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Jim Banks to Grill Military Academy Heads on Race-Based Admissions

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House lawmakers plan to grill leaders of the military service academies on their use of race-based admissions at a hearing scheduled for July 19 after a Supreme Court ruling overturning affirmative action did not confirm whether service academies could be exempt.

The Supreme Court ruled on June 29 that universities’ affirmative action policies violated the Constitution’s guarantees of equal treatment for all races, but left open a question of addressing racial preference in military service academies’ admissions decisions, according to the opinion. Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, who chairs the Military Personnel Subcommittee on the House’s armed services panel, will lead the probe next week into how U.S. military academies’ prioritize attracting and admitting future officers of minority races or ethnicities.

“Colorblindness and consistent standards are very important in universities, but in our officer corps they’re life and death issues,” Banks told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Members of the panel will also grill witnesses from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy on topics including curriculum development and diversity of thought, according to the committee website.

“Every American should be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin and race-based preferences don’t belong in schools, the military, or anywhere else in America. The Supreme Court issued the right ruling, but it should have applied to service academies too,” Banks told the DCNF. (Read more from “Jim Banks to Grill Military Academy Heads on Race-Based Admissions” HERE)

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More Black Americans Support SCOTUS’ Affirmative Action Ruling Than Oppose It: Poll

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A plurality of black Americans support the Supreme Court’s decision last month that struck down race-based admission policies at colleges, according to a YouGov/The Economist poll.

In the survey, 44% of black respondents said they at least somewhat supported the Supreme Court’s rulings in Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which struck down the use of race-based admissions policies. By comparison, 36% of the black respondents to the poll disapproved of the decision.

Overall, nearly three-fifths of respondents, 59%, approved of the Supreme Court ruling, compared to 27% who disapproved, with 45% of Hispanic respondents supporting the decision, compared to 30% disapproval. The poll did not reveal reactions from Asian-Americans to the ruling. (Read more from “More Black Americans Support SCOTUS’ Affirmative Action Ruling Than Oppose It: Poll” HERE)

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Most Americans Support Supreme Court Decision on Affirmative Action: Poll

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Despite scenes of protest and statements of disapproval from the leadership of colleges and universities across the country, the majority of Americans are supportive of the recent Supreme Court decision restricting race-based college admissions.

According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted after the High Court’s decision on Thursday, 52% of Americans believe the ruling against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina’s affirmative action policies was the right one. On the other hand, 32% of Americans disapprove of the decision, while 16% are unsure, ABC News reported.

The poll found that the vast majority of Republicans, 75%, and most independents, 58%, agree with Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett on race-based admissions. Just 26% of Democrats feel the same way, according to the poll.

Broken down along racial lines, most white people, 60%, think the decision was the right one, while 58% of Asians agree. Among Hispanics, 40% approve and 40% disapprove, and 52% of black people disapprove of the Court’s decision. (Read more from “Most Americans Support Supreme Court Decision on Affirmative Action: Poll” HERE)

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Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

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The Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s program writing off hundreds of billions of dollars in federally held student loan debt Friday, ruling that the commander-in-chief had overstepped his executive authority.

On the last day before the high court’s summer recess, the six conservative justices ruled the $400 billion plan could not use a 2003 law meant to help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as a vehicle to implement the program.

Instead, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, the law allows the Education Department to only “waive or modify” existing programs implemented under the federal Education Act of 1965, not “rewrite that statute from the ground up.”

“The question here is not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it,” the chief justice added. “So too here, where the Secretary of Education claims the authority, on his own, to release 43 million borrowers from their obligations to repay $430 billion in student loans. The Secretary has never previously claimed powers of this magnitude”.

Roberts added that the administration had fallen short of demonstrating that it had “‘clear congressional authorization’ to justify the challenged program.” (Read more from “Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan” HERE)

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Christian Mailman Who Refused to Work Sundays Scores Supreme Court Win

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A Christian postal worker who quit after he was given grief for refusing to work Sundays had his discrimination lawsuit reinstated by the US Supreme Court Thursday.

Gerald Groff, an evangelical Christian from Pennsylvania, sued the USPS in 2019, claiming that he was forced to leave his job after he received warnings and suspensions for refusing to work Sundays so he could observe the Sabbath.

Groff, 45, alleged the agency discriminated against him by failing to approve his religious accommodation to not be scheduled on Sundays.

The high court unanimously reinstated Groff’s case — which was thrown out by a lower court — finding that workplaces must give accommodations to religious workers unless the modifications cause “substantial increased costs” to the business.

The Supreme Court said that companies could no longer shirk religious accommodations on a reading of case law that they only prove minimal — “de minimis,” in legal parlance — negative effects to business. (Read more from “Christian Mailman Who Refused to Work Sundays Scores Supreme Court Win” HERE)

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Biden Has Made His Pick for Top Marine Officer

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The Biden administration has nominated Gen. Eric Smith, the current assistant commandant, to be the Marine Corps top officer.

His promotion requires Senate confirmation. If approved, Smith would replace Gen. David Berger as commandant of the Marine Corps. Smith’s nomination hasn’t been announced by the service, but Congress received it on Tuesday, according to Congress’s website. . .

All military nominations are being held up by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who has objected to the department’s updated policies put in place following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. In light of many conservative states issuing strong abortion restriction laws, the department announced it would pay for the travel expenses accumulated in the event a service member, or one’s loved one, has to travel out of state for the procedure. Tuberville insists this violates the Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal funds from being used for most abortions.

