Supreme Court upholds law banning domestic abusers from owning firearms | The Excerpt

On Saturday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: The Supreme Court has upheld a law banning domestic abusers from owning guns. USA TODAY Election Reporting Fellow Melissa Cruz breaks down how Georgia is mandating election training for police. Iowa's Board of Education has approved rules that require educators to tell parents and caregivers if their child asks to use different pronouns. USA TODAY Consumer Travel Reporter Kathleen Wong discusses how little vacation Americans take compared with other countries. Is this the summer of rock? The U.S. men's national team begins its Copa América tournament Sunday.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Saturday, June 22nd, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today a look at the Supreme Court's decision on domestic abusers and firearms. Plus Georgia will mandate election training for police. And we look at how little vacation Americans take compared with the rest of the world.

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The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a law banning domestic abusers from owning guns. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 8-1 majority writing that since the founding, our nation's firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms. For his part, Justice Clarence Thomas, the lone dissenter and author of one of the past key gun rights decisions said there isn't a single historical regulation that justifies the ban.

The case centered on a Texas man, Zackey Rahimi, who was involved in five shootings between 2020 and 2021. Rahimi pleaded guilty to the federal crime of possessing guns while subject to a restraining order, but an appeals court threw out his conviction. Yesterday's decision shows that a conservative court that has expanded gun rights also sees areas for limitations.

Georgia will be the first state to mandate election training for its law enforcement officers, a response to growing tensions around election security since the 2020 presidential race. I spoke with USA TODAY election reporting fellow Melissa Cruz to learn more.

Melissa, thanks for hoping on The Excerpt.

Melissa Cruz:

Hey, thank you so much for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Melissa, let's just start here. Georgia has mandated election training for police. What will this entail?

Melissa Cruz:

So they have just released this new training. It's going to be a one-hour course and it will be mandated for all new recruits. Current police officers will be definitely encouraged to take it before the November election, but basically it contains four different elements.

The first is just sort of a brief overview of how government elections work, looking at the state's role. The second part is really just how police departments can coordinate in advance with local election officials. Just avoiding any sort of concerns about police being there. In the past, it could be seen as problematic. And then the third prong is really just responding to threats to election officials or to the system itself. And then the fourth element really is the largest portion, and that's just a presentation on what the law is in Georgia that police might need to know in order to know how to deal with threats or anything like that at polling places.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. So what led up to this moment?

Melissa Cruz:

Obviously the 2020 election had a big part in it. Georgia really saw itself become the epicenter of harassment, unfortunately for officials in 2020. And so since then things have become a lot more tense. Election officials are worried that this sort of heightened tension among voters might spill over into polling places.

I spoke with one election official who gave an example just of something that used to be incredibly mundane. Say if a voter came into a polling place wearing a shirt with their candidate's name or a button, and they were asked, "Can you take off the button or cover up the shirt in some way?" And before it really would've been no problem, but now people may see it as their side as being silenced if a poll worker asks them to do that or they could see it as evidence of a rigged election.

And so essentially things that didn't used to be a problem, now they're seeing elections are not running so smoothly. So they're just trying to make sure police officers are aware of what the laws are and make sure they come prepared to deal with any sort of incidents at polling places.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. So Melissa, why else do officials really say this is necessary?

Melissa Cruz:

They've said that they really want threats to election officials to be treated just like any other threats. So they found in the past that election officials who do come under attack, they're not always taken seriously by police. We've seen throughout the 2020 election, that was sometimes the case. And of course, sometimes police officers simply just don't know how to respond to this type of event. So they really want to make sure that they're prepared to respond and that any election officials get treated the same way as anyone else would want to be.

Taylor Wilson:

Melissa, is there any pushback against this?

Melissa Cruz:

So there has been no pushback that we've seen. States are actually really wanting to do it. The man who created this program, Chris Harvey, he's a former police officer, he really has seen a large demand for it. He's traveled to 12 other states in the country, so he's definitely offered the training to a bunch of different people. He said, especially in swing states, are the ones that are looking for this training.

Taylor Wilson:

And might we expect them to follow suit or still unclear?

Melissa Cruz:

Still a little unclear. We were told that North Carolina has an optional training right now for their police officers, but so far Georgia is the first to implement this kind of training for all their recruits. So hopefully we'll see it in the future. But right now, Georgia is the only one.

Taylor Wilson:

Melissa Cruz is an election reporting fellow with USA TODAY. Thank you, Melissa.

Melissa Cruz:

Thank you so much.

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Taylor Wilson:

Iowa's Board of Education has approved rules that require educators to tell parents and caregivers if their child asks to use different pronouns. The rules first introduced last fall are meant to help Iowa school officials navigate parts of a state law pertaining to letting families know about a student's gender identity. The law also requires schools to have an online library catalog and guidelines for determining age-appropriate instruction.

