The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pentagon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pentagon</a> worked closely with experts on facial recognition technology that could be used to identify people on footage captured from street cameras or drones.
New information about the government’s research was revealed in a trove of thousands of documents released as part of an open records lawsuit filed by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Civil Liberties Union</a> (ACLU) against the FBI, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/07/facial-recognition-fbi-dod-research-aclu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Post</a>. The facial recognition technology sought would significantly boost the government’s surveillance capabilities.
The program was underwritten by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA), part of the U.S. Intelligence Community. An IARPA program manager described the goal of the project in 2019 as to “dramatically improve” U.S. facial recognition tools with “scaling to support millions of subjects.”
The FBI is “committed to responsible use of facial recognition technology ensuring it appropriately respects individuals’ privacy and civil liberties,” the bureau told the Post in a statement. The Department of Defense did not immediately return The Daily Wire’s request for comment.
The research into facial recognition technology has alarmed some on Capitol Hill. Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced legislation on Tuesday that would prohibit the government from using facial recognition technology and other biotech tools, according to <a href="https://www.nextgov.com/technology-news/2023/03/lawmakers-intro-bill-ban-government-use-facial-recognition/383691/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nextgov</a>.
“The year is 2023, but we are living through 1984. The continued proliferation of surveillance tools like facial recognition technologies in our society is deeply disturbing,” Markey said in a statement. “Biometric data collection poses serious risks of privacy invasion and discrimination, and Americans know they should not have to forgo personal privacy for safety. As we work to make our country more equitable, we cannot ignore the technologies that stand in the way of progress and perpetuate injustice.”
Concerns over government use of facial recognition technology are bipartisan. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio <a href="https://fox59.com/news/republicans-and-democrats-concerned-about-facial-recognition-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in 2021 that law enforcement could be risking civil rights violations by utilizing the technology.
“There are serious first amendment, fourth amendment concerns about the use of FRT by law enforcement,” Jordan said.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
The ACLU <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/31/aclu-sues-fbi-doj-over-facial-recognition-technology-criticizing-unprecedented-surveillance-secrecy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> the FBI over the research into facial recognition technology in 2019.
“These technologies have the potential to enable undetectable, persistent, and suspicionless surveillance on an unprecedented scale,” ACLU attorneys wrote at the time. “Such surveillance would permit the government to pervasively track people’s movements and associations in ways that threaten core constitutional values.”

Surveillance camera

FBI, Pentagon Researched Facial Recognition Tech To Handle ‘Millions Of Subjects,’ Documents Say

ACLU

Facial Recognition

Pentagon

Politics

Technology

Washington D.C.

