Bumpy Road Ahead ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Return of the Bump: Bumps are back, and we’re not talking about the tacky 1970’s era hip jarring dance move but something far more deadly, the bump stock.  Bump stocks, deadly firearm accessories, used to transform semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic machine guns, were banned by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (the ATF) following the 2017 Trump era Las Vegas shooting spree which resulted in the killing of 60 people and the wounding of 413 more. Trump’s initial reaction to the mass carnage was surprisingly human but then his advisors and buddies at the National Rifle Association reminded him who had helped finance his 2016 campaign so instead of putting his weight behind a legislative ban of the lethal bump stock accessory, he opted to have the ATF impose a ban, a solution that the Obama Justice department had rejected over concerns that it wouldn’t stand the test of time. It turns out that they were right. On Friday, a gun friendly Supreme Court, put the kibosh on the bump stock ban, concluding that because the accessory’s trigger mechanism requires constant pressure from trigger crazy lunatics it doesn’t exactly mimic true automatic weapons and therefore can’t be banned under the 1934 legislation that banned machine guns. The Court didn’t invoke the Second Amendment, instead they focused on mechanical technicalities.  SCOTUS’s message, at least the message of the six conservatives, is that if Congress wants to ban bump stocks, they need to go the legislative route and then hope that the Court doesn’t conclude that a legislative ban would violate the Second Amendment. Writing for the three liberals, Justice Sotomayor used the if it “walks like a duck” analogy to conclude that an automatic weapon plus a bump stock is a machine gun, but these days no one really cares what she or her other two liberal colleagues believe. Senator Schumer plans to introduce legislation to ban the bump stock again, but like his IVF and contraceptive legislation, it will probably not get enough Republican votes to pass.

Chevrons:  The tragic news is that more people are going to be killed in mass murder events as a result of the bump stock decision but that’s only part of what lies ahead.  The Court’s decision could well be an indication of how they are going to eviscerate the “Chevron doctrine” in another decision that is expected out shortly. And by chevron, we’re not taking those rank indicating “V” shaped stripes on uniforms but instead are referring to the basis for regulatory rules. Since the Supreme Court’s 1984 Chevron v Natural Resources Defense Council decision, federal courts have deferred to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretation of ambiguous statutes; the Court’s recognition that politicians aren’t technical experts and that as a result legislation usually needs some interpretation by bureaucratic specialists on the way to becoming actual rules and regulations. The case that the Court is expected to issue a ruling on by the end of June involves fisheries, but the impact of their ruling is expected to extend far beyond how many people need to be employed on ships to ensure that the nation’s fish supply remains intact to a panoply of government regulations, including those that allow the EPA to regulate toxins and so on.  The conservative Justices and their friends, folks like lavish gift giver Harlan Crow, others in the fossil fuel industry, and Steve Bannon who advocates for the total eradication of the “administrative state,” view limiting or better yet dismantling the Chevron doctrine as the pot at the end of their rainbow.  And by rainbow we’re not talking pride flags and the like, though Justice Alito and his wife Martha-Ann have a lot to say about those too. Worth mentioning, we’re still waiting for the presidential immunity decision and at this point no one expects it to be unanimous, the question now is about how much immunity the Conservates decide to give Trump and we know they’ll give him some.

Politics:  Early voting has started in New York State’s local primaries.  Lots of eyes are on Westchester where County Executive George Latimer is challenging one-term Congressman, squad member Jamaal Bowman, also known for his fire alarm antics, and on eastern Long Island where former CNN guy, moderate John Avlon is running against Stony Brook Chemistry professor, the more left leaning Nancy Goroff for the right to challenge newbie Republican Nick LaLota for the seat previously held by Lee Zeldin, the Trump supporter who gave Governor Kathy Hochul a run for the money in 2022. This isn’t Goroff’s first run for the seat, she lost to Zeldin in 2020 probably because she’s a wee too liberal for the eastern Long Island constituency, a group that includes lots of folks who aren’t transported Manhattanites.  For his part Trump who wants us to believe that he’s making plans to accept his Republican nomination at Mar a Lago instead of that “horrible city” Milwaukee, a back-up/fundraising plan in case New York Judge Juan Merchan sentences him to house arrest, spent his weekend speaking to what were supposed to be Black parishioners in a Black church but what was really an atypically integrated audience. While shading President Biden for “not even knowing what the word inflation means” he bragged about his mental acuity, citing the multiple times he’d been tested by then White House doctor Ronny Jackson who he twice called Ronny Johnson.  Biden was in California raising bigly bucks from the monied Hollywood set and bemoaning the Supreme Court’s extreme tilt, warning it will get worse if he’s not reelected. Biden is expected to spend the next week preparing for the upcoming CNN debate while Trump is expected to spend some time with Speaker Johnson, not to be confused with Congressman Doctor Ronny.  The two are plotting ways to overturn felonious Trump’s NY convictions.  As of now, much to his chagrin, RFK Jr has not qualified to be on the debate stage.    

   
#BringThemAllHomeNOW