The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to issue an unusually quick ruling on the Pentagon’s policy of restricting military service by transgender people. It’s the fourth time in recent months the administration has sought to bypass lower courts that have blocked some of its more controversial proposals and push the high court, with a conservative majority, to weigh in quickly on a divisive issue.
Earlier this month, the administration asked the high court to fast-track cases on the president’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields young immigrants from deportation. Administration officials also recently asked the high court to intervene to stop a trial in a climate change lawsuit and in a lawsuit over the administration’s decision to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a frequent target of criticism by President Donald Trump, is involved in three of the cases. Trump’s recent salvo against the “Obama judge” who ruled against his asylum policy — not one of the issues currently before the Supreme Court — prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to fire back at the president for the first time for feeding perceptions of a biased judiciary.
Joshua Matz, publisher of the liberal Take Care blog, said the timing of the administration’s effort to get the Supreme Court involved in the issues at an early stage could hardly be worse for Roberts and other justices who have sought to dispel perceptions that the court is merely a political institution, especially since the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. At an especially sensitive moment for the Supreme Court, the Trump administration is “forcing it into a minefield that many justices would almost surely prefer to avoid,” Matz said.
The Supreme Court almost always waits to get involved in a case until both a trial and appeals court have ruled in it. Often, the justices wait until courts in different areas of the country have weighed in and come to different conclusions about the same legal question.
So it’s rare for the justices to intervene early as the Trump administration has been pressing them to do. One famous past example is when the Nixon administration went to court to try to prohibit the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
In the immigration case, the administration told the high court that it should step in and decide the fate of DACA ahead of an appeals court’s ruling because the policy otherwise could be in place until the middle of 2020 before the justices might otherwise rule. The appeals court has since ruled, but the administration’s request that the court hear the case stands.
In the military case, the administration argued that the Supreme Court should step in before an appeals court rules because the case “involves an issue of imperative public importance: the authority of the U.S. military to determine who may serve in the Nation’s armed forces.”
In a statement, Peter Renn, an attorney for Lambda Legal, which brought one of the challenges to the transgender military policy, called the Trump administration’s action Friday a “highly unusual step” that is “wildly premature and inappropriate.”
The Pentagon initially lifted its ban on transgender troops serving openly in the military in 2016, under President Barack Obama’s administration. But the Trump administration revisited that policy, with Trump ultimately issuing an order banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under limited circumstances. Several lawsuits were filed over the administration’s policy change, with lower courts all ruling against the Trump administration.
Still ongoing in lower courts are the census and climate change cases. The Supreme Court for now has refused to block the climate change trial. In the census question case, the court has agreed to decide what kind of evidence a trial judge can consider and indefinitely put off questioning of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. But it rejected an administration request to delay the trial and allowed other depositions to take place.
The court will hear arguments in the census question case in February. It’s unclear when it will act on the administration’s other requests.
Justice Department Fast-Tracks Military Transgender Cases to Supreme Court
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to bypass two federal appeals courts and render a final decision on President Donald Trump’s military transgender policy by summer 2019.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been litigating several cases regarding that policy since 2017. Transgender individuals had never been able to serve in the U.S. military, but Barack Obama attempted to change that policy shortly during his final term, and President Trump inherited that attempted policy change shortly after taking office.
“To assemble a military of qualified, effective, and able-bodied persons, the Department of Defense [DOD] has traditionally set demanding standards for military service,” the “cert petitions” explain. “Given the unique mental and emotional stresses of military service, a history of most mental health conditions and disorders is automatically disqualifying.”
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has long categorized transsexuality as such a condition, first calling it “transsexualism,” then “gender identity disorder,” and most recently, “gender dysphoria.” But with the 2013 change to the latest label, the association shifted its stance to say that it no longer considered nonacceptance of a person’s biological sex to be a disorder, unless accompanied by certain symptoms.
The Obama administration decided to allow transgender individuals to serve in uniform, sparking a debate among military policy experts, though the new policy stance was not set to take effect until July 2017, six months after the end of Obama’s tenure in office.
On July 26, 2017, President Trump settled the debate by announcing that the U.S. military would not include transgender individuals. DOD subsequently formulated a policy allowing some transgender individuals but not others. On December 2017, a federal district judge issued a nationwide injunction blocking DOD’s policy across the country.
Pursuant to later, more detailed instructions from the commander-in-chief, Defense Secretary James Mattis conducted a study, modifying the original assessment and recommending that some transgender individuals can serve, but those with a history of gender dysphoria that results in expensive gender-reassignment surgery and others therapies that render them unable to serve for significant lengths of time should not be able to serve in uniform. The specific military need is that those serving in uniform must be “free of medical conditions or physical defects that may require excessive time lost from duty.”
