LISTEN: Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani gets schooled in court after failing to understand a fundamental legal principle
November 19, 2020
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RBG’s death set off a pattern of 'distrust and discord' that still plagues the Supreme Court today
March 23, 2023
Although Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the United States' last eight presidential elections, they have had terrible luck with the U.S. Supreme Court — which is now controlled by a 6-3 majority of GOP-appointed justices. One-third of the High Court consists of justices who were appointed by former President Donald Trump: Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.
The Robert Court's Democratic critics have complained that Trump obviously had no interest in choosing nuanced Republican justices like Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy (two retired Ronald Reagan appointees). He was only interested in far-right ideologues and social conservatives.
Just as Democrats and abortion rights activists feared, that 6-3 majority overturned Roe v. Wade with its 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Public confidence in the Court, in poll after poll, has continued to sink since that widely protested ruling.
Joan Biskupic, CNN's Supreme Court analyst, examines the condition of the High Court in her forthcoming book "Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court's Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences" (which has an April 4 release date on Amazon). CNN has published, in article form, an excerpt from Biskupic's book. And the excerpt details the role that the appointments of Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett played in Roe's demise.
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After liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at 87, died on September 18, 2020, Trump wasted no time nominating Barrett as her replacement. The former president was voted out of office less than two months later.
Biskupic explains, "Within days of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's memorial service in late September 2020, boxes of her files and other office possessions were moved down to a dark, windowless theater on the Supreme Court's ground floor…. The abrupt mandate from Chief Justice John Roberts' administrative team to clear out Ginsburg's office and make way for the next justice broke from the common practice of allowing staff sufficient time to move and providing a new justice with temporary quarters if needed while permanent chambers were readied…. The confirmation of then-President Donald Trump's chosen successor, Indiana-based U.S. Appeals Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett, was as much a fait accompli at the Court as in the political sphere. That behind-the-scenes drama and internal tensions over cases that followed, accelerated by all three Trump appointees, led to a new level of distrust and discord among the justices that lingers today."
According to Biskupic, the High Court's "internal negotiations" in Dobbs "were tightly tied to Ginsburg's death and the succession of Barrett."
"By late 2021," Biskupic recalls, "it was becoming clear that (Justice Clarence) Thomas, (Justice Samuel) Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett wanted to end Roe, irrespective of what they had told senators about adherence to precedent during their confirmation hearings. Barrett had been especially skillful in deflecting questions about her personal opposition to abortion during her hearing, even as then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, declared, 'This is the first time in American history that we’ve nominated a woman who's unashamedly pro-life and embraces her faith without apology.'"
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Five years after Parkland, proposal to allow 18-year-olds to purchase long guns gains favor
March 23, 2023
Five years after the Florida Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott passed a package of gun reforms in the immediate aftermath of the Parkland school shooting massacre, a committee in the state House advanced a bill Thursday that would repeal one of those provisions – reducing the age to purchase rifles and other long guns from 21 to 18 years old.
The measure (HB 1543) would allow someone as young as 18 to be able to legally purchase a firearm from either a licensed dealer or a private seller.
However, federal law still prohibits purchasing a handgun under the age of 21.
The measure passed 16-6 in the House Judiciary Committee in its first of two stops in that chamber. However, there is no Senate version bill yet, and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo has said that she does not support the proposal.
The sponsor of the bill is Republican Bobby Payne of North Florida.
Broward County Democrat Dan Daley, a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said the issue was deeply personal to him and acknowledged that he was angry and flustered that the proposal was even up for discussion. He emphasized that in his opinion, nothing had changed since the Legislature reduced the age to purchase a firearm to 18.
He cited a number of statistics and studies indicating that most school shooters are younger than 21 and that medical research “has been clear for years” that the pre-frontal cortex of the brain is not fully developed until 25.
“Nothing has changed,” Daley declared. “It’s not that in the last five years since the passage of the bill, it’s not since the last five years since the shooting at my alma matter that suddenly brain development has sped up – that the science has changed and suddenly 18-year-olds are as rational as 25-year-olds. Nothing has changed there.”
Daley went on to mention how many state lawmakers who voted for the bill that raised the age to purchase a long gun in Florida from 18 to 21 still remain in the Legislature, asking if the committee believed that they were wrong then.
House Speaker Paul Renner is one member of the Legislature who voted for the ban then but has now said he wants to reverse the age limit, and on Thursday so did committee member Thad Altman, a Brevard County Republican who served in the state Senate when that vote came up in 2018.
“I’m happy to see that we’re reversing that action today,” he said, adding that the package had dramatically increased the amount of psychological counseling in schools and created “red flag” provisions to take away firearms from people who are considered a danger to themselves or society.
“I don’t think that we need to penalize millions of young Americans between 18-21 for the actions of one individual,” Altman said. “I feel confident that the actions we took in that vote and the way we’ve implemented those things to protect our students, we can make this change today and feel that we’re doing the right thing.”
Those comments perplexed Tampa Democrat Dianne Hart, who says that there’s been gun violence in her community nearly every week since she began serving in the Florida House four years ago.
“You’re not changing the brains of kids under 21 years old,” she said. “You cannot legislate that. We just keep talking about, ‘well, you know, it’s not going to happen again.’ It’s bound to happen. It’s happening every single day out in communities throughout the state of Florida.”
Pinellas County Republican Berny Jacques stressed what other bill supporters said – that it was unfair to punish law-abiding people under 21 because of what happened in Parkland.
“And so off you are that single mom at 20 years old who has some deranged ex-boyfriend, you’re going to wish you had that right when he comes through that door at 2 a.m,” he said. “If you’re that gas station clerk who’s 18 or 19 years old in a high crime area, and a group of thugs come through who are armed, you’re going to wish you had that high-capacity rifle to protect yourself. That will do the trick.”
Immediately after the law passed in 2018 reducing the legal age to purchase a long gun in Florida from 21 to 18, the National Rifle Association challenged the law, alleging it violated the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. Earlier this month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled in favor of the state.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
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Melania Trump remains angry at her husband over alleged affair with Stormy Daniels: report
March 23, 2023
Prosecutors may ultimately decide not to indict Donald Trump over alleged hush payments to Stormy Daniels, but regardless of what the Manhattan DA’s office decides, the former president’s wife apparently isn’t letting go of the circumstances surrounding the case against her husband, People magazine reports.
Melania Trump, 52, is still living at the couple’s Mar-a-Lago estate, and she’s still angry over her husband's alleged 2006 affair with the former adult-film actress, according to the report, which cites a “social source.”
Daniels alleges the affair occurred four months after the birth of the couple's son, Barron.
"She remains angry and doesn't want to hear [the alleged hush money payment] mentioned," the source told People.
IN OTHER NEWS: Republican crushed after suggesting she is the only Congress member personally affected by gun violence
"She is aware of who her husband is and keeps her life upbeat with her own family and a few close friends."
The Trumps live in separate quarters on their Palm Beach estate and are frequently seen sharing meals and attending events at the club, but they live separate lives and for the most part they do their own thing, the report said.
“They don't spend that much time together,” the source said.
They could soon spend even less time together.
Joe Tacopina, a lawyer representing Donald Trump, said the former would surrender to authorities if indicted.
Melania Trump doesn’t appear to be sweating her husband’s legal woes, according to the report.
"Melania loves the beautiful weather and resort town atmosphere of Palm Beach," the source told People.
"She is happy when she is in Palm Beach. She has her son and other close family members. They are tribe-like and usually stick together. Despite what happens to Donald, she will be fine. She is well taken care of."
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