Scrutiny for lawmakers’ NDAs and more news from the states

Good evening. Tonight we begin in Louisiana, where secrecy — protected by nondisclosure agreements — for major projects hovers over state elections. 

In Oklahoma, two mothers are suing to pursue broader exemptions to the state’s abortion ban. And in Tennessee, Nashville residents turned out to oppose an immigration call center set to begin operating in the city. 

The U.S. House left for a seven-week campaign break, after spending less than two weeks in session during August and September — but not before another vote to curb President Donald Trump’s military powers in Iran.

As Louisiana undergoes an industrial megaproject boom, the extent to which public officials are trading away public transparency for economic investment through nondisclosure agreements has become controversial, Louisiana Illuminator reports. 

Dozens of local and state elected officials signed NDAs related to economic development projects such as the SpaceX complex in Vermilion Parish, the Hyundai steel plant in Ascension Parish and data centers in other parts of the state.

More than 100 employees in Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s office also signed blanket NDAs prohibiting them from talking about what they learn working for the governor.

Landry and his administration have said the NDAs are necessary to attract global brands. But the agreements raise questions about whether government officials are free to share information about the projects’ impacts on resources such as water and the electrical grid.  

In the race for U.S. Senate, Democrat Jamie Davis, is trying to make Republican U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow’s NDA with Meta into a campaign issue for voters. The NDA issue could come up in the U.S. House  races, including open races for the 5th and 6th congressional districts, where many of the closely guarded industrial projects will take shape.

LSU political science professor Robert Hogan said backlash over NDAs is part of a broader “general distrust that people have of government” right now. 

More data center coverage: 

Two Oklahoma mothers, who said they were forced to leave the state in order to terminate unviable pregnancies, sued state leaders Wednesday, challenging the limits of the state’s abortion ban, Oklahoma Voice reports. 

Currently, Oklahoma only allows abortion in very narrow circumstances, to save the life of the mother.

The lawsuit argues that the state’s abortion bans violate pregnant women’s right to “life and liberty, their substantive due process rights, and their rights to equal protection.” The state Supreme Court in 2023 affirmed Oklahomans’ right to life-saving abortion care, and the lawsuit asks the courts to apply the same rights to pregnancies with fatal fetal diagnoses.

The body regulating Florida public schools and state colleges Wednesday approved what the state Department of Education calls “one of the most comprehensive, parent-centered AI frameworks in the country,” Florida Phoenix reports. 

The State Board of Education policies require public school districts and charter school governing boards to amend their internet safety policies to include specific guardrails and directives related to AI by July 1. 

Schools will have to notify parents when teachers approve an AI instructional tool for use, including the name of the platform and classes in which it would be used and the nature of student interaction. The policy must include a process for parents to object to AI use and provide alternatives to the tool.

“Florida will not outsource childhood to a chatbot,” Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news release following the meeting. “We welcome tools that help teachers teach and students learn. We will not accept tools that hide from parents, harvest student data, grade kids in secret, or pretend to be a friend. In this state, a teacher stands in front of the class, a parent has the last word, and a student still has to think.”

Iowa: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing an ethics complaint questioning whether his August appearance at a fundraiser for Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn violated federal ethics restrictions.

Indiana: Despite agreeing to settle a lawsuit against the state, a fired utility regulator maintained that his dismissal was manufactured to change the outcome in a now-pending review of a $71 million electricity rate increase. 

North Carolina: A split appeals court ruled that the General Assembly did not violate the state constitution when it transferred Board of Elections appointments from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein to Republican state Auditor Dave Boliek.

Missouri: The state’s redistricting saga continues with a hearing in federal appeals court Thursday. Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins wants the judges to block a November referendum and reinstate a GOP-gerrymandered congressional map. 

Michigan: A newly formed legislative panel will examine the sampling procedures used by the Board of State Canvassers and Bureau of Elections to determine the qualifications of ballot initiatives. 

Alaska: Voters approved new state campaign contribution limits in August, but a ballot question in November could roll the state’s election system back to what it was in 2020.

