May 5, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Pam Belluck & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the legal and culture wars over abortion ... would increasingly shift to a new front: the use of abortion pills. Medication abortion -- a two-drug combination that can be taken at home or in any location and is authorized for use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy -- has become more and more prevalent and now accounts for more than half of recent abortions in the United States. If the federal guarantee of abortion rights disappears, medication abortion would likely become an even more sought-after method for terminating a pregnancy -- and the focus of battles between states that ban abortion and those that continue to allow it.... Medication abortion is less expensive and less invasive than surgical abortions.... Many conservative states have already begun passing laws to restrict medication abortion, including banning it earlier than 10 weeks'gestation and requiring patients to visit providers in person despite F.D.A. rules." An AP story is here.
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Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a half percentage point and announced a plan to shrink its massive bond holdings, decisive measures aimed at tamping down the fastest inflation in four decades. Wednesday's move marked the Fed's largest interest rate increase since 2000, and Chair Jerome H. Powell signaled at a news conference following the meeting additional half percentage point increases will be 'on the table' at the Fed's upcoming meetings." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A CNBC report is here.
Libby Cathey of ABC News: "President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that the federal government will pay down the national debt this quarter for the first time in six years. His remarks on economic growth came ahead of the Federal Reserve announcing a hike in interest rates Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to manage soaring inflation.... 'For all the talk the Republicans make about deficits, it didn't happen a single quarter under my predecessor, not once,' Biden said. 'The bottom line is the deficit went up every year under my predecessor, before the pandemic and during the pandemic, [and] it's gone down both years since I have been here. Period. There are the facts.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
Alito Goes into Hiding. TuAnh Dam of Axios: "Justice Samuel Alito canceled an appearance at a judicial conference due to begin on Thursday..., Reuters reports.... Alito was scheduled to appear at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' judicial conference, Reuters reports. He is the justice assigned to hear emergency appeals from the 5th Circuit, which includes the New Orleans-based federal appeals court and district courts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas...." The Reuters report is firewalled. OR, as Ken W. surmised, Suddenly Silent Sam is just exercising his Constitutional right to privacy.
Lies & the Lying Liars on the Supreme Court. Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "'It is important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times,' [Brett] Kavanaugh said [of Roe v. Wade] in response to one of a slew of questions on abortion during his confirmation hearings. Furthermore, Kavanaugh underscored that the core tenets of the landmark 1973 decision were upheld nearly two decades later.... Kavanaugh called Roe ... 'settled as a precedent.'... Less than four years later, Kavanaugh is among the list of justices who, according to a draft majority opinion and an accompanying report published by Politico this week, is poised to overturn Roe.... A growing number of senators -- particularly Democrats, for the moment at least -- are questioning the utility of the confirmation process and whether justices who enjoy lifetime appointments can somehow be held accountable for their sworn testimony if it proves misleading.... [Some] Democratic senators, however, say it was clear how nominees, particularly those picked by Trump, would rule on abortion, no matter what they pledged publicly. Their beef is largely with the senators who professed to believe otherwise and now say they are shocked."
The New York Times live-updated reactions Wednesday to Sam Alito's leaked draft opinion. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Alito, shocked -- shocked -- to discover so little in the law books of the eighteen-sixties guaranteeing a right to abortion, has missed the point; anything in the law books of [that period] guaranteed women anything -- because -- usually they still weren't persons. Nor for that matter were fetuses. -- Historian Jill Lepore in the New Yorker (via P.D. Pepe)
Suddenly, They Want to Focus on the Real Issues. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: Despite standing on the cusp of realizing a victory they sought for nearly 50 years, "few Republicans have openly celebrated.... There are signs that Republicans, despite their years of activism, are not fully prepared for the thorny political ramifications of a post-Roe political atmosphere.... Several Republican senators dodged questions about possible implications of Roe being overturned...."
Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "For nearly half a century, Republicans have railed against 'unelected judges' making rulings that they claim disenfranchise voters from deciding for themselves what laws should govern hot-button issues. But since the release this week of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the long-standing constitutional right to abortion, Democrats have been the ones embracing that complaint, flipping the script as the party vents its frustration with elements of the U.S. system that have empowered a minority of the country's voters to elect lawmakers who have successfully reshaped the high court.... The Democratic anger is anchored in structural advantages Republicans have recently enjoyed that grant them power disproportionate to their public support." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: The real difference between Republican and Democratic "unelected judges," which Scherer doesn't bother to mention, is that in the last half of the 20th century, "unelected judges" tended to expand civil rights, while the Republicans' favored "unelected judges" tend to constrict or eliminate them. And every indication is those GOP-appointed judges are going to keep on keeping on.
** Melissa Murray & Leah Litman in a Washington Post op-ed: "The truly shocking thing about the draft Supreme Court opinion overruling Roe v. Wade is ... that the opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. adopted such an aggressively maximalist position, not only giving states extraordinary leeway to prohibit abortion but also implicitly inviting a flurry of challenges to other precedents, including cases protecting contraception and LGBTQ civil rights. Perhaps the most stunning feature of the opinion is that its indignant tone and aggressive reasoning make clear how empowered this conservative majority believes itself to be.... The draft goes out of its way to ensure that there are no limits whatsoever on states' ability to restrict abortions.... Alito also chose to rely on the most outlandish arguments to justify overruling Roe.... The caustic tone and aggressive reasoning suggest this conservative majority ... has no sense of institutional propriety that might lead it to act with more humility and caution." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yes, well, the notion that Sam Alito, for one, ever has suffered even a mild pang of humility is preposterous. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Always nice to see someone get the better of Ross Douthat. Douthat was on CNN Wednesday discussing the potentials of the Supremes' overturning Roe v. Wade. Douthat posited that it was ridiculous to think that overturning Roe would or could lead to overturning other rulings based on the right to privacy. Jeff Toobin started to push back on Douthat's supposition, but Douthat scoffed with what he imagined was a "gotcha" proof: "C'mon," said he, "can we at least agree that Clarence Thomas is not going to vote to overturn the right of interracial couples to marry?" (slight paraphrase) Toobin had a ready response: "It isn't that Thomas opposes interracial marriage; it's that he thinks there is no Constitutional right to interracial marriage. He believes that, like abortion, marriage law is a matter for the states to decide." (slight paraphrase)
** Jay Willis of Balls & Strikes: "The digital ink had not yet dried on Monday's bombshell story that the Supreme Court has the votes to overrule Roe v. Wade when America's most online lawyers began weighing in on The Real Crisis: the shocking, shameful leak from within the hallowed chambers of the nation's highest and fanciest court.... This elevation of process over substance is as wrong as it is self-serving. The Court is not losing public trust or facing an existential crisis because of a leak. The Court is leaking because it is losing public trust and facing an existential crisis.... A nakedly partisan Supreme Court deserves to be treated like any other nakedly partisan branch of government.... The Court's legitimacy should ... hinge on whether the justices are acting legitimately. If a half-dozen extremists are just going to take a blowtorch to anything and everything they don't like, no one in their orbit should be obligated to abide by their sacred norms any longer." Via Scott Lemieux in LG&$. MB: Even if you think you might totally disagree with Willis, his snarky irreverence is a joy to read. ~~~
~~~ Marie: There is a piece in Slate, the author(s) of which I don't know, about how the Supreme Court's supposed leak investigation is a farce. The Slate post is firewalled, by Scott Lemieux has reprinted a good part of it in in LG&$.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian soldiers on Thursday for the first time breached Ukrainian defenses around the Azovstal steel plant, as Moscow's forces mounted a final push to seize full control of the port city of Mariupol.... Only the fighters in the plant stand in the way of Moscow declaring control over Mariupol, which has become a symbol of both Ukrainian resistance and Russian destruction. A Ukrainian commander, Lt. Col. Denys Prokopenko, said 'heavy, bloody battles' were being fought in the plant's subterranean labyrinth of bunkers and fallout shelters, where officials estimated that about 200 civilians were still hiding with the last soldiers defending the city.... Ukrainian forces reclaimed several strategically important villages around the eastern city of Kharkiv and pushed Russian forces back some two dozen miles from the city...." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "European diplomats are set to meet again Thursday as they negotiate a proposal to phase out Russian oil imports, a stern punishment for the Kremlin's war on Ukraine.... The oil proposal could be finalized by the end of the week but must be approved by all E.U. member states, and two countries -- Hungary and Slovakia -- have reservations. Overnight, Russian forces struck the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, injuring at least 25 civilians and destroying nine homes, a school and other civilian buildings, according to the regional military chief. A railroad facility and a bridge in the riverside city of Dnipro were hit on Wednesday, continuing the Kremlin's targeting of infrastructure that is critical to Ukraine's efforts to resupply its forces."
Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States has provided intelligence about Russian units that has allowed Ukrainians to target and kill many of the Russian generals who have died in action in the Ukraine war, according to senior American officials. Ukrainian officials said they have killed approximately 12 generals on the front lines, a number that has astonished military analysts. The targeting help is part of a classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine.... The United States has focused on providing the location and other details about the Russian military's mobile headquarters, which relocate frequently.... U.S. intelligence support to the Ukrainians has had a decisive effect on the battlefield, confirming targets identified by the Ukrainian military and pointing it to new targets. The flow of actionable intelligence on the movement of Russian troops that America has given Ukraine has few precedents."
The patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy. -- Pope Francis to Patriarch Kirill ~~~
~~~ When the Pope Scolded the Patriarch. On Zoom. Timothy Bella & Sammy Westfall of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis warned the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church not to be 'Putin's altar boy' and justify the Russian president's invasion of Ukraine. In a Tuesday interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Francis said he spoke with Patriarch Kirill, a key supporter of Vladimir Putin and his war, for 40 minutes over Zoom. During the March 16 conversation, Francis said, Kirill was listing off all the justifications for the war from a sheet of paper he was holding. 'I listened and then told him: I don't understand anything about this,' Francis said. 'Brother, we are not state clerics, we cannot use the language of politics but that of Jesus. We are pastors of the same holy people of God. Because of this, we must seek avenues of peace, to put an end to the firing of weapons.'" A CNN report is here.
Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "Donald Trump Jr., interviewed with the Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the matter.... Trump Jr. is also the latest select panel witness believed to have been in the Oval Office the morning of Jan. 6 with [Donald] Trump, his top aides and family members. Shortly after they arrived, per a private White House schedule obtained by the committee, Trump called [Mike] Pence to make a final effort to pressure him to overturn the election. Trump Jr.'s interview, confirmed on condition of anonymity and conducted without a subpoena lasted several hours...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Former lead impeachment counsel Daniel Goldman pointed out on MSNBC that likely the reason members of the Trump Crime Family -- Junior, Ivanka, Jared & Kimberly Guilfoyle -- agreed to be interviewed is that voluntary witnesses -- as opposed to those who appear under subpoena -- cannot be compelled to answer questions, and they don't have to plead the Fifth to refuse to answer.
Clare Foran & Melanie Zanona of CNN: "House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy discussed the 25th Amendment on a call with GOP leadership days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and said the process 'takes too long,' according to an audio recording obtained by two New York Times reporters and shared with CNN. McCarthy also said during the call that he wanted to reach out to then-President-elect Joe Biden as he expressed hope for a 'smooth transition,' and said he thought impeachment would further divide the nation. The call took place on January 8, 2021, and the audio was obtained for the new book "This Will Not Pass..." by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns.... The fact McCarthy was pressing one of his aides for details about how the 25th Amendment process would work shows there was a serious conversation at the highest levels of GOP leadership about the idea -- not just idle chatter -- even if it was ultimately deemed not a viable option." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Not with a Bang, but a Whimper. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Even as the beleaguered police were still trying to disperse a violent mob at the Capitol last January, Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, undertook a desperate, last-ditch effort to keep ... Donald J. Trump in the White House, according to court papers released on Wednesday. In a suite at the Phoenix Park Hotel..., Mr. Rhodes called an unnamed intermediary and, the papers said, repeatedly implored the person to ask Mr. Trump to mobilize his group to forcibly stop the transition of presidential power. But the person refused to speak with Mr. Trump, the papers said. And once the call was over, Mr. Rhodes, turning to a group of his associates, declared, 'I just want to fight.' Witnessing this scene, which unfolded in the twilight hours of Jan. 6, 2021, was William Todd Wilson, a midlevel Oath Keepers leader from North Carolina. On Wednesday, Mr. Wilson, 44, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to charges of seditious conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their investigation of the Oath Keepers' role in the Capitol attack."
