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Politics

Texas abortion legislation in impact as Supreme Courtroom makes no transfer to dam it

Texas abortion law in effect as Supreme Court makes no move to block it

Pedestrians walk past the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, United States on Sunday, June 20, 2021.

Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A Texas law banning most abortions went into effect Wednesday after the Supreme Court failed to respond to an urgency complaint to block its enforcement.

A group of abortion providers and advocates, including Planned Parenthood, had asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block enforcement of the law that would ban most abortions as early as six weeks of gestation.

The petitioners say the law would set Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that enshrined women’s right to abortion, essentially overturning it.

In response, a group of Texas officials, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, urged the Supreme Court to reject their opponents’ offer to thwart the law, calling the request “bold”.

SB 8 was enacted in May by Republican Governor Greg Abbott. It prohibits doctors from performing or having abortions after they “detect a fetal heartbeat in the unborn child” except in medical emergencies.

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The law prohibits state officials from enforcing these rules. Rather, it empowers anyone to bring civil actions against anyone who performs abortions or “helps or assists” them after a heartbeat is detected. These lawsuits can earn a minimum of $ 10,000 in “legal damages” per abortion.

If it went into effect, the bill would “immediately and catastrophically restrict access to abortion in Texas, ban the care of at least 85% of abortion patients in Texas,” and likely force many providers to shut down, the urgency motion filed Monday said .

This motion was filed directly with Conservative Judge Samuel Alito, who is handling inquiries from the Lone Star State. It was filed days after a lower appeals court refused to block implementation of the law.

Alito had asked respondents to respond to the appeal by 5 p.m. ET Tuesday.

“In less than two days, Texan politicians will have effectively overthrown Roe v. Wade,” said Nancy Northup, CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, whose organization helped the Supreme Court filing the motion, in a statement Monday.

The Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority of 6: 3 after the administration of former President Donald Trump, is already supposed to hear arguments in a potentially decisive abortion case from Mississippi. This state has urged judges to reconsider existing precedents preventing states from banning abortions that occur before the fetus is viable.

This is the evolution of news. Please check again for updates.

– CNBC’s Christine Wang contributed to this report.

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Politics

Supreme Court docket refuses to dam development of Obama library in Chicago

Supreme Court refuses to block construction of Obama library in Chicago

US President Barack Obama waves after his speech at the SelectUSA Investment Summit March 23, 2015 in National Harbor, Maryland.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an advocacy initiative to temporarily halt construction of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in a Chicago park.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett, an agent of former President Donald Trump in charge of Midwestern affairs, denied the application for a restraining order without referring the case to the nine-member court.

The Chicago-based nonprofit Protect Our Parks and some local residents argued that the $ 700 million library would have “serious environmental impacts” for Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago.

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They said in the petition that the “deliberate act” will destroy at least 800 trees and that it will have “significant effects on migratory birds and their nesting practices,” adding more “dust, noise and a deterioration in air quality, which is public health endangered in the surrounding community. “

“Once these trees are felled, there is no going back,” said the group.

They also complained that the government bypassed the necessary regulatory reviews and illegally split the project in two to avoid considering alternative locations for the park.

“During all public hearings, government agencies cordoned off anyone who tried to address them about avoidance and mitigation issues,” the petition reads.

They directly called on Barrett to freeze “further groundbreaking construction and excavation activities” and “tree felling” in the park pending an appeal against a rejection by a lower court last week.

Her emergency request required a response by Monday, when construction of the presidential center was due to begin.

Barrett’s rejection was not accompanied by any text or explanation.

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Politics

U.S. decide denies landlords’ request to dam CDC nationwide eviction ban

U.S. judge denies landlords' request to block CDC national eviction ban

Housing advocates and New York City renters march to call on Governor Andrew Cuomo to cancel rent on October 10, 2020 amid the pandemic.

Andrew Lichtenstein | Corbis News | Getty Images

A US judge on Friday denied a motion by rental groups to block the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new eviction moratorium.

The decision of US District Judge Dabney Friedrich is a win for the Biden government.

