National News Roundup

Drive-By Analysis of The Masterpiece Cakeshop Case

June 4, 2018October 21, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

I’ve seen a lot of people confused about what the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision means, and it’s fair that it’s confusing to people — the Court ruled for the bakery, except they really didn’t, except it does actually create some problems for same-sex couples. I’m doing a drive-by analysis to try to clear things up, and will incorporate notes from the remaining two concurrences and the dissent once I’m able. (But as you can imagine, between this and the Jane Doe case this was a busy day at work, so Today is Not That Day!) If you’re super short on time, here’s the tl; dr version: It doesn’t create license to discriminate, but that doesn’t mean there are no consequences for LGBTA people after today’s ruling.

Main holding:

“When the Colorado Civil Rights Commission considered this case, it did not do so with the religious neutrality that the Constitution requires. . . . [T]he Commission’s actions here violated the Free Exercise Clause, and its order must be set aside.” (taken from page 3 of the opinion, for those playing the home game)

So what does that actually mean?

It means the the Colorado Civil Rights Commission done messed up by being openly contemptuous of religion.

Okay, why?

Because the Free Exercise Clause and Establishment Clause of the Constitution collectively say that the state can’t be openly for or against any particular religion. So the Commission took it a step too far when one of its members invoked the Holocaust and slavery to say that “one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people [like the cake guy] can use [is] to use their religion to hurt others.” (quote from page 14)

So it didn’t say that people can discriminate against LGBT folks by saying it’s their religion?

The court tried to punt that entire question by doing things that made it hard to use this case for anything else. They hung their hat on some stuff that definitely can’t be used again:

They stressed that Obergefell (the case that legalized same-sex marriage throughout the country) hadn’t happened yet, and said that this gave the cake shop a reasonable expectation of the legality of their actions that obviously wouldn’t exist moving forward. (p. 11)
They focused almost exclusively on what the Commission did, rather than what the cake shop owner did, which means that it’s harder for future business owners to say that the opinion applies to them. (pages 13–18)
They literally said in the opinion that this was what they were doing: “Any decision in favor of the baker would have to be sufficiently constrained, lest all purveyors of goods and services who object to gay marriages for moral and religious reasons in effect be allowed to put up signs saying ‘no goods or services will be sold if they will be used for gay marriages,’ something that would impose serious stigma on gay persons.” (emphasis mine)(p. 12)
And just in case that was misconstrued: “The Court’s precedents make clear that the baker, in his capacity as the owner of a business serving the public, might have his right to the free exercise of religion limited by generally applicable laws.” (emphasis mine)(p. 3)
And just in case that was misconstrued: “While . . . religious and philosophical rights are protected, it is a general rule that such objections do not allow business owners and other actors in the economy and in society to deny protected persons equal access to goods and services under a neutral and generally applicable public accommodations law.” (p. 10)

So this can’t be used to hurt LGBTA people further down the pike?

Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s true either. Though the court was, for the most part, pretty good about narrowing the scope of what they were saying, as I noted above they touched upon equal access for protected classes (and that part is good). But then the court focused on what they described as the Commission’s “disparity in treatment” between offensive-because-discriminatory products (i.e. cakes that demean gay people), which they generally permitted owners to refuse, and offensive-because-of-religion products (i.e. a wedding cake for a gay couple), which the Commission did not permit this owner to refuse. They conclude that the discrepancy signals an “official disapproval” of the guy’s religious beliefs, and therefore hostility towards him. (pages 15, 16–17)

I personally think this is not only legally wrong, but dangerously legally wrong, because Equal Protection analysis is only supposed to apply to protected classes. LGBTA people are likely a protected class under the line of precedent started by Romer v. Evans and continued by Lawrence v. Texas, United States v. Windsor, and Obergefell v. Hodges. But people who want to get to discriminate against them definitely aren’t, at least not on the basis of that desire to discriminate. So it was actually appropriate for the Commission to distinguish between the rights of people who are a protected class — i.e. same-sex couples — and the right of a person who wants to practice religion, because Christians, as a majority population, aren’t a protected class. Although I do agree with the Court that comparing the cake situation to the Holocaust was perhaps a bit much under the Free Exercise clause, so it’s less that it was decided wrong and more that the court left a hole big enough for malicious people to drive a truck through.

The way this opinion was written, specifically regarding the “disparate treatment” idea, opens up the door for harassing litigation brought by anti-gay groups with too much money and time on their hands. (Lambda Legal wasted no time in noting this, which I appreciate.) So malicious actors now can force courts to hear cases implicitly or explicitly arguing that they are being discriminated against if equal protection analysis is properly applied. Which is decidedly Not Awesome.

Is what you just said the same as what Justice Kagan said in her concurrence?

Effectively, yes — or at least, she said that the Commission properly distinguished between the gay-people-are-bad cakes analysis and the wedding cake analysis. Her logic was slightly different — she said that the bakers would refuse to sell a bigoted cake to anybody, and the Masterpiece Cakeshop guy specifically refused to sell a wedding cake, which he would sell to a straight couple, to a same-sex couple. So the discrimination was on the basis of the product in the first instance, which is allowed under public accommodations law, and the discrimination was on the basis of the consumer in the second instance, which isn’t allowed. And as part of that analysis, Kagan noted that “a vendor cannot escape a public accommodations law because he religion disapproves selling a product to a group of customers, whether defined by sexual orientation, race, sex, or other protected trait” (emphasis mine)(page 4). But since it was in a concurrence, that part isn’t controlling legal precedent; the part that says the opposite in the majority opinion is.

So where does this leave us?

Vigilant and awaiting more nonsense litigation, but with intact legal rights at the moment, I think is the honest answer. It’s not a great decision, and I wish the Supreme Court hadn’t heard the Masterpiece Cakeshop case at all, but the ACLU is correct that it’s also not a license to discriminate. All told, this could have been much, much worse — but that doesn’t mean it was harmless.

National News Roundup — Year 2, Week 18 (May 20–26)

May 29, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Realtalk and forewarning: This week may be the worst news week I’ve ever seen since I started doing roundups about seventy weeks ago. As a result, this roundup has two extra sections: The Bad is broken up into The Bad (Original Flavor) and The Very Bad (Extra Crispy-Making), and I’m also including a What We Can Do section because I think we all need it. Also, just for this week, I moved The Good to the top because life’s too short and we all deserve to have our news dessert first.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a sinkhole! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

The Good:

Blocking Gets Blocked. A federal judge ruled this week that Trump blocking people on Twitter is an unconstitutional infringement on free speech when it’s done by The Actual President and he has to stop doing it. While I’m glad he’s being held accountable for something, I can’t help but think whoever made that wish to their local monkey’s paw maaaaaaybe could have been a bit more specific about it. But given how often he acts like Twitter is an official channel, it’s nice to at least have some consequences come out of it, and I think we’re all taking the wins where we can find them these days.
Stacy Abrams Steams Ahead. Among the primary victories to emerge in the past week is the historic endorsement of Stacy Abrams, who won the Georgia governor primary by a landslide. If she wins the election, she’ll be the first black female governor ever elected in our country, which would be a massive victory on a lot of fronts; simply winning the primary is incredibly exciting!
Victory in Ireland. Ireland voted by referendum to overturn its restrictive abortion ban, decisively ending one of the most draconic bans in the developed world. Lawmakers have promised to enact more permissive legislation now that the ban is removed from the constitution, with abortion being generally legal for the first twelve weeks and viability standards in place after. If you want to feel slightly better about humanity today, I recommend reading the #HometoVote hashtag on Twitter, which documented people’s treks back for the referendum.

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We had quite a week for Casual Disregard of Governing Norms, including an unpleasant resurgence of press harassment. Here are the main things to know:

Kushner Clearance. Jared Kushner was finally given permanent clearance this week, over a year into his tenure at the White House. Some analysts note this may mean he’s no longer a person of interest in the Mueller investigation after seven hours of interviews last month. In possibly related news, he also drove the federal Bureau of Prisons director to quit this week — or at least, the constant back-and-forth warring between Kushner and Sessions is what the guy cited as his reasoning.
Fourth Estate Forsworn. The Environmental Protection Agency barred staff from AP and CNN from a national summit on water contaminants this week, going so far as to push a reporter who works for AP out of the building. (In case anyone was wondering why the AP reporter got the harshest treatment, the EPA is probably holding a grudge over the AP’s superfund site reporting this past winter.) This type of selective barring of mainstream press from public events is very concerning, particularly when Trump point-blank tells reporters that he demeans the press to discredit their negative coverage about him. But the most unusual and antagonistic moment against the fourth estate this week happened when Trump tweeted that the New York Times had made up a source when their source was, in fact, an official press briefing by White House staff where they asked reporters not to name the staff member. Folks, this antagonistic targeting of reporters has been going on for a long time, but the latest stories appear to represent an uptick in aggression, and it’s not good.
Perjury Prime Suspects. This was not a good week for people pretending that high-ranking officials in the executive branch are not committing perjury. First Rudy Giuliani said that Trump may have trouble telling Mueller the truth because “truth is relative.” Then news broke that Trump Jr may have perjured himself when he testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year. So that’s… a lot of threat of perjury in one week, especially when Trump’s also running around claiming news outlets have made things up.
But His Cell Phone. While all of the above is going on, Trump is also refusing to use secure phones, apparently saying it’s “too inconvenient” to adhere to White House protocol when he wants to tweet things (because yes, of course this is specifically about the phone that has the Twitter app). And in case anyone was wondering whether this was the same thing he said Hillary Clinton should be locked up for, why yes, yes it is.

There were a couple of developments on the Russia Investigation front too. Here’s a summary of the main things to know:

Taxi King and Other Cohen Updates. Michael Cohen’s ship just keeps on sinking, this week because his former business partner the “Taxi King” Evgeny Freidman has taken a plea deal and is cooperating with Mueller’s investigation. Cohen responded by claiming that they were never business partners, which doesn’t appear to reflect reality (but that hasn’t ever particularly stopped anybody in this administration). Also, news broke of yet another meeting between Cohen and Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, bringing the total meetings to three and our suspension of disbelief to a close on whether they had ties. Tune in next week for yet another installment of Cohen’s Career Collapses In Real Time.
Papadopoulos Sentencing. Mueller also began the sentencing process for George Papadopoulos this week, which given Trump’s increased aggression might signal that Mueller has been chased into the next phase of his investigation. But it also might simply mean that he’s gotten all that George Papadopoulos knows and is moving up the chain of command. We’ll have to keep watching to know what this means in the grand scheme of things.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Insensate Informant Circus. Trump demanded that the Justice Department order an inquiry into whether the FBI (or the self-same Justice Department) “infiltrated or surveilled” his campaign. Given where Mueller’s current investigation into Russian collusion is taking him, it seems very likely that the FBI was properly investigating the campaign’s activity by summer 2016, which by the way didn’t involve infiltration or spying, and I’m gonna guess we probably wouldn’t have ended up with him as President if it had. At any rate, the Justice Department vaguely took the step requested, asking its inspector general to investigate whether political motivation drove the investigation that definitely did happen. The White House, in characteristic fashion, tried to block Democrats from attending briefings and also sent its own chief of staff and lawyer, which is a bit eyebrow-raising when the subject is the Russia investigation to say the least. This type of war on the FBI is unprecedented and entirely fabricated to be a distraction, and even some prominent Republicans appear uncomfortable with it.
White House Sinkhole. This week’s “how is this not the Onion” headline is the sinkhole on the White House lawn, which appeared in the last week. It’s apparently right outside the press briefing room, and seriously I cannot believe I am not making any of this up. The Onion, which apparently recognizes when the real news crosses into its purview, did run an “opinion piece” with commentary like ‘This seems a little heavy-handed’ and ‘Which person in the administration was trying to tunnel out?’ (Never change, y’all.)
NFL Kneeling News. The NFL caved to pressure from the White House this week and installed a new rule that fines teams if their players kneel during the National Anthem (but allows players to stay in locker rooms if they don’t wish to stand). Unsurprisingly, this attempt to compromise pleased nobody. The players’ union is upset because the league owners did not consult with the union before making the decision and because it infringes on the players’ right to use their role for social activism. Trump is upset because… he’s Trump, I guess? At any rate, he doubled down and complained about the players’ right to stay in the locker room under the new policy, saying that players who won’t stand for the anthem “maybe shouldn’t be in the country.” I’m apparently not the only one who took his words as a veiled threat to start deporting, but since most of our athletes have birthright citizenship I don’t know how he thinks he’s going to accomplish that.
North Korea Uncertainty (Again). This week has been incredibly bizarre on the North Korea front, with the White House still prepping for a summit in two weeks despite officially canceling with the world’s most passive-aggressive letter earlier in the week. But even if the summit does happen, the White House may have missed its chance to investigate several sketchy North Korea actions, such as stockpiling chemical agents and selling nukes to Syria, because we have to return to the topic in a groveling posture after Trump’s very public hissy fit. But none of this has stopped the administration from selling commemorative coins at a discount, which is probably the most succinct summary of current American politics I could possibly offer.

