Leap Year Day 2024
The New York Times is liveblogging the dueling Biden & Trump trips to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "A federal court in Austin on Thursday blocked the implementation of a Texas law that would allow state and local police officers to arrest migrants who cross from Mexico without authorization, siding with the federal government in a legal showdown over immigration enforcement. The ruling, by Judge David A. Ezra of the Western District of Texas, was a victory for the Biden administration, which had argued that the new state law violated federal statutes and the U.S. Constitution. The Texas law had been set to go into effect on March 5 but will now be put on hold as the case moves forward. In granting a preliminary injunction, Judge Ezra, who was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, signaled that the federal government was likely to eventually win on the merits." The AP's report is here.
Olympia Sonnier & Garrett Haake of NBC News: "When Donald Trump speaks at the southern border in Texas on Thursday, you can expect to hear him talk about 'migrant crime,' a category he has coined and defined as a terrifying binge of criminal activity committed by undocumented immigrants spreading across the country.... But despite the former president's campaign rhetoric, expert analysis and available data from major-city police departments show that despite several horrifying high-profile incidents, there is no evidence of a migrant-driven crime wave in the United States." Read on. The reporters cite numerous stats that defy Trump's scare tactics.
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post puts a positive spin on the Supreme Court's framing of the question it will consider in regard to presidential immunity.
Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court's decision to hear Donald Trump's audacious claim of presidential immunity from prosecution ... all but guarantees one of two terrible outcomes. Either the former president's trial ... will now not take place until after the 2024 election, or it will be held in the final months before Election Day. The justices are not entirely responsible for this mess, but they have just made a bad situation far worse than it needed to be. My beef isn't with the court's decision to hear the case -- it's with the outrageously lethargic timing. It would have been far better for the court to have taken up the issue back in December, when special counsel Jack Smith urged the justices to leapfrog the federal appeals court. Now, two and a half months have gone by.... Worst of all, especially given this timetable, the justices could have allowed trial preparations to go forward while the case was briefed, argued and decided.... And there might be more delay -- we'll find out, eventually -- built into the way the court has framed the question it wants to decide[.]" ~~~
~~~ Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog: "Early on, I called this federal election subversion case potentially the most important case in this Nation's history. And now it may not happen because of timing, timing that is completely in the Supreme Court's control. After all, this is the second time the Court has not expedited things to hear this case. This could well be game over."
Illinois. Rachel Leingang of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has appealed a decision from an Illinois state judge who decided he should be removed from that state's ballot because of the 14th amendment, an ongoing issue for Trump in the courts. Tracie Porter, the Cook county circuit judge, made the decision on Wednesday, reversing the previous decision by the Illinois state board of elections, which said Trump could stay on the ballot. The order was put on hold pending an appeal from Trump, which came swiftly on Thursday." Related story linked below.
Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Terrence Bradley, an Atlanta-area lawyer, had been billed as the star witness in the effort to disqualify Fani T. Willis, the district attorney leading the election interference case against ... Donald J. Trump in Georgia. But when Mr. Bradley took the stand this week -- and twice earlier this month -- he was a deeply reluctant witness.... But hundreds of text messages obtained by The New York Times show that Mr. Bradley, a former law partner and friend of Mr. Wade, helped a defense lawyer to expose the relationship between the two prosecutors. The texts reveal that Mr. Bradley, who served for a time as [prosecutor Nathan] Wade's divorce lawyer until the two men had a bitter falling-out, assisted the effort to reveal the romance and provide details about it for at least four months -- countering the impression he left on the witness stand that he had known next to nothing about the romance." This story covers the same subject as Nick Valencia & others addressed earlier (linked below).
Remembering Mitch. Robert Reich on Substack: Mitch McConnell has "been a truly awful public official. McConnell has always put party above America. Remember when he said his most important goal as Senate leader was to make Barack Obama a one-term president?... Despite his opposition to Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election -- admitting publicly that Trump 'provoked' the attack on the U.S. Capitol -- McConnell voted to acquit Trump on the charge of inciting an insurrection on January 6, 2021.... This is the man who refused for almost a year to allow the Senate to consider President Obama's moderate Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland. Then, when Trump became president, this is the man who got rid of the age-old Senate rule requiring 60 senators to agree on a Supreme Court nomination so he could ram through not one but two Supreme Court justices, including one with a likely history of sexual assault. This is the man who rushed through the Senate, without a single hearing, a $2 trillion tax cut for big corporations and wealthy Americans -- a tax cut that raised the government debt by almost the same amount, generated no new investment, and failed to raise wages, but gave the stock market a temporary sugar high because most corporations used the tax savings to buy back their own shares of stock."