More than 11 million Americans are left behind with their rentals, prompting the CDC to issue a new eviction ban earlier this month after the previous one expired on July 31. This protection is valid until October 3rd and for places where Covid rates remain high.

Broker groups are likely to appeal against Friedrich’s decision.

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The CDC’s eviction ban has faced numerous legal challenges and landlords have criticized it, saying they couldn’t afford to house people for free or shoulder the land’s massive arrears in rent. On Thursday the US Supreme Court lifted at least part of the eviction moratorium in New York.

Housing advocates say evictions must be banned until states distribute the $ 45 billion in rental subsidies provided by Congress. According to a recent analysis by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, only around $ 4.2 billion of that money has reached households.

“It is imperative that cities and states provide rental subsidies to vulnerable communities as soon as possible to prevent evictions and the public health impact in all of our communities,” said Emily Benfer, visiting law professor at Wake Forest University.

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Politics

Trump Asks Choose to Block Tax Return Launch to Congress

Trump Asks Judge to Block Tax Return Release to Congress

Attorneys for President Donald J. Trump argued in a new court document on Wednesday that a House committee request to receive Mr. Trump’s tax returns for six years should be blocked, portraying the effort as politically motivated and illegitimate.

In a 37-page file, Mr Trump’s Legal Department picked up arguments put forward by the Trump-era Justice Department to block the Congressional request, but the Biden-era Justice Department abandoned it last week when it was told by the Treasury Department said the ministry was required by law to make the documents available to the legislature.

Mr. Trump’s Legal Department wrote that the former President’s tax filings are “unlawful and unenforceable because they have no legitimate legislative purpose, violate legal authority, violate the First Amendment, breach due process, and / or violate the separation of powers. ”

The lawsuit, which dates back to when Mr. Trump was still President, is formally a case between the House Ways and Means Committee and the Treasury Department. However, since the executive branch has now dropped its resistance to the fulfillment of the demand, the Trump legal profession, as an intervener, is calling for an injunction that blocks this step.

Submission was awaited; One of Mr Trump’s lawyers said Monday that he would fight against the clearance of his return to Congress.

The filing argues that even though Mr Trump is no longer the incumbent president, the case still needs to be assessed as if he were in office since it dates from that time. Many of the Democrats’ filings come from the 2016 campaign when Trump broke the norm for presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns. Democrats have repeatedly suggested that he must hide something politically harmful.

During the Trump administration, the Justice Department cited such statements to argue that the stated purpose of the committee’s motion – for Congress to weigh legislative reforms regarding the disclosure of the president’s tax return – was an excuse for a genuinely illegitimate purpose.

However, last week the Office of the Justice Department Legal Adviser, now appointed by Dawn Johnsen, one of Biden’s appointments, said the executive branch must accept the stated purpose of the committee as to why it is requesting the returns and that the law allows it to Them.

“Even if some individual congressmen hope that information from the former president’s tax returns will only be released publicly for ‘debunking’,” she wrote, “it would not defeat the legitimate aims of obtaining the information in question.”

But Mr. Trump’s Legal Department is asking the judge overseeing the lawsuit, Trevor N. McFadden, of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, to rule otherwise. Mr. Trump appointed Mr. McFadden in 2017.

The ongoing litigation means Congress will not receive Mr. Trump’s tax returns anytime soon; Mr. Trump’s committee or legal team can appeal negative decisions to the Supreme Court. Even if Congress finally got them, that wouldn’t mean they would go public immediately or at all.

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Politics

Senate Republicans block S1 For the Folks Act invoice

Senate Republicans block S1 For the People Act bill

Senate Republicans blocked a sprawling Democratic voting rights and government ethics bill Tuesday, as federal efforts to respond to a rash of restrictive ballot laws passed by GOP-held state legislatures hit a wall.

The For the People Act aims to set up automatic voter registration, expand early voting, ensure more transparency in political donations and limit partisan drawing of congressional districts, among other provisions. Democrats pushed for the reforms before the 2020 election, but called them more necessary to protect the democratic process after former President Donald Trump’s false claims of electoral fraud sparked an attack on the Capitol and restrictive state voting measures.

