Americans of Conscience Checklist: July 7, 2023

69 weeks to the presidential election

The AoC Checklist features clear, well-researched actions for Americans who value democracy, equality, voting, and decency. We are a big tent for all people who want a kinder, flourishing nation.

This week’s checklist of actions is short and time sensitive:

• Action 1: Protect farm workers from heat-related illness and death.
• House Action: Support a binding code of conduct for Supreme Court justices.
• Senate Action: Protect access to reproductive health services for military families.

In this edition of the AoC Checklist:

• Senate actions: What we’re contacting our senators about.
• House actions: What we’re contacting our House reps about.
• Action 1: Protect farm workers from heat-related illness and death.
• Say Thanks: Acts of Gratitude
• Check out Good News from around the nation
• How you can support and share the AoC Checklist

Look up your senators here.

Look up your House representative here.

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Progress on issues previously featured in the Checklist

• NV makes it a felony offense to harass, threaten, or dox an election worker.
• TX passes measures to make in-person voting more accessible for disabled voters.

Indigenous Nations

• Pueblo land in present-day Chaco Canyon is excluded from new oil and gas leases for 20 years.

National

• President Biden signs an executive order to increase background checks conducted before firearm sales and to more effectively utilize red flag laws.
• On the 70th anniversary of the “Lavender Scare,” President Biden issues a proclamation acknowledging the harm inflicted by Eisenhower’s discriminatory ban on LGBTQI+ people working for the U.S. government. 
• The Biden-Harris administration proposes privacy protections to prevent patients’ health information from being used to investigate or sue anyone who obtains or facilitates an abortion.
• The Biden-Harris administration releases a first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism.
• SCOTUS rules that public school students with disabilities can sue for past damages when schools fail to provide accommodations. 
• SCOTUS affirms safety net program beneficiaries’ right to sue if states violate their rights.
• SCOTUS leaves workers’ right to strike intact.
• The Dept. of Ed. appoints a national coordinator to address the rise in book bans and their effect on students’ civil rights.
• The Dept. of Ed. proposes a change to Title IX to protect transgender student athletes’ access to sports by making it illegal for schools to ban trans students from playing on the teams that align with their gender identity.
• The DOJ ends sentencing disparities for various forms of cocaine that worsened racial inequity in the justice system.
• The Dept. of Health and Human Services eases the process of accessing specialist care for Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries.
• The EPA reinstates clean air regulations for plastic recycling processes.
• People seeking refuge from Afghanistan can renew their temporary protected status.
• Military members can access up to three weeks of paid leave to obtain abortion care or fertility treatments with travel expenses covered.
• Teacher, composer, and cultural icon Edith Kanaka’ole features on the U.S. quarter, becoming the first Native Hawaiian woman to appear on U.S. currency.

