#biden ketanji jackson brown

[hajamfxsblog]

Biden is on track to appoint more federal judges of color than any other president

[justinspoliticalcorner]

As President Joe Biden (D) wraps up his term today, his four years in office had successes and blunders. I was proud to have voted for this man in the 2020 general and the 2024 primaries. Regardless of where he ends up on the Presidential rankings, he was still a better President than his predecessor or successor. His successes were the fact he led the US out of the COVID pandemic, defended Ukraine from Russian aggression, secured infrastructure investments, got COVID-19 vaccines out to the American people, signed the Inflation Reduction Act, signed the CHIPS Act, signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed the American Rescue Plan, delivered a 3rd round of stimulus checks, put Ketanji Brown Jackson on SCOTUS, appointed a record number of judges, signing the PACT Act, expanded food assistance benefits, expanded the child tax credit that lasted for 6 months (and should have lasted longer if it weren’t for the Sinema-Manchin duo), joined striking UAW workers on the picket line by becoming the first sitting President to do so, signed the Respect For Marriage Act into law to protect against a potential Obergefell overturn, made Juneteenth a federal holiday, signed the Emmitt Till Anti-Lynching Act that makes lynching a federal hate crime, got the US out of Afghanistan (though the handling of it can be debated), got Sweden and Finland to join NATO, blocked Nippon Steel from buying US Steel, managed to get a ceasefire deal done (though it came too late), brought home Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan, and Evan Gershkovich from Russian prison in prisoner swaps, tried to solve the student loan debt crisis (although the right-wing activist judges keep denying him that), and signing a bill that makes the bald eagle America’s official bird. His failures were his constant enabling of Israel’s genocide of Gaza, signing a bill banning TikTok in which SCOTUS upheld in TikTok v. Garland, signing the 2025 NDAA that banned trans children of military soldiers on Tricare from getting gender-affirming care, failure to get voting rights and Roe codified into law (though Sinema and Manchin are to blame here), and perceptions of chaos at the US/Mexico Border which he tried to solve with a bipartisan border security bill that Trump complained and forced the GOP to scuttle it. During his tenure in office, like Barack Obama-- who he served under during his time as VP-- Biden was subjected to partisan faux investigations by House Republicans. On June 27th, 2024, the debate between him and former insurrection-inciting felon “President” Donald Trump (R) revealed what a lot of Americans knew about Biden: his decline in cognitive ability and why running for a 2nd term was a colossal mistake. That awful debate performance led to him ending his re-election bid on July 21st after weeks of hemming and hawing. As a result of Biden calling it quits in the race, Vice President Kamala Harris (D) moved up to the lead spot on the ticket. Harris later picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) to her running mate. On November 5th/6th, 2024, the Harris/Walz ticket lost to the Trump/Vance ticket in the election, and the Democratic ticket not only lost the Electoral College vote but also the popular vote for the first time since 2004. The result left the question of whether aspects of Biden’s legacy will hold up better or worse in the long run.  There were lots of reasons why the Harris/Walz ticket list, and the key reasons for that are as follows (and some of these were out of the control of the candidate):

Right-wing disinformation and misinformation being amplified on social media, such as the infamous Springfield pet-eating hoax and paranoia-induced QAnon/Pizzagate-tinged conspiracy theories about Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Lahaina wildfires, East Palestine train derailment, LGBTQ+/transgender issues (such as pushing the false “social contagion” myth, baselessly comparing gender-affirming care to “mutilation”, and comparing LGBTQ+ community members to “pedophiles” and “groomers”), COVID-19 (especially the promotion of discredited treatments such as ivermectin), and vaccines.

Normalization of anti-vaccine and anti-expertise sentiments.

Biden’s continued enabling of Israel’s genocide of Gaza.

Biden signing a bill banning TikTok, which ended up being costly to Democratic chances among young Americans.

Worldwide anti-incumbent backlash.

President Biden’s low job approval ratings, especially in the 2nd half of his term.

Inflation rate during most of Biden’s Presidency.

House mortgages and grocery prices rising in recent years.

The fact that a sizable amount of Americans were afraid of a woman leading the country, and a Black/South Asian biracial one at that.

Right-leaning and right-adjacent podcasts such as Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Nelk Boys, Shawn Ryan, and Charlie Kirk-- especially those geared to young males-- helped normalized Trump and his misogynistic ways to that crowd.