Israel/Palestine, et al. New York Times: "Israeli forces opened fire on Thursday as a crowd gathered near a convoy of trucks carrying desperately needed aid in Gaza City, part of a chaotic scene in which scores of people were killed and injured, according to Gazan health officials and an Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The details of what happened were unclear, with officials from both sides offering starkly different accounts of the event. The Gazan health ministry said in a statement that more than 100 people were killed and more than 700 injured in a 'massacre.' The Israeli official acknowledged that troops had opened fire, but said most of the people had been killed or injured in a stampede several hundred yards away. Gazans, especially in the north of the territory, have become increasingly desperate for food." This is part of the NYT liveblog. ~~~
~~~ CNN's liveblog for Thursday is here.
Ukraine, et al. Putin Threatens "Destruction of Civilization." Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said the West faced the prospect of nuclear conflict if it intervened more directly in the war in Ukraine, using an annual speech to the nation on Thursday to escalate his threats against Europe and the United States. Mr. Putin said NATO countries that were helping Ukraine strike Russian territory or might consider sending their own troops 'must, in the end, understand' that 'all this truly threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization.'" The AP's story is here.
And Seth relives his historic brush with ice cream. Thanks to RAS for the link:
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For
Only voters can save American democracy from the malignant, fascist forces on the right.
** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to decide whether ... Donald J. Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, further delaying his criminal trial as it considers the matter. The justices scheduled arguments for the week of April 22 and said proceedings in the trial court would remain frozen, handing at least an interim victory to Mr. Trump.... The Supreme Court's response to Mr. Trump put the justices in the unusual position of deciding another aspect of the former president's fate: whether and how quickly Mr. Trump could go to trial. That, in turn, could affect his election prospects and, should he be re-elected, his ability to scuttle the prosecution.... By some rough calculations, the trial could be delayed until late September or October, plunging the proceedings into the heart of the election...."
"The Supreme Court's brief order said the court would decide this question: 'Whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: The framing of that question is worth exploring. The good news: the question demonstrates that the Court will not even consider Trump's double jeopardy claim that he cannot be tried again for the same crimes the Senate tried him for in his second impeachment trial. The bad news: (1) By exploring the question of the "extent" of immunity, the Court is suggesting that Trump may have immunity from some or part of the charges brought against him, so it may have to decide myriad questions on every insurrection-y thing Trump did. The Court is asking a wider question that Trump raised, the kind of question so complicated, Laurence Tribe said, that it may raise issues that will bounce back and forth among the district, appeals & Supreme Courts. "This is a formula for indefinite delay," Tribe said. (2) The reference to "alleged" official acts flat-out takes Trump's side: he of course is the party who is "alleging" everything he did surrounding the insurrection was an official act. ~~~
~~~ CNN's story is here. The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "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 one that few experts think has any basis in the Constitution -- the justices bought the former president at least several months before a trial on the election interference charges can start.... With each delay, the odds increase that voters will not get a chance to hear the evidence that Mr. Trump sought to subvert the last election before they decide whether to back him in the current one." MB: In fairness to the confederate Supremes, they are corrupt. They know we know it, and they really don't care. It is in their interests to help Donald Trump, and that's what they're doing.
Marie: As several anchors & reporters pointed out on CNN & MSNBC Wednesday, the Supremes' months-long delay has effectively scuttled the big case. However, I'd like to point out a few mitigating factors. (1) The idea that ordinary voters would actually listen to and understand the evidence presented in court is rather fanciful. You might pay close attention, but a mom who works just doesn't have the time or the interest. (2) There's nothing that says Trump will be found guilty. One Trumpy juror could hang the jury. Or the jury could find him not guilty (okay, not likely). And the upshot would be that Trump could trumpet his victimhood, and many Americans would be persuaded that the system was "rigged" against him. (3) If Trump were found guilty, he would appeal. So it would be easy for those voters who say, "Ooh, I wouldn't vote for him if he was guilty of a crime," to revise that position to, "Well, his conviction might be overturned, so I don't know if he's really guilty." These trials are not the be-all and end-all that will spare a once-great nation from a tragic fall. And the trials most likely will go on eventually -- unless we elect Trump.
