TPM Reader XX (initials withheld because would be too easily identifiable) gives us some background on two men currently in the news …
I thought it might be worth pointing out that two folks in the political news over the past couple of weeks were in fact law school classmates in the University of Virginia School of Law Class of 1998: Bill Baroni (who resigned over the GWB traffic controversy) and Robert Shelby (the U.S. District Judge in Utah who struck down Utah’s gay marriage ban this week). I was also classmates with Bill and Bob in the class of 1998, and they could not have been more different.
Alan Turing helped break the Nazis’ ‘Enigma’ code during World War II and laid the foundations for modern computing and artificial intelligence. But he was later driven to suicide by his criminal conviction and enforced ‘treatment’ for homosexuality.
Today he received a posthumous pardon from Queen Elizabeth II.
I don’t know whether Chris Christie was personally involved in the boffo Bridge Closure payback earlier this year. And I find it very hard to believe he got his fingerprints on it. But he’s managing so far to play into the hands of his political opponents and all national Democrats in the way he’s handling the story. In fact, he’s doing so so completely that I suspect he’s in a situation in which he’s simply not characterologically capable of behaving otherwise.
State Assemblymen says Christie’s latest claim about bridge closure is “false.”
Federal judge refuses to stop same-sex marriages in Utah, as per the governor’s and acting attorney general’s request.
Today’s a great day to join us as a member of TPMPrime. A beautiful new version of the site with more features, fewer ads, more longform stories and so much more. All for just 14 cents a day ($50 a year). It’s a premium TPM experience designed for our core readers. It’s how I read TPM every day. That’s not all. Signing up helps support our work here at TPM. For more details on what you get, why it’s important, and how to sign up, click this post here.
And if you’d like to anonymously purchase a membership for a member of the TPM community who cannot afford it, click here. It’s win-win. More resources to expand our work and help make access open to all our readers, regardless of financial means. Find out more about the concept here. And purchase one here.
Thank you and Happy Holidays.
Over at TPM Cafe Book Club today, American University Professor Chris Edelson and author of Emergency Presidential Power: From the Drafting of the Constitution to the War on Terror destroys David Brooks’ recent argument for a stronger president with reminders of what happened with a strong presidency in history:
Roosevelt and the mass internment of Japanese Americans during World War II (Congress and the Supreme Court acted essentially as rubber stamps), Truman’s unilateral decision to make war in Korea, Johnson’s deceptions in Vietnam, Nixon’s nearly successful attempt to turn the presidency into a criminal enterprise operating above the law and Reagan’s involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals this afternoon denied Utah’s motion for a temporary stay of the federal court ruling which made same sex marriages legal in the state on Friday. (Here’s the actual ruling.) That doesn’t mean the 10th Circuit backs the lower court ruling ruling, only that it won’t prevent more marriages from taking place under the ruling until it hears the merits of the case.
[ed.note: I misinterpreted the Court’s ruling. The upshot is the same. But the reasoning is different. The State of Utah is saying that the district court isn’t moving quickly enough on its request for a stay so it’s jumping up to the appellate court with a request for extraordinary relief. The appellate court is saying, no, you’ve got to follow standard procedure. The request is premature. So they refused to take it up. The upshot is that the ruling is even more narrow and procedural than I realized.]
In practice that means that marriage certificates will continue to be issued tomorrow morning in the state and probably for some indeterminate period after that until the 10th Circuit rules on the state’s actual appeal.
[Update: This issue has been resolved. If you are still experiencing problems with our smartphone mobile site please contact us at siteissues at talkingpointsmemo.com.]
A number of you have asked. So I wanted to flag here. We’re experiencing a breakage on the front page of the smartphone mobile version of TPM. (The Editor’s Blog and Livewire is still working.) We’re aware of it and on it. We hope to have it fixed later this evening and we’ll keep you posted on our progress.