Right-leaning posts/videos getting more traction than left-leaning or neutral posts/videos on social media outlets, especially on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. This is despite the overheated claims of “censorship” of conservative content on social media.

In shortened form: conspiracy theories, Gaza genocide, disinformation and misinformation, TikTok ban bill, anti-incumbent sentiment, right-wing content dominating social media, President Biden’s low job approval ratings, and inflation were the key drivers for the 2024 losses for the Democrats. As for Harris, I really don’t blame her for the loss very much considering the circumstances that she was thrown in, as I believe that President Biden, cost of living increases, and worldwide anti-incumbent sentiments were the main reasons for her loss. Harris replacing Biden as the Dem nominee helped save the Democratic Party in the medium-to-long term, as she fought Trump to an almost draw in the Electoral College and Popular Vote, got the House to a manageable distance for the Democrats to retake in the 2026 midterms, and got the Senate to a doable chance to flip within the next two election cycles. Imagine if Biden was our nominee in 2024 instead? The Democrats would have fared far worse at the polls, causing them to lose even more states such as New Jersey, Maine’s two statewide ECVs, Nebraska-02, Virginia, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and New Mexico, and potentially put safe states like Illinois, Oregon, Colorado, Rhode Island, and New York in peril. They would have lost 15-30 more House seats and 5-7 more Senate seats, which would have quashed any chance of getting a majority for at least the rest of the decade.

Here is my take on Joe Biden's four years of being the President of the USA: President Biden had his successes and failures.

Key successes: - funding Ukraine. - got the US out of the COVID pandemic. - got COVID vaccines and boosters out to millions of Americans. - set a record on judicial confirmations. - made Juneteenth a federal holiday. - the first sitting president to join a strike.

Key failures: - enabling Israel's genocide of Gaza - signing the bill that got TikTok banned. - perception of chaos. - declining cognitive abilities.

See Also:

The JGibson Report: Joe Biden's four years as President: The good and the bad

[reasoningdaily]

[lubranmedia]

US Supreme Court ends affirmative action, drawing protests from students and civil rights groups

An end to affirmative action in college admissions, sets of a wave of emotion on both sides of the issue.

Highest court rules against affirmative action initiatives at Harvard and the University of North Carolina Protesters for and against the Supreme court’s decision to end affirmative action programsat Harvard University and the University of North Carolina rally in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, June, 29. By Toni Mitchell eXpress News&Views— In a divided ruling on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme…

[raygun631]

From one of the few justices NOT owned by a billionaire.

I love this women and her argument

[originalleftist]

Did you know that Joe Biden...

Is the first EVER President of the United States who's appointed judges are majority women, racial or ethnic minorities?

I would add that he has also appointed more public defenders and civil rights lawyers, instead of the usual corporate lawyers or ex-prosecutors. Including the first Black woman and first public defender appointed to the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

These are changes the effects of which will last long after his presidency, if an American Republican based on the Constitution survives.

While we're talking about representation, we might also note that Biden selected Kamala Harris as Vice President- the first woman to ever hold the office, and in fact the first woman to ever hold Presidential power, when she briefly took over for Biden while he was sedated for a medical procedure.

[mariacallous]

The US supreme court heard one of the most consequential LGBTQ+ rights cases in its history on Wednesday, with arguments that laid bare the conservative supermajority’s broad threats to civil rights, bodily autonomy and decades of legal precedent.

In US v Skrmetti, the court is weighing Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth, one of 24 state laws across the US prohibiting treatments that are part of the standards of care endorsed by every major medical association in the country.

The case originated with three trans youth and their parents who sued Tennessee, arguing the care ��� puberty blockers and hormone therapy – was medically necessary and “life-saving”. The Biden administration joined the case, asserting Tennessee’s law was unconstitutional.

The case hinges on the legal question of whether Tennessee’s healthcare ban constitutes a form of sex discrimination that merits “heightened scrutiny”, which would mean the case be returned to lower courts for a more rigorous review. But the oral arguments made clear that a ruling against the trans plaintiffs could have far-reaching implications for trans rights and anti-discrimination protections more broadly.’

The US and the ACLU argued that the law is discriminatory and bans treatments based on sex classifications; under Tennessee’s ban, cisgender boys with delayed puberty can be prescribed testosterone, but transgender boys are barred from accessing the same treatments for gender-affirming care. Tennessee argued that the law is an “across the board rule” to “protect minors” from “risky” medical interventions.

