Tag: Carolinas

12-week abortion ban will do great harm, North Carolina’s governor says

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Cooper has vowed to veto the bill, but Republican legislators hold large majorities in both the General Assembly and state Senate and could override the veto.
“They ran through a bill in 48 hours with no public input, with no amendments, that drastically reduces access to reproductive freedom for women,” said Cooper of the Republican lawmakers.
North Carolina’s laws, until now at least, have made it something of an aberration in the South, where stricter abortion laws have gone into effect in the last year, since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. “The unborn will be recognized as having a fundamental right to be born, and mothers will get our unconditional support. It’s time to catch up with the science that affirms parenthood before birth,” said Rep. Sarah Stevens, a Republican member of the General Assembly of the new legislation.
Cooper characterized the measure as harmful to women’s health.
“North Carolina has become an access point in the Southeast,” he told Brennan. “And what this legislation is going to do is going to prevent many women from getting abortions at any time during their pregnancy, because of the obstructions that they had put here. Many of these clinics are working very hard to treat women, and now they’re going to have many new medically unnecessary requirements that I think many of them are going to have to close.”
Cooper said he was hopeful that at least one Republican would decide not to override his veto.
“We only need one Republican to keep a promise,” Cooper said. “At least four Republican legislators made promises to their constituents during this campaign that they were going to protect women’s reproductive freedom. They only have a supermajority by one vote in the Senate, and one vote in the House. And we’ve seen Republicans across the country step up. We saw them step up in South Carolina, we saw them step up in Nebraska, because they know that people don’t want abortion bans.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 8, 2023
North Carolina’s high court seems inclined to toss past redistricting rulings

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Republicans in the state, if the case breaks their way, could put a new map in place that would have 11 Republican-leaning districts and three Democratic-leaning ones — a significant boost for Republicans’ hopes of keeping the U.S. House.
Three key North Carolina justices signaled a degree of hostility to the arguments brought by attorneys representing the groups that defended the current congressional maps in the state.
The court is taking up the question of fairness of the state’s maps after the makeup of the court changed last November — now-Justices Richard Dietz and Trey Allen won a pair of state Supreme Court seats that flipped the balance of the court from a 4-3 liberal one to a 5-2 conservative one.
Dietz, Allen and Chief Justice Paul Newby — who was in the minority in last year’s 4-3 ruling — were the only three conservative justices to speak during Tuesday’s hour-long arguments in Raleigh.
Newby suggested in his questioning that there was no way for the courts to properly adjudicate what actually would constitute a “fair” map in the state — and suggested the question might be better left to lawmakers. He pressed Lali Madduri, an attorney who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs, on how lawmakers and judges should interpret metrics used to measure partisan fairness, and if advisers to the court who either make those measurements or draw the lines should be subject to an ethics code.
“How does the General Assembly determine that ‘all voters have equal voting power?’” he asked, implying it wasn’t feasible.
Allen, at one point, seemed to say arguments against gerrymandering could spin out of control. He picked up on a line of questioning from Newby, wondering if the court should apply those principles of fair elections to county and municipal elections — or even school boards or other local offices.
The two Democratic judges left on the North Carolina high bench sought to defend their past majority opinion. Justice Anita Earls pushed Phillip Strach, who represented Republican lawmakers, on his arguments that the court did not have jurisdiction to determine the fairness of the maps and that it was a political question left to lawmakers.

“How can it be left up to the people?” Earls asked. “If the maps don’t fairly reflect the voting strength of the people of the state, aren’t you essentially seeking to prevent voters from exercising control over their own government?”
The newly-conservative majority’s decision to grant a rehearing of the case is something that rarely happens in the state. It will also rehear arguments for a voter ID case on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s arguments, and the court’s subsequent decision, could also imperil a pending U.S. Supreme Court case that has been closely watched because of its potential to sharply constrain or eliminate the power of state courts, governors and election officials to issue important decisions about election administration by advancing what’s known as the Independent State Legislature theory.
At arguments in that case in December, a majority of the justices seemed to coalesce around a middle-ground position that would preserve roles for various actors at the state level and not fulfill the worst fears of Democrats by giving state legislatures something approaching free rein over elections, constrained only by federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
No ruling has yet been issued in that case, but earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court justices reacted to the North Carolina high court’s rehearing order and instructed the parties to file briefs addressing whether the state court’s move impacted how the federal court should handle the case. Those filings are due in Washington on Monday.
However, on Tuesday in Raleigh, a lawyer for some of the civil rights groups trying to preserve the state Supreme Court’s earlier ruling, Sam Hirsch, tangled with one of that court’s justices, the newly-elected Dietz, for refusing to address his question about whether the state court should stand aside until the U.S. Supreme Court acts.
“Do you have a view on that?” Dietz asked.
“We will be filing in the U.S. Supreme Court on March 20 our views on the relationship between those two cases. I have nothing to add to that,” Hirsch said, before trying to move on to other aspects of his argument.
“Oh … I’m a justice on the Supreme Court of North Carolina,” Dietz said indignantly. “We’re hearing this case. So, I’m asking for your legal view on that for us. We need to assess that. So, I’d ask you what your view is? … Why can’t you answer my question right now?”
Hirsch demurred again, saying the various plaintiffs in the case need to come to agreement on a position and suggesting they haven’t done so yet, but will be sure to share the filings to the U.S. Supreme Court with the North Carolina justices.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 15, 2023
U.S. downs Chinese spy balloon off Carolinas coast

