National News Roundup

Year 4, Week 35 (September 13-19)

September 21, 2020September 22, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Okay. I know I said the news was going to keep getting worse as we head into the election season, but the news this week is Capital-B-Bad, y’all. I’m running out of ways to say “I’m here if anybody needs anything,” but I am. And we all have a lot of work to do.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not an injunction!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

I know I say this every week, but this week really was a new low for Disregard of Governing Norms. Here’s what I have for you:

Administrative Anarchy. First Attorney General William Barr signaled he wants to charge protesters who damage property with sedition, which is… a disturbing expansion of governmental power, to say the least. But I’m guessing it was intended to be an opening salvo, because he followed that up by declaring New York City, Portland, and Seattle “anarchist jurisdictions”–evidencing either further fascist tendencies or the fact that his house lacks a dictionary. Per the declaration itself, this is really just a fancy way of announcing that the administration is about to pull federal funding from those cities because people have been protesting there. Folks, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how illegal all of this; it runs counter to our First Amendment right to freedom of assembly, and a comparable attempt to punish cities that support immigrants in 2017 was enjoined as illegal by several courts because the move violates separation of powers. That said, a joint statement from the three mayors of impacted cities notes this declaration’s unconstitutionality as well.

Your Regularly-Scheduled Illegality. Even before Barr made his announcements, this wasn’t a great week for governmental behavior. News broke that DC military police considered using a heat ray against protestors back in the summer when they cleared out a peaceful assembly so that Trump could take a photo in Lafayette Square. An HHS spokesperson accused CDC scientists of sedition because their work on COVID “undermines President Trump.” (Said spokesperson is now “taking a medical leave” to sit in a corner and think about what he’s done.) Trump called teaching about systemic racism “child abuse” and announced he would sign an executive order against the practice. And just as the cherry on top of it all, he’s also now facing yet another sexual assault allegation from the 1990s, this time by model Amy Dorris. For those of y’all playing the home game, Dorris joins over a dozen women to have made similar allegations.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Oddities (Again). Needless to say, things keep taking further turns for the bizarre and we’re still about forty days away from Election Day as I type this. At a campaign rally, Trump threatened to sign an executive order that prevented Biden from being elected, because jokes about authoritarianism are hilarious, amirite? He also indicated he expects a winner declared on election night, despite states’ need to accommodate remote voting during a pandemic. Watchdogs are so alarmed by this that they’ve started pressing media to detail how they will handle Election Night reporting–and in particular, what they will do if one party (read: Trump) simply declares himself the winner before counting is done. And of course, the news about Ruth Bader Ginsburg above creates a whole new spectre as we enter the final days of the election process, but we’ll talk about that more below.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* COVID news remains dispiritingly terrible for another week, and much of it is outright bizarre. DHHS Secretary Alex Azar declared himself in charge of FDA policy this week, indicating that new matters will require his approval and signature before they can be finalized. His announcement comes on the heels of yet more shifts in the CDC’s posted rules; namely, information about aerosol transmission that was added on Friday was then removed on Monday as an “error.” This change comes as more news trickles out about last month’s changes, also reversed this week, which removed recommendations for asymptomatic testing–apparently, that change was made without CDC scientists’ review and over their objection. These developments, unsurprisingly, leave people worried about the CDC’s functionality as a scientific entity. Meanwhile, many countries in Europe and South America are experiencing a surge in cases, making experts worry about another wave of outbreaks. And in Oregon, wildfires have apparently exacerbated COVID infection.

Immigration Updates. There’s a lot of immigration news to watch right now, and almost all of it is pretty dire. The Ninth Circuit undid protections for people sheltering in the United States due to catastrophe in their home country, which throws the fate of nearly 400,000 people into limbo. Meanwhile, the Second Circuit undid protections for people seeking lawful permanent status in its jurisdiction, permitting blanket denial of disabled and indigent applicants to be enforced across the country. In Georgia, an ICE whistleblower alleges that an ICE medical vendor performed so many medically unnecessary hysterectomies on detainees they started calling him “the uterus collector,” and subsequent reporting suggests he wasn’t even a board certified gynecologist. News also broke that the U.S. has expelled nearly 9,000 unaccompanied minor children since the pandemic began, which is an incredibly high number and strongly suggests that legal process has not been followed. A witness in an ongoing sexual assault case against ICE officers in El Paso was deported in apparent retaliation for her testimony. And finally, the Washington Post reported that high coronavirus numbers in ICE custody can be partially linked to failure to follow protocols about transporting patients, which were themselves brought about so that ICE agents could be deployed at protest sites.

The Passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Long-time Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on Friday evening, apparently from complications due to pancreatic cancer. Needless to say, the nation is devastated, and this has a lot of implications for the Supreme Court and our government. NPR reports that a few days before her death, she informed her granddaughter, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Nonetheless, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to act immediately, despite his refusal to confirm Obama nominee Merrick Garland under less extreme circumstances. Trump has also signaled he will nominate a new justice “without delay,” apparently meaning before the next Presidential debate (let alone the election). It’s still an open question whether the Senate has the votes needed to confirm an unknown nominee, and it’s also possible the identity of the nominee will prove relevant. (The nominee is very likely to be Amy Coney Barrett, by the way, which is definitely my nightmare fuel for the week.) It is extremely important that we call our Senators repeatedly to urge them to postpone a Senate vote until after the election, and ideally until the next Presidential term.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We had a few promising court cases this week. In Seattle, a federal judge blocked the current Postmaster General’s attempted operational changes to the mail system, calling them “a politically motivated attack.” (This is particularly welcome news as a report was also issued this week estimating that the policies disrupted up to 7% of total first class mail.) In unrelated but also positive news, an order scheduled to go into effect on Sunday that banned WeChat and Tiktok is already blocked by federal court, who noted that the ban would likely infringe on First Amendment rights.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this laptop ballad and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more cozy blankets for autumn napping!

