Two lawsuits aim to block the state from enforcing SF 496, which bans books with sexual content and prohibits instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in K-6.

A federal judge plans to decide by Jan. 1 whether to block enforcement of a new education law that bans books containing sexual acts from school libraries and prohibits instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity in K-6 classrooms.

The hearing in a Des Moines courtroom Friday combined arguments in two separate lawsuits challenging SF 496 as unconstitutional.

Continue reading “A federal judge will write the next chapter for Iowa’s book ban law” →

Continue reading “North Dakota Supreme Court hears arguments on survey access in Summit case” →

Several states this year have reported lower rates of recidivism, showing that fewer convicted criminals are being re-arrested after leaving prison.

But those statistics hardly tell the full story.

Recidivism rates across the country can vary greatly because of how they’re defined, how the data is collected and how it’s presented to the public. So it can be difficult to say that, for example, one state is doing better than another in rehabilitating formerly incarcerated residents.

Continue reading “Lower recidivism rates reported in several states in 2023” →

The state of South Dakota will no longer be putting the brakes on personalized license plate applications because they might carry “connotations offensive to good taste and decency.”

Under an agreement to allow judgment to be entered against the state, which was submitted for court approval Friday, the state agreed to amend its personalized license plate law and the Motor Vehicle Division’s policy that infringed on the free speech rights of all South Dakotans.

Continue reading “Free speech takes the wheel: South Dakota revamps license plate policy” →

Two men, Luke Norden and Jeremy Borgan, are being charged with failing to report alleged crimes. The men, Norden the head coach for the Mitchell Post 18 Legion baseball team, and Borgan, a member of the Mitchell Baseball Association board, are each facing counts of failure to report abuse or neglect of a child.

These charges were made one week after six members of Mitchell Post 18’s varsity baseball team were charged with rape.

Under South Dakota law, a variety of persons are constituted as mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. Those who fail to report, according to statute, are guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Continue reading “Laws for Mandatory reporters in South Dakota” →

The city of Winterset is being sued for arresting a man on an intoxicated driving charge after he passed field sobriety tests, two blood-alcohol tests and a drug screen.

Ryan P. Elgin, 42, of Adair County is suing the City of Winterset and Winterset Police Officer Logan Camp for false arrest, unreasonable seizure and common law negligence. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, is seeking unspecified damages.

Elgin alleges that he was driving through Winterset shortly after 9 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2022, along with a woman, Becky Oltmann, and Oltmann’s child, when he was pulled over by Camp.

Continue reading “Iowa man sues after passing sobriety tests and being arrested for OWI” →

The Ohio Senate gets another chance to outlaw spousal rape in the state 40 years after legislation was first introduced.

The bill, which passed the House 74-1, would remove the spousal rape exception in state law, an effort that has been ongoing in the General Assembly since 1985.

Continue reading “Effort to eliminate spousal rape moves to Ohio Senate” →

During a search of Penelope Harris’s Bronx apartment in 2010, police found 10 grams of cannabis. Even in the days before cannabis legalization in New York, that tiny amount fell below the legal threshold for a misdemeanor, according to The New York Times.

But that brief interaction with the police, which resulted in no criminal charges against Harris, spiraled into disastrous consequences for her and her family. Acting on a referral from police, the child welfare system—which some advocates insist is more accurately termed “the family policing system”—removed Harris’s son from her custody and placed him in foster care. The agency investigated her for neglect, and only returned her son on the condition that she agree to random drug screenings and unannounced caseworker visits.

Harris’s case illustrates how even minor interactions with the legal system can have far-reaching impact. Punishment often does not end at conviction and sentencing. Instead, the consequences of a history with the legal system can spill over into people’s lives for years, or decades—long after their cases have been closed or they’ve completed their sentences. These harms are commonly referred to as “collateral consequences”—a euphemism which masks the dire situations that formerly incarcerated people face and that disproportionately impact Black people and other people of color.

Continue reading “How “Collateral Consequences” Keep People Trapped in the Legal System” →

South Dakota is one of the top states in the country for personal and economic freedom, according to a report.

The state ranked third in the annual Freedom in the 50 States Index, which is put out by libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. The report weighs personal and economic freedoms based on over 230 state and local public policies.

South Dakota has never dipped below the top six since the 2000s and held the top spot for four years from 2006 to 2010. Its consistently strong economic performance, “excellent” fiscal policy, low state taxation, and below-average state and local debt are among the factors keeping South Dakota’s score so high.

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Five of the eight Iowa counties with the largest Black populations “had trial juries that were fully representative of their jury-eligible Black population” during 2022 and the first half of 2023, according to data analyzed by the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP.

However, trial juries in Polk County and Scott County failed to hit that benchmark, and Dubuque County was “particularly problematic,” with zero Black members of any trial jury during the18-month period reviewed.

The same review indicated that trial juries in Linn and Woodbury counties were close to being representative of the area’s jury-eligible Latino population, while Latinos were underrepresented on juries in Johnson, Marshall, Scott, and Polk counties, and particularly in Muscatine County.

Continue reading “Data show which Iowa counties have (or don’t have) representative juries” →