Tag: Courts

Bad News For Donny’s Tariffs

The news broke that a US court has peed all over Donny’s pet policy…..tariffs.

President Trump does not have the authority to impose broad tariffs on imports, a federal court ruled Wednesday, rejecting the argument that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act gives him that power. The US Court of International Trade had been asked to issue an injunction in the case involving lawsuits trying to block the tariffs. Instead, the three-judge panel skipped directly to issuing a judgment, Axios reports. The emergency legislation, the judges ruled, does not authorize any of the “Worldwide, Retaliatory or Trafficking” orders, adding, “the challenged Tariff Orders will be vacated and their operation permanently enjoined.”

The unanimous decision applies to the 10% “Liberation Day” tariffs Trump slapped on all foreign products on April 2, as well as the higher levies on goods coming from several dozen nations. Ruling on two cases at once, the court ordered that the tariffs already collected also be vacated, per Politico. At least seven lawsuits challenging the tariffs have been filed. White House aides had said before the ruling that the decision would be appealed if it went against the administration, per the Washington Post. The case could well go to the Supreme Court, per the New York Times, but if the ruling stands, it could be the end of Trump’s trade war.

Tariffs usually need congressional approval, but Trump maintains he has the authority now because the US trade deficits are so high they constitute a national emergency, per the AP. The law does not say the president can use tariffs to protect the nation from economic threats, per the Times, but Trump invoked it anyway. One of the panel’s judges was appointed by Ronald Reagan, one by Barack Obama, and one by Trump.

But how will this ruling effect things?

  • Ruling: The Court of International Trade—a federal body made up of Reagan, Obama, and Trump appointees—decreed that Trump doesn’t have the legal authority to impose most of the sweeping tariffs he has enacted. Trump did so under his interpretation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, notes the Wall Street Journal, but the court found that he overreached and invalidated them.
  • Affected: This means most of the tariffs Trump imposed, or imposed and then lifted pending negotiations, are gone, though Axios notes some exceptions: those on autos, steel, and aluminum were not enacted under the 1970s law and stand.
  • Fallout: The ruling “blows a hole in global trade talks, already under way with more than a dozen nations,” per the Journal, and it “throws into question recent agreements with the UK and China.” The New York Times finds that the court essentially wiped out Trump’s leverage with US trading partners.
  • What now: The court gave the Trump administration 10 days to formally unwind the tariffs, but the White House plans to appeal. “The judicial coup is out of control,” tweeted Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
  • Markets: Dow futures were up 300 points Thursday morning, reports CNBC, and world stocks also rallied.

Good to see that there are still some judges that Donald the Orange does not own….and there is still a small amount of commonsense.

But like in the past he will probably disregard and judgments against him as he has done so many times in the past.

Is it possible that Congress will now jump to Donny’s aid on this issue?

Will the bully now go after this court in revenge?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Judge Has Made His Ruling

Sunday FYI here.

May I see a show of hands?

How many of you think this is a post about Donald the Orange and his legal theater of the absurd?

Sorry to disappoint but I would rather take a foot to the ‘nads than write about that garbage.

No this judge has ruled on an age old question that has been nagging humanity for a very long time……is a taco a sandwich?

Since before the pandemic, Martin Quintana has been trying to get zoning approval in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to open a second location for The Famous Taco, his Mexican-style eatery serving up tacos, burritos, and the like. This week, a judge finally issued a ruling that clears the path for that—with a critical proclamation that tacos are, indeed, sandwiches. More on the case:

