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Category: Law

Confirming that Jan 6 was an insurrection, Supreme Court lets ban against New Mexico official stand

Confirming that Jan 6 was an insurrection, Supreme Court lets ban against New Mexico official stand

Politico reports: The Supreme Court has turned away a convicted member of the Jan. 6 mob who was barred from public office in New Mexico under the Constitution’s “insurrection clause” seeking to reverse his disqualification. The justices on Monday denied Couy Griffin’s petition to consider his effort to overturn the rulings of courts in New Mexico that deemed him ineligible from holding office there ever again. Griffin, who was convicted in 2022 of misdemeanor offenses related to his role in…

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The rising cost of the oil industry’s slow death

The rising cost of the oil industry’s slow death

By Mark Olalde, ProPublica, and Nick Bowlin, Capital & Main This story was originally published by ProPublica. In the 165 years since the first American oil well struck black gold, the industry has punched millions of holes in the earth, seeking profits gushing from the ground. Now, those wells are running dry, and a generational bill is coming due. Until wells are properly plugged, many leak oil and brine onto farmland and into waterways and emit toxic and explosive gasses,…

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U.S. firm that paid indicted FBI informant tied to Trump associates, records reveal

U.S. firm that paid indicted FBI informant tied to Trump associates, records reveal

The Guardian reports: An American company that paid the now indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov in 2020 is connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai, according to business filings and court documents. Smirnov is now accused of lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden, alleging that they engaged in a bribery scheme with executives at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Smirnov’s accounts to the FBI, beginning in 2020, that…

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The Supreme Court’s supreme betrayal

The Supreme Court’s supreme betrayal

J. Michael Luttig and Laurence H. Tribe write: The Supreme Court of the United States did a grave disservice to both the Constitution and the nation in Trump v. Anderson. In a stunning disfigurement of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Court impressed upon it an ahistorical misinterpretation that defies both its plain text and its original meaning. Despite disagreement within the Court that led to a 5–4 split among the justices over momentous but tangential issues that it had no need…

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Elon Musk has a giant charity. Its money stays close to home

Elon Musk has a giant charity. Its money stays close to home

The New York Times reports: Before March 2021, Elon Musk’s charitable foundation had never announced any donations to Cameron County, an impoverished region at the southern tip of Texas that is home to his SpaceX launch site and local officials who help regulate it. Then, at 8:05 one morning that month, a SpaceX rocket blew up, showering the area with a rain of twisted metal. The Musk Foundation began giving at 9:27 a.m. local time. Am donating $20M to Cameron…

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Major U.S. corporations threaten to return labor to ‘law of the jungle’

Major U.S. corporations threaten to return labor to ‘law of the jungle’

The Guardian reports: Upset by the surge in union drives, several of the best-known corporations in the US are seeking to cripple the country’s top labor watchdog, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), by having it declared unconstitutional. Some labor experts warn that if those efforts succeed, US labor relations might return to “the law of the jungle”. In recent weeks, Elon Musk’s SpaceX as well as Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s have filed legal papers that advance novel arguments…

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Senator Chris Van Hollen explains why the U.S. is legally required to suspend military aid to Israel

Senator Chris Van Hollen explains why the U.S. is legally required to suspend military aid to Israel

Isaac Chotiner interviewed Senator Chris Van Hollen: Am I correct that there is a law on the books in America which says that “funds appropriated or otherwise made available for United States assistance may not be made available for any country whose government prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance?” You cited that exactly right, and the President, just within the last couple of days, said, and I’m quoting, “We’re going…

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Trump’s financial problems are very real and very bad

Trump’s financial problems are very real and very bad

David A. Graham writes: The danger posed to Donald Trump’s finances by two recent judgments against him has been, if anything, underappreciated. The size of the awards, the structure of the former president’s business empire, and the condition of the real-estate market combine to create a truly perilous moment for the former president’s company and, by extension, for Trump’s personal finances. Trump must put up the $83.3 million awarded to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defamation by March 9….