Year 4, Week 34 (September 6-12)

September 14, 2020September 15, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

We’re in the middle of yet another apocalypse multipack as I type this, with much of the West Coast in crisis and the rest of us not exactly thriving either. It gets overwhelming very quickly, but I’m here if I can help. Your good friend Comfort Food is here also.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a technical glitch!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

We continue to see an uptick in Disregard of Governing Norms, which is another thing we can expect to increase as we get closer to the election. Here’s what I have for you:

Your Regularly Scheduled Illegality. We had a lot of overt illegality again this week. First, in a stunning show of “l’etat, c’est moi,” the Justice Department has intervened on 45’s personal defamation case against a woman who alleges he raped her. For folks playing the home game, this is a really big deal–it’s a pretty blatant signal that the Department of Justice has been co-opted into Trump’s personal law service, which is not the role it is supposed to serve. A senior Department of Homeland Security official also alleged in a whistleblowing complaint this week that he was instructed to stop reporting on Russian interference in the 2020 election, because it “made the President look bad.” (Which does in fact do, but if that was this administration’s motivation I’ll eat my laptop.) And also in sketchy election news, the administration has signaled it may host a campaign event at the White House on Election Day, which would be a very blatant violation of the Hatch Act as well. Of course, this is hardly surprising given the giant indoor campaign rally he held this week, addressing thousands of people in clear violation of Nevada law.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Oddities (Again). There was a significant amount of odd election news even discounting the sketchy Trump shenanigans listed above. In Florida, a federal appeals court blocked the re-enfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of denizens with criminal records who cannot afford to pay court fines. In slightly more positive Florida news, Mike Bloomberg also promised to spend at least $100M in the state to help Joe Biden’s campaign–and though he said he would support the campaign of whoever wins, this kind of donation from a former candidate has got to be an election first. And the Fourth Circuit is considering a North Carolina law that would require voters to show ID, which has been enjoined by state courts already and hopefully will remain enjoined through the November election.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s laughably inadequate new COVID response bill was introduced in the Senate this week, where it promptly failed in a matter of days. The situation at schools remains messy, with many remote learners experiencing tech glitches and colleges struggling to quarantine infected students or sending them back to their hometowns. Meanwhile, the administration’s obvious interference with the vaccine process has prompted many pharmacy CEOs to take a voluntary pledge that they will engage in safe practices. And finally, a newly-released tell-all book says Trump has known exactly how deadly COVID would be since March, despite leading the public to believe otherwise.

Black Lives Still Matter. There is still news on the Black Lives Matter front for another week, though it’s mostly aftermath from the previous week. In Rochester, the Police Union President and Mayor are both arguing about which one of them should resign, while several officers and the Chief of Police have stepped down. Meanwhile, a witness to the shooting says the suspect shot by police in Portland, Oregon last week was never arrested or even warned before he was fatally shot.

Fire Crisis on the West Coast. We’re experiencing an unprecedented rate and range of wildfire all along the American West coast, from Los Angeles to Seattle, and it’s only the beginning of fire season. At the time that I type this, over five million acres have burned, and more than two dozen people have died. In many places, the entire sky is orange, and air quality is dangerously poor along points on the entire coast. These unprecedented fires are not a coincidence; data shows that climate change is causing increasingly dangerous conditions–though of course, Trump is claiming the opposite.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We had a few promising court cases this week. A federal court refused to let the Trump administration drop undocumented people from the census (again), ruling that it would violate the Fourteenth Amendment and federal law. And a different federal judge blocked the U.S. Postal Service from sending voting disinformation to denizens of Colorado, finding that the state would suffer irreparable harm if the mailer went out.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this pigfren taking the subway and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more comfort food, I’m running out!

Year 4, Week 33 (August 30–September 5)

September 7, 2020September 8, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well, if I had been foolish enough to hope that the news would improve during my break, I certainly would have been disappointed. We continue to scrape the bottom of the existential barrel, and this isn’t going to let up as we move towards November. My advice is to just go ahead and invest in ice cream now, y’all.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a census!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

We seem to be seeing an uptick in Disregard of Governing Norms, which is another thing we can expect to increase as we get closer to the election. Here’s what I have for you:

Your Regularly Scheduled Illegality. By this point, the Trump administration blatantly breaks laws so often that the question isn’t whether they did anything illegal this week, it’s simply a matter of what. The first story of the week, unsurprisingly, involves Postmaster General Louis DeJoy yet again. This time, he’s in the news for pressuring workers at his former company to donate to GOP campaigns, which would then be ‘rewarded’ with reimbursement bonuses. (For those of you playing the home game, this is pretty obviously illegal even in a private context, as it appears to be a way around campaign contribution limits). Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is already calling for an investigation, which Trump doesn’t appear to be blocking. To be fair on that last point, though, Trump may be distracted by this week’s failed attempt to end the Census early, which is the second illegal activity of the week. I say “failed” because a federal judge ended up weighing in on this one, issuing a restraining order that keeps the administration from changing anything before a hearing can happen mid-September.

Trump vs the Military. Trump managed to sink his relations with the American military even further this week, which is rather impressive all things considered. First the Atlantic ran a story that Trump referred to fallen soldiers as “losers” and “suckers” when refusing to visit an American military cemetery in Paris in 2018. An AP reporter confirmed the story, and so did the National Security correspondent at Fox News. Trump then responded by calling for the Fox News staffer to be fired. Folks, I know it’s 2020 and we get inured to a lot of nonsense, but I want to take a step back and really look at that last detail for a moment–a sitting U.S. President called for a journalist to be fired because she publicly confirmed sources on a story about him that she didn’t even write. (Needless to say, Fox supported its correspondent on this one.) The whole thing also made more people notice the administration’s attempt to cut funding to a military newspaper, the Stars and Stripes, which Trump announced would be walked back.

“Anti-American” Diversity Training. Because the first two paragraphs weren’t enough for one week, the Trump administration also announced by memorandum that federal employers may not conduct diversity trainings, which the memorandum refers to as “anti-American propaganda.” The memo also instructs federal agencies to come up with a list of all training contracts that include the terms “critical race theory” or “white privilege.” Y’all, if I were reading this in a story, I would be really mad about how lazy and one-dimensional this was.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Oddities (Again). Other than a bright spot when Ed Markey won the Democratic primary here in Massachusetts, this week was a surreal nightmare on the election front. Trump decided to fight mail-in voting by suggesting to his supporters that they should try to vote multiple times, presumably because there will definitely be evidence of voter fraud if his followers create it. This left officials in multiple states scrambling to remind constituents that this is, in fact, illegal. It is also closely related to the current Russian tactic for interfering with our election, shocking no one.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* COVID news is a bit more mixed than usual today, which might be attributed to the approaching election as well. The CDC issued a nation-wide eviction moratorium, which will prevent nonpayment evictions until the end of the year. And new studies confirm that steroids can help people who become severely ill due to COVID infection. But Trump has refused to work with the WHO to develop and distribute a vaccine, and yet his CDC is telling states to prepare for its distribution as early as October–which, incidentally, is a good six months before the WHO thinks vaccines will be ready. Meanwhile, FEMA is saying it will no longer fund cloth masks for schools, despite the increasing chaos at college campuses. Finally, at least one federal official has started advocating for a herd immunity strategy, which is both ignorant and evil from a public health perspective–at this point, any time you see a news outlet call an approach or statement “controversial,” you can just go ahead and assume that’s news code for “this is in some way terrible.”

