Latest news with #Elliott-LarsenCivilRightsAct
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Michigan anti-discrimination law would explicitly ban antisemitism under new proposal
A Democratic lawmaker in the Michigan House of Representatives introduced legislation June 4 to amend the state's civil rights law to include an updated definition of antisemitism, saying recent attacks on Jewish communities in the U.S. have created a crisis. Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, said during a June 3 news conference the Michigan Antisemitism Protection Act would create a 'gold standard definition of antisemitism' within the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, the state law that bans discrimination in housing, employment, education and public accommodations on the basis of certain protected classes, including, religion, age, race, sex and sexual orientation. 'If adopted, these standards would assist relevant state institutions, agencies and authorities identify and elevate potential instances of illegal discrimination against Jews in Michigan,' Arbit said. He added the bill, HB 4548, would not affect constitutionally protected free speech, but would add protections for ethnicity in arenas already covered by the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. Specifically, the bill would add ethnicity as a protected class and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism. The IHRA states: 'Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.' Arbit, who is Jewish, said a June 1 attack at a Colorado event drawing attention to Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the fatal shootings of two Israeli embassy workers in May outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington are the latest instances of targeted violence against Jews in the U.S. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the alleged perpetrator of the Boulder, Colorado, attack, was charged with a federal hate crime after telling investigators he wanted to kill all Zionist people, according to an FBI affidavit. The attacks, however, aren't isolated instances of targeted violence, Arbit said. 'Over the last decade and a half, American Jews have watched our vibrant synagogues congeal into fortresses. The anxiety that our sanctuaries or Sunday schools could be the next target for a gunman or terrorist pervades Jewish communities across Michigan,' he said. Arbit was joined by Michigan's two other Jewish lawmakers, Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, and Rep. Samantha Steckloff, D-Farmington Hills. Steckloff said all three lawmakers have received calls from the FBI about credible threats against them, adding she had a police detail on her home. Steckloff said it's important to push back against antisemitic tropes, including the idea that Jews control societal institutions. She also said American Jews should not be blamed for what the government of Israel has done, referencing the ongoing war in Gaza. 'We cannot continue to hate American Jews because of what is going on overseas,' Steckloff said. HB 4548 would bar discrimination on the basis of accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel or the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide than in the U.S. While the IHRA states that manifestations of antisemitism may include targeting the state of Israel, the group also states that criticism of Israel similar to criticism of another country cannot be considered antisemitism. The bill states discrimination "does not include criticism of the State of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country, nation, state, or government." Holding Jewish people collectively accountable for Israel's actions, however, is considered antisemitism under the bill and under the IHRA's working definition. The definition was adopted in 2016. Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New Michigan bill would adopt definition of antisemitism in state law
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Michigan House Speaker seeks open spot in U.S. Senate
Michigan state House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) speaks to media after House republicans leave the House floor in protest to inaction on labor and road funding bills on Dec. 13, 2024. | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols In the latest announcement in the race to succeed Sen. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township) as Michigan's next U.S. Senator, former Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate has joined the ever-growing field of candidates. Tate, a Detroit Democrat who currently serves as a state representative for Michigan's 9th House district, made his announcement on Sunday, which was first reported by Bloomberg. 'I'm running for Senate to lay a foundation for the next generation of Michiganders, one strong enough to protect the promise Michigan holds for every family,' Tate said in a video posted to social media on Monday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Tate, a former NFL player who served two combat tours in Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine Corps officer, was Michigan's first Black speaker of the House, leading the chamber during Democrat's trifecta in Lansing from 2023 through the end of 2024. Under the leadership of Tate and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids), Democrats forged ahead on decades of pent-up policy priorities, repealing the state's right to work laws, retirement tax and its 1931 abortion ban. Democrats also expanded the 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to add protections against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, set a 100% clean energy standard for 2040 and passed sweeping gun reforms, including universal background checks, safe storage requirements and a series of policies allowing for extreme risk protection orders, also known as red flag laws. However, Tate's term as speaker ended on a sour note, as House Republicans walked off the floor, refusing