And the decision was written by a moron so stupid he doesn't know the difference between laughing gas and smog. We need to expunge the treasonous six, and then expand the court. The six of them need to be tried for treason and imprisoned.
I get your totally understandable comment. But I offer an alternative in hopes that the Supreme Court building once again houses a wise and just Supreme Court in the future.
Let's just tattoo "Ignorance in action" in capital letters on the foreheads of Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts and Barrett.
It think that after thjis summer of shit from the court that even Biden and the congressional Democrats now see the necessity. But we have to win the house and hold the senate to get there..
We need good people to run for office. Unfortunately I am too old (assuming I'm a good person, which I do). But there are lots of younger people who need to be convinced to step up.
Thank you, Robert, for clearly laying out what has just happened recently due to SCOTUS. Simply horrifying. I have no words.
"Contrary to the finely tuned balance of the Constitution, the Roberts Court has anointed the judiciary as the ascendant branch of government."
"The Supreme Court fundamentally altered how the US economy will be regulated by elevating the judiciary and diminishing Congress. That should concern all Americans because the Supreme Court and the Federalist Society are acting as surrogates for corporations and white religious fundamentalists. Yet another reason to turn out in record numbers in November 2024."
But wait. Before I yield to panic, I was already an adult before the Chevron deferral was in place. We had high quality foods and it was safe to fly. We were anything but a third world economy.
Now with Chevron overturned, If I’m reading this correctly, much of the resistance will now happen in courts. Some business person doesn’t like a regulation and files a lawsuit challenging it. In many jurisdictions, a judge says the regulation stands until there is a trial. The overturning of the regulation is stalled indefinitely because of the court system’s inability to get the trial started because of the overload of cases.
Let’s say businessperson files the lawsuit in a far right jurisdiction where there is only one judge who is MAGA. The judge suspends the regulation. But the opposing litigants appeal and some of the higher courts see the foolishness of overturning the regulation. Others concur. I.e., where MAGA judges rule, the regulation is suspended during a litigation that may never end. But not all jurisdictions are MAGA until the case reaches the Supreme Court, which can’t deal with that case until 2055. In that situation, the regulation is unfortunately nullified.
What I’m saying is that regulation doesn’t all collapse at once. The battle is now being joined in the courts and via the upcoming election.
Obviously I’m not an attorney. Do I have any of this right? Is it too soon to panic at the Court’s overreach?
There is another means of resistance. Many people want to buy organic food, which is governed by a federal standard. Inspectors can still certify that a food meets that standard. If a large agribusiness claims it meets the standard but hasn't been inspected, the relevant government agency can publish which food producers have been inspected and meet the standard.
Alternatively, farmers and grocers wanting to satisfy the demand for organic foods people can trust form a private certifying organization. They take the certification process seriously, because they want to preserve the market for their products. Certification in this case is privatized.
Another example would be pharmaceutical companies want physicians and their patients to trust that their medications are manufactured in clean conditions and without contaminants. Some tainted drugs are distributed, but mostly, companies wanting to maintain trust in their products and their stock price make sure that their manufacturing process is safe. This is “voluntary” but is shaped by the reality of sound business practices. And, people can sue if they are harmed by a tainted drug.
And yet another example. Governments of blue states enact regulations that mirror what was done federally. Businesses that want to succeed comply with those regulations. Consumers favor those businesses.
In my state, Washington, our leading candidate for governor is the current state attorney general, Bob Ferguson. He sued the Trump administration 99 times and prevailed in 93 of them. Should he win, our state would be very smart in resisting the right wing takeover and using government to help keep our economy and people healthy. Already our current Governor Inslee has stockpiled mifepristone as has the governor of California. The medication has a shelf life of 5 years. That medication will be available here. If a MAGA corrupted FDA rules it unsafe, WA, CA and other states challenge that in a friendly court. The Trumpified FDA says, no, that’s illegal. But like deep red states, a blue state says, no, we are not going to obey your ruling.
Obviously I’m not an attorney. Do I have any of this right? Is it too soon to panic completely at the Court’s overreach?
When Al Gore ran, I had friends who voted for Ralph Nader and they were so convinced it was the right thing to do. I told them that because the president appoints judges it is very important to make sure that Bush does not win. They did not see any difference between Bush and Gore, and possibly still don't. However, they do see the difference in the courts. That is another reason this election is so important. By the way, I see the AfD (right-wing German party) getting ideas from how the Republicans are doing things by deactivating the courts with corrupt appointments who will rule in their favor. I assume all right-wing parties are observing the USA, just as our right-wingers look for other models as well. The Russification of the USA is not a good thing. Thanks for talking about this.
The international net of rightwing extremist political movements is thriving and would get an incredible boost should the plot against America succeed in November.
After leaving the White House in 2017 (don't believe for a minute that that was the result of a fall-out between him and the felon. The movement simply realized that he would be far more effective and unrestrained working outside the administration) Steve Bannon actively tried to influence and support rightwing parties in Europe. An attempt to establish a training center for populist and nationalist cadres in Italy fortunately failed but now he is planning to bring his podcast to Germany – War Room Berlin.
From 2018 to 2020 we were "blessed" with having Richard Grenell as the American ambassador in Berlin. One of the most vile and despicable personalities in the MAGA movement. He has a good shot at running the State Department should MAGA take over in Jan 2025. Upon his arrival in Berlin in 2018 he openly stated that one of his goals was strengthening nationalistic and populist movements in Europe.