Black Lives Still Matter. This was another rough week for brutality against Black Americans. In Rochester, New York, a video was released from March that showed police fatally suffocating 41-year-old Daniel Prude with a “spit hood.” Prude was apparently one of several Americans who have been injured or killed by this type of restraint, and he’s also one of many Americans killed by police while in mental health crisis. Meanwhile, Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend is suing the Louisville police for misconduct. And in Portland, police fatally shot a man suspected of shooting a conservative counterprotester, rather than apprehending him alive.

The Good:

No More ICE Academy (for now). This week, ICE announced that it will be postponing its plans for a vigilante group in Chicago it was calling a “Citizens Academy.” Though ICE is claiming the postponement was due to COVID, it seems equally likely that the sustained advocacy campaign against the project had something of an effect. Either way, we now don’t have to worry about this particular form of threat until the spring, and I’ll take it.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this otter and kitten grabbing a catnap and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours in the day!

Year 4, Week 30 (August 9-15)

August 17, 2020August 18, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Let’s not mince words; this week was rough and disturbing even by our basement-level 2020 standards–though on the plus side, at least there aren’t that many stories. Someday the news will be less horrifying, but this week is not that week, and I’m here if anyone needs anything.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a post office!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

On the Disregard of Governing Norms front, the biggest news by far involves the U.S. Postal Service. That said, there are a few other bits and bobs to know as well, so we have a few stories to know. Here’s what I have for you:

Messed Up Trump Response: Post Office Edition. As more and more news comes out, it becomes increasingly clear that Trump is gutting the U.S. Postal Service so that voting by mail becomes impossible–so clear, in fact, that he literally told us this on Wednesday. (Incidentally, Trump’s statement contextualizes why the Senate never voted on the HEROES Act, which provides additional funding to USPS, despite the fact that Trump literally plans to vote by mail.) The statement also validated the House Dems’ announcement that they want to investigate the postmaster general because he’s intentionally delaying the mail, and it’s not surprising that he’s now scheduled to testify before the Oversight Committee next Monday. The postmaster general is also now being independently investigated for the many sweeping changes he has been making amid obvious conflicts of interest, and the House has introduced legislation to undo said changes; Nancy Pelosi has called the whole House back from recess to vote on it this Saturday. On the mail end of things, the Letter Carriers union has also filed a national grievance. And in addition to all of that, news surfaced that 46 states received notice that their ballots may not be delivered on time back in July, despite the postmaster general’s promises otherwise. The United States Postal Service is an essential government service, and we need it for so many reasons even without considering the November election. But in the face of such a high-stakes election, this is a very, very big deal. and we need to be calling our officials about it right now.

Creaking Cabinet. There were also a couple of stories this week about West Wing dysfunction, though they’re flying a bit under the radar for obvious reason. Trump apparently is considering replacing his current Secretary of Defense, which would put us on our fourth Secretary of Defense this year alone. And on the Homeland Security side of things, the Government Accountability Office has found that the top two DHS officials, Chad Wolf and Ken Cucchinelli, are not eligible to serve these roles under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. (To be fair, experts have been saying this for a while now, but now there’s an official memo for Congress to ignore.)

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Oddities (Again). In addition to the postal service news above, we did see a few other stories about the election. The biggest piece of news, which I’m sure folks have already heard, is that Joe Biden has tapped Kamala Harris to be his pick for Vice President. Harris is expected to formally accept this week at the Democratic National Convention, which began today and will be largely virtual this year. Harris is also the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be nominated for national office by a major party, so of course 45 is already positing that she’s not a citizen, despite clear documentation that she was born in Oakland, California. And despite the post office news above, the vast majority of states have authorized mail-in voting for this November’s election as I type this.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* COVID news is still weird and awful for the millionth week in a row. Death rates are continuing to rise, which might be in part because COVID is hitting nursing homes again, and Wednesday was our worst single day since early May in that regard. Reports also suggest that our official rate is too low, based on the number of unattributed and outlying deaths in the country over the past several months. Meanwhile, a Florida sheriff has banned his staff and visitors from wearing masks, and news broke that Trump is considering making a highly toxic plant extract a COVID medication. The Senate has gone on recess until September without passing any kind of COVID relief legislation, and the White House has clarified that the executive order benefits are lower than Trump has previously claimed. And just to cap everything else off, we’re conducting fewer tests and experts say we’re not doing enough as we move into the autumn months and greater health risk. Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that the CDC has reported that Americans are experiencing increased anxiety and depression during the COVID pandemic. In a very mild silver lining, the CDC has also reported that people who have recovered from COVID will not need to be tested for about three months, which appears to be the window of the antibody.

Immigration Updates. It’s not on the forefront of the news, but we are still seeing negative immigration stories trickle out of the administration, and they’re worth revisiting. This week’s latest is that Trump is considering closing the border to U.S. citizens and people with lawful permanent residence if CBP believes they may have COVID. (It’s always hard to tell whether the administration is seriously considering these types of extreme measures or just leaks memos to scare people, but I’ll try to follow up if we hear anything else on this.) Our short respite from the new public charge rule was also rolled back by the 2nd Circuit, and now only applies to Connecticut, New York, and Vermont. And finally, news also broke that a private detention company is holding migrant children in hotels prior to deportation without guarantee of food or adequate child care, which is both illegal and disturbing on a lot of levels. Apparently, this private detention company had previously detained kids in an abandoned office park in 2018, so I guess this is a step up, and that’s definitely the most messed-up sentence I’m going to type this week.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We did get a couple of decent court cases this week, in addition to the bummer from the Second Circuit above. A federal judge in New York reinstated protections for birds that the Trump administration had rolled back, which should result in a lot of wildlife protection. And the Supreme Court declined to interfere with a new Rhode Island law that removed an old witness requirement for mail-in voting. Progress!

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this ferret’s ball avalanche and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours in the day!