A Miracle in Florida. Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "The federal judge overseeing ... Donald Trump's criminal trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents ruled Wednesday against his lawyers' bid to see more of the classified filings prosecutors have submitted -- concluding that the access Trump's team sought was not typically granted in such cases and that withholding the information would not hamper his defense. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon issued a nine-page order rejecting Trump's arguments for his lawyers to see prosecutors' filings under Section 4 of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), a law designed to shield national security secrets at issue in criminal trials. Cannon plans to hold a key hearing in the case Friday, where she will discuss the trial schedule, evidence disputes between prosecutors and defense lawyers, and a related disagreement over proposed redactions to court documents.... Cannon's ruling follows a similar judgment that she issued Tuesday, in which she denied requests by lawyers for Trump's co-defendants, Waltine 'Walt' Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, to have access to some of the classified information."
Way last week, Trump was too rich to post bond in the E. Jean Carroll case. (Story linked yesterday.) This week ~~~
~~~ Ben Protess & Kate Christobek of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump offered a New York appeals court on Wednesday a bond of only $100 million to pause the more than $450 million judgment he faces in his civil fraud case, saying that he might need to sell some of his properties unless he gets relief. An appellate court judge promptly denied Mr. Trump's emergency request to halt the financial judgment, but the former president is not out of options. Mr. Trump can try again with a panel of five appellate court judges, which will entertain his request next month. However that panel rules, the request represented a stunning acknowledgment that the former president, who is racing the clock to secure a bond from a company for the full amount if he does not produce the money himself, lacks the resources to do so. If he fails, the New York attorney general's office, which brought the fraud case, could seek to collect from Mr. Trump at any moment, though it is expected to provide him with a 30-day grace period until March 25.... The appellate court judge ... granted the former president's request to temporarily pause [a three-year ban on running his company and a ban on obtaining a New York bank loan]...." This is an update to a story linked earlier yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) A CBS News story is here.
Nick Valencia, et al., of CNN: "A key witness in the push to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election case against Donald Trump had a much deeper involvement in the effort than was previously known, according to hundreds of text messages obtained by CNN. The 413 texts between Terrence Bradley and Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for one of Trump's co-defendants, reveal months of communications between the two, underscoring the extent to which Bradley assisted Merchant's pursuit of evidence to back up claims Willis and her top prosecutor, Nathan Wade, engaged in an improper romantic relationship.... The ... text messages show Bradley calling Merchant his 'friend,' offering unsolicited advice, and also bashing Willis and Wade, Bradley's former law partner.... The text messages raise questions about Bradley's credibility, and the degree to which Merchant appeared to rely on his claims that she was then unable to substantiate elsewhere. They also shed new light on his testimony [Tuesday] and how it failed to meet the expectations of defense attorneys who had billed Bradley as the star witness in their bid to disqualify Willis."
Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "A state judge in Illinois ruled on Wednesday that ... Donald J. Trump had engaged in insurrection and was ineligible to appear on the state's primary ballot. The decision creates uncertainty for the state's March election, in which early voting is already underway. It also adds urgency for the U.S. Supreme Court to provide a national answer to the questions that have been raised about Mr. Trump's eligibility to appear on ballots in more than 30 states. The judge, Tracie R. Porter of the State Circuit Court in Cook County, said the State Board of Elections had erred in rejecting an attempt to remove Mr. Trump and said the board 'shall remove Donald J. Trump from the ballot for the general primary election on March 19, 2024, or cause any votes cast for him to be suppressed.' But the decision by Judge Porter, a Democrat, was stayed until Friday, which means Mr. Trump can remain on the Illinois ballot at least until then." The NBC News story is here. CNN's report is here.
Maggie Haberman & Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump will meet privately with Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, at Mr. Trump's club in Florida next week, according to a person briefed on the plans. Mr. Orban is a right-wing nationalist who has waged an aggressive campaign against immigration and has declared that the West 'is at war with itself.'... Like Mr. Trump, he has sometimes appeared sympathetic to or admiring of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.... He is a longtime ally of Mr. Trump and has close ties to the populist conservative movement in the United States. Mr. Trump has frequently praised Mr. Orban at rallies and in speeches since leaving the White House. Their meeting, which is scheduled to take place at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach next Friday, underscores the degree to which Mr. Trump has tried to establish himself as a sort of president-in-exile." MB: More likely Trump is hoping Orban will give him some tips for dictators.
Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals panel on Wednesday denied former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows's request for a new hearing on whether to move the Georgia election interference case against him from state to federal court, a shift he had sought on the grounds that he was a federal officer at the time of the actions that led to his indictment. The two-sentence ruling by a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit represents yet another setback for Meadows.... That same panel ruled in December that Meadows was not entitled to a trial in federal court, but Meadows had subsequently asked for a fresh hearing before the full 11th Circuit. Now, Meadows's only remaining recourse is to seek a review by the U.S. Supreme Court."