The Bad:

Immigration Updates. Immigration was in the news a lot this week, and some of it is so bad that I’ve created an extra section for it. We’re going to tackle the garden-variety bad first, and I’ll get to the deeply disturbing news after. Trump held an “immigration roundtable” this week, which appeared to mostly be an excuse to spread misinformation about MS-13 rates of entry, deduct aid money from other countries, and claim unaccompanied minors “aren’t innocent” (more on that below). Then the next day, he agitated for further immigration legislation, which would potentially be good news in a vacuum because Paul Ryan keeps stonewalling House Republicans who are trying to force a DACA vote. Except Trump, unsurprisingly, is still insisting on “a real wall” and also dunking on due process, asking “Whoever heard of a system where you put people through trials?” (yes, really). Meanwhile, while testifying before the House Committee on Education and Workforce, Betsy DeVos illustrated her ignorance on all things immigration by saying it was a “local community decision” whether school officials called ICE on students (as opposed to, you know, a blatantly unconstitutional action on the school’s part as well as a violation of ICE’s sensitive location policy to apprehend students at schools).
SCOTUS Labor Law Decision. The Supreme Court ruled this week that companies can use arbitration clause to ban class action lawsuits, which needless to say is not great news for workers. Judge Gorsuch wrote the 5–4 opinion, highlighting the real-life consequences of judicial appointment irregularities, and I really hope Kagan is able to instill some sense in Kennedy before the court decides the travel ban case. For an encore, as if to underscore the point about the role of the other branches in court process, Trump chose the same week to roll back federal civil-service protections that have been in place for generations. Both changes will make it easier for companies and the government to discriminate against workers and harder for workers to enforce their rights — We Survived a Second Gilded Age and Nobody Could Afford the T-Shirt.
Bad News Bears. This was another bad week for environmentalists, between Yet Another Pruitt Spending Scandal and a proposed Department of Interior rule that would roll back protections for bears, wolves, and caribou in Alaska. The new regs propose, among other things, baiting brown bears with donuts and bacon, shining spotlights into black bear dens, shooting mama wolves and pups during denning seasons, and shooting caribou from motor boats. The comment period starts on Tuesday, and only permits written comment, ruining my Cunning Plan to Leave Eight Hours of the Best Sad Bear and Wolf Noises the Internet Has to Offer on Ryan Zinke’s voicemail.
GAO Approved Cuts to CHIP. The General Accountability Office approved cuts to the Children’s Health Insurance Program — yes, the same CHIP Congress failed to fund for many months, that CHIP — to fund this past year’s Congressional tax break bonanza. Though the cuts don’t take insurance away from any underinsured kids, they do take money out of emergency funding, which I’m sure will in no way backfire for anybody. In other words, this administration is literally taking money away from sick kids to fund its tax cuts for the super rich.

**The Very Bad — Please Read It Anyway!**:

The 1500 Missing Children. The biggest horrific immigration story is actually a conflation of several different stories involving migrant children, so I’m going to do my best to break it down. The most publicized piece involves missing children, so we’ll start there: the Washington Post ran a story at the end of April saying that DHHS lost track of about 1500 migrant kids placed with sponsors when they arrived here as unaccompanied minors between October and December 2017. This information was disclosed to a Congressional subcommittee as part of a hearing designed to refine the placement program after a temporary shelter placed eight children with human traffickers in 2014 (and reports suggest there may have been more children released from shelters to trafficking rings during that time.) It was reiterated this past week by an official from the Administration for Children and Families. When pressed on the point in the April hearing, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielson testified that she “couldn’t agree more” that the senators had cause to be concerned, and that’s when things went off the rails, because her proposal was full immigration checks — not ordinary background checks — on all the people who take in unaccompanied minors. This will make it harder for undocumented family members to take in children because they might in turn be deported for stepping forward, and not-coincidentally lack of kinship placements is how the trafficking happened in 2014 in the first place. So yes, it’s true that children were trafficked, yes, it’s true that DHHS doesn’t know where 1500 kids are because they couldn’t reach them by phone interview, and yet yes, it’s also true that the proposed solution could potentially lead to more trafficking as well as more deportations.
“Operation Streamline” and the Impact on Children. The second story, and probably the more pressing one, is that the Department of Homeland Security has started creating ‘unaccompanied minors,’ because as of this month it’s always removing children from their parents when they arrive at the border, even in instances where the parents are seeking asylum. This is being apparently applied in 100% of cases, and we’re hearing horror stories about children being separated from their parents at extremely young ages, with the youngest I’ve seen cited at eighteen months. I honestly cannot stress enough how damaging it is to their development to separate children from their parents that young, and it makes deportation proceedings harder to prove for DHS, which means it’s literally not in anybody’s interest to do this. Adding to the pile, new allegations have also surfaced this week that children in CBP custody were systemically abused between 2009 and 2014 (which is also the era of the trafficking allegations mentioned above). Instead of blaming Democrats for their own reprehensible policies, the administration should be finding a different deterrent strategy.
“Operation Streamline” and Adults. The story of what is happening to these children’s parents is equally concerning. Earlier in the week, the Arizona Daily Star reported on the conditions faced by parents under the “Operation Streamline” policy, which started being applied to 100% of first-time border crossers at some point in May after Sessions announced it on May 7. Many aspects of the accounts sound horrifically familiar — parents are routinely unable to learn where their children are; people are being forced to wear yellow insignia as part of the program; and the administration keeps referring to the people they are targeting as ‘animals’ over and over again. The practice of charging and detaining all adults also may permit for-profit prison facilities to use detainees for cheap labor, which was recently challenged as unconstitutional when applied to immigration detainees who have no criminal convictions. I have no jokes here, folks, because this is unconscionable and we owe our fellow human beings better than this.
Guatemalan Woman Killed by CBP. News also hit that CBP shot an unarmed young Guatemalan woman near Laredo, Texas. The woman, whose name was Claudia Patricia Gómez González, was 19 and trained as an accountant, and had headed north to find work. Though CBP initially claimed she had a two-by-four on her, they changed their story and canceled a press conference after the main witness in the area described a lack of weapons on or near González’s body and had video footage to back up this claim. CBP has settled over twenty wrongful death claims in the last fifteen years, suggesting this happens at least once per year. Relatedly, ICE was recently granted permission to destroy its records of sexual assault, death, and solitary confinement, which is deeply concerning given everything else going on.
Dodd-Frank Rolled Back. The House approved a partial rollback of Dodd-Frank financial regulations this week by a 258–159 vote along party lines. (For those of you playing the home game and not familiar with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, it’s the body of law put into place post-Great-Recession to keep banks from running us headlong off another fiscal cliff.) Since the bill had already been approved by the Senate, this was the last step to get the bill off of Congress’s collective desks and onto Trump’s to be signed into law. Though the reform isn’t fully comprehensive — among other things, it changes the threshold marker for “systemically important financial institutions” from $50B in assets to $250B, which means about ten giant banks still qualify — it represents a significant loosening of regulations for most banks in America. Trump signed the bill into law the very next day, which means the whole rotted enchilada is now official.

What We Can Do:

Immigration Initiatives. There are several initiatives being started to address the immigration issues listed above, and getting involved can be a great way to channel any rage and frustration you may be feeling from the news above. A good starting place is the several great sites that have compiled resources for you already; I also recommend checking out sites that have great scripts for calling your reps, who have the power to set the Department of Homeland Security’s budget and oversee the department and therefore have some clout. (It’s particularly helpful to call members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, House of Representatives Committee for Homeland Security, and House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee.) There are also marches are being organized for June 14. If you are more inclined to let your wallet do the talking, there are several nonprofit initiatives ranging from an Amnesty International call to action to an Act Blue Support Kids at the Border campaign to a Kids in Need of Defense fund to an ACLU petition, and all of these organizations can put your assistance to good use.
Dodd-Frank Actions. The name of the game on this one is “November mid-term elections.” Remember who voted how in both the House and the Senate, and integrate it into your understanding of how candidates are voting generally. As a general rule, the House is vulnerable to being flipped, because every single House seat is up for grabs every two years. The Senate has 33 seats in the hot seat, with ten currently being held by Republicans and Independents. All but one of those ten voted for this nonsense, the exception being Bernie Sanders, so let’s make them regret that and flip the Senate also. (The Roundup does not recommend trying to flip Dem seats in the Senate, however tempting it may be, yes I’m looking at you Chuck Schumer.)

And that’s the news this week, and good job and my condolences for making it through the whole thing; your reward is this ridiculous video and hopefully an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week, and I hope you will be too. In the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me the abolition of ICE!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 17 (May 13–19)

May 22, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well, we’re drinking from the fire hose again this week, and most of the newswater is pretty fetid. There were a few bright spots, thankfully, but consider yourselves forewarned anyway — this was a pretty rough week.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a postage rate! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

It was another fairly quiet week regarding Casual Disregard of Governing Norms, but there were a couple of things worth noting:

Haspel Confirmation. Despite (or perhaps because of) bipartisan concern about statements made at Gina Haspel’s confirmation hearing, Haspel issued a statement a few days after her hearing that “with the benefit of hindsight” she realizes that torture was a bad plan. The statement gained her the support of the Senate Intelligence Committee so it wasn’t surprising that she was confirmed as the new CIA director a day later. With six Senate Democrats voting for her and two Senate Republicans voting against, her confirmation trajectory was pretty unusual — and probably linked to the 2018 elections.
Ethics and Emoluments. There was a bit of news about Trump mixing the personal and the professional this week, though at this point I think we’re all unadvisedly jaded on the topic. Former ethics adviser Norm Eisen signaled he plans to sue Trump over another emoluments clause violation, this time regarding the Trump Organization seeking new business deals in China. Meanwhile, news also broke this week that Trump pressured the post office to double postage rates for Amazon, which is definitely a legit use of Presidential powers.

