#Roberts is questioning the government’s lawyer on why the “major questions doctrine” doesn’t apply here, given the sweeping nature of Trump’s #tariffs. “The justification is being used for power to impose tariffs on any product from any country in any amount, for any length of time,” he says. #Trump used #IEEPA in April to announce a baseline tariff on products from every foreign country, & significantly higher tariffs on exports from several dozen nations.

#SCOTUS #law #AbuseOfPower #economy

Sauer provoked an objection from Justice Sonia #Sotomayor after arguing that #Trump’s #tariffs were not designed to raise revenue for the federal government.

Trump has repeatedly boasted about how much money his import taxes are brining into the Treasury.

“You want to say tariffs are not taxes, but they are,” Sotomayor said.

#SCOTUS #law #PartisanCourt #ActivistCourt #AbuseOfPower #economy

Chief Justice John #Roberts jumped in fairly quickly, questioning Sauer about whether he’s relying too much on an older decision on a different part of the emergency-powers law at the center of the case.

Roberts was a law clerk at the time to the justice who wrote the 1981 opinion, William Rehnquist.

#SCOTUS #law #tariffs #PartisanCourt #ActivistCourt #AbuseOfPower #Trump #economy

We reviewed federal prosecutions, local arrests, internal protest summaries by the Portland Police Bureau and more than 700 video clips posted to social media before Trump said he wanted to send the National Guard to the city.

Here’s what we found.
https://www.propublica.org/article/portland-protests-national-guard-trump?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Portland #Oregon #NationalGuard #Trump #Protest

Justice Brett M. #Kavanaugh, a key vote, is very focused on President Nixon’s imposition of a 10% tariff in 1971. The #tariffs were part of the “Nixon shock” measures aimed at addressing #trade deficits & combatting #inflation. “What’s the significance of the Nixon example & precedent here?” Justice Kavanaugh asked. “Because I think figuring that out is real important to deciding this case correctly.”

#SCOTUS #law #PartisanCourt #ActivistCourt #AbuseOfPower #Trump #economy

per NYT, Peter Harrell, a visiting scholar at Georgetown’s Institute for International Economic Law, said that although presidents have steadily broadened the use of #IEEPA over the years, “it was definitely intended to constrain authority.” In return, the #Trump admin is arguing that that change was only intended to add process constraints, not to add substantive constraints, on the president’s actions.

#SCOTUS #law #tariffs #PartisanCourt #ActivistCourt #AbuseOfPower #economy

Justice #Jackson raises a key issue: That the emergency #law in question, #IEEPA, was actually passed by #Congress to constrain the president’s authority & reform an earlier law, the Trading With the Enemy Act, or #TWEA, that Nixon had used to issue global #tariffs.

#SCOTUS #law #PartisanCourt #ActivistCourt #AbuseOfPower #Trump #economy

“The fact that they raise revenue is only incidental,” Sauer says of the tariffs. I’m not sure Trump would agree: #Trump has often emphasized the vast amounts of revenue being raised by his #tariffs & their ability to offset #tax cuts.
Justice #Sotomayor is also acknowledging an argument we’ve heard frequently in months of lower court arguments — that the economic emergency law that Trump is using to impose tariffs does not explicitly contain the word tariff.

#SCOTUS #law #AbuseOfPower #economy

Arguments are finally getting underway after a late start.

First up is Solicitor General D. John Sauer, Trump’s top Supreme Court lawyer, arguing for the #Trump admin.

The court has allotted 80 minutes for arguments, but they will almost certainly extend well into early afternoon.

#SCOTUS #tariffs #law

"It has left an opening for Jews who want leaders who promote the ideas of tolerance and inclusion and the ethics and morality groups like the ADL were actually established to advance."

#ADL #ZohranMamdani #antisemitism #Islamophobia #Israel #Zionism #AIPAC #Trump #MAGA
/8

"Their support and defense of racist, intolerant, anti-democratic, anti-rule of law, anti-human rights thugs like those in the Israeli far right or Trump or his white supremacist, Nazi-adjacent supporters like Elon Musk, has alienated them from the vast majority of American Jews."

