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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Election-Related Referenda on State Ballots <[link removed]> – This Tuesday, voters in many states will weigh in on several election integrity-related referenda. Some are good changes that would improve election integrity; others are bad and would make elections in those states less secure; and one is downright ugly—written in a way intended to fool voters. The ugly referendum is Michigan’s Proposal 2 <[link removed]>, which would make a series of damaging changes to the state’s constitution. Everyone agrees that individuals should be able to vote “without harassing conduct,” something already banned by federal law. The proposal then says that voters should verify their “identity with a photo ID,” since voters like that requirement. But that language is there to con voters into not paying attention to the rest of the proposal, which actually guts the ID provision by saying anyone can vote if they simply sign a form claiming that they are who they say they are. The proposal also makes it legal to give money to election officials and election offices to “fund elections,” opening the door for political donors to influence how elections are administered in order to benefit their favored candidates. The Michigan proposal further creates permanent absentee ballot lists, guaranteeing that ballots will go to voters who are deceased or have moved out of state; authorizes unguarded, unmonitored, unsecured drop boxes; and says that only election officials can conduct audits, which would result in election officials auditing their own behavior—a clear conflict of
interest. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakovsky <[link removed]> 
 
‘There Is Zero Accountability’: Heritage Documentary Shows Devastating Impact of Soft-on-Crime Policies on Law
Enforcement <[link removed]> – The Heritage Foundation today released a new documentary <[link removed]> on the
devastating soft-on-crime policies that are harming American communities and led to the tragic death of Sheriff’s Deputy First Class Glenn Hilliard <[link removed]> in Maryland. On June 12, 2022, Hilliard was shot and killed by Austin Davidson, a career criminal who had 29 previous interactions with law enforcement, including a conviction for armed robbery in Baltimore City. Hilliard was shot while attempting to arrest Davidson, who was wanted on three outstanding arrest warrants. Hilliard’s death followed the decision of Baltimore City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby to not send Davidson to prison after his conviction for armed robbery. Mosby, who has a history of pro-criminal policies and sweetheart plea deals, allowed Davidson to get probation before judgment for the armed robbery and walk out of the courtroom, only to commit more crimes. Charles Stimson <[link removed]>, a former prosecutor and deputy director for The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, added that “the murder of Deputy Sheriff Glenn Hilliard was entirely preventable had Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby done her job in the first place. Mosby failed to put the murderer in prison after an armed robbery, and then refused to revoke his probation after he committed three more violent crimes before he shot Hilliard in cold blood. That blood is on Mosby’s hands.” Heritage Expert: Cully Stimson <[link removed]> 
 
New Heritage Report Reveals That Blue Counties, Cities Have a Murder Problem <[link removed]> -
When you remove the crime-infested, homicide-riddled cities from the state murder rate featured in the Third Way article, you dramatically lower the murder rate for that state, upending their conclusions and exposing the article for what it really is: a straight-forward attempt at political
projection dressed up as a ‘study,’” the Heritage authors write in their new report <[link removed]>. Another claim the Left makes is that COVID-19 caused or at least contributed to the general rise in crime. But the authors note there are no reputable studies that prove that crime increased as a direct result of COVID lockdowns. “What the data does show is that crime, including violent crime, was rising in cities with the toxic trio prior to the onset of the pandemic, and that the murder of George Floyd, which happened in May 2020, resulted in a rise in murders and auto theft in key cities. Heritage Experts: Cully
Stimson <[link removed]> and Zack Smith <[link removed]> 
 
Pittsburgh students need educational freedom, not more special interest funding <[link removed]>—Pennsylvania’s leading gubernatorial candidates both support 
Lifeline Scholarships, a proposal to give students in underperforming schools around $7,000 in education funding. This is good news for Pittsburgh students, especially for those trapped in schools that aren’t meeting their needs. Pennsylvanians are desperate for fresh leadership that will finally prioritize students above special interests. Bought off 
by government unions, current politicians want to force families to send their students to their zip-code-assigned public school—all while they benefit from the best private
education that money can buy. Take 
top Washington politicians like President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who trumpet praises for public schools but send their own children
to private institutions. 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf chose to attend an elite, private boarding school in the 1960s but actively opposes scholarship programs that give other students a similar choice. If politicians exercise educational choice for their children, they should support giving their constituents access
to the same opportunities. Without it, students are confined within a broken system that assigns poor children to the state’s worst public schools. Heritage Expert: Jonathan Butcher <[link removed]> 
 
