CBS News
Battle over abortion access stretches to state supreme court races
Washington — As abortion continues to be a focal point of Democrats’ campaigns for Congress and Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the White House, the issue has also taken on a prominent role in state supreme court races as judges are tasked with determining access.
Voters in at least 30 states will decide who will fill 69 state supreme court seats in judicial elections, with the ideological balances of two high courts — in Michigan and Ohio — at stake. In both of those states and several others, including North Carolina, Kentucky and Montana, state high courts have decided high-profile cases and could see their compositions shift in November.
In anticipation of the roles they’ll play, advocacy organizations are spending big on state supreme court elections this year. Planned Parenthood Votes and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee committed to investing at least $5 million on state supreme court races this cycle, and Planned Parenthood Votes is spending $2 million in Montana specifically.
The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that the state constitution recognizes the right to abortion, but a change in its makeup could lead to a reversal of that decision. Voters will cast ballots to fill the seats of two retiring justices, who were backed by Democrats.
The ACLU of Michigan is investing $2 million in the state’s supreme court races, where two seats are on the ballot, and the group is also focusing on Montana and Ohio’s judicial contests through its Voter Education Fund.
On the other side, the Republican State Leadership Committee and Fair Courts America, a PAC tied to GOP donor Richard Uihlein, are targeting judicial elections in many of the same states with the goal of electing conservative judges.
“The front lines of the battle”
The heightened focus — and spending — on these races arose after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which cleared the way for states to enact their own laws restricting access to or protecting abortion. Twenty-three states have curtailed abortion access since Roe’s reversal and 14 of those have put in place near-total bans with limited exceptions.
As a result, state judges have been tasked with interpreting those laws and just how far their exceptions go. Voters in seven states have also weighed in on abortion rights directly through ballot measures, and access is on the ballot in 10 more states in November.
While the pro-abortion rights position has succeeded in all seven states so far, state courts are hearing disputes over the language of the approved constitutional amendments, with more likely on the horizon after next month’s contests.
“When there are abortion measures on the ballot, voters go to vote and enshrine abortion into the state constitution and they may think, our job is done. That right is protected,” said Douglas Keith, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. “But as we’ve seen, any constitutional amendment is still going to have boundaries that are being interpreted by courts. What court is going to be interpreting that newly passed amendment can be really significant in determining what that right consists of.”
JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
Litigation following the adoption of a state constitutional amendment is already underway in Ohio, where voters in 2023 approved Issue 1, a constitutional amendment that established the right to abortion. In the first ruling on the merits of the measure, a county judge in August blocked laws requiring a 24-hour waiting period for abortions. The state is appealing the decision.
Republicans currently have a 4-3 majority on the Ohio Supreme Court, and three sitting justices are on the ballot. If Democratic candidates win all three seats, control of the court would flip. But if Republicans are victorious in all three races, the party would expand its majority to 6-1.
“In a post-Roe v. Wade environment, there’s a high-profile issue that is being decided in various kinds of ways at the state level, and state supreme courts can be an important part of that,” said Kyle Kondik, an election analyst at the University of Virginia.
State supreme courts have the final word on questions of state law. Before the nation’s highest court unwound the constitutional right to abortion, outside groups largely focused on state judicial races because of the role those courts play in redistricting disputes. The nation’s high court in 2019 closed the doors of federal courts to cases involving partisan gerrymandering, leaving the states as the final adjudicators of legal battles over district lines drawn to entrench the party in power.
But the attention paid to these races rose significantly in the summer of 2022 as the issue was returned to states.
“We always had Roe to fall back on at the federal level, so we didn’t have state supreme courts playing as big of a role in people’s access to abortion care,” Katie Rodihan, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes, told CBS News. “Now they’re the front lines of the battle.”
The first two state supreme court elections held after Roe was overturned were the most expensive, Keith said. In Wisconsin, the April 2023 race for a single supreme court seat saw $51 million in total spending. In Pennsylvania, at least $22 million was spent in its November 2023 race, according to a Brennan Center analysis.