The House passed its version of the bill in March. The measure failed a procedural test in the Senate Tuesday, as Republicans voted against starting debate on it.

The plan needed 60 votes to advance in the Senate, split evenly by party. It fell along party lines in a 50-50 vote.

After the bill failed to advance, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized his GOP counterparts for reluctance to start the process of debating and amending the bill.

“Now, Republican senators may have prevented us from having a debate on voting rights today,” he said. “But I want to be very clear about one thing: the fight to protect voting rights is not over. By no means. In the fight for voting rights, this vote was the starting gun, not the finish line.”

Schumer said the Senate has “several, serious options for how to reconsider this issue and advance legislation to combat voter suppression.” He said he plans to “explore every last one of our options.”

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Republicans have framed the legislation as a power grab by Democrats. They have argued states rather than the federal government should have leeway to set election laws.

The GOP has also questioned the need for a new bill to protect voting rights. Republicans have downplayed the restrictive laws in states such as Georgia and Florida, which took steps including making it harder to vote absentee and limiting ballot drop-off boxes. Critics of the measures say they will disproportionately hurt voters of color and give GOP officials more power over election outcomes.

Ahead of the Senate vote, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the Democratic bill a “transparently partisan plan,” stressing it was in the works before Republican-led legislatures passed voting laws.

“The Senate is only an obstacle when the policy is flawed and the process is rotten,” he said.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) takes part in a news conference held by Republican senators about the “H.R.1 – For the People Act” bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 17, 2021.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Schumer disputed the argument that the federal government should not exert its will on election laws. He pointed to past bills such as the Voting Rights Act that protected voters from discrimination.

The Biden administration has formally backed the For the People Act as the president considers voting rights a key piece of his agenda. In a statement after the vote, Biden said Democrats “unanimously came together to protect the sacred right to vote.”

He later continued: “Unfortunately, a Democratic stand to protect our democracy met a solid Republican wall of opposition. Senate Republicans opposed even a debate—even considering—legislation to protect the right to vote and our democracy.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has met with voting rights advocates in recent weeks, presided over the Senate vote on Tuesday. She plans in the coming weeks to promote registration and work with state leaders who are pushing back on restrictive bills, NBC News reported.

The For the People Act has little chance of revival in the current Senate. At least two Democrats — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — oppose scrapping the legislative filibuster, which would allow the party to pass more bills without Republicans.

Liberals have urged the party to abolish the 60-vote threshold as Democrats pursue their priorities with control of the White House and narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

But Manchin has signaled he would oppose final passage of the Democratic-led bill, potentially killing chances of its passage even without the filibuster. He has said he wants to approve a voting rights plan with GOP support, despite Republican opposition to more modest plans to protect ballot access.

Manchin proposed a potential compromise, which includes Democratic-backed provisions such as 15 days of early voting for federal elections and automatic voter registration at state motor vehicles agencies. It also calls for voter identification requirements, which Republicans have typically supported.

McConnell shot down the plan, arguing it contains the “rotten core” of Democrats’ bill.

Manchin did not commit until Tuesday afternoon to voting to start debate on his party’s legislation. Schumer announced a deal to take up Manchin’s proposal as an amendment if the For the People Act cleared the procedural vote.

The senator’s support ensured every Democrat would vote to advance the bill while Republicans blocked it.

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Health

Sen. Warren presses PhRMA foyer group on efforts to dam vaccine patent waivers

Sen. Warren presses PhRMA lobby group on efforts to block vaccine patent waivers

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., conducts a news conference outside the Capitol to reintroduce the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, on Tuesday, April 27, 2021.

Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is pressing the CEO of a major pharmaceutical trade group on its lobbying efforts against a proposal to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines that would help boost production of the shots for poorer nations.

Warren and other lawmakers asked how much money the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, and its member companies spent this year lobbying Congress and White House officials in opposition to the waiver, in a letter sent Wednesday to PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl that was obtained by CNBC.