In particular, the law requires school administrators to alert a student's family about any pronoun changes that vary from the child's sex at birth, or a new name meant to affirm the child's gender identity. Educators are also barred from withholding information or giving misinformation to parents and caregivers about a student's gender identity.

Opponents of the new policy and other state and local laws that prohibit school staff from alerting parents if children asked to use different names or pronouns have said the mandate will forcibly out students. The move comes as schools nationwide seek to remove or ban protections for transgender and non-binary students to comply with state laws.

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Americans aren't taking vacations. I spoke with USA TODAY consumer travel reporter Kathleen Wong to find out how we fare compared with other countries around the world.

Kathleen, thanks for hopping on.

Kathleen Wong:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Kathleen, how much time off and how many vacations do Americans take? What did this report from Expedia find?

Kathleen Wong:

Expedia just released its Vacation Deprivation Report, which is in its 24th year. And out of 11 countries surveyed, Americans take the least vacations globally. On average, they take just 11 days off per year. And out of the 11 countries, Americans also get the least amount of vacation time. They get just 11 days. But in the survey, only half of them said that they plan to use all of those 11 days.

Taylor Wilson:

So what are some of the factors at play here? Why is this happening?

Kathleen Wong:

The top reason was life is just too busy to plan a vacation. I feel like a lot of Americans are working a lot, feeling burnt out. And even more, about 19% of Americans said that they save up their vacation days to go on a big trip, and then they end up not even taking that big trip and that planning vacation can just be too time-consuming and overwhelming.

Taylor Wilson:

How did these findings compare to the rest of the world?

Kathleen Wong:

In the survey, France won the spot as the country that takes the most vacation days, and they took about a month, and Japan, which took the second least amount of vacation days, actually reported that they feel satisfied with their vacations because they spread them out throughout the year. They'll take a day off to turn a weekend into a long weekend, and so that they're pretty happy with the time that they get off.

Taylor Wilson:

So everyone, at least in theory, likes vacation Kathleen. But what are some of the tangible benefits really of taking vacation?

Kathleen Wong:

Yeah, there are actually a lot of good things that can come when you take time off to reset and recharge. For your well-being, it can help reduce anxiety and depression just having that chance to get away. A lot of times you'll want to go somewhere beautiful like the beach or the mountains. Those spaces have a lot of benefits for you. And when you take a trip, you can return to your work and your daily lives in a better mood, you work more efficiently, you've had the chance to reboot and take off some stress so you're able to do your job better when you take vacations.

Taylor Wilson:

And finally, can you just offer up any tips for Americans who are hoping to get away?

Kathleen Wong:

So one tip would be to scrap the idea of a big annual trip and opt for shorter getaways like a long weekend. Even though holiday weekends can be very crowded and prices can be higher than usual, you can pick a Monday or a Friday off on a regular weekend, maybe during shorter season somewhere, and you'll have a chance to score some deals.

Taylor Wilson:

And Kathleen, I should just really quick for the listeners clarify that shoulder season refers to essentially non-peak season. So this could be often the fall or spring months to travel.

Kathleen Wong:

Also, to use technology, there's AI travel planners and price trackers that can help monitor flights. So you can see when there's going to be lower fares and you could track a flight and that can help you make planning a little easier.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, great advice. Kathleen Wong covers consumer travel for USA TODAY. Thanks, Kathleen.

Kathleen Wong:

Yeah, thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Could this be the summer of Rock? Not because rock songs are topping music charts or surging on streams. They're not. It's because titans of the genre have decided to unleash themselves on the road. Touring acts this summer range from Green Day to Def Leppard and the resurgent Nickelback, along with reunions of Jane's Addiction and Blink-182. And even the kings of stadium shows, The Rolling Stones, continue their lap around the country through July. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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The United States Men's Soccer team will tomorrow begin its run at this year's Copa America tournament taking on Bolivia. The tournament involves the best teams from the Americas and Caribbean, and the US will later take on Panama and Uruguay in the group stage. The top two teams in the group will advance to the knockout rounds. The tournament kicked off earlier this week as Argentina beat Canada in the opening match before a scoreless draw last night between Peru and Chile.

Meanwhile, another continental soccer tournament rolls on this weekend, the Euros. Today, the Republic of Georgia will take on the Czechs before Turkey and Portugal battle it out, and then Belgium after a shocking loss in their opening game to Slovakia will try and recover against Romania. You can follow both tournaments with USA TODAY Sports.

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Over two years of Russia's war in Ukraine have left the country and its soldiers running short of ammunition, weapons, manpower, money, and morale. Can a new round of aid help tip the scales in Ukraine's favor? Tune into The Excerpt tomorrow, beginning at 5 AM Eastern Time as my co-host Dana Taylor is joined by USA TODAY White House correspondent Joey Garrison to unpack the latest developments on this front.

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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: SCOTUS upholds law banning domestic abusers owning guns | The Excerpt