How Congressional Continuing Resolutions Hurt Defense Industrial Base <[link removed]> – The latest congressional continuing resolution, though better than a total government shutdown or a bad appropriations bill, will make matters worse. With the president’s signature on Congress’ latest continuing resolution, the federal government will continue to operate until at least Dec. 16.  While continuing resolutions hold government shutdowns at bay, the unfortunate truth is that they keep the government operating by continuing last year’s funding levels into the new fiscal year. That means that until Congress can pass appropriations for fiscal year 2023, American tax dollars will be bound up in initiatives and spending goals gone by, leaving those dollars  wasted, inefficiently spent, or allotted to last year’s projects that might not even exist anymore. That’s particularly harmful to the Pentagon and the complex web of military contractors and tech innovators that make up the defense industrial base <[link removed]>. Delays in contract settlements and funding can mean many months and millions of dollars in extra expenditures. With incredibly high entry costs, complex regulations, and a single customer—the Department of Defense—to serve, the defense industrial base is called to the challenging task of providing timely, innovative, and cost-effective products to the military. To do that, it must have adequate, sustained, and predictable funding—provisions that continuing resolutions do not provide. Heritage Expert: Maiya Clark <[link removed]> 
 
Transgender ‘Treatments’ for Kids Are Hiding in Plain Sight on the Ballot in 2 States, Critics
Warn <[link removed]> – Michigan’s Proposal 3 <[link removed]> would establish a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” in the state constitution. The proposal’s text says this “entails the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care” (emphasis added). The state’s Planned Parenthood chapter has disputed the claim that this amendment to the Michigan Constitution would have any impact on what it calls “gender-affirming care for minors.” Vermont’s Proposal 5, which would add a new Article 22 to the Vermont Constitution, states “that an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the
liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.” Neither measure stipulates that the reproductive “right” in question applies only to adults above age 18, and neither says that it applies only to women or to abortion <[link removed]>. Critics argue that the inclusion of sterilization in the Michigan list is deliberate, and that both constitutional amendments would enable courts to declare controversial transgender medical interventions a fundamental “right” for minors, excluding their parents from such decisions Heritage
Expert: Tyler O’Neil <[link removed]> 
 
The Supreme Court has upheld racial preferences before. But this time is different <[link removed]> – Asian immigrants have succeeded
because they have mostly followed traditional American norms. They have <[link removed]> lower rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births, and their children spend more hours doing homework. To CRT, these norms sustain white supremacy. “The concepts of ‘merit’ and ‘qualifications’ have a function only in relation to existing social practices,” CRT architect Gary Peller wrote <[link removed]> in 1990 in the Duke Law Journal. “Once we consider the possibility that existing social practices might reflect the domination of particular racial groups, those practices can no longer provide a neutral ground from which to defend existing definitions either of qualifications or of merit.” What this new generation of Chinese Americans is demonstrating is
that these norms simply lead to individual success, no matter what hue your skin is. It is unconscionable that these hard-working students are being kept out of schools like Harvard based on the color of their skin. The Supreme Court has a responsibility to rectify this injustice and prevent it from ever happening again. Heritage Expert: Mike Gonzalez <[link removed]> 
 
In Big Win for Free Speech, Federal Court Rules That Beauty Pageant Need Not Include Transgender
‘Female’ <[link removed]> - File this one under “outcomes we could have predicted.” A federal court last week <[link removed]> determined that a beauty pageant association could exclude a transgender “female” (i.e., a male) from participating in one of its contests. The decision Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit was a major win for the First Amendment right to be free from compelled speech. In Green v. Miss United States of America, LLC <[link removed]>, transgender activist Anita Green claimed that the pageant’s policy of allowing only “natural born” women to compete violated Oregon’s anti-discrimination law, called the Oregon Public Accommodations Act <[link removed]>. That law prohibits discrimination on account of—among other things—sex or sexual orientation in places of public accommodation. Heritage Expert: Sarah Parshall
Perry <[link removed]>  
 
It’s fair to ask President Biden what he plans to do about migrants <[link removed]> – With Biden's Open Windows border policies, more are going to come. The administration's immigration policy team reportedly is planning a new program to allow ordinary American citizens or even temporary residents to sponsor refugees -- all while making no effort to re-install the Migrant Protection Protocols or use Title 42 to reduce demand. Meanwhile, what about integrating and settling refugees successfully in our communities? What cities and towns are going to be able to sustain this unprecedented, relentless inflow of needy people, as we head into economic recession? Will the federal government borrow to pay for it indefinitely? Having let in a record number of illegal immigrants, even the Biden administration knows that not
all will be granted asylum and many have to be deported. What's their enforcement strategy? The White House needs to answer these questions. So far, all they've done is complain about border governors sending illegal immigrants to Democratic strongholds such as Washington, D.C., New York City and Martha's Vineyard. The White House accuses the governors of playing politics with these migrants, but the only reason they're here in the first place is because of the administration's political decision to open the border. Heritage Expert: Simon
Hankinson <[link removed]>

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