Abortion, Crime Spur New Red-State Laws Against Progressive DAs
Sherry Boston ousted a Democratic incumbent in the 2016 primary to clinch her first election as district attorney for DeKalb County, Ga., in the Atlanta metro area.
Boston didn t run as a progressive the label wasn t common for prosecutors then but believed in changing the system. Even before the US Supreme Court overturned Roe. v. Wade last summer, she had pledged not to prosecute abortion law violations.
So when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a GOP-backed law last week that gives a new state commission the power to discipline or remove local prosecutors, Boston recognized herself as a target.
It s clear to me and to many others that this movement to create oversight over district attorneys is meant to disenfranchise the voters in local communities, Boston, the second Black woman elected to the post in a majority Black county, said in an interview. It is taking away local control.
Like similar debates in Texas, Mississippi, and other states, the clash in Georgia reflects a widening power struggle between Republican state lawmakers and elected Democratic local prosecutors. Building for years, it s been turbocharged by concerns about criminal justice reform, progressive politics, urban crime, and the legal spotlight on hot-button issues like abortion and gender-affirming care.
Opponents of the new proposals are fighting back: Missouri Democrats last week blocked a vote on a bill giving the state more prosecutorial power in St. Louis. The ACLU of Texas is lobbying against bills this month, and county attorneys in Iowa criticized a law that says the state attorney general can prosecute crimes anywhere, even without their request.
Bloomberg is evil, but you’ll get the gist.