Commentary: After Sweeping Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump Faces the Supreme Court Primary

After sweeping the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary — the first Republican in a competitive presidential nomination race to do so since the GOP started using the Iowa caucus in 1976 — former President Donald Trump will run unopposed in the Nevada caucus on Feb. 8 and appears to be safely ahead in polls in the South Carolina primary on Feb. 24.

The Republican National Committee even briefly considered naming Trump the “presumptive” GOP nominee before the plan was scrapped.

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Tennessee’s Skrmetti Among 33 Attorneys General Urging Supreme Court to Uphold Whistleblower Law

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is leading 33 states attorneys general in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a pair of lower court rulings that could have broad implications for whistleblowers, and the government’s ability to go after public fraud.

In a 15-page legal brief, Tong and the other AGs are calling on justices to uphold a pair of federal whistleblower lawsuits accusing pharmacy operators of over billing government health insurance programs for prescription drugs. 

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Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani Endorses Divisive Independence Day Message

On Saturday, Florida House Rep. Anna Eskamani endorsed a divisive July 4th email message sent out by the City of Orlando. Eskamani’s approval of the message came after the City of Orlando apologized for the original message, which was critical of the United States.

The original email published on July 1 – which has since been deleted from Orlando’s official Twitter account – stated, “A lot of people probably do not want to celebrate our nation right now, and we can’t blame them. When there is so much division hate, and unrest, why on earth would you want to have a party celebrating any of it?”

Christina Pushaw, the spokesperson for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, replied to the message. Pushaw tweeted,  “Yikes. City of Orlando, is this your official position on our country and on 4th of July?”

In addition, a local police union responded to the message.

‘The members of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 25 are proud Americans who will continue to serve with Courage, Pride and Commitment to uphold their oath to defend our community and this country. We do not share the same views as the City of Orlando and find their comments inflammatory and in poor taste,’ the statement from the police union read.

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Former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore on Barrett: Confirm Now!

In an interview with The Virginia Star, Kilgore shared that Barrett’s nomination was a long time coming.

“A lot of us were looking to the President, hoping he would nominate her last time instead of Kavanaugh [in 2018]. She carried herself so well during her 2017 hearing for the 7th Circuit Court, and she was a former clerk for Justice Scalia. She is a favorite justice for many conservatives throughout the nation.”

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Court-Packing Emerges as Litmus Test in 2020 Democratic Primary

by Kevin Daley   A growing number of Democratic presidential candidates are entertaining a push to add seats to the Supreme Court, as Republican success at filling the courts with judicial conservatives has infuriated progressive voters. Democratic presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, and Kirsten Gillibrand have expressed willingness to consider proposals for expanding the composition of the Supreme Court as of this writing. The Trump campaign charged that those suggestions, called court-packing, keeps with other structural reforms to the U.S. political system some Democrats have endorsed since the 2016 election. “This is just what the Democrats always do,” the Trump campaign told TheDCNF. “When they lose, they try to change the rules. This is no different from when they attack the Electoral College every time they lose the White House. Now it’s court-packing. They want to change our institutions to fit their own political desires.” Another presidential candidate, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, advanced a more modest proposition. Speaking Monday night on MSNBC, the senator said term limits for Supreme Court justices might be appropriate, but he seemed reluctant to endorse expansion of the Court. Democrats frame the issue as a credibility…

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Trump Administration Returns to Supreme Court, Seeking End to DACA

by Kevin Daley   The Trump administration returned to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday night seeking to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era amnesty initiative that extends protected status to illegal aliens brought to the U.S. as children. The move is aggressive and unusual, as decisions on Trump’s efforts to rescind DACA are still pending in several federal appeals courts, and the justices seldom take up cases before those judgments issue. But the U.S. Department of Justice told the Supreme Court Monday that action is needed in the near term. The Trump administration previously sought the Supreme Court’s review of its efforts to phase out DACA. After two federal judges issued injunctions requiring the government to continue administering the program, the Justice Department bypassed normal appellate procedure and went directly to the Supreme Court on January 18 to vindicate its right to terminate the program. The justices rejected that request on Feb. 26, but asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to quickly process the case so it could return to the high court in a reasonable timeframe. Other challenges to DACA repeal efforts are currently before appeals courts in New York and Washington, D.C. “It…

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