Intended Consequences: Race, Retribution & Records

The latest Main Justice episode

Hi folks. Mary McCord is back! Whew, as there is so much to discuss.

Mary and I start with a dive into the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the removal of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations from over 330,000 immigrants from Haiti and Syria — a consequential ruling that affects TPS holders well beyond those who brought the case, leaving over a million people vulnerable to removal. As we note, this case was based on two claims: one being a statutory challenge that DHS didn’t follow the procedures set out by Congress, and the other a constitutional equal protection claim that this TPS status removal was “motivated in part by race” — both of which were struck down 6-3.

We discuss the particularly egregious “white-washing” of Trump’s racist language about Haitian (and other) immigrants - and how that is called out directly and forcefully in an unflinching dissent by Justice Kagan, which we read in relevant part.

We then call out a fascinating part of Justice’s Gorsuch’s opinion in another Supreme Court decision last week —the transgender decision — that seemingly is in significant tension with the Court’s Slaughter case (giving the President a new power to remove at will certain agency heads). His opinion suggests (in ways he may not have intended) a way for Congress to (finally) assert itself more through its power of the purse! We have not seen any discussion of this elsewhere and wanted to flag this for you. We also discuss the oddity of the Justice Kavanaugh majority opinion - and how it reveals a naivety and shallowness in its wrestling with the transgender discrimination claim.

Then, we look at Trump’s latest retribution efforts and overreaction by some, including the heavy sentences doled out over a protest that ended in a shooting outside the ICE Prairieland Detention Center in Texas one year ago. We address the felony indictment of former Olympian David Hearn for allegedly tearing part of the liner of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool; former CIA Director John Brennan’s going on offense to seek records to challenge the DOJ’s investigation into him, and we conclude by analyzing the DOJ’s response to an order regarding the disclosure of more Epstein files in a lawsuit filed by journalist, and our former colleague, Katie Phang.

Stay engaged, now more than ever. Thanks for listening.

Andrew

PS: Trump said this the other day about the US vs Belgium soccer game — making it plain he knows his election fraud claim is a big lie- just what you claim when you lose: “The game tonight’s going to be amazing,” Trump said today about tonight’s match. “We’re going to have a full team and Belgium is going to have a full team. And you know what? If they beat us, then they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we’ll say it was— I say it was rigged just like the election was rigged in 2020.” The video of Trump saying this is truly remarkable, and can be seen HERE (at 30 second in).

PPS: PS: You can check out two new reviews of my book Liar’s Kingdom, by Peter Coyote and Jerry Goldfeder, HERE and HERE (thank you to both Peter and Jerry, who calls the book a “must read.”) If you want to pick up a copy you can do so HERE. Thank you to everyone who has made the book a #1 bestseller on the NYT list, Amazon list, and Publisher’s Weekly list. I am so very grateful.