The Full Belmonte, 4/7/2023
Former Rep. Justin Jones, Rep. Gloria Johnson and former Rep. Justin Pearson outside the Tennessee House chamber after Jones and Pearson were expelled from the legislature.
“Tennessee's Republican-led House voted yesterday to expel two of the three Democratic members who recently led a protest in the state House supporting gun control. Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both Black, were expelled. Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman, avoided the same fate with a single vote. When asked why she got a different outcome, Johnson told reporters: ‘It might have to do with the color of our skin.’ [NPR]
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Clarence Thomas accepted luxury gifts from GOP megadonor
“Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted luxury gifts from a prominent Republican donor for more than 20 years without disclosing them, possibly violating a law that requires justices, judges and members of Congress to disclose most gifts, according to a new report. ProPublica reported Thursday on a series of lavish trips Thomas has taken over more than two decades, which have been funded by billionaire and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. This investigation comes as the nation's high court fends off requests for a code of ethics, which would likely address similar instances.” Read more at USA Today
© Associated Press / J. Scott Applewhite | Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 2022.
Democrats vow to investigate Justice Thomas
“Supreme Court justices must adopt an enforceable code of conduct in the aftermath of a detailed news account that said Justice Clarence Thomas accepted luxury gifts from a billionaire Dallas businessman and omitted the pricey travel from his annual financial disclosure filings for decades, Democrats said Thursday.
They called for investigations, stricter gift rules and even Thomas’s ouster.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), after reading a lengthy investigative report published by nonprofit ProPublica about Thomas’s actions, pledged to dig into the findings and take action (The Hill).
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called Thursday for Thomas’s impeachment, referring to the reported acceptance of gifts from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow as ‘corruption.’
Last summer, Durbin said calls from within his party for Thomas’s impeachment were ‘not realistic’ (Business Insider). The current Republican-led House would not embrace any articles of impeachment filed against a Republican-appointed justice. Impeachment of a high court justice took place once, in 1805, and the Senate voted for acquittal.
Last year, questions about Thomas’s ethics rose when it was disclosed that he did not step away from election cases following the 2020 election despite the fact that his wife, conservative activist Virginia Thomas, reached out to lawmakers and the White House to urge defiance of the election results (The Associated Press).
‘Thomas must be impeached,’ Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday.
Gift acceptance without disclosure filings and without clear rules reflects negatively on Chief Justice John Roberts, she added (The Hill).
Roberts has repeatedly lamented the public politicization of the Supreme Court. With a solid conservative majority, the court has been willing to revisit at least one landmark court precedent to buck public opinion and open the door to states that have made abortion illegal and imposed penalties on reproductive health providers. The court was also rocked by last year’s leak of a draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, published by Politico, and later handed down by the court almost unchanged as the majority ruling. A subsequent internal court investigation, which condemned the leak as ‘an extraordinary betrayal of trust,’ did not identify who was responsible.
‘Barring some dramatic change, this is what the Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights,’ Ocasio-Cortez continued.
The New York progressive is not the only Democratic lawmaker to blast Thomas. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said the ProPublica reporting merits an independent investigation.
The Hill: Democrats express outrage following ProPublica’s report on Thomas’s luxury travel.
In a statement, Crow told ProPublica that he and his wife have been friends of Thomas and his wife since 1996, five years after Thomas joined the high court. Crow said that the ‘hospitality we have extended to the Thomas’s over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends’ and that the couple ‘never asked for any of this hospitality.’
The Dallas Morning News: Dallas billionaire’s friendship with Thomas raises ethics questions.
Thomas did not comment.
ProPublica’s story says that Thomas has been vacationing at Crow’s private Camp Topridge resort in upstate New York virtually every summer for more than two decades. During one trip in 2017, other guests included executives at ‘Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, major Republican donors and one of the leaders of the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business conservative think tank.’
A judiciary policy guide says food, lodging or entertainment received ‘s ‘personal hospitality of any individual’ does not need to be reported if it is at the personal residence of that individual or their family. That said, the exception to reporting is not supposed to cover ‘transportation that substitutes for commercial transportation’ and properties owned by an entity, according to AP.
NBC News: Supreme Court justices, including Thomas, are their own ethics police.
Separately in the House, many Democrats are eyeing a procedural gambit known as a discharge petition to force floor votes on high-profile gun reforms, such as expanded background checks and an assault weapons ban, over the objections of House GOP leaders. Some Democrats back a package of bills that would advance ‘red flag’ laws, fight ghost guns, ban high-capacity magazines, take on gun trafficking, and lengthen the review period for existing background checks, reports The Hill’s Mike Lillis.
