The House Jan. 6 Committee is considering holding a public hearing this month as part of its investigation into the Capitol attack, Punchbowl reports.
Continue reading “Report: Jan. 6 Panel Mulling Another Hearing This Month”Report On Findings Of Roe Draft Leak Probe Is Coming, Gorsuch Says
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Stay Tuned
The Supreme Court’s investigation into the stunning leak of SCOTUS’ opinion draft dismantling Roe is still underway, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch told attendees at a judicial conference yesterday.
- Gorsuch said the findings of the investigation will be outlined in an official report that’ll hopefully be completed “soon.”
- The justice didn’t say whether the report would be released publicly.
- Gorsuch also echoed other justices’ suggestion that the leaker was trying to manipulate the final decision in the Dobbs case. We’ll almost certainly never know for sure whether the leaker did meaningfully impact the high court’s final decision, but the leak did reportedly scuttle Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ (long-shot) efforts to convince justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett not to kill Roe entirely.
DOJ Appeals Judge’s Eyebrow-Raising Mar-A-Lago Doc Order
Federal prosecutors said via court filings on Thursday that they plan on appealing at least part of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s shady order appointing a special master to review materials the FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago.
- We don’t know which exact part of the order the prosecutors are going to appeal. They’re taking the case to the Eleventh Circuit.
- The federal government is also asking Cannon to:
- Bar the special master from accessing the classified documents that were among the seized materials
- Temporarily hold her order that restricts the DOJ from using those classified documents in its investigation
Pro-Choice Amendment Will Be On Michigan’s Ballot
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the state’s ballot in the November elections will include a constitutional amendment that would codify Michiganders’ right to abortion care.
- You mean to tell me that the court didn’t buy Republicans’ argument that the words in the text of the proposed amendment were spaced too closely to each other??
- More good news from the Michigan Supreme Court on the democracy front: The justices also put a voting rights amendment on the ballot.
King Charles III To Address The Nation
King Charles III will make his first public appearance since the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at age 96 yesterday. (Read our liveblog of yesterday’s events, beginning with Buckingham Palace’s announcement that the Queen was under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.) The address is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.
Must Read
“How Murdered Journalist Jeff German’s Colleagues Hunted Down His Alleged Killer” – The Daily Beast
Another Outgoing GOP Guv Won’t Endorse Trump-Backed Nom Running To Fill His Seat
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R), who decided not to run for reelection, won’t endorse Geoff Diehl, the Republican gubernatorial nominee whom Trump touted as someone who would “rule” the state “with an iron fist” in an appeal to Massachusetts’ huge pro-dictator voter base.
- Baker wants to “focus solely on finishing” his term “strong,” a spokesperson told Politico.
- Term-limited Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) similarly isn’t backing his party’s (read: Trump’s) pick for his office, Dan Cox, who organized buses to the pre-insurrection Trump rally and tweeted that then-Vice President Mike Pence was a “traitor” for not stealing the 2020 election for Trump on Jan. 6.
- Unlike Baker, however, Hogan made it crystal-clear that his refusal to endorse Cox was because he believes the nominee is absolutely batshit.
Bannon Slapped With NY State Indictment
New York state is now prosecuting ex-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon over the crimin’ he got away with thanks to a pardon from Trump–which only protected the MAGA bulldog from being held accountable by the federal government.
The New York indictment against Bannon, like the previous federal case, is centered on his We Build the Wall scam. Bannon is now facing state-level fraud and money laundering charges.
In Case You Missed It
Tina Peters, the indicted Mesa County clerk in Colorado and diehard election truther, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to felony and misdemeanor charges connected to the breach of her county’s voting systems that she had allegedly plotted. Peters’ plea came a month after the recount she demanded (and paid $255,912 for) in her GOP primary for secretary of state went nowhere.
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Where Things Stand: Watching The Christian Right’s Power Play Out In Real Time
I made the point yesterday that the language Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is using to clean up his past marriage equality remarks — earlier this summer he said he had no reason to “oppose” codifying same-sex marriage into federal law — is an obvious cave to the Christian right. In frantic messaging in recent days, Johnson has flip-flopped on his previous position as he struggles with the impossible task of casting himself as a reasonable guy to Wisconsin voters and a reliable ally to Christian conservatives.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Watching The Christian Right’s Power Play Out In Real Time”Big News Out of Michigan
The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled 5-2 that the proposed abortion rights measure will appear on the state’s ballot in November. This is good news for all Democratic candidates in the state, since it will literally put robust abortion rights protections on the ballot in the state. That will almost certainly mean robust protections in the state going forward. It will likely also bring marginal Democratic candidates to victory with the tide of voters who turn out to vote for the amendment.
But it’s a very important development in a more general way.
Continue reading “Big News Out of Michigan”Michigan Supreme Court Puts Pro-Choice Measure On Ballot, Rejecting Word-Spacing Challenge
A 5-2 majority of the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a pro-choice amendment seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan constitution would appear on this November’s ballot, despite a challenge from anti-abortion activists that focused on the spacing between the printed words of the proposed amendment.
Continue reading “Michigan Supreme Court Puts Pro-Choice Measure On Ballot, Rejecting Word-Spacing Challenge”Music To My Ears
Wonderful news that the DOJ has decided to appeal Judge Cannon’s farcical decision is making clear that it cannot be that case that a former President “can successfully assert executive privilege to prevent the Executive Branch itself from reviewing and using its own records.”
Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s Longest-Reigning Monarch, Dies At 96
96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled Britain for a record 70 years, died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the Royal Family announced on Thursday.
“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” the Royal Family’s official Twitter account said. “The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”
Buckingham Palace had reported earlier in the day that the Queen’s doctors were “concerned for Her Majesty’s health” and that she was under medical supervision.
Follow our live coverage below:
DOJ Appeals Cannon’s Order Halting Mar-a-Lago Doc Review
Federal prosecutors will appeal at least part of a Monday order from a Florida federal judge relating to records they obtained from searches at Mar-a-Lago last month.
Continue reading “DOJ Appeals Cannon’s Order Halting Mar-a-Lago Doc Review”Listen To This: The Purge
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss the CNN purge and the newest developments in the court case over Trump’s documents.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Charles III
One of the minor questions with today’s news was whether Charles would become King Charles III. It seems obvious. But in the past it was frequently the case that a monarch would choose a regnal name which was not the one they were known by familiarly before taking the throne. But Liz Truss, who just became Prime Minister two days ago, just made a statement in which she referred to Charles as King Charles III. So that settles it. Seems like a rather dramatic hogging of the mic. But who knows? Not my country, not my circus. But that settles it. Charles III.