Latest news with #RuthBaderGinsburg
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why two justices could hand Republicans their own ‘Ginsburg moment' next year
Are conservatives headed for their own 'Ginsburg moment'? That could be the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections if Democrats have any say in the matter. With next year's congressional elections still on the horizon, the first glimpses of the political dynamics that will shape 2026 are coming into view. Even as Donald Trump and his administration remain this week consumed by an uproar among the MAGA base over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, issues like inflation and the White House's mass deportation raids continue to retain salience quietly in the background — quietly, but not with diminished importance, as they'll likely remain the top factors driving Americans to the polls. Then, there's the Supreme Court. It remains a sore point for liberals who watched Republicans lock Barack Obama out of the discussion over a vacant seat in 2016 and then, in 2020, watched Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death just two months before a presidential election notch a second rightward shift for the court in less than a decade. Justice Clarence Thomas, 77, is the oldest member of the bench. Some conservatives have privately begun to fret that the right-leaning justice or his 75-year-old colleague, Samuel Alito (whose wife hung a symbol honoring the January 6 conspiracy after the attack) could cause another 'Ginsburg moment' by refusing to resign while Republicans control the Senate, allowing one or both seats to fall into liberal hands. The Justices of the Supreme Coury (AFP via Getty Images) Legal commentators are somewhat torn over whether either will retire this term. Mike Davis, a former Senate GOP staffer on Supreme Court nominations and current 'viceroy' of Trumpworld, wrote that Alito was 'gleefully packing up his chambers' after the 2024 election. Ed Whelan, the Antonin Scalia chair in constitutional studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, also predicted in 2025 that Alito would retire in 2025, and Thomas in 2026, according to the American Bar Association Journal (ABAJournal). Others are less certain, and a source close to Alito tried to tamp down on that speculation earlier this year. "Despite what some people may think, this is a man who has never thought about this job from a political perspective," they told the Wall Street Journal. "The idea that he's going to retire for political considerations is not consistent with who he is," the source added. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivers remarks at the Georgetown Law Center on September 12, 2019, in Washington, DC (Getty Images) David Lat, who founded his own blog reporting on gossip surrounding the Court and broader legal world, also noted to ABAJournal that both justices have hired full rosters of clerks for the upcoming two terms, the latter of which will end in 2027. Under Donald Trump's first term, three Supreme Court vacancies were filled by conservative justices. Ginsberg's refusal to retire at multiple points when multiple factors were clear, including how her health challenges were affecting her work and the likelihood that Republicans would bend the rules (or shatter them) to see her seat filled with a conservative, is still looked by many as a failure of not just the justice but those liberals around her who allowed the octogenarian's desire to stay on the job conflict with political realities. Her defenders insisted that the justice's deliberations about retiring did not factor in politics at all. Critics of the Court see the justices' shroud of apoliticism as an excuse that does not match their rhetoric or actions, either on the bench or in public. The efforts by Alito's allies to dissuade speculation echoed those same defenses and rang especially hollow for the conservative justice who has shmoozed with a conservative billionaire with cases before the court and who reportedly authored his own blueprint for the eventual overturn of Roe vs Wade as far back as 1985. Thomas, meanwhile, reportedly sparked fears among conservatives that he would resign from the Court on his own way back in 2000 as he complained about the job's pay. But there's been no such murmuring as of late. If the claims are true and both justices are set on remaining on the bench, they could put Republicans in an awkward spot. The GOP's chances of protecting their newly-acquired Senate majority remain strong but have grown noticeably weaker in the past six months. The announced retirement of Thom Tillis in North Carolina puts his purple-seat state decidedly in play. Maine's Susan Collins is up for re-election, as is John Cornyn in Texas; Cornyn faces a hyper-MAGA primary challenger whom the senator has said could give up the seat to Democrats in November of 2026 if his primary challenge is successful. Rumors also continue to swirl about the possible retirement of Joni Ernst, the senator from Iowa, and her partner in the Senate delegation from the state, Chuck Grassley, is a staggering 91 years old himself. Several factors could force the Senate back into Democratic hands next year, and if the party's discussions over countering GOP redistricting in Texas by 'going nuclear' and following suit across a range of blue states is any indication, the party's members have learned not to give Republicans an inch and could block any of Trump's SCOTUS nominations going forward. In the end, the same shaky apoliticism that the justices cling to when facing any criticism from Congress or the Executive Branch could swing back to help the left, after causing so much damage at the end of the Obama era. It would be up to Democrats in the Senate to decide whether they are truly willing to take a page from the GOP's playbook.
