XPost: alt.politics.democrats, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: stupid.democrats@nytimes.com   
      
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   DALLAS – Texas is at the center of an ongoing, nationwide   
   struggle between state and local authorities. It's an escalating   
   dispute over who has what power — and when.   
      
   The newest battle centers on criminal district attorneys in   
   Texas' big cities, who are mostly Democrats. Some of these chief   
   prosecutors have told their communities they will use their   
   inherent discretion and not zealously pursue criminal cases   
   against women who seek abortions or families who obtain gender-   
   affirming health care for their children. (Several later said   
   they would make decisions on a case-by-case basis.)   
      
   But declarations from prosecutors have led conservative   
   lawmakers in Texas and elsewhere to propose legislation seeking   
   to curb the power of DAs.   
      
   "There is an interesting philosophical debate about where power   
   should rest in a state-local system," says Ann Bowman, a   
   professor at Texas A&M's Bush School of Government. "How much   
   the state should have, how much local government should have."   
      
   The fight nationwide   
   The clash has echoes in other state-local power struggles. In   
   Mississippi, Republican state lawmakers have proposed installing   
   state-appointed judges in the City of Jackson and giving the   
   capitol police force citywide jurisdiction. Jackson is 83%   
   percent Black and controlled by Democrats.   
      
   Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said county sheriffs   
   "won't be in their job" if they don't enforce a new requirement   
   that owners of semi-automatic rifles register them with the   
   state.   
      
   And a county prosecutor in Florida was removed last year after   
   Gov. Ron DeSantis accused him of not enforcing certain laws.   
      
   Texas' governor does not have that power, although some   
   legislative proposals would set a process for removal.   
      
   That includes one from Texas Rep. David Cook, a Republican from   
   the Fort Worth area. His bill would ban district attorneys from   
   having a policy of not enforcing any particular offense. The   
   bill would set financial penalties, too.   
      
   "As a district attorney, you have a job which entails looking at   
   all the cases that are brought in and judging each case on a   
   case-by-case basis," Cook says. "And so, if you're making   
   blanket statements and giving blanket immunity, then you're not   
   doing your job."   
      
   In Georgia, similar legislation is moving. There, the state   
   would create a commission to oversee prosecutors and allow for   
   discipline or removal if they refused to charge a particular   
   crime.   
      
   Big City DAs in Texas go quiet   
   Several of the same progressive prosecutors in Texas who made   
   statements after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health   
   Organization decision aren't doing interviews on the proposed   
   bills. The state association of district and county attorneys   
   told members the flood of prosecutor-related bills "deserves   
   your full attention."   
      
   District Attorney Mark Gonzalez of Nueces County in South Texas,   
   who is facing an unrelated effort to remove him from office,   
   says the group's announcement to not pursue abortion cases may   
   have been too hasty.   
      
   "The statement may have been the straw that perhaps broke the   
   camel's back," says Gonzalez, a Democrat. "I think it'd be   
   smarter for us to move in silence, and I think that may have   
   been something we didn't accomplish."   
      
   Yet he sees the bills to curb local prosecutors as part of a   
   larger backlash against a more progressive approach to law   
   enforcement, one that seeks to reduce mass incarceration and   
   prevent its damaging effects.   
      
   "We have a different approach to making some changes to it,   
   which can impact people of color and lower economic status,"   
   Gonzalez says. "I don't know why that's such a big deal."   
      
   Not every local official gets blowback for bucking the state. A   
   group of Texas sheriffs refused to enforce the governor's mask   
   mandate early in the COVID-19 pandemic, yet there was no flurry   
   of proposals to make them follow that law. Some experts say   
      
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