Queen For a Day 🌻 🌻 🌻

The Supremes:  Say goodbye to affirmative action as we’ve known it.  Yesterday, in an opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court’s Conservatives did what had been widely expected, they rang its death knell.  Ironically one of affirmative action’s most vociferous and long-term opponents is Ginni’s husband, Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote a lengthy and vituperative concurring opinion. Ironic because Thomas was admitted to both the College of the Holy Cross, and Yale law school as part of their efforts to raise minority enrollment but nevertheless he holds the “taint” of that preferential treatment responsible for his inability to land any of the law firm positions he sought upon law school graduation.  The dearly departed notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a similarly difficult time obtaining suitable employment when she graduated but she saw that for what it was, discrimination.  Her experience inspired her to work harder to right wrongs and level the playing field while Thomas’ experience turned him from being a civil rights advocate to becoming a conservative and the darling of the right which fast tracked him to the Court. The Court’s conservatives have a point in that affirmative action as we knew it until yesterday’s ruling was an imperfect vehicle for leveling the field, but it was better than doing nothing, and as the Wall Street Journal noted this morning, better at raising minority enrollment than the alternative strategies now being used in States like California and Michigan where legislators had jumped the gun in putting the kibosh on traditional affirmative action policies. Notably and not surprisingly, the SCOTUS conservatives don’t have an issue with legacy admissions also known as affirmative action for white, rich kids, and is also okay with affirmative action being used for US military academy admissions because maybe giving minorities a leg up to fight for all of us even if that means dying in battle is okay? To summarize, this Court does what it wants, stare decisis be damned. As President Biden put it in an interview with MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace yesterday, this is not a normal court.  Later this morning we should learn more about just how abnormal SCOTUS is when the Court releases its opinion in the 303 Creative LLC vs Elenis case.  That case concerns a website designer who doesn’t want to be “forced” to design wedding websites for same sex couples. It’s a particularly odd case because the website designer doesn’t design wedding websites, she’s just thinking about expanding her business and wants the Court to preemptively rule that she won’t have to do business with same sex couples.  The case also mentions a call the designer says she once received from a man inquiring about her building a website for his same sex marriage, but it was reported this week that the referenced call may never have taken place or at the very least it was bogus.  SCOTUS is also expected to rule today on Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.  

 

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid:  Liz Cheney says that as a country we’ve got to stop electing stupid people to political office.  That’s great advice but for now at least we’ve got stupid, plenty of it so it shouldn’t be surprising that the former and maybe future Stupid-Guy-in-Chief’s legal woes continue to pile up, not that his supporters care.  It’s reported that both Rudy Giuliani and ex-campaign official Mike Roman have signed proffer agreements also known as Queen for a Day agreements, no not that kind of queen, with Special Counsel Jack Smith.  Roman was involved in the fake electors’ scheme and Rudy’s been involved in that and everything else. Also, it appears that the aide who was shown the Iran plan of attack at Mar a Lago and who is referred to in the text of the purloined documents indictment as “a representative of Trump’s political action committee” is Susie Wiles.  That’s significant because Wiles, a long time Florida political operative who is credited with turning the Sunshine State from purple to red and also represents some Chinese companies, is leading Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.  Wiles has met with Jack Smith’s team several times and though she’s team Trump all the way, it’s not clear that she’d lie for him. Assuming she didn’t claim memory loss or temporary blindness, she probably confirmed that the war plans were war plans rather than the blueprint for Trump’s next golf facility. One more thing, yesterday three Florida investors were arrested on insider trading charges related to the deal to take Trump’s media business, the company that owns Twitter wannabee platform Truth Social, public through the Digital World Acquisition Corporation SPAC.  More related indictments could be forthcoming..   

Happy Fourth of July 🎉🎉🎉