The Supreme Court made some major rulings Friday. I break down all of them below:

Supreme Court Reverses Jan. 6 Riot Conviction in Key Obstruction Case:

In a significant legal decision on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Joseph Fischer, a participant in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, overturning his federal obstruction conviction. The ruling reverses a lower court decision and remands the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for reassessment in light of the Supreme Court's findings.

Fischer was among over 300 individuals charged by the Justice Department for "obstruction of an official proceeding" related to the Capitol riot. His legal team contended that the statute had traditionally been applied only to evidence-tampering cases and should not apply to his actions.

The Justice Department maintained that Fischer’s attempt to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election by Congress warranted the obstruction charge. The statute criminalizes behavior that "obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding" or attempts to do so, carrying a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

During oral arguments in April, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar faced rigorous questioning from the justices. Justice Neil Gorsuch raised concerns about the broader implications of the government's argument, questioning whether actions like heckling at the State of the Union address or pulling a fire alarm, as in the recent incident involving Rep. Jaamal Bowman (D-N.Y.), could be construed as obstruction.

Prelogar argued that such actions might not meet the statute's requirements of "meaningful interference" and "corrupt intent." Chief Justice John Roberts also challenged Prelogar regarding a 2019 opinion from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, which suggested a narrower interpretation of the obstruction statute, conflicting with the DOJ’s stance in Fischer's case. Prelogar noted that the opinion was never formally adopted and was unclear on the DOJ’s process for officially accepting such papers.

The Supreme Court's decision now tasks the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals with re-evaluating Fischer's case with these considerations in mind, potentially impacting the broader legal landscape for other Jan. 6 prosecutions.

Supreme Court Allows Fines for Homeless Sleeping in Public Spaces

WASHINGTON – In a landmark decision on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that municipalities can fine homeless individuals for sleeping in public spaces, overturning a lower court's decision that such enforcement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment when shelter is unavailable.

The 6-3 ruling is the most significant on this issue in decades. It comes at a time when record numbers of Americans are experiencing homelessness, and leaders from both parties have voiced concerns that a 2018 lower court ruling limited their ability to address homeless encampments impacting health and public safety.

"The Court cannot say that the punishments Grants Pass imposes here qualify as cruel and unusual," wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch for the majority, referring to the small Oregon city at the center of the case.

Supreme Court Overturns Landmark Decision Limiting Federal Regulatory Power:

WASHINGTON – In a historic decision on Friday, the Supreme Court overturned a 40-year-old ruling that granted federal agencies broad regulatory authority, stipulating that agencies cannot issue regulations unless explicitly authorized by Congress.

The court's decision, split along ideological lines, was written by Chief Justice John Roberts for the conservative majority. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, with Kagan reading portions of her dissent from the bench.

The ruling is a major victory for the conservative legal movement, which has long sought to dismantle the 1984 Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council decision. The Chevron doctrine required courts to defer to federal agencies' reasonable interpretations of laws passed by Congress. Critics argued this gave unelected bureaucrats excessive power over regulations impacting key aspects of American life, including the workplace, the environment, and healthcare.

"Chevron is overruled. Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority, as the [Administrative Procedure Act] requires," Chief Justice Roberts wrote. He criticized the previous ruling as a "judicial invention that required judges to disregard their statutory duties."

The decision in the pair of related cases reflects growing concerns among conservative scholars and some justices that courts were neglecting their responsibility to interpret the law by deferring too readily to agency interpretations. This ruling marks a significant shift in the balance of power between federal agencies and the judiciary, emphasizing stricter oversight of agency actions by the courts.

 

 

CHICAGO, IL - Chicago Public Schools has hired more staff to educate fewer students since 2019. The district spent nearly two-thirds of the $2.8 billion it received in federal relief funds for COVID-19 on salaries and employee benefits, including the cost of hiring more than 4,400 additional full-time staff members since before the pandemic.

District reports show enrollment at CPS dropped by 31,905 students between the 2019-2020 school year and the 2023-2024 school year.

Meanwhile, reports on CPS employee rosters show employment in CPS has increased by 5,472 full-time staff members between December of the 2019-2020 school year and December of the current 2023-2024 school year. That’s a 15% increase in full-time staff members amidst a 9% decrease in enrollment. Click here to read more.

 

An illegal alien, released into the United States by President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has been accused of murdering a young woman on her twenty-first birthday in the sanctuary state of New York, prosecutors say.

Jhon Moises Chacaguasay-Ilbis, a 21-year-old illegal alien from Ecuador, was arrested in Syracuse, New York, and charged with second-degree murder and concealing a human corpse. According to prosecutors, Chacaguasay-Ilbis allegedly strangled Joselyn Jhoana Toaquiza to death on her 21st birthday on June 18 and then threw her body in a shallow grave at a Syracuse park. Click here to read more.

 

MIAMI, FLA - TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Numerous laws will take effect on Monday, July 1 as Florida’s new fiscal year begins, including a lab-grown meat ban, anti-human trafficking legislation and more.

Below is a list of some of the higher-profile laws taking effect.

• SB 1084 – Prohibits and creates penalties for the manufacturing, sale or distribution of cultivated meat in the state.

• HB 7063 – Penalizes the owner of an adult entertainment establishment from employing anyone under the age of 21.

  • The owner would receive a harsher penalty if they employ anyone under 21 to work while nude at the establishment.

• HB 1349 – Requires “age and developmentally appropriate” instruction on the history of communism, beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.

• SB 544 – Creates the Swimming Lesson Voucher Program, which applies to families who earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level. Click here to read more.