TurboScam Settlement Announced. Christine Chung of the New York Times: "For years, the maker of the TurboTax software claimed that people could file their tax returns online for free. Millions of customers signed up, only to pay hidden fees later in the process. That was the finding of a multistate investigation led by Attorney General Letitia James of New York. Ms. James announced on Wednesday that Intuit, the company creating the software, would pay back $141 million to more than four million Americans who were unfairly charged for tax services that were falsely advertised as free. Refunds will be sent automatically to affected taxpayers. The company 'cheated millions of low-income Americans out of free tax filing services they were entitled to,' Ms. James said, adding that the settlement, signed by the attorneys general of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, was a clear reminder to companies that 'deceptive marketing ploys' are illegal.
The Lost City of Atlantis Jamestown. Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: "The 400-year-old colonial site [Jamestown, Va.,] is losing its battle with climate change, experts say, and Wednesday the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed it on a list of the country's most endangered historical places.... Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer for the trust, said, 'You've got resources there underwater, that are staying underwater.'... Jamestown, in 1607, became the place of the first permanent English settlement in what would become the United States. The earth here holds the bones of hundreds of the early colonists and the artifacts that are clues to their lives. It is also the place where, in 1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived, and where generations of Native Americans had already lived for centuries." (Also linked yesterday.)
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "By Wednesday, [Trevor] Noah's chiding remarks at [the White House Correspondents' Dinner, or] what he called 'the nation's most distinguished superspreader event, were beginning to appear prophetic as a growing number of attendees, including a string of journalists and Antony J. Blinken, the secretary of state, said they had tested positive for the virus."
Beyond the Beltway
Michigan. Clara Hendrickson & Arpan Lobo of the Detroit Free Press: "In an upset win Tuesday, Democrat Carol Glanville defeated Republican Robert 'RJ' Regan in a special election for a Michigan House seat that had only ever been held by a Republican. Results remain unofficial, but with all precincts in the district reporting, Glanville led Regan by more than 1,500 votes as of 10:30 p.m. She topped 51% of the total votes cast; Regan garnered 40% and 7.9% went to write-ins.... Regan made national headlines in March for suggesting rape victims 'lie back and enjoy it,' after he promoted conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and shared antisemitic rhetoric. He was favored to win in the heavily Republican district." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michigan. Crazy Guy Wins House Primary. Azi Paybarah & Kellen Browning of the New York Times: "When J.R. Majewski emerged as the surprise winner of a Republican House primary election on Tuesday in northern Ohio, Democrats supporting the longtime incumbent congresswoman in the district, Marcy Kaptur, celebrated. That was because Mr. Majewski had beaten out two lower-key Republicans for the nomination, both of whom Democrats worried could have posed serious problems for Ms. Kaptur in the conservative-leaning Ninth Congressional District.... During his campaign, [Majewski] ran one ad showing him carrying an assault-style rifle in which he says, 'I'm willing to do whatever it takes to return this country back to its former glory.' ... He also posted a 'Let's Go Brandon' music video on his website in which he raps a verse, warning, 'Just try to put a mask on me, you'll see red, white and blue.'... In addition to advancing the lie that the 2020 election was stolen ... and floating doubts that the Capitol riot was driven by Trump supporters, he has expressed sympathy for believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. He said last year that one of their false claims about a prominent Democrat being a pedophile was 'plausible.'"
Minnesota. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday accepted a plea deal that will sentence former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to between 20 and 25 years in prison for violating the rights of George Floyd.... Chauvin is already serving a 22½-year sentence for Floyd's murder and last month asked a state appeals court to overturn his conviction."