The Biden administration said in early May it would support waiving the World Trade Organization’s Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPs, agreement. PhRMA, whose members include Covid vaccine makers AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, is trying to block the waiver.

Removing patent protections on Covid vaccines would allow other drug companies to manufacture the lifesaving shots. Drugmakers worry that could set a precedent for future products and end their lucrative monopolies over sales of their new medicines.

Warren also asked the trade group about its attempts to block a bill from House Democrats that would allow Medicare to negotiate directly with manufacturers for lower drug prices.

“PhRMA and other pharmaceutical companies have pushed the Biden Administration to oppose the TRIPS waiver, arguing that it would “undermine the global response to the pandemic,”‘ Warren and other lawmakers wrote. The industry also said drug pricing provisions of the American Rescue Plan would “lead to fewer new cures and treatments,” and it opposed Medicare Part D price negotiation, the letter reads.

“While taking credit for the development of new COVID vaccines — which were developed with massive infusions of federal funds — the pharmaceutical industry has not backed off of its efforts to block drug pricing proposals and maintain the status quo,” the lawmakers added.

The lawmakers gave the trade group until June 30 to respond.

In a statement to CNBC, PhRMA spokesman Brian Newell said the trade group was reviewing the letter.

“We will continue our efforts to work with policymakers on solutions to lower what patients pay out of pocket for prescription medicines and ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines,” he said.

Warren’s letter comes as global groups, including the World Health Organization, are urging wealthy countries and drugmakers to get Covid shots to low-income and lower-middle-income countries, some of which are witnessing an increasingly worrying rise in new infections.

Ken Frazier, chairman and chief executive officer of Merck & Co., from left, Stephen Ubl, chief executive officer of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), and Robert Hugin, chairman of Celgene Corp., arrive to a news conference outside the White House following a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, not pictured, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Many countries and drugmakers have made pledges to share millions of doses around the world. President Joe Biden announced last week that his administration would donate 500 million vaccine doses produced by Pfizer to other nations.

The pharmaceutical industry has previously said the TRIPS waiver would compromise safety, weaken supply chains and sow confusion between public and private partners.

In the first three months of this year, pharma companies have spent a record $92 million on lobbying, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance research group in Washington. PhRMA spent $8.6 million this year on lobbying after spending $25.9 million in 2020, according to its data.

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Politics

Senate Republicans block invoice to probe Capitol revolt

Senate Republicans block bill to probe Capitol insurrection

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks after the Republican Senate lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington Jan.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a bill that would set up an independent commission to investigate the January 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol as Democrats and the GOP argue over how best to investigate the legislature attack and another attack on the democratic process can be prevented.

With 54 to 35 votes, the measure did not reach the threshold required to overcome a filibuster, as almost all GOP senators were against it. Six Republicans voted to move the proposal forward: Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Susan Collins from Maine, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Rob Portman from Ohio, Mitt Romney from Utah and Ben Sasse from Nebraska. All of these senators, with the exception of Portman, voted in February to hold former President Donald Trump guilty of inciting a riot.

The vote likely undermines the creation of a Democratic panel, and some Republicans have said it is important to understand what led to the violent attempt to disrupt the transfer of power to President Joe Biden. GOP leaders have claimed the commission could redouble existing efforts by the Department of Justice and Congressional committees to investigate the pro-Trump mob attack that resulted in five deaths, including that of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick.

Sicknick’s mother met with a handful of Republican senators Thursday and urged them to support the commission.

Republicans have tried to divert attention from the uprising – to which Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories contributed – as they seek to regain control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. Top GOP lawmakers, particularly in the House of Representatives, have set themselves the goal of suppressing criticism of Trump, who remains the Republican Party’s most popular figure.

“Fear of or allegiance to Donald Trump, the Republican minority only prevented the American people from learning the full truth about January 6,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said after the vote.

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The Democratic-owned House of Representatives passed the bipartisan bill earlier this month with 252-175 votes. 35 Republicans supported it, while 175 GOP officials voted against. House Republican leaders pushed for resistance after Rep. John Katko, RN.Y. negotiated the deal with Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

The bill failed to win the Republican votes it needed to move forward in the evenly divided Senate after minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Urged his faction to oppose it.