As a bill to ban sex-change procedures for minors makes its way through the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee</a> legislature, leftist groups in the state have promised legal action to stop the enforcement of the proposed law, which protects children from life-altering and irreversible procedures. 
Gender activists have used a similar playbook in other states, with judges blocking laws protecting children in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Arkansas</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alabama</a>. Now with laws working through the Tennessee legislature to ban gender procedures on children (HB/SB 1), children’s exposure to explicit performances (HB 9/SB 3), and not allowing state dollars to fund gender surgeries through TennCare (HB 1215/SB 1339), leftists groups like the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ACLU</a> of TN and Lambda Legal are already planning legal action. 
The efforts of groups like the ACLU-TN are in part funded by the world’s first transgender billionaire, Jennifer Pritzker (born James), an Illinois-based investor whose family has been <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/billionaire-family-pushing-synthetic-sex-identities-ssi-pritzkers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">known</a> to financially back the transgender movement <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/trans-activisms-long-march-through-our-institutions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">through</a> American academic, legal, and medical institutions.
Although Pritzker has not appeared to publicly come out against the recent crop of gender-related legislation, the billionaire has backed groups opposing the law and threatened monetary retribution in the past if Tennessee moved forward with legislation deemed not “inclusive.” 
Why does a native Chicagoan have such a dog in the fight in Tennessee? Largely for two reasons. Pritzker has lived in Clarksville, Tennessee, and the state is home to the Pritzker family trust, something which the billionaire cousin of Illinois Gov. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/j-b-pritzker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">J.B. Pritzker</a> (D-IL) has <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2021/04/12/lgbt-chamber-pritzker-conventions.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> could be moved.
Perhaps the clearest link between Pritzker and the transgender movement in Tennessee is the billionaire’s support of the ACLU-TN, with six-figure donations coming in both 2021 and 2022 from Pritzker’s Tawani Foundation.
The first came in July 2021 when Pritzker announced a $101,000 donation through the Tawani Foundation to the ACLU of Tennessee to “fight Tennessee’s anti-transgender laws in court.” 
“Anti-LGBTQ laws harm the economic well-being of the state, while respect for diversity and inclusion attract our nation’s best and brightest,” Pritzker <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2021/07/20/2266015/0/en/Col-Jennifer-Pritzker-Announces-Six-Figure-Donation-to-ACLU-to-Help-Fight-Anti-Trans-Laws.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a>. “I stand ready to continue the good fight as necessary, including conferring directly with Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee Legislature to find truly humane and just solutions to the issues raised by transgender equality.”
This donation followed Pritzker <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2021/04/12/lgbt-chamber-pritzker-conventions.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> that the state was not being “inclusive” and threatening to pull the private family trust from the state, assets which former Republican Gov. Bill Haslam had reportedly worked hard to bring to the state. This came as Tennessee pursued a law that would prevent males from competing in women’s sports if they identified as female. 
Despite the threats, Lee still signed a series of Republican-backed transgender bills in May 2021 and the spring of 2022, and Pritzker <a href="https://apps.tn.gov/tncamp/search/pub/report_full.htm?reportId=96150" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave</a> $4,300 to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/bill-lee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lee</a>’s re-election campaign. 
However, Pritzker has continued to back the ACLU-TN for legal and educational purposes in the Volunteer State. In 2022, the Tawani Foundation <a href="https://www.tawanifoundation.org/our-grants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave</a> the group $164,205 for the purpose of “legal work in TN to advance and defend justice for transgender individuals.”
The Daily Wire Wire reached out to the Tawani Foundation for further clarity on how money is dispersed to the ACLU-TN, but at least part of it <a href="https://www.aclu-tn.org/transcend-tennessee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">goes toward</a> the group’s TRANScend Tennessee’s “educational initiatives.” 
“The TRANScend Tennessee program leverages public education, community outreach and support, and political engagement to help change the overall narrative about trans people in Tennessee from a negative, distanced one to a positive, empathetic one,” the program’s website says. 
A stated purpose of the program is to prevent “anti-trans legislation and rhetoric” from becoming part of public policy in Tennessee. The group has also <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/advocates-promise-legal-action-in-defense-of-transgender-youth-in-tennessee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vowed</a> to take “immediate legal action against proposed restrictions on their health care currently being considered by the state legislature.”
On February 13, ACLU-TN staff attorney Lucas Cameron-Vaugn claimed that gender procedures on children were “necessary” and “effective.”
“Politicians are risking the lives of young people by forcing their way into family decision-making, a fundamental right which has traditionally been protected against government intrusion. Gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth is safe, effective, and necessary care. ACLU-TN stands ready to defend the freedom of families to make these decisions for their children. Should this dangerous legislation pass, we will see the state in court,” Cameron-Vaugn claimed. 
Interestingly, the Tawani Foundation also designated $75,000 in 2022 to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a <a href="https://www.tawanifoundation.org/our-grants/">grant</a> which was categorized as coming under the “gender and human sexuality” category. 
Vanderbilt’s gender clinic has come under fire for performing mastectomies on teenage girls and providing so-called hormone therapy to children. The Daily Wire has reached out to the Tawani Foundation for further details on the grant but has not yet heard back. 
Other beneficiaries of the Tawani Foundation in 2022 include $12,500 for <a href="https://www.tawanifoundation.org/our-grants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Athlete Ally&#8217;s</a> “transgender athlete research project,” $25,000 for trans and “non-binary” <a href="https://www.tawanifoundation.org/our-grants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">youth camps</a>, two grants totaling $100,000 for the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (a group that has <a href="https://twitter.com/tldef/status/1395489323911426053" target="_blank" rel="noopener">labeled</a> the actions of Gov. Lee “dangerous”), and $15,000 to the <a href="https://www.tawanifoundation.org/our-grants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kinsey Institute/IU Foundation</a>. 
Pritzker has also been a player in state politics, donating to the campaigns of a number of Tennessee state Democrats and Republicans in recent years, including Democratic State Rep. <a href="https://apps.tn.gov/tncamp/search/pub/report_full.htm?reportId=108208" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Caleb Hemmer</a> whose <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walsh-testifies-in-favor-of-tennessee-bill-banning-child-gender-mutilation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">back and forth</a> with Daily Wire host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Walsh</a> at a hearing over HB 1 went viral. Other Democrats who questioned Walsh who have been on the receiving end of financial support from Pritzker are Rep. <a href="https://apps.tn.gov/tncamp/search/pub/report_full.htm?reportId=96558" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Ray Clemmons</a> (who received $1,600 in 2021) and Rep. <a href="https://apps.tn.gov/tncamp/search/pub/report_full.htm?reportId=97317" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bo Mitchell</a> (who also received $1,600 in 2021). 
In recent years, Pritzker has also <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=Jennifer+pritzker&amp;order=desc&amp;page=1&amp;sort=D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">given</a> to Rep Mike Stewart (Democrat), Rep. Brenda Gilmore (Democrat), Sen. Page Walley (Republican), former Rep. Eddie Mannis (a Republican who was <a href="https://wpln.org/post/tennessees-only-openly-gay-lawmaker-speaks-out-against-ban-on-transgender-athletes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">critical</a> of the trans sports bill), former Rep. Jason Potts (Democrat), Sen. Heidi Campbell (Democrat), Sen. Sara Kyle (Democrat), and Rep. Jason Hodges (Democrat). 
Pritzker’s funding for various trans initiatives, not only in Tennessee, but also around the country, shows how money can be used to push the ideology that has spread throughout the country, in places from ruby-red Tennessee to deep-blue California, so quickly. 
Pritzker’s previous threats to pull the family trust out of the state are also indicative of the role that big business can have in attempting to intimidate conservative states from backing down on legislation (the Tennessee Pride Chamber of Commerce <a href="https://twitter.com/SouthernEqual/status/1622689872833118208" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined</a> a protest against the Republican-backed bills this month). 
Many Republicans in the state appear to be unfazed by potential pressure coming from business and legal groups. Republican House Majority Leader William Lamberth, who sponsored HB 1, told The Daily Wire that his ban on “sexual mutilation” was common sense and should be supported across the political spectrum.
&#8220;An overwhelming majority of Tennesseans agree that children should be protected from sexual mutilation and adult performances with sexual content. This should not be a partisan issue,” Lamberth said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
Lamberth added that he is confident that Tennessee, where many companies have <a href="https://www.wkrn.com/news/more-california-headquarters-choosing-to-move-to-tennessee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moved</a> in recent years, will continue to retain its reputation for being a strong business state. 
“Tennessee is a strong pro-business and pro-family state. Conservative ideas put into action over the past decade have helped our people, our businesses, and our economy thrive,” he said. “New businesses and families are flooding to our state because they know we offer better opportunities, lower taxes, and a great quality of life. I have absolutely no concerns about that trend slowing down as a result of legislation we pass in the General Assembly.”
Still, Lamberth’s bill will likely need to survive court challenges if it becomes law. And where the court battle goes is anybody’s guess.

Surgical lamps in operation room

Big Money: How The World’s First Trans Billionaire Could Impact Tennessee’s Fight To Protect Children

Big Money: How The World's First Trans Billionaire Could Impact Tennessee’s Fight To Protect Children

Chicago

Readers Pass

Social Issues

Tennessee

Transgender

U.S.