There were a couple of developments on the Russia Investigation front too. Here’s a summary of the main things to know:

Senate Intelligence Committee News. The Senate Intelligence Committee released thousands of pages of testimony regarding the 2016 Trump Tower meeting this week. It’s a sea of documents that was much heralded but provides little clarity, making the release seem more about the politics of the investigation than the information inside the documents. That said, we did learn a few helpful things, such as Donald Trump Jr’s calls to a blocked number and Rob Goldstone’s offer to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin.
Qatar, Corruption, and Cohen. News broke this week that Michael Cohen sought a one million dollar payment from Qatar in exchange for access or insight into the Trump administration. Though we had already learned about Cohen doing this with domestic companies, this is the first allegation of soliciting payments from a foreign government. But it wasn’t the last allegation of money changing hands with foreign powers, because we also learned that Team Trump paid the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for assistance shortly after the 2016 election, which is definitely illegal if it related to the election itself, and Mueller is looking into the UAE’s role more closely now. This last piece of news is likely the direct catalyst for the next story in this section.
Trump vs. Justice Department. Trump demanded that the Justice Department order an inquiry into whether the FBI (or the self-same Justice Department) “infiltrated or surveilled” his campaign. Given where Mueller’s current investigation into Russian collusion is taking him, it seems very likely that the FBI was properly investigating the campaign’s activity by summer 2016, which by the way didn’t involve infiltration or spying, and I’m gonna guess we we probably wouldn’t have ended up with him as President if it had. At any rate, the Justice Department vaguely took this step today, asking its inspector general to investigate whether political motivation drove the investigation that definitely did happen. But some analysis seems to suggest that this was actually a move by Rosenstein to run out the clock without directly disobeying an order, so we’ll have to see what happens from here.

Your “Normal” Weird:

North Korea is Nebulous. North Korea released three American detainees this week in a gesture of goodwill that was positive but vaguely baffling. The released men appeared to be in good health, and the whole thing was likely publicity preparation for proposed peace talks. But only a few days later, North Korea was threatening to call off the summit meeting with Trump due to military drills being run by South Korea. From there, the complaint quickly turned into a refusal to denuclearize, which Trump decided to blame on China. Then he followed up with a few counter threats of his own, because of course he did, though he mostly stressed how great it would be for North Korea if they followed through — which may or may not be related to the bad fever dream of supporters suggesting that Trump should get a Nobel peace prize for his work with the country. (The LA Times, at the very least, appears well aware that the peace prize talks may be premature.)
Net Neutrality News. This week, the Senate voted to preserve Internet neutrality in a 52–47 vote, with Lisa Murkowski, John Kennedy, and Susan Collins crossing the aisle to support the bill. This sends Senator Markey’s preservation bill to the House, where it’s a much harder row to hoe. House Democrats plan to work on it, but if they can’t wrangle the votes, net neutrality will be repealed on June 11.
Ebola Outbreak in the Congo. Experts in the Congo confirmed the first urban Ebola case this week, with at least 44 people thought to be infected. But despite the news, the World Health Organization is saying this is not yet an international emergency, in part due to swift government response, an experimental vaccine, and Doctors Without Borders coordinating care and containment on-site.

The Bad:

Immigration Updates. The administration doubled down on enough immigration matters this week to have a food named after them at KFC. First it was last week’s threat of a “zero tolerance” policy that separates children from their parents at the border as a matter of course, which Trump falsely claimed was mandated by a Democrat-passed law. Then he called crime-involved immigrants “animals” and threatened to criminally charge the mayor of Oakland because she warned her constituents about anticipated raids in front of cameras. And naturally, when there is backlash against calling human beings ‘animals,’ the obvious course of action from there is to argue that outlets who reported on it misconstrued the statement and owe Trump an apology. And when that doesn’t work, obviously you respond by issuing Official White House Propaganda that calls MS-13 members “animals” no fewer than ten times and hope that people forget you were recently censured for making up claims that a Dreamer had ties to MS-13. And while all of that was happening, you have Border Patrol detain two U.S. citizens at a gas station for forty minutes because they spoke Spanish in public.
Undoing the Obama Era. This week, the Trump Administration disassembled Obama-era policy like they were moving an Ikea bed, undoing what’s probably an unprecedented amount of infrastructure in one week. Lowlights of the list: 1) the Department of Education wound down a unit that investigates fraudulent practices of for-profit schools; 2) the Bureau of Prisons rolled back protections for transgender inmates; 3) the White House plans to stop issuing funds to health centers that refer for abortions; 4) HUD doubled down on rolling back Obama-era fair housing practices; and 5) the EPA blocked publication of a study that found toxic levels of chemicals in water supplies.
Violence at the Gaza Border. The opening of a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem prompted severe violence on Monday when Israeli forces shot into a crowd of Palestinians trying to climb the border fence at Gaza. Ultimately, Israel’s response to the protesting crowd killed about 60 people and injured about 2,700 more. Israeli citizens seem mixed in their opinions of the state’s actions, with some saying it was necessary and some saying it was excessive force, and several UN countries have called for an inquiry into Israel’s actions. But the Trump Administration’s statements on the matter were much more definitive, saying that “Hamas is the one. . . that bears responsibility” for the deaths and injuries.
Santa Fe Shooting. A school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas resulted in ten deaths and ten injuries on Friday. As details began to trickle in about the shooter, who is in police custody, it became clear that he was targeting people he didn’t like rather than shooting indiscriminately. Notably, this school did have preparations in place for a school shooting, which the shooter appeared to anticipate by doing things like shooting into closets; this prompted the Texas lieutenant governor to speculate that the real problem was “too many entrances and exits” in the school. This shooting is the sixteenth school shooting this year, and the two hundred and twentieth school shooting since Columbine in 1999.

The Good:

Farewell, Farm Bill. The GOP farm bill kicking around the House tanked this week, which means the attempt to create work requirements for food assistance died along with it. Ironically, although Democrats and moderate Republicans objected to the work requirement, that wasn’t what killed the bill — the Freedom Caucus pushed the numbers
in the red over an immigration standoff. It’s always super sad when one attempt to take away people’s rights gets in the way of feeding starving Americans, amirite?
Recent Court Resilience. There was a lot of good movement on court cases this week, which doesn’t fix it all but isn’t nothin’. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU in Iowa have begun their suit challenging the so-called “fetal heartbeat” bill, which requires abortions approximately fifteen weeks prior to the standard permitted by constitutional law. Because this was anticipated (and in fact desired) by pro-life groups who hope to ultimately challenge Roe v. Wade, activists opted to sue under the Iowa constitution, rather than the federal one, which is honestly a smart move. Meanwhile, a federal court blocked USCIS from revoking a Dreamer’s DACA status without any actual evidence that the Dreamer was MS-13 involved. And another federal judge declined to dismiss Manafort’s criminal indictment from the Russia probe, rejecting the argument that they were too tangential to the probe to be valid. Good job, federal judges!
Primary Optimism. Women were the big winners in Democratic primary elections this past week, securing nominations for elections in Pennsylvania, Idaho, Nebraska, and Oregon by wide margins. The Pennsylvania results are particularly interesting (and exciting) because they reflect the newly-drawn districts there, and because some of those locations have never had a female representative before. We also saw some new successes in far-left candidates, reflecting an ever-deepening divide between parties in our current age of partisan politics.

And that’s the news this week! It was in fact as awful as forecast last week, but hopefully that means next week will be better. But I’ll be back either way, because I’m good at Weeble impressions, and I hope you are also! In the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me a better executive branch!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 16 (May 6–12)

May 15, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Honestly, the theme of this week was “Taking This Horrorshow on the Road.” Between updates on the Russia investigation, increasingly draconian policies at the borders, withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, and the release of North Korean prisoners, it definitely feels like the most noteworthy things to happen this past week occurred outside the country. But there’s still a huge amount of horrible happening domestically, and it’s a good idea to keep on top of that as well.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a confirmation hearing! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

It was another fairly quiet week regarding Casual Disregard of Governing Norms, but there was one major exception to this general rule:

Haspel Confirmation Hearing. Only a few days after she had threatened to withdraw, Gina Haspel’s confirmation hearing began on Wednesday, with the occasion marked by the arrest of several protesters. Disturbingly, the shouting about torture may have actually helped Haspel’s chances, since she gained the support of a second Democrat and Dick Cheney used the whole thing as an opportunity to condone waterboarding. But even some Republicans appear queasy at Haspel’s refusal to agree with simple, straightforward statements like “Torture is bad,” so what happens from here is kind of anyone’s guess.

There was a fair amount happening this week on the Russia Investigation front too, as several different interrelated issues moved forward. Here’s a summary of the main things to know:

Cohen Circus Continues. There was even more news about Michael Cohen this past week, and it’s hard to sort out what’s mere monkeyshines and what’s genuinely concerning. First we learned that Novartis made payments to him to the tune of $1.2M after Trump became President, which definitely isn’t sketchy at all, and it turns out Cohen wasn’t even able to do what he was paid to do. AT&T hopped on the Pay Cohen to Be Incompetent Train as well, paying him $600,000 to get advice about their merger with Time Warner and getting net neutrality repealed. (They ended up ousting their top lobbyist over it.) But while those two are disturbing in their own right, they were pretty quickly overshadowed by Stormy Daniels’s lawyer announcing that Columbus Nova, an investment firm with ties to a Russian oligarch, also was paying Cohen a cool half-million. Then further news came out that this firm also set up a bunch of alt-right websites during the 2016 election, tying Russia more closely to alt-right causes yet again. The full impact and implications of all of this are still not clear, but I bet there will be more news on it soon.
Mike Pence Continues to be Mike Pence. This week’s jackassery is his statement that it’s “time to . . . wrap up [the Mueller investigation]” in “the interest of the country.” His argument for why it’s time to conclude the investigation was simply that “it’s been about a year since this investigation began.” Also, he has a bridge he would like to sell us.
Senate Intelligence Committee News. The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on election security this week, and the findings were… not great. The committee found that Russia definitely tried to undermine confidence in the election system, targeting nearly half the states in the country and potentially altering or deleting voter registration data in several of them. Meanwhile, House Democrats also released thousands of Facebook ads that were purchased by Russian troll farms. The ads are surprisingly varied in scope, focusing on racially divisive issues in particular but encouraging political divisions in general. It’s… pretty creepy and sobering to realize they were seeding Black Lives Matter ads alongside MAGA ones, to be honest, and a great excuse to remind yourself how to follow credible news sources.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Melania’s Be Best Campaign. Melania Trump rolled out a ‘Be Best’ campaign this week, which was originally listed as ‘by Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission.’ Except that it was first issued by the FTC in 2014, before Melania ever touched the White House, and the words ‘by Melania Trump’ referred to an eight-sentence introduction she added to the existing pamphlet. Given her history of stealing Michelle Obama’s words in 2016, it’s understandable that people are crying ‘plagiarism’ — not your best work, Melania.
Scheiderman Resigns. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned this week amid allegations of romantic partner abuse. The news is particularly upsetting given Schneiderman’s history as an advocate for women’s rights, and given surfacing allegations that Trump blackmailed Schneiderman over it to get the AG to drop the Trump University case. We apparently learned about the blackmail angle from the raid of Michael Cohen’s office, which of course was overseen by the US District Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Schneiderman was widely regarded as Mueller’s backup plan for indicting Manafort and Gates. So it’s… all kind of an incestuous mess, to say the least.
John McCain News. John McCain was one of several senators to speak out against Gina Haspel this week, going so far as to urge the Senate not to confirm her on the grounds that “[h]er refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying.” The Daily Beast also reported that John McCain was the one who gave the Steele dossier to James Comey. Perhaps these two things were why a White House staffer was quoted as observing that McCain’s opposition “doesn’t matter, [because] he’s dying anyway” and therefore would not hold much sway in the Senate proceedings. The White House, of course, was very upset that the comment was leaked, but have no plans to issue any kind of apology, because their moral compasses are set to Permanent Opposite Day.
North Korean Prisoners Released. North Korea released three American detainees this week in a gesture of goodwill that was positive but vaguely baffling. The released men appeared to be in good health, and the whole thing was likely publicity preparation for proposed peace talks.

