Trump Asks Judge to Keep Third-Party Review on Schedule After Court Dismisses Special Master

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Former President Donald Trump asked a Florida federal court to keep the third-party review of documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate on schedule one day after a federal appeals court ruled to halt the special master from oversight.

Trump’s request was made to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the same judge who granted the special master review after federal authorities seized documents from his home in August as part of a criminal investigation into alleged retention of national security information, theft of government documents, and obstruction of justice.

The former president asked her to oppose the Justice Department’s request to delay third-party review deadlines in light of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit throwing out special master Raymond Dearie’s designated role on Thursday. Notably, the request did not indicate any plans for Trump to appeal the 11th Circuit’s decision from the day before.

“President Trump opposes modification of the current case management order at this,” his attorneys wrote, noting that Trump’s counsel can be available for a telephonic status conference on Dec. 6 after that date. (Read more from “Trump Asks Judge to Keep Third-Party Review on Schedule After Court Dismisses Special Master” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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Supreme Court to Hear Case of Web Designer Refusing to Do Gay Wedding Sites

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Lorie Smith, 38, of Littleton, Colo., may be the new face of a national debate pitting gay rights against freedom of speech in a case some have called a “free speech blockbuster.”

The Colorado web site designer, who has sued her state for the right to not include gay couples in her wedding design business, will see her case argued before the Supreme Court on Monday. . .

The case is a preemptive move against the Colorado’s public accommodations law, which mandates that businesses cannot refuse to serve people based on race, religion or sexual orientation. Smith, who does not believe in gay marriages because of her religious convictions, says the current law forces her to either design sites for same-sex weddings – if she offers them for opposite-sex couples – or face fines and jail time. (Read more from “Supreme Court to Hear Case of Web Designer Refusing to Do Gay Wedding Sites” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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New Court Ruling Slams Air Force’s Limited Approval of Religious Exemptions for COVID-19 Vaccine

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An appeals court in Ohio has upheld an injunction that protects around 10,000 unvaccinated active-duty, reserve and National Guard service members in the Air Force and Space Force from being punished as they await religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine.

The ruling, issued by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Tuesday, upheld previous wins by attorneys representing the service members over the last year and took aim at the Air Force’s process of approving religious exemptions. The decision sets the stage for a future trial or, possibly, the case winding its way up to the Supreme Court.

“These are people of principle who’ve had the proverbial gun to their head for a year and a half,” Thomas Bruns, a Cincinnati-based attorney with Bruns, Connell, Vollmar & Armstrong representing the service members, told Military.com on Wednesday. “All because they wouldn’t violate their moral conscience. So this was a huge win for our clients.”

The lawsuit, first filed by troops attached to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has led to temporary protections for around 10,000 active-duty, Active Reserve, reserve and National Guard members of the Air Force and Space Force who requested a religious exemption from the COVID vaccine, although only those who have been denied an exemption would face immediate action. (Read more from “New Court Ruling Slams Air Force’s Limited Approval of Religious Exemptions for COVID-19 Vaccine” HERE)

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Right After Biden Successfully Buys Votes With Student Loan Bailout, Supreme Court Will Weigh In

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The Supreme Court will decide whether the Biden administration acted lawlessly when it authorized the cancellation of hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans. The high court announced on Thursday that it would expedite an appeal brought by the Biden administration challenging a lower court’s injunction freezing its loan “forgiveness” program, promising a hearing in February on the issues.

Until then, the Supreme Court will let stand the injunction the Eighth Circuit issued in Nebraska v. Biden. That injunction prevents the Biden administration from cancelling student loans of up to $20,000 per borrower, pending resolution of the legal challenge to the debt-forgiveness plan brought by six states: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina.

In petitioning the Supreme Court for relief, the Biden administration initially sought an order vacating the Eighth Circuit’s injunction, but the administration argued alternatively that, if the high court declined to dissolve the injunction, it should instead hear the case on appeal on an expedited schedule. The Supreme Court’s decision to take the case on appeal presents a unique situation, given that the Eighth Circuit has not yet addressed the merits of the states’ lawsuit.

Come February then, the Supreme Court will need to decide whether the lower court erred in finding that the states lacked standing to challenge the Biden administration’s cancellation of student loans. The states present an array of arguments for why they had standing, or the legal ability to sue, with Missouri advancing the strongest argument for standing. (Read more from “Right After Biden Successfully Buys Votes With Student Loan Bailout, Supreme Court Will Weigh In” HERE)

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Teens’ Brains Were Physically ‘Altered,’ Aged by ‘Several Years’ During COVID Lockdowns: Study

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Teenagers’ brains were physically altered and aged at an accelerated rate during the COVID lockdowns, according to a Stanford University study published Thursday.

Researchers used MRI scans to study the brains of 163 adolescents in the San Francisco Bay Area who were already a part of a more intensive study “assessing the effects of early life stress on psychobiology across puberty.” The study found that 16-year-olds had more severe mental health problems, and their brains appeared “several years” older than 16-year-olds who were assessed before pandemic restrictions began.

“We already know from global research that the pandemic has adversely affected mental health in youth, but we didn’t know what, if anything, it was doing physically to their brains,” said Ian Gotlib, the first author of the paper and professor of Psychology in the School of Humanities and Sciences.

Children were especially affected by government-ordered lockdowns across the U.S. following the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. In the Bay Area, schools remained closed for over a year as students were forced to learn virtually from their homes. Finally, in the spring of 2021, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) offered parents the option of sending their children back to school in person. (Read more from “Teens’ Brains Were Physically ‘Altered,’ Aged by ‘Several Years’ During COVID Lockdowns: Study” HERE)

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Hillary Clinton Compares Pro-Life Efforts in U.S. To Afghanistan, Sudan

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Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized recent pro-life wins, comparing actions that protect unborn life to those in countries around the world where women’s rights have historically been severely restricted.

At the Women’s Voice Summit held at the Clinton Presidential Center in Arkansas on Friday, Clinton said the United States was like Sudan and Afghanistan with regard to abortion.

“It’s so shocking to think that in any way we’re related to poor Afghanistan and Sudan,” she said. “But as an advanced economy as we allegedly are, on this measure, we unfortunately are rightly put with them.”

“This struggle is between autocracy and democracy from our country to places we can’t even believe we’re being compared to,” she said.

In Sudan, abortion is legal if a child was conceived in rape or if the mother’s life is in danger. In Afghanistan, it is only allowed to save the life of the mother.

(Read more from “Hillary Clinton Compares Pro-Life Efforts in U.S. To Afghanistan, Sudan” HERE)

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Secret Service Has Hunter Biden Gun Probe Docs It Denied Having: Watchdog

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The Secret Service has located hundreds of pages of records tied to the investigation of a gun belonging to Hunter Biden – despite having denied they existed, a government watchdog group said Thursday.

Judicial Watch is investigating whether the Secret Service intervened on behalf of President Biden’s son after the incident, and it has sued the agency for all materials related to the reported purchase, possession, and disposal of the firearm owned by Hunter Biden.

The group has accused the Secret Service of repeatedly changing its position on whether it has any documents related to the investigation.

“The Secret Service’s changing story on records raises additional questions about its role in the Hunter Biden gun incident,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

“One thing is clear, Judicial Watch’s persistence means the public may get records that the Secret Service suggested didn’t exist.” (Read more from “Secret Service Has Hunter Biden Gun Probe Docs It Denied Having: Watchdog” HERE)

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Musk: Brain Implants ‘Ready for Humans’

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Elon Musk has brought the world reusable rockets, traffic-easing tunnels, new vactrain possibilities, fleets of electric vehicles, a low-orbit internet provider, and liberal apoplexy over his recent Twitter acquisition. Rather than rest on his laurels, the world’s richest man indicated on Wednesday that his brain-computer interfaces now have the potential to enable the blind to see, the mute to talk, and the lame to walk. What’s more, he claimed they are ready for human implantation. . .

On Wednesday, Elon Musk held a “Show and Tell” event at Neuralink’s headquarters in Fremont, California, revealing the latest advancements in Neuralink’s brain-computer interface technology.

Musk announced at the event and on Twitter that Neuralink plans to begin implanting devices into human patients within six months. A Neuralink brain implant requires that a patient have a portion of the skull removed and wires threaded into the brain tissue. The likely candidates for implantation are those with severe spinal cord injuries.

This announcement comes two years after Neuralink received an FDA Breakthrough Device designation, after years of tests on primates, and amid discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which Bloomberg reported have been going well.

(Read more from “Musk: Brain Implants ‘Ready for Humans’” HERE)

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Apple CEO Hides Behind Staffers as He’s Grilled for Enabling Communist China’s Human Rights Abuses

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Apple CEO Tim Cook hid behind staffers Tuesday to avoid answering questions from a reporter who grilled him on Apple enabling the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses.

Cook hid from Fox News reporter Hillary Vaughn as he was leaving a meeting with U.S. lawmakers in the nation’s capital.

“Do you support the Chinese people’s right to protest?” Vaughn asked.

Cook did not respond.

(Read more from “Apple CEO Hides Behind Staffers as He’s Grilled for Enabling Communist China’s Human Rights Abuses” HERE)

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A Christian Nation No More? Census Numbers Fuel Debate on Britain’s Identity, Christianity’s Future

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Its king is the “defender of the faith” and the supreme governor of the Church of England. More than half of the church’s archbishops of the Church of England sit by right in the House of Lords. The national anthem is “God Save the King.”

The sun may never have set on the old British Empire, but the light of Christianity is dimming in modern Britain — and much of the rest of the Western world that was the Christian faith’s heartland for more than a millennium.

An analysis of the official 2021 census found that less than half the population of England and Wales identify as “Christian” for the first time in centuries. The news this week shocked the country and fueled a larger debate about the future of Europe’s bedrock faith.

In 2011, 33.3 million people in England and Wales told census takers that they were Christians. A decade later, the number dropped to 27.5 million — a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3% to 46.2% of the population. Those saying they had “no religion” rose from 14.1 million, 25.2% of the population, to 22.2 million, 37.2% of the population. The share of Muslims grew from 4.9% in 2011 to 6.5% last year, and self-described Hindus rose slightly from 1.5% to 1.7% of the population. (Read more from “A Christian Nation No More? Census Numbers Fuel Debate on Britain’s Identity, Christianity’s Future” HERE)

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