Tag: supreme court
Supreme Court Slaps Down Trump Over USAID Spending Freeze

Supreme Court Slaps Down Trump Over USAID Spending Freeze

The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the Trump administration's request to freeze payments on $2 billion in foreign aid work that had been completed—marking for the first major Supreme Court loss of President Donald Trump’s second term.

In a 5-4 order, the court said the Trump administration must follow a decision by a lower-court judge, who ruled that the administration must pay the nearly $2 billion in work that had been done by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

District Court Judge Amir Ali had ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze the aid by 11:59 p.m. on February 26.

But after the Trump administration appealed his decision directly to the Supreme Court, the court put Ali's order on hold while they debated whether to hear arguments.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court decided against taking the Trump administration's appeal, and said that since the original court-ordered payment date has passed, they directed Ali to "clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines."

The $2 billion in aid was associated with the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Trump and co-President Elon Musk tried to stop just hours after he was sworn in on January 20.

The abrupt aid freeze risked allowing hundreds of millions of food that had already been purchased spoil and rot before it got to the impoverished people it was intended for.

The Supreme Court ruling, however, does not stop the Trump administration from shuttering USAID and stopping its work in the future.

Four conservative justices slammed the majority ruling, with Justice Samuel Alito writing, “Today, the Court makes a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.”

“The fact that four justices nevertheless dissented—vigorously—from such a decision is a sign that the Court is going to be divided, perhaps along these exact lines, in many of the more impactful Trump-related cases that are already on their way,” CNN Supreme Court analyst Steve Vladeck said.

Trump and Musk have effectively shut down USAID. The Trump administration said they plan to cancel nearly all of the agency’s contracts, and have either put on leave or laid off nearly the agency’s entire staff.

Experts say those moves will likely cause massive human suffering.

A March 4 memo from Nicholas Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for global health at USAID, said that the pause on foreign aid “will lead to increased death and disability, accelerate global disease spread, contribute to destabilizing fragile regions, and heightened security risks—directly endangering American national security, economic stability, and public health.”

Enrich estimated that without USAID’s efforts to stop disease spread, there will be as many as 166,000 additional Malaria deaths, 28,000 more cases of the deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses, and 200,000 more paralytic polio cases annually.

Enrich was put on leave after his memo was leaked.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Karoline Leavitt

White House Chaos: Budget Memo Rescinded But Spending 'Freeze' Continues

The White House is making clear that even though the Trump budget office has rescinded its highly confusing and controversial memo declaring a massive and widespread freeze on possibly trillions of federal funding dollars, the actual funding freeze itself is still in effect and will be “rigorously implemented.” The rescission of the memo reportedly was merely a tactic to “get around” a court injunction.

“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” wrote White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Wednesday afternoon, after celebrations from the left, believing the memo’s rescission meant the policy was also rescinded. “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”

A federal court had placed a temporary, partial “stay,” or pause, on the OMB memo.

“This is just more confusion and chaos,” New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in response to Leavitt. “We will be in court this afternoon.”

“On the White House rescinding the memo,” reported CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs, “aides say it is not an end to the intended freeze of federal funding that clashes with Trump’s worldviews. It’s meant to get around the court injunction.”

“Bingo," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), one of the more vocal critics of the Trump White House, responded. “Crisis is deepening, not abating. They are trying to ignore the court order.”

“The funding shutdown is still in place. They are just doing it without the piece of paper,” he added.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) added, “So they reversed the memo and then sent out this? Chaos.”

Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reported on the White House’s apparent reasoning, telling viewers Wednesday afternoon, “Karoline Leavitt said in the briefing that this [OMB memo] was targeted at things like the $50 million that went to, uh, she said, condoms in Gaza. Initiatives like that are still subject to this freeze, anything that’s impacted by those executive orders, there were, I think, seven listed in the memo, but in the interim, the OMB has pulled back that memo itself, because that barred communication between OMB and agency heads and what, in fact, was impacted.”

The OMB memo specifically noted programs like the “Green New Deal” would be frozen, even though the Green New Deal was never fully passed or signed into law.

The White House’s claims about $50 million being sent to Gaza for condoms — repeated on live television Wednesday afternoon by President Donald Trump in a signing ceremony of the Laken Riley Act — also appears to be false.

“According to a comprehensive report issued in September by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the US in the past year went to Gaza,” The Guardian reported Tuesday. “In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan.”

“As Dan Evon of the non-profit News Literacy Project points out: ‘It’s also worth noting that this is not a Biden program. Trump, too, spent funds on sending contraceptives around the globe. In 2019, about $40m was spent on contraceptives by the Trump administration.’”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Allison Riggs

In North Carolina, Political Power Grab Thwarts Voters

Some people just won’t take no for an answer.

Put in that category the Republican candidate for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Jefferson Griffin lost that race to incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs by just 734 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast, which has to hurt. Ask Democrat Cheri Beasley, who in 2020 lost her North Carolina chief justice race to Republican Paul Newby by about 400 votes from almost 5.4 million ballots cast.

Since two recounts have confirmed the Riggs win, you might think Griffin would have conceded by now, as Beasley did after two recounts.

You would be wrong.