A hospital in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/memphis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Memphis</a>, Tennessee, is being threatened by the American Civil Liberties Union (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ACLU</a>) with a possible complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights unless it performs transgender surgeries.
The warning comes as Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare paused the surgery planned for 19-year-old Chris Evans, whom the ACLU claims is suffering from gender dysphoria.
“In recent weeks, some care providers voiced questions about patients receiving gender affirming procedures at a facility affiliated with our health system,” said Rachel Powers, a spokeswoman for the hospital. “This resulted in a temporary pause to review current practices.”
The ACLU claims that this pause could be a violation of federal law.
“Ending medically necessary healthcare for one particular group of people based on sex, whether by formal written policy or simply in practice, is discrimination and violates federal law,” ACLU attorney Lucas Cameron-Vaughn <a href="https://www.wfmj.com/story/47865620/memphis-hospital-halt-to-trans-procedures-is-temporary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>. “We will evaluate whether we need to file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights once we have a response from the hospital.&#8221;
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Transgender procedures have been a focus of Tennessee lawmakers for the upcoming legislative session after Daily Wire host Matt Walsh <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/its-unthinkable-matt-walsh-discusses-shocking-revelation-about-vanderbilt-university-medical-center-with-tucker-carlson?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=mattwalsh">publicized the fact</a> that certain transgender procedures had been done on minors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). After Walsh&#8217;s report, Governor Bill Lee (R-TN) called for an investigation of the Pediatric Transgender Clinic at VUMC.
“We should not allow permanent, life-altering decisions that hurt children or policies that suppress religious liberties, all for the purpose of financial gain,” Lee&#8217;s office <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gov-bill-lee-calls-for-investigation-of-vanderbilts-pediatric-transgender-clinic-following-matt-walsh-bombshell" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “We have to protect Tennessee children, and this warrants a thorough investigation.”
At the time, Walsh appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson to discuss the revelations.
&#8220;We know for a fact, this is an absolute fact, that Vanderbilt, they perform double mastectomies on minor girls, on children; they chemically castrate children, and they give them irreversible hormone drugs that change their bodies permanently. They’re doing all of that to kids,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MattWalshBlog</a> on Tucker after exposing Vanderbilt&#39;s abuse of children: &quot;They perform double mastectomies on minor girls. They chemically castrate children. That&#39;s happening all across the country in every single state.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/WV9RgTzcjR">pic.twitter.com/WV9RgTzcjR</a>
&mdash; American Firebrand (@AmFirebrand) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmFirebrand/status/1572744018819416064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 22, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In November, Tennessee Majority Leaders William Lamberth and Jack Johnson, both Republicans, introduced the Protecting Children from Gender Mutilation Act, which would effectively bar doctors from prescribing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and performing gender-related surgeries on minors for the purpose of medical transition.
“This bill is about protecting children,” said Johnson. “Under no circumstances should minors be allowed to undergo irreversible elective procedures to mutilate body parts and intentionally harm their reproductive systems. This practice comes with lifelong health complications that children are not capable of understanding.”

Hands of operating room staff performing surgery

ACLU Threatens Hospital If It Doesn’t Perform Transgender Surgeries

ACLU Threatens Hospital If It Doesn't Perform Transgender Surgeries

transgender surgery

South Carolina&#8217;s Republican governor has asked a federal court to protect the state&#8217;s right to partner with faith-based foster care groups to provide homes for children in need.
Gov. Henry McMaster sent a letter following a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the governor seeking to penalize the state&#8217;s work with religious foster agencies.
“Over 3,500 of South Carolina’s children are currently in foster care and we need all the help we can get to see that they are placed in loving homes,” McMaster said in the <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20221118155059/2022-11-17-Defs-MSJ.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a>.
“This lawsuit is a shortsighted attack against every South Carolinian’s constitutionally-protected religious liberty. We will continue to fight against any attempt to stop our private partners from being able to help provide these critical services simply because they choose to do so in accordance with their faith,” he added.
South Carolina’s Department of Social Services works directly with families seeking to foster and adopt children in crisis. McMaster issued an executive order in 2018 to protect the religious freedom of foster agencies, including Miracle Hill Ministries, which chooses to partner with families that share its Christian faith.
Becket Law, the legal group representing Miracle Hill&#8217;s 80-year tradition of recruiting and serving families, <a href="https://www.becketlaw.org/media/south-carolina-fights-back-against-aclu-attempt-to-shutter-faith-based-foster-agencies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claims</a> the ACLU used social media to recruit individuals who did not share Miracle Hill’s faith to apply to foster with the agency. The ACLU sued South Carolina and the federal government, alleging that allowing Miracle Hill to serve foster families violated the law. 
“Faith-based agencies are effective at placing children in loving homes, and the Supreme Court unanimously protected their rights,” said Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “This attempt to shutter faith-based agencies means fewer choices for foster parents and fewer homes for kids. South Carolina decided it could do better, and it shouldn’t be hauled into court for doing the right thing.”
Becket noted in a statement that the Supreme Court recently affirmed in <a href="https://www.becketlaw.org/case/sharonell-fulton-et-al-v-city-philadelphia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fulton v. Philadelphia</a> to protect Catholic Social Services’ right to stick to its religious beliefs and continue serving foster children in Philadelphia. South Carolina licenses many private agencies seeking to help children in need while also protecting the religious freedom of the people of South Carolina. 
Miles Coleman, a partner at Nelson Coleman, also joined in the statement from Becket.
&#8220;South Carolina’s efforts to protect all avenues of foster care should be applauded, not forced into a courtroom,” Coleman said. “Too many places around the country have shuttered religious foster care agencies, making it harder to find children a home. South Carolina is doing all it can to prevent that.” 
The controversy involving Miracle Hill has been the focus of legal conflict since 2018. Four years ago, the ministry was criticized for refusing to work with LGBTQ volunteers while still receiving state funding.
The lawsuit from the ACLU was first launched in 2019 in Rogers v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al.

Henry McMaster

South Carolina’s Governor Fights As ACLU Targets Faith-Based Foster Agencies

South Carolina’s Governor Fights Against ACLU’s Attempt To Shut Down Faith-Based Foster Agencies

