A difficult transition

We interrupt your regular Topline intro to share some exciting news. Earlier this week, I had the great pleasure to sit down with Aynne Kokas, author of last month’s Book Corner book, “Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty.” If you were a fan of RAM Chats, you are going to enjoy my interview with Aynne:

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We had a great discussion about trafficking data and how our data is being mined and shared across the globe in ways I never thought possible. I would love for you to give it a listen, and if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and family. And stay tuned for future Book Corner chats with other authors. As always, if you have a book recommendation, please send it my way at [email protected] or find me on Twitter at @maryannamancuso —Mary Anna Mancuso, Political Strategist

Ed. Note: Just three issues left before Topline goes on a brief hiatus. Our last issue will be on May 2, then we’ll be back soon with a new and improved Topline. Any feedback to share? Let us know.

• Supreme Court retains access to key abortion drug as appeal proceeds —The Washington Post

• Chief Justice Roberts invited to testify before Judiciary Committee —NPR

• Problem Solvers Caucus advances plan to avoid catastrophic U.S. default —Times of San Diego

• EPA is preparing aggressive new rules for power plant pollution that could prompt legal challenges —CNN

• Russia says it accidentally bombed its own city, Belgorod, near Ukraine border —NPR

• Ohio Senate committee approves resolution to restrict constitutional amendments —Democracy Docket

• Oklahoma sheriff who boasted about physically confronting local DA resigns —NBC News

• Lawmaker who voted to eject ‘Tennessee 3’ resigns after sexually harassing intern —Yahoo! News

• GOP chairs ask Blinken to explain his role in 2020 public letter from ex-intel officials casting doubt on story —CNN

• Biden prepares to launch reelection bid as soon as next week —Politico

The hot button of 2023

The issue of trans rights has become as divisive as such old standbys as abortion and gun control. The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday jumped into the fray, passing a Republican bill intended to ban transgender women and girls from competing in women's and girls' school sports. The measure would change the civil rights law known as Title IX to require that a student's sex be "based on an individual's reproductive biology and genetics at birth." It has a very narrow path to full passage  however. It’s unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, and President Biden has voiced his opposition to the bill. Calling it “discriminatory,” he has vowed to veto it if it reaches his desk. —Reuters

• States have led the way. A few have already passed their own similar laws regarding women’s and girl’s sports. And some have gone even further. In a rule that affects more than just trans issues, the Florida Board of Education has forbidden the teaching of gender identity and sexuality throughout all grades in K-12 public schools, extending a nearly year-old legislative ban on such lessons from kindergarten through third grade. —The Washington Post

• Others are putting up a fight. In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday vetoed a sweeping set of anti-trans measures, including restrictions for transgender people in using restrooms, locker rooms, and other public facilities; limits on where they are housed in state prisons and county jails; restrictions on rooming arrangements for transgender youth on overnight school trips; and a ban on gender-affirming care for children and teenagers. Republicans may have enough votes to override her action however. —Associated Press

• Silenced. In Montana, Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the state’s first transgender House member, took to the floor on Tuesday to passionately argue against a bill that would ban transition care for transgender minors. The Montana Freedom Caucus responded by accusing her in a letter of “attempting to shame the legislative body,” while misgendering her and calling for her to be censured. —The New York Times

MORE: Flashback: Americans' complex views on gender identity and transgender issues —Pew Research Center

Montellaro: Good and bad news for elections

“Throughout the midterms, a handful of counties across the country threatened to not certify the election results for no good reason, with some only relenting after a court order. In some places, there is an ongoing push to hand-count ballots—something election officials of all stripes say results in costlier, slower, and less accurate elections. Experienced, apolitical election officials continue to resign or get pushed out of office, notably in Texas and in Virginia. … The good news? Even though threats to the elections system are still rampant, most local election officials—Republican or Democrat—are trying to hold fair elections.” —Zach Montellaro in Politico

Zach Montellaro is a state politics reporter at Politico, covering gubernatorial, legislative, and state-based elections; election administration on the state and federal level; and voting rights.

RELATED NEWS:

• More peril for Trump in Georgia probe than New York indictment: AP-NORC poll —Associated Press

• My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to follow through with $5 million payment to expert who debunked his false election data —CNN

• Trump team prepares to fight efforts to block him from ballots over Jan. 6. —The Washington Post

• Pezzola testimony sheds light on a lingering Jan. 6 mystery—and a critical lie —Politico

• Jan. 6 defendant fired at North Texas deputies at his home, authorities say —The Dallas Morning News

U.S. on pace to set horrific record

The U.S. is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, with 88 lives lost in 17 mass killings over the past 111 days. While the bloodshed represents just a fraction of the fatal violence that occurs in the U.S. annually, mass killings are happening with staggering frequency—an average of once every 6.53 days, according to an AP/USA Today analysis. Some states have tried to impose stricter gun control measures within their own borders. Last week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a new law mandating criminal background checks to purchase rifles and shotguns, whereas the state previously required them only for people buying pistols. And on Wednesday, a ban on dozens of types of semi-automatic rifles cleared the Washington state Legislature and is headed to the governor’s desk. But there’s little indication at the federal level that many major policy changes are on the horizon. —Associated Press

MORE: Grandson of man who shot Ralph Yarl says ‘fear’ and conspiracies consume him —NBC News

America’s youth shows how to defend freedom

By Dennis Aftergut

Reprinted from The Fulcrum

Neither youth nor the vote is wasted on the young. Events this month from Tennessee to Wisconsin to Pennsylvania have proven that young people will fight for their freedoms and rights, including the right to be safe.