The Bad:

Immigration Updates. Despite news the previous week of DHHS losing almost 1,500 migrant children, the Trump administration announced a new policy this week to charge every single adult apprehended at the border and separate all adults and children as a matter of course. When questioned on the wisdom of this course of action, Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly apparently replied the children will be “put into foster care or whatever.” (Yes, the same foster care system that apparently loses one fifth of all its wards.) Meanwhile, this new policy appears linked to Trump’s anger at the current Secretary of Homeland Security, given reports that he blames her for rising apprehension rates at the border and recently berated her for thirty minutes straight in a Cabinet meeting. It also appears to be intended to dissuade people from exercising their right to seek asylum. Folks, nearly everything I just typed is busted on so many levels that I don’t even know where to start, so suffice to say, this is not good or humane policy.
Iran Nuclear Deal. Trump announced this week that the U.S. was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, calling it “a horrible one-sided deal that should never have been made.” France, Germany, and Britain have already signaled that they plan to stay in the deal, releasing a joint statement noting their “concern and regret” that the United States is withdrawing. Iran is continuing to negotiate with them as well as Russia and China to see if a deal can be reached without us, even as thousands protest the U.S. withdrawal and Iran warns that it will not renegotiate. We should continue to watch this, and it wouldn’t be the worst idea to call reps about it.

The Good:

Ben Carson Suit. Civil rights groups are bringing a suit against Ben Carson for his failure to enforce a fair housing rule that forced communities to address systemic segregation if they wanted to receive HUD funding. They’re arguing that his actions violate the 1968 Fair Housing Act, and frankly, they’re probably right. I’m excited to see where this lawsuit goes.

And that’s the news this week! I’m afraid next week looks like it’s gearing up to be an awful news week, if today is any indication, and I’m sure we’ll be crying in our comfort foods by this time next week. But I’ll be back, and I’m hoping so will you, and if you need anything before then, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me hope for tomorrow!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 15 (April 29-May 5)

May 8, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

The name of the game this week is ‘weird.’ Seriously, folks — the bad news is weird. The good news is weird. Even the Mueller investigation stuff is weird. There’s a bit of straight-up-bad news as well — because we’re still living under the Trump administration — but for the most part it’s incompetence, ignorance, and one-eighties all the way down.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a stump speech! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Though not as much as last week, there were still a couple of Casual Disregard of Governing Norms this week as well. Here are the main things to know:

Rod Rosenstein Rabble-rousing.* The Freedom Caucus and deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein have been engaging in a standoff over the past week or so, with Rosenstein refusing to turn over documents relating to Hillary Clinton’s email server and the Russia investigation, and the Freedom Caucus drafting articles of impeachment against him in response. Trump, who never wants to be left out of a good Hillary bashing, tweeted that he will ‘get involved’ by ‘us[ing] the powers granted to the Presidency’ if this continues, which I’m interpreting to mean firing Rosenstein. And if you’re currently wondering whether you read that right, yes, you did; he is indeed threatening to fire the guy currently overseeing the Russia investigation and say it was over Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Phony Pence Proclamations. This week in ‘How Did He Do That With a Straight Face,’ Vice President Pence is on the campaign trail for former sheriff and U.S. Senate candidate Joe Arpaio — the guy who was found in contempt of court for refusing to follow due process of law and then pardoned for it, that former sheriff Arpaio. As part of his stumping statements, Pence would like us to know that Arpaio is a “tireless champion of the rule of the law.” In related news, Pence would like to remind the good people of Arizona that they have always been at war with Eurmexico.

There was a fair amount happening this week on the Russia Investigation front too, as several different interrelated issues moved forward. Here’s a summary of the main things to know:

Mueller Questions Released. A list of questions prepared by Mueller and sent to Trump’s attorneys for vetting was leaked this week, giving the public more insight into what angles Mueller planned to investigate on the collusion investigation. Trump wasted no time falsely claiming there were no questions about collusion on this list, which is kind of a head-scratcher strategy when we literally have a list of the questions and some of them are things like ‘What discussions did you have during the campaign regarding any meeting with Mr. Putin?’ and ‘During the campaign, what did you know about Russian hacking . . .?’ But putting that aside, unanswered questions about the overall oddness have some outlets speculating that the questions were either leaked by Trump’s team intentionally or weren’t real questions in the first place (or perhaps both).
Trump Legal Change-Up. And speaking of Trump and lawyers, his team had another shakeup this week, with Ty Cobb “retiring” from service to spend more time with his spectacular mustache. He’s replaced on the Legal Dream Team by Clinton impeachment veteran Emmet Flood. With all of the personnel changes, despite Rudy Giuliani saying Trump might yet meet with Mueller at some point in the future, it’s not looking as likely as Mueller having to subpoena a sitting President.
Rudy Giuliani Interview for the Ages. Rudy Giuliani went on Fox News this past week and said some stuff he maybe should not have said on national television if he wanted to be an effective advocate. The biggest piece of news from the interview was Giuliani saying that Trump reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 Stormy Daniels payment — which is, to put it mildly, not the narrative direction the rest of the team has been taking. And while this might have been a strategic choice to disclose information before Mueller could, Giuliani’s note that the payment was ‘funneled through the law firm’ to avoid campaign finance violations was…not great for Team Trump. Which is probably why Trump immediately put out a suspiciously-well-spelled series of tweets contradicting the claim. Meanwhile, Giuliani managed to put his foot in his mouth again while trying to walk back his statements, a trend which by now has continued on for so long that Matt Kiser has started a Department of Things Rudy Giuliani Has Said Lately. And while all of that was going on, further evidence surfaced that the Trump Campaign did indeed pay some of Cohen’s legal fees. Since Cohen wasn’t officially employed by the campaign, that makes the next question whether these payments related to the collusion investigation or not. Stay tuned next week, for what inevitably will be another installment of When Rudy Giuliani Opens His Mouth.

Your “Normal” Weird:

ICE Pick Retires. Trump’s pick to lead Immigration Customs and Enforcement, Thomas Homan, announced he plans to step down before his nomination even got a Senate vote. Though the official story is that he wants to spend more time with his family, Homan is apparently noted for having considerable problem with the current Secretary of Homeland Security.
Poor Form Physicals. A former Trump physician, Harold Bornstein, disclosed this week that a complimentary letter endorsing Trump’s ‘extraordinary health’ in 2015 was, in fact, literally dictated by Trump. Though some identified that the letter didn’t quite read right at the time, it didn’t get much attention overall. But fast-forward two and a half years and one office break-in by White House staff later, the physician appears to have disclosed his own malpractice.
Cambridge Analytica Folds. Only about a month after all the brouhaha around Cambridge Analytica misusing Facebook data became national news, the company is closing shop and filing for bankruptcy. The company has complained that news had driven away all of its customers, but it’s hard to take that claim seriously when the news hit so recently. (You know, generally, when we describe things associated with this administration as a “smash and grab” administration, we aren’t being quite this literal.)
Paul Ryan and the House of God. News broke last week that the resignation of House chaplain Patrick Conroy, announced by Paul Ryan in mid-April, wasn’t exactly voluntary, and then outlets started reporting that the ouster was due to remarks urging support of indigent people. Once Conroy realized that it was apparently an option, he went ahead and un-resigned, basically daring Ryan to fire him for cause. Since there apparently wasn’t any, Ryan flinched first, and Conroy is now back in place as the House chaplain again.

The Bad:

Iowa vs. Roe v. Wade. Iowa passed an extraordinarily restrictive abortion bill this past week, prohibiting abortion procedures as soon as a heartbeat is detected (and potentially as early as six weeks into pregnancy). Regardless of opinions on the morality of abortion, this law is very noteworthy because it’s quite obviously and intentionally unconstitutional — under constitutional precedent, early-term abortions generally must be permitted before the 22nd week, and both liberals and conservatives say the law is intended to land in front of the Supreme Court so that Roe v. Wade can be overturned. This approach has several issues, not the least of which being that Roe v. Wade was already partially overturned by Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992 (which clarified the present-day viability and undue burden standards). But more to the point, at a time when we’re watching a Presidency attack our rule of law with wanton abandon, it’s disconcerting to watch any state government help him.
Immigration Updates. News broke this week that the Department of Health and Human Services somehow managed to lose nearly 1,500 migrant children who had been placed with sponsors throughout the country, which is as improbable as it is horrifying — since there are only about 7,600 total children in adult sponsor placement in the country, the missing children make up nearly one-fifth of all children in their care. Against this backdrop, you can’t exactly blame Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp for telling DHHS officials, “You are the worst foster parents in the world.” And in other poor immigration news, the Department of Homeland Security announced this week that it intends to end temporary protective status for 57,000 Hondurans currently living in the United States, marking the sixth TPS program to be ended in the past year.

The Good:

Tariff Temporary Reprieve. Several U.S. allies (most notably, the EU, Canada and Mexico) got a temporary reprieve this week, with the White House deciding to delay tariffs against their imports for another month. It looks like this might be a step intended to buy time to negotiate skipping imposing tariffs against these allies entirely, which would be even better, so we should check for more news around June 1.
CIA Nomination going MIA. News broke this past week that CIA nominee Gina Haspel, who you may remember as The Nominee What with the Waterboarding History, is apparently considering withdrawing her nomination. Even better, her reasoning was apparently that she is worried about surviving a Senate vote on account of all the torture. It’s still too soon to tell whether she’s seriously considering stepping back or this is just a ploy to rile up Trump, but I really hope it’s the former.

And that’s the news this week! Enjoy the mostly-benign surreality while it’s possible, because we’ll be back to a Trash Fire special by this time next week. But I’ll be back, and I’m hoping so will you, and if you need anything before then, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me small flightless water fowl!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 14 (April 22–28)

May 1, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well, this week is definitely making up for lost time. It’s like all relevant parties tried News Week Lite last week and decided it wasn’t enough calories, so this week has three extra helpings of Modern Flavor Trash Fire. But there’s a lot of good news, too — turns out some of it makes a good Garbage Bin Flambe — so it could be worse.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a congressional hearing! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

There was a lot of Casual Disregard of Governing Norms this week, even by our ordinary standards — it’s like the executive branch was saving up for a special occasion. Here are the wacko highlights:

Mick Mulvaney’s Surprisingly Honest Corruption.* Mick Mulvaney gave a surprisingly honest account of his own policy-making practice at an American Bankers’ Association conference this week. Between acknowledging that he only talked to lobbyists who pay him and telling people his plans to get around consumer protection bureau regulations, it was a real rousing endorsement of democratic process.
Pruitt Proceedings. Scott Pruitt testified in a congressional hearing this week, defending his multiple scandals with the ever-popular ‘I didn’t know about it, it was my staff, I’m just incompetent’ defense. Unsurprisingly, House Democrats were not impressed with these defenses, with ranking Democrat Frank Pallone point-blank telling Pruitt, “You are unfit to hold public office and undeserving of the public trust.” But despite political pressure (and Pallone’s frankly accurate observations), Pruitt still rolled out new regulations this week limiting data use in EPA reports. Though he argues the new regulations are about transparency in reporting, experts say the new rules could force the EPA to ignore major scientific studies moving forward. So he’s clearly not going gentle into that good night anytime soon.
Michael Cohen Mayhem. There was a lot of movement on Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, and Trump’s role in it all this week, and absolutely all of it was pretty bonkers. First Michael Cohen indicated he plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment (which permits him to refuse to testify if that would incriminate him in a criminal case) to delay the Stormy Daniels case. It’s a savvy move, given the larger criminal investigation at play, because the criminal judge can take notice of anything said in the civil case — but it still has potential to backfire spectacularly. In that criminal case, incidentally, Trump graciously offered to personally review all of the materials seized from the Cohen raid “to aid in privilege review.” Judge Kimba Wood of course denied this, presumably after she stopped laughing, and instead tapped a former federal judge for the task. And speaking of Trump, he also announced on national television that Cohen did represent him on the Stormy Daniels matter (even as he tried to distance himself from the raid in the same interview).