Yes, Grenell has been prepping for this role by making the rounds of countries who have strong-ish right-wing populist candidates. It seems treasonous to me to be actually making foreign policy that counters the policy of the sitting president, but this bunch is treasonous. I cannot wait to see whether Bannon actually goes to prison on Monday. He is certainly a runner up in the vile and despicable category. I would just love to send all these White Supremacists to North Korea.
We can see that "Democratic" Europe has its own struggles with right-wing disinformation. I love that she fact checks in her report in text. That is the way we should see reporting done. How did you hear about Bannon planning to bring his podcast to Berlin? I would think he would just settle right down in my maternal grandmother's home state of Thüringen.
Bannon is scum of the earth. I was hoping that time in Prison will give us all a break from him, but Breitbart is pretty established and it sounds like he will be running things from prison. That is a program that sounds like it requires some anti-fascist protest against.
Stefan, you would find Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat interesting. She is a history professor who has a Substack called Lucid. Her area of expertise is fascism. For subscribers who pay she has a weekly segment where she has a conversation with her readers. This week she has been discussing what is going on with the "debate" and she is talking about Steve Bannon working with Trump to stage a coup which she wrote about in 2017. She is looking at his program War Room. She is looking at the Supreme Court ruling which struck down the law that they created to strike down Trump's charges. She is basically discussing the Supreme Court as an instrument of turning the US into an authoritarian state. She is also looking at the way that the Supreme Court is implementing Project 2025. https://youtu.be/tX7lij4fETc?si=nbvTPCZTJTs6xO8M
You are absolutely right, Stefan. I didn't know about War Room Berlin :( I am so looking forward to Bannon serving his prison sentence beginning on July 1, but I sadly assume he has made arrangements to keep his audience entertained and outraged in his absence.
The US - as represented by Jim Crow southerners - taught the Nazis how to deal with aboriginal people and minorities. Looks like we're doing it again...we need to amplify this message and wake up more of the sheep being led to....
I 100% agree with you. What compelled students to sit on the campuses for days, weeks? I did not see this with the loss of abortion rights, or even for student loans, , but Gaza got them out. Why that and not other issues? Who and what is compelling them?
Given the suprisingly widespread and very aggressive campus protests in America over what Israel was doing to Gaza, but not what Hamas did and continues to do to create and prolong this current war, I too have been wondering what compelled these student protests.
It almost seems like some political faction has been quietly sending pro-Hamas adults, either from the Middle East or from America, to speak to students on many campuses and get them outraged enough about one side of the Middle East war to follow these adults into aggressive action on campuses, including in some cases even breaking into administration buildings.
I was somewhat surprised that I did not see any stories in the media delving into who was motivating student groups on so many campuses to be so outraged against one side of this terrible conflict, but totally silent about the other side.
Judging by the campus protests, it would seem that protesting students across this country are not bothered by the Hamas aggressors who planned an unprovoked attack on innocent Israeli civilians and took 240 people as hostages, including grandparents and little children and are still keeping most of them in darkness underground with little food or water.
It would seem the students didn't know that Hamas has sworn since its inception that its goal is to kill the Jewish people and destroy Israel. And it's hard to believe students know that Hamas is not concerned about the many Palestinian people in homes, schools and hospitals that they use as human shields, who end up dead either by ammunition aimed at Hamas or by Hamas fighters themselves whose orders to Palestinians are not obeyed.
By their silence on this subject, it would seem all these protesting students don't care about the most brutal, violent, unspeakable crimes perpetrated on so many Israelis on October 7, 2023 who were peacefully enjoying a music festival or quietly tending to their homes and families. I just can't believe those American student protestors heard and didn't care about the horrific in person machine-gunning, dismembering, raping and torturing of women, girls and even some men that resulted in the death of 1,200 Israelis, including many babies.
Anti-semitism is on the rise in America, but I just don't believe it has motivated college students to this extent. I can't believe so many American students would demostrate in the manner they did in favor of one side of the current conflict in Israel, if they understood all the facts of what started and continues to prolong this current fight.
I am very surprised and profoundly disappointed that no one in our vast media seems interested in this same question.
As a young lawyer many years ago, I worked for one of those federal regulatory agencies, the Federal Trade Commission. I understand what these decisions mean and it is horrifying. Elections have consequences. Sometimes many years later. I remember someone who knew John Roberts telling me that Roberts was about as good a SCOTUS nominee as you could get under George W. Bush. Well, in too many cases, he isn't any better than Alito or Thomas. I have not been a fan of expanding the court but, as of today, I am.
Robert, THIS letter should horrify those who read it more thoroughly than anything you have written in the past. SCOTUS has just transformed our democracy into an oligarchy. This is the stuff of dystopian novels and movies.
While we all rightfully fear the demise of our democracy under a possible second Trump term, it is now at this moment to gear up all of our efforts to address an even more insidious problem. King John Roberts has not only decided that his beliefs about what a Republican autocracy should look like, he has already created the mechanisms for just such an outcome. Behind that smug smile has been a 12-year (since Citizens United)effort to undermine our election laws so that we can't fix the problem. Now he has now fully declared the Supreme Court the head of the system begun in the last 1800s of a regulatory system to provide the wealthy and corporations to decide the rest of our rest of our health and safety. There is tons more to say about all of this, but suffice at the moment to worry and act on only one. This election requires such a large Democratic sweep that we can fix the court, bring Congress back to a respectful, negotiating body and do it under a President whose grandfatherly presence is still among the smartest in our current political climate. Even in states sure to give him their electoral votes, every Democrat who cares about our future must vote. Clearly so in the seven or eight states that will decide the presidency. The numbers must be staggering if we have any chance to hold our nation together.