to return unless Tate placed policies on road funding and policies looking to water down changes to the state's minimum wage and sick leave laws on the agenda. While Democrats, who held a 56-54 majority, were able to continue holding votes, the chamber failed to reach a quorum for two days in a row, bringing the House to a sputtering halt. Unable to pass legislation, several bills including proposed bans on ghost guns and bump stocks, a host of bills to address racial disparities in maternal health and plans to subject the Legislature and the Governor to the state's Freedom of Information Act, were left dead in the water. Tate has faced further criticism from both sides of the aisle, as nine bills passed by the Michigan Senate sit in limbo, after the House did not present them to the governor for her signature prior to the new Legislative session. Current House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) has blamed Tate for failing to present the bills, with the impasse resulting in legal action from Brinks and the Senate. Tate joins a Democratic field that already includes U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) and former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed. On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) launched another Senate bid, after an unsuccessful campaign in 2024, which he lost to now-U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) by just over 19,000 votes.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jeremy Moss announces candidacy for Congress, says Democrats need a ‘bold voice' in Trump era
State Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) speaks after a Senate elections committee meeting on June 13, 2023. | Photo by Anna Gustafson State Sen. Jeremy Moss announced Thursday that he is running for an open Oakland County congressional seat. The Southfield Democrat is the first candidate to announce for the race after U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) said last month she would be seeking Michigan's U.S. Senate seat next year, leaving the 11th Congressional District seat open. Moss, who serves as the Senate's speaker pro tem, is the first openly gay member of the Michigan Senate, having won election to that chamber in 2018, after serving two terms in the state House. He was also previously a member of the Southfield City Council. 'I represent hundreds of thousands of residents in this district who are looking for a bold voice for Oakland County in Congress,' Moss told Michigan Advance ahead of his announcement. 'I hear about their alarm and anguish about our democracy and about our economy and we're at a critical moment and it's going to call on a new generation of leaders to step up and take action and that's what I'm ready to do.' Moss says he has been disruptive force in politics from the start, which he believes is the type of leadership Democrats need to project against the Trump administration's attacks on civil liberties and American institutions. 'I'm not a status quo kind of guy. It was disruptive when I ran and was elected as the youngest ever member of the Southfield City Council, but it brought about new economic development and neighborhood growth to the city. It was disruptive when I ran to be the first out gay member of the Michigan Senate, but as a result, we enshrined LGBTQ protections in our state civil rights law, and it is disruptive now as I take on our institution and work to open up our records to public scrutiny and bring more transparency to state government,' Moss said. Moss has been a peristent advocate for expanding the state's Freedom of Information Act and also sponsored legislation that expanded the 1973 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to protect against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. More recently, Moss garnered headlines when he literally stared down state Rep. Josh Schriver (R-Oxford) at his own press conference after the Oakland County Republican introduced a resolution urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage. 'I walked into that room and looked at the seat right in front of the podium and thought, 'I'm going to sit right there as he's going to try to inflict harm upon my community. I'm going to make him say it right to my face and then he cowardly left without taking any questions,'' Moss said. He says he saw it as an opportunity to tell not just his side as a gay person, but also speak for those in the community who support their LGBTQ neighbors and family members and are tired of divisiveness and hatred in politics. 'We got such an overwhelming response to my office, not just from the district, but from across the state, and really across the country, of people telling me this is the way forward,' Moss said. 'So you know my feet and my heart led me into that room and it's just kind of intrinsic within me to keep the fight going and to stand up boldly in this moment.' Moss said that moment is one rife with concern over the state of the economy and just what Michigan's future will look like, especially with the Trump administration's erratic tariff policy. 'I don't think you could tell me what the tariff policy is today, because it changes every day. It depends on what the president tweets every morning that's created a lot of instability and economic anxiety, especially in our manufacturing economy here in the state of Michigan, so that is top of mind for folks in my district.' When asked if he had the resources to mount and win a congressional campaign in a battleground state like Michigan, Moss said he was ready for that challenge, but also believes that the 11th District, which spans central Oakland County and includes Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Farmington Hills, Pontiac, Royal Oak, and Troy, is much more progressive than it has been in the past, which he says is largely due to the rise of President Donald Trump's MAGA movement. 'Where people in this district, in Bloomfield and Birmingham and West Bloomfield, who may at one point in time traditionally have voted Republican could not sustain this continued attack on social issues driven by Donald Trump, so this district in this county has gone through a big shift over the last several years that I can stand boldly on my Democratic values and absolutely campaign on that record,' said Moss. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Newsweek