Children

Courts

South Carolina

The American Civil Liberties Union (<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">ACLU</a>) filed a motion on Wednesday that urges <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://dailywire.com/topic/2022-midterms" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://dailywire.com/topic/2022-midterms" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">election</a> officials in <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://dailywire.com/topic/pennsylvania" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://dailywire.com/topic/pennsylvania" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">Pennsylvania</a> to count <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mail-in-voting" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mail-in-voting" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">mail-in ballots</a> missing a handwritten date on the envelope.
The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously ruled that mail-in ballots without the required date on the return envelope should be counted. However, after the Supreme Court vacated the decision, acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh Chapman issued a <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.media.pa.gov/pages/state-details.aspx?newsid=536" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.media.pa.gov/pages/state-details.aspx?newsid=536" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">statement</a> claiming that the opinion was “not based on the merits of the issue and does not affect the prior decision.&#8221;
The ACLU is therefore seeking to intervene in Ball v. Chapman, a lawsuit pushing for election officials to refrain from counting ballots without a date on the envelope, and contends that thousands of voters’ disenfranchisement is at stake.
​​“Throwing out valid votes because of a minor paperwork error is undemocratic, illegal, and smacks of desperation,” ACLU attorney Ari Savitzky said in a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/voting-rights-advocates-file-intervene-pennsylvania-mail-ballot-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. “This effort threatens thousands of Pennsylvanians, most of them senior citizens and longtime voters, with disenfranchisement. Under Pennsylvania state law and federal law, a ballot cannot be tossed if a voter simply forgets to handwrite an inconsequential date on the outer return envelope. These votes must be counted.”
The <a href="https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/ball-v-chapman-application-intervention" target="_blank" rel="noopener">motion</a>, backed by voting rights groups such as the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference and the Black Political Empowerment Project, argues that any new restrictions would unduly interrupt the midterm election cycle.
“Election officials know when ballots are sent to voters and when they are received,” League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania Executive Director Meghan Pierce added. “A voter adding a handwritten date to their return envelope does not add a verification of any sort. This latest attempt to disenfranchise voters for the simple mistake of not dating their return envelopes attempts to undo the progress Pennsylvania has made in making elections more accessible.&#8221;
Strife over the commonwealth’s laws regarding undated mail-in ballot envelopes emerged between Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick, who competed to secure the Republican nomination for the Pennsylvania Senate race earlier this year. The Oz campaign <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/following-the-democrats-playbook-oz-campaign-blasts-mccormick-for-trying-to-count-undated-mail-in-ballots-in-deadlocked-pa-senate-primary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blamed</a> McCormick for “following the Democrats’ playbook” and eroding voter confidence in the election by pressing officials to count the disqualified ballots. Voters will choose between Oz and Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman, a Democrat, next month.
The Republican National Committee, which joins plaintiff David Ball in the <a href="https://prod-media-assets.protectthevote.com/media/document/news/PA_Kings_Bench_Undated_Ballots_0xgwfo47.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a>, argues that returning a mail-in ballot with an undated envelope violates state law. The group asserts that the Supreme Court’s opinion made sufficiently clear that such votes should not be counted and said that Chapman was wrongly usurping the high court in her attempt to disregard the ruling.
“Republicans are holding Pennsylvania Democrats accountable for their brazen defiance of the Supreme Court and the rules duly set by the legislature,” state and national Republican officials said in a <a href="https://gop.com/press-release/rnc-nrcc-pagop-sue-commonwealth-of-pennsylvania/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. “Pennsylvania Democrats have a history of election integrity failures and Pennsylvanians deserve better: this lawsuit is the latest step in Republican efforts to promote free, fair, and transparent elections in the Keystone State.”
The Senate race between Oz and Fetterman is among the most competitive in the country and could help Democrats retain control of the upper chamber. According to a recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/surprising-group-of-voters-is-helping-dr-oz-narrow-the-gap-against-john-fetterman-in-pennsylvania-senate-contest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from Emerson College and The Hill, the former candidate is supported by 43% of the voting population, while the latter is supported by 45%.

Voters Across The Country Head To The Polls For The Midterm Elections

‘Smacks Of Desperation’: ACLU Files Motion Over Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots

ACLU Files Motion Over Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots

Mail-In Voting

Pennsylvania

Republican National Committee (RNC)

Vote Fraud

Hollywood’s love affair with free speech ended some time after Donald Trump took the oath of office.
Slowly but surely the industry pulled back on the issue it once clung to like a statue on Oscar night. Industry players pled allegiance to the woke state, canceled problematic art (and each other), and demanded that a sitting president get bounced from social media.
Late night comics even chuckled as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/dr-seuss-stephen-colbert-late-show-racist-b1811462.html">beloved authors like Dr. Seuss</a> got the cultural boot.
It wasn’t always this way.
Hollywood once championed free speech on a variety of platforms. The industry understood the vital role speech plays in both the country at large and for their craft. Let’s look back at five times Hollywood embraced free speech and hope Tinsel Town comes to its senses and renews its love affair with free expression.
<h4>“The American President”</h4>
The 1995 rom com imagined a single U.S. leader falling in love with a lobbyist (Annette Bening). That novel twist combined with the impressive pairing of director Rob Reiner (“This Is Spinal Tap”) and writer Aaron Sorkin (“A Few Good Men”) earned raves from critics.
The film’s emotional finale used free speech as <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechtheamericanpresident.html">a cudgel against the protagonist’s political opponent.</a>
<blockquote>&#8220;For the record, yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is &#8220;Why aren&#8217;t you, Bob?&#8221;
…America isn&#8217;t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You&#8217;ve gotta want it bad, &#8217;cause it&#8217;s gonna put up a fight. It&#8217;s gonna say, You want free speech? Let&#8217;s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who&#8217;s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.&#8221; </blockquote>
Reiner and Sorkin were, and remain, two of Hollywood’s most outspoken liberals. Would they pool their talents for a message like that today? That’s rhetorical, since Reiner was one of many <a href="https://twitter.com/robreiner/status/1400875366047043585?lang=bg">cheering President Donald Trump’s social media banishment.</a>
Guess we won’t be seeing &#8220;The American President 2” anytime soon.
<h4>Neil Young&#8217;s 2006 “Freedom of Speech” Tour</h4>
It’s an understatement to say that veteran rocker Neil Young was <a href="https://genius.com/3351240">no fan</a> of President George W. Bush during the Iraq War days And he had plenty of A-list company. Young similarly rebelled against efforts to silence the president’s critics during a time of war.
Toward that end, <a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2022/02/02/crosby-stills-nash-young-csny-spotify-boycott-joe-rogan">Young rejoined</a> David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash to promote free speech and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/flashback-neil-young-participated-freedom-of-speech-tour-censorship-joe-rogan">reaffirm his right to protest as he saw fit</a>.
<blockquote>&#8220;Those who feel the way we do had some hope and those who don’t feel the way we do were angry that the change happened. And those people have got a voice, and they have a reason for feeling the way they do. They strongly believe in the convictions. They believe in the military … they believe that we’re doing the right thing for the world, and they have every reason to be respected for their beliefs.”</blockquote>
Flash forward to 2022 and Young is leading an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/just-in-spotify-to-pull-neil-young-music-after-ultimatum-letter-demanding-rogan-be-removed">unsuccessful charge to silence</a> Spotify superstar Joe Rogan for sharing pandemic information that didn’t mirror government-approved narratives.
<h4>Tim Robbins versus Dubya</h4>
Young wasn’t the only liberal rallying for free speech during that era. Actor Tim Robbins similarly <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Tim-Robbins-pours-his-anger-into-an-anti-war-play-2510013.php">protested</a> Bush’s war efforts, a move that <a href="http://www.espn.com/mlb/news/2003/0409/1536711.html">cost</a> him an appearance at a “Bull Durham” reunion.
The 1988 baseball romance cast Robbins as “Nuke” LaLoosh, a flame-throwing pitcher struggling to get his mental approach in line with his talents. His anti-war comments, along with those of his co-star Susan Sarandon (Robbins’ partner at the time), convinced the Baseball Hall of Fame to <a href="https://ew.com/article/2003/04/10/cooperstown-disinvites-antiwar-sarandon-robbins/">disinvite the duo from its 15th anniversary celebration</a> for the film.
Robbins teamed up with the ACLU, an organization which once stood proudly on behalf of free speech rights, to <a href="https://www.nyclu.org/en/letter-baseball-hall-fame-over-cancellation-bull-durham-movie-anniversary-celebration">blast the decision</a>. The move “reflects a disregard for the value of dissent in a free society. Indeed, you offer a vision of free speech that is deeply incompatible with the concept of ‘uninhibited, robust and wide open’ debate – a concept that is basic to our democracy.”
<h4>Comedy Post 9/11</h4>
Comedians played an important role in the days and weeks after the September 11 attacks. “Saturday Night Live” and “The Late Show with David Letterman” gently <a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/how-late-night-tv-reacted-9-11-impact-it-has-t229754">brought humor back </a>into our lives after the shocking terrorist attacks. They made it acceptable to laugh again after so much heartache and pain.
Other comics didn’t tread so carefully. They pushed comedy conventions much harder, understanding that free speech doesn’t evaporate in times of extreme duress. Hollywood even made a documentary on the subject – “Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11.” Comedians from that era shared how they processed their grief and rage, and why they didn’t pull punches when it came to material intersecting with the tragedy.
They were right.
The extreme irony? Some of the comedians featured in the documentary are now part of the current cancel culture brigade <a href="https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1278-canceled-comedy-w-kliph-nesteroff-and-david-bianculli">(Marc Maron</a>) or pretend cancel culture  doesn’t exist (<a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/jon-stewart-cancel-culture-myth/">Jon Stewart</a>).
<h4>“The People vs. Larry Flynt”</h4>
The 1996 drama from legendary director Milos Forman celebrated the rise, fall, and legal victory of Hustler pornographer Larry Flynt.
The New York Times called it Forman’s “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/22/movies/a-free-speech-hero-it-s-not-that-simple.html">raucous hymn to the First Amendment</a>.”
<blockquote>The movie, shown to acclaim at the New York Film Festival this fall and opening in theaters on Friday, has been critically embraced not only as an artistic tour de force but as a kind of democratic morality play.</blockquote>
Flynt was the perfect symbol for free speech. He was rude, crude and outrageous, and few would embrace his lifestyle choices. Yet defending speech one agrees with is always easy. Rushing to Flynt’s side, given his vulgar behavior, is another matter.
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News&#8217; Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en">@HollywoodInToto</a>. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Toto – Five Times Hollywood Cheered Free Speech