So, if I understand this correctly if say OSHA finds a company has ignored safety regulations putting workers in danger it can no longer impose fines which are intended to assure the safety violations are corrected unless a federal judge says it's ok to levy that individual fine?
Having worked in the coal industry for over 35 years as a consultant I can almost guarantee that the owner of the largest coal companies in the US will do it at his first opportunity. He has sued every regulatory agency overseeing the industry at one point in time or another.
That's the way I understand it. Judges are now supreme in the worst way possible. This is the kind of thing that starts shooting revolutions, unfortunately. MAGA really bought the big one.
As Federal judges are unelected the people can only hope they make the right decision. Meantime the 1% will speaking to them directly to influence the outcome in their favor. Seems like something out of dark ages or perhaps 21st century Russia? or China?
Yes, by over balancing the judiciary's leg of the 3 legged stool, they have ensured a very rocky road for the foreseeable future. Tire-biting Republicans once again have caught the car. The next question is how long will this last before MAGAts realize the benefits flow to 1% land, and very much away from MAGAt land.
Those unelected bureaucrats? It would be an enormous task and horrendous taxpayer expense to hold elections for the many thousands of them. It’s tough enough to decide who gets your vote for “state insurance commissioner.”
But you’re trying to refute propaganda with fact-based logical reasoning. I’ve been getting depressed and skeptical about its effectiveness.
DJT has said that he loves the uneducated. No wonder. He’s very effective at addressing them. Are there more of them than there are of our kind?
I think it was Adlai Stevenson who said, “Let’s speak common sense to America”. It didn’t go well for him on election day. It’s up to today’s Democratic candidates and political professionals to speak common sense in ways that get through to “ordinary” American voters.
Are there more of them, that is the question. They and their feelings are getting more air time than people who can tell facts from whopping great lies.
Back in 2010 Scott Walker was elected governor of Wisconsin. He immediately proceeded to smash conventions about government and impose Koch brothers policies. He went so far as to threaten changes to the agency that manages regulations, like building codes, etc. Ultimately it amounted to a blip and nothing happened. To me it showed a strategy - just how far they were willing to go, and that someone had done a lot of research to find all the nooks and crannies that powerful business disagrees with.
We saw that strategy executed at the supreme court today, over an obscure rule that should barely concern us. Instead, they turned it into a grand reversal. They did the same with Citizen's United - turned an obscure minute detail into a redefinition of our political system.
We have to expand the court to correct mitch McConnell theft of 2 seats. We also need to figure out a way to expose the conspiracy at the court so we can throw the 6 conservative justices in jail for sedition.
Seriously, history will look back on the US and this legislative upheaval as a direct outcome of HRC losing in 2016. All the people who didn't vote, or voted for Trump in protest are definitely to blame for this nonsense. This court does not respect stare decisis and clearly has become an activist judiciary that "originalists" keep telling me are the problem.
Nooks and crannies, absolutely. I have read something about that the fisherman who Loper Bright is based on. He did not argue against having a federal inspector on his boat. He agreed that protecting fish stocks was important to every fisherman. He just testified that he could not break even if he had to pay the $710 per day for the inspector himself.
It seems to me that if the Supreme Court is eager for this additional workload, we must expand it to at least 435 members so it has a sufficient labor force.
And Robert, you don't have to apologize for giving your intelligent but busy readers a highly digestible "technical" analysis based on what has become one of at least two (the other being political organizing) full-time jobs for you: condensing the analyses of Professor Tribe and many others into something I have time to read, and look forward to, daily.
Loren: what you said. Thanks for saying it. The additional workload is something that SCOTUS will have to grapple with. They may regret what they have done, if only for that reason.
Yes, you're right, sadly. People not caring about the future: billionaires, who assume that their children will be just fine after the climate apocalypse.
In FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION ET AL. v. ALLIANCE FOR HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE ET AL., a few doctors challenged FDA's ability to regulate the use of the drug mifepristone for abortions. SCOTUS avoided having to deal with the issue of the power of FDA to regulate the drug and instead made a ruling based upon the doctors lack of standing. If the applicants had standing, I wonder how far SCOTUS would go in vacating the FDA's ability to regulate drugs?
It is amazing that the Federalist Society, has through sponsorship of overtly partisan lawyers to the Court system, delivered to the US the opposite of what is good for the US. We have thrived since WWII under an executive branch where science and logic have predominated. I think history will rue the Roberts' Court. And, IMHO - it all tracks back to the misbegotten Citizens United decision where the good of the few has been prioritized over the good of the many. For Shame!
Wow, Robert! I had no idea how significant these rulings were together. It is truly scary to see the damage that continues to flow from the lost presidency of 2017-2020.
It seems as if Congress's failure to live up to its responsibilities has helped to get us to this place, and now the Supreme Court has made matters worse by assigning them more responsibilities that they are neither qualified nor capable of assuming, and affirming their own responsibility to adjudicate matters that they themselves are neither qualified nor capable of understanding.
Regarding the specificity with which Congress is supposed to pass laws, I infer from your comments that they cannot write laws that delegate the specifics to the agencies. Is that correct? If so, I see no way out of this.
They can continue to write laws and delegate the ability to create regulations. But those regulations are paper tigers; a single lawsuit means that a judge can second-guess them "de novo."
For “the damage that continues to flow from the lost presidency of 2017-2020,” between Robert Hubbell’s Letter and Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter tonight, we have a one-two punch by SCOTUS to the USA’s leading the world economy and by Trump-abetted Russian threat to world peace, both portending an ominous future that we have to head off now. It’s important more than ever for us to register Democrats and Get Out The Vote.
To your point, Ellie, and further to my own, this increases the need for an overwhelming Democrat turnout up and down the ballot so that we can fix the dam before it ruptures completely. We need the Senate to end the destructive filibuster and the House to end its rules that allow a small minority to thwart the will of a supermajority, and we need to force judicial reform. I've resisted those things in the past, thinking that our system of checks and balances would prevail. But we've become so unchecked and unbalanced that we find ourselves pushed to the brink, staring into the abyss, and I see no other way out.
A massive BLUE WAVE can wash away the toxic RED TIDE!
The “way out” is to vote for Biden and other sensible, intellectually honest, Democrats in November. (I’m not saying there are no intellectually honest Republican candidates; I am saying that those folks have been neutered by their Party and therefore need to focus on reforming their Party before trying to govern others.)
Absolutely! That's pretty much my point of view, but if I'm understanding Robert on this, it's a dire emergency.
Like you, I'm guessing, normally I'd be willing to vote for a "good" Republican, but I refuse to until they get their party back to its basic tenets, and stop the disingenuous attacks on the rest of us. Even their moderates have lost their way.
I agree with you. Does anyone see any signs that the Republican Party is even capable of reforming itself. They have purged Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and others and my own freshman Congressman answers my letters with MAGA boiler plate jmplying that of course I have agreed with him. He was not a MAGA guy to begin with but just a replacement for a representative who was killed in an auto accident.
This question is not just a whine. I would love to hear from anyone who sees any signs of true and powerful resistance to Trumpism and the Federalist Society's lock on the Republican Party among any members of party?
I certainly don't, Patrick, and frankly, I'd be wary if they did. I thought that the Tea Party taught them a lesson, but out of its ashes arose Felonious Trump & The MAGAlomaniacs.
It's not enough to eke out a win for the presidency. It needs to be a rout, up and down the ballot. Only then will the Republican Party rethink its strategy.
I take great heart in the energy and fight in Democratic House and Senate candidates around the country. And the party leaders are truly doing the work to build the future of the party in Florida, Arizona, and especially in North Carolina. Anderson Clayton is a wonder, and she is not alone.
That decision is both absurd & dangerous. Absurd bc complex financially interconnected economies of giant global corporations of course require regulation. The Federal budget is 23% of gdp. Personnel is the largest categories spend by of spending … so bye bye 10% to 15% of the economy as the federal workforce contracts. Collectively federal agencies spend hundreds of billions in the States on highways, dams, forest management, schools …. Dozens of things. Cutting off that spending while federal employment craters will trigger a market collapse that’ll make 2008 look like a picnic in the park.
The budget cuts that would follow the massive contraction of federal employment would, ironically, be most painful in the regions that most support this moronic political/legal movement. Why? Bc the Red States receive the lioness’s share of federal spending receiving many dollars of federal spending for every tax dollar they send to DC.
Stripping out the administrative state will likely be as destructive as was the “”free market” “shock & awe” the U.S. imposed on the former USSR … gdp fell 50%.
You worked hard putting this together. Due to not trusting NYT and WAPO and finding cable news unbearable now, I so needed to have this case clarified in a condensed way, and importantly, with examples. Thank you.
John Roberts knows exactly what he's doing-and like Oliver Wendell Holmes before him, he doesn't care about what happens to the hoi polloi-just as long as the new Robber Barons can sock away their fortunes.
And the decision was written by a moron so stupid he doesn't know the difference between laughing gas and smog. We need to expunge the treasonous six, and then expand the court. The six of them need to be tried for treason and imprisoned.
As Einstein said: there is nothing so frightful as ignorance in action.
*Ignorance in action* – emblazoned on the portals of the Supreme Court building, replacing “Equal justice under law”.
I get your totally understandable comment. But I offer an alternative in hopes that the Supreme Court building once again houses a wise and just Supreme Court in the future.
Let's just tattoo "Ignorance in action" in capital letters on the foreheads of Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts and Barrett.
TC, the combination of stupid and powerful; America is being transformed
https://on.soundcloud.com/uUmwXF6Xt3a71JN28
Haunting!
It think that after thjis summer of shit from the court that even Biden and the congressional Democrats now see the necessity. But we have to win the house and hold the senate to get there..
Hope you're right and they get the electoral wins, and wake up and do the damn job.
We have to deliver the wins and make clear to them what we want in return.
We need good people to run for office. Unfortunately I am too old (assuming I'm a good person, which I do). But there are lots of younger people who need to be convinced to step up.
Thank you, Robert, for clearly laying out what has just happened recently due to SCOTUS. Simply horrifying. I have no words.
"Contrary to the finely tuned balance of the Constitution, the Roberts Court has anointed the judiciary as the ascendant branch of government."
"The Supreme Court fundamentally altered how the US economy will be regulated by elevating the judiciary and diminishing Congress. That should concern all Americans because the Supreme Court and the Federalist Society are acting as surrogates for corporations and white religious fundamentalists. Yet another reason to turn out in record numbers in November 2024."
But wait. Before I yield to panic, I was already an adult before the Chevron deferral was in place. We had high quality foods and it was safe to fly. We were anything but a third world economy.
Now with Chevron overturned, If I’m reading this correctly, much of the resistance will now happen in courts. Some business person doesn’t like a regulation and files a lawsuit challenging it. In many jurisdictions, a judge says the regulation stands until there is a trial. The overturning of the regulation is stalled indefinitely because of the court system’s inability to get the trial started because of the overload of cases.
Let’s say businessperson files the lawsuit in a far right jurisdiction where there is only one judge who is MAGA. The judge suspends the regulation. But the opposing litigants appeal and some of the higher courts see the foolishness of overturning the regulation. Others concur. I.e., where MAGA judges rule, the regulation is suspended during a litigation that may never end. But not all jurisdictions are MAGA until the case reaches the Supreme Court, which can’t deal with that case until 2055. In that situation, the regulation is unfortunately nullified.
What I’m saying is that regulation doesn’t all collapse at once. The battle is now being joined in the courts and via the upcoming election.
Obviously I’m not an attorney. Do I have any of this right? Is it too soon to panic at the Court’s overreach?
There is another means of resistance. Many people want to buy organic food, which is governed by a federal standard. Inspectors can still certify that a food meets that standard. If a large agribusiness claims it meets the standard but hasn't been inspected, the relevant government agency can publish which food producers have been inspected and meet the standard.
Alternatively, farmers and grocers wanting to satisfy the demand for organic foods people can trust form a private certifying organization. They take the certification process seriously, because they want to preserve the market for their products. Certification in this case is privatized.
Another example would be pharmaceutical companies want physicians and their patients to trust that their medications are manufactured in clean conditions and without contaminants. Some tainted drugs are distributed, but mostly, companies wanting to maintain trust in their products and their stock price make sure that their manufacturing process is safe. This is “voluntary” but is shaped by the reality of sound business practices. And, people can sue if they are harmed by a tainted drug.
And yet another example. Governments of blue states enact regulations that mirror what was done federally. Businesses that want to succeed comply with those regulations. Consumers favor those businesses.
In my state, Washington, our leading candidate for governor is the current state attorney general, Bob Ferguson. He sued the Trump administration 99 times and prevailed in 93 of them. Should he win, our state would be very smart in resisting the right wing takeover and using government to help keep our economy and people healthy. Already our current Governor Inslee has stockpiled mifepristone as has the governor of California. The medication has a shelf life of 5 years. That medication will be available here. If a MAGA corrupted FDA rules it unsafe, WA, CA and other states challenge that in a friendly court. The Trumpified FDA says, no, that’s illegal. But like deep red states, a blue state says, no, we are not going to obey your ruling.
Obviously I’m not an attorney. Do I have any of this right? Is it too soon to panic completely at the Court’s overreach?
Thanks, Gary S, for suggesting that something can be done. We are not helpless. Panic indeed is counterproductive.
I was unaware that WA and CA have stockpiled mifepristone.
When Al Gore ran, I had friends who voted for Ralph Nader and they were so convinced it was the right thing to do. I told them that because the president appoints judges it is very important to make sure that Bush does not win. They did not see any difference between Bush and Gore, and possibly still don't. However, they do see the difference in the courts. That is another reason this election is so important. By the way, I see the AfD (right-wing German party) getting ideas from how the Republicans are doing things by deactivating the courts with corrupt appointments who will rule in their favor. I assume all right-wing parties are observing the USA, just as our right-wingers look for other models as well. The Russification of the USA is not a good thing. Thanks for talking about this.
The international net of rightwing extremist political movements is thriving and would get an incredible boost should the plot against America succeed in November.
After leaving the White House in 2017 (don't believe for a minute that that was the result of a fall-out between him and the felon. The movement simply realized that he would be far more effective and unrestrained working outside the administration) Steve Bannon actively tried to influence and support rightwing parties in Europe. An attempt to establish a training center for populist and nationalist cadres in Italy fortunately failed but now he is planning to bring his podcast to Germany – War Room Berlin.
From 2018 to 2020 we were "blessed" with having Richard Grenell as the American ambassador in Berlin. One of the most vile and despicable personalities in the MAGA movement. He has a good shot at running the State Department should MAGA take over in Jan 2025. Upon his arrival in Berlin in 2018 he openly stated that one of his goals was strengthening nationalistic and populist movements in Europe.
Yes, Grenell has been prepping for this role by making the rounds of countries who have strong-ish right-wing populist candidates. It seems treasonous to me to be actually making foreign policy that counters the policy of the sitting president, but this bunch is treasonous. I cannot wait to see whether Bannon actually goes to prison on Monday. He is certainly a runner up in the vile and despicable category. I would just love to send all these White Supremacists to North Korea.
I like this Italian journalist in Euro News. She is interviewing AfD leaders in Germany and Chega leaders in Portugal. https://www.euronews.com/2024/05/31/will-the-far-right-win-big-in-the-eu-elections-a-focus-on-germany-and-portugal
We can see that "Democratic" Europe has its own struggles with right-wing disinformation. I love that she fact checks in her report in text. That is the way we should see reporting done. How did you hear about Bannon planning to bring his podcast to Berlin? I would think he would just settle right down in my maternal grandmother's home state of Thüringen.
The Court refused to hear Bannon's case so it looks like he'll be in stir on Monday. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
4 months is way too short a sentence (thanks to prior Drumfp pardon). He should be jailed and gagged the rest of his unnatural life.
Absolutely agree!
The German media reported it. Here is one link
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/bannon-trump-afd-deutschland-war-room-podcast-100.html
Bannon is scum of the earth. I was hoping that time in Prison will give us all a break from him, but Breitbart is pretty established and it sounds like he will be running things from prison. That is a program that sounds like it requires some anti-fascist protest against.
Stefan, you would find Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat interesting. She is a history professor who has a Substack called Lucid. Her area of expertise is fascism. For subscribers who pay she has a weekly segment where she has a conversation with her readers. This week she has been discussing what is going on with the "debate" and she is talking about Steve Bannon working with Trump to stage a coup which she wrote about in 2017. She is looking at his program War Room. She is looking at the Supreme Court ruling which struck down the law that they created to strike down Trump's charges. She is basically discussing the Supreme Court as an instrument of turning the US into an authoritarian state. She is also looking at the way that the Supreme Court is implementing Project 2025. https://youtu.be/tX7lij4fETc?si=nbvTPCZTJTs6xO8M
I have subscribed to her Lucid substack for quite some time. Yes, she is good.
You are absolutely right, Stefan. I didn't know about War Room Berlin :( I am so looking forward to Bannon serving his prison sentence beginning on July 1, but I sadly assume he has made arrangements to keep his audience entertained and outraged in his absence.
The US - as represented by Jim Crow southerners - taught the Nazis how to deal with aboriginal people and minorities. Looks like we're doing it again...we need to amplify this message and wake up more of the sheep being led to....
I 100% agree with you. What compelled students to sit on the campuses for days, weeks? I did not see this with the loss of abortion rights, or even for student loans, , but Gaza got them out. Why that and not other issues? Who and what is compelling them?
Great question!!!!! I also have been wondering why women, especially young women, aren’t protesting and marching in the streets.
Given the suprisingly widespread and very aggressive campus protests in America over what Israel was doing to Gaza, but not what Hamas did and continues to do to create and prolong this current war, I too have been wondering what compelled these student protests.
It almost seems like some political faction has been quietly sending pro-Hamas adults, either from the Middle East or from America, to speak to students on many campuses and get them outraged enough about one side of the Middle East war to follow these adults into aggressive action on campuses, including in some cases even breaking into administration buildings.
I was somewhat surprised that I did not see any stories in the media delving into who was motivating student groups on so many campuses to be so outraged against one side of this terrible conflict, but totally silent about the other side.
Judging by the campus protests, it would seem that protesting students across this country are not bothered by the Hamas aggressors who planned an unprovoked attack on innocent Israeli civilians and took 240 people as hostages, including grandparents and little children and are still keeping most of them in darkness underground with little food or water.
It would seem the students didn't know that Hamas has sworn since its inception that its goal is to kill the Jewish people and destroy Israel. And it's hard to believe students know that Hamas is not concerned about the many Palestinian people in homes, schools and hospitals that they use as human shields, who end up dead either by ammunition aimed at Hamas or by Hamas fighters themselves whose orders to Palestinians are not obeyed.
By their silence on this subject, it would seem all these protesting students don't care about the most brutal, violent, unspeakable crimes perpetrated on so many Israelis on October 7, 2023 who were peacefully enjoying a music festival or quietly tending to their homes and families. I just can't believe those American student protestors heard and didn't care about the horrific in person machine-gunning, dismembering, raping and torturing of women, girls and even some men that resulted in the death of 1,200 Israelis, including many babies.
Anti-semitism is on the rise in America, but I just don't believe it has motivated college students to this extent. I can't believe so many American students would demostrate in the manner they did in favor of one side of the current conflict in Israel, if they understood all the facts of what started and continues to prolong this current fight.
I am very surprised and profoundly disappointed that no one in our vast media seems interested in this same question.
Yes, I had friends who insisted on voting for Nader. I was cross at the time and even more so now….
As a young lawyer many years ago, I worked for one of those federal regulatory agencies, the Federal Trade Commission. I understand what these decisions mean and it is horrifying. Elections have consequences. Sometimes many years later. I remember someone who knew John Roberts telling me that Roberts was about as good a SCOTUS nominee as you could get under George W. Bush. Well, in too many cases, he isn't any better than Alito or Thomas. I have not been a fan of expanding the court but, as of today, I am.
Reform the Court. This might include expansion, but there are other steps to be taken first - ethics code adoption, for example.
Right! An enforceable ethics code for the Supremes is sorely needed (along with the expansion).
Me too
Robert, THIS letter should horrify those who read it more thoroughly than anything you have written in the past. SCOTUS has just transformed our democracy into an oligarchy. This is the stuff of dystopian novels and movies.
I think Octavia Butler was onto something with her sci-fi, now all too real books, the Parables.
A terrific author!
While we all rightfully fear the demise of our democracy under a possible second Trump term, it is now at this moment to gear up all of our efforts to address an even more insidious problem. King John Roberts has not only decided that his beliefs about what a Republican autocracy should look like, he has already created the mechanisms for just such an outcome. Behind that smug smile has been a 12-year (since Citizens United)effort to undermine our election laws so that we can't fix the problem. Now he has now fully declared the Supreme Court the head of the system begun in the last 1800s of a regulatory system to provide the wealthy and corporations to decide the rest of our rest of our health and safety. There is tons more to say about all of this, but suffice at the moment to worry and act on only one. This election requires such a large Democratic sweep that we can fix the court, bring Congress back to a respectful, negotiating body and do it under a President whose grandfatherly presence is still among the smartest in our current political climate. Even in states sure to give him their electoral votes, every Democrat who cares about our future must vote. Clearly so in the seven or eight states that will decide the presidency. The numbers must be staggering if we have any chance to hold our nation together.
So, if I understand this correctly if say OSHA finds a company has ignored safety regulations putting workers in danger it can no longer impose fines which are intended to assure the safety violations are corrected unless a federal judge says it's ok to levy that individual fine?
Yes, as long as the company files a lawsuit challenging the regulation.
Having worked in the coal industry for over 35 years as a consultant I can almost guarantee that the owner of the largest coal companies in the US will do it at his first opportunity. He has sued every regulatory agency overseeing the industry at one point in time or another.
That's the way I understand it. Judges are now supreme in the worst way possible. This is the kind of thing that starts shooting revolutions, unfortunately. MAGA really bought the big one.
I would say no, at least not until someone challenges it in court. At that point, it would be a judges decision.
As Federal judges are unelected the people can only hope they make the right decision. Meantime the 1% will speaking to them directly to influence the outcome in their favor. Seems like something out of dark ages or perhaps 21st century Russia? or China?
“As federal judges are unelected …” –
A retired civil servant, I’ve chafed at the conservatives’ phrase, “unelected bureaucrat”. Now we have it: unelected jurists”!
Yes, by over balancing the judiciary's leg of the 3 legged stool, they have ensured a very rocky road for the foreseeable future. Tire-biting Republicans once again have caught the car. The next question is how long will this last before MAGAts realize the benefits flow to 1% land, and very much away from MAGAt land.
Those unelected bureaucrats? It would be an enormous task and horrendous taxpayer expense to hold elections for the many thousands of them. It’s tough enough to decide who gets your vote for “state insurance commissioner.”
You’re right, of course. Thank you.
But you’re trying to refute propaganda with fact-based logical reasoning. I’ve been getting depressed and skeptical about its effectiveness.
DJT has said that he loves the uneducated. No wonder. He’s very effective at addressing them. Are there more of them than there are of our kind?
I think it was Adlai Stevenson who said, “Let’s speak common sense to America”. It didn’t go well for him on election day. It’s up to today’s Democratic candidates and political professionals to speak common sense in ways that get through to “ordinary” American voters.
Are there more of them, that is the question. They and their feelings are getting more air time than people who can tell facts from whopping great lies.
I see this SC ruling as them making the rules which now will be no rules, kinda like the Wild West or mafia state.
or Putinesque
Good question. I’d like to know the answer.
I think only if it's challenged, but I might have read Robert wrong.
Back in 2010 Scott Walker was elected governor of Wisconsin. He immediately proceeded to smash conventions about government and impose Koch brothers policies. He went so far as to threaten changes to the agency that manages regulations, like building codes, etc. Ultimately it amounted to a blip and nothing happened. To me it showed a strategy - just how far they were willing to go, and that someone had done a lot of research to find all the nooks and crannies that powerful business disagrees with.
We saw that strategy executed at the supreme court today, over an obscure rule that should barely concern us. Instead, they turned it into a grand reversal. They did the same with Citizen's United - turned an obscure minute detail into a redefinition of our political system.
We have to expand the court to correct mitch McConnell theft of 2 seats. We also need to figure out a way to expose the conspiracy at the court so we can throw the 6 conservative justices in jail for sedition.
Seriously, history will look back on the US and this legislative upheaval as a direct outcome of HRC losing in 2016. All the people who didn't vote, or voted for Trump in protest are definitely to blame for this nonsense. This court does not respect stare decisis and clearly has become an activist judiciary that "originalists" keep telling me are the problem.
Just about every SCOTUS ruling opposed by the female justices should be reversed. period.
RBG had it correctly stated - the entire court should be female.
Nooks and crannies, absolutely. I have read something about that the fisherman who Loper Bright is based on. He did not argue against having a federal inspector on his boat. He agreed that protecting fish stocks was important to every fisherman. He just testified that he could not break even if he had to pay the $710 per day for the inspector himself.
It seems to me that if the Supreme Court is eager for this additional workload, we must expand it to at least 435 members so it has a sufficient labor force.
And Robert, you don't have to apologize for giving your intelligent but busy readers a highly digestible "technical" analysis based on what has become one of at least two (the other being political organizing) full-time jobs for you: condensing the analyses of Professor Tribe and many others into something I have time to read, and look forward to, daily.
Bravo! "we must expand it to at least 435 members so it has a sufficient labor force."
"...expand it to at least 435 members so it has a sufficient labor force." ✅
No – expand the courts (including staff assistants) until they grow to the combined sizes of the regulatory agencies.
Loren: what you said. Thanks for saying it. The additional workload is something that SCOTUS will have to grapple with. They may regret what they have done, if only for that reason.
I don’t think regret is an emotion they experience. Blame will be shifted. By them.
Reminds me of people who don’t care what happens in the future, because they will be dead.
Yes, you're right, sadly. People not caring about the future: billionaires, who assume that their children will be just fine after the climate apocalypse.
Clever!! 😀
In FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION ET AL. v. ALLIANCE FOR HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE ET AL., a few doctors challenged FDA's ability to regulate the use of the drug mifepristone for abortions. SCOTUS avoided having to deal with the issue of the power of FDA to regulate the drug and instead made a ruling based upon the doctors lack of standing. If the applicants had standing, I wonder how far SCOTUS would go in vacating the FDA's ability to regulate drugs?