In March 2018, President Trump adopted that recommended policy. On April 13, 2018, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington [State] refused to lift the preliminary injunction blocking the first version of the policy. The District of Columbia federal court likewise refused to lift its identical injunction on August 6 and the Central District of California did the same on September 18.
DOJ appealed all three of those decisions. On November 23, Francisco took the extraordinarily rare step of asking the Supreme Court to take each of those cases now, rather than wait for perhaps another year for the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and D.C. Circuit to issue decisions. Those two appellate courts are currently two of the most liberal courts in the nation, and widely expected to affirm the lower courts’ blocking of the policy.
“This Court has long accorded a healthy deference to legislative and executive judgments in the area of military affairs,” explains the first petition. It adds:
That deference reflects the recognition not only that courts are ill-equipped to determine the impact upon discipline that any particular intrusion upon military authority might have, but also that military authorities have been charged by the Executive and Legislative Branches with carrying out the Nation’s military policy. The Mattis policy would thus warrant deferential review even if an analogous policy in the civilian context would call for closer scrutiny.
Although the Supreme Court almost always waits for a federal appeals court to render a final decision on a case before the justices will review it, federal law and Supreme Court rule 11 give the justices jurisdiction over a case at any point after it is first docketed with the appellate court. The Trump administration has asked for the High Court to exercise that rule a couple times, most recently in the legal challenges to the DACA amnesty program for illegal aliens.
This upsurge in petitions for certiorari before final judgment is attributed to the rapid increase of district judges with liberal judicial philosophies issuing nationwide injunctions over the past two years, essentially blocking entire federal policies. Historically, district courts would render relief only for the parties in the case before them, or at minimum would often stay broad decisions while the government takes the case up on appeal.
The cases are Trump v. Karnoski, Trump v. Jane Doe 2, and Trump v. Stockman, and have not yet been assigned docket numbers in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Michael Moore 2020 Wish List: Meryl Streep, LeBron James, Oprah, Michelle Obama
Michael Moore revealed some of his top picks for the 2020 Democratic ticket Thursday, naming actress Meryl Streep, NBA great LeBron James, TV mogul Oprah Winfrey, and even rocker Bruce Springsteen, among others.
“Let’s name ourselves the “2020 Recruitment Committee” & get the Thanksgiving Dinner conversation started! Our job: Find a BELOVED American who shares our VALUES and can WIN the White House in 2020. Think of a BOLD, fresh idea & post w/ #Draft2020. I’ll start: Ellen Degeneres!” Michael Moore said in a social media post.
Michael Moore
✔
@MMFlint
· Nov 22, 2018
Let’s name ourselves the “2020 Recruitment Committee” & get the Thanksgiving Dinner conversation started! Our job: Find a BELOVED American who shares our VALUES and can WIN the White House in 2020. Think of a BOLD, fresh idea & post w/ #Draft2020. I’ll start: Ellen Degeneres!
Michael Moore
✔
@MMFlint
We need to think outside the box. If a Lesbian Native American MMA fighter can be sent 2 Congress from KANSAS—the sky’s the limit! Sully Sullenberger. Michelle Obama. Tulsi Gabbard. Tom Hanks. LeBron! Bernie! Oprah! Beto! Streep! Why don’t we win for once! #Draft2020 Post a name!
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7:57 AM – Nov 22, 2018
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When I said think outside the box I meant food box.
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“We need to think outside the box. If a Lesbian Native American MMA fighter can be sent 2 Congress from KANSAS—the sky’s the limit! Sully Sullenberger. Michelle Obama,” Moore continued. “Tulsi Gabbard. Tom Hanks. LeBron! Bernie! Oprah! Beto! Streep! Why don’t we win for once! #Draft2020 Post a name!”
The Bowling For Columbine director later followed up with a bigger list of names, reading, “Thx for these new names as to who should run in 2020: Sally Yates, Andrew Gillum, Kamala Harris, Sherrod Brown, Richard Ojeda, Shaun King, Cecile Richards, Anthony Romero, Stacey Abrams, Marianne Williamson, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, Kate Brown, Amy Klobuchar, Bruuuce! Others?”
Michael Moore
✔
@MMFlint
Thx for these new names as to who should run in 2020: Sally Yates, Andrew Gillum, Kamala Harris, Sherrod Brown, Richard Ojeda, Shaun King, Cecile Richards, Anthony Romero, Stacey Abrams, Marianne Williamson, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, Kate Brown, Amy Klobuchar, Bruuuce! Others?
4,273
2:40 AM – Nov 23, 2018
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I’m not fat I just carry a lot of water. Like Lake Michigan
Moore’s celeb-filled list may be indicative of his wishes but most voters aren’t likely to care. According to a Rasmussen poll from October, most voters have no interest in celebrities’ feelings about politics.
While not suggesting that Bruce Springsteen run for president, the 58-year-old filmmaker is busy warning anyone that will listen that the United States could be in the “last days of democracy.”
Former FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday that Republicans have subpoenaed him to appear before a closed-door meeting of the House Judiciary Committee early next month.
In a Thanksgiving Day tweet, Comey said he would be happy to answer the House Judiciary Committee’s questions, but will “resist a ‘closed door’’ for fear that his testimony will be leaked and distorted.
“Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions,” Comey tweeted. “But I will resist a ‘closed door’ thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.”
Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a “closed door” thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion.Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.
The subpoena calls Comey to testify as part of the congressional inquiry into allegations of anti-Trump bias that led to the shutting down of the probe of Hillary Clinton’s private email server and the opening of the investigation into purported ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
President calls the Mueller investigation a ‘total mess’ and ‘disgrace’ on social media; John Roberts reports from the White House.
Comey’s tweet partly confirms a story published in Politicothat reported that the former FBI director and former President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch, had both been subpoenaed.
A source told Fox News that Lynch and Comey had indeed been subpoenaed. So far Lynch has not made any public statement on the subpoena.
The office of Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the outgoing chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was also unavailable for comment.
Comey has been the target of attacks by both Trump and Republicans for his time at the head of the FBI, with the president labelling the investigation into allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia – now headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller – a “witch hunt.”
Democrats, however, argue that the GOP-led investigation in the House is itself a partisan move to undermine Mueller’s investigation and have promised to renew investigations of their own into Trump’s attacks on the FBI and Justice Department when they take the House majority in January.
In a statement sent to Fox News, Comey’s lawyer, David Kelley, said: “Mr. Comey embraces and welcomes a hearing open to the public, but the subpoena issued yesterday represents an abuse of process, a divergence from House rules and its presumption of transparency. Accordingly, Mr. Comey will resist in Court this abuse of process.”
The news of the subpoenas comes on the heels of a busy week in the Mueller investigation that saw Trump provide the special counsel with written answers to questions about his knowledge of Russian interference in the 2016 election, his lawyers said Tuesday, avoiding at least for now a potentially risky sit-down with prosecutors.
The compromise outcome, nearly a year in the making, offers some benefit to both sides. Trump at least temporarily averts the threat of an in-person interview, which his lawyers have long resisted, while Mueller secures on-the-record statements whose accuracy the president will be expected to stand by for the duration of the investigation.
The responses may also help stave off a potential subpoena fight over Trump’s testimony if Mueller deems them satisfactory. They represent the first time the president is known to have described to investigators his knowledge of key moments under scrutiny by prosecutors.
Also this week, it was revealed by the New York Times that Trump told his counsel’s office last spring that he wanted to prosecute Clinton and former FBI Comey, an idea that prompted White House lawyers to prepare a memo warning of consequences ranging up to possible impeachment.
Then-counsel Don McGahn told the president he had no authority to order such a prosecution, and he had White House lawyers prepare the memo arguing against such a move, The Associated Press confirmed with a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss the situation. McGahn said that Trump could request such a probe but that even asking could lead to accusations of abuse of power, the newspaper said.
The state allocated $925,000 each to Legal Services of New Jersey and the American Friend Service Committee.
It allocated $125,000 apiece to the law schools at Rutgers and Seton Hall universities.
“Families who came to New Jersey for a better life do not deserve to be torn apart by the federal government’s cruel and discriminatory policies,” Murphy said in a statement. “Deportation is one of the harshest consequences an individual can face under U.S. law, yet most immigrants do not have the right to appointed counsel and many cannot afford an attorney.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 3,189 undocumented immigrants in the Garden State in fiscal year 2017 — a 42 percent uptick from the year before.
Murphy said on his call-in radio show Monday night this money was needed because undocumented immigrants often don’t know where to go “to get the right answer.”
He said “in this era of Trump,” people are being scared “into the shadows,” and it’s “shaken a lot of our communities.”
“I believe with all my heart in the ‘safer cities’ notion,” Murphy said. “When folks feel like they can come out of the shadows, engage with their neighbors, community leaders, elected official, law enforcement members importantly, you have a safer, more stable community.”
He said the “intention here is to put an amount of money in place that begins us on a process where people know where to go.”
Murphy said he didn’t know how many immigrants this would help.
“But it’s a start,” he said on the show, which was broadcast on public radio stations WBGO in Newark, WNYC in New York City, and WHYY in Philadelphia.
Murphy said his administration came up with the $2.1 million figure based on averaging $100,000 per each of New Jersey’s 21 counties.
Erika Nava, a policy analyst at liberal think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective, told NJ Advance Media on Monday the cost to represent every undocumented immigrant who’s incarcerated in New Jersey could reach as much as $15 million.
Even though this money would be a sliver of that, Nava said it’s a “step in the right direction.”
State Treasurer Elizabeth Muoio said the move will also “dramatically reduce” the costs taxpayers foot for detention of undocumented immigrants. There are three ICE detention centers in New Jersey.
Melville D. Miller Jr., president of Legal Services, said immigrants seeking help will “receive a full assessment of their legal claims and specific advice concerning their legal rights.”
Other Democratic-led states, such as New York and California, provide legal help to poor immigrants.
Amber Tamblyn’s frank discussion about her feelings the night that Donald Trump was elected president are generating a lot of anger on Twitter.
A star of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie and co-founder of the #TimesUporganization advocating for women’s equality, Tamblyn read part of her upcoming book, Era of Ignition: Coming of Age in a Time of Rage and Revolution, on Sunday at the “Feminist AF” event at Vulture Fest in L.A. The excerpt she read was about spending the night of the 2016 presidential election at the Javits Center in New York with the Hillary Clinton campaign, and her thoughts at the moment Clinton supporters were told that the presidential candidate would not be addressing the crowd.
“A dark realization swallowed me: I was going to bring a baby into this world. And not just any baby: a girl,” Tamblyn recalled. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she recalled “imagining if she should give her baby away to Canadians or Swedes.” Tamblyn’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
That last part, about Tamblyn’s now 18-month-old baby, drove a lot of people straight to Twitter.
’MERICA 1st@rb_leto
@WilkowMajoritynow I’ve heard everything!!! Hollywood is planning to boycott filming in Georgia and amber tamblyn says she imagines her baby growing up in Canada all these people are dilusional !!!!
11 yr old girl gets gang raped in Sweden. Then her attackers get let go. Now she faces them as they laugh at her on the way to school everyday. USA is next unless we take a STAND! Fight Mass Immigration!
PamelaR@prichvisalia
Hey- @ambertamblyn ~ Like I said in my first TW to you- you surely dodged a bullet. You and your husband shout horrid things about OUR PRESIDENT ~ WHILE SITTING COMFY IN YOUR MANSION? & “WE THE PEOPLE” (#patriots#maga) ARE SUPPOSED TO HEAR YOU? You R both hypocrites! Move to
Do us all a favor and leave the country! People like you are why people like me voted for Trump. If you can’t figure out why then you deserve the Communist life you’ll have because you just don’t get what it means to be an American. #Trump2020
@ambertamblyn nice article of how you thought you would have to give your daughter to Canada or Sweden after 2016 election. It just goes to show how irrational and unhinged some people are. If it’s that bad why did yih just take your baby and leave. Not as dramatic I guess
If you’re one of those news organizations that treated Clinton’s private emails like they were a national emergency, the solution isn’t to treat Ivanka’s private emails like they’re also a national emergency—rather, it’s to acknowledge that you kinda fucked up on Clinton.
Just Jeff@TrumpTheHaters1
Just read that Amber wrote that she thought about giving her baby to Canada after Trump won the election. Looks like someone is looking for attention. Pretty pathetic.
Tamblyn herself jumped into the fray to make a joke about a headline from an extremist website about what happened. She thanked another writer for sharing a poem called “Stay Vigilant,” adding that she “needed this.”
Although commenters didn’t pay much attention, Tamblyn’s moment at the reading included a more hopeful message too. She remembered her doctor suggesting that she deal with her anxiety about protecting her daughter by listening to a one-minute recording of the baby’s heartbeat each and every day, so she shared it with the audience.
Amber Tamblyn Believes Entertainment Is Slowly But Significantly Increasing Inclusivity
This Juan Lopez idiot killed Tamara, a officer, and one other person.
Chicago police officer and two other people were killed in an attack at a South Side hospital Monday afternoon that sent medical personnel and police scrambling through halls, stairwells and even the nursery in search of victims and the shooter before he was found dead.
Officer Samuel Jimenez, on the force less than two years, was gunned down as he went to the aid of other officers who had been called to Mercy Hospital & Medical Center around 3:20 p.m. about an assault. Jimenez, 28, was married with three small children. He’s the second Chicago police officer killed in the line of duty this year, the most since 2010 when five officers were fatally shot. The first was Near North District Cmdr. Paul Bauer, killed Feb. 13 outside the Thompson Center.
