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Biden Announces His Radical Supreme Court Nominee

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President Joe Biden announced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his Supreme Court nominee Friday.

The president vowed to announce his pick before the end of February after Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his plans to retire. Biden reiterated his promise to nominate a black woman, and Jackson was long viewed as one of the front-runners.

Jackson is one of Biden’s most high-profile judicial nominees and was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2021. Three senate Republicans voted to confirm her at the time, with the confirmation coming in at a narrow 52-46 vote. She is the first black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court in the U.S. (Read more from “Biden Announces His Radical Supreme Court Nominee” HERE)

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Supreme Court Rejects Teachers’ Religious Exemption Appeal Over Vax Mandate

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The Supreme Court on Friday shot down an appeal from a group of New York City school teachers who sought to block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, arguing it violated their religious freedom.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected the emergency appeal on Friday, the same day as the deadline for city employees to comply with the mandate or face losing their jobs.

Sotomayor did not offer an explanation, which is the court’s usual procedure.

The appeal was filed Tuesday by 15 Department of Education workers, who claimed the city was violating their religious freedoms by not accepting their exemption claims.

The city requires that religious exemption requests must be backed up by religious leaders. For example, the teachers said the city would not accept an exemption from Catholics because Pope Francis had urged his flock to get their shots. (Read more from “Supreme Court Rejects Teachers’ Religious Exemption Appeal Over Vax Mandate” HERE)

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This Senate Rule Could Stop Democrats From Confirming Biden’s SCOTUS Nominee

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With Justice Stephen Breyer officially announcing his retirement on Thursday (a full 24 hours after the White House announced it for him), Senate Democrats will have a chance to fill a Supreme Court seat, likely before the 2022 midterm elections in November.

But ever since 2017, when Senate Republicans invoked the nuclear option to confirm Supreme Court justices at a simple majority, instead of at the usual 60 votes necessary to break a filibuster, there has been procedurally little minorities can do to prevent a nomination from moving forward (the outright lies, smears, and chaos tactics Senate Democrats employed against Justice Brett Kavanaugh notwithstanding).

This conventional wisdom, however, is true only of Senates that present a clear minority-majority differential. The Senate of 2022 is tied, with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, which presents Republicans with an interesting procedural option: denying a quorum in the Senate Judiciary Committee, thus preventing the nomination from being reported out of committee and placed on the calendar, and ultimately moved to the Senate floor.

In parliamentary practice, a quorum is the number of members that must be present to hold votes and conduct official committee business. By failing to show up to vote on the nomination in committee, Republicans could prevent the nomination from reaching the Senate floor by appealing to the Senate’s Rule 26, which requires that a majority of members, physically present, report the bill out of committee. (The Senate’s Rule 14, which allows senators to bypass committee consideration for legislation, cannot be used for nominations.)

What has made this strategy ineffective in the past — namely, a Senate majority being able to present a numerical majority of their members in committee — is what makes it work in 2022, where the Senate’s committee membership, reflecting the makeup of the Senate, is in a tie. (Read more from “This Senate Rule Could Stop Democrats From Confirming Biden’s SCOTUS Nominee” HERE)

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Coghill v. Bird: Constitutional Convention Debate Set for Feb. 1

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With the recent, quick and dismissive ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court over the blatant unconstitutionality of Ranked Choice Voting, we have officially entered the next stage of public discourse, naked judicial tyranny. In the past, there was some semblance of decorum and the facade of judicial impartiality. Some.. semblance. Over the last season of COVID they have now realized that the facade is unnecessary and the mask can come off. No one is watching the watchers and they know it, and they know that WE KNOW that they know it… and they simply do not care.

The sad fact is, I believe the corruption of Alaska politics is complete. The fix is in, and while we had already planned to host a constitutional convention debate, we had no idea the Supreme Court would wantonly disregard the actual State Constitution so quickly, flippantly in fact, as to reinforce the need for Alaska to begin this conversation. Our constitution CLEARLY spells out how we must elect our governor, and it is the job of the supreme court to adjudicate laws as abiding with, or repugnant to, our state constitution and rule accordingly. The reality is they no longer have to even pretend they believe that the constitution means what we say it means.