Without pointing to one illegal or fraudulent vote, Griffin is trying to have 60,000 votes thrown out — including the votes of Riggs’ parents — mostly because either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number were not attached to those voters’ registrations.

There may be good reasons for that, as many registered before those items were required, or the “missing” information was not attached because of bureaucratic error. Last year, a federal judge, a Trump appointee, dismissed part of a suit brought by the Republican Party that sought to purge 225,000 voters from the rolls.

Because of North Carolina law, everyone who voted in November had to show an accepted form of ID — for many, a driver’s license. They walked out of their polling places satisfied they had performed their civic duty.

If Griffin and state Republicans have their way, many of their votes may not count.

It’s no coincidence that analysis has shown that voters the GOP point to as suspect are disproportionately young, non-white or less likely to vote for Republicans.

Griffin, who hasn’t tried to defend his reasoning out loud, is only questioning results in his race, knowing the doubt and confusion it would cause in other, already certified state races. State and federal courts, and even some right-wing, so-called voter integrity groups have in the past rejected the arguments Griffin makes.

It’s easy yet dangerous to dismiss it as the usual GOP tactic of sowing doubt about any election a Republican loses, crying “wolf” or “rigged,” while declaring an election free and fair if it goes the other way; it gradually causes Americans to reject the integrity of any election.

And it is a tactic overwhelmingly used by one party.

The difference between the two major parties on how they handle wins and losses is why the transfer of power in January 2025 — with Vice President Kamala Harris honorably certifying an electoral count she lost — looked nothing like the violent insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, when losing candidate Donald Trump incited followers to resist instead of choosing democracy.

Now, Griffin’s case is getting national attention because the GOP-dominated, seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court is giving it oxygen, offering national Republicans a blueprint. Four of the five GOP justices voted to temporarily put the brakes on the certification. Riggs understandably recused herself, and Justice Anita Earls, the only other Democrat on the court, voted to let the state Board of Elections decision, and the Riggs win, stand.

Showing some independence as well as common sense, Republican Justice Richard Dietz joined Earls in rejecting the post-election maneuvering, and wrote in dissent: “Permitting post-election litigation that seeks to rewrite our state’s election rules — and, as a result, remove the right to vote in an election from people who already lawfully voted under the existing rules — invites incredible mischief.”

A challenge to the state Supreme Court action has already come in the form of a recent filing from the Democratic National Committee. On a press call earlier this week, former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, outgoing DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and state party chair Anderson Clayton talked about what the case means beyond North Carolina.

“The eyes of the entire country are on this race because the implications of having free and fair elections that are being questioned and potentially overturned are devastating,” said Cooper. “If they are successful in this scheme,” he said, “there will be copycat lawsuits across this country for races where they don’t like the result.”

“This time it’s 60,000 ballots, next time it’s 100,000 ballots, and then it’s 250,000 ballots until no ballots get counted,” said Clayton, whose national profile rose during the swing state attention North Carolina received in the last election cycle. “This playbook is not new to our state, but it is one that Republicans will take and make a national playbook if they’re able to succeed here.”

“As a party, our responsibility is to the voters — not a politician,” said Harrison. He admitted the result at the top of the ticket was not what Democrats worked for or wanted, but noted how well his party did downballot in North Carolina, including capturing the offices of governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, and breaking, by one seat, the GOP supermajority in the state legislature.

The move to reject ballots to put Griffin on the court is a Republican reaction to those wins, Harrison said, a “temper tantrum” to try to change the rules, something GOP state legislators already did when they passed, while they still held that supermajority, last-minute laws to diminish incoming Gov. Josh Stein’s already limited powers.

Harrison, a South Carolinian, recalled a time in the South when not all Americans, including his own grandparents, had the right to vote.

Maybe Griffin and his enablers have forgotten that all-too-recent history, when brave patriots fought and died expanding that precious franchise so all Americans’ voices could be heard and respected.

Or maybe a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court is more important.

Reprinted with permission from Roll Call.

'Fascinating' GOP Split Over Impending Tik-Tok Ban

'Fascinating' GOP Split Over Impending Tik-Tok Ban

Republican senators are at odds over the looming ban of the social media website, TikTok, expected to take place Sunday, January 19 if the US Supreme Court doesn't stop or delay it.

Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio wrote via X on Thursday, "Fascinating political dynamics on TikTok. [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer (D-NY) just now backed a delay in implementation of the TikTok forced divestiture law that Congress passed last year, effectively siding with Trump. [Senator] Tom Cotton (R-AR) , Intel chair and No. 3 in leadership, blocked an effort to extend the deadline yesterday."

Desiderio also noted that after Senator [Ed] Markey (D-MA) attempted to extend the deadline, Cotton said: "Let me be crystal clear: there will be no extensions, no concessions, and no compromises for TikTok. ByteDance and the Chinese Communists had plenty of time to make a deal."

The Punchbowl News reporter added that he "asked [Senator Marco] Rubio (R-FL) last week about [President-elect Donald] Trump’s posture on TikTok," and found that the GOP lawmaker changed his position on the matter.

"Rubio is about to be secretary of State and was Congress’ loudest critic of TikTok & the national security risks associated with it," Deseterio wrote via X.

"If I’m confirmed as secretary of State, I’ll work for the president," Rubio said.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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