  • Initial agreement: In 2019, Quintana first put in his request to open another Famous Taco location, but to get the OK, he had to sign a written deal that his new place would be a “sandwich bar-style” venue serving up “made-to-order” sandwiches, according to court documents cited by the Courier Journal. The argument then became “is a taco a sandwich,” Quintana’s reps said in those docs.
  • Restrictions: Per the Journal Gazette, the written commitment specifically cites examples like Subway or Jimmy John’s as examples of eateries that would be OK under the deal, while other types of fast-food restaurants would not be. Sandwich shops covered by the agreement also can’t have drive-thrus or outdoor seating and can’t serve booze.
  • Suit: Quintana said that the local Covington Creek Association informed him that his plan for the new Famous Taco “ran afoul” of the agreement he’d signed, and so his team offered an amendment to the agreement that would permit him to sell that type of food. In December 2022, he filed a civil lawsuit against the Fort Wayne Plan Commission for rejecting that amendment, per the AP.
  • Decision day: On Monday, Judge Craig Bobay of Allen Superior Court sided with Quintana, ruling that Quintana’s planned eatery actually conformed to the original written commitment and didn’t even need an amendment. “The Court agrees with Quintana that tacos and burritos are Mexican-style sandwiches, and the original Written Commitment does not restrict potential restaurants to only American cuisine-style sandwiches,” Bobay wrote in his decision. He added that restaurants serving “made-to-order Greek gyros, Indian naan wraps, or Vietnamese banh mi” would also fall under this umbrella, as long as they met other spelled-out conditions.
  • Reaction: Quintana, who came to the US from Mexico in 1988 and toiled as a farmworker before getting into the restaurant industry, says he’s thrilled with the decision and plans to open up his new place before the end of the summer. “I’m glad this thing is over. We are happy,” he tells the AP.

Whew!  I am so glad this issue has been settled for it was keeping me up most nights trying to decide for myself.

And now we know!

On a side note….keeping with the FYI thing….the annual report is out for the weather this Summer….

The federal Climate Prediction Center has updated its summer forecast, and it’s hotter and drier than the last one. The predictions show almost every state moving toward a hotter-than-normal June, July, and August, the Hill reports. That would mean this summer could be a lot like summer 2023, which a study has found was the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest in more than 2,000 years. And then there’s La Niña, which looks like it’ll become a factor between July and September. La Niña years can mean drought conditions for the southern half of the country, including Southern California and the Southwest, as well as a stronger hurricane season in the Atlantic.

The best chances of an unusually hot summer are in the West, with Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado having a 60% to 70% likelihood. At the same time, the region is looking likely to have below-normal precipitation, which could lead to drought conditions there. The Northeast also is looking like it will be hot. Betting is even on a few places, per the Hill. The center gives North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of Minnesota and Iowa equal chances of having a normal summer, hotter-than-average summer, or cooler-than-average summer.

Not a good prediction for me since I live at the northern end of Hurricane Ally…..the heat prediction is not good either….last year we had a day that topped 120…..those days are very uncomfortable for an old fart like me.

I hope your region has a better forecast than mine.

Sorry to be a bummer….but please enjoy your Sunday…..and as always…..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Court System is ‘Corrupt’

That is the statement made by the Speaker of the House Johnson….

Johnson, who is second in line for the presidency, called the court system “corrupt.”

While I seldom agree with much any Repub has to say these I will admit that I agree with his statement in general terms but do not agree with the substance of his statement.

You can see what I mean….

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson assailed the hush money case against Donald Trump Tuesday as an illegitimate “sham,” becoming the highest-ranking Republican to show up at court, embrace the former president’s claims of political persecution and attack the U.S. system of justice.

It was a remarkable moment in modern American politics: The House speaker amplifying Trump’s defense and turning the Republican Party against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to the U.S. government and a cornerstone of democracy.

Johnson, who is second in line for the presidency, called the court system “corrupt.”

Outside the New York courthouse, he decried “this ridiculous prosecution that is not about justice.” He said, “It’s all about politics.”

In portraying the case against Trump as politically motivated, the Republicans are also laying the groundwork to dismiss its significance should the jury convict, and for potential challenges to the fall election, a rematch with President Joe Biden, a Democrat

Johnson was a chief architect of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential results ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, mob assault on the U.S. Capitol, and last week he called the hush money trial and the other election-year cases against Trump a “borderline criminal conspiracy.”

(apnews.com)
Recent news from the courts points to rampant corruption with favors showered on the judges….so I agree with Johnson that he court system is corrupt and can be bought.
 
But that is what we get when we allow groups like the Federalists to give us political hacks as judges.
 
Personally Donald the Orange needs to be held accountable for everything he has done as he works against the very democratic foundations of this country.
 
But sadly the court system will remain just as corrupt as it is today or possibly become even more so in the future….time for a change in the system to make it a reliable referee of the federal system…..that is missing in today’s court.
 
I have spoken, It is written, so be it.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Biden’s New Court

We seem to have as many ‘courts’ as we have individual these days…..there is a new one operating within the Biden admin structure…..the Data Protection Review Court….

At an undetermined date, in an undisclosed location, the Biden administration began operating a secretive new court to protect Europeans’ privacy rights under U.S. law.

