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Abortion, immigrants, LGBT rights top high court’s new term

WASHINGTON (AP) — Abortion rights as well as protections for young immigrants and LGBT people top an election-year agenda for the Supreme Court. Its conservative majority will have ample opportunity to flex its muscle, testing Chief Justice John Roberts’ attempts to keep the court clear of Washington partisan politics.

Guns could be part of a term with plenty of high-profile cases and at least the prospect of the court’s involvement in issues revolving around the possible impeachment of President Donald Trump and related disputes between the White House and congressional Democrats.

The court also could be front and center in the presidential campaign itself, especially with health concerns surrounding 86-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Its biggest decisions are likely to be handed down in late June, four months before the election.

If last year was a time for the court to maintain a collective low profile following Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s stormy confirmation, the new term marks a return to the spotlight.

“The court seemed to do everything it could to rise above the partisan rancor,” said David Cole, the national legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union. “This term, it’s going to be harder for the court.”

How far the court is willing to go in any case that is likely to divide the liberal and conservative justices probably will come down to Roberts. He is essentially the court’s new swing justice, a conservative who is closest to the court’s center. He also has spoken repeatedly against the perception that the court is a political branch of government, much like Congress and the White House.

Last term, on the same day in late June, Roberts joined the conservatives in ending federal court challenges to partisan electoral maps and sided with the liberals to block the administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The new term might pose the sternest test yet of Roberts’ stewardship of the court. Roberts also would preside over any Senate trial of Trump, if the House impeaches the president.

The justices return to the bench Monday with cases about whether states can abolish an insanity defense for criminal defendants and allow non-unanimous juries to convict defendants of some crimes.

The next day, they will take up two cases about whether federal civil rights law protects LGBT people from workplace discrimination. They are the first rights cases since the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who provided the fifth vote for and wrote the court’s major gay rights decisions.

With Kavanaugh in Kennedy’s place and Trump’s other appointee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, also on the bench, the outcome is far from certain. The Trump administration also has reversed the Obama administration’s view that LGBT people are covered by the Title 7 provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of sex.

“It would be huge for the LGBT community to have protection in the private sector from employment discrimination,” said Paul Smith, a veteran Supreme Court litigator who has argued past gay rights cases.

Legislation is pending in Congress that would remove any doubt about Title 7′s application in cases of sexual orientation and gender identity, but is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate.

In November, the justices will hear arguments over the Trump administration’s plan to end the Obama-era program that has protected roughly 700,000 young immigrants from deportation and provided them with permits to work in the United States legally.

Lower courts have so far blocked the administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

As in the LGBT rights cases, the court fight over DACA could be made irrelevant by congressional action authorizing the program. But Congress seems unlikely to do anything before the court rules.

The abortion case probably will be argued during the winter and is another test of whether the change in the court’s composition will result in a different outcome. The Louisiana law that forces abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals is virtually the same as a Texas law the court struck down in 2016, when Kennedy joined the liberal justices to form a majority.

Roberts dissented in 2016, but he voted with the liberals in February to block the Louisiana law, at least temporarily. It was a rare vote against an abortion restriction that could point up the tension between Roberts’ legal views on abortion and his institutional interests in upholding even prior decisions with which he disagrees.

Apart from its lineup of big cases, the court itself could be an issue in the unfolding presidential campaign. Some Democrats and liberals are talking about structural changes to increase the size of the court or limit the terms of future justices.

The 2016 campaign played out amid a Supreme Court vacancy following Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February. While Senate Republicans blocked any consideration of President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, Trump released a list of potential nominees and about one-quarter of Trump voters said the Supreme Court was the most important factor in their vote for him.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said Republicans would confirm a Trump nominee to the Supreme Court, even if a vacancy arose during 2020.

Election-year retirements are very unusual, and the two oldest justices, Ginsburg and 81-year-old Stephen Breyer, would not want to give Trump a third high court seat to fill. Both were appointed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

But Ginsburg has had two bouts with cancer in less than a year, including radiation treatment in August for a tumor on her pancreas. She has kept up a steady stream of public appearances to signal that she is still here. The events, she said, energize her. “When I am active, I am much better than when I am just lying about feeling sorry for myself,” she said at an appearance in New York.

She’s hardly alone on the lecture circuit. Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Gorsuch have been out trying to drum up sales for their new books. Even the newest justice, Kavanaugh, will raise his profile somewhat. He is scheduled to be the principal speaker at the Federalist Society’s November dinner in front of more than 2,000 people.

Pompeo: State Dept. will follow law as Dems seek documents

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the State Department intends to follow the law in the House impeachment investigation and vigorously defended President Donald Trump, dismissing questions about the president’s attempts to push Ukraine and China to investigate a Democratic political rival.

The Trump administration and House Democrats often disagree about what the law requires, leaving open the question of how Pompeo may interpret Democrats’ demands for key information about Trump’s handling of Ukraine.

Pompeo, speaking Saturday in Greece, said the State Department sent a letter to Congress Friday night as its initial response to the document request and added, “We’ll obviously do all the things that we’re required to do by law.” He has allowed Democrats to interview a series of witnesses next week. Among them is Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, another key figure in the probe.

