOTER REGISTRATION LEGAL!”
Despite protests, TN House Republicans passed #HB1079, which would make it the first state to criminalize voter registration efforts… just 6 months after TN Black Voter Project registered 90,000.#SB971 Awaits a vote in the senate. pic.twitter.com/Jmr3MD8lmY
U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger expressed much skepticism of Hargett’s bill in the decision, essentially pointing to all the things those who spoke out against the bill warned about during discussion of the bill in the legislative session, including the chilling effect it would have on voter registration efforts.
As Judge Trauger says:
“Restricting voter registration drives in order to try to preserve election commission resources is like poisoning the soil in order to have an easier harvest.”
She wondered about some key elements of the bill, for instance why people who are getting paid to registered voters should be subject to requirements those working for free would not be subject to:
“The Act’s two-tiered system both lack justification in its own right and undermines any claim that its provisions are truly necessary.”
Judge Trauger also says there is “no basis for requiring registration workers and volunteers mandatory government training.”
She went on to talk about the punishments leveled by the bill against registration workers, saying that it “punishes a person for doing too much of something it requires them to do” by essentially requiring them to turn in forms even if they’re incomplete – something many, including Senator Jeff Yarbro, pointed out during committee.
Judge Trauger notes that the punishment for turning incomplete forms is not levied on a % basis, but on a total basis of over 100 incomplete forms, which means “the result is The Act holds an organization to an increasingly more onerous standard the more effective it is at recruiting new voters.”
Which is likely EXACTLY the intention of the bill.
The Bill also imposes an additional penalty in each county where the violation occurred, which Judge Trauger pointed out is especially onerous and flies in the face of the interest of the state in actually registering voters.
That assumes the state is actually trying to register MORE voters, but more and more it seems Tennessee is perfectly fine being at the very bottom in voter turnout and voter registration.
Judge Trauger then points out how vulnerable these voter registrations are financially, since they are not backed by large and wealthy institutions, and says that the grand total of the penalties amounts to them being “attacked from all sides.”
She calls it a “complex and punitive regulatory scheme”, instead suggesting public education rather than an “intrusive prophylactic scheme true bad actors would likely evade regardless.”
At the end, Judge Trauger uses the exact language used by opponents of the bill to allow the suit to continue, pointing out that it will have a “chilling effect” on voter registration – which we have heard from groups registering voters in Tennessee is happening already.
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/img_5304.png10722048Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-09 15:13:162019-09-09 15:36:12MOTION DENIED: Lawsuit Against Sec. Tre Hargett's Voter Registration Criminalization "SCHEME" Allowed to Proceed
Yesterday Tequila Johnson, co-founder of the Equity Alliance and statewide director of the Tennessee Black Voter Project, testified before the House Judiciary committee about voter suppression, calling Tennessee “Ground Zero” for it.
Tequila has been on the front lines battling voter suppression in Tennessee. The Black Voter Project registered over 90,000 voters in 2018, leading to a backlash from the GOP supermajority and Tennessee Secretary of State, who passed an unprecedented law criminalizing voter registration in Tennessee, which has already had a chilling effect on voter registration efforts, which was likely the intent.
Watch a piece of Tequila’s testimony below, and go HERE to watch it in its entirety. And read more about the voter registration criminalization law HERE.
Lawsuits are underway to stop Hargett’s law.
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-06-at-11.05.05-AM.png508904Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-06 16:07:502019-09-06 16:07:50VIDEO: Tequila Johnson of The Equity Alliance Testifies Before Congress About TN Voter Suppression
In a week in which America was yet again rocked by gun violence, newly minted Tennessee House Republican Party caucus chair Rep. Jeremy Faison has taken to Twitter to minimize the problem of gun deaths in America, using misstated facts to do it.
“Gun-related deaths are no where even close to the problem that liberals make them out to be,” Faison told a commenter:
Faison’s tweet came as a reply to a response to an earlier tweet where he had posted “pesky facts” above a post from @RealSaavedra, who listed other causes of death in America on a per day basis, including abortion, heart disease, cancer and more.