On February 1st, 7PM, John Coghill of Fairbanks, former Republican Alaska Senate Majority Leader and multi-term senator will square off against Bob Bird of Kenai, Chairman of the Alaskan Independence Party and Radio Talk Show host, at Valley Performing Arts in Wasilla. Special thanks to VPA for allowing the event at their facility during their spring schedule.

The debate will be Lincoln-Douglas style for an hour of moderated longform point and then formal rejoinder from the opposition. This will be an exercise in statesmanship and a battle of ideas, not the embarrassing, childish bickering we were all subjected to at our most recent presidential debates. At the end of the hour, there will be a 30-minute Q&A for guests to question presenters.

Worthy of note, these two gentlemen both align on the conservative side of the aisle, which is important for a nuanced discussion because while Bird believes a CON CON is truly the only option left to Alaskans, Coghill believes the risks outweigh the potential rewards. There is a case to be made for both sides. Were this simply a debate between the political left and right, it would likely sway no one, as politics there have largely devolved into memes and team sports thanks to the quick dopamine hits of social media and society’s reluctance to read.

Imagine if the political left were to have the courage face its own cancel culture and meaningfully argue with its own side… be a bit like watching Bill Maher say things with which you are totally shocked to agree.

One thing is for certain, we cannot wait until summer or fall to start fleshing out the need, the considerations, and the mechanisms for conducting a constitutional convention. This discussion must begin in earnest, NOW, so the people of Alaska have ample time to look around at our state and decide for themselves whether the gears of politics in Alaska grind slowly but effectively, or whether the gears have now bound up in the rust of corruption and must finally be fixed. There is much to consider and this decision cannot be made lightly.

Tickets to this lively debate are available here.

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Tucker: George Floyd’s Sister Is Biden’s Obvious Choice for Supreme Court

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. . .I will appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court. That was Biden’s promise. All right. But which Black woman exactly? Biden didn’t tell us. Biden didn’t mention the Supreme Court nominee’s legal qualifications or judicial philosophy or ability to perform one of the most important jobs in the country. He didn’t even tell us she was a nice person. All he said was she’s going to be Black and she’s going to be female, because to him, that’s all that mattered.

You almost got the impression that Joe Biden believes all Black women are the same. They’re identical. It was certainly the assumption in the Delaware of Joe Biden’s youth 60 years ago. Biden doesn’t seem to have changed much.

You wonder if anyone sitting there in CNN’s audience that night even noticed this. It’s possible we’ve all marinated for so long in the casual racism of affirmative action that it seems normal now to reduce human beings to their race. But imagine if this was happening to you. How would you feel? You go to law school, you win a clerkship, you get a seat on some lower court. One day you’re nominated to be one of the top nine judges in the country. And you’re proud of that. Why wouldn’t you? Your parents are proud. Your friends are proud. . .

So you have to wonder at this point since we’re going by skin color and gender, why Joe Biden is ignoring the obvious choice. Why doesn’t Biden strike a real blow for equity and just nominee Bridgett Floyd? Who’s that? Well, it’s George Floyd’s sister. She’s not a judge or a lawyer or whatever. But at this stage, who cares? Clearly, that’s not the point anymore. This law stuff.

As Nebraska Senator Roman Hruska once said in defense of one of Richard Nixon’s dumber judicial nominees “even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They’re entitled to a little representation, aren’t they?” Well, sure, they are, Bridgett Floyd could be justice for the rest of us. Or at least a slice of the rest of us. (Read more from “Tucker: George Floyd’s Sister Is Biden’s Obvious Choice for Supreme Court” HERE)

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Supreme Court Justice Announces He’s Stepping Down; Stunning “Claim”: ‘Brutal Sexual Assault’ by Next Pick for U.S. Supreme Court

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By Daily Caller. Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the end of the Court’s current term, NBC News reported Wednesday.

His successor is expected to sit on the Court by the beginning of its next term in October, according to the outlet. Breyer, who is 83 years old, was appointed to the Court by President Bill Clinton in 1994. He is the longest-serving member of the Court’s liberal bloc and the second-longest serving current member after Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

The White House declined to comment on the announcement, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki saying that she “ha[s] no additional details or information to share.” . . .