Katie Rogers & Lawrence Altman of the New York Times: "President Biden on Wednesday was declared 'fit for duty' by his longtime doctor, who said that the president had undergone an 'extremely detailed' neurological exam that did not turn up evidence of stroke, neurological disorders or Parkinson's disease. In a summary of Mr. Biden's third presidential physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Dr. Kevin O'Connor did not say whether the examination contained common tests for assessing cognitive decline or detecting signs of dementia that are often recommended for older adults. Dr. O'Connor said that a team of doctors, including a neurologist, two orthopedists and a physical therapist, examined the president, whom Dr. O'Connor described as an 'active 81-year-old white male.'" The report provides more details.
Arelis Hernández of the Washington Post: "As President Biden and Republican contender Donald Trump head to Texas on Thursday, the cities each has chosen to plant their flag on immigration are a study of contrasts. While both hug the Rio Grande, that's about where the similarities end.... Brownsville ... is nestled within the U.S. Customs and Border Protection sector that has long seen the highest levels of migration. But even when border crossings surge, the shocks are quietly absorbed. Residents donate supplies and help orient the new arrivals on how to navigate their way to their final destinations. Three hundred miles upriver..., Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has transformed [Eagle Pass] ... into a military front line on immigration. Razor wire and rusted shipping containers warn migrants to stay away. And military trucks and rifle-carrying troops occupy the city's biggest park.
** Buh-bye, Mitch. Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the longtime top Senate Republican, said on Wednesday that he would give up his spot as the party's leader at the end of this year, acknowledging that his Reaganite national security views had put him out of step with a party now headed by ... Donald J. Trump. 'Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular time,' Mr. McConnell, who turned 82 last week, said in a speech on the Senate floor announcing his intentions. 'I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them.' His decision, reported earlier by The Associated Press, was not a surprise. Mr. McConnell suffered a serious fall last year and experienced some episodes where he momentarily froze in front of the media. He has also faced rising resistance within his ranks for his push to provide continued military assistance to Ukraine as well as his close-to-the-vest leadership style." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Worth remembering: we have the courts we have because Mitch McConnell. As former Sen. Al Franken said on MSNBC, without McConnell, the Supreme Court would be 5-4 liberal/conservative. Obama appointee replacing Scalia; Biden replacing Ginsburg. Moreover, Mitch refused to bring forward many of President Obama's nominees to lower courts, thus giving Trump a chance to flood the lower courts with Federalist appointees. And Mitch's refusal to convict Trump in the second impeachment trial -- and bring along more GOP senators -- is precisely why we're in the mess we are today.
Congress to Keep the Lights on for a Few Weeks. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders said on Wednesday they had agreed to another short-term stopgap spending bill to head off a partial government shutdown at the end of the week, paving the way for a temporary path out of a stalemate that has repeatedly threatened federal funding over the past six months. The deal, initially floated by Speaker Mike Johnson, would extend funding for some government agencies for a week, through March 8, and the rest for another two weeks, until March 22.... The deal paved the way for a vote in the House as soon as Thursday to keep the government open, with the Senate expected to follow suit before a midnight deadline on Friday.... The White House signaled its support for the agreement shortly after it was announced." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) NPR's story is here.
Scott Wong of NBC News: "After a convincing special election victory, New York Democrat Tom Suozzi was sworn into the House on Wednesday night to fill the vacancy left by last year's historic expulsion of Republican George Santos. Suozzi's swearing-in further reduces House Republicans' razor-thin majority -- one of the smallest ever -- to 219-213 at a time when Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has been struggling to corral his rank-and-file members and carry out the basic functions of government. The return of Suozzi, who previously served in the House, means that Johnson's leadership team can afford only two GOP defections on any vote if all Democrats vote in opposition." See also New York state Congressional map change; story linked below.
Matt Viser & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "Hunter Biden, delivering his long-awaited deposition before a GOP-led congressional impeachment inquiry, testified Wednesday that he never involved his father in any of his business decisions, and he accused House Republicans of having 'built your entire partisan house of cards on lies.' At the start of what was seven hours of contentious questioning and adamant rebuttals, President Biden's son gave a statement that was defiant, emotional and combative.... Emerging from the hearing, Republicans could not point to any major new revelations and Democrats argued that the record argues strongly for shutting down the impeachment effort."