The Department of Justice has “conclude[d] that DoD may lawfully expend funds for this purpose under its express statutory authorities and, independently, under the necessary expense doctrine.” (Read more from “Biden Has Made His Pick for Top Marine Officer” HERE)

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Biden’s Push to Make Military Vehicles ‘Climate-Friendly’ Hands America’s Military Infrastructure to Red China

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President Joe Biden’s newest bid to make the American military “climate-friendly” wouldn’t just weaken our military advantage, it would put Red China in control.

During a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked by Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst whether she supports efforts by the Biden administration to make the U.S. military an “EV [electric vehicle] fleet by 2030,” to which Granholm replied, “I do, and I think we can get there, as well.”

“I do think that reducing our reliance on the volatility of globally traded fossil fuels where we know that global events like the war in Ukraine can jack up prices for people back home… does not contribute to energy security,” Granholm claimed. “I think energy security is achieved when we have homegrown, clean energy that is abundant.”

Granholm’s testimony was hardly the first time the Biden administration has outwardly endorsed the idea of overhauling America’s military to fit the left’s unrealistic vision of a so-called “environmentally friendly” fighting force. On Earth Day last year, Biden gave a speech in Seattle, in which he laid out his vision of using “billions” of taxpayer dollars to make “every vehicle” in the U.S. military “climate-friendly.” Unsurprisingly, the president failed to explain how he intends to achieve this ludicrous goal.

“I’m going to start the process where every vehicle in the United States military — every vehicle is going to be climate-friendly. Every vehicle,” Biden said. “No, I mean it. We’re spending billions of dollars to do it.” (Read more from “Biden’s Push to Make Military Vehicles ‘Climate-Friendly’ Hands America’s Military Infrastructure to Red China” HERE)

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Supreme Court Opinion Uses Female Pronouns to Refer to Transgender Woman

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In a recent opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court used female pronouns to refer to a man who identifies as a woman.

The case pertains to a transgender woman from Guatemala who is seeking to remain in the U.S.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered the high court’s opinion in the case, and she was joined by Justices John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Samuel Alito filed a concurring opinion, in which he was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

“Petitioner Leon Santos-Zacaria (who goes by the name Estrella) fled her native Guatemala in her early teens. She has testified that she left that country, and fears returning, because she suffered physical harm and faced death threats as a transgender woman who is attracted to men,” Jackson wrote in the opinion, using female pronouns to refer to the man.

“Santos-Zacaria eventually sought refuge in the United States. Her first stay in the country was brief, and she was removed by immigration authorities in 2008. In 2018, she returned and was apprehended again by immigration authorities,” Jackson wrote. “At that point, Santos-Zacaria sought protection from removal, including withholding of removal based on the likelihood she would be persecuted in Guatemala.”

(Read more from “Supreme Court Opinion Uses Female Pronouns to Refer to Transgender Woman” HERE)

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Biden’s Latest Effort to Make Everything You Need More Expensive

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The Supreme Court saved consumers billions of dollars from higher prices when, less than a year ago, it struck down the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan rule, which would have shut down hundreds of coal and gas power plants nationwide.

Now, under President Joe Biden’s direction, the EPA is back with a new regulatory scheme designed to accomplish the same result through more direct means. The end result should be the same. The Supreme Court will again strike down Biden’s illegal usurpation of congressional power, saving consumers billions of dollars in higher energy costs.

The last time the EPA tried to shut down coal and gas power plants, it used the 1970 Clean Air Act to establish an industrywide carbon cap-and-trade system for electricity production. This Clean Power Plan did not identify how specific power plants should cut carbon emissions, but the plan required them to do so and created a market for them to offset emissions by investing in clean power or buying carbon emission allowances. The scheme closely resembled a cap-and-trade plan that Congress had just rejected. Seven years later, in West Virginia v. EPA, the court invalidated the CPP, holding that the Clean Air Act was not intended to create an industrywide cap-and-trade regime for any one pollutant and that the EPA was exceeding its statutory authority by creating one for carbon.

This time, the EPA has abandoned its cap-and-trade approach and is instead following more closely to the original design of the Clean Air Act. Under this, the EPA may identify a “best system of emission reduction” for a pollutant and then force power plants to adopt it. This usually means installing a proven pollution control technology. (Read more from “Biden’s Latest Effort to Make Everything You Need More Expensive” HERE)

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor Didn’t Recuse Herself From Cases Involving Publisher That Paid Her $3M: Report

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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor didn’t recuse herself from multiple cases involving a book publisher – Penguin Random House – which paid her more than $3 million since 2010, according to a report.

The copyright infringement cases, in which Penguin Random House stood to suffer financial damage if the court ruled unfavorably, were not taken up by the high court but justices voted on whether or not to hear the cases.

Altogether, Sotomayor earned $3.6 million from Penguin Random House and its subsidiaries for agreeing to let them publish her 2013 memoir, “My Beloved World,” and numerous children’s books since then, the Daily Wire reported on Thursday.

The same year that her memoir came out, Sotomayor voted on whether the high court should take up Aaron Greenspan v. Random House.

Her liberal colleague at the time, Justice Stephen Breyer, recused himself from the case, having also received money from Penguin Random House. (Read more from “Justice Sonia Sotomayor Didn’t Recuse Herself From Cases Involving Publisher That Paid Her $3M: Report” HERE)

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