Opelika City School district names new superintendent
Dr. Davis currently serves as principal of Muscle Shoals High School in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and brings more than 20 years of experience in public education. Throughout his career, he served as a coach, teacher, assistant principal, athletic director, and principal. Davis was also named the CLAS District 7A North High School Principal of the Year.
'I appreciate the trust and confidence of the Opelika Board of Education,' Dr. Davis said. 'I am honored to join this outstanding team, and I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting to work as we continue to strive toward our shared mission: educating every child, every day.'
The district says community members consistently expressed that Davis shares genuine care and concern for all of his students.
'Dr. Davis has an outstanding record of success as a leader in education, and we are excited to welcome him as the next superintendent of Opelika City Schools,' said Dr. Kevin Royal, Chairman of the Opelika City Schools Board of Education.
Davis will begin his new position on July 1, 2025. The Opelika City Schools Board of Education will announce details for a community meet and greet in the coming weeks to formally introduce Dr. Davis.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The Hill
4 days ago
- The Hill
Former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis asks Supreme Court to reverse same-sex marriage decision
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USA Today
4 days ago
- USA Today
Could the Supreme Court revisit marriage equality? New appeal offers chance
Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, wants the high court to overturn that decision. WASHINGTON – A former Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 2015 because of her religious beliefs is hoping the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority wants to scrap the court's 10-year-old decision extending marriage rights to LGBTQ+ couples. Kim Davis asked the court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges in an appeal filed on July 24 about the compensation she was ordered to pay a couple after denying them a marriage license. Mat Staver, head of Liberty Counsel, the conservative legal group representing Davis, said that decision threatens the religious liberty of Americans who believe marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman. "The High Court now has the opportunity to finally overturn this egregious opinion from 2015," Staver said in a statement. More: He was at the center of a Supreme Court case that changed gay marriage. Now, he's worried. Mary Bonauto, a senior director with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said Davis' legal team is trying to shoehorn an opportunity to relitigate Obergefell into a narrow legal question of whether the former clerk should have to pay damages. "There's good reason for the Supreme Court to deny review in this case rather than unsettle something so positive for couples, children, families, and the larger society as marriage equality," Bonauto said in an emailed response. Davis attracted international attention when she refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, landing her in jail on a contempt of court charge for five days. When Davis was sued by David Ermold and David Moore, she argued legal protections for public officials prevented the challenge. Lower courts let the suit proceed and the Supreme Court in 2020 declined to intervene. More: Southern Baptists vote to seek repeal of historic same-sex marriage ruling Justice Clarence Thomas wrote at the time that while Davis' case was a "stark reminder" of the consequences of Obergefell, it didn't "cleanly present" questions about that decision. After the district court ruled against Davis, she was ordered to pay $100,000 in damages to the couple and $260,000 for their attorneys fees and expenses. Her appeal to the Supreme Court opens with comments made by the dissenting justices in the 5-4 decision issued 10 years ago. Since then, the court's makeup has changed to a 6-3 conservative supermajority. Opinion: I was the named 'opposition' in Obergefell v. Hodges. I've never been happier to lose. Still, Carl Esbeck, an expert on religious liberty at the University of Missouri School of Law, said there's "not a chance" the court is going to overturn Obergefell. That's in part because Congress passed a law in 2022 guaranteeing federal recognition of same-sex marriage rights, he said. "It would be a useless act to overturn Obergefell," Esbeck said. "The politics have simply moved on from same-sex marriage, even for conservative religious people." Geoffrey R. Stone, who teaches law at the University of Chicago, agreed the court is unlikely to scrap Obergefell despite its willingness in recent years to overturn precedents on abortion and affirmative action. While a majority of the current justices may disagree with Obergefell, the decision is generally approved by the public, he said. "For that reason, and to avoid the appearance of interpreting the Constitution in a manner that conforms to their own personal views," Stone said in an emailed response, "even some of the conservative justices might not vote to overrule Obergefell."
