Headlines for Monday, May 22, 2023
🗽There is no greater power than a community discovering the truth and working together to make sure an injustice is not repeated
🗽A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson
🗽There is no greater power than a community discovering the truth and working together to make sure an injustice is not repeated
NEWS HEADLINES FOR MAY 22, 2023
The New York Times: Former Trump Lawyer Describes Conflict Inside Legal Team: A conflict inside former President Donald J. Trump’s legal team erupted into public view on Saturday as one of his former lawyers went on television to attack one of his current lawyers, who has been the focus of ire from others on the team. The former lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, withdrew this past week from representing Mr. Trump in the special counsel’s investigations into his handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But Mr. Parlatore did not explain the reasons behind his departure at the time, saying only that it was not related to the merits of the inquiries.
PBS NewsHour: Key Trump attorney says he’s leaving legal team as Mar-a-Lago probe intensifies: A key lawyer for former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was leaving the legal team, a move that comes as a special counsel investigation into the retention of classified documents shows signs of being in its final stages. Timothy Parlatore told The Associated Press that his departure had nothing to do with Trump and was not a reflection on his view of the Justice Department’s investigation, which he has long called misguided and overly aggressive, or on the strength of the government’s evidence. He said he believed he had served Trump well.
Business Insider: A Trump lawyer tried to block other members of the former president's legal team from conducting additional searches following the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago, Trump's former lawyer claimed: A former lawyer who represented Donald Trump throughout the Justice Department's probe of the former president's handling of classified documents and efforts to interfere with the 2020 election results said that infighting within Trump's legal team was why he made his exit earlier this week. Timothy Parlatore was one of Trump's lawyers throughout the DOJ probes, which are being overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, who will soon decide whether to charge Trump in the two cases. The attorney officially resigned on Tuesday with little explanation. In an interview with CNN's Paula Reid that aired Saturday, Parlatore said that the reason for his departure "had nothing to do with the case itself or the client."
Washington Post: Opinion: Bragg shows a few cards. Critics should reconsider their gripes: When Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) filed a 34-count indictment against disgraced former president Donald Trump for alleged falsification of business records stemming from hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, pundits across the political spectrum were dismissive — even disdainful. How dare he concoct an exotic theory to indict an ex-president? How could he think it appropriate to file felony charges without spelling out a second crime that elevated a misdemeanor business-records case to felony status? Too vague! Too novel!
Vanity Fair: Donald Trump May Need to Make Room in His Summer Break for a Georgia Indictment: Report: Last month, Fani Willis—the Fulton County district attorney investigating Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia—said she would announce any possible indictments for the ex-president and the allies who tried to help him steal a second term between July 11 and September 1. Now, she appears to have signaled even more specific timing: the first three weeks of August. Hopefully the former guy hasn’t booked any nonrefundable summer travel!
NBC News: Strange alliances emerge in Tennessee as the GOP governor pushes for gun reform: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s decision last week to call a special legislative session to tackle gun reform has prompted a number of unfamiliar allies to line up behind the Republican leader. Democrats and gun control groups have lauded Lee’s move — which came weeks after a shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville killed six people, including three 9-year-old children. On the other hand, Republicans in the gun-friendly state have signaled they’re unwilling to go along with Lee, who, following the shooting, pleaded with his conservative Legislature to take action.
NPR: The Supreme Court and 'The Shadow Docket': The title sounds more like a thriller than a legal treatise. The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court uses stealth rulings to amass power and undermine the republic" — and the author, University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck, admits the term "shadow docket" is evocative. Vladeck's book, written so it can be understood by the interested non-lawyer,
focuses on a part of the court's work that until six or seven years was mainly viewed as pretty boring. That, however is no longer true, and today the emergency docket has come to be known as the shadow docket, a term coined in 2015 by University of Chicago law professor William Baude.
The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court to Rule on Affirmative Action, Student Debt and Internet Companies’ Liability: The Supreme Court is heading into the final stretch of its current session, the first with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the bench. While no single case has elicited the political tension that swelled last session after the leak of the court’s historic decision eliminating a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, a number of cases with major social implications will be decided between now and the end of June, with at least one opinion expected on Thursday. Here are the most important cases on the docket.
The Hill: Opinion: How originalism supports affirmative action: Originalism is becoming the coin of the realm at the conservative Supreme Court. Even newly appointed liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has drawn on originalist evidence in her comments during oral arguments, and Justice Elena Kagan has quipped — only somewhat facetiously — “We are all originalists.” If the court applies originalist analysis to the higher-education affirmative action cases currently before it, race-conscious admissions across the country should be upheld.
The New York Times: Supreme Court Criticism: During periods of intense political debate in the U.S., the Supreme Court often becomes a target of harsh criticism. Jefferson complained of “useless judges” and described the judiciary as “a despotic branch.” Lincoln suggested that allowing the Supreme Court to overrule public opinion could lead “to anarchy or to despotism.” A member of Franklin Roosevelt’s cabinet said that one court decision should “outrage the moral sense of the country.”
The New York Times: What Bills Did DeSantis Sign as He Propelled Florida to the Right?: Seeking to elevate his stock with his Republican base for his presumptive presidential candidacy, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida this year has checked off many boxes on a far-right wish list of laws restricting abortion rights, gender-transition care for minors and teaching about sexual orientation. Expanding capital punishment and who can carry a concealed firearm in his state? Check. Targeting Disney? Check. And he could soon remove a requirement that he resign as governor to run for president.
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