06/25/24

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, June 25th.

Goat’s Cheese Day.

An all-time great cheese. Not super sure why it gets its own day, but let me tell ya something – you mix a little bit of goat cheese and lemon on a salad, and you’ve got yourself a great dressing.

And now, the news.

Supreme Court in Waiting

-via NY Times

While we continue to wait, and wait, and wait, for the Supreme Court to rule on, among other things, whether Donald Trump, and all future presidents, can do literally anything they want, including insurrection, the Supremes have announced they will hear another case…

For the first time, the Court will make a decision on the constitutionality of statewide gender-affirming care bans. The case is based on a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors, but could affect the 25 states with some level of gender-affirming car bans.

Important to note that every single major U.S. medical group, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, has opposed these bans, stating that gender-affirming care can be medically necessary and is supported by evidence.

No date has been set, but the case will be heard next term, which starts in October. Because the justices need their vacations so that Historical Bad Man Justice Thomas and Justice A-Leak-O can go on their multi-million-dollar vacations and flag-purchasing excursions.

They did rule last week, however, that domestic abusers with restraining orders cannot own guns. Which is great, but a little confusing because like… so you agree, guns are dangerous and there should be limits on who gets to own them? Then… what was up with that bump stock decision?

Still though, we are currently just a nation, standing in front of a Court, asking it to please announce what they’ve decided about their current cases including presidential immunity, January 6th charges, and a social media first amendment decision.

Casual reminder that we can’t vote for Supreme Court justices, but the next president will likely have a few seats to fill and if it’s Trump, he’s going to seat Justices that are way worse than who we have now, and are all like – twelve years old. So I get not feeling like either of the presidential candidates are really calling out to you (well, I don’t actually but that’s just me) – but maybe the Supreme Court is a good motivator.

Even more casual reminder that I still have a substack for this show and today’s post is all about these outstanding cases.

Gov. Landry Gets His Wish

-via The Hill

Hey, remember last week when Louisiana decided to demand that every public classroom needed to display the Ten Commandments because they’re super into the bible and not even a little into the Constitution (with the exception of the 2nd Amendment because apparently you can pick and choose from both documents)?

And in that news story, I mentioned that Governor Landry said he couldn’t wait to be sued, which seems like an absolutely bonkers thing to say and a lie.

Well, Governor Landy got his weird little wish!

And in many ways, so did I because I have a lot of hobbies and one of them… is lecturing about how the 1st Amendment is so easy to understand and so often misinterpreted.

That’s right, a whole gaggle of civil liberties groups, including the ACLU and the Freedom from Religion Foundation have filed a suit on behalf of nine multi-faith families in the state.

So there you go Governor Landry, ya little weirdo – there’s your lawsuit.

Hunter Biden Gun Trial

-via ABC News

In “come on, man” news… Hunter Biden has, indeed, requested a new trial in his gun case.

Apparently, he is doing so because the trial started before a circuit court formally denied his appeal.

Dude. I get it. It sucks. We’re talking about something that happened during one of the worst moments of your life. I believe it’s possible that you did not consider yourself to be an addict while you were deep in the throws of it, because our brains are not always our friends.

But it happened. It’s time to move on. Asking for a retrial because the trial started because a different court denied your appeal is not a good enough reason to put yourself, and everyone around you, through all of that again.

If someone wouldn’t mind passing that message along to Hunter, that would be great.

Judge Cannon

-via CNN

And finally – Judge Cannon, I know, I know… Judge Cannon spent the morning in court (never ideal) hearing a bits and bops surrounding the Trump Classified Documents case that she is both trying to not hear and also, somehow, still rule in Trump’s favor.

Monday morning she heard an attempt by Team Trump to disqualify special council Jack Smith, aka Coach Beard, based on funding. This is a motion to dismiss.

Following that hearing, Cannon then heard the gag order request. As a reminder, Coach Beard already tried to bring a gag order to the court, because Trump tweeted among other things, that the FBI went to his house with hopes of using deadly force (a full-on, full-stop, lie). And yes, I know he didn’t tweet it but use his dumb Truth Social but first – that’s a dumb name for a website, and two – not gonna trick me! Not gonna say he “truth’d” something, especially when it's a dangerous lie.

The first time Coach asked for this gag order, Cannon denied it based on manners - Cannon took issue with the fact that Beard didn’t confer with Team Trump before filing the gag order, which is required by local rules.

But it was denied without prejudice, which is how we find ourselves back in court again.

The day ended with no rulings.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of goat’s cheese. And goats. And cheese.

But more than that… more than a goat telling a cheesy joke (“What’s a goat’s favorite movie? You’ve Goat Mail”) – because you also love cheesy jokes (I assume, based solely on the fact that you’re still here listening to this episode)… I’m proud of you.