North Carolina
Senate bill toughening riot punishments advances
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Legislation that would toughen punishments for violent protests — a response to 2020 demonstrations over racial injustice that at times turned into tumult — advanced in the North Carolina Senate on Tuesday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to recommend the bill brings the General Assembly closer to a potential veto showdown with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who two years ago successfully blocked a similar measure with a veto. But Republican seat gains in the fall, combined with some bipartisan support for the bill in the House, raises the possibility of an override.
Last month, six Democrats joined all Republicans in the House in voting for the measure, which is being shepherded by Speaker Tim Moore, as was the 2021 version. The House margin, if left intact, would be veto-proof. Senate Republicans already hold a veto-proof seat advantage in their chamber. This year’s measure now must clear one more Senate committee before it goes to the chamber floor.
Moore’s up-close views of rioting and looting in downtown Raleigh in June 2020, amid otherwise peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, continue to serve as a backdrop for him to seek changes to the rioting statutes.
Under the new measure, punishments already in place to willfully participate in a riot or incite one — and to incur serious injury or property damages during a riot — would increase. And there would be a new felony crime when participating in a riot leads to a death.
The bill would also let property owners whose businesses are damaged during protests seek compensation against a perpetrator equal to three times the monetary damage. And new bond and pretrial release rules for defendants accused of rioting or looting would have a judge set those conditions within 24 hours. Bill supporters have complained that otherwise, defendants can be released immediately by a magistrate.
Moore also mentioned the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021 in explaining that such laws would also apply to other forms of violence. But he said that the events of 2020 in Raleigh and elsewhere in state shows the need for tougher laws as a deterrence.
“This is not a solution in search of a problem,” Moore told the committee. “This is to strengthen our laws that, if heaven forbid something happens again ... in our state that there’ll be laws on the books, that there’ll be teeth there so that those who do this can be held accountable.”
As with the House discussion last month, representatives of social justice and civil rights groups criticized the measure as an effort to squelch opposing viewpoints.
“The impact will be to stifle the voices of the most marginalized communities. Make no mistake about it,” said Kerwin Pittman, a criminal justice advocate and organizer with Emancipate NC, adding that peaceful protesters wrongly arrested could lose their jobs if they are forced to be held for 24 hours.
“The lessons from these protests are not that police officers or prosecutors need more crimes to arrest people for,” said Liz Barber with the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina. “This is part of a general trend of overcriminalization.”
Nine states have passed similar protest laws since June 2020, according to the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law. North Carolina is among several states currently considering new penalties.
The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association supports the bill, according to Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood, the group’s president.
In his message vetoing the 2021 bill, Cooper said legislation was “unnecessary and is intended to intimidate and deter people from exercising their constitutional rights to peacefully protest.”
Washington
SoFi Bank sues to block Biden’s student loan payment pause
WASHINGTON (AP) — A private bank is trying to force the Biden administration to end its pause on federal student loan payments, arguing the moratorium has no legal basis and has cost the bank, known for its refinancing business, millions of dollars in profits.
In a federal lawsuit filed Friday in Washington, SoFi Bank N.A. asked a federal judge to overturn President Joe Biden’s latest extension of the payment pause. Student loan payments first were halted at the start of the pandemic by President Donald Trump’s administration. The pause has been extended eight times over three years.
The bank says its federal student loan refinancing business has suffered because borrowers have little incentive to refinance while payments and interest remain on hold. At a minimum, the lawsuit asks a judge to limit the pause only to borrowers who would be eligible for Biden’s cancellation plan.
Biden’s latest extension, which was announced in November and could stretch as far as this summer, is unlawful on “multiple grounds,” the lawsuit claims.
Unlike the first seven extensions, which were meant to help borrowers struggling as a result of the pandemic, the latest one was enacted solely in response to legal challenges to Biden’s plan for widespread student debt forgiveness, the lawsuit says. The plan is currently being challenged in the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule by June.
“The eighth extension does not even attempt to redress harm from the pandemic at all, but rather to alleviate ‘uncertainty’ caused by the debt-cancellation litigation,” SoFi says in the lawsuit.
SoFi argues that isn’t a valid reason authorized by the HEROES Act, the federal law the Biden administration has invoked to continue the pause. The bank also argues the extension violated the Administrative Procedure Act because the administration failed to invite feedback from the public.
The most recent extension has cost the bank at least $6 million in lost profits, SoFi says, and it could lead to a total of $30 million in losses if it continues through August.
“In essence, SoFi is being forced to compete with loans with 0% interest rates and for which any ongoing repayment of the principal is entirely optional,” the lawsuit says.
The Education Department defended the legality of the pause, calling the lawsuit “an attempt by a multi-billion dollar company to make money while they force 45 million borrowers back into repayment.”
“The department will continue to fight to deliver relief to borrowers, provide a smooth path to repayment and protect borrowers from industry and special interests,” the agency said in a statement.
The lawsuit drew swift condemnation from borrower advocates, who called it a money grab at the expense of those struggling with student debt.
“The real story here is the huge risk this poses to tens of millions of working people who SoFi would never lend to — families across the country that depend on the student loan payment pause to shield them from financial devastation,” said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center.
