by #PemaLevy in #MotherJones:

"The ruling doesn’t necessarily stop at LGBTQ discrimination. It opens the door for discrimination against people based on their race, religion, sex, national origin, and disability. Drawing a line between free speech for people with anti-LGBTQ views and for those who oppose interracial marriage, interfaith marriage, or simply any activity by people of a disfavored group is likely to be impossible. This came up repeatedly during oral arguments, during which Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked whether a photographer offering nostalgic photoshoots with Santa could restrict his service to white children to preserve a vintage vibe the photographer might aim to capture. The lawyer for the web designer, Kristen Waggoner, conceded not only that his discrimination might be allowed, but also that Supreme Court itself would be forced to draw such lines. During the hearing, Justice Sonia Sotomayor similarly wondered whether a web designer with eugenicist views could refuse to make a disabled couple’s a wedding website."

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/supreme-court-gay-wedding-website-colorado/

#discrimination #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ #LGBT #SupremeCourt #SCOTUS

by #PemaLevy in #MotherJones:

"Owen, 62, endured years of abuse as a child, a brain injury, and mental illness, according to a 1999 court issued sentencing order. He has also been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Until his parents’ deaths—his mother passed when Owen was 11, his father committed suicide when he was 13—he grew up in a home filled with sexual abuse. Owen then entered an orphanage where where sexual abuse was also rampant and he began using drugs and alcohol. The 1999 sentencing order notes that Owen had suffered 'one of the more horrific childhoods' the court had seen. In 1981, a jacked-up car fell on his head, causing brain damage. In 1984, he assaulted and killed two women. He has repeatedly told psychiatric experts examining his mental state that he thought the assaults would help him into a woman."

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/ron-desantis-death-penalty/

#Florida #DeathPenalty #CapitalPunishment #LethalInjection #execution #DeathRow #MentalIllness #schizophrenia #insanity #BrainDamage #SexualAbuse #GenderDysphoria

by #PemaLevy in #MotherJones

"Fort Bragg, one of the largest military bases in the country, officially became Fort Liberty on Friday, the first of nine military bases in the South that will ditch their confederate namesakes."

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/fort-bragg-fort-liberty-confederate-name-change/

#FortLiberty #FortBragg #confederate #confederacy #MilitaryBases #military

by #PemaLevy in #MotherJones:

"'DeSantis, we need to remember, is a product of Harvard Law,' says University of Miami law professor Mary Anne Franks. 'His attempts to punish Disney, for instance, his attempts to restrict what private employers are doing—he knows that that violates the First Amendment,' she adds. 'What he is trying to figure out is, can he remake the law? Can the new, far-right conservative movement, which seems to be a kind of might-makes-right movement, can he put that into effect?'”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/ron-desantis-autocracy/

#RonDesantis #Desantis #Florida #fascism #authoritarianism #HarvardLaw #Harvard #Disney #FirstAmendment #1stAmendment