Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 11/6

[SVPete]

Fifth Circuit allows Mississippi DEI ban to take effect, blasts lower court’s ‘botch job’

https://www.campusreform.org/article/fifth-circuit-allows-mississippi-dei-ban-take-effect-blasts-lower-courts-botch-job/30929

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction blocking portions of Mississippi’s ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion practices at public schools and universities, clearing the way for the law to take effect.

The appeals court also sharply criticized U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate’s handling of the case, calling the proceedings a “botch job” and ordering the lawsuit reassigned to another judge.

Mississippi’s H.B. 1193, enacted in April 2025, prohibits public schools and universities from maintaining certain DEI offices and requiring diversity training.

The law also requires employment, academic opportunity, and student-engagement decisions to rest on merit and qualifications rather than race, color, sexual orientation, or gender.

It restricts institutions from requiring adherence to a list of “divisive concepts” involving subjects including race, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, and national origin.

Wingate blocked portions of the law in August 2025 after finding that they violated the First Amendment.

The Fifth Circuit reversed that decision.

Judge Jerry Smith wrote that Wingate “carelessly exercised his Article III power by issuing sloppy edicts based on falsehoods and fabrications,” the Magnolia Tribune reported.

The appeals court also said an earlier temporary restraining order cited a nonexistent case and identified parties who were not involved in the lawsuit.

Wingate's AI was less I than Acme AI. Beep! Beep!

[SVPete]

They Banned Parents Over Pink Wristbands, and the Legal Bill Reached $275,000

https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2026/11/05/they-banned-parents-over-pink-wristbands-the-legal-bill-reached-275000-n4959079

Kyle Fellers missed half his daughter’s senior-year soccer games after a dispute over a pink wristband. Two years later, Bow School District has a federal judgment declaring that it violated the parents’ First Amendment rights, plus a settlement providing $275,000 in legal fees and costs.

The wristbands carried two letters: XX. Apparently, defending girls’ sports required parents to defend their right to wear something smaller than the average school identification badge.

From KSAT:

In a dismissal order Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe said the men have a First Amendment right to silently wear the wristbands and that school officials violated it. Under a settlement agreement, the district’s risk pool will pay $225,000 to the Institute for Free Speech, which represented the men in court, and $50,000 to the men's attorney. The plaintiffs will each get $17.91, an amount that symbolizes the year states ratified the First Amendment.

Fellers said he missed half of his daughter’s soccer games during her senior year because he stood up for what he believes in. The wristbands were marked “XX” to represent female chromosomes.

“It took more than two years, but the court has recognized that what happened to us was wrong,” he said in a statement.

That $275K of wasted taxpayer $$ is in addition to the taxpayer $$ wasted defending the indefensible. That school district's voters need to impose some ballot-box accountability on the school board members who chose to waste taxpayer $$ in this case.

[SVPete]

Newsom's Death Row PR Move: Legal or Not?

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/11/06/newsoms-death-row-pr-move-legal-or-not-n3820731

Can governors issue blanket clemency actions, especially when dealing with the worst of the worst offenders in the state? We may soon find out – and perhaps Gavin Newsom hopes to get challenged.

John wrote yesterday about Newsom's commutation of 548 death sentences in California. The timing itself is interesting. Newsom waited until after the midterm election to pursue his supposedly principled course of action, claiming in the eighth year of his governorship that executions violate "our core values ... justice and decency." It apparently took a midterm blue wave for Newsom to discover his own "core values," not to mention what will start immediately after the midterms.

Noisome leaves the goobernor's office in December or January so this is virtue-signaling in hopes of a Dem Presidential nomination. FWIW, CA has voted down three ballot initiatives that would have abolished the death penalty.