04 October 20
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Charles Pierce | The Supreme Court Is About to Murder What's Left of the Voting Rights Act
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "To distract you from the perils of President* Zero in the White House, the Supreme Court seems to be warming up to murder what's left of the Voting Rights Act."
o distract you from the perils of President* Zero in the White House, the Supreme Court seems to be warming up to murder what's left of the Voting Rights Act. The one tooth that this Court left in the mouth of the VRA was Section 2, the provision that said the VRA can be used to overturn state laws that have a disproportionate impact on minority voters. Agreeing to hear this Arizona case gives the Court a chance to extract that last remaining canine. From Bloomberg:
A federal appeals court struck down two aspects of Arizona’s voting law: its longstanding policy of rejecting ballots cast in the wrong precinct and a 2016 statute that makes it a crime for most people to collect or deliver another person’s early ballot. The 7-4 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said each rule had a disproportionate impact on minority voters. But Democrats say the Arizona provisions serve primarily to disadvantage Black, Hispanic and American Indian voters. In the 2016 general election, minority voters cast ballots in the wrong precinct at more than twice the rate of Whites, according to the appeals court.
The case echoes the divisive fight over the rules governing the 2020 election. Republicans say the Arizona ban on what they call “ballot harvesting” guards against fraud, pointing to a handful of elections that courts have overturned elsewhere in recent decades. The 9th Circuit majority said no evidence existed that third-party ballot collection had ever tainted an Arizona race. The appeals court said ballot collection is particularly important to Arizona Hispanic and Native American voters, who often have poor or nonexistent in-home mail service and live far from polling places with few transportation options.
If the Court throws out Section 2, and it likely will be judged by a Court with a 6-3 conservative majority, then the Voting Rights Act is dead and Chief Justice John Roberts will get the full and glorious Day of Jubilee that he has been working towards since he first took a government job. Given this development, and given the current state of intense agita over the upcoming election, it is important to note that Roberts succeeded William Rehnquist in the Big Chair. This means that, ever since 1986, the Supreme Court has been led by a Republican lawyer who got his start in Republican politics as a vote suppressor. This does not give me hope.
COVID-19 test. (photo: Bloomberg)
Timeline: How Trump Has Downplayed the Coronavirus Pandemic
Juana Summers, NPR
Excerpt: "'I wanted to always play it down,' the president said in a March interview, the audio recording of which was made public in September. 'I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic.'"
resident Trump, who announced overnight that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and often contradicted public health experts and members of his own administration in their more grave warnings about the virus.
Most notably, Trump acknowledged to veteran journalist Bob Woodward that he knowingly downplayed the coronavirus, even though he knew it was more deadly than the seasonal flu.
"I wanted to always play it down," the president said in a March interview, the audio recording of which was made public in September. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic."
Here is a sampling of what Trump has said about the coronavirus threat:
Jan. 22
The day that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed what it then thought was the first case of the coronavirus in the United States, Trump told a CNBC reporter that the country had it "completely under control" and suggested that he was not concerned about a pandemic.
"We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine," he said.
Feb. 27
During a February meeting with Black leaders, held as U.S. health officials warned that the coronavirus pandemic might stay with the country for some time, Trump said a "miracle" might make the coronavirus pandemic "disappear."
"It's going to disappear. One day — it's like a miracle — it will disappear," Trump said. "And from our shores, we — you know, it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows."
March 11
During an Oval Office address, Trump said that for "the vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low" — though he did warn that the "elderly population must be very, very careful." That same day, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House's coronavirus task force, told members of Congress at a House hearing that "bottom line, it's going to get worse."
How much worse, Fauci said, would depend on the country's ability to contain the "influx of people who are infected" coming from other countries and "the ability to contain and mitigate within our own country."
April 3
When the CDC made its initial recommendation that people wear cloth or fabric face coverings, Trump said it was going to be "really, a voluntary thing" and emphasized that he would not do it.
"You can do it. You don't have to do it. I'm choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it, and that's OK. It may be good. Probably will. They're making a recommendation. It's only a recommendation," Trump said.
Trump — who stresses how often he and the people around him are tested — wore a mask in public for the first time in July, for a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
May 19
Trump told reporters that he viewed the high number of U.S. cases of the coronavirus as a "badge of honor" and a reflection of the country's testing capacity.
"When we have a lot of cases, I don't look at that as a bad thing," the president said. "I look at that in a certain respect as being a good thing, because it means our testing is much better. So, if we were testing a million people instead of 14 million people, we would have far few cases, right?
"So, I view it as a badge of honor. Really, it's a badge of honor," he added. "It's a great tribute to the testing and all of the work that a lot of professionals have done."
Days later, the U.S. recorded 100,000 known deaths from COVID-19.
July 19
During an interview with Fox News Sunday, the president seemed to suggest that some people without serious symptoms were being tested and confirmed as positives and added to the total number of infections.
"Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day," Trump said. "They have the sniffles, and we put it down as a test." He added that many of those sick "are going to get better very quickly."
At the time of Trump's interview, more than 3.7 million coronavirus cases had been confirmed in the United States, and more than 140,000 Americans had died.
Sept. 21
During a campaign speech in Swanton, Ohio, Trump claimed without evidence that the coronavirus "affects virtually nobody," downplaying the risk of the extent of the pandemic and the danger that it poses to individuals.
In that campaign speech, he suggested that the virus is dangerous only to older people with heart problems and preexisting conditions, sentiments that go against the guidance of most public health experts.
"It affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems, if they have other problems, that's what it really affects, that's it. In some states thousands of people — nobody young — below the age of 18, like nobody — they have a strong immune system — who knows?" Trump said.
"Take your hat off to the young because they have a hell of an immune system. It affects virtually nobody," he added. "It's an amazing thing — by the way, open your schools!"
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, meets with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) in the Capitol on Monday. (photo: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Coronavirus Moves Freely in GOP Circles as Republicans Play Loose With Health Rules
Paul Kane, The Washington Post
Kane writes: "Democrats say their GOP colleagues have played loose with the new rules, particularly when congressional Republicans meet with Trump, whose anti-mask views are well-documented amid recent events with big crowds packed together."
hen the novel coronavirus first landed inside the Capitol, it did not choose partisan sides.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a gregarious, nine-term South Florida Republican, tested positive on March 14, the first member to announce contracting the coronavirus. Within hours, Rep. Ben McAdams, a freshman Democrat from Salt Lake City, announced a positive test of his own.
Over the first month of the virus’s spread, four Republicans and four Democrats announced they had contracted it, according to a database maintained by NPR. Two more Senate Democrats announced later in the spring that they had tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, tracing their infection to the middle of March when they previously thought they had a mild cold.
But since late April — around the time federal health guidelines recommended wearing a mask indoors — the virus has moved more freely in Republican circles. With three GOP senators announcing their positive results in recent days, 10 Republican members of Congress have said they contracted the deadly virus in the last four months.
And that tally does not include President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and more than a half-dozen current and former senior advisers at the Republican White House.
Just two Democrats have announced positive tests in the last six months.
In the chaos following the revelation that Trump had the coronavirus, many lawmakers renewed their call for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to finally implement a rigid testing regime for members, aides, U.S. Capitol Police and the many support staff.
The two leaders have resisted those calls, even as their closest allies have warned that it’s not safe to have so many lawmakers traveling back and forth across the nation.
But some Democrats see a more ideological cause for the virus’s recent spread along Pennsylvania Avenue, one that regular testing can only counter so much. Democrats say their GOP colleagues have played loose with the new rules, particularly when congressional Republicans meet with Trump, whose anti-mask views are well-documented amid recent events with big crowds packed together.
“I think it’s time [for] my colleagues who are, you know, denying the science to stop their ‘Flat Earth’ nonsense and protect themselves and others. Yeah, I think it’s about time that all sensible adults stop, stop behaving like they can’t see the threat right in front of them,” Rep. Sean Maloney (D-N.Y.) told reporters Friday.
For months, Republicans have said they have followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on social distancing, consulting the Capitol’s Office of the Attending Physician on how to go about their business.
In Kentucky on Friday, after Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) announced his own positive test, McConnell remained boastful about how he has managed the Senate and said that the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett would go “full steam ahead,” with no other changes in schedule.
“As I said, we’re following the advice of the CDC in how we operate the Senate, and so far we’ve been able to do it quite successfully,” he told local reporters.
That success story ended Friday night. Four hours later, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Lee and Tillis, both members of the Judiciary Committee, attended the Sept. 26 Rose Garden ceremony where Trump announced his selection of Barrett, with more than 150 guests sitting shoulder to shoulder, most not wearing masks.
One attendee said that guests, after clearing a rapid coronavirus test before the event, were encouraged to take off their masks, and the outdoor event was buffeted by receptions inside the White House.
Tillis was pictured wearing a mask outside in the Rose Garden, but then posted a picture on social media from inside the White House not wearing a mask, despite all scientific evidence pointing to greater risk at an indoor event.
Despite their own negative tests, Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who sat one seat apart from Lee and Tillis, and James Lankford (R-Okla.) announced they would quarantine at home until Oct. 12.
Then, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) revealed Saturday morning that he, too, had tested positive for the coronavirus. Johnson had just spent 14 days in Wisconsin quarantining because he had been in contact with someone who had tested positive.
He returned to the Capitol on Tuesday, having never tested positive back in Wisconsin, but within three days he had the virus — puncturing the bubble of security that Republicans have lived under.
How did Johnson contract it? His official statement did not say, and it’s possible he will never fully know. But throughout the spring and summer, Republicans and Democrats have behaved differently in Congress, with one side exposing itself to more risk.
By mid-March, all four congressional caucuses disbanded their regular in-person meetings, in favor of conference calls.
In early May, McConnell resumed holding private luncheons with all 53 GOP senators and a smattering of senior staff in a spacious hearing room in the Hart Senate Office Building. They eat boxed lunches rather than the normal buffet, and the tables are spaced much farther apart than their usual gatherings.
They wear masks entering and exiting the luncheons, but while eating they are maskless, about five senators per table.
The lunches last more than an hour, so any Republicans seated next to Lee or Tillis the past few days may have found themselves in the path of the virus.
Medical experts in the attending physician’s office, in the wake of this outbreak, have told those tested for the virus that, even if they get a negative result, they must do a strict quarantine if they were within six feet of someone who tested positive for more than 15 minutes of contact within 48 hours of their diagnosis.
That definition may apply to quite a few more Republicans. So, not surprisingly, by midday Saturday McConnell announced the Senate would not meet for legislative business for the next two weeks.
He said the Judiciary Committee would hold the Barrett hearing as scheduled, with senators appearing remotely if they wish.
Neither Senate Democrats nor House Democrats have held an in-person caucus meeting in more than six months. In a recent interview, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) predicted those meetings would not resume until there is a widely available vaccine.
House Republicans, after disbanding their weekly in-person meetings, restarted them in late July with attendance limits in a spacious theater, following demands from arch conservatives, many of whom prefer not to wear masks. One of those, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.), tested positive for the coronavirus a week later, just before he was supposed to travel with Trump.
Every Democrat who has been on the congressional campus the past five months regularly wears a mask, prompting fears that they are living by a different set of rules.
“This virus is punishing. It’s unforgiving, draws no distinction between Republicans and Democrats,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said Friday.
Lately, however, inside the Capitol, it has drawn a distinction.