 

DUVALL, Wash. (TND) — A Washington high school girls track and field coach claims the state did not "prepare" his team for facing a transgender runner at last month's state championships.

Dean Vergillo is the girls track and field coach for Cedarcrest High School in Washington. His team took second place at the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) state track and field meet last month. The first-place team, East Valley High School, beat Cedarcrest by just eight points.

The results were thanks in part to a transgender runner on East Valley's team winning the girls’ 400-meter dash, Vergillo told the Independent Women’s Forum.

As a cross country and track coach, everybody has a running style,” he said. “It’s kind of like your fingerprint — everybody runs a little bit differently. In this case, it was obviously a male running.”

Click here to read more.

 

BIRMINGHAM, AL - One teenager's overjoyed reaction to being invited to a birthday party is going viral.

Macy is a 15-year-old high school freshman and she has Down syndrome. Her mom says she can “count on one hand the amount of birthday parties” Macy has been invited to since she started kindergarten. 

“Yesterday Macy got in the car and showed me an invitation to a birthday party for a friend at school who is also in the life skills program,” Macy’s mom, Heather Avis, began an Instagram post.  “Her joy from this invitation is palpable. WOW!” Avis wrote. “To me it spoke of a longing fulfilled. All I could do was laugh with her and then cry as I celebrated with her.” Click here to read more.

I walked away from my job in the mainstream media after 25 years to go independent. Help me fight the narratives by becoming a paid subscriber. It’s $5 a month; you can quit at any time.

Become a Supporter

 

 

LANSING, Mich - MISO’s 2023 Regional Resource Assessment depicts what the system operator calls a “resource gap” between accredited capacity (supply) and future load (demand) for most of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is not shown on this chart as it falls under a different subdivision of MISO territory, though it too has a resource gap.

The orange bars, for “demand load,” represent what MISO projects as the Lower Peninsula’s electricity demand. The system operator has multiple scenarios, and the chart represents the one with the lowest demand.

Even at that lowest estimate, Michigan’s supply is multiple gigawatts below meeting expected demand. When the quantity supplied is less than the quantity demanded and prices are fixed (as they are in Michigan), a shortage results. There will be blackouts.

What’s behind the insufficient supply? Utilities are replacing dependable sources of energy with less dependable ones. “Controllable, dispatchable resources are being retired and replaced primarily with weather-dependent, non-dispatchable, and variable generation types to achieve carbon reduction goals. These weather-dependent generators are increasing reliability risks,” a senior representative of MISO told the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security last September. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON (TND) — Supply chain backlogs, reminiscent of what we faced in the pandemic, appear poised to make a comeback as getting goods from around the world is getting more difficult.

This time, the international shipping industry is facing a slew of problems all at once. The chaos now causing global shortages and rising prices.

The world's busiest ports are experiencing traffic jams as ships sit offshore waiting to unload cargo. Meanwhile, workers in the U.S., Germany and Canada are threatening to strike as they demand higher pay and better working conditions. A severe drought hit Central America leading to extremely low water levels in the Panama Canal limiting the number of ships that can pass through.

Perhaps the biggest contributor to the ongoing problems is the situation in the Red Sea where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels continue their attacks on commercial ships crippling commerce through the important Suez Canal. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - The CIA interfered in the 2020 election by colluding with the Biden campaign to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story, a congressional report found Tuesday.

“It’s inappropriate for a currently serving staff officer or contractor to be involved in the political process,” former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell acknowledged to Congress during its investigation of the incident. The House Judiciary report on Monday alleged three key facts about the CIA’s involvement in the 2020 election:

• High ranking CIA officials, up to and including then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, were made aware of the Hunter Biden statement prior to its approval and publication. Because several former senior intelligence officials signed the statement, the PCRB sent the draft statement to the CIA’s then-Chief Operating Officer (COO) Andrew Makridis, who said he subsequently informed then-Director Haspel or then-Deputy Director Vaughn Frederick Bishop that the statement would be published soon. Senior CIA leadership had an opportunity at that time to slow down the CIA’s process for reviewing publication submissions and ensure that such an extraordinary statement was properly vetted. Click here to read more.

 

KEY WEST, Fla. – The Key West Library will be reading a book that teaches children how to be a drag queen during their “Pride Month Storytime” event Friday.

According to the library, story time is typically for children ages 0-6. The book that will be read during Friday’s story time is titled “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish,” written by Drag Queen and founding member of Drag Queen Story Hour “Lil Miss Hot Mess.”

In a WNET Education YouTube video aimed at children, Lil Miss Hot Mess explained what a drag queen is before reading the book aloud and dancing along. The book encourages children to act out the dance moves.

“I wrote this book because I wanted everyone to get to experience the magic of drag, and to get a little practice shaking their hips or shimmying their shoulders to know how we can feel fabulous inside of our own bodies,” Lil Miss Hot Mess explained. Click here to read more.

 

LOS ANGELES, CALIF - An anti-Israel mob descended on the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles Sunday in a display that turned violent as keffiyeh-clad activists attacked a Jewish woman on the street.

The video capturing the beating also shows a masked woman spraying a Jewish man with what appears to be mace.

The chaos on Sunday began when anti-Israel agitators gathered outside the synagogue and attempted to block its entrances. Congregants then exited the building to counter-protest.

As the Los Angeles Times reported, only one arrest was made. The arrested individual was reportedly carrying a “spiked flag,” ostensibly meant to be used as a weapon.

Other videos show police escorting an anti-Israel couple out of their car — alongside their keffiyeh-clad toddler — as the woman, holding her own keffiyeh, flipped off congregants who emerged from the synagogue to stage a counter-protest. Click here for more.