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Nebraska, Missouri abortion rights ballot measures face legal challenges ahead of certification deadlines
Abortion rights ballot measures in Nebraska and Missouri are facing legal challenges ahead of looming certification deadlines.
Missouri Judge Christopher Limbaugh on Friday ruled against an abortion rights ballot measure in the state, agreeing with a lawsuit that alleged the “petition violated state law by failing to provide voters with a list of Missouri laws that would be repealed, directly or by implication,” should it pass.
The proposed measure aimed to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution, prohibiting any government interference related to the procedure.
Missouri organizers behind the ballot measure are hoping to appeal Limbaugh’s decision in front of the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to stop an injunction — but Tuesday is also the deadline for ballot changes. If the court decides not to intervene, then an injunction would go in place, officially striking the ballot measure.
“The court’s decision to block Amendment 3 from appearing on the ballot is a profound injustice to the initiative petition process and undermines the rights of the 380,000 Missourians who signed our petition demanding a voice on this critical issue,” Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, said in a statement.
Abortion is illegal in Missouri with exceptions relating to the life and health of the mother.
In Nebraska, which has a 12-week abortion ban, two dueling abortion petitions were set to appear before voters this November — but it is now unclear if voters will be given either option.
One measure would provide a fundamental right to an abortion until fetal viability, but it is facing legal challenges over whether it meets the single-subject requirement.
A competing ballot measure would prohibit abortion in the second and third trimester, “except when a woman seeks an abortion necessitated by medical emergency or when the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest.”
On Monday the Nebraska Supreme Court heard oral arguments about the lawsuits.
“We think the rights amendment clearly qualifies under the single subject test. We think the restrictions amendment probably does as well under this Court’s jurisprudence. However, if the Court were to apply a more tightly focused, stricter approach to the single subject test, as urged by the relators in the prior case, we think that the restrictions amendment clearly would fail that test far, far before the rights amendment would,” Attorney David Gacioch argued.
The deadline to certify ballots in Nebraska is Sept. 13.
Abortion has become a potent political issue since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for the procedure and making it a state issue.
Statewide ballot measures in support of the procedure have since seen success, and this November similar measures will appear before voters in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, South Dakota, Colorado, New York, Maryland and Montana.
Democrats have rallied around abortion rights, and the fight for reproductive freedom has become a central pillar for the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris campaign.
On the campaign trail, Harris has repeatedly said that former president Donald Trump will sign a national abortion ban into law. Trump insists he supports the issue being left to the states, and while he called the six-week ban in Florida “too short” of a time period, he still announced his plans to vote against a ballot measure that would prohibit restrictions on the procedure up until fetal viability.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