There was a fair amount happening this week on the Russia Investigation front too, as several different interrelated issues moved forward. Here’s a summary of the main things to know:

Mueller Protection Legislation (Again). This bill appeared stalled earlier in the week, after concerns that the bill may overstep its constitutional authority led Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley to introduce an amendment to the bill that left ranking Democrat Diane Feinstein fit to be tied. But on Wednesday night, Grassley released a new version with his amendment removed, and with that change in place the bill did indeed go through the committee with a 14–7 vote. It’s unclear what will happen with the bill from here, particularly in light of McConnell’s vocal opposition to even allowing a vote, but presumably we’ll all find out together!
Sessions Dodge Spectacular. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said some pretty noteworthy stuff indirectly about the Mueller investigation this week. When speaking with a U.S. House appropriations panel on Wednesday, Sessions refused to appoint a second special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton, saying that such an investigation “can really take on a life of its own.” Then, just in case we didn’t know what he was talking about, towards the end of the hearing he said Mueller’s investigation “needs to conclude.” (He also refused to clarify whether he would recuse himself from the Cohen investigation or whether he talked to White House staff about it at all.)
House ‘Intelligence’ Committee Findings.* The House Intelligence Committee officially released their formal report this week, which concluded that there was no evidence of Trump colluding with Russia in its attempts to meddle in the 2016 election. Trump of course wasted no time yelling about how this proves the Mueller investigation is a witch hunt. But the timing of the report release is curious, because it coincides with evidence surfacing that supports the pee tape allegations — excuse me, the Steele dossier — and news that the Russian attorney who met with Trump campaign officials has official ties to the Kremlin. So I sure hope that 220-page report makes a good door stop, because concurrent news suggests it’s not useful for much else.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Kris Kobach’s Filing Issues. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach showed the world he doesn’t know how to use the Word comments feature or a red pen this week, leaving notes in the body of a federal filing such as “PROBABLY NOT WORTH ARGUING?” and “[It] has been illegal to register to vote in Kansas for years” and “CITE [GOES HERE].” And though it’s fun to laugh at Kris Kobach’s apparent lack of proofreading, the underlying case is pretty important — it’s an ACLU case about voting rights in Kansas, and this is far from the first thing he has done to draw a judge’s ire. His lack of credibility can have real impact on voting policy, and that in turn can have impact in November.
White House Dinner Party Madness. This was a weird week for White House dinners. First the White House hosted its first state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron, inviting literally one Democrat on the entire guest list (Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards) and not many politicians in general. They did, however, invite current Apple CEO Tim Cook, who brought Obama’s former head of the EPA as his plus-one. But the dinner people are really talking about from this week was the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday, where Michelle Wolf roasted our current political reality so hard I think she burned the room down. While Trump snubbed the dinner a second year to go hold a campaign rally in Michigan and criticize the media, Michelle Wolf literally called him ‘possibly responsible for the collapse of the republic.’ And she also told a room full of media that they enabled and permitted Trump’s rise to power. But weirdly, all everybody wants to talk about is her comments on Sarah Huckabee’s eyeliner — we live in the worst-written timeline, y’all.
I’m Sorry, Ron Jackson, You Are a Heel. First Ronny Jackson’s confirmation hearing was postponed amid significant scandal, with multiple sources alleging that he handed out so many drugs people called him ‘the Candyman,’ drank on the job, and oversaw a hostile work environment. Then, as the details trickling in became weirder and weirder — he didn’t just drink on the job, for example; he wrecked a government vehicle while drunk — eventually this week his nomination was withdrawn entirely. He’s also no longer welcome back as a White House physician. And since Mike Pompeo managed to get confirmed as Secretary of State this same week, I can’t decide if the whole thing says more about Jackson or Pompeo.
Macron Failed Bromance.* As suggested by the state dinner, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Trump this past week to try to talk some sense into him on the Iran deal. Sadly, Macron didn’t exactly end the week optimistic, calling Trump’s abrupt policy reversals “insane” and saying he thinks the US will exit the Iran deal within the month. So I guess the bromance is over. At any rate, Trump has until May 12 to decide, which means we’ll know more soon.

The Bad:

HUD Dare You. This was a bad week for most things real estate, I tell you what. Ben Carson announced plans to make HUD recipients pay more rent, including disabled and elderly tenants, both by increasing minimum payments and by increasing income percentage payments to 35% of recipients’ income. Y’all, I have a lot of news to get to, so I’m not sure I can take the time to unpack exactly what an appallingly bad policy proposal this is — but suffice to say, I’m not sure a dude who can’t buy a chair for under $5K should get to throw any stones. Meanwhile, news also broke that HUD insured Sean Hannity’s real estate empire, issuing mortgages that allowed him to buy $22.27M in property — and under Carson’s watch the loans increased by $5M. I guess if you need $15,000 from HUD you’re a freeloader, but if you need $5,000,000 you’re a dear friend.
Incel-Related Tragedy. A driver in Toronto intentionally drove into a crowd of pedestrians this week, killing ten people and injuring fifteen more. The driver faces ten murder charges, but police are not using the t-word at this time. This is confusing, because the dude apparently posted “The Incel rebellion has already begun!” to Facebook ten minutes before killing a bunch of people, also noting that “we will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys” — in other words, he posted ideology contextualizing his unprovoked act of violence, which is pretty much a textbook definition of terrorism. Toronto police, get your act together.
Immigration Updates. The travel ban oral arguments happened this week, and Justice Kennedy’s line of questioning bodes poorly for Team You are Welcome Here. (Although that said, I enjoy Bloomberg’s theory that Kagan plans to work on him.) We still have a bit of time before a decision will be made, which means the fifteen-month saga will continue on for now. In the meantime, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will end TPS for Nepal in June 2019, marking the fifth TPS program to be terminated in the past year. And about 150 people from Latin America arrived at the border this week, ending the pilgrimage of the once-thousand-person caravan of asylum seekers — only to be told they couldn’t be processed and remain stuck at the Mexican border.
Trump Tribal Sovereignty Challenge. This week’s How Is This Real News? award goes to Trump signaling that he plans to revoke centuries-old federal recognition of Native tribal sovereignty over Medicaid work requirements, of all things, because — and again, I can’t believe I’m not making this up — it would “raise…federal civil rights law concerns” to recognize a sesquicentennial history of legal precedent. The administration’s entire argument is so asinine I’m convinced even they see the straw peeking out, so suffice to say I hope they don’t double down.

The Good:

Arizona Special Election. Though Democrats did not end up carrying the Arizona special election, they did close the gap to a five-point advantage in a district that went to Trump by more than twenty points in 2016. The special election is yet another sign that things are not looking great for Republicans as we gear up for the November election, or even the upcoming Ohio special election.
Recent Resilience Decisions. This was another great week for governing decisions in both judicial and state executive branches. On the judicial front, a DC district court judge found the rescission of DACA arbitrary and capricious, giving the Trump administration 90 days to come up with a better reason or start accepting new DACA applications. Meanwhile, another federal judge threw out Paul Manafort’s case challenging the validity of the special counsel investigation. The city of Seattle asked the Seattle Municipal Court to vacate all convictions for marijuana misdemeanor charges in the jurisdiction, including those that took place before the 2012 legalization. And in minor miracle territory, Jeff Sessions walked back his threat to cut off funding from the Vera Institute’s immigration program. So a good week on several fronts.
North Korea News. North Korea and South Korea agreed to end their decades-long war at the end of a historic summit this week. Kim Jong-un also has agreed to denuclearize on the condition that the United States not invade him any time soon. The agreement is short on specifics, but it’s still a promising piece of news.

So that’s what I have for now, and I think we can all agree it is more than enough. I’ll be back next week, and if you need anything before then, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box — send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me trash fire recipes!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 13 (April 15–21)

April 24, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

After a zillion years of Bad News Bears, I’m just not sure what to do with the mostly-weird-and-somewhat-good news cycle I have in front of me this week. It’s like watching it rain fish after weeks and weeks of drought — sure, you were planning to make fish stew tonight, but what just happened? And is that fish even safe to eat?

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a tax collector! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

This week had only one real instance of Casual Disregard of Governing Norms. That said, that one instance was pretty concerning. Here’s the deal:

Pompeo’s Recent Adventure.* Mike Pompeo’s full confirmation vote is not scheduled until sometime this week (although he managed to squeak through committee today by the skin of his teeth). But that apparently didn’t stop him from secretly heading to North Korea over Easter, which we learned about this past week. If he was there as a nascent Secretary of State, beginning delicate diplomatic work before there’s even a confirmation hearing is both abnormal and deeply concerning. If he was there as the current director of the CIA, it’s a major breach of protocol that the public learned about a likely classified trip from the Yutz-In-Chief’s big mouth. Either way, this is kind of a nightmare and we should be calling our reps about it.

It was also a pretty quiet week on the Russia Investigation front, but there were a few things of note. Here’s a summary of the main things to know:

Russia Sanctions Roulette.* After U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley indicated that we would be imposing more Russia sanctions on television, an apparently-watching Trump forced her to walk the statement back. A White House official tried to cover by saying she was ‘confused’. Haley is really not known for getting things wrong, so that seems unlikely — although in this instance perhaps she was confused about whether Trump watches shows other than Fox News.
Mueller Protection Process. The Senate is still fighting about a Mueller Protection Bill, with McConnell publicly stating we don’t need it and other Republicans publicly stating they’ll force a committee vote, at the very least. As fun as it is to watch McConnell’s own party go turtle-hunting, the Mueller protection bill is pretty serious, so here’s hoping it reaches the floor. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote at the beginning of this week, so we’ll likely see more developments on this front in the near future.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Pruitt Petition. As the Office of Management and Budget investigates whether Scott Pruitt broke federal laws by ordering his bonkers sound-proof phone booth, 170 Democrats and 4 Republicans have introduced resolutions in the House and Senate calling for his resignation. The petition is definitely more statement than intended action at this point, since the resolution only has forty Senators on board — not the whole Democratic bloc, and they’d need another Republican to join. But it’s a startling (and apparently historic) number of cosponsors, so the petition does definitely make its point.
Your Apparently Weekly Sex Scandal Update. There’s still a lot of white noise on the sex scandal fronts, which I’m guessing is an intentional effort on Stormy Daniels’ part — though honestly, there are worse things in the world than making people continue to care about this lawsuit. Ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal settled her contract case and now can talk about things to her heart’s content. Meanwhile, Stormy Daniels has offered $100,000 to anyone who can use a forensic sketch to identify the man she says threatened her in 2011. Since those aren’t exactly super accurate, she’s probably trying to keep the publicity ball rolling rather than expecting results. But she says she now has 1,500 leads, so it’s successful on at least one front so far.
Michael Cohen Updates. Things are a mess for Michael Cohen after his spectacular cascading failures in court last week. There’s lots of speculation that he’ll flip on Trump, his attempt to delay the Stormy Daniels suit failed when the judge refused paperwork filed on his behalf, and everything else going on forced him to drop the defamation suits against BuzzFeed and FusionGPS. Gosh, it’s so sad when legal systems function properly.
IRS Ires Us. The IRS made a lot of people cranky this week when the electronic filing system crashed on tax day, scaring the dividends off of a lot of last-minute filers who were told the system would come back online December 31, 9999. (These filers were, thankfully, given extensions.) But the last-minute filer crowd did not include Donald Trump, who simply asked for an extension (because of course he did). I don’t think anyone’s surprised that Trump didn’t file, especially because he did the same thing last year, but it’s still not exactly Presidential.