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“They decided the best time to do that was when it got over water,” Biden said.
“On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.”
The FAA on Saturday restricted airspace over three cities in the Carolinas after Biden pledged “we’re going to take care of it” during a stop in Syracuse, N.Y.
Later Saturday, Biden smiled and flashed a thumbs up to reporters when asked if the U.S. was going to shoot down the balloon, as he boarded Air Force One at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in New York.
The FAA said flights to and from Wilmington, Myrtle Beach International and Charleston International airports were resuming Saturday afternoon.
“Other airspace has been reopened. Normal operations resuming,” a spokesperson said.
U.S. officials began tracking the balloon over U.S. territory on Jan. 28, when it was seen over Alaska, according to a senior Defense official. It then entered Canadian airspace on Jan. 30, and re-entered U.S. airspace over northern Idaho on Jan. 31.
The president asked for options on Tuesday, the official said. On Wednesday, Austin convened the chief of U.S. Northern Command, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and other senior leaders to discuss the way ahead.

While DoD had a “shot window” to take down the balloon over Montana, military commanders “just didn’t feel like we could buy down the risk enough over land,” the person said.
Defense officials estimated debris from could fall in at least a seven-mile radius, a senior military official said, so the decision was made to hold off.
At the president’s direction, the Pentagon developed options to bring down the balloon “safely over our territorial waters, while closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities,” Austin said.
On Friday night, Biden was briefed on the plan to shoot down the balloon and approved it, according to a senior administration official.
On Saturday, an F-22 stealth fighter jet from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, shot a single AIM-9X air-to-air missile that took down the balloon, the senior Defense official said. The mission was supported by F-15s from Barnes Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts and tankers from multiple locations.
This was “the first available opportunity to successfully bring down the surveillance balloon in a way that would not pose a threat to the safety of Americans,” the official said.
There are no indications that any people, civilian aircraft or maritime vessels were harmed in any way.
The U.S. will now work to recover any debris and any material of intelligence value from the balloon. Multiple U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels are in the region to help with the recovery mission, the senior military official said. The debris is in just 47 feet of water, which will make the recovery “fairly easy, actually,” the person said.
While the Pentagon worked to bring down the balloon, officials also took steps to protect against the balloon’s ability to collect sensitive information, the person said. Its flight path took it over some sensitive military installations.
The balloon’s flight was also of intelligence value to the United States, the official noted.
“I can’t go into more detail but we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment,” the person said.
The mission was closely coordinated with the Canadian government, Austin noted.
Late Saturday, China called the shooting down a “serious violation of international practice,” and threatened repercussions. China has denied that it was using the balloon to spy on the U.S., saying it was a civilian airship used to monitor weather that blew off course due to unexpected wind.
U.S. officials spoke directly with Chinese officials following the operation, according to the senior administration official. The State Department also briefed allies and partners around the world.
The presence of the balloon had further strained an already tense U.S.-Chinese relationship, and a public downing of the vessel isn’t likely to improve ties. Still, it will help Biden on the domestic political front, where he’s facing calls, especially from Republicans, to be even tougher on Beijing.
Throughout the week lawmakers had called on Biden to address the potential threat, with Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who chairs the panel that oversees the Pentagon’s budget, calling the balloon a “clear threat” to national security.
On Saturday, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said in a statement: “The balloon should have been shot down before it crossed the continental United States, not after. We still don’t know what information was collected and where it was sent. This was a dereliction of Biden’s duty, and let’s hope the American people don’t pay a price.”
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said: “I applaud our servicemembers for completing a successful mission to neutralize a spy balloon sent by the Chinese Communist Party. I remain deeply concerned by the Biden administration’s decision to allow the spy balloon to traverse the United States.”
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the president’s actions. “I strongly condemn President Xi’s brazen incursion into American airspace, and I commend President Biden’s leadership in taking down the Chinese balloon over water to ensure safety for all Americans. Now we can collect the equipment and analyze the technology used by the CCP.”
It’s not the first time a Chinese spy balloon has entered U.S. air space, the Pentagon official said, noting at least three times during the previous administration and once at the beginning of this administration — but never for this duration of time.
“This was a PRC surveillance balloon,” a senior administration official said. “This surveillance balloon purposely traversed the United States and Canada and we are confident it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites. Its route over the United States near many potentially sensitive sites contradicts the PRC government explanation that it is a weather balloon.”
“This is not the only PRC surveillance balloon operating in the Western Hemisphere. A second balloon that was observed transiting Central and South America is another PRC surveillance balloon. In fact, these balloons are all part of a PRC fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries,” the official added.
News of the balloon led to a discussion among State Department and agency leaders inside the administration about whether to cancel Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned visit to Beijing this weekend. Ultimately, the decision was made to postpone, not cancel, though it’s not clear when Blinken will now go.
Adam Cancryn, Oriana Pawlyk and Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.
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#U.S #downs #Chinese #spy #balloon #Carolinas #coast
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 4, 2023