During the 2021-2022 election cycle, stakeholders spent more than $100 million on state supreme court elections, the Brennan Center found, $45.7 million of which came from outside interest groups.
“It is a new era in terms of the attention on these races,” Keith said.
Twenty-two states hold elections for members of their supreme courts, and 14 of those races are nonpartisan. In the remaining eight, candidates are listed with political affiliation.
In Ohio, the inclusion of party labels started in 2022 after state GOP lawmakers approved legislation to list certain judicial candidates’ political affiliations.
The heightened attention on these races can lead to judicial elections — and the decisions coming out of the state supreme courts — becoming more partisan, which threatens to blur the distinctions between these contests and others for the state legislature or federal office.
“It’s harder for the public to be confident their judges aren’t partisan in the way every other elected official in the state is,” Keith said. “That trust that judges are different deteriorates as these elections stop looking different and look like every other statewide election.”
But Keith said for nonpartisan races, the last election cycle showed that “when voters are not bound by their party loyalty, when party labels aren’t on the ballot, they’re expressing this idea that they don’t want judges to be like any other elected official.”
Still, it’s unlikely the emphasis on state supreme court elections will dim: Rodihan, of Planned Parenthood votes, said this won’t be the last election cycle where the group is focused on these races.
“It’s going to be critical for us to make these investments going forward,” she said. “There’s no doubt in our minds that state supreme courts will be battleground races.”
CBS News
Axe taken from crime scene after Montana camper’s brutal murder, authorities say, as killer remains at large
Two weeks after a camper in Montana was savagely killed in his tent, authorities say they are looking for a large axe and other items that were likely taken from the crime scene.
Dustin Kjersem, 35, was found dead in his tent earlier this month by a friend who reported Kjersem appeared to have been killed by a bear — but officials soon discovered the camper was actually the victim of a brutal murder.
In a social media post, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office said it’s continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the homicide and asked the public to be on the lookout for a large axe and several items that are “believed to have been removed from the scene of the crime.”
Specifically, authorities said they were looking for a blue and silver Estwing camp axe, likely with a 26″ handle, as well as a Remington 11-87 12ga shotgun and Ruger Blackhawk .44mag revolver. The sheriff’s office said it was also looking for an orange Tundra 45 cooler made by YETI.
“If you see these items, don’t touch them and immediately report them,” the office said in the post, which included images of the axe and cooler.
“We appreciate the information that has been provided by the community and multiple leads are being investigated,” the office added.
Earlier this month, a friend discovered Kjersem’s body in a tent at a makeshift campsite along Moose Creek Road and called 911, telling responders the death appeared to have been caused by a bear attack, the sheriff’s office previously said.
But a state wildlife official found no signs of bear activity, and investigators said they soon found evidence of a “vicious attack.” An autopsy later showed Kjersem sustained “multiple chop wounds,” including to his skull.
“He was brutally killed at his campsite and we need your help,” Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer said previously, adding that his detectives were working “all hours of day and night to find his killer.”
Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office
No suspects have been identified, and Springer said the remote area of the crime scene, where there is no cellphone service, was making the investigation more difficult than most cases.
“People have asked me if there’s a threat to this community and the answer is we don’t know. We don’t have enough information to know at this time,” he said.
Kjersem’s sister Jillian Price said her brother was a skilled tradesman and a doting father.
“I don’t understand why the world’s just not stopping and looking for who did this to him,” Price told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “Please, I mean he deserves that. I need that.”
A GoFundMe set up for Kjersem’s children has raised more than $24,000.
CBS News
Gérard Depardieu skipping hearing on alleged sex assaults of 2 women, lawyer says, citing health reasons
Paris — French actor Gérard Depardieu, who is facing trial for the alleged sexual assaults of two women on a film set in 2021, won’t appear before a criminal court in Paris on Monday due to health reasons, his lawyer said.