Year 4, Week 29 (August 2-8)

August 10, 2020August 11, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

I know we’re all getting tired of same-y stories, but this week was another miserable Groundhog Day–right down to the heat wave happening as I type this. Come on, universe, you’re clearly running out of ideas. Just end the season and be done with it.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a post office!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

On the Disregard of Governing Norms front, everything old is new again. Here are the things to know:

Messed Up Trump Response: COVID Edition. This sure was a week for Trump either spewing nonsense about COVID or using it to justify executive overreach. The week began with sources telling CNN that Trump “still doesn’t get” how bad COVID really is, which was certainly borne out by his statements in that infamous HBO interview on Monday. When Dr. Fauci acknowledged that the U.S. has the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world–more on that below–Trump countered by claiming we would have a vaccine by the November election (spoiler: no we won’t). Numerous outlets report that the White House played a role in this week’s failure to reach a COVID relief deal, but that didn’t stop Trump from issuing a slew of executive actions that probably aren’t legal, don’t fully address constituents’ needs, and reflect a common pattern of executive overreach. (He also issued a bunch more orders that didn’t relate to COVID, but we’ll talk about that below.) And just to cap off the week, both Twitter and Facebook ended up removing Trump campaign content because it dangerously mischaracterized facts about spread of COVID-19.

Generic Disregard Redux. We had a pretty broad range of suspicious government stories this week, and almost all of the grab bag is some kind of redux: 1) A State Department watchdog resigned, only a few months after the previous inspector general was forced out; 2) ActingDHS secretary Chad Wolf insinuated that troops are still on standby in Portland when testifying before the Senate; 3) House Dems want to investigate the postmaster general because they believe he’s intentionally delaying the mail for political gain; 4) New York prosecutors subpoenaed the President’s bank again as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into his business practices; 5) The Census Bureau announced it’s ending counting efforts a month early, on September 30, with no real explanation given for the change; and 6) Both Trump and his economic adviser made utterly wild statements aligning the Presidency with God, noting that Joe Biden would “hurt God” and that “The Lord and the Founding Fathers created executive orders,” respectively. (Depressingly, I thought that last one was at least new, but then I remembered that a GOP rep compared Trump to Jesus during the impeachment process only eight months ago, so in fact it is not.)

Executive Order Bonanza. Trump has issued or discussed a truly impressive number of executive actions over the past week. I already mentioned the four COVID-related actions above, which delay payroll tax collection, extend unemployment aid, authorize “considering” whether an eviction ban is merited, and defer federal student loans. Among the others: 1) A truly wild promise to create an insurance order that would mandate covering pre-existing conditions, which is in fact already mandated by the Affordable Care Act; 2) An order barring TikTok from doing business with U.S. companies; 3) an order that would extend telehealth in rural areas; and 4) an order that requires the government to buy ‘essential’ drugs from U.S. companies. Some of these orders are benign, or even reasonable, but it nonetheless is noteworthy that he has this many executive orders in the pipeline, particularly when Congress is stalled.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Oddities (Again). There was a lot of election news this week, even by our ordinary standards. Some of it was even good: 1) Several states had primaries on Tuesday, which appeared to be relatively uneventful (hooray); 2) Iowa restored voting rights of people convicted of felonies, which means all 50 states now have at least some form of restored enfranchisement for that population; and 3) the DNC will be fully virtual for the first time ever in light of the current pandemic. But unsurprisingly, we had some nonsense news from Trump as well: 1) He announced he’ll be accepting his nomination from the White House, which probably isn’t legal; 2) He insisted that only Florida can safely vote by mail; and 3) He is suing Nevada over their plan to make mail-in ballots widely available. And all of this, of course, is on top of growing concern about whether mailed ballots will be delivered in a timely fashion, as I mentioned above.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* Even by our ordinary standards, the news regarding COVID-19 is… really bad. We’ve passed 5 million cases at the time that I type this, and continue to have about a quarter of the entire world’s infections. About 162,000 people have died. A new study indicates that nearly half of low-income areas in the country have no ICU beds, despite being more likely to have outbreaks. The Senate, as noted above, failed to reach any kind of deal to assist the over 1 million people with unemployment claims, and governors are worried about trying to implement Trump’s executive orders. Nonetheless, Trump wants schools to reopen, while polls show parents want to retain some virtual education and districts that have reopened continue to report COVID outbreaks. But on the plus side, at least the IRS is finally fixing some stimulus check payment errors.

Immigration Updates. After a brief jaunt to Portland, CBP is again back to banging the xenophobia drum, saying that migration numbers are increasing due to COVID issues in Mexico and arguing that this is reason to keep building a wall. The ACLU, meanwhile, is calling for DHS to be dismantled due to their many recent abuses. But as a silver lining to the changes brought by COVID, we did get new federal injunctions on the new public charge rule, and USCIS has already announced they will comply with them–which will bring relief to a lot of people seeking lawful permanent residence.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We saw some promising court cases this week. The New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit to dissolve the National Rifle Association due to widespread fraud and self-dealing, which will be an interesting case to track on a lot of levels. And a federal appeals court concluded that the House can sue to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify, which will keep the issue moving forward after SCOTUS semi-punted at the end of their season. (He’s likely to stall further on other grounds, but at least it’s an indication that Congress does have that power.)

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this a capella rendition of ‘Wait For It’ and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me your favorite animal videos!

Year 4, Week 28 (July 26–August 1)

August 3, 2020August 4, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

We have a number of unpleasant stories swirling around this week, and it feels like we’re somehow getting worse but staying stagnant at the same time. It’s a bit of a neat trick, and I would find it impressive, if I weren’t so busy being frustrated.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a post office!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

On the Disregard of Governing Norms front, we have yet another week of Operation Terrible and overall administrative mishandling. Here are the things to know:

Portland Pressure Persists. After an unnecessary amount of back-and-forth about it, Trump did withdraw federal troops from Portland towards the end of the past week. But after they left, news broke that DHS was compiling “intelligence reports” on journalists who reported on the conflict, and analyzed protester communications as well. The official in charge of that has since been reassigned–but, notably, not fired–and Trump was already threatening to send in the National Guard on the first day of the phase-out, so this may be a brief respite. Meanwhile, protests in Portland continue, but have refocused on local police activity.