“I will continue to support the real, serious work of our criminal justice system and our own Senate committees,” McConnell said Thursday before the vote. “And I will continue to urge my colleagues to oppose this superfluous shift if the Senate has to vote.”

The bill would set up a 10-person commission to study the factors that led to the uprising. The Democratic and Republican leaders would each appoint half of the members who could not be current government officials.

The subpoenaed panel would report on its investigation by the end of the year.

Schumer urged senators Thursday to back the commission law, saying the country must eradicate belief in Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that widespread fraud led to his defeat in November. He called the lies a “cancer” in the GOP.

“We have to investigate, uncover and report the truth,” he said. “We need to make a trustworthy record of what really happened on January 6th and what happened before that. That is exactly what this commission is supposed to do, non-partisan and right down the middle.”

At least one senior Republican in the Senate has suggested that the panel would detract from the party’s mid-term messages. John Thune, RS.D., said earlier this month, “Anything that makes us rewarm the 2020 elections is, in my opinion, a day where we don’t contrast ourselves with the very radical left-wing Democrats’ agenda can.” “

Senator Joe Manchin, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, has repeatedly called on Republicans to vote in favor of setting up the commission. However, the West Virginia senator said he still would not team up with most of his Democratic counterparts to get rid of the filibuster that would allow the party to pass the bill on its own.

Biden, whose takeover of the presidency the pro-Trump mob sought to disrupt, scoffed Thursday at the prospect of senators voting against the commission’s establishment.

“I can’t imagine anyone voting against setting up a commission for the biggest attack on the Capitol since the Civil War,” he said.

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White Home so as to add AAPI liaison after Democrats threaten to dam Biden’s nominees

White House to add AAPI liaison after Democrats threaten to block Biden's nominees

Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.

Tom Williams | CQ appeal | Getty Images

The White House said it would appoint a “high-level” liaison officer for Asia Pacific islanders, an official told NBC News on Wednesday.

The announcement came after two Democratic senators, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Hawaiian Mazie Hirono, vowed to vote against President Joe Biden’s candidates in protest at the lack of AAPI representation in his administration.

Duckworth and Hirono later went back on the threats, saying they had received new assurances from the White House.

The dispute over AAPI’s representation in the White House comes after Biden tried to rally the American people against an increase in violence and discrimination against Asian Americans last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“The president has made it clear that his administration will reflect the diversity of the country. That was and is our goal,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

“The White House will add a high-level liaison between Asia Pacific islanders that will ensure that the community’s voice is further represented and heard,” said Psaki.

Senator Mazie Hirono attends a Senate Judicial Committee hearing for Christine Blasey Ford to testify on allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court candidate Brett M. Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill in Washington, United States, on September 27, 2018 .

Erin Schaff | Reuters

A day earlier, Duckworth criticized the government for not appointing “a single AAPI” official to a cabinet position.

“That’s not acceptable. I told the White House that,” said Duckworth, the first Thai American to be elected to Congress.

Duckworth said Tuesday that “until they find out,” she would “vote no on anything but the diversity contenders”.

Hirono joined Duckworth’s protest Tuesday evening, telling reporters they are demanding “a pledge from the White House that there will be greater representation of diversity in the cabinet and senior positions of the White House.”

Until then, Hirono said she would join Duckworth in “voting no to non-diversity nominees”.

But Hirono reversed course that night after posting initial reports on the new AAPI liaison role.

“I had a productive conversation with the White House today to clarify my perspective on the importance of diversity in the president’s cabinet,” Hirono tweeted.

“Based on the private conversation we have had, I will continue to vote to endorse the historic and highly qualified candidates that President Biden has appointed to his administration.”

Duckworth backed off her threat too.

The senator “appreciates the assurances made by the Biden administration that it will do much more to improve the voices and prospects of the AAPI at the highest levels of government,” spokesman Ben Garmisa said in a statement.

“Accordingly, it will not stand in the way of President Biden’s qualified candidates – including more AAPI leaders,” the statement said.

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