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
Prison Guards Illegally Recorded Hundreds of Women Strip-Searched: Lawsuit
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) officials are names as defendants in a new $500 million lawsuit alleging that prison guards recorded body camera footage of naked women at a detention facility. Why It Matters Detroit-based Flood Law attorneys Todd Flood, Allexa Otto and Katherine Kobiljak are representing 500-plus women who were allegedly recorded, which litigators claim constitutes a felony as a violation of a Michigan law (MCL 750.539j) in addition to violating other fundamental constitutional rights. Michigan, according to Flood and his team, is currently the only state that has a policy to videotape strip-searches. A statue of Lady Justice, inspired by the Roman goddess Justitia, a symbol of law and fairness, stands at the Attorney General's Office in Jakarta on March 6, 2025. A statue of Lady Justice, inspired by the Roman goddess Justitia, a symbol of law and fairness, stands at the Attorney General's Office in Jakarta on March 6, 2025. YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images What To Know The 164-page lawsuit, filed this week in Washtenaw County Circuit Court, alleges "a grotesque and deliberate abuse of power" at Michigan's only women's prison, Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility (WHV) in Ypsilanti. Plaintiffs claim that between January and March, MDOC officers "forced hundreds of women"—including a vast majority who are rape survivors—to submit to video recording while completely nude during strip-searches, while showering, using toilets and in other states of undress. Lawyers said that "officials deliberately implemented and aggressively defended a policy that sanctioned state-sponsored voyeurism while cynically claiming security concerns," adding that it "represents a brazen and calculated violation of fundamental constitutional rights to privacy, bodily integrity, and human dignity." The suit names the MDOC, Whitmer, MDOC Director Heidi Washington, Deputy Director Jeremy Bush, Warden Jeremy Howard, Assistant Deputy Warden Steve Horton and multiple other officials. Newsweek reached out to Whitmer's office and the MDOC for comment. The lawsuit alleges multiple violations including: Invasion of privacy (intrusion upon seclusion). Intentional infliction of emotional distress. Sex-based discrimination under Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. Violations of Michigan's constitutional rights. Flood told Newsweek on Wednesday that a colleague brought the case to him, sparking an arduous process involving interviews with more than 500 women that led to a circuit court filing and ultimately this broader litigation. "If you take a vulnerable victim, the majority of these women—close to 90 percent—have been subjected to some sort of sexual assault, rape or domestic violence," Flood said about the amount sought by plaintiffs. "If you look at comparable cases out there—one lady, we see $55 million for a peeping Tom videotaping her taking a shower naked. "We did a lot of work with experts, financial experts and economists to come up with a number that deals with the damages. These women have all suffered at some point in time of trauma. Now they're in a lesser position." Flood previously represented victims of former U.S. gymnastics Dr. Larry Nassar, as well as more than a dozen students at Eastern Michigan University who claimed they were sexually assaulted earlier this decade. Whitmer's inclusion in the suit is because of her broader governance over the state, Flood added. "The Department of Corrections, the appointments, and the Department of Corrections' leader is the governor," Flood said. "The buck stops at the top, so she's ultimately the one that's in charge of our state's Department of Corrections and making sure that it's ran within the confines of the law and regulations. "Do I think the governor knew about this? Realistically not. But she's in charge and she's the one that stood in the shoes of making sure that our women and men that are incarcerated in the state and held within the public entity of the state are protected." The victims, many of whom were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder prior to the alleged recording incidents, are now, according to Flood, experiencing "devasting" effects, including severe psychological distress, debilitating panic attacks, insomnia, gastrointestinal distress and exacerbation of preexisting conditions. Several have withdrawn from visitation with family members, resigned from prison jobs and abandoned educational programs, he added. "Put yourself in the confines of a prison and how you're treated," he said. "Obviously, it is a totally different place and totally different way. Then, you have to succumb to being strip-searched and the trauma. "The triggers that take place with these women are visceral. Some of the women said, 'I will only see you once because I don't want to come see my lawyers. I don't wanna see anybody because I'm going to be videotaped,' and they will have a physical reaction of either shakes, sweats, sick, sleepless nights vomiting where they don't want to leave their cell." What People Are Saying Attorney Todd Flood told Newsweek: "My lawsuit brought notice and light underneath the hood here to what's going on. And it would have continued to take place, but for us doing this lawsuit." What Happens Next The women represented by Flood and his colleagues are collectively seeking injunctive relief, destruction of all recordings made during the illegal period, mandatory training for MDOC staff and monetary damages for the harm endured.
