(SCOTUS upholds Indian Child Welfare Act. Please scroll down center column.)
Blinken Meet Xi – In an effort to stem a deteriorating relationship with the U.S., Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Xi Jingping in Beijing Monday near the end of a three-day diplomatic summit to China. Blinken said Chinese officials agreed to work on stabilizing U.S.-Chinese relations, according to NPR. The secretary of state also discussed the war in Ukraine (China is a Russian ally) and the flow of fentanyl from China to the U.S.
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Ukraine Pushes East – Ukraine says its counteroffensive against the Russian invasion is making modest gains in the east. “Our defense forces have captured more than 400 units of enemy equipment and weapons,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram Monday. More than 80 Russian troops have been captured, she said (Newsweek).
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Up on the Hill – The full Senate and House are off for the Juneteenth holiday Monday. Both will be in session Tuesday through Friday.
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Coming Tuesday – Read “Most Liberal County in Conservative States” in the left column and “Most Conservative County in Liberal States” in the right column. Both features are part of our new collaboration with Stacker.
--TL
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FRIDAY 6/16/23
Alleged Pentagon Leaker Indicted – Air National Guard member Jack Douglas Teixeira was charged with six counts of “willful retention and transmission of classified information related to national defense” Thursday in the alleged leaking of more than 100 sensitive materials, including records about the Russian invasion of Ukraine (per USA Today). The 21-year-old from North Dighton, Massachusetts was arrested in April and remains in federal custody.
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Indian Child Welfare Act Upheld – The Supreme Court rejected, 7-2, a challenge to the constitutionality of a 1978 federal law with the unfortunate title; the Indian Child Welfare Act, which was written to keep Native American children with Native American families (per SCOTUSblog). The ICWA was enacted after a congressional investigation discovered that from the 1950s through the ‘70s more than one-third of all Native American children in the U.S. had been removed, some forcibly, and placed with non-Native families and institutions with no ties to their tribes, NPR explains.
This might count as the second SCOTUS surprise in a week. Last week, the Supremes struck down a Republican-drawn 2022 congressional district map in Alabama, 5-4.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were the only two dissents this week in Haaland v. Brackeen, with Donald J. Trump’s three appointees, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who wrote the majority opinion, joining the four Democratic presidential appointees to the court. Their decision says Congress had the power to enact the law, and rejected arguments that the law violates the 10th Amendment’s “anti-commandeering doctrine” barring the federal government from requiring states to adapt federal law,” SCOTUSblog explains. The court declined to reach a decision on two other claims, arguing that individuals and the state of Texas do not have standing in the case.
--TL
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THURSDAY 6/15/23
Fed Holds Interest Rates – After 10 consecutive increases, the Federal Reserve is holding its benchmark interest rate unchanged, Chairman Jerome Powell (above) said Wednesday. The Labor Department reported that May’s annual inflation rate fell to 4.0%, though that’s still twice the Fed’s 2% target rate, and so the Fed signaled the hold on interest rate increases will be temporary, The Wall Street Journal reports. New economic projections released after the Fed’s two-day policy meeting “strongly suggested” the Fed will ramp down the rate increases, which generally have been in the quarter-point increase rate, through the rest of the year.
After Wednesday’s meeting, the Fed “implied” that holding the benchmark rate at 5-5.25% “might be short-lived,” according to the WSJ.
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Another Chip in Trump’s GOP Support? – Donald J. Trump’s support on Capitol Hill generally comes from the House side, its rabidly pro-MAGA Freedom Caucus members in particular. But 20 House Republicans joined Democrats in sinking a resolution to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), according to The Hill.
As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee during the Trump administration, Schiff led the first impeachment investigation of Trump. In May, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), acolyte of the former president, introduced the censure measure against Schiff. On Wednesday, Luna brought the measure to the floor as a privileged resolution.
But the House tabled Luna’s measure Wednesday by 225-196-7 vote. Twenty of those “aye” votes to table were Republicans. Five Democrats and two Republicans voted “present.”
--TL
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Another Trump Arraignment
Wednesday 6/14/23
Donald J. Trump’s Simpsonian perp drive, by giant-SUV motorcade, from Mar-a-Lago, past a gaggle of apparently well-behaved pro- and anti-Trump protestors to the Wilkie E. Ferguson Jr. Courthouse in Miami culminated in an hour-long arraignment in which the former president reportedly sat expressionless in a courtroom as Special Counsel Jack Smith looked on.
Do we need to mention that Trump pleaded not guilty?
Trump attorney Allina Habba gave a brief press conference outside the courthouse during the arraignment, calling “President Donald J. Trump … defiant,” and said the indictment is “about the destruction of longstanding principles that have set this country apart…”
Habba said Justice Department prosecutors “do not love America … they hate Donald Trump.”
As he and his entourage proceeded from the courthouse to the airport for a flight to his Bedminster, New Jersey country club for a fundraiser, Trump dropped in a Cuban sandwich restaurant and answered a muffled question from the crowd saying, “I think it’s going great,” according to ABC News. It was not apparent what the ex-prez thought was going great, though considering the circumstances his life is not so bad.
Federal Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman did not set a monetary bail, nor did he make Trump give up his U.S. passport. And when the trial begins, the judge will not be Goodman, but rather Judge Aileen Cannon, the post-2020 election-loss Trump appointee to the federal district court in Florida who temporarily put the brakes on the Justice Department’s investigation of documents found at Mar-a-Lago by ordering a “special master” to sift through them. In the face of Special Counsel Smith’s promise of a speedy trial, Cannon could help Trump’s legal team – whoever that will consist of – drag out the trial. Perhaps well past the November 2024 presidential election, when any of a number of Trump’s rivals for the GOP nomination have promised to pardon him.
Later Tuesday evening in a speech at his country club in Bedminster, Trump finally explained why he kept boxes of classified, highly classified and top secret documents (per MSNBC).
“Those boxes were containing all types of presidential belongings,” he said, such as shirts and shoes. “I didn’t have time to go through these boxes. I’ve had a busy life. A very, very, busy life.”
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa