CFPB Has An Unlikely Champion | What It’s Like To Get An Abortion In The Most Pro-Life State In America
February 19, 2020
FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES
|On March 3, the Supreme Court will hear a case regarding a constitutional challenge to the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Turns out, the CFPB has an unlikely champion. Although the Trump administration believes that the bureau’s lone director is unconstitutionally shielded from accountability to the president, the Justice Department’s final brief before oral argument urged the Supreme Court not to issue a ruling that will halt the CFPB’s “critical work.” Alison Frankel with Reuters reports.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
|Greg Stohr with Bloomberg also takes a look at the upcoming SCOTUS case over the CFPB and he notes that its outcome could affect other federal agencies, most immediately the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Stohr also notes, “The fight centers on a provision in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that says the president can remove the CFPB director only for ‘inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.’ Supporters say that provision is one of several that help ensure the bureau isn’t beholden to powerful banks.”
THE BEST OF BAD OPTIONS
|Anna North with Vox reports on what it’s like to get an abortion in “the most pro-life state in America.” Her report focuses on Hope Medical Group for Women, one of the last abortion clinics in Louisiana and also the centerpiece of an upcoming Supreme Court case. North writes, “Like many states, Louisiana requires a 24-hour waiting period between the ultrasound and the procedure. For patients who live in Shreveport, that could mean an extra bus trip home and back. But the clinic routinely draws patients from 200 miles away in any direction…Clinics have been closing across the South and Midwest for a decade now, and for many people in the region, Hope is the best option — even if it’s a three-hour drive. The majority of patients at Hope live at or below the poverty line, and many don’t own cars. So they wait until they can borrow a car or get a ride.”
OTHER NEWS
The Affirmative Action Battle At Harvard Is Not Over
The New York Times“A group that opposes affirmative action filed an appeal Tuesday of a federal ruling that Harvard had not intentionally discriminated against Asian-American applicants, ratcheting up a challenge to decades of Supreme Court decisions upholding race-conscious selection in college admissions. The appeal comes four and a half months after federal Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that although Harvard’s admissions system was ‘not perfect,’ it nonetheless met the legal standard needed to ensure that it was not motivated by racial prejudice or stereotyping.”
As Google Heads To The Supreme Court, Oracle Takes Aim At Its Industry Allies
The Verge“For almost 10 years, Google and Oracle have been fighting over a set of Android APIs, and for almost that long, conventional wisdom has been that the tech industry is on Google’s side. But as the case moves to the Supreme Court for the second time, Oracle is taking aim at that idea — and calling out Google’s allies one by one. After filing a Supreme Court statement last week, Oracle VP Ken Glueck posted a statement over the weekend assailing the motives of Microsoft, IBM, and the CCIA industry group, all of which have publicly supported Google.”
Trump Is Trampling Dozens Of Laws To Build His Border Wall
Slate“On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it will speed up construction of the border wall before the 2020 election by ignoring a law it doesn’t like. That’s nothing new: Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has decried the ‘lawless state of our southern border’—but his administration has repeatedly suspended the law to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. In less than three years, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has relied on a single federal law, the Real ID Act of 2005, to push aside nearly 50 statutes to put up portions of a border wall. This time around, DHS will disregard a rule that forces contractors to compete for funds (even though Trump campaigned on cutting waste by awarding contracts to the lowest bidder).”