Polybius
Polybius's JournalManchin rejects offshore drilling ban amid broader standoff over Biden agenda
Source: Washington Post
Democratic plans to restrict new oil and gas development off both coasts and in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have emerged as a new flash point in the Build Back Better bill, highlighting the party’s deep political schisms as it tries to advance the massive spending legislation.
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), a critical swing vote, has rejected a provision that would prohibit all future drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. He also expressed surprise at top Democrats’ decision to include language ending an oil and gas leasing program in the pristine refuge, a longtime priority for party leaders and their environmentalist allies, but he has not indicated whether he will oppose it.
Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee, exercises a de facto veto over the $2 trillion climate and social spending plan because it needs all 50 Democrats’ votes to win Senate passage.
A spokeswoman for Manchin declined to comment on the matter.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/12/16/manchin-offshore-drilling-arctic/
Supreme Court returns Texas abortion case to appeals court
Source: Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has formally returned a lawsuit over Texas' six-week abortion ban to a federal appeals court that has twice allowed the law to stay in effect, rather than to a district judge who sought to block it.
Justice Neil Gorsuch on Thursday signed the court’s order that granted the request of abortion clinics for the court to act speedily. But the clinics wanted the case sent directly to U.S. Judge Robert Pitman, who had previously though briefly blocked enforcement of the Texas abortion ban known as S.B. 8.
When Pitman ordered the law blocked in early October, the appeals court countermanded his order two days later.
Texas has said it will seek to keep the case bottled up at the appeals court for the foreseeable future.
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-returns-texas-abortion-172457041.html
Elizabeth Warren calls for expansion of Supreme Court, saying current court is a threat to democracy
Source: CNN
(CNN)Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday called for the US Supreme Court to be expanded with more justices and said that the current court "threatens the democratic foundations of our nation."
"With each move, the court shows why it's important to restore America's faith in an independent judiciary committed to the rule of law," Warren wrote in an opinion article published by The Boston Globe. "To do that, I believe it's time for Congress to yet again use its constitutional authority to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court."
The Democrat wrote that she did not "come to this conclusion lightly" or because she disagreed with a particular decision but that she came to the conclusion because she believes "the current court threatens the democratic foundations of our nation."
Her call to expand the high court made up of nine justices comes less than a week after it left in place a Texas abortion law that bars the procedure after the first six weeks of pregnancy and after public approval of the Supreme Court has dropped in recent months. The Supreme Court said that abortion providers have the right to challenge the law in federal court and that the case will return to a district court for further proceedings.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/15/politics/elizabeth-warren-expand-supreme-court/index.html
Supreme Court declines to block New York vaccine mandate
Source: CNN
(CNN)The Supreme Court turned away two emergency requests Monday from health care workers, doctors and nurses in New York to block the state's vaccine mandate.
Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented.
The dispute arose when three nurses and a group called We the Patriots USA, Inc, challenged the mandate, arguing that it allowed exemptions for those with medical objections but not for people with religious objections.
The rule, which is currently in effect, covers workers in hospitals and nursing homes, home health agencies, adult centers as well as hospices. Several doctors who say they have treated many patients with Covid filed a separate request with the justices.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/politics/supreme-court-new-york-vaccine-mandate/index.html
Could Ocean City's topless ordinance head to the Supreme Court? The latest legal battle
The constitutionality of Ocean City’s law banning women — and not men — from sunbathing topless could potentially go before the U.S. Supreme Court after the attorneys representing five women in the case petitioned the nation’s highest court earlier this month.
The petitioners are asking the Supreme Court to review the Aug. 4 federal appeals court ruling, which determined that Ocean City's law is constitutional.
This petition was filed Dec. 1, and the court has until Jan. 7 to respond, according to the U.S. Supreme Court docket.
While the Supreme Court hears only a small percentage of cases petitioned, this move continues a new chapter in the ongoing debate over what is protecting “moral sensibility” or violating gender equality in Maryland’s largest beach town.
Read more...
This would be a great case for equal justice. Every beach should have the same rules for every gender. If we had the ERA, this wouldn't even be debated. Here in NYC we've had equal top-free laws since around 1993.
