The dearth of examples of violence actually perpetuated against the conservative justices sends her repeatedly back to the well of luridly described nonviolent protests. The anti-Kavanaugh protesters (without any mention of why they were protesting) are put on par with Jan 6 insurrectionists
Liberals, she asserts, would have blocked Amy Coney Barrett bodily from the bench if not for the COVID pandemic: “The difficulty of mounting a campaign based on physical confrontation and disruption made it almost impossible to keep Barrett off the Court,” she writes.
The Dobbs leak, in her telling, was an open declaration of war on the right-wing justices. The liberals supposedly foot-dragged their dissents in order to collaborate with pro-abortion rights assassins who "had an incentive to kill one or more of the justices in the majority to change the outcome"
Mollie Hemingway's new Alito book, a gushing hagiography of the Court's most open partisan, reveals the depth of right-wing fantasies about leftist violence. Fascinating look at the threats a movement premised in grievance but in complete control has to invent talkingpointsmemo.com/news/alito-h...
Is "Trump's Word Is Not His Bondi" anything?
Hahaha Jackson says she takes Alito's point and says "he actually makes a good one." The "actually" there, devastating
Jackson jumps on this argument ^ "Are we bringing pregnant women in for depositions?" she asks
Barrett (more politely): How the f would this work? If citizenship turns on "intent to stay" in the country, you'd have to adjudicate that with everyone born here — "including US citizens, by the way," she says
Roberts says that if birth tourism is such a problem, do you have stats on how common it is? Sauer says 'no one knows' (but could be over a million!!!)
Lol Gorsuch to Sauer: "I'm not sure how much you want to rely on Wong Kim Ark."
This Supreme Court precedent simply dooms Trump's argument, though they pretend otherwise
Unbelievable (and so believable) - Alito is amenable to Trump theory.
He says that “illegal immigration” was not a known problem when the 14th Amendment was passed — e.g. the complete lack of support for Trump’s interpretation in the historical record doesn’t matter. New exceptions can arise later
Important early sign - Roberts is skeptical. Calls examples of other groups that are excepted from birthright citizenship "quirky," questions how those narrow categories (children of diplomats, invaders) could be so expanded to such a big group
Biggest day of the term (maybe multiple terms) at SCOTUS. @joshkovensky.bsky.social and I have you covered. Hang out with us as we liveblog here: talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/su...
And before arguments start, get up to speed: talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme...
Jackson basically argues that restricting the treatment-related speech of medical professionals — as part of a state's overarching regulation to ensure that patients get high-quality medical care — is permissible.
Kagan: "Consider a hypothetical law that is the mirror image of Colorado's. Instead of barring talk therapy designed to change a minor’s sexual orientation/gender identity, this law bars therapy affirming those things." Adds when state suppresses one side, "constitutional issue is straightforward"
New: Supreme Court holds that Colorado's conversion therapy ban violates freedom of (therapists') speech. Unusual split: Sotomayor and Kagan join majority opinion (and Kagan writes a separate concurrence, which Soto joins). Jackson is the solo dissenter
Like I wrote in 2024, America's actual publication of record, for people who want to understand the Republican Party's ratchet into authoritarianism over the last twenty- five years, is Taking Points Memo.
talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things...
“This is a case about swinging dicks,” began 9th Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke (a Trump appointee) in his dissent that elided trans people with sexual predators.
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-j...
Vance's anti-interventionist bona fides — critical for 2028 positioning, especially contra-Marco Rubio — are in the toilet as he stays silent amid Trump's new war.
Super surreal, all the cops asked prepared questions about working with dhs and/or big buckets of flattery. Noem at one point mentioned attending an event with Trump on Saturday - guess we'll see if that's still on the books!
CSPAN!
eek Noem is currently taking questions about immigration from local law enforcement at the major cities conference ... not clear that she knows Trump has fired her ...
Bonus: Montana’s Other Senator, for Whatever Reason, Decided to Beat up a Marine on Wednesday
Come for Daines' seat gifting, stay for Montana's other senator extracurricularly helping break a veteran/protester's arm talkingpointsmemo.com/news/daines-...
if I'm Paxton, I am holding out for a very sweet job offer to lighten the blow of dropping out of the race where i'm arguably the favorite
Talarico will be the standard bearer for the Dems, while the Republicans duke it out for 3 more months. His plan to succeed in a Senate race where so many other Dems have failed is premised on expanding a welcoming big tent to those led astray by Trump/apathy. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/talaric...
Breaking: AP calls that Paxton and Cornyn are into the runoff. This is the Dem dream: three more months of bruising (expensive!) Republican infighting. The pressure campaign on Trump to endorse Cornyn will only intensify, as Paxton is seen as weaker candidate talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cornyn-...
Not enough being said about how little preemptive work the Trump admin put into getting Americans evacuated from countries near Iran. Only telling people on a long list of nearby countries to leave yesterday "via commercial means" when it was already too late to fly out?