Officially known as the Data Protection Review Court, it was authorized in an October 2022 executive order to fix a collision of European and American law that had been blocking the lucrative flow of consumer data between American and European companies for three years.

The court’s eight judges were named last November, including former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Its existence has allowed companies to resume the lucrative transatlantic data trade with the blessing of EU officials.

The details get blurry after that.

The court’s location is a secret, and the Department of Justice will not say if it has taken a case yet, or when it will. Though the court has a clear mandate — ensuring Europeans their privacy rights under U.S. law — its decisions will also be kept a secret, from both the EU residents petitioning the court and the federal agencies tasked with following the law. Plaintiffs are not allowed to appear in person and are represented by a special advocate, appointed by the U.S. attorney general.

And critics worry it will tie the hands of U.S. intelligence agencies with an unusual power: It can make binding decisions on surveillance practices with federal agencies, which won’t be able to challenge those decisions.

“Until there’s some clarity on how that’s going to operate, I think you could expect the intelligence community to be nervous about what it might mean, especially since it’s not even clear what its caseload is going to look like,” said Matthew Waxman, a State Department and National Security Council veteran and chair of the national security law program at Columbia University.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/17/inside-bidens-secret-surveillance-court-00136175

We already have a plethora of ‘secret’ courts….do we really need another?

Just wondering.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Mississippi Is ‘Famous’

By now the whole country has heard of the landmark court case on Roe v Wade…..but did you know that it originated in my state of Mississippi?

And that is not the only ‘famous’ court decision that originated in Mississippi…..25 years ago the landmark tobacco settlement originated in Mississippi.

Yep time for that short trip into history.

If Mississippi’s political leaders had stuck to their plan, the state would now have a trust fund of more than $4 billion earning about $320 million annually to spend on health care, based on projections made in 1999.

But, as often is pointed out, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Such is the case with the health care trust fund that was created in 1999 with the money from the state’s settlement with the tobacco companies of a landmark lawsuit to collect government funds spent treating smoking-related illnesses.

The settlement funds have been delivered to Mississippi as promised, but the promise of a trust fund was broken long ago.

The lawsuit, which originated in Mississippi, turned into a $365 billion national settlement that was announced by then-Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore and others on June 20, 1997 – 25 years ago.

The lawsuit guaranteed Mississippi $4 billion over 25-years with annual payments of $100 million or more, based on a formula, continuing forever.

https://mississippitoday.org/2022/06/26/landmark-tobacco-lawsuit-settled-25-years-ago-what-happened-to-money/

The new cash was earmarked for health issues….but since the GOP runs this state and their push to cut spending the state Congress has been hitting the fund to plug all the holes that they have created by all the austerity measures.

This is typical for Mississippi…they lie.

Like casino tax money was earmarked for education and yet the state education system sucks because there is little money.

Do you pay attention to how your tax dollars are spent?  Or do you just care about issues that mean little to the people of your state?

I can wait for the answers.

Class Dismissed!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scrfibo”

Dick Yanking?

I saw this term in the title of a historical piece and had to read….surely this term meant something different than what my mind came up with…..seriously ‘dick yanking’?

You know the old saying ‘learn something new everyday’?

I did just that!

For as much as modern life can suck, it’s always good to remember how grateful we should be not to have lived in other, worse places at shittier times in the past. For a good example of this, consider what it was like to get a divorce—and have a bunch of people pulling on and inspecting your bits—in medieval England.

An article called “The Distinguished Medieval Penis Investigators” from Narratively explains just how awful the process of divorce could be for the 14th century English. In order to end a marriage, women of the time had “few grounds” other than to claim their husband was impotent—and to prove it before a court through some really creative experiments.

The article cites an annulment case from 1370 where a woman “filed for divorce … claiming that her husband was impotent.” To make her case, she produced a witness before a church court. The witness said he saw the pair “applying themselves with zeal to the work of carnal intercourse” in a barn and that, even with the husband’s brother looking on and (sorry for the detail) helping out by literally lending a hand, the husband’s “rod was lowered and in no way rising or becoming erect.”

