Tag: SCOTUS

SCOTUS Nixes Tariffs

IEEPA Does Not Authorize Trump Tariffs -- President Trump cannot impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) the US Supreme Court has ruled in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump. In its ruling Friday morning, Chief Justice John Roberts Friday writes; "The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it."

Roberts read a 10-minute summary of the decision Friday morning with no oral dissents. SCOTUSblog reports a 6-3 decision with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissenting. Solicitor Gen. John Sauer and attorney Neal Katyal, who argued against the tariffs, were present in court for the opinion.

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Disappointing GDP – Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of just 1.4% for the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s less than expected according to APR’s Marketplace, which notes the government shutdown last autumn and softer-than-expected holiday spending did not help. Annual GDP growth was 4.4% for the previous quarter.

Meanwhile … Touring a steel plant in Rome, Georgia, Thursday President Trump said this: “What word have you not heard the last few weeks? Affordability. Because I won. I won affordability.”

Trump cited lower gas and used car prices, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

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10 Days in February/March – President Trump at his first Board of Peace meeting in Washington Thursday “weighed” a limited strike against military or government targets in Iran if he does not get a nuclear deal with the country, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“We’re going to make a deal or get a deal one way or another,” Trump said. 

He said he would decide within the next 10 days. Later, his timeline was expanded to two weeks.

“Only President Trump knows what he may or may not do,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. 

This all came amidst a military buildup with 12 warships in the region, including a second strike group led by the USS Gerald R. Ford.

“There’s another beautiful armada floating beautifully toward Iran right now,” Trump said. 

About the board … The Board of Peace in its first meeting pledged $7 billion from member countries to contribute to the rebuilding of Gaza, even as disarming Hamas “remains a challenge,” according to Semafor. Chairman for Life Donald J. Trump said the US will donate $10 billion to the board, though he did not suggest where the tax money would come from (or where the money might end up after he leaves the White House, while remaining chairman, in 2029). 

Amidst concerns that the Board of Peace, which has been joined by such countries as Hungary, Argentina, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan, but not France, Germany, Denmark, the UK or Canada will replace the United Nations, CfL Trump suggested it will ensure the UN will “run properly” and hinted at future involvement elsewhere. –TL

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THURSDAY 2/19/26

(Ex-) Royal Arrest – Police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, ‘Randy Andy’ Thursday morning after the latest release of Epstein Files by the US Department of Justice revealed that the Andrew formerly known as Prince had released sensitive government documents and commercial information to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy. The Guardian quotes former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying, “I have submitted a five-page memorandum to the Metropolitan, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and other relevant UK police constabularies.”

Ex-Prince Andrew’s brother, King Charles, said the “law must take its course.”

Police searched Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former house at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, as well as addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk, according to the newspaper. The former prince turned 66 Thursday.

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The Art of Dragging Out Peace Talks – It has been repeated many times by critics of the current administration that President Trump had promised to bring peace to Ukraine on day-one of his second term. Thanks to a deal Moscow is dangling in front of the White House, it looks like it will not happen without Ukraine’s surrender of all the Donbas region and probably questionable security guarantees from the US and NATO. 

After two days of trilateral negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner mediating, even Ukrainian diplomats indicated a bit of progress (perhaps the progress is that they were at the same table with the Kremlin and Washington?). 

That might not matter if President Trump bites at Kremlin negotiators led by Vladimir Medinsky who have placed $14 trillion worth of business deals between Russia and the US on the table in exchange for the US dropping its sanctions. The Kremlin’s offer was reported by NPR’s Charles Maynes on Morning Edition.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the talks brought the sides closer to a detailed framework for ceasefire monitoring, according to The Kyiv Independent, but the “political track” remains contentious, especially on the issue of territory.

Zelenskyy told Piers Morgan on YouTube’s Piers Morgan Uncensored: "Thousands, dozens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed on this direction, defending this part of Ukraine. We have to understand that Donbas is part of our independence. It’s a part of our values. It’s not about the land. It’s not only about territories. It’s about people.” –TL

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WEDNESDAY 2/18/26

‘Difficult’ Peace Talks – Results of the second day of trilateral talks with the US mediating peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia might be called “mixed,” though on the positive side of mixed. The second day of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, ended after approximately two hours, according to news reports.

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky described the talks “difficult but practical” and said the next session is expected “soon,” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his countries are ready to monitor a ceasefire, if there is political will to enforce it, The Kyiv Independent reports. 

“They have basically agreed on almost everything,” Zelenskyy said, leaving open the question of what sticking points remain as the Russia’s war on Ukraine approaches its fifth year. 

Monitoring would definitely involve the US, Zelenskyy said, calling this a constructive signal.

“We can see that some ground work has been laid, but positions remain different, as the negotiations were difficult,” Zelenskyy said.

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The Paramount View – CNN’s Anderson Cooper announced he is leaving CBS News’ 60 Minutes Tuesday, as millions of fans of CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert flocked to that show’s YouTube channel to watch the host’s interview with US Senate candidate and Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. By early Wednesday, Colbert’s interview with Talarico had chalked up 5.3 million views on YouTube.

