YOUTH CLIMATE ACTIVISTS PROTEST AT SUPREME COURT | Why Is The DOJ Going After The CFPB | On Retirement, RBG Responds To Critics
September 19, 2019
OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE
|Seven youth activists who have sued the U.S. government for failing to take action on climate change were reportedly joined by GRETA THURNBURG on the steps of the Supreme Court yesterday to urge lawmakers to end our country’s reliance on fossil fuels. In the lawsuit, 21 young Americans said federal officials violated their rights to due process under the U.S. Constitution by failing to adequately address carbon pollution such as emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Thurnberg, a sixteen year old from Sweden, submitted testimony to the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee and said, “I don’t want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the scientists. I want you to unite behind science. And then I want you to take real action. Thank you.”
SORRY, CAN'T HELP YOU
|Ian Millhiser with Vox covers the Trump administration’s request for justices to hear a lawsuit challenging the leadership structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) which was created by Democratic presidential candidate ELIZABETH WARREN. Millhiser explains, “As a general rule, the Justice Department has a duty to defend federal laws challenged in court. The administration, however, decided not to defend the law at issue in this case.” He provides background on the dispute and notes why the implications of the Trump administration’s approach are “enormous.”
I'LL TAKE A WHACK AT IT
|Mark Joseph Stern with Slate reacts to the Trump administration’s position in the CFPB case and writes, “Why is [NOEL] FRANCISCO asking the court to take a thwack at the CFPB at all? Again, the DOJ traditionally defends federal laws, even those its current leaders might not like as a matter of policy. Only in very recent years has the DOJ started declining to defend federal statutes, most notably the Affordable Care Act. Francisco surely knows conservative activists and jurists have long sought to curtail or abolish agencies’ independence. This project is part of the push for a ‘unitary executive’—that is, a president who has absolute control over the entire executive branch.”
YOU'LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER LIKE ME-E-E
|Last night at an event in which RUTH BADER GINSBURG was interviewed by NPR’s NINA TOTENBERG, the justice clapped back at critics who say she should have retired when PRESIDENT OBAMA was in office. She said, “When that suggestion is made, I ask the question: Who do you think the president could nominate that could get through the Republican Senate? Who you would prefer on the court than me?” Tucker Higgins with CNBC reports on her appearance.