December 20, 2023

Wednesday, December 20, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

I think the Roundup makes people feel not so alone.

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Joe is always busy.

Biden leads in a New York Times/Sienna Poll that didn’t make the paper yesterday.

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Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was buried yesterday.

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The Supreme Court of Colorado called a spade a spade or, to be precise, an insurrectionist an insurrectionist. What will SCOTUS do?

Next Steps

Joyce Vance. The Colorado Supreme Court Tells Trump No.

Today, the Colorado Supreme Court took a step that may give us a preview of what a Trump loss in 2024 could look like. They removed him from the ballot in that state for next year’s election. Their reason, one we’ve discussed here as the case worked its way through the Colorado courts, is that they believe Trump is barred from appearing on ballots for president in Colorado under the 14th Amendment. Section C of the 14th Amendment prohibits a public officer from holding office again if they engage in insurrection after taking an oath to uphold the Constitution.

If you want a review of the case and the issues, here is our layout in the trial court in Colorado, and here we discussed that court’s decision as the case made its way to Colorado’s highest court. Today’s was 4-3, a narrow split among Colorado Justices, that Trump will undoubtedly use to inflame passions.

It looks like the U.S. Supreme Court is going to be busy over the holidays. The case is certain to be appealed to them. But in the meantime, we are likely to get a taste of whether Trump is successful at whipping his base into a frenzy over the loss, even though the Colorado court stayed its decision until after the first of the year, to give SCOTUS the opportunity to hear the case.

Colorado’s Secretary of State must certify the candidates for the 2024 presidential primary ballot by January 5 so ballots can be printed for the March 5 primary.

(Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse).

Trump Is Constitutionally Prohibited From the Presidency - By J. Michael Luttig and Laurence H. Tribe.

The only question is whether American citizens today can uphold that commitment. (The Atlantic).

One more thing.

This case was brought by Republican plaintiffs.

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There will be fireworks 💥⚡️💥 in 2024.

Federal judge orders documents naming Jeffrey Epstein's associates to be unsealed - ABC News.

A federal judge in New York has ordered a vast unsealing of court documents in early 2024 that will make public the names of scores of Jeffrey Epstein's associates.

The documents are part of a settled civil lawsuit alleging Epstein's one-time paramour Ghislaine Maxwell facilitated the sexual abuse of Virginia Giuffre. Terms of the 2017 settlement were not disclosed.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted of sex trafficking and procuring girls for Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Anyone who did not successfully fight to keep their name out of the civil case could see their name become public -- including Epstein's victims, co-conspirators and innocent associates.

Judge Loretta Preska set the release for Jan. 1, giving anyone who objects to their documents becoming public time to object. Her ruling, though, said that since some of the individuals have given media interviews their names should not stay private.

The documents may not make clear why a certain individual became associated with Giuffre's lawsuit, but more than 150 people are expected to be identified in hundreds of files that may expose more about Epstein's sex trafficking of women and girls in New York, New Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and elsewhere. Some of the names may simply have been included in depositions, email or legal documents.

Some of the people have already been publicly associated with Epstein. For instance, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz is publicly named in the judge's order. Certain minor victims will remain redacted.

Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse minors. In February, she asked the court to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors subsequently urged a federal appeals court in June to uphold the conviction.

From 1994 to 2004, Maxwell and Epstein worked together to identify girls, groom them and then entice them to travel and transport them to Epstein's properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and elsewhere, prosecutors said. The girls -- some of whom were as young as 14 years old -- were then sexually abused, often under the guise of a "massage," they said.

Giuffre alleged in her lawsuit against Maxwell that Maxwell recruited her at the age of 16 to years of sexual servitude to Epstein. She also accused Maxwell and Epstein of directing her, between 2000 to 2002, to have sex with a number of their prominent associates, most famously Britain's Prince Andrew. The lawsuit was settled in May 2017, just before a trial was to begin.

Prince Andrew had repeatedly denied the allegations and attacked Giuffre's credibility and motives. He agreed to settle a sexual assault lawsuit from Giuffre last year for an undisclosed sum.

"Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks," according to a letter filed from Giuffre's lawyer. "It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others." (ABC News).

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I have never loved, or even liked, Bill Maher but this may be the most brilliant opinion piece I ever saw.

Touch to watch.👇

One more thing.

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A reminder about January 6 from Liz Cheney.

Touch to remember 👇.

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New York’s Governor Hochul plans to give New Yorkers a chance to make amends for slavery and its effects.

In these hard times, keep in mind we have the opportunity as a people to decide important questions on Democracy and what we owe the descendants of people once enslaved.

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New York to Consider Reparations for Descendants of Enslaved People.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill that will create the nation’s third statewide task force to examine possible reparations for the lasting impact of slavery.

Gov. Kathy Hochul called on New Yorkers to rebuke the state’s historical role in benefiting from slavery

New York will undertake an ambitious effort to address the state’s history of slavery and racism, establishing the United States’ third statewide task force to examine whether reparations can be made to confront the legacy of racial injustice.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday signed a bill that empowers a commission to study not only the history of slavery, which was outlawed in New York in 1827, but also its subsequent effects on housing discrimination, biased policing, income inequality and mass incarceration of African Americans.

New York joins California and Illinois at the forefront of reparations efforts, a complicated endeavor that will immerse stakeholders in a contentious political and budgetary conversation about the past and its dictates for the future.

It is far too early to tell what type of restitution, cash or otherwise, the commission in New York will recommend for descendants of enslaved people, or even if it will make such a recommendation. But in California, a multibillion-dollar price tag has already threatened to stymie the reparations project, highlighting the distance between the state’s goals and its fiscal reality.

“I know the word ‘reparations’ brings up a lot of conflicting ideas for people,” Ms. Hochul said on Tuesday before signing the bill. “A lot of people instinctively dig in when they hear it, without really thinking about what it means or why we need to talk about it.”

“Today, I challenge all New Yorkers, to be the patriots and rebuke — and not excuse — our role in benefiting from the institution of slavery,” she said.

A nine-member task force appointed by the governor and State Legislature will produce a report with nonbinding recommendations for ways to correct centuries of discrimination. State lawmakers could then pass legislation to enact any of the recommendations.

The California commission approved a report in Maythat recommended a sweeping statewide reparations program, as well as a formal apology to the state’s millions of Black residents. The payments, which could reach more than $1.2 million per person, would cost billions of dollars at a time when the state faces fiscal challenges, including a $68 billion revenue shortfall.

It is now up to state lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California to agree on any money to be paid or any policy changes recommended by the commission. So far, lawmakers have not passed any legislation, although the legislative Black Caucus has pledged to introduce a package of measures for consideration next year.

That commission went beyond slavery and sought to put a price tag on the effects of systemic racism as it applies to felony drug arrests, housing discrimination and eminent domain seizures, as well as differences in life expectancy. The reparations in California would apply only to residents descended from slaves or from free African Americans who lived in the United States before the 20th century.

In 2021, the Chicago suburb of Evanston became the first U.S. city to actually issue reparations in the form of housing grants of up to $25,000. As of August, the city announced it had distributed just over $1 million. The work of Illinois’s reparations commission is continuing, with public meetings scheduled into the new year.

In San Francisco, a separate 15-member task force issued a series of 111 recommendations and one of the most ambitious, if elusive, restitution proposals: a one-time, $5 million payment to anyone eligible.

But the city’s budgetary limitations and political division highlight the political challenge that reparations projects face: The proposed payments could amount to more than $100 billion, or about seven times the annual budget of San Francisco. The city’s mayor, London Breed, who is Black, has not committed to cash reparations and her office has indicated that the federal government is better suited to handle reparations.

New York has similar budget issues. After two years of record-setting state budgets following an influx of federal pandemic-era aid, state officials in New York are now projecting a budget deficit of $4.3 billion for the 2024 fiscal year, and even larger deficits in the years ahead. Cuts could be on the horizon, renewing calls from left-wing lawmakers to hike taxes on the rich to bridge the budget gaps, a step that Ms. Hochul opposes.