All the way. There are no guardrails as of this ruling.
It is amazing that the Federalist Society, has through sponsorship of overtly partisan lawyers to the Court system, delivered to the US the opposite of what is good for the US. We have thrived since WWII under an executive branch where science and logic have predominated. I think history will rue the Roberts' Court. And, IMHO - it all tracks back to the misbegotten Citizens United decision where the good of the few has been prioritized over the good of the many. For Shame!
Wow, Robert! I had no idea how significant these rulings were together. It is truly scary to see the damage that continues to flow from the lost presidency of 2017-2020.
It seems as if Congress's failure to live up to its responsibilities has helped to get us to this place, and now the Supreme Court has made matters worse by assigning them more responsibilities that they are neither qualified nor capable of assuming, and affirming their own responsibility to adjudicate matters that they themselves are neither qualified nor capable of understanding.
Regarding the specificity with which Congress is supposed to pass laws, I infer from your comments that they cannot write laws that delegate the specifics to the agencies. Is that correct? If so, I see no way out of this.
They can continue to write laws and delegate the ability to create regulations. But those regulations are paper tigers; a single lawsuit means that a judge can second-guess them "de novo."
For “the damage that continues to flow from the lost presidency of 2017-2020,” between Robert Hubbell’s Letter and Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter tonight, we have a one-two punch by SCOTUS to the USA’s leading the world economy and by Trump-abetted Russian threat to world peace, both portending an ominous future that we have to head off now. It’s important more than ever for us to register Democrats and Get Out The Vote.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/june-28-2024?r=6pp8t&utm_medium=ios
To your point, Ellie, and further to my own, this increases the need for an overwhelming Democrat turnout up and down the ballot so that we can fix the dam before it ruptures completely. We need the Senate to end the destructive filibuster and the House to end its rules that allow a small minority to thwart the will of a supermajority, and we need to force judicial reform. I've resisted those things in the past, thinking that our system of checks and balances would prevail. But we've become so unchecked and unbalanced that we find ourselves pushed to the brink, staring into the abyss, and I see no other way out.
A massive BLUE WAVE can wash away the toxic RED TIDE!
I think the dam has ruptured. We need to get the votes to start the repairs.
Red tide, indeed! A brilliant characterization, Bob Morgan.
Thanks, Michael! Feel free to share.
Field Team 6 and Postcards to Swing States!
The “way out” is to vote for Biden and other sensible, intellectually honest, Democrats in November. (I’m not saying there are no intellectually honest Republican candidates; I am saying that those folks have been neutered by their Party and therefore need to focus on reforming their Party before trying to govern others.)
Absolutely! That's pretty much my point of view, but if I'm understanding Robert on this, it's a dire emergency.
Like you, I'm guessing, normally I'd be willing to vote for a "good" Republican, but I refuse to until they get their party back to its basic tenets, and stop the disingenuous attacks on the rest of us. Even their moderates have lost their way.
I agree with you. Does anyone see any signs that the Republican Party is even capable of reforming itself. They have purged Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and others and my own freshman Congressman answers my letters with MAGA boiler plate jmplying that of course I have agreed with him. He was not a MAGA guy to begin with but just a replacement for a representative who was killed in an auto accident.
This question is not just a whine. I would love to hear from anyone who sees any signs of true and powerful resistance to Trumpism and the Federalist Society's lock on the Republican Party among any members of party?
Democrats must win. America must elect Biden.
I certainly don't, Patrick, and frankly, I'd be wary if they did. I thought that the Tea Party taught them a lesson, but out of its ashes arose Felonious Trump & The MAGAlomaniacs.
It's not enough to eke out a win for the presidency. It needs to be a rout, up and down the ballot. Only then will the Republican Party rethink its strategy.
I take great heart in the energy and fight in Democratic House and Senate candidates around the country. And the party leaders are truly doing the work to build the future of the party in Florida, Arizona, and especially in North Carolina. Anderson Clayton is a wonder, and she is not alone.
For anyone who has not yet come to know Anderson Clayton, she is a Gen Z tour de force leading the Democratic Party in North Carolina:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/anderson-clayton-biden-gen-z-2024-b2506780.html
That decision is both absurd & dangerous. Absurd bc complex financially interconnected economies of giant global corporations of course require regulation. The Federal budget is 23% of gdp. Personnel is the largest categories spend by of spending … so bye bye 10% to 15% of the economy as the federal workforce contracts. Collectively federal agencies spend hundreds of billions in the States on highways, dams, forest management, schools …. Dozens of things. Cutting off that spending while federal employment craters will trigger a market collapse that’ll make 2008 look like a picnic in the park.
The budget cuts that would follow the massive contraction of federal employment would, ironically, be most painful in the regions that most support this moronic political/legal movement. Why? Bc the Red States receive the lioness’s share of federal spending receiving many dollars of federal spending for every tax dollar they send to DC.
Stripping out the administrative state will likely be as destructive as was the “”free market” “shock & awe” the U.S. imposed on the former USSR … gdp fell 50%.
You worked hard putting this together. Due to not trusting NYT and WAPO and finding cable news unbearable now, I so needed to have this case clarified in a condensed way, and importantly, with examples. Thank you.
One of your best, In my humble opinion. I feel enlightened.
John Roberts knows exactly what he's doing-and like Oliver Wendell Holmes before him, he doesn't care about what happens to the hoi polloi-just as long as the new Robber Barons can sock away their fortunes.
We have to finesse him by reforming the Court.