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Yahoo
NFLPA's J.C. Tretter resigns after backlash against candidacy to replace Lloyd Howell, uses 'Game of Thrones' character to defend himself
J.C. Tretter was the other name scrutinized in the backlash that led to NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell resigning. He's headed out too now. The former Cleveland Browns center, who was working as the union's chief strategy officer after two terms as president during his playing days, told CBS Sports on Sunday he is taking himself out of the running for the interim executive director position and resigning from the union, citing the impact on his family. He did so after it was reported he was in a two-man race for interim executive director alongside NFLPA chief player officer Don Davis. From CBS Sports: "I'm not resigning because what I've been accused of is true. ... I'm not resigning in disgrace. I'm resigning because this has gone too far for me and my family, and I've sucked it up for six weeks. And I felt like I've been kind of left in the wind taking shots for the best of the organization," he said. "… I got to the point this morning where I woke up and I realized, like, I am going to keep dying on this f***ing sword forever of, I'll never, ever be able to do what's best for me. And I will always pick what's best for the organization. And in the end, what's the organization done for me? Like, nothing. Tretter played a central role in Howell's hire, which has been increasingly questioned after it was reported the players might not have known about a sexual discrimination lawsuit against him at his previous employer and that he had a massive conflict of interest as a Carlyle Group consultant. It was also revealed last week that a grievance successfully brought by the NFL against Tretter was covered up. The news that Tretter might have replaced Howell when the vote went to the players was met with disbelief and criticism from some former players, many of whom worked in NFLPA leadership or as player representatives. A text message was also reportedly being distributed among players railing against him as "the common denominator in all these scandals." Promoting Tretter to executive director would have represented an endorsement of the NFLPA's leadership in recent years, and it has become very clear that would be a hard sell. The NFLPA has had a very bad month The controversy began last month when Pablo Torre and Mike Florio reported the NFL and NFLPA buried a ruling on a collusion grievance that saw an arbitrator conclude that the league encouraged its teams to reduce guaranteed money in 2022 after Deshaun Watson's unprecedented, fully guaranteed contract. The NFL actually won the grievance because the arbitrator, Christopher Droney, concluded he could not establish a "clear preponderance" that NFL teams acted on that advice, but he still left a damning sentence on page 55 of a 61-page document: 'There is little question that the NFL Management Council, with the blessing of the Commissioner, encouraged the 32 NFL Clubs to reduce guarantees in veterans' contracts at the March 2022 annual owners' meeting.' The NFL's reason for hiding that conclusion is obvious. It validates many critics' portrayals of a league willing to color outside the lines to suppress player compensation in any way it can get away with. What was less clear was why the NFLPA agreed with the NFL that the public, and more notably the players, didn't need to see that a neutral observer concluded its main adversary was acting in such a way. Questions abounded for Howell and the rest of the union's leadership, and it got worse as the weeks went on. After Howell resigned Thursday, it was reported Friday he had been discovered to have expensed more than $3,000 at strip clubs. The NFLPA has never been anywhere close to the most prestigious or effective player union in sports, but the latest developments were beyond the pale enough for many that Tretter couldn't escape the backlash either. J.C. Tretter compares himself to a 'Game of Thrones' character while defending decisions In a lengthy interview with CBS, Tretter defended himself on many of the above contentions, most notably the notion that he pushed Howell into the executive director role from the shadows. Howell was one of two finalists, alongside former SAG-AFTRA director David White. Tretter said that while Howell performed better in interviews, the NFLPA executive committee voted 10-1 in favor of White over Howell, with Tretter among the 10. However, the committee did not share its preference with the board of 32 player representatives, who voted for Howell. Tretter said he expects there will be changes to the approval process in the next go-around. From CBS Sports: "We did hundreds of hours of work, and we did multiple rounds of interviews. We had people flying into D.C. regularly to meet candidates in person. I don't think it's feasible to do that for everybody," he explained. "… The executive committee is in the day-to-day of it. The board has the approval rights. "It's a fair question. I think that's something that the board and the [executive committee] and the players need to wrestle with as they launch the next search is like, 'How is it set up?' I'm not saying we did everything right. I think we made decisions based off what we had done historically and wanted to do something different and thought what we were doing was the best option. We've learned more since then. There are probably going to be changes. There should be changes. They should do something that they feel confident in and they should learn from every experience they have." Tretter also said he regretted the quote about injuries and running backs that led to the covered-up NFL grievance, calling it a "dumb tongue-in-cheek remark" and denied having any access to the collusion grievance Howell agreed with the NFL to keep secret. Overall, Tretter had a comparison for his role in all this — Tyrion Lannister. Let's hear him out: Tretter has been thinking about one specific scene from "Game of Thrones" over the last few weeks. Tyrion Lannister is on trial for killing his nephew, King Joffrey, and though he didn't commit the murder, he says that he wished he had. "I wish I was the monster you think I am," Lannister says at his trial. "I felt a lot of that over the last six weeks," Tretter said Sunday. "I'm being accused of being this all-controlling, all-powerful person, and I'm not. And I f***ing wish I was because I don't think we'd be in the same place we are now if I was.