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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).

Chicago after 50 years of democratic control.

Democratic Party Destruction of America Cartoons

Taliban meet US peace envoy for first time since ‘dead’ deal

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban met U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in the Pakistan capital for the first time since President Donald Trump declared a seemingly imminent peace deal to end Afghanistan’s 18-year war ‘dead’ a month ago, a Taliban official said early Saturday.

He offered few details of Friday’s meeting between Khalilzad and the Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the movement that was ousted in 2001 by the U.S.-led coalition. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

U.S. officials however have been keen to say there is no resumption of peace talks, at least not now in Islamabad.

Still, the meeting is significant as the United States seeks an exit from Afghanistan’s 18-year war.

Khalilzad has been in Islamabad for much of the week meeting with senior government officials in what the U.S. State Department described as follow-up meetings he held in New York during last month’s U.N. General Assembly session. At the time he met Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been calling for a resumption of peace talks.

The Taliban delegation led by Mullah Baradar __one of its more powerful members __ arrived separately in the Pakistani capital for meetings with government officials they said were being held to discuss a wide range of political issues relating to the more than 1.5 million Afghans still living as refugees in Pakistan.

Baradar was arrested in Pakistan in 2010 in a joint Pakistani-CIA operation after he secretly opened peace talks with the then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai, attempting to sideline Pakistan and against the U.S. strategy at the time, which did not support talks with the Taliban.

In 2018, Baradar was released from jail to facilitate peace talks after Khalilzad was appointed U.S. peace as Washington sought a way to exit America’s longest military engagement.

More than 14,000 U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan and Trump has repeatedly expressed his frustration with their continued deployment, complaining they have taken on the duties of policing the country, a job he said the Afghan government needed to do.

During the past year, Khalilzad held nine rounds of talks with the Taliban in the Middle eastern State of Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office.

In early September a deal seemed imminent, but a fresh round of violence and the death of a U.S. soldier caused Trump to suddenly tweet the end to talks, including the cancellation of an agreement signing ceremony in Camp David, about which few had been aware.

There were no details about the Pakistani meetings Friday.

During the Doha talks, Khalilzad and Baradar held one-on one meetings and in recent weeks the Taliban had travelled to China, Russia and Iran to drum up support for a return to talks.

But in Afghanistan, the country is still awaiting the results of presidential polls held on Sept. 28.

The leading contenders are President Ashraf Ghani and his current partner in the unity government, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

Abdullah has already said he believes he has won while Ghani’s supporters are declaring he has the necessary votes, causing many to fear political chaos. Preliminary results are not expected before Oct. 17 and the final results until Nov. 7. If there is no clear winner with 51% of the vote, a second round will be held within two weeks of the final vote announcement.

Pompeo misses deadline to turn over State Dept. docs on Ukraine, Giuliani in impeachment inquiry

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo missed Friday’s deadline to comply with a subpoena issued by three Democrat-led House committees last week to hand over documents related to the department’s dealings with Ukraine and President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, Fox News has confirmed.
The subpoena came as Congress conducts a probe into a whistleblower’s complaint to the national intelligence community over Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky -- the incident that has since touched off the Trump impeachment inquiry.
The president is under fire for urging Zelensky, during that call, to investigate Democratic 2020 presidential frontrunner Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and the Ukrainian firm Burisma, where Hunter Biden held a board position.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens during an event hosted by the Department of State's Energy Resources Governance Initiative in New York, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. (Associated Press)