The Independent
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump's ‘Hero garden' is coming - where Abraham Lincoln will stand next to Julia Child
Americans could soon get the chance to walk by life-size statues of luminaries, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Muhammad Ali, after President Donald Trump's 'National Garden of American Heroes' was greenlit. Packed into the president's so-called 'big, beautiful bill' that was passed earlier this month is a 2025 executive order to build the garden to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence. Trump originally proposed the garden in January 2021 as confederate statues were being torn down across the country. The initial executive order states: 'The National Garden is America's answer to this reckless attempt to erase our heroes, values, and entire way of life.' The newly passed legislation carves out $40 million to build the garden filled with statues of deceased historical figures — in either marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass, according to the National Endowment for the Humanities. The 2021 executive order laid out nearly 250 names, including TV fixtures Julia Child and Alex Trebek, literary icons Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe, pioneers Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride, sports stars Kobe Bryant and Jackie Robinson, scientists Albert Einstein and Jonas Salk, performers Whitney Houston and Humphrey Bogart, and former presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. A White House spokesperson confirmed to The Independent the White House is planning on using the list from the 2021 executive order when considering which statues will be made for the garden. The original list includes 53 persons of color and 53 women, according to a Washington Post analysis. Notably, the 2021 list was made years before Trump's anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion push. As a result, federal agencies have since scrubbed references to several historic figures they deemed as 'DEI' material, including civil rights heroes and trailblazing Black Americans. In March, the Pentagon removed a webpage about Jackie Robinson, who famously broke baseball's color barrier. A spokesperson for the Pentagon told The Independent at the time: 'As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department. Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military.' Although the original plan was to open the park in time for the July 4, 2026 celebration, the president now hopes for the garden to be completed 'as expeditiously as possible,' according to the 2025 executive order. The site of the garden hasn't yet been determined, but South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden suggested the park be built in his state's Black Hills. In a March letter to Trump, he said: 'We have a plot of land available in sight of Mount Rushmore that would be ideal for this fantastic effort.' Local indigenous groups have opposed the idea.
New York Times
18-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
The Last Time Supreme Court Considered Trans Rights, It Protected Them
The Supreme Court last decided a major case about transgender rights in June 2020, a win for the L.G.B.T.Q. community in a dispute over workplace discrimination against gay and transgender workers. In that case, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, a group of plaintiffs — among them, a funeral director, an advocate for at-risk children, and a skydiving instructor — argued that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 guaranteed nationwide protection from workplace discrimination to gay and transgender people, even in states that offered no protection. In a vote of 6 to 3, the justices agreed. But that was a different court — and a different political moment. Although the court already had a conservative majority, the court's makeup shifted further rightward since then, after President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat left by the liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The politics around transgender issues have also shifted rightward. Soon after Mr. Trump began his second term in January, he issued an executive order that federal agencies should limit surgeries, hormone therapy and other gender transition care for children and teenagers under 19. Lawyers for the Trump administration had urged the justices to uphold a Tennessee law banning some medical treatment for transgender youth. In the court's decision on Wednesday to uphold that law, the majority said that it would not determine whether the reasoning from the Bostock decision reached beyond employment discrimination. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. explained a view that, unlike in the employment discrimination context, changing a minor's sex or gender would not alter how the state law applied to them. The majority reasoned that if a transgender boy sought testosterone to treat gender dysphoria, the Tennessee law would prohibit a health care provider from giving it to him. If the patient was a girl, the law would still prohibit the hormone treatment because the person would lack a qualifying diagnosis, Chief Justice Roberts wrote. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor disagreed, arguing that the court's decision in Bostock would require a different result. She wrote that, as Bostock outlined in the employment discrimination case, 'it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.'