State

• AR voters’ referendum to repeal a censorial education bill can begin gathering signatures to get on the 2024 ballot.
• AZ’s Supreme Court preserves voting accessibility by rejecting a lawsuit that attempted to strike down the state’s effective 1991 no-excuse mail-in voting law. 
• CA will provide disaster relief funds for aspiring Americans who aren’t eligible for FEMA aid.
• CO: People in state prisons and youth detention facilities can now make phone calls to their families for free. 
• CO prevents jails from holding people over suspected civil immigration violations, bars state and local governments from entering into or renewing contracts with ICE, and prevents the opening of new privately owned detention facilities.
• CO, IL, NM, VT, WA, and Washington, DC join CT and MA in enacting shield laws to protect bodily autonomy rights through access to abortion and gender-affirming care.
• CT passes their own Voting Rights Act to protect the voting rights of disenfranchised communities.
• CT passes legislation adding 14 days of in-person early voting during elections as well as a resolution (awaiting approval by voters) that would allow no-excuse mail-in voting.
• CT receives historic funding through the EPA’s Brownfield program to revitalize polluted sites in seven local communities.
• IL public libraries must adopt the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights policy prohibiting book banning in order to be eligible for state funding.
• KY and TN: Courts partially block restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender youth in both states.
• NV makes it a felony offense to harass, threaten, or dox an election worker.
• LA: Citing the evidence-based benefits and safety of gender-affirming care, Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoes a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth.
• MD Gov. Wes Moore signs an executive order protecting those seeking, receiving, or providing gender-affirming care from attempts at legal punishment by other states.
• MD’s Board of Public Works approves $1 million in funding for a multi-year stockpile of abortion medications.
• MN: Aspiring Americans are now eligible for the state’s new tuition-free college program, to obtain driver’s licenses, and to enroll in state-sponsored health insurance.
• NY: The individual responsible for the death of subway passenger Jordan Neely faces consequences within the legal system.
• OH’s Supreme Court rejects a lawsuit attempting to send a proposed constitutional amendment ensuring the right to abortion back to square one.
• OK public high school and college students with Indigenous backgrounds can wear tribal regalia at their graduations.
• PA: Court rules that the state’s property values-based school funding system is unconstitutional and detrimental to low-income students.
• RI state Reps. Cherie Cruz and Leonela Felix bring their first-hand experiences with the criminal legal system to their legislative efforts towards systemic reform.
• RI: A caucus within the General Assembly changes their name to be more inclusive of legislators’ and constituents’ diversity.
• TX passes the CROWN Act, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective hairstyle.
• WA: A capital gains tax implemented just last year raises over $849 million for school districts and childcare programs as of May 2023, more than tripling initial projections.
• WI: As of March 2023, the state’s unemployment rate reaches a record low.

Local

• Austin, TX endorses the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty proposal, an initiative calling on world leaders to transition away from fossil fuels.
• The Fulton County, GA Board of Commissioners rejects a nominee to the county election board who baselessly challenged the eligibility of thousands of voters.

Corporate/business

• Following protests by employees about dangerous working conditions, Dollar General shareholders agree to an independent audit of worker safety.
• Two factory farm dairies in Yakima Valley, WA will clean up groundwater and limit future water pollution.

Groups and organizations

• Sixteen young people sue the state of MT on grounds that its support of fossil fuels violates their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment.
• Three transgender children and their families sue TN over the state’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for young people.
• A lawsuit brought by a group of diverse religious practitioners challenging IN’s abortion restrictions on religious freedom grounds is granted class action status.
• The nonprofit Generation Hope empowers teen parents to pursue higher education while parenting.

News with heart

• Bird-watcher Christian Cooper (the target of false accusations during a 2020 encounter in Central Park) hosts the show Extraordinary Birder on National Geographic.
• Young New Yorkers and self-styled “Old Jewish Men” party together at an intergenerational mixer.
• More people than ever receive training as abortion doulas to help patients access care and to support them through their procedures.
• Clergy with trans kids support their children’s right to live authentically alongside their families’ right to religious liberty.
• A greater cultural understanding of gender diversity means more people than ever identify as transgender or nonbinary.
• B Hayes finds community support for their authentic self and their choice of prom attire.
• Booksellers Sarah and George Brooks support students’ rights to access uncensored reading material with a specially curated shelf in their store.
• Pregnant models, disabled models, and models of diverse body types sport designer Sinead O’Dwyer’s designs on the runway.
• 11% of women of diverse national origin are entrepreneurs today, up from 8% in 2000. 
• Researchers discover a biomarker for Parkinson’s disease, a promising step towards improved care and treatment.
• Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst develop a device that can continuously generate electricity from air.
• A century after it was thought to have died out, the Aporia crataegi butterfly makes a reappearance in England.
• Thought to be extinct, the cheery yellow York groundsel blooms again after being brought back to life in the first ever de-extinction in Britain.
• The U.K.’s advertising regulator bans a Shell ad campaign for misleading consumers about the company’s supposed green initiatives.
• Ukraine’s Tyligulska wind power plant generates enough clean electricity to power about 200,000 homes.
• Finland generates so much clean, hydroelectric energy that electricity prices dip into the negative.

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Need inspiration?

• (un)remarkable bodily autonomy
• U.S. politics from a 17 year old’s perspective
• Four Perks of Doing Something

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