Alabama
Trans people say license policy puts them at risk
ATLANTA (AP) — Federal judges this week heard arguments in a challenge to Alabama’s policy requiring a transgender person to undergo full gender reassignment surgery to change the sex listed on their driver’s license.
Gabriel Arkles, senior counsel at Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, told judges with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Alabama is one of only a few states in the nation that require transgender residents to undergo genital surgery, “as a condition of getting a license that they can safely use — that is a license with a sex designation that accords with their identity and how they are known and perceived in their community.”
Three transgender women in Alabama challenged the policy after being told their licenses must reflect they are men. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson last year ruled that the policy is unconstitutional.
The judge directed the state to give the plaintiffs new licenses “reflecting that they are women.” The state appealed and attorneys said the state indicated it will rescind the licenses if the ruling is reversed.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the arguments Tuesday.
People need identification to navigate daily life, Arkles said. Being forced to carry cards that don’t match their identity puts trans individuals at risk for discrimination, harassment or even physical danger, groups representing the women said.
“I know who I am. Transgender people know who we are, that’s not the issue,” Destiny Clark, a health care worker from Birmingham and one of the women who challenged the Alabama policy, said in a statement. “The issue is getting the state to recognize our existence and just let us live without intruding into our private, medical records.”
An attorney for the state argued the policy is not discriminatory, because it gives a path for transgender individuals to change their gender marker.
“These are law enforcement identification documents. That is why they have identifying information on them including date of birth, height, weight, hair color, eye color, someone’s signature and someone’s sex,” Edmund LaCour told the judicial panel during arguments.
A ruling is not expected for several months.
Alabama
Weighty case: Man charged in theft of 70-ton crane
CHILTON, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man who called a wrecker service asking to have a 70-ton crane pulled out of the woods is now charged with stealing the heavy machinery, sheriff’s officials said.
The owner of a towing service contacted the Chilton County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, saying the man had called claiming someone gave him the crane, and he wanted it removed so he could sell it for scrap, the agency said in a statement.
The wrecker service owner recalled moving the same crane a few years before and contacted its owner, who denied having given it away. The towing operator then called law enforcement. The man who wanted the crane moved fled before officers arrived, driving the rig into a ditch where it became stuck.
The 26-year-old Clanton man was arrested Tuesday on a probation violation and first-degree theft charges. Court records didn’t include the name of a defense attorney who could speak on Mims’ behalf.
“We have worked a lot of theft cases over the years, but this one definitely takes first place in the heavyweight category,” Sheriff John Shearon’s office said in a statement, thanking the wrecker service.
New York
Long-running Love Canal suits scheduled for hearing in May
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — Long-pending lawsuits stemming from toxic waste contamination in Niagara Falls’ notorious Love Canal neighborhood have a new court date in May.
The Buffalo News reported Saturday that a federal appeals court in New York City will hear arguments in May on whether 19 pending lawsuits involving more than 600 people should be heard in state or federal court.
The suits stem from a 2011 incident in which sewer repair crews struck contaminated waste in the area, and claim a containment structure built in the 1980s to store toxic waste has leaked.
Love Canal was the site of a landfill where massive contamination occurred in the 1970s, causing extensive health and property damage.
The plaintiffs initially filed the suits in state court, and in January 2021 a federal judge ruled that’s where they should be heard.
OxyChem, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, whose predecessor created the landfill in the 1940s; the city of Niagara Falls and other defendants want the case heard in federal court, arguing the containment structure was built under federal Superfund laws.
They appealed the judge’s ruling, and the case is scheduled to come before the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals on May 5 in Manhattan.
Ohio
Redistricting panel charts course to 4th map proposal
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Redistricting Commission has decided to look for two independent mapmakers and a mediator to help come up with new district maps following the Ohio Supreme Court’s rejection of a third set of maps presented by the Republican-dominated panel.
The commission decided Saturday afternoon to seek recommendations for the two independent mapmakers to join the four mapmakers already working with Republican and Democratic lawmakers in drafting a fourth set of maps for Ohio House and Ohio Senate districts. A mediator is to be sought to help resolve disputes.
The seven-member commission hopes to approve the choices in a Monday night meeting, but the current mapmakers and one staff member of each commissioner are to immediately begin meeting to identify “complex issues” and areas of agreement and disagreement to be presented to the independent mapmakers and the mediator. All are ordered to follow state high court rulings and the state constitution.
The state’s highest court last week in a 4-3 vote rejected the last plan even as final ballots were being prepared for the May 3 primary, ordering new maps submitted to the secretary of state by March 28 and filed with the court the following day.
Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a moderate Republican who has repeatedly joined court Democrats to invalidate the maps, cited “substantial and compelling evidence” that “the main goal of the individuals who drafted the second revised plan was to favor the Republican Party and disfavor the Democratic Party.”
Of particular concern, the court said, was the fact that Republicans have all three times drafted the plan approved by the commission without input from Democratic members of the bipartisan commission.