Colbert told viewers Monday that CBS attorneys had warned him “in no uncertain terms” that he “could not have” Talarico, who is campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), “on the broadcast.” This came after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr suggested that talk shows might no longer be exempt from the “equal time” rule requiring all candidates in a political race be given the chance to appear.

On Tuesday’s Late Show, Colbert displayed a copy of a statement released by CBS attorneys that the show “was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico. The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled. The Late Show decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”

Colbert countered the attorneys’ Tuesday statement, telling his Tuesday night audience that “every word” of Monday night’s script that revealed CBS attorneys’ prohibition of the Talarico interview was “approved by CBS’s lawyers who, for the record, approve every script that goes on the air.”

The host then “curbed” the attorneys’ contradicting printed statement in a dog-poop bag. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is scheduled to end in May, and it’s clear Colbert is prepared for a potential early exit.

Applying the equal time rule to broadcasts of The Late Show or Jimmy Kimmel Live would require five interviews prior to the Texas primary March 3, including Talarico and fellow Democrat and US Rep. Crockett. Cornyn is being challenged in a who’s-MAGAier race on the GOP side by Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton and US Rep. Wesley Hunt.

On Morning Edition Wednesday, NPR’s David Folkenflik connected censorship of broadcast of the Colbert-Talarico interview with CBS owner Paramount-Skydance’s attempt to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. Paramount-Skydance is owned by David Ellison, son of Trump supporter and Oracle founder Larry Ellison. The attempted purchase is funded in part by the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, Folkenflik noted. And target of their intended purchase, Warner Brothers Discovery, owns among other media entities, CNN, whose premier prime time news show is Anderson Cooper 360. –TL

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TUESDAY 2/17/26

Geneva Twofer – Indirect talks between the US and Iran have resumed Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, The New York Timesreports, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner also taking on US-Russia-Ukraine peace talks in a two-day meeting. This US diplomacy double-duty doesn’t bode well for Ukraine’s interests, as Russia has signaled it will take a harder line on a peace deal, according to The Kyiv Independent. 

“This time, we intend to discuss a wider range of issues,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “including, in fact, the main issue that concerns both the territories and everything else related to our demands.”

Oman Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi is hosting US-Iranian talks, according to the NYT, with emphasis as usual on the Trump administration’s attempt to halt Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. The White House has ordered a buildup of US forces in the region, including two aircraft carriers. Countries in the region are worried potential US strikes on Iran could destabilize the Middle East and endanger US allies that host American soldiers in the region.

Iranian diplomats have indicated a willingness to pause enrichment of uranium, according to The Wall Street Journal, move some stockpiles offshore to a third party such as Russia and in an appeal to Trump’s Art of the Deal inclinations, cut business deals with the US. But Iran has not floated the definitive halt to enrichment that Trump has demanded.

Trump’s deployment of two aircraft carriers to the region in fact has been countered by this bellicose reaction from Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khamenei: “An aircraft carrier is certainly a dangerous piece of equipment. But more dangerous than the carrier is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea.” –TL

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After Munich -- PRESIDENTS DAY 2/16/26

Dealing With Russia – Special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner are “upbeat” about the latest round of talks with Russia and Ukraine to begin Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is a bit more cautious.

“The answer is, we don’t know. We don’t know the Russians are serious about ending the war,” Rubio said, per NPR’s Charles Maynes on Morning Edition. “They say they are, and under what terms they’re willing to do it and whether we can find terms that are acceptable to Ukraine that Russia will agree to. But we’re going to continue to do it.” 

The Kremlin indicates it prefers diplomacy to war, but that its victory is inevitable and will continue to take it by force to the point it can convince the US that Ukraine’s case – including holding on to the portion of territory in Donbas Oblast that it hasn’t already lost to Russia – is hopeless. The Kremlin is trying to convince the Trump White House that once it is past this, Russia and the US can get back to business and investment, Maynes reports. Witkoff sees doing business in the region is key to bridging differences with Ukraine, he says.

At the Munich Security Conference last weekend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “The Americans often return to the topic of concessions and too often those discussions are … discussed only in the context of Ukraine. Not Russia.”

Kinder, gentler US … Last year Vice President JD Vance chastised Europe for stifling freedom of speech by limiting access to Europe’s far-right politicians and parties. This year Rubio told the conference Europe and the US “belong together,” The New York Times reports. 

“We want Europe to be strong,” Rubio said. World Wars I and II are a reminder that “our destiny is and always will be intertwined with yours.”

UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, who so far has survived revelations in the Epstein Files that his ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, leaked sensitive government documents to Jeffrey Epstein, conceded at the conference that it’s time for Europe to step up and defend itself. 

“As Europe, we must stand on our own two feet,” Starmer said.

Meanwhile, Hungary … At a joint press conference in Budapest Rubio told Viktor Orbán, who is up for re-election April 12, that President Trump is “deeply committed to your success,” The Guardian reports Monday.

“We are entering the golden era of relations between our countries and not simply because of the alignment of our people,” Rubio said. “But because of the relationship you have with the president of the United States.”