Daily Mail
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
MAGA turns on Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett and give her brutal label as she threatens to upend SCOTUS
A new analysis appears to confirm conservative fears that Donald Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has often swung to the left in her rulings. Many allies of the president have even referred to the justice - who has seven children, including two adopted from Haiti - as a 'DEI hire' and there are reports Trump himself has complained about Barrett's rulings. The associate justice was chosen by Trump and rushed through confirmation by Senate Republicans in 2020 ahead of the November presidential election. But since her appointment to replace liberal hero Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Barrett has joined her liberal colleagues on several occasions for rulings that have hampered Trump and his second term agenda. GOP outcry toward Barrett includes her judging against the blocking of foreign aid and against delaying Trump's sentenced on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records just days before his inauguration. That has led the liberal New York Times to call Barrett: 'One of the few people in the country to check the actions of the president.' A new study of Barrett's first half-decade on the court prepared for the paper finds those worries may not be out of tune with her record from the bench. Several law professors determined that Barrett doesn't come close to conservative icon Antonin Scalia and 'is showing signs of leftward drift' as she plays 'an increasingly central role on the court. They cite her agreeing with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, specifically, 82 percent of the time during her second term, up from 39 percent in her first. Her central role includes writing her rulings separately from the other justices more frequently. Not only has she aligned 'more frequently with liberal majorities,' she is the Republican 'least likely to support Trump' in cases that involve the president himself. She has voted with liberal majorities 91 percent of the time while voting with conservative majorities just 84 percent of the time, though given the 6-3 conservative bend of the court, there are more conservative than liberal victories. Mike Davis, a Trump ally and conservative legal activist, is greatly disappointed in Barrett. 'We had too much hope for her. She doesn't have enough courage,' said Davis, who was criticized by phone earlier this year by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch for Davis' comments about Barrett on Steve Bannon's podcast. Davis called Barrett 'scared of her own shadow.' 'She is a rattled law professor with her head up her a**,' Davis, a former clerk to Gorsuch, told Bannon. Several law professors determined that Barrett doesn't come close to conservative icon Antonin Scalia and 'is showing signs of leftward drift' as she plays 'an increasingly central role on the court He also blasted her as 'weak and timid' to NBC News. Right-wing influencer Eric Daugherty attacked the justice in a series of tweets as an 'anti-Trump judge' and a 'big problem.' 'Barrett deceived people into thinking she was a reliable constitutionalist. The power has gone to her head. It happens with frightening regularity the last half century,' posted conservative radio host Mark Levin. Megyn Kelly went off on her on her podcast as 'a little squishy.' 'As a female who leans right, I'm kind of sick of like, the female conservatives who get appointed to the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor, now Amy Coney Barrett, like being too squishy,' she ranted. 'Get somebody with some rhetorical balls who will hold as fiercely to conservative principles in the judiciary as the left wing does,' she added. However, Noah Feldman, a friend of Barrett's and a Harvard law professor, claim the hype of Barrett's left leanings are overstated by both sides. 'It's a mistake by ignorant conservatives and wishful liberals to believe she's moderating,' Feldman said. 'She's exactly the person I met 25 years ago: principled, absolutely conservative, not interested in shifting.' In January, Barrett was among the same five-justice majority that ruled against Trump's request to halt him being sentenced on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records just days before his inauguration. But Barrett has also been a swing vote siding with conservatives as well. She was in the majority which overturned Roe v Wade in 2023. She was also in the 6-3 conservative majority last June that ruled presidents have some immunity from prosecution for actions taken while in office. Trump nominated Barrett to replace late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court after she passed away in September 2020. In announcing her nomination, Trump said Barrett was going to be 'fantastic.' 'No matter the issue, no matter the case before her, I am supremely confident that Judge Barrett will issue rulings based solely upon a fair reading of the law,' the president said at the time. Despite refusing to confirm an Obama Supreme Court nominee ahead of the 2016 election, Senate Republicans in the majority ramped through Barrett's confirmation. The move solidified a conservative supermajority on the country's highest court just weeks before Joe Biden won the election and Democrats flipped the Senate.
The Advertiser
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Theatre company's box office boost from bumper season
The Sydney Theatre Company has brought in record revenues of just over $47 million, thanks to hit shows including Julia, RBG: Of Many, One, and a West End season of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The company's 2024 financials released Thursday show this figure includes a big jump in operations revenue for the blockbuster year - including box office, touring, and royalties - to $37.7 million. The overall revenue figures are the highest in the company's 45 year history, and an increase of just over $10 million from 2023. More than half a million people saw an STC production during 2024, an increase of just over 260,000 on the previous year. The box office figures were helped by a return season of RBG: Of Many, One starring Heather Mitchell as US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The show saw a paying audience of 28,660 across 56 performances at the Sydney Opera House and another 46,784 on tour. The return run of Julia, starring Justine Clarke as former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, saw similar success with an audience of 22,781 across a 49 show season and 41,122 on tour. Kip Williams' adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Sarah Snook, which toured to London's West End for an Olivier Award-winning run of 101 performances, attracted total ticket sales of 77,273. On Monday, the Succession star also won a