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A Florida court ruling on Sunday marked a win for criminal justice and voting rights. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that the right to vote for hundreds of thousands of felons who have completed all the terms of their sentence, including probation and parole, is not dependent on their ability to pay back court-ordered fees and fines. The decision honors the will of Florida voters, who overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 that overturned the law preventing those with felony convictions from ever voting again. Conditioning a person's right to vote on their ability to pay is unconstitutional, and it's encouraging to see the judicial system affirm it this week. —Mindy Finn
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1. 'The coronavirus is not yet contained'
Those words from Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn help explain the modified Memorial Day celebrations that took place across the U.S. yesterday. For every crowded boardwalk and ill-advised pool party, there were many more smaller gatherings of socially distanced friends and family in face masks. And that's good, because nationwide, the number of coronavirus cases rose, and Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization, warned of a "second peak" of COVID-19 cases in areas where the virus is declining. —Associated Press
- — No masks allowed? Not all Americans are on the same page about the pandemic. A Kentucky convenience store put up a sign that read "NO face masks allowed in store. Lower your masks or go somewhere else. Stop listening to [Kentucky Gov. Andy] Beshear..." Similar signs were posted at stores in California and Illinois. Anti-lockdown protesters argue that it is anti-American for the government to curtail people's freedoms in order to reduce COVID-19 deaths. —The Guardian
— The anti-maskers' anti-hero rides again. President Trump spent the holiday weekend making a maskless Memorial Day appearance, tweeting insults, advancing baseless claims, and playing golf. Thankfully, he got some pushback. After he tweeted a false story claiming that Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough was involved in the death of an aide in 2001, Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger urged the president to "stop spreading it, stop creating paranoia," because "it will destroy us." Exactly. —Newsweek-
- — Trump still wasn't done. The president also took to Twitter to call Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb an "American fraud" and endorse Lamb's Republican opponent, Sean Parnell. Though it was a fairly typical tweet for Trump, it was widely criticized for its timing on Memorial Day, as Lamb is a Marine veteran. —CBS News
More: Memorial Day even more poignant as veterans die from virus (Associated Press)
4. What's new in voting and elections
Florida District Judge Robert Hinkle has ruled that a state law requiring felons to pay any outstanding court fees and fines before they can register to vote is unconstitutional. The case stems from a constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters in 2018, which overturned a 150-year-old law permanently preventing felons from voting. In 2019, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill limiting the law only to those who have successfully paid their court-related debts. Hinkle said DeSantis' bill discriminates against those who cannot afford to pay and is a violation of the 24th Amendment, which says the right to vote shall not be denied "by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax." —NPR
- — Speaking of Florida, President Trump tweeted yesterday that he has "zero interest" in moving the Republican National Convention to his golf resort in the Sunshine State, just hours after he suggested the August convention would have to move out of North Carolina unless Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper agrees to allow thousands to gather for the convention. This isn't his first clash with Cooper. Earlier this month, Trump accused Cooper of "playing politics" with his state's reopening. —Forbes
— Swing states are starting to worry. A critical swing state in 2016, Pennsylvania could, like a handful of other states, determine the outcome of the 2020 election. Trump won the state in 2016 by only 44,000 votes. This year, coronavirus-related election accommodations might mean the results could be up in the air for days. Montgomery Co. Commissioner Ken Lawrence, who chairs the Board of Elections there, said, "The reality is that all of our counties are going to be in that same situation, and it will take a while to actually count the ballots." —Politico-
- — Coronavirus craters new voter registration. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, voter registration efforts have largely gone online this year, which is fine for the 40 states that allow people to register online. But for around 28 million people in nine states, voters are required to register with a paper application. That restriction has severely limited 2020 voter registration, particularly among young people, minority groups, and naturalized immigrants in those states. —Axios
More: Holloway: It's time for Utah's leaders to make their voices heard on vote-by-mail (Deseret News)
8. Trump's fight against oversight faces resistance
As President Trump continues to fire inspectors general within the executive branch, many lawmakers are concerned at the erosion of independent oversight. Some lawmakers are trying to take action, but it is still unclear how efforts to protect inspectors general from being fired without cause holds up legally.
- — In recent weeks, Trump has fired inspectors general from the Defense, Transportation, State, and Health and Human Services departments, as well as the intelligence community.
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- — "For the president to stand up and say, 'If I didn't appoint this IG, he's gone or she's gone. If I don't like what they're saying, I’m going to stop them from saying it'—that does not smack of an elected democracy. It smacks of a different kind of government," said Sen. Jon Tester.
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- — As lawmakers debate how to restrict Trump from firing inspectors general without cause, the Supreme Court could put a damper on their ambitions. The high court is currently reviewing a case that questions whether Congress can restrict the president from removing senior Executive Branch officials without cause. —Politico
More: Longtime Pentagon watchdog stepping down from post (The New York Times)
10. An American Story: A beautiful day in the neighborhood
Fred Rogers' favorite number was #143 because it contained the number of letters in his favorite phrase, "I love you." May 22 marked Pennsylvania's second annual #143Day, an occasion when state officials encourage people to share their acts of kindness. This year, the focus was on first responders and essential workers who are at high risk during the coronavirus pandemic.
- — #143Day began in 2019, when Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf declared the 143rd day of the year as a day of kindness in honor of the state's kindness patron and promoter, Mister Rogers, a Pittsburgh native.
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- — This year, the state launched a website asking residents to share their good deeds under the hashtag #143DayInPA, and featuring a "Show some love" button that offers suggestions on how to share kindness.
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- — "Acts of kindness should be happening always, but this is a way where there is encouragement to track it, to share it," said Gisele Fetterman, wife of Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, John Fetterman. "For me, Mister Rogers is very personal. I learned to speak English watching Mister Rogers when I was a young immigrant in this country, never knowing I’d end up in Pittsburgh." —Associated Press
Ed. Note: We are spotlighting ways that Americans are helping each other through the coronavirus crisis. Would you like to suggest an "American Story" from your local news? If so, please forward a link to the story to [email protected]. Thank you!
In the late sixties, a bunch of us from Queens County received our draft notices. We were all scared, but vowed to serve our country if called; none of us had wealthy, unethical fathers who would bribe a dishonest podiatrist to write a phony deferment note for us.
Some of us went into the National Guard, or joined the Navy, which appeared to be safer than the Army because the Viet Cong didn't have kamikaze pilots attacking carriers in the South China Sea. One of us was deferred because he learned just a year earlier that he had juvenile diabetes, which would put him in a wheelchair at 45 and kill him at 50.
But two of us, Eddie and Jimmy, went to Viet Nam. Both died in 1968, before they turned 20.
So on Memorial Day, when I look at Trump, I do not see only the bully who makes fists in front of yammering goons, or a guy who says things about women that would have gotten his head drenched in a toilet bowl if he did this in high school. I see a sniveling coward who beat the system at someone else's expense.
I have always considered Shore Boulevard in Astoria, Queens, one of the loveliest locations in America (and another local boy, Tony Bennett, agrees): Two massive bridges, the Hell Gate, and the RFK on the map (but the Triborough to me), bracketing the churning East River, and to the left, a view of Manhattan that is so near, yet so far.
Perhaps, if Donald Trump hadn't dodged the draft, Eddie or Jimmy might have been on Shore Boulevard this afternoon, and we would have gloated over grandchildren, grumbled about arthritis, and groused about President...Clinton? Biden? Romney? Kasich? —James V., New York
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