Politics
Biden Announces Commission To Explore Packing the Supreme Court
Judging from Biden’s record -breaking number of executive orders during the first two weeks of his tenure, many experts anticipate radical changes in the suggestions coming out of this commission.
President Joe Biden began the selection of members to fill seats on a commission tasked with examining potential reforms to the United States Supreme Court and the federal judiciary, opening the way for the packing of the High Court with Progressive ideologues.
The President declared in October, when pressed on the issue of packing the Supreme Court in the aftermath of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation, that a commission would be formed to address judicial reform, court packing, and “a number of other things.”
It was reported Wednesday that the commission will fall under the purview of the White House Counsel’s office and chaired by Biden’s campaign lawyer, Bob Bauer.
Those who have so far been seated on the commission include Cristina Rodríguez, a professor at the Yale School of Law and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Obama Justice Department; Caroline Fredrickson, former president of the American Constitution Society; and Jack Goldsmith, a professor at the Harvard Law School and a former assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush Department of Justice.
While Rodríguez’s opinions on reforming the judiciary and packing the Supreme Court are little known, Fredrickson’s are quite clear.
Fredrickson, the former director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office and former general counsel and legal director of NARAL Pro-Choice America, has been quite vocal about ideas like court packing.
“I often point out to people who aren’t lawyers that the Supreme Court is not defined as ‘nine-person body’ in the Constitution, and it has changed size many times,” she allegedly told Eric Lesh, the executive director of the LGBT Bar Association, in 2019.
With Rodríguez’s views unknown and Fredrickson pro-court packing, Goldsmith, may serve as a check on a radical approach to any suggested reforms. Goldsmith supported the nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In October, Biden avoided answering direct questions as to whether he supported packing the US Supreme Court in retaliation for the seating of President Trump’s nominee Amy Coney Barrett. He deflected in a direct response by saying he would form a commission to study the issue.
“It’s not about court packing,” Biden said during a 60 Minutes interview. “There’s a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated and I’ve looked to see what recommendations that commission might make.”
“There’s a number of alternatives that go well beyond packing,” then candidate Biden added. “The last thing we need to do is turn the Supreme Court into just a political football – whoever has the most votes gets whatever they want. Presidents come and go. Supreme Court justices stay for generations.”
Judging from Biden’s record -breaking number of executive orders during the first two weeks of his tenure, many experts anticipate radical changes in the suggestions coming out of this commission.
Politics
Biden Wants To Give Separated Illegal Immigrants $450,000 Per Person
The average amount sought through the courts is roughly $3.4 million per family, according to the report.
The Biden administration is mulling a plan to offer immigrant families separated during the Trump administration $450,000 per person in compensation, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.
The payments – part of an inter-agency solution to several lawsuits filed on behalf of separated parents and children claiming lasting psychological trauma could amount to nearly $1 million per family, though ‘the final numbers could shift,’ according to the report.
According to sources, most of the families crossing into the US from Mexico included one parent and one child. Depending on circumstances, many families could get smaller payouts.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents families in one of the lawsuits, has identified about 5,500 children separated at the border over the course of the Trump administration, citing figures provided to it by the government. The number of families eligible under the potential settlement is expected to be smaller, the people said, as government officials aren’t sure how many will come forward. Around 940 claims have so far been filed by the families, the people said. -WSJ
In total, the potential payout could reach $1 billion or more.
Throughout the Trump administration, thousands of children were separated from their parents (and coyotes paid to bring them into the country) after they had crossed illegally into the country from Mexico. The lawsuits allege some of the children suffered various ailments – including malnutrition, heat exhaustion, and were kept in freezing cold rooms with little medical attention. Some claim lasting mental health problems due to the trauma of being without their parents for several months.
The average amount sought through the courts is roughly $3.4 million per family, according to the report.
“President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied,” said ACLU deputy director, Lee Gelernt. “That remedy must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country.”
Senate Republicans slammed the plan on Thursday afternoon following the WSJ‘s report.
“The Biden administration’s promises of citizenship and entitlement programs have already caused the worst border crisis in history—a huge cash reward will make it even worse,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR).
The discussions about the payouts have taken place over the past few months among a group of dozens of private lawyers representing the families and government lawyers. Some government lawyers have viewed the payouts as excessive for people who had violated the law by crossing the border, the people said. One government lawyer threatened to remove his name from the case out of disagreement with the potential settlement offer, the people said. -WSJ
“It is a complicated, complex piece of litigation” – trying to resolve hundreds of separate lawsuits at the same time, and “sometimes even more complex to try the cases” said Margo Schlanger, who ran the civil-rights office during the Obama administration at the Department of Homeland Security and now teaches at the University of Michigan law school.
What will the reparations crowd think of this?
Politics
White House To America: ‘We’re Coming Door To Door…With Shots!’
Will CDC soon recommend a nation-wide re-count of Covid deaths?
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said at the daily press conference yesterday that President Biden’s strategy to get everyone a Covid shot – whether they want it or not – is to start going “door-to-door” to those not yet jabbed. So…they have a list? Also today: bomb-maker Raytheon goes “woke.” Capitol Hill Cops set up shop in California. Will CDC soon recommend a nation-wide re-count of Covid deaths?
Politics
Half A Million Illegals Crossed Since Harris Named Border ‘Czar’
By the time June’s figures are reported in the coming days, the combined number is expected to be over half a million, more than the entire population of Miami, Florida or Cleveland, Ohio.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures, around 500,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Kamala Harris was named border ‘czar’.
The Washington Free Beacon reported the findings, noting that only three months has passed since Harris took on the responsibility, and that the half a million figure is just those that have been apprehended.
The CBP says around 180,000 immigrants are being caught per month. In April agents arrested 178,854 illegal immigrants, the highest monthly figure for 21 years. That figure was then surpassed in May as agents apprehended 180,034 illegals.
By the time June’s figures are reported in the coming days, the combined number is expected to be over half a million, more than the entire population of Miami, Florida or Cleveland, Ohio.
Harris only bothered to visit the border when President Trump announced he was making a trip. Even then Harris visited El Paso, some 1000 miles away from where the crisis is taking place.
Previous to this, Harris lied and claimed she had been to the border, telling NBC’s Lester Holt “This whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.”
When Holt pushed back and said she had not, Harris snapped “I—and I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t—I don’t understand the point that you’re making,” then again laughed maniacally:
On Tuesday, Republican Senator Ron Johnson argued that Harris’ trip to El Paso was designed to distract the media and keep them away from the real crisis hit areas of the border.
“They took her to a point in the border where she wouldn’t see the crisis and so the press wouldn’t report on the crisis,” Johnson said.
The Senator added, “You just simply can’t understand what this administration is doing. We literally are apprehending now about 6,000 people per day. That’s I mean, that’s a large caravan every day being processed, some of them being returned, others are being dispersed. But this crisis is not going away. It’s just under everybody’s radar because the press isn’t covering it.”