Pelosi will stay around to lead House Democrats through the next election -- and perhaps beyond
Source: CNN
(CNN)Speaker Nancy Pelosi will stay until at least after the midterm elections, extending her nearly 20-year run as the House's top Democrat after she turns 82 and, perhaps, beyond.
She is planning to file and run for reelection in her San Francisco district next year -- at least for now -- in keeping with her pattern of deciding about staying in Congress after the elections, when she likely will have won an 18th full term.
And sources familiar with Pelosi's thinking say she isn't ruling out the possibility of trying to stay in leadership after 2022, despite her original vow to leave as the top House Democrat. She'll devote much of next year to raising money for Democrats as they try to hold their narrow majority, those sources tell CNN, adding to the nearly $1 billion her office calculates she has already raised for Democrats in her time as leader.
The months of tortuous negotiations over President Joe Biden's legislative initiatives are inspiring a contradictory mix of emotions. Many House Democrats are more eager than ever to see the California Democrat go and give way to younger leadership. But even many of those same lawmakers are terrified that, without her, they will be consumed by squabbling instead of fighting back against House Republicans at a moment when the fundamentals of American democracy appear to be on the line.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/12/politics/nancy-pelosi-house-democrats-leadership-2022/index.html
Joe Madison is on day 34 of his hunger strike for voting rights
For those who don't know, he's a liberal radio host who went on the hunger strike on November 8th, and said he's not ending it until some form of a voting rights bill is passed. He is 72 years old. I'm really worried abut him, because I don't see him eating unless something passes and I don't think that's happening anytime son. 
How much longer can he realistically go?
https://twitter.com/MadisonSiriusXM/status/1457715613741223950
Hillary Clinton predicts Trump running again in 2024, calling it a 'make-or-break point'
Source: Today
Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump running for president again in 2024 could have a negative impact on the country.
The former Secretary of State and presidential candidate spoke frankly to Sunday TODAY's Willie Geist about what she believes would be the dire consequences for the nation if Trump reclaims the White House in three years.
"If I were a betting person right now, I’d say Trump is going to run again," she said in an excerpt of the interview shown on TODAY Friday. "But I want people to understand that this is a make-or-break point."
Clinton, who lost to Trump in the 2016 election, believes America faces a clear choice.
Read more: https://www.today.com/news/politics/hillary-clinton-predicts-trump-running-2024-calling-make-break-point-rcna8347
Public view on Biden's handling of Covid and the economy takes another hit, CNBC survey shows
Source: CNBC
Amid growing worries over Covid and the economy, President Joe Biden’s approval ratings in both areas took yet another hit while Americans’ preferences for congressional control swung sharply towards Republicans.
Results in the CNBC All-America Economic survey imply potentially large Democratic losses in the November election.
Biden’s overall approval rating stabilized at a low level of 41%, about the same level as former President Donald Trump’s, compared to 50% who disapprove.
His economic approval sank more deeply underwater, with 37% approving compared to 56% who disapprove, down from 40% approval to 54% in the second quarter survey.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/10/public-view-on-bidens-handling-of-covid-and-the-economy-takes-another-hit-cnbc-survey-shows.html
The Supreme Court Is Ready to Make Taxpayers Fund Religious Schools
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard a case involving just 4,800 students in rural Maine. But because of the way the Court seems certain to rule, the case will affect everyone in America. The reason is a single word: discrimination.
On its face, the case, Carson v. Makin is an outlier. Maine has a unique system for students in far-flung rural areas: If there’s no public school available, then the state will pay around $11,000 to families toward private-school tuition, so long as the private school is not religious in nature. A consortium of right-wing organizations sued the state on behalf of two families who wanted to send their children to religious schools on the public dime. They argued that Maine’s policy amounts to anti-religious discrimination, a violation of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. And based on today’s oral arguments, they will win.
This result would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Until quite recently, state funding of religious schools was understood to be unconstitutional. Then, over time, it became permissible in the context of school-choice programs. Then, in 2020, in the case of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, it became mandatory in such programs, since, the Court held, if the program included secular private schools, it had to include religious ones.
And now it looks as though it will be mandatory even for public-school-replacement programs like Maine’s, even if the schools in question require students to attend chapel, discriminate against LGBTQ students (or bar them from attending), teach religious dogma, and present all subjects (such as evolution) from a religious point of view — as the schools in the Maine case do.
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