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The Supreme Court just erased part of the Constitution

The Supreme Court just erased part of the Constitution

David French writes: As of Monday, March 4, 2024, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution is essentially a dead letter, at least as it applies to candidates for federal office. Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that reversed the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision striking Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot, even insurrectionists who’ve violated their previous oath of office can hold federal office, unless and until Congress passes specific legislation to enforce Section 3. In the…

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It’s past time to quit hoping the courts are going to stop Trump

It’s past time to quit hoping the courts are going to stop Trump

Richard L. Hasen and Dahlia Lithwick write: The latest decisions out of the Supreme Court, first on when to hear former President Donald Trump’s immunity appeal, then on how to deal with his Colorado ballot disqualification, have made one thing very clear: We need to stop deluding ourselves that a majority of the Supreme Court sees the same political emergency that many of us do in terms of the threat Trump poses to American democracy. Whether it understood or even…

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The enormous pressures about to land on Judge Tanya Chutkan

The enormous pressures about to land on Judge Tanya Chutkan

Ankush Khardori writes: The Supreme Court seemed to drop a bomb this week when the justices agreed to hear Donald Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 election. But the fallout may not be as clear-cut as it seems. Almost immediately after the court’s order, a consensus seemed to form among the pundit class: that it will now be impossible for Trump’s trial in Washington to take place before the election. Here is…

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DOJ says ’60-day rule’ doesn’t apply to Trump’s trials — he can be in court during the election

DOJ says ’60-day rule’ doesn’t apply to Trump’s trials — he can be in court during the election

The New Republic reports: Amid an ongoing spar over when Donald Trump’s classified documents case will begin, the Justice Department has clarified once and for all that he cannot continue to delay his legal trials by claiming that he has to focus on the election. On Friday, Judge Eileen Cannon asked about the DOJ’s “60-day rule” against taking actions that might affect an upcoming election. But the DOJ said that the “60-day rule” does not apply to Trump’s actual trials,…

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In taking up Trump’s immunity claim, Supreme Court bolstered his delay strategy

In taking up Trump’s immunity claim, Supreme Court bolstered his delay strategy

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court that former President Donald J. Trump helped to shape tossed him a legal lifeline on Wednesday night, making a choice that substantially aided his efforts to delay his federal trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. By deciding to take up Mr. Trump’s claim that presidents enjoy almost total immunity from prosecution for any official action while in office — a legal theory rejected by two lower courts and…

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The Supreme Court just gave Trump exactly what he wanted

The Supreme Court just gave Trump exactly what he wanted

Mark Joseph Stern writes: The Supreme Court has all but guaranteed that Donald Trump will not face trial for his efforts to subvert the 2020 election before this November’s presidential election. On Wednesday, after more than two weeks’ delay, the court issued an order refusing to lift the stay that’s preventing the Jan. 6 trial, prosecuted by Special Counsel Jack Smith, from moving forward. Instead, the court took up the case, scheduling oral arguments for the week of April 22—nearly…

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Where do Amazon’s profits come from?

Where do Amazon’s profits come from?

Stacy Mitchell writes: If you read the recently unsealed materials from the federal antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, you’ll see why the company wanted to keep them under wraps. According to the unredacted notes from one meeting, Jeff Bezos directed his team to stuff more ads into search results, even if it meant accepting more ads internally categorized as irrelevant to what users were looking for. Other quoted documents reveal the company working to conceal a mysterious price-hiking algorithm, in part…

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Yellen urges world leaders to ‘unlock’ frozen Russian Central Bank assets and send them to Ukraine

Yellen urges world leaders to ‘unlock’ frozen Russian Central Bank assets and send them to Ukraine

The Associated Press reports: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday offered her strongest public support yet for the idea of liquidating roughly $300 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank assets and using them for Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction. “It is necessary and urgent for our coalition to find a way to unlock the value of these immobilized assets to support Ukraine’s continued resistance and long-term reconstruction,” Yellen said in remarks in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where Group of 20 finance ministers and…

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