‘All of that should go in there,’ said Rep. Jerry Nadler (N.Y.), senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over gun policy.” [The Hill]
Title IX
“The Biden administration on Thursday proposed a rule change for transgender student athletes that allows for schools to enforce some restrictions, but opposes categorical bans. ‘The proposed rule would establish that policies violate Title IX when they categorically ban transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity just because of who they are,’ according to a public notice from the US Department of Education. The proposed rule change comes as GOP-led states across the country continue to push a variety of anti-trans measures, including bills intended to keep transgender students from playing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Biden has consistently spoken out against such efforts, but Thursday's announcement represents the most significant action yet that his administration has taken to combat them.” [CNN]
March Jobs Report Shows Hiring Gradually Cooling
The labor market remains solid but has shown signs of easing demand
“U.S. hiring slightly cooled in March as employers added 236,000 workers, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%.
The labor market has remained solid a year after the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising interest rates to tame high inflation. Employers added jobs last month in leisure and hospitality, government, professional and business services and health care. They cut jobs in construction, manufacturing and retail, the Labor Department said Friday.
The labor force grew in March, helping take pressure off of wage growth. Average hourly earnings rose 4.2% last month from a year earlier, an easing from recent months.
Weekly jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, have risen from historic lows and job openings have declined, in signs of easing demand for workers as the labor market gradually cools….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
The first state to ban interstate abortion travel for minors
Sarah A. MIller/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“Wednesday, Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed into law a bill that criminalizes helping minors travel out-of-state to get an abortion without parental consent.” [Vox] [Washington Post / Justine McDaniel and Timothy Bella]
“Under House Bill 242, an adult who helps a minor get abortion pills or leave the state for an abortion faces up to five years in prison.” [Vox] [NBC News / Aria Bendix]
“Idaho becomes the first state to prohibit some patients from traveling across state lines to receive abortion care. It already passed a near-total abortion ban and made it illegal for anyone to help facilitate the procedure.” [Vox] [Associated Press]
“On the same day Little signed HB 242, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood sued Idaho’s attorney general after he claimed state law bars medical providers from referring patients to abortion care in other states.” [Vox] [The Hill / Julia Mueller]
Trump
“Questions are being raised about the impartiality of the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's criminal case after records showed he donated $35 in political contributions to Democrats in 2020 -- including a $15 contribution to the campaign of Trump's opponent, President Biden. ‘While the amounts here are minimal, it's surprising that a sitting judge would make political donations of any size to a partisan candidate or cause,’ said Elie Honig, a senior CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. The contribution has sparked criticism that Judge Juan Merchan may be biased and not lead a fair trial. Some experts, however, told CNN it is not grounds for a legal challenge or recusal. Meanwhile, Trump has been attacking Merchan and his family, including his daughter, whose political consulting firm did work for the Biden campaign and now-Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign.” [CNN]
Tax audits
“Average taxpayers ‘should not be worried’ about more audits, the IRS said Thursday, after some GOP lawmakers expressed concerns about how it will utilize a new $80 billion investment. The funding comes from Democrats' sweeping Inflation Reduction Act, which passed along party lines last year and is meant to support the agency in cracking down on tax cheats and providing better service to taxpayers. As a result of the improvements, the IRS is expected to collect more than $100 billion in new revenue over a 10-year period. But Republicans have been critical of sending so much money to the IRS and have said that the investment could lead to increased audits of hard-working Americans. Separately, for those who may still need to complete their taxes, the deadline this year falls on April 18.” [CNN]
GOP's epic losing streak
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
“If Republicans step back and look beyond the legal and social-media spectacle of Donald J. Trump, they'll see screaming political sirens everywhere they gaze.
Why it matters: The GOP's political trouble has been unfolding slowly but unmistakably, starting even before Trump's loss to Joe Biden in 2020, Axios' Mike Allen and Zachary Basu report.
First, the 2018 House elections were a disaster for Republicans: Democrats had a net gain of 40 seats to take over the House — their largest gain since the post-Watergate election of 1974.
Then Trump lost the presidency.
Next, Republicans blew two runoff elections in Georgia and lost control of the U.S. Senate. The runoffs took place a day before Trump backers stormed the Capitol.