Tony Award for best leading actress, for the play's hit run on Broadway. Despite the international success, the company posted an overall deficit of $565,759 for 2024 - but this was an improvement on 2023 losses of $1.8 million. The deficit was due in part to a hike in production costs, stagnant government funding, and a drop of about $1 million in philanthropic donations to $3.5 million, the company said. Artistic Director Kip Williams left the State Theatre Company in October 2024 and has been replaced by former State Theatre Company of South Australia artistic director Mitchell Butel. The company received $2.6 million in funding from Creative Australia and $570,000 from Create NSW. The Sydney Theatre Company has brought in record revenues of just over $47 million, thanks to hit shows including Julia, RBG: Of Many, One, and a West End season of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The company's 2024 financials released Thursday show this figure includes a big jump in operations revenue for the blockbuster year - including box office, touring, and royalties - to $37.7 million. The overall revenue figures are the highest in the company's 45 year history, and an increase of just over $10 million from 2023. More than half a million people saw an STC production during 2024, an increase of just over 260,000 on the previous year. The box office figures were helped by a return season of RBG: Of Many, One starring Heather Mitchell as US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The show saw a paying audience of 28,660 across 56 performances at the Sydney Opera House and another 46,784 on tour. The return run of Julia, starring Justine Clarke as former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, saw similar success with an audience of 22,781 across a 49 show season and 41,122 on tour. Kip Williams' adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Sarah Snook, which toured to London's West End for an Olivier Award-winning run of 101 performances, attracted total ticket sales of 77,273. On Monday, the Succession star also won a Tony Award for best leading actress, for the play's hit run on Broadway. Despite the international success, the company posted an overall deficit of $565,759 for 2024 - but this was an improvement on 2023 losses of $1.8 million. The deficit was due in part to a hike in production costs, stagnant government funding, and a drop of about $1 million in philanthropic donations to $3.5 million, the company said. Artistic Director Kip Williams left the State Theatre Company in October 2024 and has been replaced by former State Theatre Company of South Australia artistic director Mitchell Butel. The company received $2.6 million in funding from Creative Australia and $570,000 from Create NSW. The Sydney Theatre Company has brought in record revenues of just over $47 million, thanks to hit shows including Julia, RBG: Of Many, One, and a West End season of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The company's 2024 financials released Thursday show this figure includes a big jump in operations revenue for the blockbuster year - including box office, touring, and royalties - to $37.7 million. The overall revenue figures are the highest in the company's 45 year history, and an increase of just over $10 million from 2023. More than half a million people saw an STC production during 2024, an increase of just over 260,000 on the previous year. The box office figures were helped by a return season of RBG: Of Many, One starring Heather Mitchell as US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The show saw a paying audience of 28,660 across 56 performances at the Sydney Opera House and another 46,784 on tour. The return run of Julia, starring Justine Clarke as former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, saw similar success with an audience of 22,781 across a 49 show season and 41,122 on tour. Kip Williams' adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Sarah Snook, which toured to London's West End for an Olivier Award-winning run of 101 performances, attracted total ticket sales of 77,273. On Monday, the Succession star also won a Tony Award for best leading actress, for the play's hit run on Broadway. Despite the international success, the company posted an overall deficit of $565,759 for 2024 - but this was an improvement on 2023 losses of $1.8 million. The deficit was due in part to a hike in production costs, stagnant government funding, and a drop of about $1 million in philanthropic donations to $3.5 million, the company said. Artistic Director Kip Williams left the State Theatre Company in October 2024 and has been replaced by former State Theatre Company of South Australia artistic director Mitchell Butel. The company received $2.6 million in funding from Creative Australia and $570,000 from Create NSW. The Sydney Theatre Company has brought in record revenues of just over $47 million, thanks to hit shows including Julia, RBG: Of Many, One, and a West End season of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The company's 2024 financials released Thursday show this figure includes a big jump in operations revenue for the blockbuster year - including box office, touring, and royalties - to $37.7 million. The overall revenue figures are the highest in the company's 45 year history, and an increase of just over $10 million from 2023. More than half a million people saw an STC production during 2024, an increase of just over 260,000 on the previous year. The box office figures were helped by a return season of RBG: Of Many, One starring Heather Mitchell as US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The show saw a paying audience of 28,660 across 56 performances at the Sydney Opera House and another 46,784 on tour. The return run of Julia, starring Justine Clarke as former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, saw similar success with an audience of 22,781 across a 49 show season and 41,122 on tour. Kip Williams' adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Sarah Snook, which toured to London's West End for an Olivier Award-winning run of 101 performances, attracted total ticket sales of 77,273. On Monday, the Succession star also won a Tony Award for best leading actress, for the play's hit run on Broadway. Despite the international success, the company posted an overall deficit of $565,759 for 2024 - but this was an improvement on 2023 losses of $1.8 million. The deficit was due in part to a hike in production costs, stagnant government funding, and a drop of about $1 million in philanthropic donations to $3.5 million, the company said. Artistic Director Kip Williams left the State Theatre Company in October 2024 and has been replaced by former State Theatre Company of South Australia artistic director Mitchell Butel. The company received $2.6 million in funding from Creative Australia and $570,000 from Create NSW.