Last Saturday Orbán, Hungary’s PM since 2010, told the Munich Security Conference that the European Union, not Russia, is the “real threat” to his Hungary. Orbán’s Fidesz is effectively Hungary’s only party, and another term is virtually guaranteed in eight weeks.

Trump’s support, then, is of very little surprise.

Killing of a Russian dissident … Monday, February 16 – Presidents Day in the US – marks two years since the killing of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny in a maximum-security prison in the Russian Arctic. On Saturday, the foreign ministries of Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands released a statement that Navalny’s body showed the presence of traces of epibatidine, a toxic substance found in a South American frog, according to The New York Times. 

“Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America,” the statement reads. “It is not found naturally in Russia.”

After a weeklong battle in 2024, Russia released Navalny’s body to his mother, according to the report.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria V. Zakharova told the state-owned Tass news agency that the statement from the five European nations is a “PR campaign to deflect attention from pressing issues in the West.”

Addressing the Munich Security Conference Saturday, the dissident’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said, “I want to repeat: Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny, using a chemical weapon. Of course, it’s not news that Vladmir Putin is a killer, but now we have yet another direct piece of proof.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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PRESIDENTS DAY MONDAY 2/16/26

The Biden Bubble

THURSDAY July 4, 2024

THE LATEST -- Donald J. Trump has extended his lead to six points over President Biden, the widest margin since late 2021, in a poll by The Wall Street Journal begun two days after the presidential debate. That's a bump from a two-point Trump lead in February. Also, 80% told the WSJ poll they consider Biden too old to run for a second term as president.

Meanwhile... President Biden has told key allies he understands the coming days of campaigning are "crucial" and that he may not be able to salvage his bid for a second term if he can't convince the voting public he is up to the task, The New York Times reports. Biden is scheduled for a Friday interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News, plus campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

"He knows if he has two more events like that , we're in a different place," one of the allies told the NYT.

But in a call to his campaign staff, Biden said, "No one's pushing me out. I'm not leaving."

And White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president told her directly he had not spoken with allies about dropping out of the race.

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WEDNESDAY 7/3/24

A clear divide is bubbling to the surface between rank & file Democrats and the president's close advisors, friends and family, after his disastrous performance in last Thursday’s debate with Donald J. Trump. 

“In private, Democrats panic. For the Biden campaign, everything is fine,” reads a Wednesday headline in The Washington Post.

Veteran Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) became the first, and so far only, Congress member to call on Biden to step down from his campaign, telling NPR’s Morning Edition “we have a criminal and a gang who are about to take over our government.” 

The issue is not with Biden’s first three-and-a-half years, which most mainstream Dems heartily applaud. It’s about the next half-year, which Biden simply cannot win as far as they’re concerned.

“I think he’s behind and we need to put our best people forward,” Doggett told NPR. “I think the concerns I’m voicing are widespread.”

The Biden camp, consisting of his family and long-time advisors including Jennifer O’Malley, Anita Dunn, Mike Donilon, Bruce Reed, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and his chief of staff while vice president, Steve Richetti, should be conferring with him at Camp David this long July 4 weekend. If any single one of them can pop Biden’s bubble and convince him it will take a younger Democrat to keep Trump out of office, the Democratic campaign for president will change very quickly.

We would say this will turn the 2024 presidential election on its head, but that happened nearly a year ago, when Donald J. Trump announced he would run for the Republican nomination. If Biden refuses to end his re-election campaign, “down-ballot” Democrats including House candidates, who until now were confident their party would flip the Republican Party’s wafer-thin margin in the lower chamber fear they will lose seats and not have the majority necessary to slow a second Trump administration’s radical agenda. 

To that point, Biden Wednesday morning issued a memo to his House allies that shows still-tight internal polling and greater fundraising than the Trump campaign in June. The Biden campaign “significantly outraised” the Trump campaign, $127 million to $112 million, according to the memo, revealed to Politico.

--Todd Lassa

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SCOTUS' 6-3 ruling Monday granting ex-President Trump immunity from official acts in connection with the January 6thattack on the US Capitol remains the topic of political discussion leading into the nation’s 248th birthday Thursday.  Should we consider 248 years without a king a pretty good run?

End of Democracy? -- TUESDAY 7/2/24

Trump Gets Another Court Delay -- Sentencing of Donald J. Trump on his conviction in a Manhattan court for falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels has been rescheduled from next Thursday, July 11 -- four days before the Republican National Convention begins -- to Wednesday, September 18, according to The Wall Street Journal. How did Trump manage yet another court delay? Two extra months gives Judge Juan Merchan time to consider whether the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity affects Trump's conviction.

More from Sotomayor – Monday we repeated Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s (pictured) minority opinion in which she was joined by justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in concluding; “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

Sotomayor began her dissent thusly: “Today’s decision to grant former Presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the Presidency. It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law. Relying on little more than its own misguided wisdom about the need for ‘bold and unhesitating action’ by the President … the Court gives President Trump all the immunity he asked for and more.”