Then, Republicans won the legal fight over abortion as Trump-appointed justices helped ensure the reversal of Roe v. Wade. But the GOP lost a series of political battles over it afterward — a reflection of polls indicating that most Americans support abortion rights. GOP-led state legislatures have shown no signs of slowing their push to enact stricter abortion bans, suggesting continuing political backlash.
Republicans put high-profile election deniers on the 2022 midterm ballot in key state and federal races — only to see several lose winnable elections.
Republicans blew a chance to control the Senate by nominating too many hard-to-elect-in-a-swing-state Trump facsimiles. Their hopes of a big House majority were erased for the same reason, creating constant headaches for new Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Just this week, progressive Democrats triumphed in two of this year's most consequential elections. Brandon Johnson, a teachers' union organizer, was elected Chicago mayor. In swing state Wisconsin, Democrat-backed Janet Protasiewicz flipped the state Supreme Court to liberals in a landslide, after leaning into her support for abortion rights.
Senate Republicans have been gifted a historically favorable 2024 map — but hard-right candidates who appeal to the GOP base again threaten to inject uncertainty into at least five winnable races.
Trump is driving an agenda dominated by vengeance and victimhood, diverting Republicans from the inflation- and crime-centered messages that helped them in the midterms.
Reality check: Trump, if anything, is stronger and more likely to win the GOP nomination than he was after the November midterms.
Republicans in Congress have rallied to Trump's defense since his indictment.
By the numbers: For all his growing popularity among Republicans, Trump remains wildly unpopular nationally.
Polls show Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who trails Trump by an average of 26 points among Republicans — would fare far better than Trump in a matchup against President Biden.
Biden's approval rating has hovered around 42%, a dismal figure — but still better than Trump's.
The bottom line: Put polls aside. How likely does it seem that Trump will do better with persuadable voters than his 2020 loss when you toss Jan. 6, a 34-count Manhattan indictment + possible federal indictments into the mix?” [Axios]
Schumer, McConnell Call for Russia to Release Evan Gershkovich
In joint statement, U.S. Senate leaders ‘strongly condemn the wrongful detention’ of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter
“WASHINGTON—The Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders called for Russia to free jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained last week in the first case of an American journalist arrested by Moscow on allegations of spying since the Cold War.
‘We strongly condemn the wrongful detention of U.S. citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and demand the immediate release of this internationally known and respected independent journalist,’ Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said in a joint statement.
The two leaders said that since Mr. Gershkovich’s arrest, ‘Russian authorities have failed to present any credible evidence to justify their fabricated charges.’ They accused Moscow of denying the U.S. embassy consular access to the reporter, which they said went against standard diplomatic protocols and was ‘likely in violation of international law.’
Senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell said that since Evan Gershkovich’s arrest, ‘Russian authorities have failed to present any credible evidence.’PHOTO: JOSE LUIS MAGANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Authorities in Russia detained Mr. Gershkovich during a reporting trip to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on March 29. Mr. Gershkovich was accredited by the Russian Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist in the country at the time.
The Journal vehemently denies the charges against him. President Biden and other senior officials in the administration have called for his release.
Lawyers engaged by the Journal visited Mr. Gershkovich for the first time on Tuesday and reported that he was in good health. Representatives from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow haven’t yet been able to visit Mr. Gershkovich, U.S. officials have said.
A Moscow court is scheduled to hear an appeal from Mr. Gershkovich’s lawyers on April 18. The court could uphold Mr. Gershkovich’s continued detention in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, order him moved to another jail, allow him house arrest or grant him bail….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Israel launches airstrikes in Lebanon and Gaza Strip after ‘biggest rocket salvo since 2006’
Rocket fire from Gaza and Lebanon and second Israeli raid on al-Aqsa mosque stoke fears of further escalation
“Israeli jets hit sites in Lebanon and Gaza early on Friday, in retaliation for rocket attacks it blamed on the Islamist group Hamas, as tensions following police raids on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem this week threatened to spiral out of control.
Two explosions were heard in Gaza late on Thursday. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted but Israel said its jets hit targets including tunnels and weapons manufacturing sites of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the blockaded southern coastal strip….” Read more at The Guardian
China sanctions Reagan library, others over Tsai’s US trip
By HUIZHONG WU
FILE- Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, center, is greeted before a Bipartisan Leadership Meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on April 5, 2023. China is imposing sanctions against the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and other U.S.- and Asian-based organizations in retaliation for the closely watched meeting this week between the U.S. House Speaker and Taiwan’s president. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)
“TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China retaliated for the United States House speaker’s meeting with the Taiwanese president by announcing sanctions Friday against the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and other organizations, adding to strains over the self-governed island democracy Beijing claims as part of its territory.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy held talks Wednesday with President Tsai Ing-wen at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, California, in defiance of Chinese warnings. McCarthy joined a growing series of foreign legislators who have met Tsai in a show of support for Taiwan in the face of Chinese intimidation.
