Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 13, 2016

The first Georgia-Florida war game weekend began on June 12, 1740, as Georgia founder James Oglethorpe led 400 soldiers landing opposite the Spanish fort at St. Augustine.

A “Liberty Tree” was planted in Savannah on June 13, 1775 to symbolize support for independence. The first liberty tree was an elm in Boston that became a meeting spot for patriots, but Savannah’s was actually a Liberty Pole. In 2006, a seedling grown from the last of the original Liberty Trees on the campus of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland was planted in Dalton, Georgia.

The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in South Carolina to assist General George Washington on June 13, 1775.

On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston of New York to draft a declaration of independence from Britain. Language in the original draft that condemned the introduction of the slave trade in the colonies did not make the final draft.

The Virginia Convention adopted George Mason’s “Declaration of Rights” on June 12, 1776. From Wikipedia:

The Declaration was adopted unanimously by the Fifth Virginia Convention at Williamsburg, Virginia on June 12, 1776 as a separate document from the Constitution of Virginia which was later adopted on June 29, 1776. In 1830, the Declaration of Rights was incorporated within the Virginia State Constitution as Article I, but even before that Virginia’s Declaration of Rights stated that it was ‘”the basis and foundation of government” in Virginia. A slightly updated version may still be seen in Virginia’s Constitution, making it legally in effect to this day.

It was initially drafted by George Mason circa May 20, 1776; James Madison assisted him with the section on religious freedom.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights heavily influenced later documents. Thomas Jefferson is thought to have drawn on it when he drafted the United States Declaration of Independence in the same month (June 1776). James Madison was also influenced by the Declaration while drafting the Bill of Rights (introduced September 1789, ratified 1791), as was the Marquis de Lafayette in voting the French Revolution‘s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789).

The importance of the Virginia Declaration of Rights is that it was the first constitutional protection of individual rights, rather than protecting only members of Parliament or consisting of simple laws that can be changed as easily as passed.

Abraham Baldwin, founder of the University of Georgia, arrived in Philadelphia on June 11, 1787 to attend the Constitutional Convention. Baldwin was joined by three other delegates, William Few Jr., William Houston, and William Pierce; Baldwin and Few would sign the Constitution on behalf of Georgia.

On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy issued proclamation 3542 ordering Governor George Wallace of Alabama to allow two African-American students to register at the University of Alabama, as ordered by a federal court.

On the morning of June 11, the day the students were expected to register, Wallace stood in front of the University of Alabama campus auditorium flanked by Alabama state troopers while cameras flashed and recorders from the press corps whirred. Kennedy, at the White House, and Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, in Tuscaloosa, kept in touch by phone.

When Wallace refused to let the students enter for registration, Katzenbach phoned Kennedy. Kennedy upped the pressure on Wallace, immediately issuing Presidential Proclamation 3542, which ordered the governor to comply, and authorizing the secretary of defense to call up the Alabama National Guard with Executive Order 11111.

That afternoon, Katzenbach returned with the students and asked Wallace to step aside. Wallace, knowing he was beaten, relented, having saved face with his hard-line, anti-segregation constituency.

On June 13, 1966, the United States Supreme Court released its decision in Miranda v. Arizona. In Miranda, the Court held that a confession obtained by police without informing the suspect of his rights against self-incrimination (Fifth Amendment) and to the service of a lawyer (Sixth Amendment) was inadmissible.

Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson on June 13, 1967.

As the NAACP’s chief counsel from 1938 to 1961, he argued 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, successfully challenging racial segregation, most notably in public education. He won 29 of these cases, including a groundbreaking victory in 1954′s Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and was thus illegal. The decision served as a great impetus for the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately led to the abolishment of segregation in all public facilities and accommodations.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but his nomination was opposed by many Southern senators, and he was not confirmed until the next year. In June 1967, President Johnson nominated him to the Supreme Court, and in late August he was confirmed. During his 24 years on the high court, Associate Justice Marshall consistently challenged discrimination based on race or sex, opposed the death penalty, and supported the rights of criminal defendants. He also defended affirmative action and women’s right to abortion. As appointments by a largely Republican White House changed the politics of the Court, Marshall found his liberal opinions increasingly in the minority. He retired in 1991, and two years later passed away.

The New York Times began publishing excerpts from the “Pentagon Papers” on June 13, 1971.

After failing to persuade the Times to voluntarily cease publication on June 14, Attorney General John N. Mitchell and Nixon obtained a federal court injunction forcing the Times to cease publication after three articles.Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger said:

Newspapers, as our editorial said this morning, we’re really a part of history that should have been made available, considerably longer ago. I just didn’t feel there was any breach of national security, in the sense that we were giving secrets to the enemy.

The newspaper appealed the injunction, and the case New York Times Co. v. United States (403 U.S. 713) quickly rose through the U.S. legal system to the Supreme Court.

On June 18, 1971, The Washington Post began publishing its own series of articles based upon the Pentagon Papers; Ellsberg gave portions to editor Ben Bradlee. That day, Assistant U.S. Attorney General William Rehnquist asked the Post to cease publication. After the paper refused, Rehnquist sought an injunction in U.S. district court. Judge Murray Gurfein declined to issue such an injunction, writing that “[t]he security of the Nation is not at the ramparts alone. Security also lies in the value of our free institutions. A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know.” The government appealed that decision, and on June 26 the Supreme Court agreed to hear it jointly with the New York Times case.Fifteen other newspapers received copies of the study and began publishing it.

On June 30, 1971, the Supreme Court decided, 6–3, that the government failed to meet the heavy burden of proof required for prior restraint injunction. The nine justices wrote nine opinions disagreeing on significant, substantive matters.

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.

—Justice Black

On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan spoke in then-divided Berlin and challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Here’s the invitation to the Trump Campaign fundraiser later this week.

Former President Bill Clinton will be in Atlanta for a three day meeting sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative.

Bill Clinton wants to highlight his foundation, which corrals millions of dollars to help solve pressing global crises, while sharing the stage with the only other living former Democratic president.

The Clinton foundation’s three-day summit, which begins Sunday, will host panels with business leaders, academics and politicians who tackle some of the nation’s vexing problems. One panel featuring Coca-Cola North America’s president will target how leaders can bolster workforce development, another will gather education experts to explore how to address poverty at schools.

The highlight is a discussion Tuesday between Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter that caps the meeting. Billed as a “conversation” between the two Democrats, it will almost certainly touch on the presidential contest. Carter largely stayed out of the primary between Clinton and Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, saying through a spokesman that he will support the nominee.

The nonprofit has also been the focus of increasing criticism of the Clinton campaign. It’s received millions from foreigners with links to their home governments despite a vow not to accept cash from foreign governments. And The Wall Street Journal in May reported that the foundation steered a $2 million grant to a firm owned by friends of the Clintons.

State Senator and early Trump supporter Michael Williams is among the Georgia delegates headed to Cleveland for the 2016 Republican National Convention. From the Forsyth County News,

Williams, who is serving his first term as a state lawmaker, has long been a supporter of Trump and said he is excited to vote on his nomination.

“I was the first elected official in Georgia, back in September, to come out and endorse him,” he said. “It was a little bit gratifying. I got teased and picked on a lot. Now, I get to go to the RNC and vote for him being the presidential nominee.”

Trump carried both the state of Georgia and Forsyth County during March’s presidential preference primary.

Williams said the convention is the time for the party to come together after a heated primary race.

“One of my big agendas while we’re up there is to help to just unite the Republican Party,” he said. “We may not have our first choice, but it is the choice the party selected and we just have to find a way to put the past behind us, focus on November and win the White House.”

While you’re in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention, I suggest keeping your partying within reasonable limits. You don’t want to see the Cleveland lockup.

Three delegates to the Indiana Republican Convention spent the night in jail after what police described as a drunken encounter with police at a hotel.

IMPD officers were called to the Hyatt Regency on S. Capitol downtown just after 10:00 p.m. Friday on a report of a man being aggressive.  A police report says an officer was trying to get the man to leave the bar of the hotel when another man, later identified as Scott Tuft, got in the officer’s face and said the man did not have to leave.

