Mendocino County’s opinions on the issues

Check out today’s editorial columns and letters to the editor from our readers.

In January, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the 12 year sentence of a man, who was convicted of having an illegal cell phone in his jail cell.

Willie Nash had been jailed on a misdemeanor charge in 2018. He asked one of the corrections officers if he had a way to charge his phone. The jailor confiscated the phone, and reported it to the sheriff. After finally admitting the phone was his, and giving up the password, the only relevant communication found on the phone was his wife asking him where he was and Nash replying he was “in jail.”

In handing down the original sentence, the judge said Nash should “consider himself fortunate,” because of a previous burglary conviction, for which he served time between the years of 2001-2008. After serving his time, Nash stayed out of trouble until his misdemeanor arrest in 2018.

Nash had paid his debt to society for his original conviction, but the judge saw it differently.

The harsh sentence of 12 years, imposed by the court for having contraband (cell phone) in the jail, was criticized by many as “grossly disproportionate” punishment, despite Nash having stayed clean for a decade after his original sentence.

Three of the Mississippi court’s justices agreed with the court’s findings, but thought the 12 year sentence was “too harsh.”

Justice Leslie D. King wrote, “Cases like Nash’s are exactly why prosecutors and judges are given wide discretion. Nash served his time for his previous convictions and stayed out of trouble with the law for many years. He has a wife and three children who rely on him. His crime was victimless, and the facts of the case lend themselves to an interpretation that his crime was accidental and likely caused by a failure in booking procedures. Nash did not do anything nefarious with his phone, and he certainly did not hide his phone from law enforcement. While I do not think this Court can find under the law that the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing, it is a case in which, in my opinion, both the prosecutor and the trial court should have taken a more rehabilitative, rather than punitive, stance.”

So, accidentally breaking prison rules by trying to charge your cell phone will cost you up to 15 years in Mississippi? And oh, guess what color Willie Nash is?

Moral conviction codified in law

Tennessee lawmakers just passed a bill that gives adoption agencies the right to discriminate against same-sex couples. If the governor signs the bill, licensed adoption agencies in the state will be allowed to refuse a child placement if doing so would “violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies.” The bill also applies to agencies placing children in foster homes.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee is urging people to write their state senators saying that the bill is not only discriminatory but also untenable for the thousands of children in foster care in the state waiting to be adopted.

One of the few republican senators who opposed the bill, voiced concerns that the law would harm businesses, citing fears that major events hosted by the NFL, NCAA and NHL, which are all considering hosting large events in Tennessee soon, might be canceled.

His concern was not that the law would sanction discrimination against the LGBTQ community, but that it would cost the state money.

Law makers in West Virginia voted to advance a rule that would strip away rights from LGBTQ children and adults involved in foster care. If finalized, it would removed existing protections for LGBTQ adults looking to foster and children who are in foster care, by allowing the agencies to turn either away.

As the Fayette County Register-Herald explained: There are no protections for LGBTQ foster children or parents under state law. In November, the Trump administration also proposed reversing an Obama-era rule protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination in programs funded by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which would include foster care agencies.

The first bill of 2020 passed by the Tennessee state legislature would allow adoption agencies to deny same sex couples from adopting children based on religious beliefs.

The president of Tennessee’s conservative Family Action Council thought the bill wouldn’t have much impact by keeping companies or large events from coming to the state, “These businesses move here because they presumably like our laws and our values and who we are as people.”

American businessmen and women have found that discrimination against minority members of the public is bad for business.

When Georgia passed a “religious liberty” bill allowing tax

payer-funded adoption agencies to decline placing children with LGBTQ couples, Disney and other movie companies threatened to boycott the state, potentially depriving the state millions of dollars and thousands of jobs. That legislation was vetoed by the governor, because money.

The republican justification for, or opposition to, discriminatory LGBTQ legislation seems to revolve around money, what it might cost businesses in those states. Not the fundamental violation of the civil rights of the LGBTQ community, who are cast as morally inferior citizens, unworthy of the same rights afforded to straight couples seeking adoption.

That same “unworthy” argument justified Jim Crow legislation, and has

been recently expanded to include a Muslim ban and vilifying “unworthy” asylum seeking immigrants. ( They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists…)

But surely, those state legislator’s “sincerely held beliefs” of moral superiority are bolstered by divine imprimatur?