New Mexico: The state’s nascent Forward Party is asking the nation’s highest court to put its two statewide candidates on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.

Maryland: State officials are appealing a state tax court ruling last month that struck down a first-of-its kind digital ad tax that was supposed to help fund Maryland education reform.

Utah: Calling Charlie Kirk’s death at Utah Valley University “entirely preventable,” his family says he wouldn’t have been killed last year had the university put in place tighter security protocols.

Scores of residents packed the Nashville Metro Council meeting on Sept. 15 to protest plans for a national Immigration and Customs Enforcement support center in the Tennessee city. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

The call center was not part of the meeting’s agenda and council members took no action. Nevertheless, speakers on Tuesday night urged council members to take action against the support center. Some speakers noted that an effort to establish an immigration detention center in Lebanon, Tenn. earlier this year was scrapped after strong community pushback.

Federal documents show Alaska-based Koniag Services landed a government contract of up to $63 million to provide services including a 24/7 call center to coordinate with local police and sheriffs across the country who have entered cooperative agreements to enforce immigration laws. 

Read more from Tennessee Lookout. 

More immigration coverage:

The U.S. House is expected to depart Wednesday evening for a seven-week campaign break after spending less than two weeks in session during August and September, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

The extended “district work period” is intended to give incumbents from both political parties time to meet with constituents and fundraise back home before voting in this year’s midterm elections ends on Nov. 3. 

House Republican leaders hope that more time campaigning will help some of their most vulnerable members secure reelection, allowing the party to hold onto its majority for another two years. 

Less time on Capitol Hill also means less time voting on potentially divisive issues. Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, for example, would have been able to force a vote to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday had the House remained in session. 

Before leaving the Capitol, vulnerable House Republicans voted late Tuesday to require congressional approval for President Donald Trump to continue his war in Iran, the bureau reports. 

Seven Republicans broke ranks and joined all Democrats to pass a War Powers Resolution sponsored by Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat. Tuesday’s vote marked the third time since June that the House passed a measure to curb Trump’s military powers in Iran. The war has dragged on for more than half a year.

More from the D.C. Bureau:

Across the country, a growing number of states are making an equal split between parents the default child custody option in divorce cases, Stateline reports. 

Louisiana and Mississippi this year joined at least five other states that have adopted the so-called 50-50 standard, as more legislators rework divorce-related laws that remained mostly unchanged for years.

The 50-50 custody issue does not break down cleanly along partisan lines: The Mississippi bill was sponsored by Republicans, the Louisiana legislation by Democrats. 

Supporters say a formal 50-50 custody standard makes divorce proceedings more equitable for fathers — who historically have been awarded less custody time than mothers — and encourages them to maintain an active role in their children’s lives.

But critics say the standard might harm vulnerable women and children by making it more likely that children must spend time with a parent who isn’t safe. They fear that for women in abusive marriages, the knowledge they would have to cede 50% of their child’s time to an unsafe parent could push them to remain in a marriage just to protect their children.

More from Stateline:

Twelve years ago, 90 third-grade students walked into Johnson County District Judge Robert Wonnell’s Kansas courtroom on Constitution Day to watch a hearing about whether Goldilocks was guilty of trespassing. 

Wonnell put the last-minute mock trial together to teach Olathe’s Forest View Elementary School students about how the court system works, Kansas Reflector reports. 

Wonnell’s research led him to an even stronger commitment when he found that it is written in U.S. law, specifically 36 US Code 106, that government officials should offer educational opportunities to the public on Constitution and Citizenship days. The country celebrates Constitution Day on Sept. 17, in honor of the day the Constitution was signed. 

“I’m someone who very much enjoys following the law, and I thought, ‘Well OK, this is great,’” Wonnell said, laughing. “For the next four years, we had some individuals — court reporters, interpreters, attorneys — we would go to a couple of different elementary schools, and we would put on a little mock trial after we talked about the three branches of government for third graders, and each of the kids would play a role.”

Today, the effort has grown to a nationwide day of online civic engagement. 

On Thursday, more than 45,000 third-graders from 47 states will participate, Wonnell said. This year’s video presentations will be from Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer  and Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.