Florida Advances Abortion Ban and No-Permit Gun Carry; Wisconsin Judge’s Win Shifts Court Balance

The Guardian staff reports that the Florida state’s Senate voted 26-13 to pass the “Heartbeat Protection Act,” a six-week abortion ban. Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis quietly signed a bill allowing Florida residents to carry guns without a permit. The six-week abortion ban is expected to be passed by the House next week, but with a challenge to the current 15-week ban before the Florida Supreme Court, abortion will remain legal up to 15 weeks until that decision comes down later this summer. With the new gun law, Florida has become the 26th state that allows residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit. Concurrently, in Wisconsin, voters supported Judge Janet Protasiewicz by a margin of 11 points, flipping control of the state’s Supreme Court. Judge Protasiewicz put “a woman’s freedom to make her own decision on abortion” at the center of her campaign. PRRI research finds that 64% of Americans say abortion should be legal in most or all cases.

Nebraska’s Fight Over Transgender Care Turns Personal and Snarls Lawmaking

Ernesto Londoño for The New York Times reports that a group of Democrats have been filibustering for more than a month, bringing Nebraska’s state legislative business to a near halt over a bill that would ban medical care for transgender minors. Senator Megan Hunt, who has a transgender son, has become “a central, if largely unspoken, reason that Democrats in the state have gone to war in a bid to block the bill,” which would outlaw puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries. Following a Biden administration decision that required schools receiving free and reduced-cost meals from the federal government abide by a nondiscrimination policy that covers gender identity and sexual orientation, several attorneys general, including Nebraska’s, jointly sued the federal government.

Not Just Stormy Daniels: Prosecutors Cite Two Other ‘Catch and Kill’ Instances

Becky Sullivan for NPR writes that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case argues that Trump regularly employed a “catch and kill” scheme to bury negative information during his first presidential campaign, falsifying business records to cover his tracks. Prosecutors cited three instances Trump allegedly “orchestrated” with executives at American Media Inc., the company that publishes the National Enquirer. The first was when AMI paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed he knew about a child that Trump had fathered outside of his marriage. Both the second and third center around women who allege affairs with Trump and were both paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. PRRI research finds that nearly half of Republicans (49%) and white evangelicals (46%) who approved of Trump’s presidency declared there is almost nothing Trump could do to lose their approval. Becky Sullivan for NPR writes that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case argues that Trump regularly employed a “catch and kill” scheme to bury negative information during his first presidential campaign, falsifying business records to cover his tracks. Prosecutors cited three instances Trump allegedly “orchestrated” with executives at American Media Inc., the company that publishes the National Enquirer. The first was when AMI paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed he knew about a child that Trump had fathered outside of his marriage. Both the second and third center around women who allege affairs with Trump and were both paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. PRRI research finds that nearly half of Republicans (49%) and white evangelicals (46%) who approved of Trump’s presidency declared there is almost nothing Trump could do to lose their approval.

MLK’s Vision of Social Justice Included Religious Pluralism

Former PRRI Public Fellow Roy Whitaker writes for The Conversation U.S. that “In an age of polarization, it is worth remembering that one of the pillars of King’s philosophy was pluralism.” At the March on Selma, protesters united from a mix of faiths, including Jewish leaders, Catholic priests and nuns, Episcopal seminarians, and Unitarian Universalists like James Reeb, who was murdered shortly after. King was influenced by cultures and religions across the world, from Gandhi, to Greek classics, to Buddhist leaders like Thich NhatHanh, and famously stated that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justiceeverywhere.” Whitaker writes: “[V]ivid imagery like “the great world house” underscored how King interpreted all persons and all faiths as living in an interconnected web. King said he hoped at his funeral, someone would mention that he “tried to love somebody. … I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.” ​​

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Read PRRI’s full report “American Bubbles: Politics, Race, and Religion in Americans’ Core Friendship Networks” here.