The church court would also consider evidence from “the defendant’s friends and neighbors,” who would perform “physical inspections of genitals and breasts… to determined impotence, virginity, and pregnancy.” Married or widowed women or sex workers “might be tasked by the court with inspecting the man’s genital equipment, or they might expose their breasts and genitals to the allegedly impotent man, give him ale and tasty snacks, kiss him, and rub his penis in a warm room to see whether he became aroused.” While “ale, tasty snacks” and a handy in a warm room might not sound so bad, other divorces entailed even more invasive forms of junk-assessment.

One of the other cases mentioned in the article is from 1433. In a divorce recorded that year, a bunch of people got together at a tavern to check out the wiener quality of a guy named William as his marriage fell apart. “One Robert Lincoln testified that William placed his ‘manly rod’ in his hand,” we learn. “On another evening, three men examined William’s ‘secret manly members’ at a friend’s house. They also gave his penis rave reviews, often comparing it to their own. One testified that he himself had fathered 10 children and that ‘William’s was better in length and girth than [my] rod ever was’. Another reported that William Barton had ‘large and fit testicles…’” Some of the women involved disagreed, with one testifying that “his rod was of no value.” We can picture William, moping at this comment after his dick had initially received such glowing public praise.

Read the entire piece

Now aren’t you glad I had to foresight to include this in today’s posts?  That I wasted my time reading it and you did not have to?

I do what I can to expand my readers historic knowledge…..

Be Well….Be Safe….

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Courts Mash-Up

You have with this president we have seen some juvenile attacks and immature rantings from Our Dear Supreme leader…..most are so funny that most of us can hardly stand them without peeing a little when laughing…..

The most recent mash-up out of the mind of Trump is the 9th Court of Appeals…..he has a hard on for them because they are in his words, liberal……and his rantings caused the Chief Justice of SCOTUS to enter into the discussion (if we can call a Twitter storm a discussion)…..

When the AP asked John Roberts for a comment about President Trump’s criticism of a federal judge, the chief justice delivered in a headline-making way. “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” said Roberts in a statement released Wednesday. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.” And on the eve of the holiday, he added: “That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.” The AP notes that it’s the first time Roberts has “offered even a hint of criticism” of Trump, while the New York Times characterizes it as a “direct rebuke.” (Read Trump’s response here.)

The controversy revolves around US District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco, an Obama appointee who ruled against the White House plan to restrict asylum-seekers at the border, per Politico. After the ruling, Trump belittled Tigar as an “Obama judge” and further called the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit a “disgrace” with a liberal bent. “Every case that gets filed in the Ninth Circuit we get beaten,” he said. At the conservative RedState site, Andrea Ruth found Roberts’ comments to be surprising: “It’s not all that rare for sitting Supreme Court justices to speak out on issues but I cannot remember a time when a justice flat out blasted a president for comments he made about the judiciary.”

Of course when taken to task by someone smarter than Trump he punches back with stupidity……

It didn’t take long for President Trump to respond to a rare rebuke from the chief justice of the Supreme Court. After John Roberts criticized the president for belittling a federal judge who ruled against the White House, Trump took to Twitter to make his case. “Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges,’ and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country,” he wrote. Trump also continued his criticism in particular of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in San Francisco. Trump asserted that the court tilts to the left so much that opponents of his polices make a point to file appeals there.

If the court were truly independent, they “why are so many opposing view (on Border and Safety) cases filed there, and why are a vast number of those cases overturned,” he asked. “Please study the numbers, they are shocking. We need protection and security—these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise!” Earlier, Roberts took issue with the president’s criticism of 9th Circuit Court Judge Jon Tigar, who ruled against the White House plan to stop asylum-seekers at the border. Trump called Tigar an “Obama judge.” The 9th has blocked multiple Trump initiatives on immigration and national security, notes the Hill.

Okay this is a stupid thing to be an argument…….does the 9th have a liberal bias?  No more so than the 5th has a conservative bias……you see when conservs need to go to court they choose the 5th to file their papers….why is that?

This is a moronic thing to rattle on about……but that is what Our Dear Supreme Leader does best….fire off his mouth before his brain is in gear……and this courts thing is a prime example.  A mindless accusation.  A silly diversion!

The “Law And Order” Nation

For as long as I can remember the US has run on a political platform of “law and order”….and especially the GOP, it is the Law and Order party.

We are a country that prides ourselves on being a nation of laws and the use of courts to maintain order.

It is not a perfect system but a system that we are very proud of….if all that is true why is the International Criminal Court (ICC) catching Hell from Our Dear Leader and his minions?

