UPDATED: Judge voids Alabama law protecting Confederate monuments
Last edited Tue Jan 15, 2019, 01:25 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Associated Press
By JAY REEVES
2 hours ago
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A judge has overturned an Alabama law meant to prevent the removal of Confederate monuments from public property, ruling the act infringed on the rights of citizens in a mostly black city who are “repulsed” by the memorial.
The 10-page ruling issued late Monday by Jefferson County Circuit Judge Michael Graffeo said a 2017 state law barring the removal or alteration of historical monuments wrongly violated the free speech rights of local communities.
The law can’t be enforced, Graffeo ruled, but the state could still appeal. The attorney general’s comment had no immediate response to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
The state sued the city of Birmingham after officials tried to remove a 52-foot-tall (16-meter)-tall obelisk that was erected to honor Confederate veterans in a downtown park in 1905. Rather than toppling the stone marker, the city built a 12-foot (3.6-meter)-tall wooden box around it.
Read more: https://apnews.com/4bed1a8c4e2348e7895133d9f3dd1d65
UPDATE:
DOJ ‘Disappointed’ In Judge’s Decision Blocking Census Citizenship Question
By Tierney Sneed
January 15, 2019 11:37 am
The Justice Department issued a statement Tuesday that said it was “disappointed” with a federal judge’s decision to block the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
“Our government is legally entitled to include a citizenship question on the census and people in the United States have a legal obligation to answer,” DOJ spokeswoman Kelly Laco said in the statement.
The Census Bureau moved to add the question in 2018 at Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s direction, and the Department of Justice defended the administration in the case U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman decided Monday, which was a consolidation of lawsuits brought by advocacy groups and a multistate coalition.
Here is the full DOJ statement:
“We are disappointed and are still reviewing the ruling. Secretary Ross, the only person with legal authority over the census, reasonably decided to reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 census in response to the Department of Justice’s request for better citizenship data, to protect voters against racial discrimination. Not only has the government asked a citizenship question in the census for most of the last 200 years, 41 million households have already answered it on the American Community Survey since 2005. Our government is legally entitled to include a citizenship question on the census and people in the United States have a legal obligation to answer. Reinstating the citizenship question ultimately protects the right to vote and helps ensure free and fair elections for all Americans.”
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/doj-disappointed-in-judges-decision-blocking-census-citizenship-question
