Ruling...

 

 US supreme court has upheld two Arizona voting restrictions in a ruling that dealt a major addition to the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 civil rights law.

In a 6-3 ruling, the justices upheld Arizona statutes that prohibit anyone other than a close family member or caregiver from collecting mail-in ballots, which are widely used in the state.

The court also upheld a statute that requires officials to wholly reject votes from people who show up to cast a ballot in the wrong precinct, even if the person is otherwise entitled to vote in the state

Neither Arizona’s out-of-precinct rule nor its ballot-collection law violates §2 of the VRA. Arizona’s out-of-precinct rule enforces the requirement that voters who choose to vote in person on election day must do so in their assigned precincts,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for a majority that included the court’s five other conservative justices, referring to section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

He added: “Having to identify one’s own polling place and then travel there to vote does not exceed the ‘usual burdens of voting’.”

The decision means that the Arizona statutes will remain in effect and make it harder to challenge discriminatory voting laws across the US at a time when a swath of Republican-run state legislatures are pushing a wave of new voting restrictions.

Let us do it right, unlike the Mayoral Primary election in New York City last week.

  Just a thought.

Mayor...

 

Kathryn Garcia was born in Brooklyn and adopted as a baby by Bruce C. and Ann McIver. She was raised in Park Slope, along with five multiracial adopted siblings.^[6] 

Her father was the chief labor negotiator for former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, and her mother was a Medgar Evers College English professor and executive director of a nonprofit.^[7] Actor Clark Gregg is her cousin.

Garcia completed her primary education at P.S. 321 in Park Slope and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

She may be the next NYC mayor. Just a thought.

Shameless...

 

Congressional Democrats' years-long attempt to nail down whether then-President Donald Trump lied to special counsel Robert Mueller effectively ended on Friday, with the US Supreme Court wiping away court decisions where the House Judiciary Committee was told it could access secret grand jury records from key witnesses in the Mueller investigation.

The House now won't get those grand jury records -- bringing to a close Democrats' pursuit of what witnesses in the Mueller investigation said confidentially under oath about their interactions with Trump and others during the 2016 campaign.

Since 2019, the Judiciary Committee had sought access to records from the Mueller investigation's grand jury proceedings, which were cited in Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The House had repeatedly said it wanted the records so it could consider whether to impeach Trump for attempting to obstruct the Russia investigation, which Mueller also documented.

Wasting all those tears. Just a thought.

Up in here.

 

As the Biden administration slowly coalesces, there have been many calls for its Justice Department to prosecute Donald Trump for any crimes he may have committed while in office.  

The problem with this agenda is that there is little evidence that Mr. Trump did commit crimes as president. A conviction is all but impossible. 

The calls to investigate him echo the president’s own calls to investigate Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden based on mere many issues worth of it.

The most plausible charge is that Mr. Trump obstructed justice by interfering with, and possibly lying to, Robert Mueller. Critics also argue that Mr. Trump may have broken the law by threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless the Ukrainian government announced the opening of an investigation into the Bidens. 

A third possible charge is that Mr. Trump corruptly mixed his financial affairs with government business.

All of these charges would face formidable difficulties in court. No former president has ever been prosecuted for crimes committed during his tenure. Courts tread cautiously when new legal ground is broken, worried about upsetting reasonable expectations about what the law is. And judges interpret criminal laws strictly because the defendant’s freedom is at stake. Just a thought.

Sofisticated..

 

 Fillmore County in 2013 began requiring that the Swartzentruber Amish, who reject modern technology as part of their religion, install septic systems to treat the wastewater from laundry, bathing and cooking – known as gray water. The Amish instead want to reuse that water for irrigation or treat it through less sophisticated systems. 

In an opinion concurring with the Supreme Court's decision, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch said the state courts misread a federal law dealing with how such land use regulations may be applied to religious entities. 

It was the latest example of the Supreme Court siding with a claim of religious freedom in a contest with an asserted governmental interest.  

Having a religious belief is a plus. Just a thought.

Bearcats...

 

A Massachusetts State Police trooper spotted two vehicles in the breakdown lane  on I-95 north. A group of eight to 10 men trying to refuel a vehicle, wearing tactical-style gear and armed with a combination of rifles and pistols.

The trooper asked the men for identification and firearms licenses. "A number of those individuals alight into the woodline with their firearms. A perimeter was quickly established," police said.

"No threats were made, but these men should be considered armed and dangerous. We are asking residents in these areas to lock their doors and remain inside their homes. A heavy police presence will be in this area as well," the Wakefield Police Department wrote in a statement.

 "Once those BearCats pressed the scene and moved them in, it had its desired effect and they were compliant very quickly."

System...

 

Gimmic...

 

Happy Fourth...

 

Corruption...

 

The progressive New York representative  has criticized Vice-President Kamala Harris for saying undocumented migrants from Guatemala should not come to the US.

On her first foreign trip as vice-president, Harris visited Guatemala. At a press conference with Guatemala’s president, Alejandro Giammattei, the former California senator spoke about investigating corruption and human trafficking in Central America and described a future where Guatemalans could find “hope at home.”

But she also had a clear message that undocumented Guatemalan migrants would not find solace at the US border under the Biden administration.