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TRUMP WINS IMMUNITY -- MONDAY 7/1/24

UPDATE: SCOTUS Hands Trump ‘A Major Victory’ – A US president has “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” the Supreme Court said in a 6-3 ruling, which Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign calls “a major victory.” But the ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, sends the issue back to Tanya Chutkan, US district court judge for the District of Columbia, for the question of which acts Trump allegedly committed in conjunction with the January 6th attack on the Capitol are “official” and which are not (per NPR and the AP). 

Delay is a win… Punting back “official” versus “unofficial” acts to Chutkan gives Trump the big win, as there is no chance special counsel Jack Smith’s case will come back to the district court before November 5. If Trump wins the presidential race, the case will die under his Justice Department. 

Opinions… Roberts’ majority opinion says the district and appeals courts did not take sufficient time to consider the questions of immunity and official v. unofficial acts. Writing for the minority, which included fellow liberals Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Sonia Sotomayor writes that the majority opinion “reshapes the institution of the presidency,” and concludes: “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

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Post-Presidential Immunity? – The Supreme Court Monday will issue its ruling on whether Donald J. Trump has immunity as an ex-president, in special counsel Jack Smith’s case charging him for his alleged efforts to block Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. SCOTUS also will issue its ruling on whether states, specifically Florida and Texas, can restrict social media companies from removing certain political posts or accounts, The Washington Post reports. Then SCOTUS goes on vacation until the first Monday in October.

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France Turns Right – As Democrats wring their hands over whether it has a better chance of not losing to Donald J. Trump this November with a new presidential candidate brokered at its Chicago convention this August, the far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen was leading France’s parliamentary elections after the first round of votes Sunday. The Wall Street Journal quotes a Harris Interactive poll that says National Rally and its allies took 34% of the first-round votes to 30% for a coalition of leftist parties. 

President Emmanuel Macron, who surprised and upset his supporters when he called for snap elections last month, clearly has lost – his pro-business party and its allies were in third place with just 22% of the votes. 

“I have never seen France more divided,” remarked NPR’s veteran Paris correspondent, Eleanor Beardsley.

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Britain to Turn Left? – The UK’s parliamentary elections are Thursday, July 4, where the Labour Party, led by former public prosecutor and human rights attorney Keir Starmer, has led the Conservative Party by double-digits for 18 months, according to The New York Times. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, of the Conservative Party, called for the elections in May, the first full parliamentary elections since December 2019, when Boris Johnson won in a landslide victory for the Conservatives, who have led since 2010.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

THURSDAY July 4, 2024 THE LATEST — Donald J. Trump has extended his lead to six points over […]

Surprise Ruling on Voting Rights

Trump-appointed Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh voted with the majority in a surprise 5-4 Supreme Court ruling upholding an Alabama district court ruling that struck down a Republican voting district map, SCOTUSblog reports. Chief Justice John Roberts also joined associate justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elana Kagan and Ketanji Brown-Jackson in Allen v. Caster. Scroll down for more details in the center column.

We welcome your civil comments on this and other issues. Hit the Comment section in the left or right column or email editors@thehustings.news.

Also on this page, below …

•Lordy, There Are Tapes – Special Counsel on the Mar-a-Lago classified document case Jack Smith reportedly has a tape of Donald J. Trump acknowledging that he held on to a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran near the end of his presidency, according to CNN and The New York Times.

•Incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wins Runoff – Notching another victory for authoritarianism over liberal democracy?

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…meanwhile…

FRIDAY 4/21/23

UPDATE: SCOTUS Friday evening retained full access to mifespristone -- for now. It placed on-hold U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk's earlier ruling that the Food and Drug Administration was wrong in 2000 to make the abortion drug more accessible. The legal battle over whether to permanently reimpose restrictions, which could extend to the entire U.S., will continue. The only noted dissents were Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., who say they would not have granted the Biden administration's request for a stay on the lower court decision, according to The Washington Post.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the banning of mifepristone by a Texas-based federal judge was due by Midnight Friday. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk put the pill in play when he reversed the FDA’s 23-year-old approval of the drug used to induce abortions.

U.S. Response to Violence in Sudan – More than 400 people have been killed in a conflict in Sudan between its army and a powerful paramilitary force, The Washington Post reports, and the White House Thursday announced the U.S. is moving in troops nearby in case U.S. diplomats and other personnel need to be safely evacuated. Airstrikes, gunfire and artillery have struck the capital, Khartoum, though the violence is spreading through other parts of Sudan. At least 3,500 have been injured in the last six days, according to the World Health Organization, and at least one of the 400-plus killed was an American. 

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On Thursday’s SpaceX Starship Explosion – The unmanned Starship’s crash succeeded as a test-launch, SpaceX said Thursday – it was a “rapid, unplanned disassembly.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

TUESDAY 2/28/23

(Rupert Murdoch said some Fox News commentators endorsed false allegations of the Big Lie pushed by Donald J. Trump and allies that the 2020 election was stolen, and did not stop the personalities from promoting these claims, according to excerpts of a deposition in the Dominion Systems’ $1.6-billion lawsuit against the network, AP reports.)

House Committee Challenges China – The newly formed House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party holds its first hearing in prime time, 7 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday night, with four witnesses expected. They are former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and former Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger, both from the Trump administration, and human rights activist Tong Yi and Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul. 

