Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond
East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact.
A recent sampling:
Multnomah County in Oregon is suing 17 major oil companies for their role in causing the climate crisis that triggered the 2021 heat dome, which killed 69 people in that county.
The litigation states the heat dome was, “not a natural weather event” and seeks $50 million in damages and $1.5 billion for future climate damages, The Guardian reported. Oregon Public broadcasting said another $50 billion is sought for climate adaptation measures.
The non-profit ProPublica has reported yet another Supreme Court Justice has violated federal financial disclosure rules. Justice Samuel Alito was the recipient of a fishing trip worth over $100,000 and did not recuse himself from a court case linked to the donor. As well, CNN said Alito made a trip to Rome, paid for by a group involved with the Roe v. Wade decision he helped overturn.
The Intercept said Alito recently ruled to dilute Clean Water laws, enhancing the value of real estate his wife owned. Two other Justices face ethics scrutiny: Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says trust in the Court can be restored with a code of ethics, term limits for Justices, and expanding the Supreme Court (the size has changed seven times in the past).
That’s not likely to occur quickly, he admitted, since “big monied interests will fight to keep their control of the Supreme Court.”
In a 6 to 3 Moore vs. Harper decision the Supreme Court just rejected the “independent state legislature theory” that Donald Trump attempted to use to keep power in 2020.
The majority opinion said “the Elections Clause does not insulate state legislatures from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review.” Justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissented, The New York Times wrote.
U.S. House Republicans recently censured Rep. Adam Schiff for participating in an investigation of Trump and his connection to Russians seeking his election in 2016.
Schiff also was House manager for Trump’s first impeachment trial. The censure requires an Ethics Committee to investigate. Trump said any Republican voting against censure should be challenged in primaries. All Republicans voted “yes.”
Schiff, quoting President Franklin Roosevelt: “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
Blast from the past: After the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, numerous pivotal moments shaped our nation. The Declaration, points out historian Heather Cox Richardson, was not a form of government.
Rather, in 1777 a new committee wrote the Articles of Confederation; it said each state had sovereignty, freedom, independence, powers, jurisdictions and rights “not [stated] by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States,” and that the new government was “a firm league of friendship” with the purpose of “common defence.”
By 1783 problems were evident: Congress had no power for enforcing recommendations to the states, states balked at raising taxes to pay off the Revolutionary War’s debts, and, lacking unity, Congress could not effectively enter negotiations with foreign countries (individual states acted mostly on their own behalf, as though they were independent nations).
That resulted in a reorganization effort in 1787 and the “We the People” document, followed by The Bill of Rights. By the 1830s some state leaders claimed they should not be bound by laws of Congress, such as if they wanted to take land from Native Americans or enslave Black people -- they saw those actions as an expression of democracy.
That led to the Civil War, followed by the 14th Amendment’s equal protection for all. It wasn’t until the post World War II years that there was an appetite for enforcing the 14th.
But so-called “traditionalists” along with white supremacists, joined forces with businessmen who resented the federal regulation and taxation; they called for rolling back federal powers and returning them to the states.
Lately that’s resulted in their pinning hopes on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which, last December, stated they will push for a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution, with a goal of limiting federal power and returning power to the states.
Richardson notes it appears those seeking a new Constitution want to make sure “people like them” will “rule forever.”