RBG’s Trump Gins-Burn On Impeachment | Calls For Kavanaugh Recusal In CFPB Case
December 17, 2019
THAT'S A GINS-BURN
|Yesterday during an exclusive interview with BBC News, Supreme Court JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG weighed in on the pending impeachment of PRESIDENT TRUMP. In particular, she responded to his assertion that the impeachment should stop by pointing out that Trump “is not a lawyer.” RBG also suggested that those senators who’ve said they will already have their minds made up before the Senate trial should be disqualified from acting as jurors. “Well if a judge said that, a judge would be disqualified from sitting on the case.”
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT
|Tucker Higgins with CNBC reports several progressive organizations are calling on JUSTICE BRETT KAVANAUGH to recuse himself from an upcoming case regarding the constitutionality of the CFPB. Demand Justice, Demand Progress Education Fund, the Revolving Door Project and Allied Progress all say that Kavanaugh will not be able to rule impartially in the case because he has already gone on the record with his views in a case that presented a nearly identical legal question.
SOME S'PLAININ' TO DO
|Fix the Court says that at the very least BRETT KAVANAUGH should explain his decision not to recuse himself from the CFPB case. Executive Director, GABE ROTH, said in a statement today, “The Supreme Court is hanging by a thread ethically, and this doesn’t help.” FTC notes there have been 69 times in which a justice stepped aside from a cert. determination so far this term — a number they expect will triple by term’s end.
AN INFORMED OPINION
|ICYMI, the Supreme Court yesterday left in place a lower court ruling that says cities can’t ticket the homeless for sleeping on the streets. In the Los Angeles Times, Gary Blasi weighs in on the decision’s implications for Los Angeles, a city that continues to grapple with a mounting homeless population. Blasi writes, “We already know from decades of experience and studies that, if given a choice, nearly all homeless people prefer and will accept housing of even the most minimal sort. But Los Angeles is very far from being able to provide that option to more than a small fraction of those now on the streets.” What should happen next, he suggests, should involve asking unhoused people in a systematic way what they see as a better option than what is currently offered to them.
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO
|Kim Bellware with The Washington Post reports on how the death penalty has been holding up, finding that for the most part it’s not really. “Despite PRESIDENT TRUMP’S desire to resume federal executions, use of and support for the death penalty trended downward by almost every metric: Nationwide, there were fewer than 30 executions and 50 death sentences for the fifth year in a row. Public support for the death penalty remains near a 47-year low.”
HERE'S THE BOTTOM LINE
|Now that SCOTUS has said it will hear the cases regarding PRESIDENT TRUMP’S financial records, Darla Mercado with CNBC reports on what exactly we might expect to learn from any records he may have to turn over. The reality is that while a tax return doesn’t give a full picture of someone’s finances, “when combined with other documents including a statement of net worth, it can provide a more complete picture of that person’s bottom line.”