Chairman is Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) vice-chair of the refreshingly bi-partisan committee. Ahead of the hearing, Gallagher told NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition; “A Chinese spy balloon drifting over the country and circling our nuclear ICBM facilities has a way of sort of bringing the threat close to home.”

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SCOTUS Takes Up Student Loan Forgiveness – Can six Republican-led states put the kibosh on President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program? The Supreme Court hears arguments for two hours Tuesday over whether the Education Department under Biden has authority to eliminate college student debt. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the White House program will cost $300 billion, NPR’s Nina Totenburg reports on Morning Edition. 

Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, South Carolina and Iowa have challenged the loan forgiveness program, which would offer up to $10,000 relief for students with family income of up to $125,000 annually, and up to $20,000 for low-income students. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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...meanwhile...

DOE Says COVID Likely from a Chinese Lab – The U.S. Energy Department now agrees with an FBI assessment that the COVID-19 pandemic was likely the result of a leak from a Chinese laboratory, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. The classified report was provided to the White House and key members of Congress (the latter of which explains how the WSJ got it).

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NATO Deal to Offer Kyiv Arms for Peace Talks? – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has outlined a plan to give Ukraine “much broader access” to advanced military equipment, weapons and ammunition as an incentive for Kyiv reaching out to Moscow to begin peace talks, The Wall Street Journal reports. Germany and France have joined Britain in supporting the deal, which falls short of full-on NATO membership for Ukraine. 

Sunak last Friday said such arms would give Ukraine a “decisive advantage,” including war planes, on the battlefield. But according to the WSJ, the developing deal masks growing private doubts among political leaders in the United Kingdom, France and Germany that Ukraine will be able to push Russian aggressors out of its eastern regions and Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014.

Upshot: This is a decidedly sober attitude from Europe’s lead NATO members, coming after a year in which Ukraine has fought a Russian army many thought would have captured Kyiv by March 2022, and deposed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who last week said his country will prevail and push out Russia by the end of this year.

This Week – Both the House and Senate are in session Monday through Wednesday. The Senate only is in session Thursday and Friday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Griner Released in Swap

WNBA star Brittney Griner, detained August 4 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and later charged with possession of cannabis, has been freed from a Russian penal colony in an apparent prisoner swap with the U.S., and is on her way home, NPR reports. 

“Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner,” President Biden announced in a tweet (above, with Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner and with Vice President Harris in the left photo). “She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home.”

Griner is being swapped in a one-on-one for “notorious arms dealer” Viktor Bout, who has been held in a U.S. prison for 12 years, the BBC reports. The U.S State Department continues to negotiate for release of Paul Whelan, businessman and former Marine who has been held in a Russian prison for nearly four years. 

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German Government Contains its January 6 – German authorities arrested 25 people, including neo-Nazis and monarchists, suspected of planning to overthrow the government by storming the Bundestag in Berlin, Wednesday morning. Allegedly fueled by QAnon conspiracy theories, among those detained include “Prince Heinrich XIII”, a descendant of the German nobility that was abolished by the Weimar Republic after World War I, and active soldier and former members of police and elite special forces, The New York Times reports. A group known as the Reich Citizens Movement has pushed for reinstatement of the German monarchy for years. 

NPR reporter Esme Nicholson describe on All Things Considered those detained as “not angry young men with shaved heads and black boots” but as doctors, lawyers and teachers – reminiscent of many of the 900+ arrested for the January 6 Capitol insurrection, including Yale Law School graduate and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes III, who was found guilty of seditious conspiracy last month. 

Organizers of the movement apparently contacted Vladimir Putin ahead of the attempted coup, but there is no indication the Russian president responded.

Meanwhile, in SCOTUS: The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday heard arguments over the “Independent State Legislature” theory, a controversial neo-republican (small “r” intended doctrine that would give individual state legislatures the right to set “all manner of election rules and laws without review by state courts,” according to NPR’s Nina Totenburg.

The case, brought to the highest court by North Carolina Republican legislators seeks to strike down a North Carolina ruling that the legislators violated the state’s Constitution with an “extreme partisan gerrymander” after the 2020 U.S. Census.

At its extreme, Totenburg said on All Things Considered, a ruling in favor of the theory and against the South Carolina Supreme Court could “eliminate not just state judicial powers over elections, but governors’ vetos. … and it might allow state legislators to certify electors who were not approved by the voters.” 

Sound Familiar?: That part about allowing state legislators to certify electors is what ex-President Trump attempted after his 2020 election loss. 

Court Count: SCOTUS is split into three camps, according to Totenburg: Justices Clarence Thomas, Thomas Alito and Neil Gorsuch, who favor the Independent State Legislature Theory; Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who oppose it; and Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavenaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who are somewhere in the middle. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

Jeffries Elected House Democratic Leader – House Democrats have elected Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) (above) their leader, replacing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who announced she would step down after two decades (but remains in Congress for at least two more years). Jeffries, 52, covers New York’s 8th District which includes large parts of Brooklyn and a section of Queens, and becomes the first Black congressional leader from any party, replacing Pelosi, 82, who was the first female congressional leader from any party. Younger Democrats in Congress have been clamoring for more youthful leadership for the last few years. 