U.S.-Chinese relations have sunk to their lowest level in decades due to disputes over the status of Taiwan, which split with China in 1949 after a civil war, as well as security, technology and Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong and Muslim ethnic minorities.
The mainland’s ruling Communist Party says Taiwan is destined to reunite with China, by force if necessary, and has no right to conduct foreign relations. President Xi Jinping’s government says contact with foreign officials will encourage Taiwanese who want formal independence, a step Beijing says would lead to war….” Read more at AP News
Staff Writer, NYT Magazine
Good morning. Republican legislators are circumventing voters who elected candidates who promised to send fewer people to jail.
Outside the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson.Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press
Exercising discretion
“A fight has erupted in several states between Republican lawmakers and locally elected Democrats over how to respond to crime.
Democratic district attorneys (often serving cities with many Black and Latino voters) say they are prioritizing serious crimes. In response, Republicans (often representing mostly white and rural areas) have accused them of ignoring criminal law and are making it easier to remove them from office.
Today, I’ll explain what’s happening and why it matters.
The policy fight
Since 2015, dozens of prosecutors promising progressive reforms have taken office across the country. They vowed to send fewer people to prison and reduce the harms to low-income communities that are associated with high incarceration rates.
To achieve that goal, many of these prosecutors said they would use the discretion the law generally allows them to decline to charge categories of crimes, like low-level marijuana offenses. About 90 prosecutors, out of more than 2,000 nationwide, also pledged not to prosecute violations of abortion bans. Many of these prosecutors have been re-elected, a sign of sustained voter support.
Still, conservatives argue that the district attorneys are shirking their duty. Declining to prosecute a particular case is legitimate, they say; ruling out charges for a category of offenses is not. As a Republican legislator in Tennessee put it, ‘A district attorney does not have the authority to decide what law is good and what law isn’t good.’ The conservative Heritage Foundation devotes a section of its website to attacking ‘rogue prosecutors.’
Challenging local control
In Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and elsewhere, Republican lawmakers have moved to oust or constrain prosecutors and officials who oversee the court system. The Republicans, who largely represent rural areas, are often aiming to thwart voters in cities, including many Black and Latino residents, who elected candidates on platforms of locking up fewer people.
Examples include:
In February, the Mississippi House passed a bill that establishes a new court system in part of the state capital, Jackson, a majority Black city run mostly by Black officials. In the neighborhoods where most of Jackson’s white residents live, the legislation would effectively replace locally elected judges with state-appointed ones and city police with a state-run force.
Tennessee lawmakers in 2021 gave the state attorney general the authority to ask a judge to replace local prosecutors in cases in which they refuse to bring charges. Republican lawmakers criticized the district attorney in Nashville, Glenn Funk, who said he would no longer prosecute simple marijuana possession. Funk also said he would not charge businesses that ignored a state law requiring them to post signs saying transgender people could be using single-gender bathrooms.
When Deborah Gonzalez, a progressive, ran for district attorney in Athens, Ga., in 2020, Gov. Brian Kemp tried to cancel the election. Kemp lost in court, and Gonzalez won the seat.
In Florida last August, Gov. Ron DeSantis ousted Andrew Warren, the elected Democratic prosecutor in the district that includes Tampa, who had pledged not to prosecute offenses related to abortion or transgender health care.
Changing the rules
These actions upend a longstanding tradition of local control over criminal justice. In the 19th century, many states embraced local elections of prosecutors to ensure that they ‘reflect the priorities of local communities, rather than officials in the state capital,’ according to one history. Criminal laws are largely enacted at the state level, and prosecutors, meant to be accountable to their communities, decide how to enforce them.
Since prosecutors lack the resources to bring charges for every arrest, their discretion is a feature of the system. In the past, prosecutors usually used their discretion to act tough on crime. ‘Now you’re seeing a state effort to subvert the will of local voters who have elected prosecutors who use their discretion for a more compassionate and equitable system,’ Marissa Roy, a lawyer for the Local Solutions Support Center, said. ‘It’s inherently undemocratic.’