The administration has struggled to come up with a unified response to the quickly progressing investigation. Democrats have warned that defying their demands will in itself be considered “evidence of obstruction” and a potentially impeachable offense.

Pompeo has become a key figure in the Democrats’ investigation. He was on the line during the July phone call in which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter — sparking a whistleblower complaint and now the impeachment inquiry.

Pompeo had initially tried to delay a handful of current and former officials from cooperating with the inquiry and accused Democrats trying to “bully” his staffers.

On Saturday, Pompeo did not back off his defense of Trump’s call with Ukraine.

“There has been some suggestion somehow that it would be inappropriate for the United States government to engage in that activity and I see it just precisely the opposite,” he said.

Trump has offered a series of contradictory statements when it comes to the Democrats’ subpoena of White House records.

Asked Wednesday whether the White House intended to comply, Trump told reporters, “I always cooperate,” even as he dismissed the inquiry as “a hoax.” A day later, however, Trump had a different answer for the same question, saying he would instead leave the matter to his lawyers.

“That’s up to them to decide,” he said, “But the whole investigation is crumbling.”

By Friday, however, Trump confirmed reports the White House was preparing a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., arguing that Congress cannot undertake an impeachment investigation without first having a vote to authorize it. Pelosi has insisted the House is well within its rules to conduct oversight of the executive branch under the Constitution regardless.

Pro-Trump comedian Terrence K. Williams says Twitter sent him 'hateful conduct warning' on day of White House visit

A conservative comedian lashed out on Twitter on Friday, saying the company sent him a "hateful conduct warning," which could affect his ability to tweet, on the same day he was to visit the White House for the Young Black Leadership Summit.
“People want to take my account down because I said Schiff Should Resign, called out AOC & I support Pres @realDonaldTrump,” Terrence K. Williams, a vocal Trump supporter, told his more than 600,000 followers, asking them to retweet a hashtag to protect his account.
“This is outrageous,” he wrote. “The day that I go to the White House is the day that they notify me that my account may be in possible violations of hateful conduct.  … None of my conduct is hateful. I am a comedian, a conservative Trump-supporting comedian and they want to take me down because people have jumped on the Trump train after watching my content."

"I am a comedian, a conservative Trump-supporting comedian and they want to take me down because people have jumped on the Trump train after watching my content."
— Terrence K. Williams

The message from Twitter did not prevent Williams from attending the White House event and meeting President Trump, as Williams documented in another Twitter post.
"I MET PRESIDENT TRUMP TODAY!," the comedian wrote Friday.
"Growing up I went from foster house to foster house & i never thought I would be at the White House... let alone speak on the same stage with Pres @realDonaldTrump a man that loves the black community"
One of the tweets flagged by Twitter involved Williams saying Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., needs to resign and asserting that Schiff helped write the whistleblower’s complaint about a Trump phone call with the president of Ukraine.
Another tweet that was flagged said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t condemn the idea of eating babies after a demonstrator suggested people should eat babies to combat climate change at one of her town halls.
A political group that supports Trump later admitted they staged the demonstration, and Ocasio-Cortez said she deliberately tries to avoid escalating confrontations when she faces hecklers at public events.
It’s not clear what part of the tweets Twitter took issue with.
Twitter said in its message to Williams, “We are writing to inform you that certain content on your Twitter account  … has been flagged for possible violations of Twitter’s hateful conduct policy and/or laws of USA.”
Twitter added that if the flagged content isn’t in violation of its policy, it may still restrict Williams' account.
Twitter’s "hateful conduct" policy says in part: "You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.”
In April 2018, Williams spoke out after Facebook suspended his account.

California, New Jersey well represented on list of ‘miserable’ US cities

All Controlled by the Democrats.

Want to be miserable? Just three states offer an array of places you may like.
Business Insider recently released its list of the 50 most miserable cities in America – with cities in California (10), New Jersey (9), and Florida (6), accounting for half the list.
In compiling its rankings, Business Insider said it used U.S. Census information to analyze 1,000 U.S. cities on metrics such as crime, drug addiction, population changes, job opportunities, commute times, household incomes, abandoned homes and effects from problems such as natural disasters.
It decided that Gary, Ind., just outside Chicago, was the nation’s most miserable city, followed by Port Arthur, Texas, and Detroit.
What the most miserable cities had in common, according to the outlet, were “few opportunities, devastation from natural disasters, high crime and addiction rates, and often many abandoned houses.”
The data appear to support President Trump’s recent criticisms of California. Last month, the president charged that urban areas in the Golden State continue to “destroy themselves” by failing to address serious issues such as homelessness.
The 10 California cities and their rankings were: Bell Gardens (14); Compton (41); El Monte (22); Hemet (44); Huntington Park (10); Lancaster (50); Lynwood (21); Montebello (40); Palmdale; and San Bernardino (42).
The nine New Jersey cities and their rankings were: Camden (8); Newark (5); New Brunswick (11); Passaic (4); Paterson (19); Plainfield (30); Trenton (17); Union City (15); and West New York (29).
The six Florida cities and their rankings were: Fort Pierce (34); Hialeah (13); Miami Gardens (28); North Miami (25); North Miami Beach (33); Hallandale Beach (37).