Five Times Hollywood Defended Free Speech

Aaron Sorkin

Hollywood

Jon Stewart

Neil Young

Rob Reiner

Susan Sarandon

In the name of equity, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu">American Civil Liberties Union</a> (ACLU) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu">announced</a> on Monday that it supports allowing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/colleges">colleges</a> to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/racism">racially discriminate</a> when deciding the admission of certain applicants.
The ACLU reported that it had filed amicus curiae briefs in two cases before the United States Supreme Court, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-fellows-of-harvard-college/">Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College</a> and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-university-of-north-carolina/">Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina</a>, both of which challenge whether or not higher education can legally consider race in its application approval process.
&#8220;Ending the consideration of race in college admissions would ignore the country’s ongoing challenge of racial inequality and threaten diversity and inclusion on campuses everywhere,” Sarah Hinger, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-files-amicus-brief-supreme-court-supporting-universities-ability-consider-race">said</a> in a press release.
“Race-conscious admissions practices help create a diverse student body and enrich the educational experiences of all students,&#8221; Hinger argued. &#8220;The Supreme Court’s holdings have recognized this for decades, and we urge the court to protect universities’ ability to consider race in the admissions process.”
The ACLU also tweeted, &#8220;All students deserve equitable access to higher education.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
All students deserve equitable access to higher education.
Along with <a href="https://twitter.com/ACLU_Mass?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ACLU_Mass</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/ACLU_NC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ACLU_NC</a>, we are fighting to protect academic freedom and universities’ ability to grow a diverse student body.
&mdash; ACLU (@ACLU) <a href="https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1554151351780839424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Proponents of race-based admissions claim that it helps minorities, but opponents point out that such policies often harm Asian Americans.
&#8220;It’s been argued that Asian Americans have to score as much as 450 points higher on the SAT to have a similar chance of admission as black students,&#8221; Kenny Xu, author of &#8220;An Inconvenient Minority,&#8221; <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/07/04/a-chance-for-supremes-to-end-harvards-asian-discrimination/">wrote</a> in 2021. &#8220;In 2020, Duke economics professor Peter Arcidiacono found that a black student in the fourth-lowest academic decile has a higher chance of admissions than an Asian in the top decile.&#8221;
&#8220;Harvard disproportionately scores Asian Americans the lowest on &#8216;personality&#8217; to justify this discrimination — a case of blatant snobbery not backed up by data: Asians score just as well as whites and other minorities in alumni interviews,&#8221; Xu noted.
In reaction to the ACLU&#8217;s support for affirmative action, columnist David Marcus tweeted, &#8220;I want to see the head of the @aclu sit down with the Asian kid whose immigrant parents operate a small bodega that can’t go to Harvard even though he earned it and explain why it’s for the best. Not best for him maybe, but for somebody else.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I want to see the head of the <a href="https://twitter.com/ACLU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@aclu</a> sit down with the Asian kid whose immigrant parents operate a small bodega that can’t go to Harvard even though he earned it and explain why it’s for the best. Not best for him maybe, but for somebody else. <a href="https://t.co/LD5aNc2D3j">https://t.co/LD5aNc2D3j</a>
&mdash; David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueBoxDave/status/1554511750673956864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Legal experts like Alex Deise, an attorney and policy manager at FreedomWorks, have also argued that the two cases present an opportunity for the High Court to undo decades of bad legal precedent.
“By taking these cases, the Supreme Court has a historic opportunity to eliminate the ability of colleges and universities to explicitly discriminate on the basis of race in their admissions process,” Deise <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/attorney-supreme-court-has-historic-opportunity-to-end-race-based-college-admissions">told</a> The Daily Wire in January.
Deise noted that a 2003 case that allowed affirmative action to stand was not only not based on the Constitution, but it was also a bad way to stop race-based discrimination.
&#8220;The Court made a serious mistake in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/539/306/#tab-opinion-1961291" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/539/306/%23tab-opinion-1961291&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643221213087000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1o1AwJIdjrlFm5xRaqFD0E">Grutter v Bollinger</a> (2003) when it upheld these processes under the false notion that the educational benefits from a diverse student body was more important than the Equal Protection Clause’s central command of race neutrality,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The Court should overrule Grutter and heed Chief Justice Roberts advice from a similar case that ‘[t]he way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.’”