It’s a familiar talking point in anti-gun safety law conservative circles:
Faison keyed in on the “All Rifles” item at the bottom, which makes the point that only 1 American dies each day by rifle on average.
What this widely circulated statistic obviously and intentionally leaves out is all the deaths and shootings caused by non-rifles. In actuality, Every day, 100 Americans are killed with guns and hundreds more are shot and injured. Over 100,000 Americans are shot on average each year, far more than other countries – which means Faison turning the stat for “rifle deaths” into “gun-related deaths” in his follow-up tweet was either intentionally misleading, or yet another big mistake on Faison’s part.
It wouldn’t be the first flub from Faison in which he made up his own gun-related *fact* to help prove his ultimate point, which is apparently that that guns in America are really no big deal.
This past session Faison was on a committee that passed a gun permit-weakening bill which made it possible for Tennesseans to get a permit to carry a gun nearly everywhere in the state simply by taking a quick course online, without ever even having to fire one on a range. In addition to online courses, they could read blogs about such topics as 300 blk vs 5.56 NATO, which might be relevant for learning about the different types of ammo used for different guns, helping form a better understanding of gun use.
After fact-filled, emotional testimony from witnesses including Beth Joslin Roth of the Safe Tennessee Project, who demonstrated clearly that stronger gun laws do in fact save lives, Faison confidently informed Beth that despite all the numbers she presented to the contrary tighter gun laws don’t lead to fewer gun deaths – because if they did, the Bahamas wouldn’t have so many homicides, since according to Faison you can get the death penalty for illegally carrying a gun there.
Where had Jeremy heard this, you might ask? According to him, he heard it from a “Bohemian” he knew in college. (He meant Bahamian. Sigh.)
To his minimal credit, he apologized and retracted his *fact*. But for a man who sits on a committee that makes laws in Tennessee to be presenting false information that was so loosely sourced is a pretty devastating indictment not only of Faison, but of the level of accountability GOP Supermajority lawmakers are currently facing in Tennessee.
Inevitably, that permit-weakening law passed, and Faison has since been elected chair of the TN GOP caucus. But one thing hasn’t changed: Faison is still making up *facts* about guns to minimize a very real, very tragic problem, which makes all of us, and our children, much less safe.
Again, studies of the issue in general have shown repeatedly there is a relationship between stricter gun laws and a lower amount of guns, and gun deaths. Even Justice Scalia said you can support the 2nd Amendment while still supporting some common-sense gun safety laws. Moreover, more people need to understand gun safety and gun laws as it appears that not everyone does. For example, the gun laws for Wisconsin residents aren’t the same for Tennessee residents. Therefore people have to look up and understand those laws too, especially if they are planning on taking a gun out of their state. It is just one of the many factors one must consider before buying a gun, others being the intended use and if you are prepared to use them safely (more info here).
If you have a problem with state legislators putting out false information about serious issues like gun safety, then make sure they hear it. Holler at Faison HERE.
At a town hall in Maury County yesterday a local man named Greg Heller, who asked Rep. Scott Cepicky and Senator Joey Hensley why the TN GOP continues to block medicaid expansion and let Tennesseans die unnecessarily when expanding medicaid would cost the state nothing, and we lose $1.4 Billion every single year we don’t do it.
Tennessee is at the bottom in health care access, opioid deaths, infant mortality rates, the list goes on… we’re #1 in rural hospital closures per capita and medical bankruptcies. Medicaid Expansion would help all of it, and cost us nothing.
Also, important to remember – Cepicky says they want to “proceed with caution” when it comes to federal dollars, but TENNESSEE IS ALREADY ONE OF THE MOST FEDERALLY DEPENDENT STATES at 36% of the state budget. Do he and the TN GOP want to give that money back?
HOLLER AT YOUR REPS and tell them Greg’s right – there’s no excuse. Expand Medicaid.
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-04-at-9.53.41-AM.png510914Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-04 15:41:272019-09-04 15:46:46VIDEO: REP. CEPICKY & SEN. HENSLEY SCHOOLED ON MEDICAID EXPANSION