#ADL #ZohranMamdani #antisemitism #Islamophobia #Israel #Zionism #AIPAC #Trump #MAGA
/7

(continued from /5)

"but that he actually represents core Jewish values better than reflexive defenders of Israel’s genocide in Gaza like Greenblatt or the Israeli government mouthpieces at AIPAC.

Indeed, it is this last point that gets to the real crux of the problem for Greenblatt and the Netanyahu cheering section who purport to be Jewish leaders but who are actually just a branch of MAGA."

#ADL #ZohranMamdani #antisemitism #Islamophobia #Israel #Zionism #AIPAC #Trump #MAGA
/6

"The scale of victory was not just about who won, but by how much. Across key races and battlegrounds, Democrats didn’t simply edge out their opponents; they dominated, flipping deep-red territories, sweeping local boards, and posting double-digit margins that shattered recent historical norms."

~ Aaron Parnas

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats
/10

https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/news-democrats-achieve-historic-election

"The reporters standing there knew Donald was lying, because they have access to the same polls we do and they reflect the unmitigated disaster his second term in office has been.

The latest Economist/YouGov poll shows that Donald has hit a new low in popularity and public confidence across multiple issues. Only 39% of Americans approve of his job performance, while 58% disapprove."

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats
/9

"Despite the fact or, likely, because of the fact Donald’s recent poll numbers are demonstrably terrible, he told reporters on Air Force One:

I have the best [poll] numbers for any president in many years - any president."

~ Mary Trump

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats
/8

https://www.marytrump.org/p/bad-polls

"The country sent a resounding message: The United States hates Donald Trump and MAGA. This grotesque, hateful movement needs to be thrown into the dustbin of history."

~ Ben Meiselas

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats
/7

https://www.meidasplus.com/p/urgent-message-from-meidas-founder-671

"This was an anti-Trump referendum, and a referendum on the value of fighting Trump."

~ Brian Beutler

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats
/6

https://www.offmessage.net/p/25-thoughts-about-the-2025-elections

"In polls, in focus groups and now at the ballot box, the public is telling us something very clearly: Trump is simply too much."

~ Jamelle Bouie

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats
/5

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/opinion/trump-mamdani-spanberger-sherrill-democrats.html

"There is no question that Trump was a drag on his party. According to exit polls, Trump’s approval rating was abysmal: 41/56 in Virginia and 43/55 in New Jersey.

He is so unpopular that he wasn’t asked to campaign in person in New Jersey or Virginia."

~ Dan Pfeiffer

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats
/4

https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/thoughts-on-a-very-bad-night-for

" I’d like to see some soul-searching among those pushing that narrative — the same kind of soul-searching they’ve been demanding from Democrats. But I won’t be holding my breath."

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats #media #beltway
/3

"Nobody should have been surprised that Democrats had a very good night. These elections were, as expected, largely a referendum on Donald Trump, and polling says that Trump is very, very unpopular. ...

Yet for the past few months the punditocracy has been obsessed with the narrative that Democrats are in big trouble, out of touch with Real Americans ™."

~ Paul Krugman

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats
/2

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/which-party-is-in-trouble-again

"With an approval rating under 40%, Trump spent the day panic-tweeting to suggest the elections are 'rigged,' just as he did in 2020. ... in fact, today voters resoundingly rejected Trump and Trumpism, and tomorrow, politics will be a whole different game."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #election #NewJersey #California #Virginia #ZohranMamdani #Democrats
/1

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-4-2025-tuesday

"If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald #Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him. And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power," #Mamdani told a raucous crowd of supporters. "So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up."

#Democrats #elections #USpol

#Democrats sweep first major #elections of second #Trump term

Democrats swept a trio of races on Tuesday in the first major elections since Donald Trump regained the presidency, elevating a new generation of leaders and giving the beleaguered party a shot of momentum ahead of next year's congressional elections.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elections-new-york-new-jersey-virginia-offer-early-test-trumps-agenda-2025-11-04/

#Senate confirms #Trump's pick to join liberal-majority US appeals court

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Trump's first and only nominee to the Boston-based federal appeals court, which until now had been largely composed of judges appointed by Democrats and has frequently blocked his policy initiatives.