Barr Testimony. Attorney General William Barr testified before Congress on Tuesday, and it went about as well as you might expect. He defended administrative actions in Portland, calling the protests “an assault on government of the United States” and claiming Operation Legend had nothing to do with Portland but was rather just a completely normal mobilization of federal forces “to solve crimes and keep their communities safe.” He also covered the 2016 election, refusing to condemn solicitation of foreign assistance and calling the House investigation a “bogus ‘Russiagate’ scandal” that involved “grave abuses.” And finally, he covered the Stone case, claiming that his own prosecutors were “not [following] the rule of law” when recommending seven to nine years–which, I feel the need to note, was literally the federal sentencing guideline recommendation. I’m certainly not the biggest fan of federal sentencing guidelines, but Barr’s willingness to commit brazen perjury when literally discussing prosecution for perjury is pretty stunning. If nothing else, it definitely showcases an incredible disregard for governing norms.

Trump’s Election Idea. There was a lot of election-related news this week, and much of it belongs in the “normal” weird below. But I would be remiss if I didn’t include a paragraph here about Trump’s incredible tweet on Tuesday, which appeared to sincerely float the idea of postponing the November election. Needless to say, he lacks legal authority to do this, as that date is set by Congress (a fact which Mike Pompeo appears confused about as well). Needless to say, nobody in Congress wanted to touch that suggestion, and ordinary citizens weren’t too happy either. After doubling down on the idea once, the administration did walk this one back. I’ve heard a lot of people speculate that the entire thing may have been intended to distract from economic news which broke the same day, but we should definitely keep an eye on this either way.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Oddities (Again). In addition to the nonsense chronicled above, we had a lot of weird election news this week about mail-in voting–in fact, Trump’s arguments about election fraud caused by mail-in voting have Republicans worried about voter turnout. People are also worried about the recent Postal Service changes, which I documented last week, causing backlogs for ballot delivery. Meanwhile, Trump did plenty of other weird and obnoxious things this week, such as promising suburban voters on Twitter that they “will no longer be bothered by . . . low-income housing”, threatening to sue Nevada for sending everybody mail-in ballots, and pulling television ads from Michigan with three months left in his campaign. (Before we get too excited about that last one, the New York Times points out that he has plenty of pathways to victory that don’t involve the state, and he’s also still doing door-to-door and digital advertising.)

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* COVID news continues to spiral further and further down the toilet for another week. Kodak–yes, the camera company–saw a jump in trade activity ahead of an announcement that they were receiving a giant government loan to make COVID treatments like hydroxychloroquine. (For those of you playing the home game, yes, that’s the same drug Trump loves that is widely discredited as causing heart problems.) NPR also reported irregularities in the contract awarded to track COVID data. Meanwhile, the body of data itself shows a devastating second wave, with experts noting more dissemination than in March and April, seven-day averages staying high at about 65,000 new cases, and multiple runs of over 1,000 deaths per day. Additionally, new research suggests that children can be carriers of COVID-19, and one of the first school districts to reopen had to quarantine someone within hours of opening.

Economic News.* Adding to frustration, reopening the country too quickly didn’t even stabilize our economy, which was ostensibly the whole reason to risk it. Unemployment is still rising, and it doesn’t help anything that Congress couldn’t reach a deal before supplemental COVID unemployment supports expired on Friday. But the real story is that our economy had its worst second-quarter GDP ever, dropping 32.9% on an annualized basis. It’s not clear what will happen in the third quarter, but this news is very bad–so bad, in fact, that some people theorized Trump tweeted about election postponement to distract from it.

Immigration Updates. We also had a weird, bad week on immigration news. The White House announced they will not be accepting DACA applications, despite the recent SCOTUS decision finding the program wasn’t legally terminated, so we’re all sort of waiting to see what happens on that one. Meanwhile ICE is complaining about their Netflix series, which launched today and accurately depicts, y’know, how bad they are. And rounding out the bad news, a new immigration application fee schedule goes into effect this week which dramatically increases the cost of many applications and imposes asylum fees for the first time ever.

The Good:

Recent Twitter Decency. After many years of frustratingly tepid response, Twitter continues to take off the kid gloves when it comes to irresponsible or hate-based communications. First they penalized Trump Jr for spreading COVID misinformation, creating twelve hours of “limited functionality.” Then they permanently banned white supremacist David Duke, which they honestly should have done eleven years ago, but it’s at least a step in the right direction to take away the KKK guy’s platform.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this talking seal breakthrough and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me your favorite animal videos!

Year 4, Week 27 (July 19-25)

July 27, 2020July 28, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

We’re riding another heat wave as I type this, and news plus heat is not any more fun the second time around. It’s rough right now, but I’ll be here, in a puddle in front of my air conditioner, if anybody needs anything.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a post office!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

On the Disregard of Governing Norms front, we have yet another week of Operation Terrible and overall administrative mishandling. Here are the things to know:

Portland Pressure Cooker. The situation in Portland continued to escalate for another week, and it doesn’t show signs of abating as I type this. Trump’s federal CBP agents teargassed the mayor, who was standing with protesters in an attempt to heal the city’s rift, prompting said mayor to call Trump’s response “flat-out urban warfare.” Now both CBP and Portland’s police are under independent investigation. Meanwhile, Trump is sending agents into more cities, such as Chicago and Kansas City, under a banner he’s calling “Operation Legend”. Unsurprisingly, this is increasing civil unrest in several more cities as well, such as Seattle and Oakland, even though the administration claims the push is crime-related. Several cities declared riots to authorize further force against protesters, and one man was fatally shot in Austin. The weekend closed out with the U.N. calling us out and Trump sending even more troops to Portland.

Who Needs a Post Office, Anyway. We also saw a further push against the post office, this time from its own postmaster, who issued a memorandum this week dramatically changing a number of procedures. The biggest immediate change for consumers will be that some letters will now get left at distribution centers, but the memorandum seems to indicate a sea change in general. Needless to say, an internal memorandum comparing the post office to private institutions that can go bankrupt is not normal, but for this administration it’s just Tuesday.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Oddities (Again). This week’s weird election news is that Trump has canceled the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, which he insisted move to Jacksonville in the first place. In true Trump fashion, he’s claiming “the timing wasn’t right,” but it’s presumably canceled because Jacksonville couldn’t make it safe to attend. Unsurprisingly, the GOP is now fighting with itself, and it’s likely not a coincidence that Republican Senators also overwhelmingly voted for a bill provision Trump publicly hates.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* COVID news remains a mess on an impressive number of levels. We continue to break records about daily infection rates, and death rates are rising again as well. At the time that I type this, over 4 million Americans have been infected and over 145,000 people have died–or at least, that’s our best understanding of the numbers, as data may still be having issues. Unemployment rates are still rising, possibly because PPP money is running out. And speaking of running out, a lot of workers are poised to run out of $600 unemployment supports on Friday, and the federal eviction moratorium is ending too. The Senate has not yet passed a final version of the Heroes Act, and Mitch McConnell says getting an agreement could take “weeks”–though his final version of the bill looks pretty sparse, so he might just be estimating how long they’ll be fighting over the difference between versions. An ICE facility was in the news for having staggeringly high infection rates–more on the below–and major league baseball experienced disruption due to an outbreak among members of the Miami Marlins. Studies were also published about the quick rate of antibody decay, prompting question about whether people can be infected twice or more–which in turn prompts further questions about what this means for vaccines. (Antibody tests also suggest that rates of infection are much higher than reported, which is pretty disturbing given how high the report rates are.) Oh, and 4,000 federal employees have contracted the virus at work, apparently including Trump’s own national security advisor.

