Kagan enters fray over Congress’ power to police Supreme Court

Kagan enters fray over Congress’ power to police Supreme Court

Politico reports: Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday jumped into the heated debate over ethics at the Supreme Court, arguing that Congress has broad powers to regulate the nation’s highest tribunal despite the recent claim from one of her conservative colleagues that such a step would violate the Constitution’s separation of powers. Kagan’s comments, at a judicial conference in Portland, came just days after the Senate Judiciary Committee responded to recent ethics controversies around justices’ luxury travel by advancing a bill…

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About half of Republican voters could spurn Trump if he is convicted, poll indicates

About half of Republican voters could spurn Trump if he is convicted, poll indicates

Reuters reports: About half of Republicans would not vote for Donald Trump if he were convicted of a felony, a sign of the severe risks his legal problems pose for his 2024 U.S. presidential bid, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Thursday. The former president and current front-runner in the Republican nomination contest for the November 2024 presidential election, Trump pleaded not guilty in court on Thursday to federal charges he led a conspiracy to overturn his loss…

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What makes Jack Smith’s new Trump indictment so smart

What makes Jack Smith’s new Trump indictment so smart

Randall D. Eliason writes: This is the indictment that those who were horrified by the events of Jan. 6, 2021, have been waiting for. The catalog of misdeeds that Donald Trump is accused of is extensive, some reflected in other prosecutions over classified documents and hush-money payments or in civil lawsuits. But this case — a sitting U.S. president’s assault on democracy — is by far the most consequential. And from the looks of this indictment, the prosecution’s case is…

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Trump’s threat to democracy is now systemic

Trump’s threat to democracy is now systemic

Ronald Brownstein writes: The long-awaited federal indictment of Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election may be necessary to contain the threat to American democracy that he has unleashed. But it’s unlikely to be sufficient. The germ of election denialism that Trump injected into the American political system has spread so far throughout the Republican Party that it is virtually certain to survive whatever legal accountability the former president faces. With polls showing that most Republican voters…

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Jeffrey Clark is GOP star after trying to use DOJ to overturn election

Jeffrey Clark is GOP star after trying to use DOJ to overturn election

The Washington Post reports: In a conference room near the Capitol, young conservatives gathered in April to learn how to run for office — how to win and wield government power. Among the keynote speakers at the summit, hosted by a group devoted to “training America’s future statesmen today,” was Jeffrey Clark, the former senior Justice Department official who in 2020 sought to use federal law enforcement power to undo then-President Donald Trump’s defeat. Clark, who accused the Biden administration…

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DeSantis calls for ‘slitting throats’ in government, escalating rhetoric

DeSantis calls for ‘slitting throats’ in government, escalating rhetoric

The Washington Post reports: The two largest federal employee unions on Thursday denounced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s recent vow that as president he would “start slitting throats” in the federal bureaucracy — the latest escalation in intensifying Republican attacks on government operations they want to slash or eliminate. DeSantis, whose campaign for the GOP nomination has included promises to downsize agencies and fire bureaucrats, made the comments this weekend in New Hampshire while criticizing the “deep state,” echoing a term…

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Cornel West owes more than half a million in unpaid taxes

Cornel West owes more than half a million in unpaid taxes

The Daily Beast reports: Veteran Ivy League professor and bestselling author Dr. Cornel West has long advocated for taxing the rich to provide more services to America’s lower classes. But the academic-turned-Green Party presidential candidate isn’t living up to those standards in his own life—as public records from New Jersey and California show, West owes the IRS hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. West’s lament of the concentration of wealth among the nation’s elite and his support for…

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Selfish, virus-like DNA can carry genes between species

Selfish, virus-like DNA can carry genes between species

Saugat Bolakhe writes: Biologists have understood the broad contours of the rules of inheritance for more than a century: that genes are passed down from parent to child within species. But in more recent years, they have also become aware of genes that go rogue and hop laterally between species — be they frog genes in Madagascar that originally came from snakes, or antifreeze genes found in cold-water fish like herring that transferred to smelts. The mechanism facilitating this gene…

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‘Everything has fallen off a cliff’: Battleground state GOPs nosedive in Trump era

‘Everything has fallen off a cliff’: Battleground state GOPs nosedive in Trump era

Politico reports: Michigan’s Republican party is broke. Minnesota’s was, until recently, down to $53.81 in the bank. And in Colorado, the GOP is facing eviction from its office this month because it can’t make rent. Around the nation, state Republican party apparatuses — once bastions of competency that helped produce statehouse takeovers — have become shells of their former machines amid infighting and a lack of organization. Current and former officials at the heart of the matter blame twin forces…

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Trump’s new judge is a tough Jan. 6 sentencer — and has a history with him

Trump’s new judge is a tough Jan. 6 sentencer — and has a history with him

Politico reports: When Judge Tanya Chutkan presides over the new criminal case against Donald Trump, it won’t be her first time tangling with the former president and his lawyers. In fact, the U.S. district court judge already dealt the ex-president one of the most significant legal blows of his lifetime, triggering perhaps the greatest deluge of evidence about his bid to subvert the 2020 election — a scheme for which he now stands charged with serious crimes. The Obama-appointed jurist…

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A deep dive into the 1/6 indictment

A deep dive into the 1/6 indictment

  The indictment of Donald Trump on charges growing out of multiple schemes to steal the election is the most important case in the history of the Department of Justice and probably the country. We’ve had some quick reactions on cable TV. But in this special live tape episode, 3 of the country’s most knowledgeable commentators – Norm Eisen, Renato Mariotti, and Jen Rubin – join Harry Litman for the most in-depth discussion out there of the most important legal…

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Trump Jan. 6 indictment: The statutes

Trump Jan. 6 indictment: The statutes

Lawfare analysts write: The indictment released today by the Jan. 6 grand jury in Washington charges former President Donald Trump with four felony counts: two for obstruction of an official proceeding, one for conspiracy to defraud the United States, and one for conspiracy against rights. These are among the more straightforward crimes the special counsel could have charged; they are commonly used by prosecutors in a variety of contexts, and they avoid some of the legal pitfalls that would have…

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Fitch highlighted Jan. 6 insurrection with Treasury ahead of U.S. downgraded credit rating

Fitch highlighted Jan. 6 insurrection with Treasury ahead of U.S. downgraded credit rating

Reuters reports: Fitch downgraded the U.S. credit rating due to fiscal concerns, a deterioration in U.S governance, as well as political polarization reflected partly by the Jan. 6 insurrection, Richard Francis, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, told Reuters on Wednesday. In a move that took investors by surprise, Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA on Tuesday, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-to-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to…

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Trump is charged under civil rights law used to prosecute KKK violence

Trump is charged under civil rights law used to prosecute KKK violence

The Washington Post reports: A carload of White men who attacked an interracial couple with rocks and bricks. A member of the Ku Klux Klan who built a cross, wrapped it in sheets soaked in gas and oil and instructed two others to set it ablaze in front of the home of a family of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. A social media influencer who spread misinformation aimed at preventing people from voting. And now, a former president of the…

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