The Federalist

Televising Supreme Court Hearings Is A Terrible, Awful, No Good Idea

4 hours agoFar Right

Americans don't need cameras in the courtroom. What they need is a Congress that functions like a serious body.

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Todd Blanche just sabotaged himself in upcoming Senate hearings: analyst

Raw Story

2 hours ago

Todd Blanche just sabotaged himself in upcoming Senate hearings: analyst

With Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche refusing to commit to a federal court in writing that the Trump "Anti-Weaponization Fund" will be canceled, he has a new problem, analyst Scott MacFarlane told MS NOW's Katy Tur on Friday: backlash from the Senate Republicans reviewing his nomination to serve as attorney general permanently."So the question I had earlier ... is how Republicans are going to react to this," asked Tur. "Are they still going to be content to take Todd Blanche's word for it?""Oh, boy, Todd Blanche has got a problem on his hands here," said MacFarlane — specifically, he said, that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a prominent Judiciary Committee Republican with no real loyalty to Trump, "says he's got a slush fund issue with Todd Blanche right now. He doesn't want the slush fund moving forward." With Blanche engaging in a "sleight of hand" with the courts, MacFarlane continued, Tillis is likely to be suspicious."Blanche and Tillis meet early next week, so they're going to be able to hash this out," noted MacFarlane. However, he continued, "Judge Leonie Brinkema ... wanted this thing in writing for a reason. I'm not sure she's going to accept this five-page argument from the Trump administration that it's unnecessary and has a separation-of-powers issue. I don't think the judge agrees."Beyond that, MacFarlane said Blanche's repeated insistence that the slush fund is "not moving forward" is "all kinds of sus.""You could have used different phrases. You could have used different terms," said MacFarlane. "You could have said you're halting it. You could have said, it's never going to happen. You could have said, it's over, not moving forward. It's just the type of passive voice that gives them room for error and room to maneuver, I should say. And I think the court filing does the same today." - YouTube www.youtube.com

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Trump DOJ thrashes court's demand to officially declare that 'slush fund' is dead

Raw Story

2 hours ago

Trump DOJ thrashes court's demand to officially declare that 'slush fund' is dead

President Donald Trump's Department of Justice thrashed a federal judge in a new court filing for demanding that DOJ officials and two Trump cabinet secretaries officially declare that Trump's "anti-weaponization" slush fund is officially dead. Last month, the Trump administration announced plans to create a $1.776 billion fund to pay claims from people who allege they were wrongfully prosecuted by the federal government. Several of Trump's allies, including formerly convicted members of the Proud Boys, declared that they would seek restitution from the fund, which sparked significant bipartisan pushback. Political analysts and experts have described the fund as a "slush fund" because the Trump DOJ would have full control over who is eligible for payments, and the legal paperwork establishing the fund states that the federal government bears no responsibility if crimes are committed by people who receive payments. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told the House and Senate judiciary committees that the administration is no longer pursuing the fund, but has refused to put that in writing. On Friday, the Trump DOJ told a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia that it won't abide by a demand to declare the fund dead. The DOJ argued in the filing that multiple Trump administration officials have said the fund is not moving forward, and those past statements should satisfy the court's demand. It also attached a copy of Blanche's testimony to Congress as evidence of its claims. "Such declarations are unnecessary, and the compelled testimony of senior officials from the Executive Branch implicates serious separation of powers concerns," the DOJ wrote in its filing. "Nor is there any basis for the court to compel testimony from the Associate Attorney General and two Cabinet members. The point of Article III limitations on judicial review is to prevent such overreach," it added.

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Pete Hegseth's 'exceptionally bad idea' creating needless suffering in military: analysis

Raw Story

3 hours ago

Pete Hegseth's 'exceptionally bad idea' creating needless suffering in military: analysis

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is causing needless suffering within the military ranks by eliminating the universal flu vaccine mandate, according to a new analysis. More than 160 soldiers at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas because of a growing influenza outbreak, which may have killed at least one person in basic training, according to a new editorial from The Washington Post's editorial board. Since the new mandate was handed down in April, at least half of Air Force cadets have skipped getting the shot, and that is part of why the virus is spreading, the editorial added. "If it wasn’t already clear why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to eliminate the military’s universal flu vaccine mandate was an exceptionally bad idea, it should be now," the editors wrote. The influenza outbreak is happening at a time when the U.S. is engaged in a protracted conflict with Iran, which seems likely to start heating up after peace talks fell apart this week. Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to travel to Switzerland on Friday to sign an agreement between the U.S. and Iran that was brokered last weekend, but abruptly canceled the plans late Thursday night. The Washington Post editors also took aim at Hegseth's excuse for revising the vaccine mandate, arguing that it makes the military less war-ready. "When Hegseth announced the new vaccine policy, he claimed that 'overly broad' mandates 'only weaken our war-fighting capabilities' and stressed that his rollback would 'restore freedom and strength to our joint force,'" the editors wrote. "In reality, his apparent motive was pandering to anti-vaccine elements inside President Donald Trump’s coalition," they added. "Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former trial lawyer who has profited from lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers, continues plotting to make it harder for people to get immunizations. Never mind that Trump himself received the flu and COVID vaccines last fall.""The secretary cannot stop seasonal diseases like the flu, but unnecessarily ruling out ways to mitigate harm only degrades military readiness," they continued.

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New York judges must retire at 76, says high court, ruling against age discrimination

New York Post

3 hours ago

New York judges must retire at 76, says high court, ruling against age discrimination

The Court of Appeals shot down a bid by three elderly jurists challenging an 1869 law that sets the mandatory retirement age at 76, saying it violates their rights.