Immigration Updates. We had a significant amount of bad immigration news this week. Trump announced that he’s going to instruct the U.S. Census to stop counting undocumented people, which is both illegal and probably a bluff, because it’s unclear how he would even implement this with the census halfway done and no citizenship question. (That said, it can and probably will have a chilling effect on immigrant populations completing the survey.) The administration was also in the news for holding migrant kids in hotels and then deporting them, which is a pretty clear violation of the Flores agreement that requires them to matriculate unaccompanied minors through shelters and into sponsors’ homes. Against that backdrop, it’s unsurprising that Canada concluded this week that their asylum treaty with us should be invalidated, because the U.S. is not a safe country for asylum seekers anymore.

The Good:

Recent Racial Change Resilience. On the more positive side, we have promising follow up on several stories from earlier roundups. The NFL team based in Washington has settled on–wait for it–the ‘Washington Football Team’ as their name for the next season. (They say it’s temporary, but I hope they keep it forever, because this is hilarious.) In Chicago, an official decision to remove statues of Christopher Columbus from two park locations was enacted without incident. The House voted to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. capitol. And in Philadelphia, the District Attorney publicly outlined his plan for arresting and charging any federal agents who engage in the abduction methods reported in Portland. It’s not comprehensive, by any stretch, but progress is progress.

o that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this particularly savvy black bear showing how a bear can rest at ease and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me ice cubes and Mr. Freeze memes!

Year 4, Week 26 (July 12-18)

July 20, 2020July 21, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I’m finding our current heat wave and current news cycle to be a match made in hell. It’s rough right now, but I’m here if anyone needs anything–albeit from at least six feet away and in front of an air conditioner.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a rose garden!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

On the Disregard of Governing Norms front, we have graduated from COVID concerns (though there’s plenty of that) to extrajudicial detention stories that are frankly terrifying. Here are the things to know:

News Out of Portland. News out of Portland, Oregon is pretty extreme, and we need to be talking about it. As is true in many cities, protests there have been ongoing since the George Floyd murder–about fifty days all told, by the time that I write this. Protesters already had a lot of stories about tear gas being abused and police brutality in the city. But this week, they also began reporting that unmarked vans containing military personnel were snatching people off the street to take into custody, in sudden and unpredictable patterns that looked more like abduction than law enforcement. Incredibly, CBP has since confirmed this allegation, and government officials signaled that we can expect this pattern to continue and even spread to other cities. This statement was made despite a pending lawsuit, the obvious hostility of city officials, and mounting evidence that the federal agents have no training. This is all incredibly alarming, and we need to be acting on it immediately.

Messed Up Trump Response: COVID Edition. Of course, we also had a lot of Trump-flavored COVID news this week (and let me tell you, that is not a quality product). In addition to the smear campaign against Fauci, which I think we talked about last week, hospitals were ordered to give COVID data to the Department of Health and Human Services instead of the CDC, which had been previously keeping track. This was promptly followed by the disappearance of said data, which did eventually reappear after considerable complaint but will not be updated further by the CDC. It also coincided with news that the CDC was prevented from testifying before Congress, and as other countries get their outbreaks under control, it becomes more and more starkly apparent just how badly the United States has handled this crisis. Needless to say, all of this has experts really worried

Rose Garden Campaign Speech. I wasn’t quite sure where to put this one, but since it’s certainly disregarding governing norms, I might as well put it here: Trump gave a campaign re-election speech at a press conference from the Rose Garden this week, which in case anybody is keeping track is a pretty strong no-no. (To be fair to Trump, the speech was pretty incoherent and also went on for sixty-three straight minutes, so I guess it’s possible he flat-out forgot where he was somewhere in there.) Among his claims and insinuations about Joe Biden: Joe Biden is getting dementia; Joe Biden is “a gift to the Chinese Communist party”; Joe Biden “wants to kill American energy.” You know, the level of gravitas we associate with Rose Garden speeches throughout history.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Oddities (Again). There was a fair amount of unusual election news this week. Jeff Sessions lost his primary in Alabama, which feels fitting but does illustrate the strange times we live in. After considerable back-and-forth the RNC will be scaled back when it’s held in Jacksonville next month (but more on the COVID news that prompted this below). Perhaps the oddest news, though, is that Trump has already replaced his campaign manager, which reflects his unusually low polls as well as his high turnover rate in general.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* COVID news remains a mess on both national and state levels. We continue to break records about daily infection rates, and death rates are rising again as well. Unemployment rates are still rising too, with over a million new claims filed for the seventeenth week in a row. Despite this news, a lot of workers are about to run out of benefits, because this is the last week of the extra $600 created by federal legislation. The Senate is expected to debate and/or vote on some version of the Heroes Act this week to respond, but current drafts include horrorshow provisions about forcing schools to reopen and shielding businesses from consequences if they make workers sick. And though more and more franchises are requiring that their customers wear masks, Georgia’s governor has forbidden municipalities from requiring them, and is even suing Atlanta for ignoring his utterly bananas decree and requiring masks in public anyway.

Black Lives Matter News. We touched on some of the biggest BLM news above, but there were some other things to know as well. Demonstrators in Louisville were charged with felonies for protesting Breonna Taylor’s murder, though the police that actually murdered her have not been arrested, let alone charged. A town near Seattle declared writing “Black Lives Matter” in chalk a crime as well. Meanwhile, the military issued a broad rule apparently intended to remove confederate flags, which was probably so broad to avoid backlash from Trump, who keeps insisting those flags are a point of Southern pride.

