Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.
This week was a great week for North Carolina. The state Supreme Court ruled that the citizens of our state did, indeed, have the authority to decide if they want voters to show an ID before being allowed to vote. Voters passed a law in 2018, via a Constitutional amendment, requiring that a photo ID must be shown prior to voting. Democrats sued to stop the law from becoming effective and it has been tied up in lawsuits ever since. Imagine a court saying that if the people vote to amend their Constitution, as allowed by law, it is Unconstitutional. Finally, common sense has prevailed, and the people WON. Our voter ID law is now valid.
The Court also decided that the Legislature is the body who is Constitutionally required to draw the Legislative districts. Again, Democrats sued after districts were redrawn, as required by the Constitution, after the 2010 census. Every 2 years since then, districts have been redrawn. The court has said that they must be drawn again, because of the 2020 census. Perhaps, this time the district drawings will last for ten years as required by Law. Do not count on it though.
The previous decision, by the Court, to reinstate felons voting rights was also struck down. The court said that sentences must be completed before voting rights are restored.
This was a good week at the Court. It appears that the current court believes that the Legislature makes laws and it is not the Court’s place to rewrite those laws. ‘Bout Time.
You wouldn’t have believed the strangeness of some of the legislative debates this week at the General Assembly. A bill was moved that would increase the felony classification of intentionally disseminating obscenity when it is knowingly done in the presence of a person under 18 years of age. Plain and simple, the bill says, “Don’t show anything or do anything obscene in front of children.” Wouldn’t you think that most people know that this is inappropriate? Obviously not.
The committee room during the hearing, very quickly turned into a circus. We were accused of attacking the LGBTQ community and even called racists. There was a group of transgender folks in the audience and many of the comments had nothing to do with the bill. I will share one introduction.
One speaker, a transgender woman, introduced herself as “Naomi Dixx” from the “House of Coxx.” She accused the committee members of attacking the trans community and called us racists. She was one of the nicer speakers too.
Who would think that there would be any controversy over trying to keep children from being in the presence of obscenity? Every speaker started their remarks with something like, “nobody is arguing that children should not be protected from obscenity.” So what were they there for? The bill said, if you expose children to obscenity, the penalties will be stiff.
My old Merriam Webster dictionary defines ‘obscene’ like this: Repulsive: deeply offensive to morality or decency: esp: designed to incite to lust or depravity. Syn gross, vulgar, coarse, crude, indecent.
The U.S. Senate struggled for many years, back in the 50s and 60s, to develop a coherent definition involving cases of obscenity and pornography. It was a difficult task to balance the First Amendment cases regarding the Freedom of Speech with the states’ ability to protect the safety, health, welfare and morals of the people. The court ultimately decided to do it on a case-by-case basis.
In 1964, the Court examined a court ruling involving a film that the state thought was obscene. Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart, in trying to define hard core pornography famously remarked, “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it”
Many still refer to that phrase, “I know it when I see it.” Indeed, we all recognize it as something that is not fit for children.
We all know that the recent episode at Forsyth Tech involving a high school student and a drag queen, was not appropriate.
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Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.