#law
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/senate-confirms-trumps-pick-join-liberal-majority-us-appeals-court-2025-11-04/?utm_source=braze&utm_medium=notifications&utm_campaign=2025_engagement

For Trump it is now clear he will be swept away in any coming fair election. The big question is what will he further do to prevent this. The stakes for him and his family/friends are high. Losing elections could mean prosecution and jail. Things could get even more ugly in the US.
#trump #elections #democrats #politics

"Trump declared that he would not payout SNAP benefits, signaling that his administration will not release the funds as ordered. The move effectively blocks distribution of aid to millions of low-income households, seniors, and children across the country."

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/20

"In a stunning escalation of the standoff over federal food aid, President Donald Trump announced that he will refuse to comply with a federal court order requiring his administration to release emergency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), potentially cutting off food benefits to millions of Americans."

~ Aaron Parnas

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/19

https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/breaking-trump-set-to-defy-court

"I’ve seen a lot of reports calling Donald tone deaf, but that is a way to let him off the hook. The choice to host that party is of a piece with the choice to build a $350 million ballroom after razing the East Week—it is intentional and a clear demonstration of Donald’s priorities."

~ Mary Trump

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/18

https://www.marytrump.org/p/le-me-eat-cake

"Trump’s announcement caught members of his own team off guard, with four people with knowledge of the matter telling Politico they aren’t clear whether his post means that USDA now won’t abide by the court order."

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/17

"President Donald Trump went rogue on Truth Social on Tuesday, contradicting his own administration’s decision a day earlier to fund SNAP benefits during the shutdown—and potentially violating a court order in the process."

~ Rachel Kahn

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/16

https://newrepublic.com/post/202668/trump-shocks-team-defy-courts-stop-funding-snap

"Tonight’s results measure whether democratic renewal is happening fast enough to match authoritarian acceleration.

That’s it. That’s what we’re learning."

~ Mike Brock

#Trump #Republicans #elections #ZohranMamdani #NewJersey #NewYork #Virginia #California
/4

https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/trump-emergency-declarations-scotus

"It will be more people un-housed and more sent without due process to concentration camps or out of the country. It will be a weakening dollar that makes everything cost more.

Trump and his supporters and enablers have fucked around. Now they are going to find out."

#Trump #Republicans #elections #ZohranMamdani #NewJersey #NewYork #Virginia #California
/3

"Each of these things has a real cost that is going to touch you and every person you know. It won’t be abstract. It won’t be politics. It will be a Mom who can’t feed her kids or a grandma who can’t get care and has to live with their family."

#Trump #Republicans #elections #ZohranMamdani #NewJersey #NewYork #Virginia #California
/2

"For me, the most important thing about election day 2025 is that it marks the beginning of Trump’s Year of FAFO. For almost a year he has advanced terrible policies that are damaging the U.S. economy, raising prices, hammering job creation, undermining the rule of law, sending fascist thugs into the streets, weakening us worldwide."

~ David Rothkopf

#Trump #Republicans #elections #ZohranMamdani #NewJersey #NewYork #Virginia #California
/1

https://davidrothkopf.substack.com/p/duck-dumbass-political-punditry-incoming

As #California #voters went to vote Tues on a measure that could block Trump’s agenda, state ofcls ridiculed his unsubstantiated claims that voting in the largely #Democratic state is “rigged.”

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” #Trump posted without irony mins after polling stations opened.

Trump provided NO EVIDENCE for his allegations.

#law #VoterSuppression
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-04/la-me-prop-50-trump-scam

RE: https://mastodon.social/@MAKS23/115493215907611223

Autocrats support each other...
#belarus #usa #trump

Any effort to remove #Maduro would place the admin under further scrutiny over whatever legal rationale it does offer, given the hazy mix of reasons it has presented so far for confronting Maduro. Among them are drug trafficking, the need for US access to #oil & #Trump’s [BS] claims that #Venezuela’s govt released prisoners into the #US.

