JUDGES MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER | The New Normal | Greenhouse Agreeing with Kellyanne Conway
May 11, 2017
THE LOVE CLUB
|Jeffrey Toobin with The New Yorker responds to PRESIDENT TRUMP’S first group of lower-court nominations to the federal bench and notes that Trump nominated judges “even he could love.” Toobin reminds us of the importance of judges to a president’s agenda, particularly this current president’s agenda. He writes, “Just as the difference between Democratic and Republican legislators has rarely been greater than it is today, the same is true of Democratic and Republican appointees to the federal bench. President Trump and his fellow-Republicans recognize this critical fact, and they’re moving quickly to leave an enduring mark on this part of our government and our laws.”
TOP-ED
|“Some groups on the religious right are complaining that PRESIDENT TRUMP’S executive order on religion didn’t go far enough. That’s interesting, but what really has me worried is the tepid response from the mainstream. It makes me wonder whether the post-inauguration predictions that Donald Trump would eventually be ‘normalized’ are coming to pass: the warnings that even the president’s harshest critics, worn down by the endless barrage of unpredictable antics emanating from the White House, would inevitably adapt, greeting with relief actions that fall short of the breathtakingly outrageous.” That’s Linda Greenhouse with The New York Times providing a translation of Trump’s recent executive order and urging all of us to take the EO under careful consideration. Greenhouse concludes, “While I don’t usually find myself in agreement with KELLYANNE CONWAY, what she said in that interview struck me not only as valid but as highly relevant for understanding the executive order. ‘If they’re disappointed, then they’re not paying attention,’ she said.”
OTHER NEWS
West Virginia Supreme Court Rules Anti-Gay Assaults Are Not Hate Crimes
Slate“On Tuesday, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s hate crime law does not cover anti-gay assaults or any crime committed on the basis of sexual orientation. Its 3–2 decision marks a setback for civil rights advocates’ efforts to persuade courts that laws prohibiting violence and discrimination on the basis of sex also protect LGBTQ people.”
US Supreme Court to Look at Corporate Liability Over Mosquito Bites
The National Law Journal“The case could possibly take on special significance with the recent worldwide outbreak of the Zika virus, which is also transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Some experts have said, in context of this outbreak and federal warnings about the disease, that an employer’s actions or inactions could give rise to a potential tort claim.”