“Those officers that responded today saved a lot of lives,” said Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. “They were heroes because we just don’t know how much damage (the shooter) was prepared to do.”
Police had been called to the hospital after Juan Lopez, 32, confronted emergency room doctor Tamara O’Neal, apparently over a “broken engagement,” sources said. By the time Jimenez and his partner arrived on the scene, Lopez had shot O’Neal repeatedly, standing over her as he fired the last shots, according to police sources and witnesses.
“When they pulled up, they heard the gunshots, and they did what heroic officers always do — they ran toward that gunfire,” Johnson said. “So they weren’t assigned to that particular call, but they went because that’s what we do.”
Lopez, who sources say had a concealed carry license, exchanged gunfire with Jimenez and other officers as he ran into the hospital. Jimenez was shot in the lobby as Lopez continued firing. A squad car was hit, and a bullet hit the holster and lodged in the gun barrel of another officer, according to Johnson.
Dayna Less, 25, a first-year pharmacy resident, was hit as she walked out of an elevator. “That woman got off an elevator and was shot, why?” Johnson asked. Lopez was found inside the hospital, apparently suffering a wound to the head. Johnson said it was unclear how he was shot.
At a press conference late Monday night, Emergency Department director Patrick Connor grew emotional as he described O’Neal as dedicated to her church and patients. The 38-year-old physician graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago in 2016 and had worked as a resident at Mercy for two years. She raised money for disadvantaged children and led her church choir, Connor said, choking up with emotion and pausing frequently.
“That was her one thing she wanted … to be able to go to church on Sunday,” Connor said, adding that they assured her she could. “We’ll make sure you go to church on Sunday.”
Less recently graduated from Purdue University and started working at the hospital in July.
Michael Davenport, Mercy’s chief medical officer, said the hospital had conducted an active shooter drill last month. About 200 patients were being treated in the hospital on Monday, but authorities only evacuated the emergency room. The hospital’s emergency plans include barricading doors and ensuring patient safety.
In the confusion of the first moments, it was unclear how many people were shot, how many officers were among them and how many shooters there were.
As dispatchers and responding officers tried to make sense of the scene, reports came in of an officer shot somewhere in the lobby, a woman and an assistant also wounded. Finally, there was word of the gunman apparently shot in the head.
Even then, dispatchers continually checked on officers’ status and whether another gunman might still be on the loose.
“How many officers shot?” a dispatcher asked repeatedly.
“Trying to find that out,” an officer radioed.
Officers rushed to lock down the first floor of the hospital for a search, then closed off the stairwells. “We’re checking for victims,” a dispatcher said. “We also need officers on the third floor to check the nursery.”
By 4 p.m., the officer was being taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he died.
Meanwhile, medical personnel continued to be brought out of the hospital by police, who radioed ahead to warn officers outside. At 4:40 p.m., the hospital tweeted that “patients are safe.”
Steven Mixon, an emergency room clerk, said he had received a call hours earlier, around 1 p.m., from a man he believed to be the ex-fiance of the woman shot outside the hospital. “He called and asked to speak with his fiancee,” said Mixon. “And she said, ‘Oh, just tell him I’m in with a patient.’ ”
Mixon said he got off work around 3 p.m. and waited for an Uber in front of the hospital. “I look up and I see her being harassed by some gentleman,” he said. “She was trying to avoid him and move around. And when she saw me, she waved for me to come that way.”
Mixon said he started to run toward his colleague to help when Lopez fired. “I guess it wasn’t my time to go because if I had made it to her, I would have been dead too,” Mixon said.
He watched as the gunman then shot at a police car and shot again at the woman, who had fallen to the ground. Mixon said he ran back into the emergency room, where it was “total chaos.”
“Everyone was running every which way,” he said. “We ran into surgery because they had locked doors. That’s when we heard more shots inside the hospital.”
Mixon said he remembers the woman looking beautiful this year at the hospital’s annual gala. “She was a sweetheart, just a sweetheart. What a fireball.
“Before all this, she was looking forward to getting married,” he said. “Talking about dresses, all of that. But then something happened and it was called off.”
James Gray was coming out of the clinic area when he said he saw a man in a black coat, black hat and dark pants shoot a woman three times in the chest. The man and the woman had been walking and talking to each other before the shooting, he said. The gunman stood over the woman and shot her three more times after she fell to the ground, said Gray. Then a squad car turned its lights on and came down the drive and the gunman shot at the squad car.
“It was chaos,” said Gray. “It was just mass chaos.”
’MERICA 1st
all these people are dilusional !!!!
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