Attention to the Unseen

The Washington Post reports: Five days before Donald Trump became president in January 2017, a manager at a bank branch in Cairo received an unusual letter from an organization linked to the Egyptian intelligence service. It asked the bank to “kindly withdraw” nearly $10 million from the organization’s account — all in cash. Inside the state-run National Bank of Egypt, employees were soon busy placing bundles of $100 bills into two large bags, according to records from the bank. Four…

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Politico reports: The stalled criminal case against Donald Trump for seeking to subvert the 2020 election is starting to move. The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity — a breathtaking legal victory for Trump’s bid to sideline his criminal prosecutions — had kept the election-subversion case on ice for months. Even after the July 1 ruling, the high court’s rules required a one-month delay to give prosecutors the chance to ask the justices to reconsider the outcome. On Friday,…

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NOTUS reports: Former President Donald Trump is promising “mass deportation” — and Republicans in Congress have been quick to support the promise, even if they’re unsure how such an effort would work. “You’ll have to ask the president,” Sen. Ron Johnson said when NOTUS asked last week what that sort of deportation policy would look like. When NOTUS asked Rep. Troy Nehls a similar question — how the government would go about getting a large number of undocumented people out…

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By Richard A. Webster, Verite News This story was originally published by ProPublica Four years before a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, prompting nationwide demonstrations, hundreds of people marched in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to protest officers’ killing of Alton Sterling in front of a convenience store. Law enforcement responded in force: Officers armed with rifles, body armor and gas masks pushed protesters back and forcibly arrested about 200 people. Some were injured. A group of 13 protesters and two…

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Ankush Khardori writes: The summer of reversals for President Joe Biden continued in dramatic form on Monday as he announced that he now supports sweeping Supreme Court reform. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Biden pushed 18-year term limits and a binding ethics code on Supreme Court justices — after a long career spent opposing such measures — as well as a constitutional amendment overturning the court’s recent decision granting presidents immunity from criminal prosecution. Is it too little…

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Joe Biden writes: This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one. But the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on July 1 to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do. The only limits will be those that…

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The Hill reports: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Sunday that the Supreme Court is “actively undermining” democracy in the U.S. Warren said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that she and her colleagues are working to put together reform measures for the Supreme Court, including looking at term limits and adding more justices to the bench. She echoed President Biden’s comments calling for reforms to the Supreme Court in his last six months of office. “Here’s a man who has…

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Adam Serwer writes: The Trumpist justices on the Supreme Court had a very serious problem: They needed to keep their guy out of prison for trying to overthrow the government. The right-wing justices had to do this while still attempting to maintain at least a pretense of having ruled on the basis of the law and the Constitution rather than mere partisan instincts. So they settled on what they thought was a very clever solution: They would grant the presidency…

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  Illegal Israeli settlements have been steadily expanding in Palestinian territories for years. Now the UN’s top court says it’s time for Israel to stop, reverse course, and repair the damages. The International Court of Justice has ruled Israel’s occupation is unlawful and is fueling a surge in violence. However, the court’s findings are not legally binding — and the Israeli government has ignored previous decisions. So, will the ICJ’s advisory opinion have any practical implications?

The Guardian reports: The top United Nations court has ruled that Israel’s settlement policies and use of natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territories violate international law. The international court of justice said “the transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel’s maintenance of their presence, is contrary to article 49 of the fourth geneva convention”. The panel of 15 judges from around the world also said the use of natural resources was…

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The Washington Post reports: President Biden is finalizing plans to endorse major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, including proposals for legislation to establish term limits for the justices and an enforceable ethics code, according to two people briefed on the plans. He is also weighing whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The…

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Slate reports: In a nearly 100-page order issued Monday morning, [Judge Aileen] Cannon states that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment by the attorney general violates the appointments clause of the Constitution, which she says mandates that “officers of the United States—whether inferior or principal—must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.” Cannon concluded that there isn’t any statute in the United States Code that authorizes Smith’s appointment, so he therefore cannot legally conduct his classified documents prosecution….

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