Supreme Court

In The Name Of Equity, The ACLU Supports Racial Discrimination In College Admissions

ACLU Now Supports Race Discrimination In College Admissions

Affirmative Action

College

Education

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) provided damaging testimony against actress Amber Heard on Thursday in her ongoing defamation battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp.
ACLU’s general counsel Terence Dougherty testified that his employer actually ghostwrote Heard’s 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic violence and timed it to coincide with the release of her movie, “Aquaman.”
“I recall there was a conversation for optimal timing,” Dougherty said in response to a question from one of Depp’s attorneys about ensuring the op-ed would come out “just after Aquaman release.”
Emails released in court show ACLU communications strategist Robin Shulman wrote the first draft of Heard’s op-ed in November 2018, one month before it was published, the Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10763863/Elon-Musk-paid-500k-Amber-Heards-1-3M-donation-ACLU-court-hears.html">reported</a>. Shulman told Heard in a message that she tried to “gather your fire and rage” and turn it into an op-ed. Dougherty was asked in his deposition whether that “rage” was related to Depp, but said it was related to “gender-based violence issues.”
Shulman also messaged Heard to tell her that ACLU’s “lawyers should review this for the way I skirted around your marriage.”
Jessica Witz, another member of the ACLU communications team, told Heard that she wanted “to make sure nothing was said in here that puts you in jeopardy with your [non-disclosure agreement” that she signed after her divorce from Depp.
Heard’s legal team then edited the op-ed to make sure it didn’t make obvious connections to Depp. The ACLU was also in charge of pitching the op-ed to various news outlets and considered The New York Times and Teen Vogue before settling on the Post.
Gerry Johnson, also part of the ACLU communications team, emailed colleagues to suggest timing the op-ed around the premier of “Aquaman.”
“Since draft turned out pretty strong and Aquaman slated to do large numbers I&#8217;m wondering what you think about it?” he asked in the email, according to the Mail.
In a December 11, 2018, email, Witz told her colleagues that Heard’s team had provided a final draft that “neutered much of her marriage and domestic violence.” Later, Witz informed her colleagues that Heard wanted to restore mention of her restraining order in the article, but it was not included.
Stacey Sullivan, yet another member of the ACLU communications team, pitched the op-ed to Washington Post editor Michael Duffy, writing in an email: “Hey Michael, wondering if we might interest you in an op-ed by Amber Heard ‘Who [sic] as you may recall was beaten up during her brief marriage to Johnny Depp.”
Dougherty also testified that Heard has not paid the organization the $3.5 million she publicly promised she would.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/johnny-depp-wins-motion-to-force-aclu-to-reveal-whether-amber-heard-paid-the-millions-she-promised-after-divorce">reported</a> in July 2021 that Depp’s attorneys successfully lobbied a judge with the New York Supreme Court to force the ACLU to prove whether Heard followed through on her pledge to donate half of her divorce settlement from Depp to the organization.
Depp and his attorneys long believed Heard never followed through on her 2016 promise. The Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9844843/Johnny-Depp-WINS-motion-forcing-ACLU-reveal-Amber-Heard-donated-7M-divorce-settlement.html">reported</a> that the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles — the other charity to which Heard had promised a donation — had only received $100,000 of the promised $3.5 million.
At Depp’s defamation trial against Heard last week, the court learned that not only did the ACLU only receive $1.3 million of the money Heard promised to give them, but that she only contributed $350,000 herself. Another $100,000 came from Depp, and $500,000 is believed to have been donated on Heard’s behalf by billionaire Elon Musk, who dated Heard for a year after her divorce from Depp, Deadline <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/04/johnny-depp-amber-heard-elon-musk-aclu-1235012179/">reported</a>. Dougherty said that payments stopped after 2018. “We reached out to Heard starting in 2019 for the next installment of her giving and we learned that she was having financial difficulties,” he said.
Musk, in a 2016 email to the ACLU, told them that Heard’s donation would be made in installments over 10 years, but she never signed an official pledge form stating so.

US-COURT-DEPP-HEARD

ACLU Wrote Amber Heard’s Domestic Violence Op-Ed To Coincide With Film Release, Hasn’t Received Promised Donation

ACLU Wrote Amber Heard Domestic Violence Op-Ed

Amber Heard

Defamation

Johnny Depp

Washington Post

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and Lambda Legal have filed a lawsuit over Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s direction to investigate sex reassignment procedures in children. 
The <a href="https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/doe_v._abbott_-_petition.pdf">lawsuit</a> come on behalf of two parents listed as John Doe and Jane Doe, along with their child, Mary Doe, who is a 16 year-old minor. A physician, Dr. Megan Mooney, is also a plaintiff in the suit. Jane Doe is an employee of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS).
Jane Doe was put on leave from her job and a Child Protective Services (CPS) investigator already went to the Doe home in order to interview the family. 
The lawsuit noted: 
<blockquote>
The CPS investigator disclosed that the sole allegation against Jane Doe and John Doe is that they have a transgender daughter and that their daughter may have been provided with medically necessary gender-affirming health care and is “currently transitioning from male to female.” 
</blockquote>
The defendants are listed as Governor Abbott, Jaime Masters, who is the Commissioner of the Texas DFPS, as well as the DFPS.
The lawsuit alleges that “Governor Abbott’s letter instructing DFPS to investigate the families of transgender children is entirely without Constitutional or statutory authority; and despite this, the Commissioner nonetheless issued a statement directing DFPS to carry out the Governor’s wishes and agreeing to follow a nonbinding legal opinion that did not change Texas law.”
The suit explains that “Dr. Megan Mooney is a clinical psychologist and mandated reporter under Texas law. She has a practice based in Houston, Texas that includes transgender patients, many of whom have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and are receiving treatment for this condition.”
It adds that “The Governor’s directive and DFPS implementation have placed Dr. Mooney in an untenable situation,” noting that if she “fails to report her clients who receive gender-affirming care, she faces the prospect of civil and criminal penalties, the loss of her license, and other severe consequences.”
However, it added, “if she does follow the Governor’s letter and DFPS’ erroneous reliance on it, she faces even more damaging personal and professional consequences,” stating that “Dr. Mooney would be violating her professional standards of ethics and inflict serious harm and trauma on her clients.”
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-to-potentially-prosecute-sex-change-surgeries-on-minors-as-child-abuse">reported</a>, in a recent letter, Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas DFPS to investigate specific “so-called ‘sex change’ procedures” found to “constitute child abuse under existing Texas law.” Abbott referred to an <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21271867-kp-0401">opinion</a> by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“[I]t is already against the law to subject Texas children to a wide variety of elective procedures for gender transitioning, including reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilization, mastectomies, removals of otherwise healthy body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen,” Abbott wrote. 
“Texas law imposes reporting requirements upon all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, and provides criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse,” he continued. “There are similar reporting requirements and criminal penalties for members of the general public.” 
“Texas law also imposes a duty on DFPS to investigate the parents of a child who is subjected to these abusive gender-transitioning procedures, and on other state agencies to investigate licensed facilities where such procedures may occur,” he said.