Depardieu, who previously has denied any wrongdoing, is accused of using “violence, coercion, surprise or threat” in the alleged assault, which prosecutors said took place on the set of “Les Volets verts” (“The Green Shutters”).
Lawyer Jérémie Assous said doctors say the actor’s health doesn’t enable him to appear for the opening of the trial on Monday.
Alessandro Bianchi / REUTERS
Depardieu “is deeply affected and unfortunately his doctors don’t allow him to appear at the hearing,” Assous told France Info radio.
Assous said he will ask the court for the postponement of the trial because his client “wishes to come, wants to express himself.”
Prosecutors say that in both cases, victims reported that the 75-year-old actor trapped them between his legs and groped their buttocks, genitals, chest and breasts over their clothes.
The trial was scheduled as France continues to reckon with sexual violence in the wake of the #MeToo movement that struggled to find traction, especially in the cinema industry.
One woman’s allegations
One of the victims has been identified as a 53-year-old production designer. The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify victims of sexual assault without their consent. Her lawyer did not respond to an AP’s email on that matter.
According to Paris prosecutors, the woman told investigators that she’d first heard sexual remarks from Depardieu and then one day, as she walked past him, he had “grabbed her, pulled her toward him, blocked her with his legs, and groped her waist, hips and chest, accompanying his gestures with obscene remarks.”
Three people witnessed it, prosecutors said, confirming that the woman made an attempt to break away from Depardieu’s grip and that she seemed “shocked.” A psychiatrist’s examination resulted in her being granted a seven-day leave.
After the incident, it was arranged for Depardieu to apologize. But in a TV interview aired Saturday, the woman said the actor was furious and blamed her for causing trouble. Prosecutors said witnesses confirmed that what Depardieu had said did not constitute an apology.
In the interview with French online news site Mediapart, the production designer – who spoke on camera but only gave her first name – said the alleged assault had taken a toll on her personal and professional life for at least 1 1/2 years. She said she could not sleep well, suffered anxiety attacks and lost weight.
The woman, according to prosecutors, said it had taken her a while to file a complaint but she decided to do so after hearing on television that there had never been an incident during the shoot.
Another woman’s allegations
The month before the alleged assault, another woman also working on the film’s set had complained about Depardieu, Paris prosecutors said.
A director’s assistant told investigators Depardieu had touched her buttocks on several occasions. She had expressed her disapproval and in return, Depardieu, she said, had been insulting toward her. She was also given a six-day leave by a psychiatrist.
Assous, Depardieu’s lawyer, told the AP in an email Saturday that “the witnesses and evidence (Depardieu) will produce will demonstrate that he is the target of false accusations.”
Despite the allegations against Depardieu, many have come out in his support, including French President Emmanuel Macron.
Late last year, 56 French performers, writers and producers published an essay defending the film star, saying that when “Gérard Depardieu is targeted this way, it is the art (of cinema) that is being attacked.
Prior allegations
Their call came just weeks after national broadcaster France 2 put out a documentary outlining accusations of sexual misconduct by 16 women against Depardieu and showed the actor making obscene remarks and gestures during a 2018 trip to North Korea.
In the footage, Depardieu can be seen making groaning sounds and sexual comments in front of women, including a girl about 10 years old who is horseback riding. He can also be seen posing for a photo, saying he was “touching the bottom” of a North Korean interpreter by his side.
He was charged in 2021 with rape and sexual assault after authorities revived a 2018 investigation that was initially dropped, following allegations from actor Charlotte Arnould.
In an open letter published in the conservative-leaning newspaper Le Figaro, Depardieu said last year: “I have never, ever abused a woman.”
The actor was long seen as a national icon in France. He has been a global ambassador for French film and enjoyed international fame with several roles in Hollywood.
