Will he sue again? California AG ‘keeping a close eye’ on Trump anti-transgender order
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
BONTA HOLDS OFF ON LAWSUIT AGAINST ANTI-LGBTQ ORDER FOR NOW
California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday announced that he is “keeping a close eye” on President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting transgender people.
“The president cannot eliminate fundamental rights by executive order, nor can he order federal agencies to violate the law,” Bonta said in a statement.
The attorney general said that members of the LGBTQ community have both federal protection and also are protected by “a myriad of state laws and California’s constitution.”
Trump on Monday signed the order, which is both broad and vague, to end federal funding for institutions the president says “promote gender ideology” and strip “nonbinary” and “other” gender markers from federal identification documents such as passports.
“Accordingly, my administration will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male,” Trump said in his executive order.
Trump’s statement ignored the science behind gender identity, as recognized by organizations including the World Health Organization, American Medical Association and American Psychological Association, and also that many people are born intersex, and therefore neither male nor female.
Trump has been publicly seething ever since he was confronted at a church service by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who in her sermon pleaded with the president to “have mercy” on transgender and other LGBTQ people.
“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” Budde said, according to the New York Times.
In a post on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, Trump wrote that Budde was “nasty in tone” and that she owed him a public apology.
LAWMAKER URGES NEWSOM TO BAR INSURRECTIONISTS FROM NATIONAL GUARD SERVICE
Many of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrectionists are free from criminal charges, courtesy of a mass pardon from Trump, but they are not free to serve in the California National Guard, a state lawmaker said in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom last week.
Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, a retired U.S. Army colonel, sent a letter to the governor reminding him that SB 901, which Newsom signed last September, gives Newsom the power to “to refuse entry of any of the convicted January 6th Insurrectionists from commission or enlisting in the California National and State Guards.”
Umberg called Trump’s pardon “gravely concerning.” Trump has called the Capitol rioters “hostages” and has said that they were the victims of a politicized U.S. Department of Justice. Rioters injured more than 140 police officers in their attack on the Capitol, according to NBC News.
“Those who would violate their oaths to the Constitution by violently attempting to overturn the results of a legitimate election by the people should not be allowed to defend it. Moreover, we should not use taxpayer money to train them in the use of lethal force,” Umberg wrote in the letter.
CALIFORNIA UNEMPLOYMENT TICKS UPWARD
Via David Lightman...
The state jobless rate last month was 5.5%, up slightly from November’s 5.4% and the 5.1% a year earlier.
The national rate in December was 4.1%.
The federal household survey in California found 18,338,100 people were working last month, down 3,100 persons from November and 13,800 from a year earlier.
There was some good news, though, according to the state Employment Development Department, which manages the state’s unemployment system.
Using a different way of calculating employment–a federal survey of 80,000 businesses–EDD reported that there were 18,129,400 jobs last month, up 15,000 from November.
December saw big gains in leisure and hospitality jobs, led by recreation-related work and jobs in amusement parks and arcades.
Also doing better was the information sector, up because of increases in movie and video production.
The biggest losses were in professional and business services, largely because of reductions in specialized design services and computer systems design and related services.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I hope while Trump is in California he takes us to the giant faucet that he says releases all the water. I chair the State Natural Resources Committee and I’d love to see it. It’s got to be huge. We could turn it on together.”
- Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, via Bluesky.
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