The Bad:

Puerto Rico Without Power (Again). Puerto Rico is without power (again? still?) after experiencing an island-wide blackout this week. Experts estimated power restoration could take anywhere from 24 to 36 hours, and the island didn’t have 100% capacity when this happened in the first place. At least one enterprising resident is taking this opportunity to set up solar power, and frankly that wouldn’t be a bad plan for the whole island from here.
Confirmation Biases. Jim Bridenstine, non-scientist NASA nominee extraordinaire, was confirmed along party lines this week. Since Bridenstine didn’t even enjoy full Republican support at first, this is not exactly good news. And speaking of flipping Republicans, we can thank Rand Paul for Pompeo’s progression to the full Senate floor, since he flipped only minutes before committee vote after refusing to endorse him as Secretary of State. That one is not yet finalized, though, because the full Senate has yet to vote. So here’s hoping.
Waffle House Shooting. Four people were killed in Nashville when an assailant with an AR-15 started shooting up a Waffle House. The shooter was apprehended today and is in police custody, although he is not cooperating with questioning. Needless to say, this is the latest in a deeply upsetting and ongoing trend of gun violence in public places, and the whole country mourns another senseless tragedy.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience (Part 1). There has been an incredible uptick in court-related resilience in the last week — so much so, in fact, that I’m separating the stories into suits and court opinions. On the law suit side, the DNC made major news this week when it filed a lawsuit alleging Russia, Wikileaks, and the Trump campaign conspired to disrupt the 2016 election. I admit I wasn’t sure what remedies they were seeking when I first read this, particularly because the 66-page complaint alleges everything from copyright infringement to RICO conspiracy to trespass to misappropriation of trade secrets. But apparently, the DNC was successful with this technique in the aftermath of Watergate, so there’s precedent for it. Meanwhilie, Sandy Hook parents are suing Alex Jones for defamation after he claimed that the sentinel tragedy never happened and they were crisis actors. I honestly hope they take him to the cleaners, because casting doubt on their horrific lived experience is utterly heartless.
Recent Court Resilience (Part 2). The other side of the courtroom has been busy too this week. The 7th Circuit affirmed a federal district court decision making the administration stop penalizing ‘sanctuary’ cities by withholding funding, reasoning that the rule was an unconstitutional overreach and Chicago was likely to succeed at trial. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court also upheld a boundary on immigration law, finding that a law mandating deportation for “crimes of violence” without a clear definition of what that meant was unconstitutionally vague. (We also got the added bonus of watching Trump get mad at Gorsuch for siding with the majority, despite the fact that the opinion was based on a Scalia case, and that’s always a good time.) Also voter fraud commissioner Kris Kobach was held in contempt of court and the 2nd Circuit held in a slip opinion that the Department of Transportation has to follow its own laws about car emissions. All in all, a good week for courts working the way they’re supposed to.

So that’s what I have for now, and I’m going to enjoy the relative respite while it lasts before the dumpster fire starts back up again. I’ll catch you next week, and if you need anything before then, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box — send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me fire extinguishers!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 12 (April 8–14)

April 17, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This administration, good gravy. I know the phrase “This week was a horrorshow” is losing all meaning, but on the plus side the administrative calls are not coming from inside your house. Yet. I checked.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a door man! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

This week included yet another couple stories regarding Casual Disregard of Governing Norms, because we live here now. Here’s what’s going on:

Hush Money Sex Scandals Get More Sinister. First we learned a doorman was paid $30,000 for his silence on the topic of Trump possibly fathering a child with a former employee — though the story bears a striking number of similarities to Karen McDougal’s story, it was otherwise pretty small scandal potatoes. But then a RNC deputy finance chair, who is a major Trump backer, was forced to resign this week over a definitely real illegitimate child with a Playboy model — and wouldn’t you know it, Michael Cohen worked out the hush money deal on that scandal just last year! Since said Playboy model wasn’t the source on this story, it was likely the Cohen representation that caused the story to leak. And just today, as a further consequence of the raid and Cohen’s subsequent missteps in court, we learned that Michael Cohen has also represented Fox News pundit Sean Hannity in the past year (although whether it was about another illegitimate child or something else remains to be seen). It’s too soon to know any details on that last story, but I can only imagine what kind of bloodbath awaits for Hannity. You know what, y’all, I’m starting to think that maybe Cohen’s clients weren’t getting their money’s worth.
Bolton Beginnings. So John Bolton started work at the National Security Council this week, which is normally what happens when someone gets hired to be a new national security adviser. His arrival, however, heralded two resignations and two firings among the top staff of the NSC, which is considerably less normal. And nobody knows anything about his plans to replace them, leaving us all uncertain about what the security council will look like in the future. Given the week we just had, that’s some scary stuff, and it behooves us to watch this carefully.
Comey Book Reviews Took a Turn. So James Comey’s infamous tell-all book came out this week — prompting a broad array of hot take reviews — but none were so concerning as Trump suggesting he should be in jail on Twitter this weekend. A sitting President suggesting that a former head of the FBI should be jailed for saying mean things about him is outrageous, and we can’t afford to become numb to it — this is a well-known stop on the Authoritarian Express and we won’t like what comes next down the track. (Although if any of you have suggestions for how to get off this train, I’m super interested in hearing them.)

Against that backdrop, it’s not surprising that there was a lot of noteworthy Russia Investigation movement this week as well. Here’s a summary of the main things to know:

Mueller Investigation Updates. In the aftermath of the raid on Cohen’s office, a lot more information has come out on just what’s going on. In addition to the RNC and Hannity bombshells I mentioned above, there’s been information about the steps leading up to the raid, the original search goals (namely, evidence pertaining to bank fraud, the Access Hollywood tape, and paying off women), and the possibility that Cohen may have gone to Prague in 2016 to meet with a Kremlin agent, corroborating another part of the Steele dossier if true. Meanwhile, unsurprisingly, Trump is dialing back his eagerness to meet with Mueller post-raid and he may or may not be about to fire Mueller or Rosenstein. And the fight about whether the raid subjects were privileged rages on in the background, to disastrous effect (see also: the Hannity and RNC news).
Action to Protect Mueller. With all of the craziness going on at the White House, some of Congress is starting to pick up the pace on protecting Mueller. The Special Counsel Independence Integrity Act was introduced on Wednesday as a bipartisan effort by Senators Booker, Graham, Coons, and Tillis to merge their individual earlier bills. We’re expecting a vote on the bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next couple of weeks, and Ryan has started saying it’s ‘not necessary’ to pass said legislation (but he’s retiring, so who cares what he thinks). I’ll definitely follow up as soon as there’s more news.
Testing the Mueller Limits. Legislative protection for Mueller can’t come soon enough, because Trump has definitely been testing the limits this week. There are rumors that Bannon is strategizing with the White House on how to neutralize Mueller’s investigation, and his apparent plan is like the Saturday Night Massacre on steroids. Admittedly, there are also rumors that Trump and Bannon are no longer on speaking terms, so your mileage may vary, although Deputy AG Rosenstein is taking the threat seriously. But the real warning shot of the week is Trump pardoning Scooter Libby, who was convicted on obstruction of justice charges back in 2007 for lying to protect Dick Cheney. Trump freely concedes that he barely knows the man, who served long before Trump was heavily involved in politics. But wouldn’t you know it, there was just something about Libby’s case that moved Trump enough to pardon him, despite pardoning literally nobody except Arpaio prior to this point — and Trump would like us all to know it definitely wasn’t a message to anybody considering lying for him on his collusion case. It was, y’know. That other thing.
(Don’t) Analyze This, Part II. As forecast in the last roundup, Mark Zuckerberg testified for two days before Congress last week, though some of his answers were less than satisfactory. Congress seemed to largely focus on questions of privacy and questions of free speech, depending on which side of the aisle they were from, and the whole thing left people disgruntled with Zuckerberg and Facebook and with Congress. It seems likely we’ll be hearing about this again.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Paul Ryan Retirement. Paul Ryan announced today that he will not seek reelection in November, ending a twenty-year career in Congress. Though he didn’t specify his motives for retiring, only stating that he was “leaving this majority in good hands,” some conservatives certainly have theories about the timing. It’s not clear who will move to replace him as Speaker if the Republicans hold the House, though Ryan has officially endorsed Kevin McCarthy. Nor, for that matter, is it clear who will replace him as the Republican candidate in his district (although the most outspoken hopeful, alt-right candidate Paul Nehlen, has been making headlines of his own). Either way, the announcement makes Ryan one of fifty-nine House Republicans retiring ahead of the 2018 election, which is a startingly high number — just about one-quarter the total of all Republicans in the House.
Pompeo’s Senate Hearing.* Unlike John Bolton, Mike Pompeo does require Senate confirmation to be sworn in as Secretary of State, and his confirmation hearing this week sure was… a thing. Early accounts appear to suggest Pompeo charmed Democrats, which is baffling to say the least. The liberals watching at home were less convinced, and Pompeo did admit he has been questioned by Mueller in the course of the hearing. Of course, news that Pompeo didn’t disclose ties to the Chinese government might throw a spanner in the works as well, though whether that ultimately has consequences is anybody’s guess.

The Bad:

Immigration Updates. There was some bad immigration news this week, though nothing so splashy as we’ve seen some other weeks. Sessions announced he will end funding for a large-scale nonprofit program that helps immigrants know their legal rights in deportation proceedings. Though his official reason was to review the program’s effectiveness, the program is fifteen years old and the last two federal reports both found the program saved ICE significant money. It’s more likely that this is related to a larger effort to expedite deporting detainees, apparently even when they have claims to legal status. In less pressing news, California joined Texas this week in sending national guard troops to the Mexican border, though Governor Brown says the move isn’t for immigration enforcement.
Syria Updates.* After multiple days of threatening to send missiles to Syria, Trump did indeed go ahead and launch an airstrike on Syria this Friday, acting in tandem with Britain and France. Though the Pentagon says that the strike hit at the ‘heart’ of Assad’s chemical weapons program, it would appear that the facilities were evacuated on Russian warning (which may have itself been predicated on Trump’s warning in the form of repeated tweeting). Between that, Russia’s lack of counterattack, and the mere eleven refugees accepted from Syria this year (despite Trump’s claim that the strike was ‘about humanity’), the whole thing feels rather like political theater. With missiles.
Economic Advancement Through Starving. This past week, Trump signed an executive order that graduated the country from permitting a work requirement on state benefits such as SNAP and Medicaid to requiring one. I’ve written before about how asinine and misguided this kind of policy is, given that most people on benefits who can work do work, so I won’t rehash that again, but suffice to say this law serves little purpose other than making indigent people feel bad and jump through hoops.

The Good:

Trans Rights Landmark. A federal judge held on Friday that transgender people are a protected class, triggering a stricter form of scrutiny for laws and policies that impede their rights — such as, in this instance, the trans military ban Trump tried to put in place a few months ago. To support this groundbreaking holding, the opinion meticulously documents the many forms of discrimination commonly experienced by trans Americans, the ways in which the trans plaintiffs have contributed to the military, and the immutability of gender identity as fundamental to one’s identity. The opinion itself had the immediate practical effect of continuing the stay on implementation of the military ban, and both the analysis and the decision are welcome news.
‘DAMN.’ Pulitzer. Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize in Music today for his groundbreaking album DAMN. He’s the first person to ever win this award in the rap or hip-hop genre, and the host’s commentary that the win means ‘the jury and the board judging system worked as it’s supposed to’ sends a clear message about Black excellence that is very appreciated in our current political landscape.