Other Leaders: Rep. Katherine M. Clark (D-MA), 59, replaces Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), 83, in the House Democrat number-two spot while Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), 43, replaces Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), 82, for the number-three leadership position. Until the 118th Congress takes over in January, the outgoing top-three Democratic House positions are held by representatives older than President Biden, who just turned 80.

Meanwhile: Current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) faces some inner-party opposition as he tries to skate the line between condemning ex-President Trump’s dinner with an antisemite and a white supremacist (see right column) and actually condemning Trump himself. McCarthy cannot afford to lose five Republicans from the incoming House of Representatives to take the speaker’s gavel he long has coveted – which gives Democrats an outside chance of voting Jeffries into the speakership. 

Nobody, but nobody, really expects the GOP majority to let that happen, but it will make for an interesting January on Capitol Hill. 

--TL

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Oath Keepers Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy – Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and Florida chief Kelly Meggs were found guilty in federal court of seditious conspiracy for their involvement in the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol, Tuesday (The Hill). The Justice Department victory marks the first such conviction for seditious conspiracy since 1995, according to CNN.

All five Oath Keepers defendants were found guilty in the trial of obstruction of an official proceeding. Four Oath Keepers were found guilty of tampering with evidence – the fifth member of the far-right organization was not charged in this count. 

Rhodes and Meggs face potential prison sentences of up to 20 years for each.

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Senate Votes to Codify Same-Sex Marriage – The Senate voted, 61-39, to codify federal recognition of same-sex marriage, with religious liberty protections securing the bipartisan support, Roll Call reports. Lead sponsor Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) told reporters the bill would ease concerns that the Supreme Court could revisit precedents that protected same-sex and interracial marriage. SCOTUS in 2013 found the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act largely unconstitutional.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said the House could take up the bill as early as next week.

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Good Economic News – Various signs are appearing that the Federal Reserve is succeeding in capping inflation without triggering a recession. It’s early yet, but here’s a big piece of such evidence: the national average price of a gallon of gasoline was $3.521 as of Tuesday morning, AAA reports. That’s lower than the average price before Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Progs Retract Call to Negotiate with Putin

Letter Was Drafted Last Summer – The Progressive Congressional Caucus has retracted a letter sent to President Biden Monday urging him to engage in direct diplomatic relations with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) announced the retraction and took responsibility for the letter, which she said was drafted June 30, before Ukrainian soldiers began taking back land claimed by Russian military forces. 

Thirty Democratic lawmakers signed the letter June 30, and several wondered out loud Tuesday why it was sent out, according to Jayapal, “without vetting.” She said the letter was being conflated with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) statement last week to Punchbowl News that House Republicans “would not write a blank check” to Ukraine if the GOP retakes the lower chamber after the midterms.

John Kirby, White House coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council responded to the letter, saying “Mr. Putin is in no mood to negotiate.”

Upshot: If Progressive Congressional Caucus members thought a letter urging negotiations with Putin was more reasonable and realistic last June than McCarthy’s statement last week, they were not paying attention to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinskyy.

--TL

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Momentum on the Left has Left (MON 10/24/22)

Democrats Peak Early – There is “growing angst” among Democratic leaders that concerns over inflation and the economy have overtaken the negative reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade last summer in driving voters to the midterm polls, The Hill reports, echoing analyses at other mainstream news outlets. Consensus is that the assumption held before SCOTUS’ late-June 5-4 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health that the traditional flip of the House and Senate majorities against the president’s party would indeed be the result of the November 8 elections.

The Polls: According to NBC News’ latest poll, 70% of voters show “high interest” in the midterms. However, that breaks down to 78% of Republicans expressing “high interest” versus 69% of Democrats, compared with 68% of Republicans and 66% Democrats in August telling pollsters they are highly interested in the elections. FiveThirtyEight reports a “dead heat” in the race for majority in the Senate, and a three-in-four chance Republicans will take over the House of Representatives. 

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Discuss these issues in the left or right column Comment box or email editors@thehustings.news.

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Same as the Old Boss — Obama

By Andrew Boyd

President Biden’s slew of executive orders and proclamations are less practical and effective than they are an apparent attempt to enhance the Democratic Party’s image. Biden is particularly bent on reversing former President Trump’s immigration policy without proposing the sort of permanent policy that has evaded both parties for decades. 

Counting non-citizens in U.S. Census is a nakedly political effort to disenfranchise American citizens through reapportionment leveraged against illegals (sorry, non-citizens) by executive fiat. DACA part deux. Halftime show brought to you by SCOTUS and their denial of Trump’s authority to overturn part one. Farcical. 

There is one executive order I can support, to stop building The Wall. I’ve always been dubious on the efficacy of The Wall. On that basis, I’m good. As to walls being immoral, which was the rallying cry like 20 minutes ago, I’d call that complete trash thinking. Look no further than Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony. I await some reasoned argument from anyone on how to effectively manage and monitor inflows and outflows of peeps as do all other sovereign nations. See beloved progressive Canada.