3CB95AF6-393D-4CD0-90E2-4F2E4663B3AB_1_201_a

ACLU Sues Abbott Over Directive To Investigate Transgender Procedures As Child Abuse

Texas

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) voiced its support for a male dominating the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team — despite claiming to be a “champion” for women.
“Lia” Thomas — a man who used to go by “Will,” but now claims transgender identity — has shattered multiple NCAA and University of Pennsylvania female swim records, sometimes winning races by margins as high as 38 seconds. When ESPN <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/several-members-of-upenn-swimming-diving-team-voice-support-for-lia-thomas">reported</a> that several team members issued a statement lauding Thomas, the ACLU — which <a href="https://www.aclu.org/about/aclu-history">calls</a> itself a “champion of segments of the population who have traditionally been denied their rights,” including “women” — responded favorably.
“It&#8217;s not a women&#8217;s sport if it doesn&#8217;t include ALL women athletes,” proclaimed the organization. “Lia Thomas belongs on the Penn swimming and diving team, and all trans athletes belong in their sports.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It&#8217;s not a women&#8217;s sport if it doesn&#8217;t include ALL women athletes.
Lia Thomas belongs on the Penn swimming and diving team, and all trans athletes belong in their sports.<a href="https://t.co/DtQh6LjNA1">https://t.co/DtQh6LjNA1</a>
— ACLU (@ACLU) <a href="https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1488962430977904641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
The swimmers’ statement published by ESPN expressed “full support for Lia in her transition,” dismissing anonymous comments made by fellow team members as “not representative of the feelings, values, and opinions of the entire Penn team, composed of 39 women with diverse backgrounds.”
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, however, the anonymous reports about Thomas are harrowing.
Most recently, a swimmer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lia-thomas-teammate-locker-room-definitely-awkward-because-thomas-male-genitalia-exposed">told</a> The Daily Mail that the locker room she shares with Thomas is “definitely awkward” since Thomas “still has male body parts and is still attracted to women.”
“Multiple swimmers have raised it, multiple different times,” she explained to the outlet. “But we were basically told that we could not ostracize Lia by not having her in the locker room and that there’s nothing we can do about it, that we basically have to roll over and accept it, or we cannot use our own locker room.”
“It’s really upsetting because Lia doesn’t seem to care how it makes anyone else feel,” she continued. “The 35 of us are just supposed to accept being uncomfortable in our own space and locker room for, like, the feelings of one.”
The swimmer’s comments make clear that the University of Pennsylvania’s administration has sided with Thomas.
“The school was so focused on making sure Lia was okay, and doing everything they possibly could do for her, that they didn’t even think about the rest of us,” she added. “It just seems like the women who built this program and the people who were here before Lia don’t matter. And it’s frustrating because Lia doesn’t really seem to be bothered by all the attention, not at all. Actually she seems like she enjoys it. It’s affected all of us way more than it’s affected her.”
The Daily Wire’s exclusive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-penn-students-disturbed-by-transgender-swimmer-dominating-female-swim-team-fear-retaliation-from-leftist-classmates">interviews</a> with University of Pennsylvania students confirm that there exists tremendous pressure to mask their opinions about Thomas competing against women.
“Thomas is not a woman, he is a male,” one student explained. “It’s a simple rationale and shouldn’t need to be further explained.”
“Their idea of ‘acceptance’ is to not give you a platform — by shaming or forcing you out if you have views that are too far from their own,” she said. “For a university where we are all supposed to bring ideas and differing viewpoints to grow, the pressure to be silent rings loud and has catastrophic implications.”

SWIMMING-US-GENDER-LGBT-UNIVERSITY

ACLU Defends Transgender Penn Swimmer – Despite Calling Itself A ‘Champion’ For Women