As Republican state legislatures respond with youth-vote suppression laws, there are pathways open to citizens seeking to ensure a democratic future for Generation Z. More on that in a moment.

First, let’s look at their recent activism. This month, the threat of being shot in school launched student walk-outs and a protest for gun safety inside the statehouse in Tennessee. Those actions followed the shooting deaths of three children and three adults at Nashville’s Covenant School on March 27.

The students’ protest prompted a virtuous cycle: Three Democratic legislators joined the demonstrators; the Republican House majority reacted by expelling the two legislators who were Black; then, with the whole world watching, a week later, the Tennessee Assembly’s majority backpedaled in humiliation and accepted the two expelled members’ reinstatement.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee reversed course and signed an executive order aimed at strengthening background checks for gun buyers. Reinstated legislator Justin Jones poetically pronounced that “truth crushed to the ground will rise again.”

Then there’s Wisconsin. On April 4, the threat to women’s reproductive freedom drove young people to the polls in unprecedented numbers to vote for Janet Protasciewicz, the pro-choice candidate. Her election secured a 4-3 majority in favor of abortion rights.

The college student vote "was unlike anything that's ever been seen in a spring election,” according to Teddy Landis, an organizer for Project 72 WI, whose mission is to turn out young voters. The Washington Post reported about an illustrative county, Eau Claire, where the highest turnout was in the ward where the upper campus of the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire resides. Protasciewicz received 87 percent of the vote in that ward.

A day before in Pennsylvania, more than 150 high school students walked out of their classes in College Park, [h]olding signs reading ‘Stop Banning Books,’ [and] ‘Books Aren’t Obscene, Censorship Is.’ They were protesting a policy the Perkiomen Valley School Board was considering that targets “sexualized content” in library books, a right-wing talking point meant to appeal to parents.

Book-banning would seem an uncomfortable fit with the school district’s mission statement: “We cultivate an inclusive community of learners, empowered to grow intellectually, socially, emotionally.”

To borrow from Newton’s third law, for every hypocritical adult action, these kids have an equal and principled youth reaction.

As Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch wrote, “America’s young people—the ones who left their classrooms last week . . . in Nashville to plead for real action against gun violence, the ones fighting book bans in their schools and speaking out for radical action on climate—are the bravest and boldest generation this nation has seen in some time.”

Trump strategists like KellyAnne Conway have taken note: “I’m really concerned . . . that the left becomes a turnout machine with young people.”

The GOP’s current pro-gun, anti-abortion, pro-censorship course will never attract college students, so in Ohio and Idaho, they have adopted laws intended to suppress their vote. Similar legislation is pending in at least 11 other states, including Florida.

The effort is organized. As The Guardian reports, the conservative Heritage Foundation and its political arm “have spent tens of millions of dollars promoting their own model bills that impose strict restrictions on voting.”

Citizens mobilizing is the antidote to such antidemocratic measures, and we’ve seen it from young people demonstrating in Tennessee and Pennsylvania and voting in Wisconsin. Efforts to lay the groundwork for more pro-democracy action on the ground are already underway.

This month, the nonpartisan organizations the Civics Center and Open Democracy “held a training to teach students and school staff how to organize a voter registration drive” in New Hampshire. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has founded a national organization called “Democracy Summer” which “teaches high school and college students state-of-the-art tactics in voter registration and political organizing.”

Many say that we, the elder generation, have squandered our democratic heritage. While our national norms and traditional beliefs about government are surely under challenge, those working hard to preserve democracy understand that you can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time.

For all citizens who care about passing the torch of rights we were handed, participation in and support for nonpartisan efforts like those of Project 72WI, the Civics Center, or Open Democracy are surely welcome. We can back Gen Z in helping to ensure that our freedoms have not been wasted on us and are there for those taking the reins of America’s future.

Dennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor and chief assistant city attorney in San Francisco who writes on national affairs. He has argued and won cases in the Supreme Court of the United States and of California.

How about an “originalist” approach to the 2nd Amendment: it only applies to those weapons that existed in 1791 (when it was ratified). It's impossible that the framers meant it for modern weapons, with capabilities they couldn't have possibly comprehended. —Dave M., Colorado

Re: The stories of hapless homeowners shooting innocent people who mistakenly wandered onto their properties. I’m kind of surprised that a person who open carries in a public place like a coffee shop or grocery store has never been shot in error in a “stand your ground” state. I’m not by any means suggesting they should be, of course! But in our era of mass shootings, it seems like one could just as easily misinterpret the intentions of someone who comes into a public place armed to the teeth as those of someone who accidentally rings the wrong doorbell. —Rick A., Pennsylvania

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Renew America Foundation.