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My take on the other major executive orders …

•Masking challenge and creation of a directorate for global health security and biodefense. What the hell is a directorate? Sound like something we can neither afford nor effectively contain. Watch to see the swell of SJW agenda items that get smuggled in through this baby. A ministry of funny walks would be more to my liking. It’s at least good for a laugh. [Note: SWJ is “social justice warrior” –Ed.]

•Rejoin the World Health Organization. The WHO proved itself utterly unreliable as an honest broker of information in this pandemic, which is putting it kindly. Lapdogs of the Chinese communist party is more on the nose. You can pretend this is a nod to the primacy of science and the critical importance of global coordination, but I suspect it’s more about the Dems unrelenting desire to be loved by their EU counterparts, which is most easily achieved by kneeling to a global bureaucratic hegemony that has anything but the best interests of the American people in mind.

•Extend eviction and foreclosure moratoriums. It’s easy to be humane when you’re doing it with other people’s money. It’s also, inconveniently, immoral. In principle, no different than “stimulus” via the accumulation of public debt, a.k.a. stealing from the future, only this one is on a shorter time frame and more directly tied to a specific group of people in the present, a.k.a. property holders. It’s all theft.

•Pause student loan payments through Sept 30. Why are we so focused on the particular slice of consumer debt that applies to college? It’s regressive in many respects, and again, stealing. Then, of course, there’s the moral hazard behind the notion that the government should have the power to step in and abrogate a legally constructed agreement between two private parties. But that’s just a matter of principle, so whatever.

•Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. An agreement without teeth, and mostly another means of smuggling in global economic wealth transfers. Among first world nations, who reduced their total CO2 emissions the most, on an absolute basis, in 2019?. That would be the U.S., courtesy of technological innovation driven by the big, bad free market. Meanwhile, 80% of increases in global CO2 emissions in the same time period came from China, Asia and India, and future forecasts see the U.S. remaining relative stable while China, India and other developing economies will fuel their growth with ongoing increases in greenhouse gas emissions.  

•End Keystone XL Pipeline. The environmental impacts of a pipeline are minimal and, to my mind, substantially outweighed by the economic and national security benefits of America’s energy independence. I know, I hate polar bears and seals and life in general. Shame on me. Oh, and Canada is not so pleased either.

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ACB on the Court Means the End of Gay Rights, Roe vs. Wade

By Chase Wheaton

Before Monday evening’s confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell spoke to the Senate and painted a vivid picture of the GOP’s mindset regarding its role in the current political landscape, saying “A lot of what we've done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election. They won't be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”

It seems to me that Senator McConnell has seen the proverbial writing on the wall, and that he knows that the American electorate is turning out in record numbers to demand change, which is why he capitalized on the Supreme Court vacancy before his power as Senate majority leader comes to a close. Whether McConnell believes that Biden will win, that Democrats will regain control of the Senate, or that both will occur, he knows that he will never again be able to influence the country in the name of conservative politics like he can now, and so, similar to a child flipping over a board game just before he or she loses, Donald Trump and the entire GOP knowingly went against the will of the majority of Americans to shape the legal and political landscape of this country in their image for decades to come.

This means that McConnell and Trump have successfully created a Supreme Court that’s more conservative than it has been in almost 70 years, and that represents their own interests, ideals, and beliefs rather than those of the American people. 

Given President Trump’s legislative record, and compared with the number of Supreme Court appointments by previous presidents, this is by far Trump’s greatest accomplishment. For perspective, President Trump, in his one term, has appointed more Supreme Court justices than any other one-term Republican president since Herbert Hoover in 1929. In fact, in recent history, while the Republican party has lost six of the last seven popular votes, they have appointed five of the last nine Supreme Court justices. 

If the Democratic Party has any hope of passing meaningful legislation or creating significant change in the next 10 to 20 years, they must seriously consider expanding the court and adding justices that reflect the values of the American people, and not those of a one-term, impeached president and a power-hungry white man from Kentucky. Otherwise, in a few years, as a gay man, I will be waving goodbye to my right to get married, and millions of women will be waving goodbye to their right to an abortion.

Wheaton is a higher education professional working in university housing, based in Greenville, N.C.

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Will Barrett Matter to the Election?

By Todd Lassa

Precisely one week before Election Day, Chief Justice John Roberts administered the judicial oath to Amy Coney Barrett allowing her to take her seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Late Monday, Justice Clarence Thomas administered the Constitutional oath to his new colleague shortly after the Senate confirmed Barrett by a vote of 52-48, Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed, One Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, who is fighting for her political life in her re-election bid, voted against Barrett. 

Justice Barrett starts work at the Supreme Court immediately, not a moment too soon for Republicans. The court, with Barrett now the sixth justice nominated by a Republican president and part of a potential five-justice majority with Chief Justice Roberts the swing vote, may soon decide challenges to the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, Trump administration executive orders on immigration policy, same-sex couples’ rights and the U.S. Census. The court is also expected to soon decide an effort by Trump’s lawyers to block the release of the president’s financial records to a Manhattan grand jury. 

There is also the likelihood the Trump re-election campaign will challenge Nov. 3’s results if Democratic candidate Joe Biden wins the electoral college. 

There is already election-related roiling in the courts, Pennsylvania Republicans wanted to block an extension to counting mail-in votes. The court rejected it without comment, so it may be refiled within the next few days. 