#law #WarPowers #Congress #InternationalLaw

…A move to justify targeting #Maduro would constitute another effort by the #Trump admin to stretch its legal authorities. It has already engaged in targeted killings of suspected drug smugglers who, until Sept, were pursued & arrested at sea rather than killed in drone strikes.

#law #WarPowers #Congress #InternationalLaw

While the *guidance* is still being drafted, some #Trump admin officials expect it will argue that #Maduro & his top security officials are central figures in the Cartel de los Soles, which the admin has designated as a “narcoterrorist” group. The #DOJ is expected to contend that designation makes Maduro a “legitimate” target despite longstanding #US legal prohibitions on assassinating national leaders. [this is carrying Trump’s water a bit much]

#law #WarPowers #Congress

#Trump aides have asked the #DOJ for additional guidance that could provide a legal basis for any #military action beyond the current campaign of striking boats that the admin says are trafficking narcotics, without providing evidence. Such *guidance* could include a [questionably] legal rationale for targeting #Maduro without creating the need for congressional authorization for the use of military force, much less a declaration of #war. [not so sure about that NYT]

#law #WarPowers #Congress

The #Trump admin has developed a range of options for #military action in #Venezuela, including direct attacks on military units protecting #Maduro & seizing control of the country’s #oil fields, acc/to #US ofcls.

Trump has yet to decide how or whether to proceed. Ofcls said he was reluctant to approve ops that may place US #troops at risk or turn into an embarrassing failure. But many of his senior advisers are pressing for the most aggressive options: ousting Maduro.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/us/politics/trump-weighs-attacks-venezuela.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Because this is what decent people do, including by their tax support of government programs designed to assure that no one goes hungry.

#Trump #Republicans #SNAP #food #hunger #children #Depression
/8

But when they found out the children of a neighboring family were hungry during the Depression, they made it their business to feed those children along with their own children.

People were actually hungry, some people, during the Depression. Particularly in the South….

And some other people thankfully recognized that it was their obligation — and honor — to feed those hungry people, and they did so.

#Trump #Republicans #SNAP #food #hunger #children #Depression
/7

When a little neighbor girl told them one day during the Depression that all she had to eat that day was an onion, they were horrified and they made it their business to feed that little girl and her mother.

My grandmother's brother lived down the road between Little Rock and Pine Bluff on a small farm. He and his wife also did not have scads of money to spare. They had many children to feed on what their small farm produced.

#Trump #Republicans #SNAP #food #hunger #children #Depression
/6

So there was milk, cream, butter, sometimes beef…. They also kept a pig or two and there was cured pork all year round to season things, as well as fresh pork at hog-killing time.

They had little money to spare, but they were not hungry.

But there were neighbors who were hungry.

#Trump #Republicans #SNAP #food #hunger #children #Depression
/5

In addition, my grandmother was always a skilled gardener, and she grew a large garden with the assistance of six children and a step-son, who did the garden work while she ran the store.

Though my family lived in town, they also kept chickens, so there were eggs and occasionally chicken to eat, and they had forty acres behind their house on which they pastured some cows.

#Trump #Republicans #SNAP #food #hunger #children #Depression
/4

By the time the Depression arrived, his small-town store was what remained, and though my grandmother was left with little money when my grandfather died just as the Depression hit, there was still the store to bring in a bit of income — and also to make sure her own family would be fed.

#Trump #Republicans #SNAP #food #hunger #children #Depression
/3

We paid the price of our own immoral choice by having our economy, which had been built on the immoral practice of slavery, seriously disrupted for generations.

So when the Depression hit, many Southerners had no margin to fall back on. There was no cushion against outright hunger for some of us.

My mother's family had had a bit of money prior to the Depression. My grandfather owned a number of pieces of property.

#Trump #Republicans #SNAP #food #hunger #children #Depression
/2

I REMEMBER MY ELDERS TALKING ABOUT THE DEPRESSION

The conversations were in my mother's family. When the Depression hit, much of the South remained mired in the endemic poverty that had been its life from Reconstruction forward.

Southerners had to live with the effects of the horrible choice many of us made both to practice and to defend slavery, that is.

#Trump #Republicans #SNAP #food #hunger #children #Depression
/1