Kayla Guo of the New York Times: "A Republican senator on Wednesday blocked quick passage of a bill that would establish federal protections for in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments in the wake of a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos should be considered children. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Republican of Mississippi, objected to approval of the measure, which would establish a federal right protecting access to I.V.F. and fertility treatments, scuttling its chances for now. Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, sought to pass the bill on Wednesday under a procedure that allows any one senator to object and stop it in its tracks, effectively daring Republicans to oppose it and highlighting divisions within the G.O.P. on how to handle the issue.... Ms. Duckworth previously tried to pass a similar bill with unanimous consent in 2022, but Ms. Hyde-Smith objected." For more details, see CNN's liveblog, linked yesterday.
Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court wrestled on Wednesday over whether the Trump administration acted lawfully in enacting a ban on bump stocks after one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. The justices appeared split largely along ideological lines over the ban, which prohibits the sale and possession of bump stocks, attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire at speeds rivaling machine guns.... [The case turns on] the power of administrative agencies -- in this instance, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A decision is expected by late June.... At issue is whether a bump stock falls within the legal definition of a machine gun. If the court deems a bump stock can be used to make a gun into a 'machine gun,' then it can be prohibited as part of a category heavily regulated by the A.T.F. During less than two hours of arguments, the justices appeared to struggle to make sense of the mechanics of gun triggers and the value of a ban for gun owners and the wider public."
Carlos Lozada of the New York Times: "With contributions by dozens of conservative thinkers and activists under the leadership of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, the [887-page 'Mandate for Leadership -- the Conservative Promise'] announces itself as part of a 'unified effort to be ready for the next conservative administration to govern at 12:00 noon, Jan. 20, 2025.' There is much work ahead, it states, 'just to undo the significant damage that will have been done during the Biden years.'... What is most striking about the book is not the specific policy agenda it outlines but how far the authors are willing to go in pursuit of that agenda and how reckless their assumptions are about law, power and public service.... [The book is] about consolidating authority and eroding accountability for the long haul.... It portrays the president as the personal embodiment of popular will and treats the law as an impediment to conservative governance.... 'Mandate for Leadership' is about capturing the administrative state, not unmaking it.... [The book promotes] the philosophical and legal concept of 'ordered liberty,' in which individual rights are weighed against social stability."
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Idaho. Mike Baker of the New York Times: "Executioners in Idaho abandoned their attempt to use lethal injection on one of the nation's longest-serving death row inmates on Wednesday after repeated tries to tap into a vein were unsuccessful. Public defenders representing the inmate, Thomas Eugene Creech, and witnesses said that officials had tried to stick needles in each of Mr. Creech's limbs before halting the effort. Mr. Creech's death warrant was to expire at the end of the day, and he was returned to his cell. It was Idaho's first attempted execution in more than a decade. The failure was the latest in a series of botched executions around the country, often stemming from executioners having trouble finding veins."
New York. Azi Paybarah of the Washington Post: "Lawmakers in the Democratic-led New York legislature approved a new congressional map Wednesday with slight adjustments made to the boundaries of a few districts after earlier this week rejecting a map drawn by an independent commission. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced on social media later Wednesday that she had signed the new map into law. The new map comes ahead of the June primaries in a state that is expected to play a crucial role in determining which party will win control of the House. In 2022, the GOP flipped four House seats in New York, helping the party wrest control of the chamber back from Democrats. The New York Republican Party said Wednesday evening that it would not contest the new map in court."
Texas. Ben Brasch & Maria Paúl of the Washington Post: "The state of Texas executed Ivan Abner Cantu, a 50-year-old Dallas native who maintained his innocence and garnered support from celebrities asking for his life to be spared, on Wednesday evening. Cantu's execution -- the first one carried out in Texas this year -- comes more than two decades after he was convicted in a fatal shooting in 2000. Yet, his advocates long pleaded for Cantu to have another day in court -- claiming that prosecutorial and defense misconduct, the discovery of physical evidence and a witness's admission to lying during the trial should have warranted a pause to the execution."
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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "At least 30,035 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the enclave's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The figure, which comes as aid groups warn of widespread hunger, underlines the scale of devastation in less than five months of war, launched by Israel in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that left about 1,200 dead. Negotiators are discussing a weeks-long cease-fire to release Israeli hostages and allow in aid, but Israel and Hamas have downplayed any immediate progress.... Gaza is on the brink of famine, humanitarian groups say, as the volume of aid has plummeted in recent weeks and convoys struggled to travel amid intense bombardment and disruption at border crossings."