Last week, the chairmen of the three House panels -- Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., of the Intelligence Committee; Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., of the Foreign Affairs Committee; and Elijah Cummings, D-Md., of the Oversight and Reform Committee -- demanded a list of State Department officials who might have been involved with the Ukraine conversation. The chairmen additionally requested any State Department records about Giuliani, and any records relating to U.S. military aid to Ukraine. (Giuliani had traveled to Ukraine on business on behalf of the president, he told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday.)
Fox News confirmed the State Department is in touch with the three House panels regarding the deadline breach. Trump told reporters he would send House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter Friday, saying the White House would not comply with the impeachment inquiry until it is made official by a vote before the entire chamber. It was unclear if the State Department failed to comply with the subpoena at Trump's request.
Pompeo confirmed Wednesday -- while in Rome -- that he was on the July 25 call, describing his involvement as appropriate, and within the purview of his role as secretary of state. As a stand-off between the executive branch and Congress escalated, he also said he would fight a request from the Democratic chairmen for depositions from five State Department officials. He accused the lawmakers of not giving department employees enough time to prepare and voiced concern that the committee was trying to prevent State Department counsel from participating.
"What we objected to was the demands that were put that deeply violate fundamental principles of the separation of powers," Pompeo said. "They contacted State Department employees directly and told them not to contact legal counsel at the State Department.”

"What we objected to was the demands that were put that deeply violate fundamental principles of the separation of powers. They contacted State Department employees directly and told them not to contact legal counsel at the State Department.”
— Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

Lawmakers from the Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees moved forward with testimony from their first key witness Thursday --- former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who resigned last week after receiving word his name had surfaced in the whistleblower complaint. Text messages released by Volker to Congress show U.S. officials involved with Ukraine arguing internally last month over whether Trump was engaged in a quid pro quo. Fox News on Friday also obtained Volker’s prepared testimony, in which he details his interactions with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was probing whether Burisma had sought to garner influence with Biden by paying high fees to his son.
A memorandum of the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky released last month showed that while Trump sought a Ukrainian probe into the Biden family, he did not explicitly use the $400 million in military aid as leverage. Trump tweeted Thursday that he had an "absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate or have investigated corruption, and that would include asking or suggesting other countries to help us out!"
Joe Biden has acknowledged on camera that in spring 2016, when he was vice president and spearheading the Obama administration's Ukraine policy, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire top prosecutor Viktor Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings — where Hunter had a lucrative role on the board despite limited relevant expertise. Biden allies maintain his intervention was driven by corruption concerns.
Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community, gave testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Friday, as he was the first to receive the whistleblower complaint. The complaint was eventually declassified by the Trump administration and a redacted versions sent to Congress. House Democrats are scheduled to hear testimony from several other officials next week.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Brooke Singman, Alex Pappas and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

Trey Gowdy: Adam Schiff has made himself a 'fact witness' in Trump-Ukraine whistleblower case

Former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy blasted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., saying Schiff made himself a "fact witness" with the revelation that his office had contact with the Trump-Ukraine whistleblower.
"Right now he's made himself a fact witness," Gowdy told "The Story with Martha MacCallum" on Friday. "He is in the evidentiary chain for what happened with this whistleblower and I hope the Republicans make him testify."
Gowdy also mocked Schiff for being awarded “Four Pinocchios” by the Washington Post on Friday, claiming he hadn't told the truth about his knowledge of the whistleblower.
Schiff has played a leading role in investigating the Trump-Ukraine scandal but hasn’t been truthful in the process, according to Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler.
"I think you got four [Pinocchios] only because you can't get five," Gowdy joked. "He got the maximum sentence you could get from the Washington Post fact checker -- and don't you know how hard that was for the Washington Post to give Adam Schiff four Pinocchios?"

"He got the maximum sentence you could get from the Washington Post fact checker -- and don't you know how hard that was for the Washington Post to give Adam Schiff four Pinocchios?"
— Trey Gowdy, former congressman from South Carolina

The former congressman from South Carolina called Schiff a "career offender" when it came to the truth and asked how long House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would put up with Schiff.
"The same guy that had the parody a week or so ago, the same guy that says he has evidence that even [former Special Counsel Robert] Mueller couldn't find," Gowdy said. "The question I had is, How long is Speaker Pelosi going to put up with Adam mishandling this investigation?"
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.