"Donald #Trump is the sole person responsible for this nightmare," President #Biden said in a statement.
He said the reversal 2 yrs ago of the landmark #RoeVWade ruling of 1973, which gave constitutional protection to #AbortionRights, has been "devastating."
"This is a fight for #freedom: the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body & not having her government tell her what to do," #KamalaHarris said at a MD event.
#Trump appointed 3 #conservative#SCOTUS justices during his 2017-21 presidency, leading to a change in the court's balance that sparked the #abortion ruling in 2022.
The unpopularity of #SCOTUS’ decision even in some #conservative states made it a political liability for #Republicans during mid-term elections in 2022.
#Biden will focus on getting a #law passed that restores the #rights of #RoeVWade if re-elected, White House gender policy council chair Jennifer Klein told reporters Mon.
On Sat, #Trump addressed a crowd of #evangelical voters at the Faith & Freedom Coalition in Washington. "We have also achieved what the #ProLife movement fought to get for 49 yrs, & we've gotten #abortion out of the federal government & back to the states," he said.
The rulings leave myriad questions about whether borrowers can still enroll or receive promised #LoanCancellation. Millions of Americans could be affected.
In #Kansas, US Dist Judge Daniel D. Crabtree blocked the #Biden admin from launching the final component of the Saving on a Valuable #Education program, commonly known as #SAVE. Borrowers w/ #undergraduate#debt were set to see their payments cut in half in July — from 10% to 5% of income above 225% of the federal #poverty line.
Borrowers who also have #graduate#loans would have had their payments lowered by the weighted avg between 5% & 10%.
That feature of the plan, which launched in Oct, will be shelved while a lawsuit is litigated.
Crabtree, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that the #Education Dept failed to clearly show that #Congress authorized the repayment plan created by the #Biden admin in 2023.
He said the economic impact of the program, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will cost ~$230B over the next decade, would require congressional input.
The ruling arrives weeks after Crabtree said 8 of the 11 states challenging the plan failed to adequately show how they would be harmed by the policy. He concluded that only #Alaska, #Texas & #SouthCarolina made a strong enough case that the plan’s #debt-relief component could harm their tax revenue….
The coalition of 11 #Republican-led states, headed by #Kansas AG #KrisKobach, alleged in their lawsuit that the president overstepped his authority in creating the repayment program — claims that mirror the case that last year toppled #Biden’s initial effort to forgive up to $20k in federal #StudentLoans. The states say Biden’s new repayment plan is an attempt to sidestep a #SCOTUS ruling that struck down his #DebtForgiveness program.
Bailey argued the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, a quasi-state agency that services federal #StudentLoans & funds state #scholarships, loses revenue from servicing direct loans — those made & owned by the federal govt — when loans are wiped away.
The #AntiAbortion movement may have won the battle 2 yrs ago w/ #Dobbs, but they’re losing the war—& turning an entire generation away from their cause.
For many #Americans, the overturning of #RoeVWade …marked the…culmination of a 50-yr crusade. Nothing about it was secret: Getting rid of #abortion was the focus of a large network of #conservative activists, a central theme in #GOP platforms & campaigns, a litmus test for judges at nearly every level, & one of the decisive issues that bonded social #conservatives to #Trump.
And yet, when #SCOTUS handed them their victory in #Dobbs v. Jackson #WomensHealth Organization, the #ProLife movement & its #Republican allies were woefully unprepared. 2 yrs later, that triumph looks more & more like a tragedy—not just for #women, but for the movement as well.
For 5 decades, being pro-life was an easy call for many Republican #politicians, because w/ #Roe in place, they were essentially shooting toy guns. In June 2022, they were handed live ammunition.
Suddenly faced w/a post #Roe world, #Republicans flailed. They could not agree on whether the new #bans on #access should be subject to national #legislation or left to the states. They couldn’t agree on the length of the bans (6 wks? 15 wks?), whether to allow #exceptions, or how punitive the new #laws should be. Should #doctors be #jailed? Should women who had #abortions be charged w/ #murder?
And what about creating a “culture of life”? After all, this is what the term #ProLife was supposed to represent. For years, some conservatives …argued that pro-lifers needed to embrace pro-child policies such as tax credits & increased #access to #HealthCare. Some tried to create an infrastructure to support families post-#Roe. But after half a century, they had little to show for it.
As Emma Green noted in The Atlantic back in 2020, “an inherent tension” exists within the current #ProLife coalition. “Over the past 2 decades,” she wrote, “the anti-#abortion-rights movement has aligned itself almost exclusively w/the #GOP, which generally favors cutting government #funding for #housing, #FoodStamps, & other programs that support #poor#women & #children.”
James Pearce, atty for #SpecialCounsel#JackSmith's office, faced questions…on how the investigation into Trump is funded…. Trump's attys have argued that the charges…should be dropped bc Smith was improperly appointed …& the funding…is unconstitutional.
#Assange is preparing to plead #guilty to a single count of conspiring to obtain & disclose info related to the #NationalDefense in a US federal court in Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands …this wk, acc/to newly filed court papers.
Under the terms of the agreement, #Assange faces a sentence of 62 months, equivalent to the time he has already served at Belmarsh Prison in the UK while fighting extradition to the #UnitedStates. He is expected to be released & to return to his home country of #Australia following the court proceeding.
In a news conference Sat, CAIR’s #Texas chapter said the incident took place while the girl’s mother was wearing a hijab & modest swimwear.
In a stmnt shared by CAIR, the mother said, “We are American citizens, originally from #Palestine, & I don’t know where to go to feel safe w/my kids,” adding that amid #Israel’s war in #Gaza, she & her family were “facing that #hate here.”
“My daughter is traumatized,” she said.
“We are seeing a new level of #bigotry here where a person deeply believes they get to decide, based on #religion, spoken #language, & #country of origin, whose kids deserve to stay alive & whose don’t,” Shaimaa Zayan, CAIR-Austin operations manager, said in a statement.
The state law bans #HealthCare providers from offering #gender transition care to children.
The #SupremeCourt agreed on Mon to decide whether a Tennessee law that bans certain #medical treatments for #transgender minors violates the Constitution.
In that case, the decision split largely along ideological lines, w/ #SCOTUS’ liberals dissenting.
Along w/Idaho, the justices had been asked to weigh in on legislation in Kentucky & Tennessee.
The TN measure bans #HealthCare providers from offering #transition care to minors, including puberty blockers & hormone treatments.
The KY #law, known as SB150, bans doctors from providing #gender-transition surgery or administering puberty blockers or hormone therapy to people under 18.