Earlier this year, actor Judith Godrèche called on France’s film industry to “face the truth” on sexual violence and physical abuse during the Cesar Awards ceremony, France’s version of the Oscars.
Godrèche had previously alleged two prominent filmmakers sexually abused her when she was a teen, sending new shockwaves through the industry.
More recently, the ongoing trial of 50 men accused of raping a woman who had been previously drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband shook the country. Protests spread nationwide last weekend in support of the victim, a mother and grandmother in her early 70s, who has become a hero to many victims of sexual violence for insisting that her trial be open to the public.
CBS News
McDonald’s says Quarter Pounders will be sold again after beef patties ruled out as E. coli source
Los Angeles — McDonald’s announced Sunday that Quarter Pounders will again be on its menu at hundreds of its restaurants after testing ruled out beef patties as the source of the outbreak of E. coli poisoning tied to the popular burgers that killed one person and sickened at least 75 others across 13 states.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to believe that slivered onions from a single supplier are the likely source of contamination, McDonald’s said in a statement. It said it will resume selling the Quarter Pounder at affected restaurants — without slivered onions – in the coming week.
As of Friday, the outbreak had expanded to at least 75 people sick in 13 states, federal health officials said. A total of 22 people had been hospitalized, and two developed a dangerous kidney disease complication, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. One person died in Colorado.
Early information analyzed by the FDA showed that uncooked slivered onions used on the burgers “are a likely source of contamination,” the agency said. McDonald’s has confirmed that Taylor Farms, a California-based produce company, was the supplier of the fresh onions used in the restaurants involved in the outbreak and that they had come from a facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
McDonald’s pulled the Quarter Pounder burger from menus in several states – mostly in the Midwest and Mountain states – when the outbreak was announced Tuesday. McDonald’s said Friday that slivered onions from the Colorado Springs facility were distributed to approximately 900 of its restaurants, including some in transportation hubs like airports.
The company said it removed slivered onions sourced from that facility from its supply chain on Tuesday. McDonald’s said it has decided to stop sourcing onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility “indefinitely.”
The 900 McDonald’s restaurants that normally received slivered onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility will resume sales of Quarter Pounders without slivered onions, McDonald’s said.
Testing by the Colorado Department of Agriculture ruled out beef patties as the source of the outbreak, McDonald’s said.
The department of agriculture received multiple lots of fresh and frozen beef patties collected from various Colorado McDonald’s locations associated with the E. coli investigation. All samples were found to be negative for E. coli, the department said.
Taylor Farms said Friday that it had preemptively recalled yellow onions sent to its customers from its Colorado facility and continues to work with the CDC and the FDA as they investigate.
While it remains unclear if the recalled onions were the source of the outbreak, several other fast-food restaurants – including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King – pulled onions from some menus in certain areas this week.
Colorado had the most illnesses reported as of Friday, with 26 cases. At least 13 people were sickened in Montana, 11 in Nebraska, 5 each in New Mexico and Utah, 4 each in Missouri and Wyoming, two in Michigan and one each in Iowa, Kansas, Oregon, Wisconsin and Washington, the CDC reported.
McDonald’s said Friday it didn’t pull the Quarter Pounder from any additional restaurants and noted that some cases in states outside the original region were tied to travel.
The CDC said some people who got sick reported traveling to other states before their symptoms started. At least three people said they ate at McDonald’s during their travel. Illnesses were reported between Sept. 27 and Oct. 11.
The outbreak involves infections with E. coli 0157:H7, a type of bacteria that produces a dangerous toxin. It causes about 74,000 infections in the U.S. annually, leading to more than 2,000 hospitalizations and 61 deaths each year, according to CDC.
Symptoms of E. coli poisoning can occur quickly, within a day or two of eating contaminated food. They typically include fever, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea and signs of dehydration – little or no peeing, increased thirst and dizziness. The infection is especially dangerous for children younger than 5 and people who are elderly, pregnant or who have weakened immune systems.