In recent months, left-wing activists have called on Breyer to announce a retirement plan. The group Demand Justice, which is made up of former Obama administration officials, has been at the forefront of the pressure campaign, even renting a billboard truck with the words “Breyer, Retire” emblazoned on the side. The group noted the 2020 death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was replaced by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and expressed concern that Breyer would also be replaced by a conservative. (Read more from “Supreme Court Justice Announces He’s Stepping Down” HERE)

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Stunning “Claim”: ‘Brutal Sexual Assault’ by Next Pick for U.S. Supreme Court

By WND. With Justice Stephen Breyer stepping down from the U.S. Supreme Court, there’s suddenly plenty of speculation about what comes next, and the identity of his potential replacement.

Now, Roger Stone, a close associate of former President Donald Trump, has posted a stunning message on Gab.com. . .

“I’ve never shared this with anyone before, but when I was young, I was violated in a brutal sexual assault that I never reported.

“The perpetrator was whomever Biden nominates to the Supreme Court.”

His tongue-in-cheek remark is a poke at how the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh was handled, before he was confirmed to the high court. (Read more from “Stunning Claim: ‘Brutal Sexual Assault’ by Next Pick for U.S. Supreme Court” HERE)

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Will Predictions That Biden Will Install Kamala on Supreme Court Prove True?

By WND. That Joe Biden might nominate his vice president, Kamala Harris, to the U.S. Supreme Court was making the rounds on news and other sites on Wednesday literally before newscasters finished their announcement that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was retiring.

It’s true that she does check the boxes that Biden imposed, as a candidate, when he said he would make sure a black woman was nominated first. . .

But the real reason may have nothing to do with her qualifications, but with the idea that Biden apparently has been looking for a way to remove her from the VP job for some time already. . .

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “Politically speaking, if you are not happy with the vice president and you want her in a different role, there’s no greater role than the Supreme Court.”

CNN, weeks ago, suggested there was “internal discontent” inside Harris’ office at the White House and there was an “at-times rocky relationship with the Biden White House.” (Read more from “Will Predictions That Biden Will Install Kamala on Supreme Court Prove True?” HERE)

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White House: Biden Stands by Pledge to Name Black Woman to SCOTUS

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The White House chose not to comment directly on Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s plans to retire but said President Joe Biden stands by his 2020 campaign promise to nominate a black woman to sit on the nation’s highest court if given the chance.

Biden made the pledge during a February 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate.

“It’s always been the decision of any Supreme Court justice, if and when they decide to retire, how they want to announce it,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at Wednesday’s press briefing. “And that remains the case today, so we’re not going to have additional details.”

Psaki still fielded a number of questions about the Breyer news but noted the president “has stated and reiterated his commitment to nominating a black woman to the Supreme Court and certainly stands by that for today.”

She additionally declined to offer “anything else” on whether Biden would nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, who served as California’s attorney general before her tenure in the Senate. (Read more from “White House: Biden Stands by Pledge to Name Black Woman to SCOTUS” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Vaccine Mandates Is Frighteningly Weak; Supremes Block Biden’s OSHA Vax Mandate

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By The Federalist. It’s long been axiomatic in the legal profession that tough facts make bad law. Yesterday’s forked decisions from the Supreme Court in two vaccine mandate cases now add a corollary to that principle: Quick cases make milquetoast opinions.

The Supreme Court heard the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Medicare/Medicaid mandate cases in tandem on an expedited basis last Friday. Although court observers expected lightning-fast decisions, the opinions in National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor and Biden v. Missouri didn’t drop until Jan. 13.

The high court issued both decisions as per curium, or “by the court,” unsigned opinions, with a 6-3 majority staying the OSHA de facto vaccine mandate in National Federation and a 5-4 majority in Biden v. Missouri allowing the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ rule requiring vaccines for medical facility workers to take effect. Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh switched sides to join the court’s leftist members in the Medicare/Medicaid case, with Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito issuing separate dissents joined by Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch in Biden v. Missouri.