Elizabeth Prelogar, the US solicitor general, noted that the court would “turn its back on 50 years of precedent” if it sided with Tennessee’s arguments that the law does not constitute sex discrimination warranting closer scrutiny.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a liberal, repeatedly compared Tennessee’s ban with the prohibition on interracial marriage, overturned by the landmark Loving v Virginia decision in 1967: “Some of these questions … sound very familiar to me, [such as] the arguments made back in the day, the 50s and 60s, with respect to racial classifications.” Jackson later added: “I’m worried that we’re undermining the foundations of some of our bedrock equal protection cases.”

“I share your concerns,” responded the ACLU’s Chase Strangio, the first out trans lawyer to appear before the court. “If Tennessee can have an end-run around heightened scrutiny … that would undermine decades of this court’s precedent.”

Kate Redburn, co-director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, explained after the arguments that there was the potential for an outcome that “would authorize a much broader range of sex discrimination, which has been previously found unconstitutional.

“There could be situations where the government could distinguish between people by sex, and courts would not intervene,” they continued, saying a ruling in favor of Tennessee could make it easier for states to pass policies that discriminate on the basis of pregnancy or other reproductive choices, for example: “Regulations that we now would say are based on stereotypes – especially stereotypes about what women’s proper role is – depending on how expansive this opinion is, those stereotypes could be authorized.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, another liberal, also noted that a decision declaring that the ban on care is not discriminatory could open the door to bans on gender-affirming healthcare for all trans people, not just youth: “You’re licensing states to deprive grown adults of the choice of which sex to adopt.”

Matthew Rice, Tennessee’s solicitor general, responded that the “democratic process” was the “best check on potentially misguided laws”. Sotomayor interjected: “When you’re 1% of the population, or less, it’s very hard to see how the democratic process is going to protect you. Blacks were a much larger part of the population and it didn’t protect them. It didn’t protect women for whole centuries.”

“That was a chilling moment,” said Sydney Duncan, senior counsel at Advocates for Trans Equality, who sat in the courtroom. “Is the next step to ban adult healthcare? The state didn’t have a great answer there.” She noted that Tennessee’s law is rooted in “bad science” and misinformation. Doctors cited as expert witnesses for the state have repeatedly been discounted and rebuked by US judges for their lack of credentials and anti-trans bias, the Guardian recently reported.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative, asked Prelogar about bans on trans people in athletics: “If you prevail here … would transgender athletes have a constitutional right to play in women’s and girls’ sports?” Prelogar responded that the sports issue – which has become a focus of Republicans’ culture war – was related to a different legal question. Kavanaugh’s questions raised some concerns from advocates that the outcome could have broader impacts for LGBTQ+ rights beyond youth healthcare.

“The justices likely see this case as a potential harbinger of future litigation and constitutional questions about trans people’s equal protection,” Redburn said.

Rice also claimed that trans plaintiffs were seeking a “right to engage in nonconforming behavior”. Redburn said the remark was noteworthy and raised broader concerns about people’s rights to self-expression:

“You can see the motivation is not, as the state has suggested, to protect the health of children, which is something that states have a right to regulate, but instead is based on not only particular animus towards transgender individuals, but also a broader social vision that upholds a certain gender hierarchy.”

The conservative justices appeared reluctant to intervene and block Tennessee’s ban, which means the outcome next year could deliver a dramatic blow to trans rights at a time of escalating attacks on LGBTQ+ equality across the US.

“It’s so important that we understand this case as deeply connected to … laws on race and sex discrimination more broadly,” said Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of United for Reproductive and Gender Equity (Urge), an advocacy group. “These questions of what is privacy, what is autonomy, can we control our bodies and our families – these are all intertwined.”

The questions from Jackson and Sotomayor, she said, made clear that “the struggle for the recognition of trans people’s humanity cannot be separated from questions of race and gender equality that have long been cornerstones of this nation’s jurisprudence”, McGuire said.

She noted that anti-abortion and anti-trans activism were closely linked and that this case would probably be followed by efforts to ban adult gender-affirming care, birth control, IVF and other healthcare: “We have seen the right use marginalized people as the tip of the spear for a much larger attack … This voracious desire to be involved in our most personal, private decisions has no end.”

Imara Jones, a podcaster and CEO of the news organization TransLash, who sat in the room, noted that the healthcare under threat was long established: “If you eliminate gender-affirming care, you’re going to be shortening people’s lives and diminishing the quality of their lives. It’s a very real impact. This is not a constitutional or esoteric consideration for trans people. It’s as personal as it gets.”

