(Photo: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)
UPDATES …
Next hearing announced … The U.S. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol has scheduled its next hearing for 10 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday, July 12. …
Meanwhile, in Fulton County: Judge Robert McBurney has granted a petition by District Attorney Fanni Willis to subpoena Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), close political ally of Donald J. Trump, personal attorney to the ex-president Rudy Giuliani, Trump campaign staff John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis, and attorney and podcast host Jacki Pick Deacon for advising “the Trump campaign on strategies” for overturning Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia and other swing states, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The subpoenas direct the witnesses to appear before a special grand jury also on Tuesday, July 12.
Shooter charged … The young white male suspected of shooting at a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois with a high-powered rifle has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder with “much more to come” according to Lake County District Attorney Eric Rinehart.
Noted: A quick peak of as much as we could stomach of the Ingraham Angle Tuesday evening laid out the Fox News’ point of view on the Highland Park shooting. Democrats and the Biden White House are using the tragedy, Laura Ingraham said, to scare us from going to any more patriotic events, because liberals apparently do not like patriotic events and want them to cease. Really.
--Todd Lassa
(WED 7/6/22)
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Another turn of the coup? … The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal in its next term by North Carolina Republicans over a state congressional map that could affect lawmakers’ ability to pick electors in the 2024 presidential election. The North Carolina Supreme Court’s seven justices were split on whether the gerrymandered map by the Republican-majority state legislature were “unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to The Chronicle of Duke University. If the U.S. Supreme Court were to rule in the Republican lawmakers’ favor in Harper v. Hall it could potentially remove state courts’ limits on gerrymandering and the allow state legislatures authority to choose its own slate of electors regardless of the popular vote, says reporter Hansi Lo Wang on NPR’s Morning Edition.
SCOTUS will hear the case in the next term, beginning in October. According to the NPR report, Justices Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch are interested in a legal theory that the Constitution gives legislatures such authority over the Electoral College.
Note: This could be “Originalism” taken to its extreme, and just in time for Donald J. Trump’s attempted return to the White House.
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SCOTUS’ term end in review … Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the 104th associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday (pictured), just after the court handed down its ruling on Biden v. Texas (per SCOTUSblog). In that 5-4 ruling, SCOTUS affirmed the Biden White House’s authority to revoke a Trump-era policy that required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while awaiting a U.S. immigration court hearing.
Reeling in federal agencies: The Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions without authority from Congress, SCOTUS ruled. The court’s 6-3 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA applies to all federal agencies and will ease regulations for a wide variety of consumer and environmental protections.
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From the NATO Summit … Turkey has finally agreed to let Finland and Sweden join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, thus expading the western military alliance to Russia’s doorstep. President Biden returned from the summit in Madrid with a promise for another $800 million in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, plus plans for expansion of American forces in Europe, including two Navy destroyers in Rota, Spain and a new permanent headquarter for the U.S. Army in Poland.
--Todd Lassa