Transgender Athletes

University of Pennsylvania

A left-wing activist with ties to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) nominated by President Joe Biden to be a federal judge has argued photo ID and proof of citizenship constitute “voter suppression.”
Nancy Gbana Abudu, the deputy legal director at SPLC, was picked by Biden in December to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The 11th Circuit covers parts of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The vacancy came about upon the retirement of Judge Beverly B. Martin — a President Barack Obama appointee. 
Abudu worked for the ACLU from 2005 to 2019 and was an 11th Circuit staff attorney from 2002 to 2004. Along with U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, she was part of Biden’s twelfth round of judicial nominees, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/23/president-biden-names-twelfth-round-of-judicial-nominees/">according</a> to a White House memo. 
Biden put forth 75 judges in 2021. The memo states that his nominees “reflect the diversity” Biden “promise[d]” in courts and that Abudu “would be the first African-American woman judge ever to sit on the Eleventh Circuit.”
‘Voter Suppression’ Remarks
In a 2011 <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/q-a-aclu-attorney-nancy-abudu-focused-on-voting-rights/article_58b5d843-d8f3-5101-8db3-ef5613d44f1f.html">interview</a> dug up by The Daily Wire, Abudu asserted that “95 percent” of her work with the ACLU at the time involved “voting rights.” She notably said “photo ID” and “proof of citizenship,” two long-established requirements to vote, are indicative of “voter suppression:”
<blockquote>Obviously, we do a lot when it comes to voter suppression, which includes five priority areas: photo ID, proof of citizenship, restrictions we see when it comes to registration &#8230; early voting as well as absentee voting and the restrictions we see when it comes to criminal convictions. We also do a lot with student voting.</blockquote>
Abudu said her “biggest concern” as an ACLU attorney “regarding voter suppression” was states “passing laws requiring voters to have photo IDs.” She slammed South Carolina for not permitting students to show campus IDs to vote, calling it “restrictive.” 
The Biden nominee has continued to argue that various voting requirements are discriminatory. In <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2021/08/27/defending-democracy-splc-calls-senate-swiftly-pass-john-r-lewis-voting-rights-advancement">August</a>, Abudu called on the Senate to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — H.R. 4 — in order “to protect the future of American democracy.” 
“As HR 4 moves to the Senate, some senators have already committed to doing everything in their power to oppose the bill – up to and including leveraging a legislative tool popular with pro-Jim Crow senators of the past – to prevent its passage and to further erode the fundamental right to vote,” Abudu wrote, likening Republicans today to Democrats who upheld laws that discriminated against minorities in the past.
In a thematically-<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2021/03/05/spirit-john-lewis-passion-and-commitment-voting-rights-icon-call-us-action">similar</a> March 2021 writing, Abudu likened efforts by lawmakers to protect election security to efforts to suppress black voters in the 1960s. She slammed Georgia for its “Election Integrity Act of 2021,” which mandates voter ID for mail-in ballots, halts absentee ballot acceptance within 11 days of an election, and restricts third parties from handing out gifts to voters at polling places, <a href="https://thefga.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Georgia_election_integrity_act.pdf">among</a> other provisions. 
‘Separate and Unequal Society’
Biden’s judicial pick for the 11th Circuit aligns with the administration’s opposition to election security measures. Upon the signing of the Georgia bill by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, for instance, the president <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/03/26/biden-georgia-election-law-is-jim-crow-in-the-21st-century/">called</a> it “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” 
In a statement to The Daily Wire, the Republican National Committee (RNC) said voter turnout actually went up in Georgia following the bill, revealing it is not restrictive.
“Turnout in Atlanta’s 2021 municipal elections rose by 17 percent compared to 2017 following the passage of Georgia’s recent election integrity legislation — clear proof that Democrats are lying about election integrity for political gain,” spokesman Gates McGavick said. 
Abudu <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/06/12/57th-anniversary-medgar-evers-assassination-march-voting-rights-continues">echoed</a> the administration’s “Jim Crow” sentiment in a June 2020 article. She claimed America is a “separate and unequal society” and that the criminal justice system “ruin[s] people’s lives forever.” She also said laws barring convicted felons from voting are similar to slavery. See below:
<blockquote>When you add laws that prohibit people with a criminal conviction from voting, it’s practically the same system as during slavery – Black people who have lost their freedom and cannot vote. And without access to the ballot, a victim of the system cannot elect the very officials pulling the levers to hire the police, determine which cases are prosecuted and what sentences are imposed. </blockquote>
The contentious background of a federal nominee comes as no surprise. Biden has put forth activists many have argued operate in the progressive fringes of their fields, such as Vanita Gupta, Xavier Becerra, David Chipman, Rachel Levine, and others. 
The ACLU and SPLC are not the only left-wing groups Abudu seems to have interaction with. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-abudu-81852b6/recent-activity/">According</a> to her LinkedIn page, she recently liked a post <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahar-aziz-0b3b764/">from</a> Rutgers Law School “social justice scholar” Sahar Aziz, who was announcing her selection by progressive billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations to be an “equality fellow.” The group has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/us/politics/george-soros-racial-justice-organizations.html">donated</a> millions of dollars to groups like the Black Voters Matter Fund, a <a href="https://blackvotersmatterfund.org/">spin-off</a> of the Black Lives Matter movement. 
Abudu could not be reached for comment in time for publication. 
Ilya Shapiro, vice president of the Cato Institute and director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, told The Daily Wire he thinks Biden has been focused on harnessing the power of the executive branch for “non-traditional” progressive ends, including for judgeships.
“Biden has focused not only on checking demographic boxes, however, but on nominating public defenders, activists, and others with backgrounds considered ‘non-traditional’ for federal judges,” said Shapiro. “It&#8217;s good to add different perspectives to the bench, but it also means that many of these nominees are more progressive and ideological than previous Democratic picks.”
The White House did not respond to a Daily Wire request for comment.
Send story tips to Gabe Kaminsky at <a href="mailto:gekaminsky@protonmail.com">gekaminsky@protonmail.com</a>. Follow him <a href="https://twitter.com/Gabe__Kaminsky">on Twitter.</a> 
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President Biden Delivers Remarks In Philadelphia On Protecting Voting Rights

Biden Judicial Nominee Said ‘Proof of Citizenship’ is ‘Voter Suppression’

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Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

Hundreds of left-leaning organizations — including the ACLU, the American Federation of Teachers, and the NAACP — have called on President Joe Biden to lengthen the pause on federal student loan repayments.
In March 2020, the CARES Act temporarily <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/08/experts-ask-biden-to-push-back-the-return-of-student-loan-payments-.html">paused</a> student debt repayments and pegged the federal student loan interest rate at 0% — a policy extended by both President Donald Trump and Biden. 
Though the suspension is due to expire on January 31, a group of more than 200 progressive organizations have <a href="https://protectborrowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Student-Loan-Payment-Pause-December-Coaltion-Letter-to-Biden.pdf">asked</a> Biden to once again extend the pause — and eventually cancel the debt altogether:
<blockquote>In fewer than 60 days, tens of millions of student loan borrowers are slated to be thrown back into repayment on federal student loans they are ill-equipped to pay as the deadly COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate Americans’ health and financial security. We, the undersigned 207 organizations, write to urge you to put a stop this crisis in the making before it begins and extend the current pause on student loan payments. It is clear that payments should not resume until your administration has fully delivered on the promises you made to student loan borrowers to fix the broken student loan system and cancel federal student debt.</blockquote>
The groups invoked Biden’s own campaign platform in their argument:
<blockquote>You ran for president on the promise that you would reform the student loan system to ensure that student loan payments would be affordable for all. Your administration’s decision to extend the payment pause, alongside the Department’s recent overhaul of the programs for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Total and Permanent Disability Discharge are critical and welcome first steps. Right now, your administration has the opportunity to continue repairing the damage caused by policy failures at the federal and state level and decades of government mismanagement and industry abuses — an opportunity and an obligation that must be fulfilled before any action is taken to resume monthly student loan payments.
It is critical that your administration continue to deliver on your promises made to student loan borrowers and their families before ending the pause in payments and collections. Borrowers need immediate relief from the crushing burdens of massive student loan debt as the pandemic exacerbates financial strain for all Americans and throws existing racial disparities in wealth and educational attainment into especially stark relief.</blockquote>
Among the signatories were the American Association of University Professors, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Psychological Association, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, and the NAACP.
Daily Wire commentator and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walshs-johnny-the-walrus-hits-1-on-amazons-lgbtq-list-his-response-is-priceless">bestselling children’s author</a> Matt Walsh recently <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1467640198557315079">noted</a> that student debt forgiveness — an argument often forwarded by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and her progressive colleagues — is no more than &#8220;welfare&#8221; for the affluent.
&#8220;I worked full time, Monday through Friday, and took weekend classes to get my law degree,” Tlaib said on the House floor earlier this week. “And still, close to $200,000 in debt. And I still owe over $70,000 and most of it was interest.&#8221;
“She&#8217;s a perfect example of why we shouldn&#8217;t forgive student loans,” Walsh responded. “She makes $175,000 a year and wants the tax payer to assume her debts? No, pay your bills you deadbeat. Student loan forgiveness is upper class welfare.”
“Half of all student debt is held by people with graduate degrees,” he continued. “The idea that this is some kind of persecuted class of people who deserve tax funded debt forgiveness is absurd.”

President Biden Delivers Remarks On November Jobs Report

Teachers Unions, ACLU Want Biden To Extend Student Loan Repayment Pause, Cancel Student Debt

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