An unusually expansive Ms. Hochul appeared to acknowledge the difficult negotiations ahead, admitting that she had concerns about the bill at the outset.

She further acknowledged the political risks of jumping into a conversation about historical wrongs, though she concluded that truly standing against racism would mean “more than giving people a simple apology 150 years later.”

Before the American Revolution, there were more enslaved Africans in New York City than in any other U.S. city except Charleston, S.C., and the population of enslaved Africans accounted for 20 percent of New York’s population, according to the governor’s office.

The Republican Senate minority leader, Robert Ortt, contended that New York had already paid its debt for slavery with the “blood and lives” of Americans during the Civil War.

“A divisive commission to consider reparations is unworkable,” Mr. Ortt said in a statement. “As we’ve seen in California, I am confident this commission’s recommendations will be unrealistic, will come at an astronomical cost to all New Yorkers and will only further divide our state.”

The bill signing drew an assortment of the state’s many Black political leaders, including the bill’s sponsors in the State Senate and Assembly, as well as Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie and the Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

The Rev. Al Sharpton thanked Ms. Hochul for having the “audacity and courage” to back the proposal, calling the signing “the beginning of a process to repair damage done.”

“You cannot heal unless you deal with the wounds,” he said. “And this bill will put a commission together to be healing the wounds.”

Now that the bill has been signed, Ms. Hochul and the leaders of the Senate and Assembly will each appoint three members to the task force.

The group which will have one year from the date of its first meeting to produce a report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature. (New York Times).

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The Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania are a little late, but they now seem to recognize what happened on their campus.

Antisemitism is unforgivable. So too are attacks on academic freedom.

More than 900 of the university's educators say alumni and benefactors are interfering in school policy.

Hundreds of University of Pennsylvania faculty members are standing against donor influence following the resignation of Penn President Liz Magill and an email from a board of trustees leader.

The Penn Faculty Senate released a letter condemning interference from donors, alumni, the Board of Trustees and the Board of Advisors in academic and governance policies. More than 900 faculty members have signed the letter so far, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

"The current efforts of some members of the broader Penn community to reverse our longstanding governance structure threatens the freedom of the faculty to conduct independent and academically rigorous research and teaching," wrote the Faculty Senate, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter follows an email from Marc Rowan, a heavy donor and leader of the Wharton School’s board of advisors, sent Dec. 12. In it, Rowan alluded to the potential elimination of some departments and a reexamination of criteria for hiring Penn faculty, citing a charter provision that gives the trustee board influence in faculty selection. 

Penn's chapter of the American Association of University Professors released a statement condemning Rowan's email.

"Unelected billionaires without scholarly qualifications are now seeking to control academic decisions that must remain within the purview of faculty in order for research and teaching to have legitimacy and autonomy from private and partisan interests," the chapter wrote.

In early December, former President Magill testified before Congress alongside other Ivy League leaders about antisemitism on college campuses. Resulting backlash led to her resignation and the resignation of board chair Scott Bok. Last week, the university named Dr. J. Larry Jameson, dean of Penn's medical school, as interim president. As a result of the backlash, the Pennsylvania House denied over $33 million in funding to Penn's veterinary school.

A study from Brandeis University published last week found that Penn had some of the highest levels of on-campus antisemitism among U.S. universities.

The Faculty Senate letter states that the university's faculty handbook defers to the university's president for management, and for faculty, staff and students to aid in decision-making processes.

"We oppose all attempts by trustees, donors, and other external actors to interfere with our academic policies and to undermine academic freedom," the letter states. (Philly Voice. Repeating the Daily Pennsylvanian).

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Has Trump gone over the line?

McConnell and Other Senate Republicans Criticize Trump’s Talk on Immigrants.

Some Republicans see Trump’s talk as “deplorable.” Others remain delusional. This article gives a strong overview.

The minority leader took an oblique swipe at Donald Trump’s rhetoric about migrants “poisoning the blood” of the country, but others like Senator Tommy Tuberville defended him.

When Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, was asked about former President Donald J. Trump’s now-standard stump line claiming that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” Senator McConnell delivered an indirect but contemptuous response.

“Well, it strikes me it didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao secretary of transportation,” Mr. McConnell, the Senate minority leader, said. Ms. Chao, who was born in Taiwan and immigrated to America as a child, is married to Mr. McConnell.

Mr. McConnell referred to a feud that has simmered for more than a year over the former president’s racist attacks against Ms. Chao. Mr. Trump, often referring to her by the derisive nickname “Coco Chow,” has suggested that she — and by extension her husband, Mr. McConnell — are beholden to China because of her connections to the country.

Mr. Trump repeated his “poisoning the blood” claim at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday, prompting an outburst of criticism from Senate Republicans this week.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine told a reporter for The Independent that the former president’s remarks were “deplorable.”

“That was horrible that those comments are just — they have no place, particularly from a former president,” Ms. Collins said.

Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, denounced Mr. Trump’s language as “unacceptable.”

“I think that that rhetoric is very inappropriate,” Mr. Rounds said, according to NBC News. “But this administration’s policies are feeding right into it. And so, I disagree with that. I think we should celebrate our diversity.”

Mr. McConnell’s own oblique retort, which did not directly criticize Mr. Trump’s language, signaled that even some of the former president’s boldest Republican critics on Capitol Hill are treading lightly, as he dominates the polls in the Republican presidential race.

Mr. McConnell has spent years trying to steer the party away from Mr. Trump after the riot at the Capitol by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, in large part because he views the former president as a political loser. Often when Mr. McConnell criticizes Mr. Trump he does so by saying his behavior would make it hard for him to win another presidential election.

Senate Republicans are also trying to negotiate a deal with the White House, proposing sweeping restrictions on migration in exchange for approving additional military aid to Ukraine and Israel, a top priority for President Biden.

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Senate majority leader, denounced Mr. Trump’s remarks on Tuesday as “despicable” but signaled that Senate Democrats would push forward with negotiations on border restrictions.

“We all know there’s a problem at the border,” Mr. Schumer said. “The president does. Democrats do. And we’re going to try to solve that problem consistent with our principles.”

Other Senate Republicans more delicately admonished Mr. Trump for his remarks, referring to either their own immigrant heritage or the principle that America is a nation of immigrants.

“My grandfather is an immigrant, so that’s not a view I share,” John Thune, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said in a CNN interview on Monday. He added, “We are a nation of immigrants, but we’re also a nation of laws,” describing illegal immigration as “a runaway train at the Southern border.”

But other Senate Republicans embraced Mr. Trump’s language. Senator Tommy Tuberville, who had defended white supremacists serving in the military before retracting his remarks this year, said that Mr. Trump’s attacks on immigrants did not go far enough.

“I’m mad he wasn’t tougher than that,” Mr. Tuberville told a reporter for The Independent. “When you see what’s happening at the border? We’re being overrun. They’re taking us over.”

Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio said it was “objectively and obviously true” that “illegal immigrants were poisoning the blood of the country.” He also scolded the reporter who asked him about Mr. Trump’s remarks, accusing her of using Mr. Trump’s words to try to “narrow the limits of debate on immigration in this country.”

Representative Nicole Malliotakis, the lone Republican in a House seat in New York City [her district is Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn], denied that Mr. Trump’s remarks were referring to immigrants.

“He didn’t say the words ‘immigrants,’ I think he was talking about the Democratic policies,” she said in a CNN interview on Monday. “Look, I know that some are trying to make it seem like Trump is anti-immigrant. The reality is, he was married to immigrants, he has hired immigrants.” (New York Times).

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Making History on a Tuesday Morning, With the Church’s Blessing.

A day after the pope’s announcement that Catholic priests may bless same-sex couples, one New York couple receives theirs.

The Rev. James Martin gives a blessing to Jason Steidl Jack, left, and his husband Damian Steidl Jack, center, in Manhattan

(New York Times).

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