Given how quickly the news cycle has started to move, I’m sure we’ll have seventeen new items by Friday — but that’s what I’ve got for now! I’ll catch y’all next week. And in the interim, if you need anything, there’s always the National News Roundup ask box — send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me pictures of your Grunkle Stan!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 11 (April 1–7)

April 10, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

If you don’t have time to watch read the full roundup this week, you could do worse than to watch this week’s SNL cold open, which summarizes at least 75% of what I’m about to type with startlingly accuracy. (And is probably funnier than me. But please read the news anyway, because you will definitely like some of the remaining 25%!)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a news station! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

This week included yet another couple stories regarding Casual Disregard of Governing Norms, cementing my suspicion that this subsection is a new staple in the roundup. It’s less than the last few weeks, on the plus side, and most of it this week involves Scott Pruitt. Here’s what’s going on now:

Pruitt Prurience Persists. Pruitt’s aides are starting to jump ship as the scandals keep multiplying all around him like tribbles. New this week: Demoting senior EPA staff for whistle-blowing; granting large raises to favored aides without authorization or merit (and then lying about it); and a statement from an ethics official that yes, renting below market value from a lobbyist is an ethical no-no. Yet Trump keeps on sheltering him — allegedly going so far as to consider him to replace Sessions as Attorney General, and publicly calling him ‘courageous’ — even while the scandals pile up. Trump’s strange reticence might be because Pruitt has done so much deregulation in his field, because Pruitt was smart enough to talk to Fox News, or simply to spite Chief of Staff John Kelly, who apparently wants Pruitt out. Whatever the reason, it remains obvious that Pruitt has significant protection despite (or perhaps because of) his flagrant abuses, and that’s definitely not normal. It’s worth supporting the efforts of the 64 House Democrats calling for his resignation.
Stormy Daniels and Other Oncoming Trains. The other story of this type was Trump claiming he didn’t know that Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. The move undermines their defense to Daniels’s suit, because as Avenetti notes, “You can’t have an agreement when one party claims to know nothing about it.” But we’ve also seen some amazing additional repercussions by Monday evening — more about that below.

There was also significant movement on the Threats to the First Amendment front, which had been pleasantly absent in the roundup for a good while now. (Its resurgence is not a welcome change, I assure you.) Here’s the main story to know there:

Sinclair Syndication. News has been brewing for a little while that Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns over 200 local stations throughout the country, coerced ‘forced reads’ of a specific anti ‘fake-news’ script throughout the country. (And if you really want to freak yourself out, you can watch this creepy video of anchors reciting the script in unison). The message that first broke, warning of ‘fake news,’ might not seem that insidious on its face. But as more of the story unfolded it began to look worse and worse, making the Sinclair message seem more pointed — we learned that a recent must-run piece about the ‘deep state’ had been produced by a former Kremlin reporter, and news also broke that the Department of Homeland Security is starting a media watchlist. Meanwhile, more information leaked about stringent contract terms nationwide that penalized anchors heavily for quitting. Sinclair’s problematic nature is not news from this week — John Oliver did a segment on them almost a year ago — but their unusual multi-network presence would not have been possible before 2017, because it relies on recent repeal of an FCC regulation that kept local networks in local hands. And enforcement seems as varied as the locations; while two anchors in Eugene, Oregon appear to have gotten away with not reading the script, anchors the next state over in Seattle were warned there would be dire consequences if they even discussed being forced to read it. Since Sinclair is in the middle of purchasing Tribunal Media, a merger which would give them access to seventy percent of American households, the entire story is definitely worth watching and calling about.

On the plus side, there was a veritable renaissance of noteworthy Russia Investigation movement this week. (I’m sure we’ll be seeing the humanist Mueller paintings any time now.) Here’s a summary of the main things to know:

Mueller Investigation Updates. Mueller had his first sentence issued this past week, as former Skadden attorney Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to thirty days in prison. The special counsel’s been stepping up his investigation in all kinds of ways lately, from questioning Russian oligarchs to approaching witnesses at airports to drilling down on the Seychelles story, and the latest in this trend is a surprise raid of Trump’s lawyer’s office. Mueller is escalating, and that will likely be a rough ride even though it may lead to a better future.
Mueller Says Trump Not a Target. Despite all of the activity above, news also broke that Mueller advised Trump’s attorneys last month that he’s still under investigation but is not currently a criminal target. That doesn’t necessarily mean he thinks Trump has committed no crimes, but clearly it has soothed said not-a-target, who is starting to prep for an interview with Mueller. The raid on Cohen’s office may have changed the course on that, however; it will definitely be interesting to see what happens there.
(Don’t) Analyze This. Social media giant Facebook is looking a bit harried in the wake of news that up to 87 million people had their data scraped by Cambridge Analytica, a research firm, and that “most” of their 2 million users have had their data harvested by third-party apps. The company has been battening down the proverbial hatches by changing their rules to prevent further user manipulation, doing their best to look innocent as their chief executive testifies to Congress, and, in the case of their COO, trying to convince the public that data farming is how platforms show they care. That said, all of the spin in the world won’t change the fact that Zuckerberg faces “a reckoning” for Facebook’s present and past mishandling of user data when he testifies.
Russian Sanctions for Fun and Profit. This was a deeply weird week in terms of Trump’s relations with Russia. On the one hand, he issued sanctions against twenty-four Russian oligarchs and officials, including many closely tied to Putin and, frankly, several tied to his own campaign. But on the other hand, this happened the same week that White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that Trump discussed meeting venues with Putin like they were planning a freaking wedding. On, you know, the phone call when he also congratulated him for winning a rigged election. Which I’m inclined to think carries more weight than the sanctions, particularly when Mueller’s investigating oligarchs and Trump’s mistreating half his cabinet — why would Russian contacts be any different?

Your “Normal” Weird:

Ongoing Amazon Animosity. The President, always eager to blur the lines between personal and presidential behavior, tweeted while traveling to his golf course that global shipping company Amazon uses The Washington Post as a lobbyist. Of course Trump cited no evidence whatsoever, and the best theory any news outlet could come up with was that Trump misunderstood the meaning of numbers (which, by the way, he didn’t even cite correctly). It’s either that or Projection Central: Trump believes that Jeff Bezos, who owns both companies, must be using one to prop up the other because it’s what Trump would do.
John Bolton’s Conflicts of Interest. John Bolton met with white house attorneys over emergent ethics issues this past week, which I had hoped would slow down his intended April 9 start date. But alas, he appears to have started right on time, which is poor timing indeed given the current Syria situation (but more about that below).

The Bad:

The YouTube Shooting. On April 3rd, Nasim Najafi Aghdam left a pistol range and went to the YouTube California Headquarters and opened fire, injuring three people before turning the gun on herself. Though police say that they had no reason to anticipate her violent behavior, Aghdam’s family tells a different story: She legally purchased the pistol used in the shooting in January, several months before her father filed a missing person report and warned the police that she “hated YouTube” and “might do something.” Tech companies are beginning to respond with tighter security measures, which mesh poorly with their frequently open layout and casual attitude regarding entry.
Moving Troops on the Risk Board. Trump announced this week that he wants to station military troops on the Mexican border until a wall is built. He then followed up this announcement by signing a proclamation to that effect, and by Friday the first state had sent the national guard to the border. So that’s… terrifying, and probably the motivation behind Trump’s sudden desire to withdraw from Syria at the end of the week. That said, Trump was forced to walk back that instruction when, as experts predicted, a vicious chemical attack killed sixty people in Damascus on Saturday. We’re now left wondering what next moves will be.
Other Immigration Updates. This was a pretty rough week all around on immigration. In addition to the news about the Mexican border, Trump also abandoned a tax speech in West Virginia to make a bunch of stuff up about immigration — but that’s barely a blip on the radar when a hundred people were rounded up at a meatpacking plant on the same day. The raid was the largest of its kind in a decade, and a stunning 86 of those people were simply held for failing to produce papers. Trump also signed paperwork designed to hold more people when they first arrive at the border, which probably is intended to coincide with stationing troops, and imposed quotas of deportation tied to immigration judges’ performance reviews.
China Tariffs (Part III).* At the end of the week, Trump finally responded to China’s escalation of the brewing trade war by announcing another $100 billion in tariffs. But China remains confident that they can get the upper hand, saying they would fight Trump’s efforts “at any cost.” The whole thing is hitting farmers (and the stock market) hard, with Trump vaguely promising to ‘make it up’ to Middle America. (I hope he wasn’t planning to make it up to them with anything involving medicine, which is likely to skyrocket in price as well.)

The Good:

Recent Suits of Armor. There have been a number of protective lawsuits either filed or expanded this week, which I’ve come to view as an important sign of organized resistance in the past year. First on the docket, there’s the five additional states and various cities that have joined the census lawsuit, bringing the total to about a third of the country and counting. But for more happy-making news, there’s also the fifteen Attorneys General suing the EPA for its failure to enforce pollution law, and the San Francisco suit being brought against Sessions for his decision to remove civil rights guidelines.
Teacher Strikes in Three States. Inspired by the example set in West Virginia, teachers in Arizona, Oklahoma and Kentucky have begun to strike as well. In all three states, teachers are asking for adequate teaching budgets and salaries in line with other states, hoping to correct systemic troubles in their states’ education systems that have lingered since the 2008 recession. It’s a brave and understandable move that I hope results in improved circumstances, especially in Arizona and Oklahoma, which are both among the bottom five states in the country for educational spending.
Opioid Options. The Surgeon General issued a statement this week supporting dissemination and trained use of Naloxone to address opioid emergencies. Naloxone, most commonly available as a nasal spray called Narcan, can be used as an antidote to overdose, making it extremely helpful in emergency and first-response situations. This is an exciting and noteworthy statement both because Surgeon General advisories are infrequent and because this is actually consistent with best evidence-based practices, which is not exactly a common occurrence in this administration. And that’s refreshing, to say the least!
Mueller Office Raid. The incredible news broke today that Mueller conducted a raid on the office, home, and hotel room of Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, looking for documents relating to the Stormy Daniels case. Unsurprisingly, the raid was court authorized, meaning that Mueller had warrants (and therefore official permission) for the search. This type of approval is, needless to say, usually very hard to get, especially for searching an attorney’s office — traditionally an attorney’s work product is protected by attorney-client privilege. My personal theory on this (and only a theory, to be clear) is that Trump waived his privilege by denying knowledge of the hush money payment — if he had no knowledge, that means that Cohen wasn’t acting as his attorney when he made the payment, which means that none of it was attorney work product. Which means that this was brought on, in part, by Trump’s poor planning, and I find that delightful. Trump, to warn, has wasted no time in calling the raid “an attack on our country,” but activists are already organizing for the possibility that Trump will try to fire Mueller — and Mueller, of course, has plans upon plans for this contingency.

There’s still a bit of Roundup news to round out the week; since I didn’t get much done, expect to hear from me soon (no really this time) about finalizing any offered volunteer tasks and further refining the Roundup to meet reader needs. And in the interim, if you need anything, there’s always the National News Roundup ask box — send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me pictures of your lizard!

Ho boy, what a week. I guess we’ll see what next week brings.

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 10 (March 25–31)

April 3, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week wasn’t quite as bad as last week, but that’s sort of like saying “Well this week, we only got six inches of snow” (which, incidentally, was also true). Still, progress is progress, I guess!

