As of this week, the Biden administration has two blossoming legal disputes with Texas, both of which may end up before a hostile Supreme Court and both of which deal with issues core to federalism in the U.S.
Continue reading “Texas Thinks The Supreme Court Will Let It Have Its Own Immigration Regime”Trump’s SCOTUS Request Chose To Open A Pandora’s Box That Could Have Stayed Shut
It may be the highest court in the land, but how far can it go?
Continue reading “Trump’s SCOTUS Request Chose To Open A Pandora’s Box That Could Have Stayed Shut”New Poll Shows Haley and Trump Neck ‘n Neck in NH
I just saw that there’s a new ARG poll out this afternoon showing Donald Trump at 37% and Nikki Haley at 33% in New Hampshire. Christie is at 10% and Dead Bounce Ron is at 5%, if you’re a completist. This spurs me to share with you an editorial conversation we were just having about how we’re going to cover, how much of our editorial resources we’re going to put toward, the primaries in the next couple months. Can Haley beat Trump in New Hampshire? Do we care or does it matter if she does?
Continue reading “New Poll Shows Haley and Trump Neck ‘n Neck in NH”The 5th Circuit Will Not Have The Last Word On Abortion In Emergency Rooms
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a blow to the Biden administration’s attempts to shore up emergency abortion care Tuesday.
The judges, exhibiting some of the legal contortions that have become standard issue for the notoriously right-wing court, ruled that a federal mandate that requires many hospitals to stabilize patients in crisis does not include abortions — even when an abortion is that stabilizing care the patient needs.
Continue reading “The 5th Circuit Will Not Have The Last Word On Abortion In Emergency Rooms”Your Local School Board Freak Show Follies
I’ve been making my way through your emails about school board activism in your various necks of the woods. And I have to say, keep them coming, if for no other reason than the immense entertainment value. But seriously, for many other reasons too. I’m digging into them and trying to figure out which ones to report out first. But there are a few points that stand out in advance of that.
One of those points is something I’m half being reminded of, half learning, which is that there was a pretty big backlash against “anti-woke” school boards in 2023. It’s not universal, certainly. But it’s not just the story out of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, I’ve been telling you about for the last few days. There are examples all over the country. (I’ll be coming back to Bucks. Holy Crap, there’s a lot.) This morning I’ve just been reading up on one in a very backwoods part of Idaho, the West Bonner County School District. A lot of the same stuff: a bunch of freaks get washed in in 2021. They do all the anti-woke stuff and other stuff that’s more about just being against public education generally. There’s a successful recall, but not before the board brings in a new superintendent who is a former state legislator whose career went south when it turned out he might not actually live in the state. (Really.) The bigger problem is that Branden Durst had no background in education and didn’t even have the minimal accreditation the state requires for superintendents. He hung on for like three months before he had to resign. That was back in September.
Continue reading “Your Local School Board Freak Show Follies”No Pod This Week
Just a quick note to let you know we’re off this week on the podcast. We’ll be back next week at the standard time.
Trump Continues To Test The Constitution’s Limits
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Trump Appeals Colorado DQ Case To SCOTUS
The 14th Amendment Disqualification Clause case is vying with presidential immunity from prosecution to be the first opportunity the Supreme Court takes to weigh in on holding Donald Trump accountable to the rule of law.
After a few days of biding his time, Trump asked the Supreme Court to accept for review the Colorado Supreme Court decision declaring him ineligible for the GOP primary ballot.
In his filing, Trump argues that:
- Only Congress — not state courts — can determine whether a candidate is ineligible under the Disqualification Clause.
- The Disqualification Clause doesn’t apply to the president.
- Jan. 6 was not an insurrection and Trump did not engage in insurrection.
- The Colorado court violated the Electors Clause.
- The Disqualification Clause can be used to bar people from office but not from the ballot.
The Colorado Republican Party has already asked the Supreme Court to take the case, and the winning plaintiffs have agreed that it should. So expect to hear from the Supreme Court at any time, though there’s no precise timeline by which it will decide.
SCOTUS May Get Second Trump Immunity Case
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has refused Donald Trump’s request for the entire appeals court to rehear his claim of presidential immunity from a civil suit in one of the E. Jean Carroll cases — which means Trump may soon ask the Supreme Court to take the case.