Confounding Shooting. The household of the judge assigned to an Epstein-related Deutsche Bank civil case was attacked this week when a shooter showed up at their door dressed like a FedEx employee. Judge Salas’s son was killed in the attack, and her husband remains in critical condition. Confusing things further, the believed assailant was found dead this morning, about two hours away from the site of the shooting, and appearing to have shot himself. Said assailant was a self-described “antifeminist” who had brought a case in front of her last year, but hadn’t had any contact with her since–and the shooting occurred the day after Judge Salas was assigned the Deutsche case, with no recent threats issued against her. I’m sure you don’t need me to point out how incredibly sketchy this entire story is, but uh… this entire story is incredibly sketchy and disturbing, no matter what was motivating the shooter.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. The several schools that are suing Trump over his student visa power move have had a good past few days. First seventeen state Attorneys General joined in, which I’m sure were welcome reinforcements. Then said reinforcements got results, when the administration announced it was rescinding the decision rather than face numerous lengthy court battles. And in semi-positive-but-better-than-expected news, the gun-toting married couple that brandished weapons at protesters in St Louis a few weeks ago are now facing criminal charges (though their case is being diverted to a civil court).

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this self-examining cat friend and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me ice cubes and Mr. Freeze memes!

Year 4, Week 25 (July 5-11)

July 13, 2020July 14, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This administration’s new approach is that we have a new normal, in which COVID is just part of the backdrop of all of life. Needless to say, there are obvious problems with this approach–namely, a pandemic like this is not normal and the U.S.’s ever-climbing death rate is avoidable. If you feel like you’re being gaslit, that’s probably because you are; this administration is going all-in. That doesn’t mean we have to accept it.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a commuted sentence!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Yet another week of “COVID” and “Not COVID” constitutional crises. First up, we have more lingering stories from the Russia Investigation, though none of them are what I’d call a fun read. Here’s what has happened:

Stone’s Throw Away. Trump apparently decided he hadn’t done enough corruption lately with the pandemic slowing him down, so he went ahead and commuted Roger Stone’s sentence a few days before the latter was due to show up to prison. (It’s hard to keep up with the rogue’s gallery, but you may remember Roger Stone from such greatest hits as “didn’t bother to learn how WhatsApp would incriminate him,” “tried to get the presiding judge removed on the grounds that he wasn’t likable,” and “was found guilty of doing Trump’s dirty work literally seven times.”) Unsurprisingly, the presiding judge is already examining the order for scope, but it’s unclear whether there will be any leeway there. Needless to say, this is yet another new height of corruption, because no sitting President has ever pardoned somebody for crimes related to the President’s dirty work before. I’m sure we’d all be very horrified if we were still capable of the emotion.

Vindman Out. Speaking of corruption, Lt Col Alexander Vindman, who was a key witness in the House impeachment proceedings, announced this week he was retiring from the military despite being due for a promotion to full colonel this year. He also made it clear that this retirement was in response to a sustained campaign of systemic harassment levied at him for said participation, which was spearheaded by the President. It’s an ignoble and I’m sure painful end to 21 years of service, particularly considering the bravery of his service this past winter.

On the Disregard of Governing Norms front, we have another week of growing COVID crisis and shrinking leadership. Here are the stories to know:

COVID and Immigration. I’ve been meaning to talk for a little while now about the immigration power grab happening during the COVID crisis, which seems designed to make legal immigration more and more impossible. Among the changes during the last month: 1) Closing the borders to asylum seekers from countries with infection on a “public health” basis, even while insisting that our schools need to reopen; 2) A suspension of visas that allow people to enter the U.S. to work, which uses job security for Americans as a rationale and was itself an extension of an earlier order for the suspension of travel to seek lawful permanent residence; 3) A new rule that students on visas will be deported if their schools reopen remotely; 4) Apparently ceasing print of immigration papers after the contract with a private vendor ended; and 5) A broad set of proposed changes to asylum that make it very difficult for anyone to claim asylum at all. That last one has a comment period that ends on Wednesday, by the way, and I strongly encourage folks to write in and yell about it.

Messed Up Trump Response: COVID Edition. At this point, I think it’s fair to say that the White House has hit rock bottom on COVID response and is starting to dig. Trump spent much of the week pressuring schools to reopen in person, complaining about CDC rules that urged caution and slow reopen. His cronies got into the action too, with Pence claiming new CDC regulations would be forthcoming (spoiler: no they aren’t) and Betsy DeVos following up by saying we don’t have to listen to the CDC anyway (spoiler: yes we do). When none of that worked, Trump started smearing his own head expert for listening to available data and for generally urging responsible pandemic policy. This is all, of course, in addition to the growing rhetoric that the growing infection numbers are part of life and “we need to live with it,” despite the administration also acknowledging that death rates will rise–but more on that below.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Election Oddities (Again). In election news, a recent poll reveals that GOP voters don’t trust absentee ballots because Trump says they’re untrustworthy, despite him being pretty untrustworthy himself. This is alarming to GOP operatives, because the attitude might hurt GOP candidates in the long run. Of course, I think it’s safe to say Trump doesn’t care what happens to other GOP candidates, as long as he himself gets reelected.

Confounding Court Cases. The SCOTUS term wound down this week, and we saw a few more confusing or concerning cases on the way out. The first was a decision to permit employers to opt out of the birth control mandate of the ACA due to religious objection, which needless to say is disappointing, particularly when many people take hormonal medication for reasons unrelated to contraception. The other was a set of two related decisions collectively saying that Trump has no executive immunity from subpoena–but Congress can’t have his taxes before November anyway, due to “separation of powers” concerns. The cases are a mixed bag, but there was at least one positive case as well, which we’ll talk about below.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* As I discussed above, we’re really not in great shape COVID-wise. We’re currently experiencing an unprecedented rate of infection in the United States, with 3.3 million recorded cases and over 135,000 recorded deaths –about one fifth of the entire world’s total cases to date. True to Dr. Fauci’s prediction that we may see rates of up to 100,000 new cases per day, we’ve already scaled past 63,000 per day at the time that I type this. Florida saw 15,300 new cases in a single day over the weekend, the single highest number we’ve ever seen, though that apparently didn’t stop Disney World from reopening. In international news, the leader of Brazil has tested positive and the WHO has acknowledged the risk of airborne transmission. But hey, at least Trump has finally started wearing masks in public, only three months after his own administration said everyone should!