Right

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Vance ‘feeling good’ after a week selling his book — and a deal to end the Iran war

NBC News Politics

3 hours ago

Vance ‘feeling good’ after a week selling his book — and a deal to end the Iran war

Vice President JD Vance had this week circled on his calendar for months

Center Left

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Raw Story

5 hours ago

Torrent of awful reviews drowns JD Vance's new book: 'Reads like garbage can'

Vice President JD Vance’s new book was released this week to reviews from professional critics that did not hold back – with The Wall Street Journal arguing it was filled with “egregious sloppiness.” The amateur critics took it even further, flooding the book’s page on the Barnes & Noble website with one-star reviews.“This book literally reads like the garbage can I'm getting ready to throw it into,” reads a one-star review from a verified reviewer named “Kelly P.,” as reported by Newsweek on Friday. “There's no way JD actually wrote this. I also find it comical that the Pope doesn't even recognize him as a Catholic.”Of the 29 reviews of the book, titled "Communion," 25 rated it with one star, and four rated it with five stars.“JD’s take on faith and religion is at odds with his behavior and speech in his everyday life,” reads another one-star review from verified reviewer “Karen S.” “I don’t recommend this book. Glad to have public libraries so I didn’t have to buy this book to see what he had to say.”And verified reviewer “Evelyn B.” expressed hope that Vance’s book would “end up on a list of far-right propaganda for future generations” as a reminder of what they called the current “embarrassing era of American politics.”“Poorly written unbelievable trash written by the most vile and despised humans on this earth,” they wrote. “His claim to Catholicism is a meager grab at trying to convey worthiness in a world where the denomination has severely rejected him and the Pope himself denounces his fascist agenda.”The online reviews for Vance’s new book have been so negative that at least two online book-selling websites have “limited or suspended” them, including Amazon and Goodreads, according to the Daily Beast.

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Wisconsin Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN race-based college grant program

Blaze Media

5 hours ago

Wisconsin Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN race-based college grant program

A Wisconsin grant program intended to benefit minority students was struck down by the state's supreme court as discriminatory on Thursday.The court relied heavily on a previous U.S. Supreme Court opinion against race-based admission programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.'This is also a big win for taxpayers, who can now challenge many other race-based programs in state court.'The Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant Program targeted black, Hispanic, and Native American students, as well as immigrants from Cambodia, Laos, or Vietnam who migrated to the U.S. since 1975.Assistant Attorney General Charlotte Gibson argued that the state program was not restricted by the higher court order and met the standards set forth by the court.The court disagreed."The Constitution requires that every person 'must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual — not on the basis of race,'" the ruling of the court reads.During the hearing, Chief Justice Jill Karofsky challenged the plaintiff attorney by citing a post from President Donald Trump about former President Barack Obama that many saw as racist."Just last week, the president of the United States posted a remarkably and insanely racist video of President and Michelle Obama depicted as apes," Karofsky said."In this state, people of color contribute to the vitality of our state, and they are thanked by facing disparities when it comes to housing, access to medical care, transportation, incarceration, financial stability, and education," she added. "Do you take issue with anything I just said up to that point?”Luke Berg, of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, responded that the worst discrimination is "when the law treats individuals differently based on their race."RELATED: Supreme Court hands huge victory to Trump over DEI funding — John Roberts sides with liberal justices The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty's managing vice president, Dan Lennington, praised the ruling."This is a major win for students," he said. "Race cannot be used to dole out scholarships and other financial aid. This is also a big win for taxpayers, who can now challenge many other race-based programs in state court. WILL is proud to stand for equal rights and make that case everywhere we can."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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Federal court sides with Trump about slave history panels at National Park site

Blaze Media

7 hours ago

Federal court sides with Trump about slave history panels at National Park site

A federal appeals court has sided with the Trump administration in the decision to remove display panels about slave history at the President's House site in Philadelphia.Activists accused the administration of trying to white out the troubling slave history of the site where Presidents George Washington and John Adams once lived.'The decision to do this appears to be made because the President's House Site memorialized the nine enslaved individuals that were held there against their will by President Washington.' A lower court had ordered the National Park Service to restore the panels, but a 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals panel found unanimously on Thursday that the order should be overturned.The appeals court said the lower court had misinterpreted the contract between the NPS and the city of Philadelphia and also found the replacement installation was "full of historical context."The court added that the replacement installations "highlight the momentous events that took place in the President's House and the other sites at Independence National Historical Park."Workers removed the slavery panels from the site on the corner of 6th and Market Streets in Old City in Jan. 2026.Paul Steinke of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia called the removal a "terrible day" for American history."The decision to do this appears to be made because the President's House Site memorialized the nine enslaved individuals that were held there against their will by President Washington and his wife, Martha," he said to CBS News, "and this is the only federal historic site that commemorates the history of slavery in America."The city of Philadelphia sued NPS and argued that it had violated their agreement to seek "communication and consultation" before implementing any changes to the site.District Judge Cynthia Rufe, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush, opened her ruling against the administration back in February with a quote from George Orwell's "1984."RELATED: Judge orders Trump administration to restore slavery exhibits to presidential home site An NPS spokesperson mocked the city of Philadelphia after the original ruling."We encourage the City of Philadelphia to focus on getting their jobless rates down and ending their reckless cashless bail policy," the statement reads, "instead of filing frivolous lawsuits in the hopes of demeaning our brave Founding Fathers who set the brilliant road map for the greatest country in the world — the United States of America."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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