The court also rejected a case brought by Wisconsin Democrats who wanted to extend the deadline to count mail-in ballots.

The counterpoint to such apparent setbacks to the Democratic Party’s efforts to increase voter turnout and potentially win a majority of the Senate, as well as take back the White House, is that anti-abortion voters who are moderate or liberal on other issues may consider their goal achieved, and therefore may choose to not vote for President Trump next Tuesday. 

As if to counter that irony, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday called on Biden to expand the court beyond nine justices if he wins the presidency. Biden so far has refused to commit to “packing the court” as an obvious effort to keep the issue off the Nov. 3 ballot. The former vice president said in the Oct. 22 presidential debate that he would establish a commission to consider the option.

Please address comments to editors@thehustings.news

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Of Time, Bells & Meaning

By Stephen Macaulay

In 1787 Paul Revere opened a bell foundry in Boston. In addition to things like copper spikes and bolts that were used for shipbuilding, Revere cast his first bell in 1792. One of them was produced for the USS Constitution. During the War of 1812, the bell was put out of commission by a British ship, HMS Guerriere.

(For those of you who have forgotten their American history classes, the War of 1812 pitted the U.S. against the United Kingdom, which would seem unthinkable today as the U.K. is now one of our closest allies—well, given the way the current administration has treated our closest allies, maybe it isn’t so unthinkable. Anyway, during this war the U.K. and Native Americans were on the same side; the U.S. tried to get chunks of Canada; the Brits burned the White House. Again, much of this seems bizarre, but things were different 208 years ago. Hang on to that thought.)

While Revere’s bell foundry is somewhat obscure, it is worth noting that in 1787 the U.S. Constitution was signed.

According to the official White House website, “The founders also specified a process by which the Constitution may be amended, and since its ratification, the Constitution has been amended 27 times.”

Which is germane because it is clear from this that the founders didn’t think that what they had created was carved in stone tablets.

Even the White House understands that. Things change. Even words.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett has described herself as a “constitutional originalist” and that she takes a textualist approach to the law.

During the hearings for her appointment to the Supreme Court, Lindsay Graham, a former JAG lawyer (there is no evidence that he, like Harmon Rabb, suffers from night blindness, although he seems to be vexed by a tendency to behave as a presidential lickspittle), asked Judge Barrett what all that means in a way that could be understood.

She replied, "So in English, that means that I interpret the Constitution as a law, that I interpret its text as text, and I understand it to have the meaning that it had at the time people ratified it."

She added, "So that meaning doesn’t change over time and it’s not up to me to update it or infuse my own policy views into it."

“The meaning doesn’t change over time.”

Really? 

So the words as written in 1787 have the same meaning as they do today? Back when Paul Revere was casting bells?

Let’s look at Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3, which is important vis-à-vis the recent decision regarding the U.S. census as this is where taking the census every 10 years came from:

“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.”

Note how there seems to be a randomized capitalization of words. Presumably were one to write that way on one a paper submitted to Judge Barrett when she was teaching they would have been in a World of Hurt because We don’t capitalize Nouns Nowadays. 

What’s more, there is the word “Persons” not “citizens” (or Citizens). There are Persons counted as fractions (or Fractions).

And meaning doesn’t change over time? 

Macaulay is a cultural commentator based in Detroit.

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Barrett Acquits Herself Well — Will Voters Care?

By Bryan Williams

Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hasn’t turned into the sort of disgusting hack job that afflicted Brett Kavanaugh’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. ACB’s qualifications are unquestionable in my opinion, and she acquitted herself well in the hearing.

The headlines that have grabbed my attention are not about ACB, but regard my state’s senator, Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Many on the left were reportedly worried that the senior senator is not up to the task of grilling the nominee due to her advanced age (she’s 87) and diminished stamina. I was shocked when Feinstein ran for re-election in 2018 -- hasn’t she done her part for King and Country?

Democrats seem to have a thing for senior states-people hanging on to their office. News reports following her question time suggested that Feinstein, like the nine other Democrats on the committee failed to land a punch on the nominee. NPR ran a recording of the hearing for ACB’s nomination to the circuit court, in which Feinstein called her “dogmatic” in her devotion to her Catholic faith. 

Really? Have we returned to the late 1950s, when opponents questioned John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism and devotion to the Pope? The “dogma” that put fear into Feinstein and the media is another way to build up the left’s fear that with Barrett on the court, Roe vs. Wade soon will be overturned.

But what effect will her inevitable confirmation have on the presidential election? I’d like to think that President Trump will get a nice bump from nominating such a qualified jurist whose experience, intellect, and opinions will shape our culture for up to 40 years. Let’s not forget, ACB is taking over for RBG and liberals are hopping mad that Trump and the Republicans are shoving through this confirmation with heaps of Merrick Garland-flavored hypocrisy. 

This will only serve to please the Trump base and inflame the Left. How will the small slice of independents feel about this, and will it affect their vote? I can’t say for sure, but I really don’t think the average American voter has the Supreme Court on his or her mind in this weird year.

Williams is a mental health professional in California and a former Republican party official.

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