The Intercept
06-05-2025
- Politics
- The Intercept
Michigan Prison Films Women in Showers — and Caught Guards Saying Lewd Things, Lawsuit Says
A $500 million lawsuit filed Monday in Washtenaw County Circuit Court is taking aim at the Michigan Department of Corrections, alleging that prison officials subjected hundreds of incarcerated women to illegal surveillance by recording them during strip searches, while showering, and even as they used the toilet. The suit describes the violations as a profound breach of privacy and basic human rights. At the heart of the case is a deeply controversial and, according to experts, unprecedented policy implemented at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility, the only women's prison in Michigan. Under the Michigan Department of Corrections policy directive, prison guards were instructed to wear activated body cameras while conducting routine strip searches, capturing video of women in states of complete undress. The suit, brought by the firm Flood Law, alleges a range of abuses, including lewd comments from prison guards during recorded searches, and long-term psychological trauma inflicted on women, many of whom are survivors of sexual violence. 'What these women continue to endure is nothing short of horrific.' 'What these women continue to endure is nothing short of horrific. This case exposes a grotesque abuse of power that directly retraumatizes survivors of sexual assault,' Todd Flood said in a Tuesday press release ahead of announcing the suit. 'Despite multiple warnings about the policy's illegality from advocacy organizations and state legislatures, MDOC officials have failed to fully halt these privacy violations.' Attorneys for the 500 plaintiffs — 20 named women, with hundreds more expected to join — argued that this practice not only deprived women of their dignity, but also violated widely accepted detention standards. No other state in the country permits such recordings; many have explicit prohibitions against filming individuals during unclothed searches, recognizing the inherent risk of abuse and the acute vulnerability of the people being searched. Michigan, the attorneys said, stands alone. The plaintiffs are suing the Michigan Department of Corrections, Department of Corrections head Heidi Washington, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and more than a dozen other high-ranking officials. Neither the Department of Corrections nor Whitmer's office immediately responded to requests for comment. The lawsuit lays out a sweeping series of alleged legal violations, accusing state officials of crossing constitutional and moral lines. It claims the officials are ultimately responsible for a blatant invasion of privacy through the unauthorized recording of women in vulnerable states; the deliberate infliction of emotional trauma through policies that retraumatized sexual assault survivors; and systemic sex-based discrimination in violation of Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. The Elliott-Larsen law, which protects against sex-based discrimination, was meant to protect against precisely this kind of gendered abuse. The suit says the policy suggests that women in state custody are being surveilled in ways no male prisoner would be. The complaint also asserts that the policy and its continued enforcement stand in direct conflict with multiple protections enshrined in the Michigan Constitution, suggesting a failure at every level of oversight and accountability. According to the complaint, the body camera policy began in January 2025 and was only partially rolled back in March after public pressure. Although the Department of Corrections changed its policy to stop recording strip searches, the suit alleges that officers continue to film women in showers, bathrooms, and other private settings — actions that the complaint says amount to felonies under Michigan law. [/newsetter] The trauma has taken a measurable toll. Women have reported acute anxiety, disrupted sleep, digestive problems, and worsening of chronic health conditions. The psychological impact has led many to isolate themselves, quit their work assignments, and disengage from educational programs. One woman, who had served as a Prisoner Observation Aide for 11 years, resigned from the role due to repeated exposure to recorded searches. The plaintiffs are seeking not just financial damages, but also an injunction to halt any remaining recordings, destruction of existing footage, and mandatory staff training to prevent further abuse. 'This isn't just about privacy,' Flood said in the statement. 'It's about dignity, trauma, and the state's responsibility to uphold the basic rights of every person in its custody.'