In National Federation, the six-justice majority entered a stay to prevent OSHA’s “emergency temporary standard,” requiring employers with 100 or more employees to either compel their employees to become vaccinated or to test weekly for Covid and wear masks at work, from going into effect. The court concluded that­ the employers, states, and other entities and individuals challenging the rule were “likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Secretary lacked authority to impose the mandate.”

The nine-page majority opinion methodically detailed the backdrop to the Biden administration’s OSHA work-around and the procedural history. That saw the case going from the Fifth Circuit, where the federal appellate court had stayed the rule, to the Sixth Circuit, where after all of the cases challenging the rule were joined the Cincinnati-based court removed the stay. (Read more from “The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Vaccine Mandates Is Frighteningly Weak” HERE)

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Supremes Block Biden’s OSHA ‘Work-Around’ Vax Mandate

By WND. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, has suspended Joe Biden’s nationwide workplace COVID shot mandate, which would have caught up tens of millions of Americans in a strategy to impose the experimental shots on those reluctant to take them.

The majority opinion, per curiam, explained the administration, through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, demanded the mandate, “which employers must enforce,” for “roughly 84 million employees.”

The mandate requires that workers gets a COVID-19 “vaccine” and it overrules state laws to the contrary.

“OSHA has never [before] imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here,” the opinion said. (Read more from “Supremes Block Biden’s Osha ‘Work-Around’ Vax Mandate” HERE)

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LGBT Activists Have Been Using Courts to Harass This Christian Baker for Ten Years

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Jack Phillips is an American. His nation’s supreme law claims to protect his inalienable rights to free speech and to freely practice his faith. Yet for ten years, these same rights have been effectively suspended by a state legislature and multiple courts, despite a 2018 win in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Phillips, who lives in the Denver, Colorado suburb of Lakewood, was first prosecuted for faithful Christianity in 2012. He was hauled into Colorado’s non-judicial Civil Rights Commission, then later into real courts, for offering to sell a gay couple anything in his bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, except a custom cake celebrating homosexual acts. He’s still in court now.

His ten-year battle, Phillips said in a Jan. 14 phone interview, “had profound effects on me and my faith. My faith is much stronger now, my family is much closer. First coming out, there were death threats and things, hateful phone calls and emails. There was a time when my wife was afraid to come to the shop because you didn’t know what you would expect.”

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court found Phillips was essentially the victim of government entities prejudiced against Christians and other traditional religions, noting the personal hostility expressed against him by commission members. . .

Immediately after the Supreme Court decision in Phillips’s first case, LGBT activists hauled Phillips back into court, not once but twice more, again with clear personal animus. In the current case, a lawyer named Autumn Scardina claims the right to force Phillips to draw a picture of Satan smoking marijuana and to bake a cake celebrating transgender mutilation. Not being able to force others into expressing things they don’t believe, Scardina claims, constitutes discrimination against LGBT people. (Read more from “LGBT Activists Have Been Using Courts to Harass This Christian Baker for Ten Years” HERE)

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Supreme Court to Hear Case of High School Football Coach Who Was Sacked for Praying on Field

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The Supreme Court said Friday it would hear the case of a Washington state high school football coach who was sacked for praying on the field after games.

Joseph Kennedy, who was barred from coaching football at Bremerton High School in 2015, will have his case heard by the high court in April, his attorneys said. The coach was a graduate of the school who coached there from 2008 to 2015.

“Six years away from the football field has been far too long. I am extremely grateful that the Supreme Court is going to hear my case and pray that I will soon be able to be back on the field coaching the game and players I love,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement.

Mr. Kennedy said he was suspended from the final game of the season in 2015 by the Bremerton School District. School officials said Mr. Kennedy’s private prayer at the 50-yard line — which had been allowed for seven years beforehand — violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which bars governments from establishing a state religion. Students occasionally gathered around him, although he said he never invited their participation. The district offered to let him pray in an off-field press box or “an athletic facility,” but forbade his praying on the field. (Read more from “Supreme Court to Hear Case of High School Football Coach Who Was Sacked for Praying on Field” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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