Bamby Salcedo, a longtime activist and president of the TransLatin@ Coalition, said she and other advocates were bracing for a harmful ruling, but added: “For many of us as a community, hope is the last thing that will die. Regardless of the outcome, we as people are resilient … and we are going to continue to exist despite the oppression we may experience because of this decision. We are going to continue to fight like hell for all of us to be protected.”

[izooks]

Some of Joe Biden’s accomplishments:

**Domestic policy**

* **American Rescue Plan (2021)**: Provided $1.9 trillion in COVID-19 relief, including direct payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, and funding for vaccines and testing.

* **Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021)**: Allocated $1.2 trillion for infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, broadband, and clean energy initiatives.

* **Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (2022)**: Expanded background checks for gun purchases and provided funding for mental health services.

* **Child Tax Credit Expansion (2021-2022)**: Temporarily expanded the Child Tax Credit to provide up to $3,600 per child in monthly payments.

* **Affordable Care Act Expansion (2021)**: Made health insurance more affordable for low- and middle-income Americans by reducing premiums and expanding subsidies.

**Foreign Policy**

* **Withdrawal from Afghanistan (2021)**: Ended the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

* **Re-joining the Paris Agreement (2021)**: Re-committed the United States to global efforts to address climate change.

* **Strengthening Alliances with NATO and the EU (2021-present)**: Repaired relationships with key European allies after strained relations during the Trump administration.

* **Supporting Ukraine in the Ukraine-Russia War (2022-present)**: Provided military, humanitarian, and diplomatic support to Ukraine in its defense against Russia's invasion.

* **Nuclear Deal with Iran (2023)**: Revived negotiations with Iran on a comprehensive nuclear deal, aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

**Other Notable Accomplishments**

* **Appointing Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court (2022)**: Made history by being the first Black woman appointed to the nation's highest court.

* **Signing the Respect for Marriage Act (2022)**: Ensured federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages.

* **Establishing the Office of the National Cyber Director (2021)**: Coordinated federal efforts to combat cybersecurity threats.

* **Creating the COVID-19 National Preparedness Plan (2021)**: Developed a comprehensive strategy to respond to future pandemics.

* **Launching the Cancer Moonshot (2022)**: Re-energized the government's efforts to find a cure for cancer.

[thirst2]

The thing that's gonna gall me is that the residents of those states will probably assume it was brought to them by Republicans.

Something that I really haven't seen anyone comment on was part of what Biden has been trying to do for the last 4 years is shore up the factions of the party: he knew progressives were part of the tent so he gave Bernie the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions chair; he knew black people also hold up Democratic numbers each cycle (plus got him to win the primary) so he promised his first Supreme Court judge would be a black woman; and he repeatedly tried to get the white working class back through measures such as these.

He knew that the loss of manufacturing jobs is a sore point so part of why so many of those jobs are in Republican districts is because they're actually manufacturing jobs, building the computer chips and solar panels, etc. that'll build the renewable energy infrastructure of this country that was part of his infrastructure push. Basically, melding working class and green energy interests and undercutting a major Republican talking point that the Democrats don't care about the working class because they keep killing the coal and oil jobs and that's why we need to not phase out those valuable (to corporations…) sources of energy.

And I'll bet you they'll end up attributing this stuff to Trump and the Republicans, the same way people thought Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act were different things and the former should be killed.

All that work and the Democrats will still be the "out-of-touch" ones who don't understand the average American.

so wait

the green energy parts of the Inflation Reduction Act have brought tons of jobs and money to mostly Republican districts?

and as a result, Republicans will pressure Trump not to gut those aspects of the law?

I am. cackling.

(I mean the man's a loose cannon, so god knows if he'll actually listen. but climate is my biggest worry with this administration, so this gives me a sliver of hope)

(that and him having made Mr. Electric Car Magnate his crony, so he's had to walk back negative statements about those, too)

[progressivepower]

PRESIDENT BIDENS ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

✅More People Are Working Than At Any Point in American History

✅Managed inflation to where it is now under control & moving consistently downward

✅Stock markets hitting all time highs & most well managed businesses are now thriving under this economy

✅Delivering on the Most Aggressive Climate and Environmental Justice Agenda in American History

✅Making More in America where wages are increasing across the board

✅Rescued the Economy and Changed the Course of the Pandemic

✅Lowering Costs of Families’ Everyday Expenses

✅Biden's Inflation Reduction Act will save millions of seniors money on some of the costliest prescription drugs on the market. New laws now give

✅Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.

✅Rebuilding our Infrastructure

✅Historic Expansion of Benefits and Services for Toxic Exposed Veterans

✅The First Meaningful Gun Violence Reduction Legislation in 30 Years

✅Protected Marriage for LGBTQI+ and Interracial Couples

✅Historic Confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Federal Judges of Diverse Backgrounds

✅Rallied the World to Support Ukraine in Response to Putin’s Aggression

✅Strengthened Alliances and Partnerships to Deliver for the American People

✅Successful Counterterrorism Missions Against the Leaders of Al Qaeda and ISIS

✅Executive Orders Protecting Reproductive Rights

✅Historic Student Debt Relief for over 4 million Middle- and Working-Class Families so far.

✅Ending our Failed Approach to Marijuana

✅Advancing Equity and Racial Justice, Including Historic Criminal Justice Reform

[qqueenofhades]

BOTH PARTIES ARE THE SAME!!!, SCOTUS edition:

Clarence Thomas: appointed by George H.W. Bush (Republican)

Samuel Alito and John Roberts: appointed by George W. Bush (Republican)

Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett: appointed by Donald Trump (Republican)

Conservative total: 6

Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan: appointed by Barack Obama (Democrat)

Ketanji Brown Jackson: appointed by Joe Biden (Democrat) replacing Stephen Breyer, appointed by Bill Clinton (Democrat), who also appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg;

Liberal total: 3

Most common split on all these bad decisions: 6-3

Gee, it's almost like SCOTUS actually is incredibly important, Hillary Clinton and the entire mainstream Democratic electorate knew that in 2016, Democratic presidents consistently appoint the justices who are on the side of the rulings that you agree with, it was maybe a bad idea to let a man charged with 71 felony counts including criminal espionage appoint one-third of the current court, and yet BUH BUH BERNIE AND HER EMAILS.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ed Pilkington at The Guardian:

The US supreme court has overturned one of its own most important precedents, the Chevron doctrine, that for the past 40 years has guided the work of federal government in critical areas of public life, from food and drug safety to environmental protection. In a ruling that the Biden administration has warned could have a “convulsive” impact on the functioning of government, the court’s hardline conservative majority delivered a major blow to the regulatory powers of federal agencies. Voting as a block, the six rightwing justices who wield the supermajority threw out the supreme court’s own 1984 opinion in Chevron USA Inc v Natural Resources Defense Council, which has required the courts to defer to the knowledge of government experts in their reasonable interpretation of ambiguous laws.

Writing the opinion, chief justice John Roberts bluntly stated that the Chevron precedent “is overruled”. He lambasted the legal theory laid out in the ruling, claiming it “gravely erred” and calling it was “misguided” and “unworkable” despite the fact that it has steered the functions of the federal government for four decades.

Roberts not only eradicated the Chevron doctrine, he turned it on its head. Under his ruling, the relationship between courts and federal agencies is reversed: in the modern era, the courts have shown deference to the expertise of agencies, but from now on the courts alone will decide. “The constitution assigns to the federal judiciary the responsibility and power to adjudicate cases and controversies,” Roberts wrote. “Agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do.”

In recent years, the Chevron doctrine has become a central target of rightwing groups that blame it for what they see as a proliferation of government regulations executed by unelected bureaucrats in the so-called “deep state”. A key group behind the supreme court challenge, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, was founded with seed money from the oil billionaire Charles Koch.

[...] Elena Kagan issued a withering dissent, which was joined by her fellow liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. She accused her rightwing peers on the bench of throwing out a precedent that had stood for 40 years as “a cornerstone of administrative law”.

Chevron had been applied over that period in thousands of judicial decisions and become “part of the warp and woof of modern government”, said Kagan. By casting out decades of settled law, the conservative supermajority had once again asserted their authority. “The majority disdains restraint, and grasps for power,” Kagan added.

The radical right-wing judicial activist majority on SCOTUS ruled 6-3 by Chief Justice John Roberts to overturn Chevron v. NRDC (aka the Chevron Doctrine) in the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo ruling that would adversely impact federal government functions and regulatory powers in many aspects.

SCOTUS Justice Elena Kagan said it best in her dissent in Loper Bright Enterprises: “The majority disdains restraint, and grasps for power.”

[simply-ivanka]

DIRTY DEEDS

DONE DIRT CHEAP

Biden Administration lowers itself even further!

[darkmaga-returns]

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday compared the risks of child sex changes to taking an aspirin.

J. Matthew Rice, Tennessee's solicitor general who is defending the constitutionality of his state's law banning children from receiving sex changes, cross-sex hormones and puberty stunters, asked the court: "How many minors have to have their bodies irreparably harmed [from these child sex change procedures] for unproven benefits?"

Sotomayor interjected, "I'm sorry counselor, every medical treatment has risk -- even taking aspirin."

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1864354139527897163&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.informationliberation.com%2F%3Fid%3D64763&sessionId=fd2a3d904f62bd773261f579396e4915a746e0ea&siteScreenName=infolibnews&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px Sotomayor in 2022 similarly humiliated herself during arguments over the Biden administration's vax mandates by claiming over 100,000 children were actively hospitalized with covid (the real number was 3,342), the Omicron variant was "as deadly" as Delta and covid deaths had never been higher (none of which was true).

Sotomayor, who describes herself as a "product of affirmative action," also argued in 2022 that anyone who is familiar with FBI crime stats must be banned from Capital case juries for "racial bias."

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson -- who President Biden selected after pledging in a corrupt backroom deal with South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn to pick a black woman for the Supreme Court in exchange for his endorsement -- compared bans on child sex changes to bans on interracial marriage.

[lifewithchronicpain]

It doesn’t matter if you don’t like Biden, if you care about Civil Rights then the next Supreme Court Justice to be nominated will more than likely come in the next term. If you want another Ketanji Brown Jackson on the court, you have one choice this election.

In 2016 when McConnell held open a Supreme Court nomination, he was ensuring Republicans who didn’t like Trump held their nose and voted for Trump anyway. There are two old men on the court wanting to retire and they may not hold out until 2029. Bush had 2 nominations, Obama had 3, but Merrick Garland was never approved, and so Trump had 3 (because one was stolen from Obama.) So if history is anything to go by, every time you vote for president the first and foremost issue is the Supreme Court. Civil rights are being torn apart by this court, and while I support court reform I don’t think it will happen. So always vote like you’re voting for the next justice. Republicans understood that and that’s why we have a conservative super majority.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Supreme Court Overturns DOJ's Use of Key J6 Felony Court

"Today's decision means Attorney General Merrick Garland and federal judges in Washington wrongfully prosecuted roughly 350 J6ers with the post-Enron felony"

JULIE KELLY

JUN 28, 2024 In a devastating but well-deserved blow to the Department of Justice’s criminal prosecution of January 6 protesters, the U.S. Supreme Court today overturned the DOJ’s use of 18 USC 1512(c)(2), the most prevalent felony in J6 cases.

The statute, commonly referred to as “obstruction of an official proceeding,” has been applied in roughly 350 J6 cases; it also represents two of four counts in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s J6-related criminal indictment of Donald Trump in Washington. 

In a 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the “c2” subsection is tethered to the “c1” subsection that addresses tampering with a record, document, or “object.”

From the opinion:

Roberts was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the dissent (!) joined by Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

Today’s decision means hundreds of Americans have been wrongfully prosecuted by Attorney General Merrick Garland as he insists his department is dedicated to upholding the “rule of law” and pursuing justice “without fear or favor.”

An Irreversible Black Eye for DOJ and Federal Courts in Washington

The matter originated in the case of Joseph Fischer, a Pennsylvania man who attended Trump’s speech and later went to the Capitol. According to court documents, Fischer briefly entered the building around 3:25 p.m., nearly an hour after the joint session of Congress to certify the electoral college votes had recessed. He exited about four minutes later.

In March 2021, a D.C. grand jury indicted Fischer on numerous counts including 1512(c)(2). The statute reads:

Whoever corruptly— 

(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or 

(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so.

It is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Fischer, in addition to many J6ers facing the count, asked his judge to dismiss the charge. Judge Carl Nichols, appointed by Trump, dismissed the count against Fischer and two other defendants by finding the language in the post-Enron/Arthur Anderson statute covered tampering with records or documents not interrupting a meeting of Congress. The DOJ appealed Nichols’ decision.

In December, SCOTUS granted Fischer’s petition to grant cert seeking to reverse the appellate court’s mandate. Oral arguments were held on April 16.

Nichols is the only judge to have dismissed the count; 18 district and circuit court judges in Washington refused to dismiss the count. The judges essentially enabled the Biden DOJ’s unlawful pursuit of Americans who protested Biden’s election that day.

The List of Shame:

Judge Beryl Howell (Obama, former chief judge)

Judge James Boasberg (Obama, current chief judge)

Judge Rudolph Contreras (Obama)

Judge Trevor McFadden (Trump)

Judge John Bates (GW Bush)

Judge Amit Mehta (Obama)

Judge Dabny Friedrich (Trump)

Judge Royce Lamberth (Reagan)

Judge Richard Leon (GW Bush)

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (Clinton)

Judge Amy Berman Jackson (Obama)

Judge Timothy Kelly (Trump)

Judge Randolph Moss (Clinton)

Judge Paul Friedman (Clinton)

Judge Christopher Cooper (Obama)

D.C. Circuit Court Judge Florence Pan (Biden)—Pan wrote both appellate court decisions upholding 1512c2

D.C. Circuit Court Judge Justin Walker (Trump)

D.C. Circuit Court Judge Cornelia Pillard

There Goes Your Summer, Your Honor

The federal courthouse in Washington has been bracing for a flood of motions post-Fischer; a few judges have released individuals from prison in anticipation of a reversal. Roughly 110 J6ers have been sentenced to prison on 1512(c)(2) convictions; several J6ers were held under pretrial detention for being charged with the nonviolent obstruction count alone.

But despite the law’s legal limbo over the past year, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, a Biden appointee, continued to indict J6ers on 1512(c)(2) while some judges continued to sentence those convicted to lengthy prison terms. Last month, Beryl Howell, the former chief judge who upheld the 1512(c)(2) charges for defendants in her courtroom, sentenced a Missouri man to 60 months in prison for the 1512 conviction and assault on police.

In January 2022, Howell gave the green light for her colleagues to support the DOJ’s use of the obstruction count. Here is what she said in denying a motion to dismiss filed by two J6ers:

“For over 200 years, the peaceful transition of power from one presidential administration to another has been marked with Congress's certification of the Electoral College vote; and this event has been respectfully observed by American citizens, but not on January 6, 2021. And I start with this historical fact because what happened on January 6th was a chilling new type of criminal conduct to which our criminal laws have never before had to be applied. Application of criminal laws to conduct never before seen, like what occurred on January 6, 2021, appropriately generates the kind of legal questions the defendants raise here about whether the criminal law fits the charged criminal conduct.”

The first judge to uphold the obstruction charge in J6 cases was Trump-appointee Dabny Friedrich. In 2021, she agreed that interrupting a meeting of Congress met the definition of “official proceeding” and that the statute’s broad language did not require the government to prove the conduct involved tampering with records or documents.

Ironically—or not—Friedrich is married to Matthew Friedrich, a former DOJ official who worked on the Enron Task Force alongside Andrew Weissman and current deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco. The 1512(c)(2) statute was a product of the Enron/Arthur Anderson investigation; Weissmann, as the lead prosecutor for Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the bogus Russiagate probe, pushed the DOJ to charge Trump with 1512(c)(2) while in office.

Retired judge Thomas Hogan recently warned how a SCOTUS’s reversal of 1512(c)(2) would affect the DC courthouse. Here is Hogan, who upheld the statute in J6 prosecutions, with former DOJ official and FISAgate mastermind Mary McCord:

Reacting to the SCOTUS decision, Geri Perna, aunt of Matthew Perna, told me this by email:

“When Matthew was unexpectedly charged with the felony of Obstruction of an Official Proceeding—after initially facing only misdemeanors—his world collapsed. The weight of a potential lengthy prison sentence bore down on him, filling his days with insurmountable worry and anxiety. At that time, there was no glimmer of hope that this severe charge would be dropped.

Matthew has now been dead for 28 months. In the wake of his passing, the Supreme Court of the United States is finally set to rule on whether the Department of Justice wrongfully applied 1512(c)(2) in January 6 cases. As much as I am hopeful for a just ruling in favor of the January 6 defendants, I am consumed by a profound sense of loss and anger. My nephew's death was both avoidable and senseless.

I feel cheated, and if that sounds selfish, then so be it. The pain of losing Matthew under such circumstances is a burden I carry every day. I fervently hope that those responsible for wielding this charge erroneously will be held accountable in a court of law. However, I am not holding my breath.”