Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
Stories Chosen For You
Faith in the U.S. Supreme Court continues to decline. Morning Consult, in a poll released on May 8, found that only 49% of U.S. adults trusted the High Court compared to 57% on April 23. And other polls have also shown public trust in the High Court eroding; Gallup, for example, has found that approval of the Supreme Court is down to 40% compared to 62% in 2001.
In a scathing editorial published on May 15, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editorial board argues that the U.S. Supreme Court has become much too politicized for its own good — and that the likely demise of Roe v. Wade will only cause the public’s view of the institution to erode more.
The Post’s editorial board writes, “The breakdown of U.S. Supreme Court legitimacy may already have begun as the public perception of the Court morphs from one of respectful observances of the law as interpreted by the nation’s top judicial scholars to a view of them as little more than political hacks in black robes…. The Court’s politicization is no longer something justices can hide. The three most recent arrivals to the bench misled members of Congress by indicating they regarded Roe v. Wade as settled law, not to be overturned.”
The arrivals that the Post-Dispatch’s editorial board is referring to are Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Neal Gorsuch, all appointed by former President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden’s nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate but won’t replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer until later this year.
A leaked majority draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito finds that the George W. Bush appointee joined Barrett, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Justice Clarence Thomas in a 5-4 argument for overturning Roe.
The editorial board adds, “Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife is an open supporter of former President Donald Trump and his efforts to subvert democracy…. If states choose simply to ignore the Court following a Roe reversal, justices will have only themselves to blame for the erosion of their stature in Americans’ minds.”
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Watch: Man's gun discharges during confrontation with neighbor over 'racial issue' involving their children
May 16, 2022
A man has been arrested in Forney, Texas, after his gun discharged during a dispute that arose from an incident where his child walked over to a neighbor's house and struck their door with a whip, WFAA reports.
According to police, the boy's intentions were to confront a female classmate and there's been a "bullying issue" between the two children. The girl and her family are Black, and they accuse the boy, who is white, of having a "racial issue."
“We know the history of the whip," said the girl's father, Dezerrea Nash. "This is a racial issue. He comes to the door with a whip."
In an incident that was captured on video, Nash went to the boy's house and confronted his father, who reportedly answered the door carrying a firearm.
IN OTHER NEWS: The Capitol riots ended Trump's dream of hosting this week's PGA Championship at his Bedminster golf course
Later in the video, the sound of a gun could be heard going off where the man, identified as Bryan Brunson, was standing in the doorway. Kaufman County police said that when Brunson's gun went off, it fired in the direction of Nash's daughter, who was standing behind him.
Brunson was later arrested on a charge of deadly conduct.
Watch WFAA's report on the story below or at this link.
Video shows boy hitting Forney family's door with whip; father later arrested after gun goes off www.youtube.com
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' praise for Sen. Joe Manchin's obstruction of his own party's anti-poverty and climate action agenda "tells you everything you need to know" about the right-wing Democratic lawmaker, progressive organizers said Sunday as Bezos weighed in on inflation and government spending.
Bezos tweeted that the West Virginia Democrat saved the Biden administration "from themselves" by standing in the way of passing a methane fee and other far-reaching climate action, paid family leave, an extension of the Child Tax Credit, and other measures in the Build Back Better Act.
Since Manchin announced last December that he would not back the bill, he has called on his party to focus its spending proposal on reducing the federal deficit and easing inflation, which has pushed the prices of goods up by more than 8% in the last year.
As Common Dreams reported last month, Securities and Exchange Commission filings for 100 U.S. companies revealed that wealthy corporations have used inflation as a pretext for raising prices while boosting their profits.
Bezos' praise of Manchin came two days after he took aim at President Joe Biden for demanding that corporations "pay their fair share" in taxes to help bring down inflation.
The Build Back Better Act would have used revenue from higher taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans to invest in its anti-poverty and climate provisions. The president has criticized Amazon for its tax practices; the company effectively paid no federal taxes in 2017 and 2018 despite raking in hundreds of billions of dollars in sales revenue.
Bezos said Friday that while raising corporate taxes is "fine to discuss" and inflation must be gotten under control, the president's discussion of the two issues was a "misdirection."
CNBC reporter Brian Schwartz noted that Bezos is just the latest billionaire to align himself with Manchin and against Biden. As Common Dreams reported in January, Manchin was showered with thousands of dollars from Republican megadonor Ken Langone after tanking the Build Back Better agenda.
The economic justice group Americans for Tax Fairness (AFT) said Monday it should come as no surprise that Bezos, whose company is worth more than $1 trillion, is against a corporate tax hike and supportive of the right-wing Democrat who stopped the Build Back Better Act in its tracks.
"Jeff Bezos got $77 billion richer during the first two years of the pandemic," tweeted AFT. "Meanwhile, 99% of the world saw their incomes drop."
The White House on Sunday evening echoed AFT's comments.
"It doesn't require a huge leap to figure out why one of the wealthiest individuals on Earth opposes an economic agenda for the middle class that cuts some of the biggest costs families face, fights inflation for the long haul, and adds to the historic deficit reduction the president is achieving by asking the richest taxpayers and corporations to pay their fair share," Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told Jeff Stein of The Washington Post.
Bates added that Bezos has timed his attacks on Biden's spending and taxation plans days after the president met with Christian Smalls, the former Amazon worker who organized a successful union drive at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York in April.
Biden also warned Amazon, "Here we come" following the union victory.
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Copyright © 2022 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | For corrections or concerns, please email corrections@rawstory.com.
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}