John Bolton gave his first major speech as national security adviser Monday, and it was a doozy. He unloaded on the “illegitimate” International Criminal Court and warned its judges they will pay a stiff price if they go after US troops in Afghanistan, reports the New York Times. “The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution,” said Bolton. “We will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering” the US, “we will sanction their funds in the US financial system, and we will prosecute them in the US criminal system.” He added that the same punishments apply to “any company or state that assists in an ICC investigation of Americans.” The speech came as the US took a related action by shutting down the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in DC.

The two developments are related in that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is threatening to take Israel to the ICC, reports CNN. The “PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” says the State Department in justifying the office closure. And Bolton added, “We will not allow the ICC, or any other organization, to constrain Israel’s right to self-defense,” per the Wall Street Journal. Bolton, along with many on the right, has long viewed the ICC as hostile to America, notes the Times. “The largely unspoken, but always central, aim of its most vigorous supporters was to constrain the United States,” Bolton said Monday. Now, he says, per the Guardian, “the ICC is already dead to us.”

Seriously?  A nation that prides itself on living a life of “law and order” does not want to live by “law and order”?

Bolton took the occasion of an appearance before a group of lawyers to declare the US government’s defiance of any constraint on its actions under international law, which he characterized as an attack on American sovereignty. His main concern was not so much for front-line soldiers, as for the decision-makers, from military commanders on the battlefield to war planners and strategists in Washington, right up to the White House itself, who he said were in danger of being “intimidated” by the threat of war crimes charges.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/11/bolt-s11.html

This is the perfect situation to explain a Trump as president.  The rules and laws do not apply to the US for we can do as we want with no interference of laws.

I feel it should be mandatory if a nation is to do business globally then the ICC member they should be.

Closing Thought–17May18

I have never been a fan of the antics of so-called “Security Firms” or as they should called by their real name….mercenaries…..that aside …..during the Iraq debacle some employees of Blackwater were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians…..then they had the Supreme Court rule on their appeal……

The supreme court has refused to consider appeals by the former Blackwater security contractors convicted in the 2007 slaying of 14 Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic junction in Baghdad that marked one of the lowest points in the bloody conflict.

The court announced on Monday that it will not hear an appeal brought by the four men convicted in 2014 trial. They worked for the North Carolina-based private security firm then called Blackwater Worldwide that was contracted by the US government to provide security to US officials working in Iraq.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/14/blackwater-supreme-court-appeals-rejected-iraq

I am pleased to see that these paid killers, mercenaries, are not above the law……we probably have not heard the last of this situation.  Stay tuned.

So goes another day……I shall retire and be back in the morrow with more stuff.  chuq

Closing Thought–15May18

There are many examples of how government kicks the can down the road.. …on spending, budgets, immigration ans war…..but the one part of the government that you do not expect waffling is from the judiciary….

Well we cannot depend on them to do the right thing…

A while back a lawsuit was brought forth challenging the legality of the so-called war on ISIS……

Federal Appeals Court judges are hoping to continue to dodge ruling on a lawsuit in which a soldier challenged the legality of the unauthorized war on ISIS. The judges now are asking the lawyers to tell them whether or not the lawsuit even matters anymore.

Capt. Nathan Michael Smith filed the lawsuit back in 2016, claiming the war is illegal. The judges say that now, since Smith will be leaving the military later in May, his own personal interest in the case is essentially gone. Moreover, they argue that the war seems to be wrapping up.

Of course, Smith filed this case way back in 2016, and had to appeal after the first judge refused to rule on it. The current panel took the case in October, and has effectively just sat on the case since then. Now, they too seem set to refuse to rule on the case.

There are, of course, serious legal reasons to challenge unauthorized US wars. Federal judges are so unwilling to rule on these questions, however, as to make the courts effectively useless as a check on power.

(antiwar.com)

I see the cowardice of the Legislative Branch is nothing exceptional….it also extends to the Judicial Branch as well.

In other words we have a government of cowards from the Executive to the Legislative to Judiciary….

We can be so proud of what we have created over the past couple of decades…….a government of do-nothing toads.

My Tuesday postings is a wrap….I can go now and call Hannity for some sage advice. (Sorry I could not keep a straight face after that statement)

Gotta bounce…do stop by later tomorrow…..be well, be safe….chuq