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a million dollar loan! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Just last week, this week had an impressive amount of Casual Disregard of Governing Norms. I’m starting to become concerned that this is going to be a new staple in the roundup, particularly because it seems to be accelerating as news of the Russia Investigation languishes. Here are the things to track this week:

Jared Kusher and the No Good, Very Bad, Multi-Million Dollar Loans.* The administration’s Office of Government Ethics apparently is now saying that White House counsel are looking into Jared Kushner’s infamous meetings with creditors at the White House last year, which of course has nothing to do with the $500 million loans the creditors gave his company only a few days later. This is unquestionably a step up from refusing to acknowledge or look into the matter, which the White House was doing at the beginning of the week. But as former OGE head Walter Shaub notes it strains credulity to suggest that White House counsel is going to seriously investigate the President’s son-in-law. At minimum, it certainly looks like a conflict of interest for Kushner to be meeting with these creditors when they are still having dealings with his family business, from which he never fully divested. That said, frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned out to be a full-blown quid-pro-quo arrangement.
White House Staff Shuffle Persists (Again). The White House walkouts are still ongoing, and they are something to behold:
Just as I predicted last week, Veteran Affairs Secretary David Shulkin was indeed prematurely dismissed via tweet this past week, marking the third such firing in three weeks. Though Shulkin was ostensibly let go for corrupt use of government resources, he’s probably correct that he was really fired over his reluctance to privatize the VA, because Trump has never met a government program he didn’t view as a cash cow. (Shulkin was also the only member of the Cabinet who served under Obama.) While it’s topical, folks, I can’t stress enough just how messed up it is that we’re firing cabinet members by tweet now.
To replace Shulkin, Trump wants to hire Ronny Jackson, who to be fair was an admiral in the Navy at some point although he’s most recently known for inexplicably claiming Trump has great genes when he did an annual physical on him a few months ago. As this anecdote may suggest, Jackson has zero experience in managing benefits of any kind, because his background is in practicing medicine. At this point, aides aren’t even trying to hide the fact that Trump cares more about whether he likes a person than he does about whether that person can do the job they are hired to perform.
Only half of last week’s predictions came true, but rumors have continued that Trump’s advisers are telling him he doesn’t need a Chief of Staff and that Trump’s tolerance of Kelly is waning. So despite a late showing, this still wins this week’s Probably Going To Be Prematurely Enacted Next Week Prophecy Award.
Stormy Daniels Saga Continues. This week’s Stormy Daniels news is that her attorney filed a motion to depose Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen, which sadly is a legal term that means asking Trump questions rather than kicking him out of office. In other sad news, it was also denied by the judge as premature. Because it was an issue of timing rather than an issue of the merits, Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti has indicated he plans to try again later, so I doubt we’ve heard the end of this. Also, a third woman is suing to break a Trump-related NDA, this time about sexual harassment she experienced while she helped on the campaign trail.
Pruitt Prurience.* There has been a lot of news about EPA head Scott Pruitt’s bizarre excesses this past week, though mysteriously he never seems to get censured for any of it (which is one of many reasons I think Shulkin is likely accurately reporting above). There was a lot of focus on the news that Pruitt had a sweetheart deal with an energy lobbyist that involved both him and his daughter renting the lobbyist’s condo at favorable rates for personal use; news also broke that Pruitt took his 24-hour security detail to the Rose Bowl and Disneyland. In response to these stories, Pruitt went onto conservative talk radio shows to claim all of his behaviors were perfectly normal (which they aren’t) and that Obama’s EPA spent more taxdollar money on travel (which they didn’t, and would be irrelevant anyway). It’s the last bit that lands this story in the Constitutional Crisis section; his blatant use of tax dollars for personal enrichment would be bad enough, but the protection Pruitt seems to enjoy from both Trump implicitly and from conservative media explicitly are definitely not normal.

One major difference from last week is that there was a lot of noteworthy Russia Investigation movement. Here’s a summary of the main things to know:

NRA, Foreign Money, and You.* The NRA acknowledged this week that it receives money from foreign entities as the Federal Election Commission investigates whether Russia used the NRA to illegally funnel money into the 2016 election. Brad Woodhouse, treasurer for the American Democracy Legal Fund, pretty much summed this up by noting: “This story sounds more like a Tom Clancy novel than a reality, [b]ut in the age of Donald Trump and possible collusion with Russia, not only is it possible that it’s true, but it’s possible enough that it needs to be fully investigated.”
Mueller’s Current Manafort Filing.* It’s been a busy week for Robert Mueller, I Tell You What. First on the docket is Mueller’s new allegation that Gates (and through him, Manafort) maintained connection to Russia through fall 2016 in the form of contact with a mysterious ‘Person A.’ Mueller’s filing, which was issued as part of sentencing for Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan, notes that Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the G.R.U. believed to have maintained ties during the 2016 election. Several outlets have identified Person A as Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime business associate of Manafort’s from his days working on behalf of a Kremlin-aligned Ukrainian political party. Mueller alleges Manafort had been in contact with Kilimnik as recently as this past November, well into the point where the latter was charged with money laundering and being an unregistered agent of the Ukraine.
Beg Your Pardon? Also in the news this week is Trump’s former attorney John Dowd, who apparently discussed preemptive pardons for Manafort and Flynn with their attorneys before he left the White House legal team. It’s unclear at this time whether the pardon-in-exchange-for-silence part of the equation was subtext or text in those conversations, although it’s quite possibly obstruction of justice either way and I’m consequently not sure it matters. Also, and perhaps of more importance to the Trump team, if they accept pardons they no longer have a fifth amendment to invoke, and therefore can be compelled to testify more easily in a criminal proceeding. So much like everything else in the Trump administration, the move was both corrupt and foolish.
Russian Diplomat Purging for Fun and Profit.* The U.S. expelled 60 Russian diplomats and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle this week, as part of a coordinated statement by twenty-seven countries in response to Russia poisoning a former spy on British soil. Russia retaliated by expelling diplomats from America as well as twenty-three other countries by the end of the week. (They also closed the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg.) But while that appeared to escalate quickly, it’s worth remembering that Trump called to congratulate Putin only last week, and news broke today by way of the Kremlin that he invited Putin to the White House when making said call.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Stevens and the Second Amendment. Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote an unusual op-ed this week arguing for the repeal of the Second Amendment. While he had written a prior op-ed on the subject in 2014, and wrote a book that touched on it as well, this is the first time Stevens has ever advocated repealing the amendment wholesale rather than adding more language to contextualize it. Unsurprisingly, people had a lot of reactions to this suggestion; Trump yelled about it on Twitter while some experts noted the technical difficulties of the suggestion, some liberals expressed uneasy disapproval, some liberals appreciated the position, and the NRA called our longest-serving Supreme Court justice to date “a disgrace to America.” (In case anyone was curious about my own opinion, I think it’s very interesting that Stevens wrote it and see his logic, but respectfully agree with Larry Tribe that our current issues are political rather than legal.)
Military Wall Pipe Dreams.* This week’s How Is This Real News? award goes to Trump trying to use military funding to pay for his wall, because nothing says ‘I support our troops’ quite like asking for their budgetary lunch money. It’s unclear how much of this is simply him being mad that Congress wouldn’t fund it and how much of this is an actual suggestion, but either way he’s arguing that the wall is “a matter of national security.” It’s also unclear why he thinks the military should fund a matter of national security when the Department of Homeland Security literally exists for this purpose and the military is prohibited from being used as a police force domestically, but I’m going to assume that Trump refused to read the briefing telling him this (if they’re even still giving him one). At any rate, since this reappropriation of funds would require a sixty-person vote from Congress, I’m gonna go ahead and guess that’s why he’s moved onto yelling about using the nuclear option in the Senate.
Voting is Fraud, Apparently. A woman in Texas, Crystal Mason, was sentenced to five years in prison for voting in the 2016 election. Though Texas governor Greg Abbott describes this as a “voter fraud” issue, the actual issue with Mason’s ballot was that she voted while on probation, which apparently is illegal in Texas. Folks, I don’t think it’s obvious on its face just what an unreasoning horrorshow this story is, so I’m going to spend a bit of time unpacking. First of all, apparently in Texas voting while on probation — an action that is completely legal in about half of the United States — is not only a felony conviction, but the second-most serious class they recognize, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and directly comparable to manslaughter and possession of a full ton of marijuana. Second of all, I haven’t found a single article that suggests Mason misrepresented a single thing when she voted; she merely filled out a ballot at the poll while unaware it wasn’t permitted. Third of all, voter disenfranchisement in general is a serious problem for Black Americans, and sending people who try to vote away to jail for five years is its own political message. It’s almost certainly not an accident that the election in question occurred in November 2016. We have to pay attention to stories like these if we want a fair and representative election this fall.

The Bad:

Census Sent Us.* The Trump administration announced on Monday that it plans to ask about citizenship in the upcoming 2020 census, which hasn’t been done since 1950. This isn’t the first questionable thing that has been announced — they also recently announced that they’ll be asking Black Americans for their country of origin and last year proclaimed they won’t be tracking LGBT Americans anymore — but it has understandably angered people who view this as disincentive for noncitizen residents to engage in the census process. An accurate census count is very important to the functioning of our society, for everything from accurate political districts to where we place hospitals, and noncitizen residents must be included in the process by law. It’s not surprising against this backdrop that twelve states are already suing the administration over this, and it’s very likely this will turn into a giant fight. We should definitely keep track of developments.
Good Morning, Ben Carson. Ben Carson apparently woke up and remembered he runs an agency this week, which of course is bad news for anybody who was hoping HUD would continue to function properly. The biggest news item to hit is that HUD is discontinuing several ongoing attempts to enforce fair housing practices, and if you’re currently asking yourself “Isn’t that literally part of HUD’s mission statement?” I feel you, but the answer apparently is “Not anymore!” Not coincidentally, the move coincided with Carson removing anti-discrimination language from the HUD mission statement. Ugh, Carson, do your department a favor and go back to sleep.
Immigration Updates. This was another bad week for immigration updates, despite no obvious policy setting. The administration is moving forward with its threat to punish legal residents for accessing benefits to which they are legally entitled, sending a draft regulation to the Office of Management and Budget this week. The draft is… well, it’s bad, but I’m going to hold off on analyzing it until we have a final version. Meanwhile, more moderate Republicans are beginning their bi-annual Anti Immigration Shuffle, with Mitt Romney announcing he’s now in favor of merit-based immigration because he’s also in favor of being a senator. And the week was capped off with a scary twitter tirade that was disturbing even for Trump; he ended up declaring DACA ‘dead’ (which is definitely not true; see below), threatening to withdraw from NAFTA if Mexico didn’t stop people from crossing over, and seemingly insinuating that he wanted to make seeking asylum illegal. So all of that… happened. Although we also did get a bit of positive news, which I’ve listed below.
China Tariffs (Part II).* As forecast last week, China increased tariffs on 128 different U.S. exports this week, including but not limited to pork, fruits, and pipes. Though they stated it was in response to the aluminium and steel tariffs Trump set earlier in the month, this move almost certainly is also influenced by Trump’s decision to impose tech tariffs on Chinese exports in particular; they’re probably hoping Trump will back off of that threat if the United States is unable to export to China. Trump hasn’t really said anything about the retaliation yet, but I’m currently taking over/unders on how long it takes him to start yelling about it on Twitter.

The Good:

Census Suit. As I mentioned briefly above, at least twelve states are already suing over the citizenship question on the 2020 census. The states’ argument is that the government has a constitutional requirement to track all residents in the United States and including the question will have a chilling effect that leads to under-counting. Since all of these things have the benefit of being true, I think it’s a fairly sound argument; I’m excited to see what happens in the suit.
DACA Big Deal. In related and also positive news, a Brooklyn court this week permitted the DACA suit brought by fifteen attorneys general to continue, declining to dismiss the case. In his decision, the judge cited Trump’s “racially charged language” as prima facie evidence of discrimination and therefore potential equal protection violation. It’s particularly edifying, given everything else going on, to read a judge write, “One might reasonably infer that a candidate who makes overtly bigoted statements on the campaign trail might be more likely to engage in similarly bigoted action in office.” Thank you for keeping us company in Reasonable Human land, Judge Garaufis!

There’s still a bit of Roundup news to round out the week; expect to hear from me soon (if you haven’t already) about finalizing any offered volunteer tasks and further refining the Roundup to meet reader needs. And in the interim, if you need anything, there’s always the National News Roundup ask box — send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me pictures of your dog!

And that’s all I have this week. Until next time, I have the honor to be your obedient servant, K.H.

Main holding:

So what does that actually mean?

Okay, why?

So it didn’t say that people can discriminate against LGBT folks by saying it’s their religion?

So this can’t be used to hurt LGBTA people further down the pike?

Is what you just said the same as what Justice Kagan said in her concurrence?

So where does this leave us?

The Good:

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Very Bad — Please Read It Anyway!:

What We Can Do:

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Your “Normal” Weird:

The Bad:

The Good:

**The Very Bad — Please Read It Anyway!**: