Louisiana Senate panel nixes satellite voting centers for Katrina refugees News
Louisiana Senate panel nixes satellite voting centers for Katrina refugees

[JURIST] A Louisiana State Senate [official website] committee has rejected a bill that would have made it easier for residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina [JURIST report] to vote in next month's New Orleans municipal elections [JURIST news archive]. The bill would have created polling places in other states so that voters would not have to travel back to Louisiana. Opponents of the plan said that it could create legal problems stemming from any alleged disparate treatment at the satellite polling places, and pointed to the state's existing displaced voters plan [Sec. of State materials] as a solution.

Earlier this week, a federal judge refused to push the election back [JURIST report] from its scheduled April 22 date. The Department of Justice has also approved the date [JURIST report] over concerns from civil rights groups. Rev. Jesse Jackson testified before the state senate committee Wednesday that forcing the mostly-black voters to return to the city is equivalent to an illegal poll tax [Wikipedia backgrounder]. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism

November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism [UNITED factsheet]. On November 9, 1924, American gay activist Henry Gerber and several associates formed the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society received a charter from the State of Illinois in December but was disbanded in July 1925 after a police raid which led to Gerber's arrest and trial (albeit not conviction). Pay a virtual visit to Henry Gerber House, now a registered Chicago landmark.

Supreme Court strikes down Massachusetts anti-draft law

On November 9, 1970, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Massachusetts v. Laird not to hear the case of the state's anti-draft law. Massachusetts had passed a law, which allowed its citizens to decline to fight in any undeclared war, even if the person was drafted. The law was passed in opposition to the draft and the war in Vietnam. The First Circuit found the war constitutional and thus struck down the law.