With All Deliberate Speed
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance: What the legal system owes America in the era of Donald Trump
Good Read
WaPo: A right-wing tale of Michigan election fraud had it all — except proof
Florida Man Strikes Again
NBC News: Florida man arrested and accused of threatening to kill Rep. Eric Swalwell and his kids
Georgia Election Official Swatted
Gabriel Sterling, the Georgia election official who famously warned after the 2020 election that Trump’s false claims of voter fraud were going to get someone killed, says he was swatted yesterday:
Three Years After Jan. 6
The anniversary is upon us, and PBS takes a closer look at the long-running citizen-led effort to identify the Jan. 6 rioters at the Capitol — featuring our former colleague Ryan Reilly:
Bomb Threats Against State Capitols
Bomb threats forced evacuations Wednesday in more than a dozen state capitols.
DeSantis’ Surgeon General Is A Piece Of Work
WaPo:
Florida’s top health official called for a halt to using mRNA coronavirus vaccines on Wednesday, contending that the shots could contaminate patients’ DNA — aclaim that has been roundly debunked by public health experts, federal officials and the vaccine companies.
Oh, Texas …
The formerly independent state of Texas continues to push the envelope on immigration policy, and the Biden administration keeps fighting back. So far this week:
- The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift the stay that is preventing it from removing the razor wire illegally placed in the Rio Grande by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
- The Biden administration has sued to block the controversial new Texas immigration law that seeks to vest border enforcement authority with the state.
Blast From The Past
Remember Kim Davis?
She was the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision.
A federal judge has now ordered her to pay $260,000 in fees and expenses to attorneys for one of the couples that took her to court over her refusal to grant them a marriage license.
So Grateful
Two years ago today, my then-18-year-old son was walking across the street near our DC home when he was hit by a car and nearly killed.
I’ve had this date on my calendar because two years is an important milestone for recovery from a traumatic brain injury like the one he had. Each patient is different, and we know that recovery continues past two years. In Sam’s case, he showed phenomenal recovery after one year and his injuries are now undetectable. But we were advised to take extra care in the first two years to give the brain the maximum chance to heal.
Notwithstanding the sailing accident three months ago in which he and I broke our backs, today represents the day when I can take him out of the bubble wrap in which I’ve encased him, at least in my own mind.
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House Leadership Memoryholes Speaker Chaos, Shuffles Into Line Behind Trump
With the beginning of 2024, top Republicans are lining up behind Donald Trump, perhaps acknowledging a fact that much of D.C. has resisted since the summer: That the primary was over before it began.
Among them are a handful whose careers Trump derailed just months ago.
Trump denies that he played a role in encouraging the great House Speaker Defenestration of 2023, though Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the man driving it, spoke vaguely about how his “conversations with the former president” led him to feel “great confidence” that he “did the right thing.”
Continue reading “House Leadership Memoryholes Speaker Chaos, Shuffles Into Line Behind Trump”Trump Appeals Colorado DQ To SCOTUS
Donald Trump on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to consider his bid to stay on Colorado’s primary ballot, taking the question over whether his conduct on Jan. 6 disqualifies him for office to the High Court.
Continue reading “Trump Appeals Colorado DQ To SCOTUS”A Malign Codependency
Many have learned over the last three months how Hamas and the Israeli right, and especially Benjamin Netanyahu, have a paradoxically symbiotic relationship. Arch-enemies and yet dependent on each other. It’s occurred to me in recent days how many of Israel’s fiercest critics have a comparable relationship with the many far-right extremists who make up Netanyahu’s current and, one hopes, final government. From the start of Israel’s current campaign in Gaza, various members of the current coalition have opined or hoped that the carnage and destruction might be an opportunity to depopulate Gaza.
This kind of rhetoric comes in two basic forms. One is the simple fact that Gaza is a warzone with immense destruction. And civilians generally flee warzones. We saw it in Yugoslavia. In Syria. We see it in Ukraine. That’s what happens in wars and warzones. Civilians flee. But of course this history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict makes it totally different. So you have members of the Israeli far right saying, with perfect disingenuousness, why not let these poor people flee? It’s a humanitarian gesture. It’s helping them! Others barely even bother with this pretense of voluntary departure. It’s just an opportunity to get Gazans to leave.
Continue reading “A Malign Codependency”