SCOTUS thwarts GOP lawmakers’ bid to seize total control of NC elections – National & International News – TUE 27Jun2023

SCOTUS thwarts GOP lawmakers’ bid to seize total control of NC elections.

Pregnant workers now have more rights in workplace.

UN says US subjects Guantanamo detainees to “cruel” treatment.

NATIONAL NEWS

SCOTUS thwarts GOP lawmakers’ bid to seize total control of NC elections

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court rejected a suit from North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature to seize total control of elections in the state.

The legislature had previously submitted a newly-gerrymandered congressional election map that would have created more Republican seats. The state’s Supreme Court rejected the map, saying it overly-favored Republicans. The state’s Republican Attorney General then sued on behalf of the legislators, arguing that the US Constitution gave total control of all election-related decisions to the legislature, under what was dubbed the “independent legislature” theory.

Had the Supreme Court decided in the legislators’ favor, it would have meant that neither state courts nor even a state’s governor would have any role in deciding election policy. The court’s rejection of the independent legislature theory ensures that states’ election policies will still be subject to executive and judicial checks and balances.

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New legislation boosts rights of pregnant workers

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act goes into effect today and will require employers to create accommodations for pregnant women in the workplace. The Act passed in 2022 under what was then a Democratic-controlled Congress and President Biden signed in on Dec. 29, 2022. 

Elizabeth Gedmark, an advocate for pregnant workers, said the PWFA will “close gaps in civil rights laws” like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The PDA outlawed discrimination against pregnant women in hiring and firing, but pregnant workers could still be pushed out of work if they required accommodations. Gedmark says the PWFA will ensure that “pregnant workers are not pushed out of jobs or forced to risk their health when they require reasonable accommodations on the job, like a water bottle to stay hydrated or a transfer away from strenuous heavy lifting”. 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

UN says US subjects Guantanamo detainees to “cruel” treatment

The very first UN inspector allowed to visit Guantanamo since it was set up as a prisoner of war camp over two decades ago has issued a damning report on the US’ treatment of detainees. Back in February, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin spent four days at Guantanamo and met with several of the prisoners being held there at the time.

Ní Aoláin praised the Biden administration for allowing her visit and was somewhat encouraged by the improvements to living conditions. However, she was appalled by stories of the prisoners. Ní Aoláin wrote that “after two decades of custody, the suffering of those detained is profound, and it’s ongoing. Every single detainee I met with lives with the unrelenting harms that follow from systematic practices of rendition, torture and arbitrary detention”.

Those abuses, she says, are ongoing. Of the 30 detainees, 19 have never been formally charged with or convicted of any crime. Some remain there despite having been cleared for release over a decade ago. These prisoners are unlikely ever to be tried or released because it would mean that details of their torture by the CIA would become public.

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