Black Lives Matter News. News on this front was a bit quieter this week, but the Marshall Project did cover the practice of peremptory challenges to jurors who support Black Lives Matter, which is a fancy way of saying “removed from jury service for thinking that extrajudicial killing is bad.” Meanwhile, San Francisco passed a law against discriminatory 911 calls, which they have amusingly named The CAREN Act, and Amy Cooper was charged with filing a false police report.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We had some solid court cases this week in addition to the less-solid cases above. The Supreme Court held that large parts of eastern Oklahoma are still reservation land that belongs to local tribes. A federal judge also blocked the Justice Department from resuming federal executions. And in lawsuit news, several schools are suing Trump over his student visa power move, and seventeen state Attorneys General have joined in.

Recent Racial Renaming. After last week’s deliberations, the NFL’s Washington team did indeed decide to change its name. The new name won’t be released for a few days yet, which might be because they still need to secure rights, but I’ll keep folks posted.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this important inter-museum content and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more tea because we’re running out!

Year 4, Week 24 (June 28–July 4)

July 6, 2020July 7, 2020 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

We’re back to the combination COVID crisis/civil unrest this week, assuming we ever left, and I would way rather be at a Taco Bell. Parts of the country are starting to close back up, but racial tensions are still very much 45’s bread and butter, and let me tell you, I am not proud to be an American this week.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a rally–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Another week of different forms of constitutional crisis, this time mostly under the “COVID” and “Not COVID” categories. First up, we have more lingering stories from the Russia Investigation, though none of them are what I’d call a fun read. Here’s what has happened:

Bounties for Russia (continued).* News aboutRussian intelligence officers offering bounties to Taliban agents to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan just keeps on trickling in, and none of it makes any of this better. Former national security adviser John Bolton apparently had information on this as early as March 2019, in addition to the written briefing Trump received this past February, but none of these facts are stopping Trump from calling the whole thing a hoax. Meanwhile, some of Congress has been briefed as of this week, but not all, even though the White House is still claiming it was unverified intelligence. And for Putin, all of this is probably better than Sweeps Week.

Minor Mueller Updates. Speaking of improbable news involving Russia, the Supreme Court decided this week to block the release of select Mueller investigation documents until a hearing in the fall–an unprecedented move when we’ve never even had this kind of fight about subpoenaed documents before. This means we will likely get a decision about the documents’ release, ultimately, but not until after the election, so that’s fun. Also, Pence was in the news this week for raising almost $500K from donors to pay his legal fees for defense during the Mueller investigation.

On the Disregard of Governing Norms front, we have another week of growing COVID crisis and shrinking leadership. Here are the stories to know:

Trump on Racial Relations. Whenever Trump isn’t sure what to do with a national crisis, he responds by spewing some racism loudly, and this week was no exception. At Mount Rushmore ahead of the holiday (which is itself a statement of white supremacy), Trump railed against “new far-left fascism” (spoiler: that’s not a thing), describing protesters as “bad, evil people” who were “terroriz[ing]” innocent Confederate statues. He also announced he would create a new set of statues to honor… no apparent point of commonality, honestly, beyond “Trump has heard of these people.” After the rally, he also decided he had a lot to say about COVID-19, but we’ll talk about that below.

Messed Up Trump Response: COVID Edition. Having said his piece about race relations, Trump moved on to messaging about COVID by Sunday, and it was about as inspiring as you might imagine. According to our current President, Americans “need to learn to live with” COVID because “99% of COVID cases are harmless.” This, of course, is not particularly effective camouflage for all of the crisis problems the administration has managed to exacerbate–namely, skyrocketing COVID-related drug overdoses, our highest single-day infection rate since March, a massively mismanaged COVID small business loan program, a worsening recession, an undercounted death toll, and increasing infection among White House staffers.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Epstein Associate Apprehended. This week, long-time Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested this week for several years of helping Epstein groom teenage girls. Since Epstein was arrested about a year ago, the charges are from the 1990s, and Maxwell doesn’t appear to have really gone anywhere, it’s not clear why she’s only being arrested now. But presumably we’ll know more soon.

Confounding Court Cases. It continues to be SCOTUS season, and it’s hard to find a rhyme or reason out of the cases coming down–and several of them aren’t exactly great news for Team Awesome. Among the head-scratching and concerning cases released: 1) a decision that Trump can fire the head of the Consumer Protection Bureau without cause; 2) multiple decisions to delay voting by mail authorizations in Alabama and Texas; 3) a decision authorizing speedy removal proceedings on asylum cases; and 4) a unanimous decision that faithless elector laws are constitutional.

The Bad:

State of the COVID-19.* As I alluded above, things are really not going swimmingly in the COVID department. We’re currently experiencing an unprecedented rate of infection in the United States, with over 2.5 million recorded cases and over 131,000 recorded deaths –about one fifth of the entire world’s total cases to date. Dr. Fauci estimates we may see rates of up to 100,000 new cases per day, and we’ve already scaled past 50,000 per day at the time that I type this; thirty-nine states are recording rising infection. Against this backdrop, it’s hardly surprising that some states are closing back down. The infection rate remains particularly concerning in Florida, Arizona, and Texas, where lax standards combined with high concentrations of people seem to be creating a perfect storm. Texas is now requiring masks in every county with more than 20 positive tests, while bar owners are suing the state because they were ordered closed again. Meanwhile, Arizona lines for testing are sometimes miles long, and the country is beginning to prepare for a massive surge in evictions as people stop being able to pay rent.

Black Lives Matter News. We’re still seeing a lot of news about race relations and protests, particularly over the Fourth of July weekend. In many locations, protests passed without major incidents. But in Seattle, a protester was killed when a car drove onto the protest site, and in Oregon tear gas was used on angry protesters. Meanwhile, Aurora police who killed autistic youth Elijah McCain last year were fired for taking photos mocking his death in response to his memorial this week.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. We had some solid court cases this week in addition to the less-solid cases above. A federal district court judge struck down a law that makes asylum harder to claim in the United States, saying that the rule forcing applicants to apply in unsafe other countries first was arbitrary and capricious. And just today, a federal court ruled that the Dakota Access Pipeline must be closed down by early August for further environmental review.

Recent Racial Renaming. Increasingly, institutions with names that glorify racial violence are being pressured to change said names, and we saw movement on several fronts related to this last week. The NFL’s Washington team is reviewing their name as a first step towards changing it, and the Cleveland franchise doing the same. Meanwhile, students and faculty at Washington and Lee University are making a similar request, objecting to the glorification of a Confederate general in the school name. None of these steps are sufficient on their own, but it is progress in the correct direction.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this baby shark rescue and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me photos of your pets because I could frankly use the pick-me-up!