After Tuft refused to back down, the report says the officer told Tuft he was under arrest.  A woman then grabbed the officer’s arm and tried to pull him away from Tuft.  After a couple of warnings, Amy Daly was arrested, and she and Tuft were escorted outside the hotel.

Police say Tuft and Mr. and Mrs. Daly all appeared to be intoxicated.

Congressman John Lewis (D-Atlanta) spoke to a church in Augusta this weekend.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis gently raised his right arm Sunday morning and pointed toward the congregation at Trin­ity Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

“We live in the same house,” Lewis said. “All of us. And I don’t mean the house of the United States. I mean the house of the world.”

The Georgia Democrat spoke for nearly 25 minutes about his personal trials and the importance of continuing to strive for race equality in the United States.

In addition to Lewis’ address, state Rep. Brian Prince read Old Testament Scripture and state Sen. Harold V. Jones recited a passage from the New Testament. After the readings, U.S. Attorney Edward J. Tarver introduced Lewis to the congregation.

State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) will reintroduce legislation to ban what she calls “assault weapons.”

State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, said she plans to revive her effort to restrict assault weapons, large-capacity magazines and armor-piercing bullets in Georgia after the deadliest mass shooting in American history. A similar proposal she introduced last year was blocked by powerful Republicans who said it weakened Second Amendment rights.

“It is time for a discussion – at a minimum, at least a discussion,” said Oliver, who said she’s looking for a Republican co-sponsor. “I always want to remind Georgians that we were spared a massacre with an assault weapon at McNair Academy by Antoinette Tuff. We were lucky, lives were saved here. Orlando citizens tragically were not so fortunate.”

The Forsyth County Commission approved an ordinance revision that will allow brewpubs to sell roadies.

The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners approved June 3 a modification to the county’s alcohol ordinance that would allow brewpubs to sell packaged products.

Brewpubs in the county are now allowed to not only sell consumption on the premises and to wholesalers, but also allowed to sell package sales in growlers. The one caveat is the brewpub operation must not only have a license for consumption on the premises but will also need a package sales license.

In March, the idea was first proposed. County Attorney Ken Jarrard said brewpubs in the county are currently allowed to “brew beer, sell it to the folks who come and eat at the restaurant on site, manufacture up to 10,000 barrels of beer a year, can sell it at their restaurant, and then also manufacture up to 5,000 barrels of beer to sell to licensed wholesalers.”

Melvilla West will not appear on the ballot as a candidate for Dooly County Board of Education after a ruling by the Georgia Department of Education.

Melvilla Haddock West sought a waiver in March to be on the November 2016 ballot for Dooly County Board of Education.

West has served on the board for 15 years.

The state voted eight to zero to deny West’s request, since her candidacy violates a state law making any person ineligible to run for a local school board if he or she has an immediate family member also serving on the board or a close family member in a high-ranking position.

West’s sister Freida Haddock got elected to the Dooly County Board of Education but did not seek a waiver when she came on a few years ago.

Fayetteville City Council Member Kathaleen Brewer says there must be fraud in the free lunch program. Fayette schools Superintendent Joseph Barrow denies the charge.

The number of foreclosures advertised in Cobb County is at its lowest monthly level in six years.

For the first time in 40 years, a barge delivered goods from Savannah to Augusta via the Savannah River.

When a massive piece of equipment moved up the Savannah River to Augusta from Georgia Ports Authority’s Ocean Terminal recently, it marked the first time since the Carter Administration that cargo has been barged from Savannah to its old-time trading partner some 200 miles upriver.

A 700,000 pound syngas converter, used to produce anhydrous ammonia, arrived at Ocean Terminal last month on the vessel BBC Vesuvius bound for PCS Nitrogen in Augusta. It was offloaded from the ship with the help of Stevens Towing and the Vesuvius’ onboard crane.

“This demonstrates Savannah’s ability to move super-sized cargo inland via river barge,” said incoming GPA executive director Griff Lynch. “It’s a useful option when a cargo’s size and weight complicate overland transit.