Our difficulty with the Court today rises not from the Court as an institution but from human beings within it. But we cannot yield our constitutional destiny to the personal judgement of a few men who, being fearful of the future, would deny us the necessary means of dealing with the present.
– Franklin Roosevelt, On “Court Packing”
March 9, 1937
This week’s featured post is “What to do with a lawless Supreme Court?“
Ongoing stories
- Trump’s assault on American democracy. Like Pam Bondi, Pete Hegseth showed his contempt for congressional oversight. Asked fair questions about the Iran War, he fired back without offering any answers.
- Iran war. Still basically a stalemate.
- Climate change. A new study says sea level rise endangers New Orleans by the end of the century. “Relocation” is advised.
- Israel/Palestine. With the world watching Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza, Israeli settlers on the West Bank are driving Palestinians from their homes.
- Ukraine. Phillips O’Brien’s weekly update tentatively suggests that Ukraine is gaining the initiative over Russia.
This week’s developments
This week everybody was talking about voting rights
The Supreme Court’s decision voiding the remainder of the Voting Rights Act is the topic of the featured post.
and abortion access
Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order against mailing the abortion drug mifepristone. Today, the Supreme Court stayed that order for a week.
States that have outlawed abortion, like Louisiana, object to their citizens still having access to it via teleprescriptions and the mail. They allege that taking mifepristone at home is unsafe, though that seems to be a pretext.
It’s not clear what the next step in this case is.
and the war
Nothing major seems to be happening, but it’s hard to tell because of conflicting claims and counter-claims by the two sides. The US claims to have escorted two ships through the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians claim to have hit a US warship.
The two sides’ peace proposals continue to be far apart. Iran’s 14 points are all about ending US attacks without any concessions on their part. US proposals want Iran to turn over its nuclear material and swear off future nuclear ambitions without any concessions on our part.
Meanwhile, oil remains around $114 per barrel. Paul Krugman keeps pointing to the physical constraints: The world is burning more oil than is being shipped. If this continues, the stockpiles will run out. At that point, if not before, the price will have to rise high enough that demand falls to equal supply.
and the Comey indictment
Nearly a year ago, James Comey photographed seashells arranged to spell out “86/47”, which Trump and his loyalists exaggerated into a threat of assassination (86) against Trump (47). As soon as Comey heard this interpretation, he took the photo down and apologized.
Now he has been indicted for making a threat and transmitting it over social media. Each count carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.
The whole thing is absurd on many levels, and illustrates just how far the current Justice Department will go to harass people Trump views as his enemies.
- 86 has a variety of meanings, and it’s not clear that killing someone is even the most typical one.
- We’re not sure whether Comey arranged the shells himself, or just found someone else’s arrangement on a beach.
- Comey denies he intended the photo as a threat, and no evidence publicly available indicates otherwise.
- It’s not clear whether Comey is supposed to have intended to carry out this alleged threat himself, or was saying that someone should do it.
- In all previous cases, statements like this unconnected to a specific plan aren’t prosecuted under this statute. Simply saying “Somebody should kill this guy” is just free speech unless you are directly inciting somebody to do it. Ditto for “I’d like to kill this guy” if you have no specific plan to do so.
A judge will throw this out well before a jury hears it.
Isn’t it wonderful that the US is so crime-free that the Justice Department can waste its time on stuff like this?
and you also might be interested in …
The government owes billions in refunds to American businesses that paid Trump’s illegal tariffs. The big corporations have lawyers and other specialists to navigate the refund process, so they’ll probably get their money back. But small businesses probably won’t.
The DHS funding shutdown is over, except for funding Trump’s mass deportation programs. Republicans are preparing a reconciliation measure this summer to fund ICE and the border patrol through the end of Trump’s term, presumably so that next year’s Democratic Congress won’t have any leverage over these rogue agencies.
Democrats objected to funding ICE and CBP without restrictions after the videotaped murders of Alex Pretti and Rene Good in Minneapolis in January. The agents who committed these crimes have faced no charges, and federal agencies have done everything they could to block Minnesota’s investigations.
Democratic senators have been asking Trump’s judicial nominees who won the 2020 election and whether Trump could run for a third term in 2028. They can’t answer clearly, which should make everyone doubt their objectivity and resistance to Trump’s intimidation.
On Star Wars Day, Paul Krugman compares the proposed Trump battleships to the Death Star. The difference: The Death Star actually got built.
Trump’s new surgeon general nominee is yet another Fox News talking head, but at least this one has an active medical license. She says a lot of questionable things, but doesn’t appear to be crazy.
60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi received the Ridenhour Courage Prize for standing up to CBS’ management efforts to alter her piece on El Salvador’s CECOT Prison, where the Trump administration had sent a number of migrants.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. Fear is a funny thing – it can paralyze you, or it can point you to exactly what needs to be protected. Right now, our industry is afraid of the wrong things. We’re afraid of offending power. We’re afraid of losing access. We’re afraid of another baseless lawsuit. But what we should all be afraid of is silence. Because as I learned [at her first job as a waitress], there is a fine line between being a team player and being an accomplice.
The Ridenhour Prizes are named for Ron Ridenhour, who exposed the My Lai massacre. They’ve been awarded since 2004, with the first prize going to Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers.
and let’s close with something wild
If you want to get your mind off the news, The Guardian’s “Week in Wildlife” gallery is a good choice. The squirrel above appears to be adjusting the camera.
The Weekly Sift 