Taking Action: Moving from Despair to Hope, workshops Aug 29-30, 4 to 5 p.m. each day on Zoom
This two-part EquaSion workshop combines faith, first-hand stories, and tools to help your congregation tackle systemic racism. EquaSion is an interfaith coalition in Cincinnati and this free workshop is part of EquaSion’s week-long Festival of Faiths.
Taking Action Session 1 on Aug. 29 opens with the mandate shared by many faiths: we cannot stay on the sidelines where there is injustice. Drawing on Cincinnatians’ direct experience with the criminal justice system, health care disparities, and environmental racism, we’ll explore what’s broken and what gives us hope. Register here for Session 1
This session includes an exciting case study of successful environmental activism which led to the commitment (including millions of dollars) by multiple levels of government to relocate the Cincinnati Police Firing Range from its current location adjoining multi-family housing in Lincoln Heights, where children must endure the terrifying sound of gunfire and police loudspeakers for hours many days a week. Cincinnati Vice-Mayor Jan Michele Lemon Kearney, a Cathedral parishioner, played a major role in the negotiations that led to this breakthrough.
Taking Action Session 2 on Aug. 30 provides tools for sacred activism. We’ll chart a range of actions from direct service to community organizing, and demonstrate the Ohio Legislature’s free online tools for contacting legislators and tracking bills and committee activity. We’ll conclude with discussion on using these resources as you put your own faith into action, as well as with your congregation. Register here for Session 2.
Ohio citizens submit ballot language for new quest to stop gerrymandering in Ohio
Working as a coalition called Citizens Not Politicians, proponents have collected several thousand signatures on a proposed constitutional amendment to stop partisan gerrymandering in Ohio. With bipartisan support including retired Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, and retired Supreme Court Judge Yvette McGee Brown, a Democrat, the group submitted the ballot language to Secretary of State Frank LaRose for review on Aug. 14. This is the first hurdle to getting it on the ballot in 2024. The proposal includes many safeguards against conflict of interest – including prohibiting current elected officials, lobbyists, and people who have run for office or worked for political parties in the previous six years – from serving on Ohio’s redistricting commission. It also includes many new steps to increase public input and transparency.
The complex measure is designed to end the impunity with which the Ohio Redistricting Commission repeatedly defied the anti-gerrymandering rules voters put in Ohio’s constitution by overwhelming majorities following the extremely gerrymandered redistricting in 2011. We’ll cover this in more detail next week.
Alabama redistricting battle continues in federal court; outcome will have national significance
In June, the US Supreme Court upheld a lower federal court’s ruling that Alabama’s 2021 Congressional redistricting plan violates the Voting Right Act. The federal judges ordered Alabama to create a second majority-Black district or something ‘close to it’ so Black voters have a realistic chance to elect a candidate of their preference. The 2022 Congressional election – conducted with the illegal map – produced six white members of Congress and one Black representative in a state whose population is over 25% African-American.
The Supreme Court’s decision was unexpected by many and incredibly important for preserving the Civil Rights Act’s protection against gerrymandering that deprives African-Americans of equal representation. The white members of Alabama’s Congressional delegation are all Republican.
In July, following the Supreme Court decision, the Alabama Legislature passed a new map reducing the size of the African-American majority in one district from 55% to 51% and creating a district in which just under 40% of voting-age are African-American. Gov. Kay Ivey signed it into law.
Now plaintiffs have brought the new map to the same three-judge Federal panel that found the previous map unconstitutional. The hearing took place Aug. 14. The federal panel is poised to assign a special master to draw new maps, but the state could try to get the US Supreme Court to review the case to accept what Alabama drew.
“The fight has attracted national attention, with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy previously telling POLITICO that he had been in contact with state lawmakers as the redraw process was going on. It is also the first of a handful of redistricting cases in the South that could create new Democratic-leaning seats across the region,” reports Politico.
“’This doesn’t just affect us, this case is precedent setting,’ Alabama RNC member Paul Reynolds said at a recent party meeting, according to the Alabama Daily News. ‘Louisiana is right behind us, they’re facing the same problem we are. They’re next in line, and what is decided in our case is going to hit Louisiana right between the eyes.’”
In the Aug. 14 federal panel hearing on Alabama’s latest Congressional map, “all three judges pointedly asked the state’s lawyer whether Alabama had ignored their finding that the state should have a second district where Black voters have an opportunity to elect their preferred candidates,” reported the Associated Press. “U.S. District Judge Terry F. Moorer [who was appointed by President Trump] asked if Alabama had chosen to ‘deliberately disregard’ the court’s instruction. U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus asked the state, ‘Were you not required to draw a new map (that provides a reasonable) opportunity (district for Black voters)?’”
“The judges on Monday did not indicate when they would rule,” reported Politico. “But the federal court rehearing the case has taken steps to prepare for someone other than the legislature to redraw the lines. The court appointed special master Richard Allen, an Alabama attorney, and cartographer David Ely, a California-based redistricting consultant, to redraw the lines should the court strike down the new map.
Advocacy briefings are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com