The new state bills
In a few states, Republicans are considering legislation that would give them power to remove local prosecutors. Georgia legislators recently passed a bill that would create a commission with the power to remove prosecutors. It awaits Kemp’s signature.
The Missouri House passed a bill to allow the governor to appoint a special prosecutor for violent crimes for five years. The bill was originally written to target St. Louis, where the elected city prosecutor, Kimberly Gardner, is a progressive Black Democrat.
In Texas, dozens of such bills are in play. One, which passed the Texas Senate this week, would bar prosecutors from adopting policies that refrain from prosecuting a type of offense. Another would create a council dominated by political appointees that could refer prosecutors to a trial court to be dismissed for incompetence. Republican supporters of the legislation targeted five district attorneys, from large metropolitan areas, who said they would not prosecute certain offenses, including some related to abortion or transgender medical treatments for minors.
When a new type of legislation pops up in different states, a national policy organization sometimes promotes it. That may be happening with these bills. Last July, a Heritage Foundation staff member met by video with Republican lawmakers about curbing prosecutors’ authority, according to a person familiar with the Texas bills. The legislation became a priority of the Texas House speaker and lieutenant governor. ‘The Heritage Foundation meets with a variety of people and organizations about public policy topics,’ a spokeswoman said.
Given the conservative momentum behind the bills, Roy expects to see more. ‘All of this is connected to the backlash to the movement for racial justice and criminal justice reform,’ she said.” [New York Times]
Walmart will add EV charging stations at thousands of its stores.
“When? By 2030. They’ll be in Walmart and Sam’s Club parking lots across the country, more than quadrupling the company’s network.
Why this matters: Electric cars are a key piece of the U.S. strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But limited accessibility to charging stations remains an obstacle.” [Washington Post]
Danielle Parhizkaran / USA Today
The Masters is already cooking
“We already know the winner of the Masters. To a certain degree, at least. According to this great stat, no Masters winner — outside of Tiger Woods — has finished round 1 outside of the top 10. So, unless Tiger (2-over yesterday) storms back for a stunning win, we can feel pretty confident about the field.
It was a fantastic first round in Augusta yesterday, rife with storylines. A few notables:
Jon Rahm is tied for first at 7-under, even after four-putting the first hole. For anyone else, that would’ve sunk weekend chances right away. For Rahm, it was just an early speed bump. He’s relentless.
Brooks Koepka is at 7-under too, giving the LIV crew an early leader. There remains a supreme awkwardness around the LIV guys, who — other than major winners like Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, etc. — could be playing in one of their last Masters. LIV events do not count toward qualification, so those who defected in the past year are running out of chances to qualify. Someone like Kevin Na, who withdrew after nine holes yesterday, fits that profile. Yeesh.
New guy to root for: Sam Bennett, an amateur, posted a 4-under 68 yesterday and didn’t record a single bogey. According to our Justin Ray, he’s the first amateur to do so in at least the last 30 years. You may also notice a tattoo on Bennett’s wrist, which reads ‘Don’t wait to do something.’ He told The Golf Channel it was the last thing his late father wrote. Rooting for him should be easy.
Our attention today should be on the cut line, which could land anywhere between 1-over and 3-over. Tiger is right in the middle of that.” [The Athletic]
Jeremy Renner Says Horror Snowplow Accident Was ‘My Mistake’
“Avengers actor Jeremy Renner says the snowplow accident that nearly killed him on New Year’s Day was his fault. Speaking in an ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer on Thursday, Renner said he was using the plow to move one of his family’s trucks out of the snow. When the plow hit ice and started to skid, he became worried about the safety of his nephew—who had just unhooked chains connecting the plow and truck—and fell out of the plow’s cab while trying to look back to see where his loved one was. ‘You shouldn’t be outside the vehicle when you’re operating it, you know what I mean? It’s like driving a car with one foot out of the car,’ Renner, 52, said. ‘But it is what it was. And it’s my mistake, and I paid for it.’ He was run over while attempting to re-enter the vehicle, leaving him with over 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung, and ruptured liver. The Hawkeye star added that when he regained consciousness at the hospital, he used a sign language gesture to say ‘I’m sorry’ to his family. ‘It’s my responsibility,’ Renner said. ‘I feel bad that my actions caused so much pain.’” [The Daily Beast]
“Lives Lived: Mimi Sheraton, the food writer and restaurant critic, was the first to wear a disguise to get a normal diner’s experience for her Times reviews and worked for many publications in a six-decade career. She died at 97.” [New York Times]