Across America in 5 Minutes

In today’s newsletter, the Supreme Court begins a consequential new term with major cases involving proof of citizenship for voter registration, restrictions on semiautomatic weapons, religious freedom and more. We examine whether the Court is really as ideologically divided as its critics claim. Elsewhere, we look at the latest economic numbers comparing inflation, household income and poverty under the Trump and Biden administrations. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has an unusual definition of socialism. Finally, an attorney for one of the Cornell students accused in a high-profile sexual-assault lawsuit is calling for special prosecutor Letitia James to step aside.

Reading time: 5 minutes

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Today, the Supreme Court opens a new session, and there are several major cases on the docket affecting issues such as gun rights and religious freedom. Fox News has a good rundown of what to look out for:

Among the issues:

Can Arizona add a requirement of proof of citizenship to register to vote? Can states restrict certain types of semiautomatic weapons, such as AR-15 rifles? Can Colorado exclude Catholic schools from its universal preschool program unless they accept same-sex couples and LGBT students? And can (again) Colorado officials use its state laws to sue oil companies over “climate change,” in effect allowing one state’s laws to act like federal laws, regulating an industry for its actions outside of that state? Many ** more details at the link**, if you want to brace yourselves for the rulings.

The Democrats have made it clear that if they take back Congress, they’ll launch an all-out offensive on the Constitution and the separation of powers, including expanding and packing the Supreme Court to counter its alleged “conservative bias.” ** But does that bias even exist**?

Law professor Jonathan Turley analyzed SCOTUS rulings over the past year. He found that in 62% of cases, their rulings were unanimous or near-unanimous (8-1 or 7-2.) In 49% of cases, liberal Ketanji Brown Jackson voted the same way as conservatives Samual Alito and Clarence Thomas.

Turley also notes that the American public’s disapproval rating of the Supreme Court is 53%, while Congress’ disapproval rating is 86%. So why does Congress think it should be telling the Court how to do its job?

RELATED: If you missed Mark Levin’s Fox News interview Sunday with Justice Alito, it’s a must-see. ** You can watch it online here**:

And ** here are excerpts from an interview** Alito gave to Fox News’ Shannon Bream. He spoke about things like the danger of activists threatening judges and the importance of keeping your personal opinions out of your judicial rulings. No wonder the left hates him so much.

The Democrats are running hard on “affordability,” hoping that voters won’t ask the obvious question: “What is YOUR record at shepherding the economy and keeping things affordable?” We strongly suggest that you read and share this Substack piece by Mark Tapscott, comparing the Trump economy that the Democrats are trashing to their own record. Despite some current problems like a temporary rise in gas prices, there’s no contest as to which is better.

Among the stats he cites: Average annual inflation under Trump 2.0 has been 2.9%. Under Biden, it was 5%. During the two years under Biden when Democrats controlled Congress, it was 6.5%.

Annual real median household income grew by 2.6% in Trump’s first year. Under Biden and the Democrats, it fell by 1.3%.

The annual poverty rate in Trump’s first year was 10.2%, the lowest recorded in US history. Under Biden and the Democrats, it was 11.6%.

These numbers inspire us to paraphrase the famous comment attributed to Lincoln about God: The Democrats must love poor people because they make so many of them.

Quick, tell socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani what socialism is because when he was asked to define it, ** man, did he get it wrong**!

His definition: “Socialism, to me, means you will have whatever you need to live a dignified life, and that it is the government’s job to deliver on that.”

As ** Nick Arama at Redstate.com explains**, that’s not the definition of socialism. Socialism is an economic system where the government owns and/or controls the means of production and distribution, so it’s about top-down dictating and control. Mamdami’s definition is just a soft-soap restatement of Karl Marx’s definition of communism: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” It results in oppression, depression, poverty and death. We do give him props for tacitly admitting that he really wants communism. But it’s hard to live a “dignified life” when you have to spend a good portion of it standing in long lines for government toilet paper.

Stories about overreaching, activist federal judges have become a mainstay of this newsletter, but this one might take the all-time prize:

U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz of the Southern District of Florida ** dismissed charges against a Jamaican-born woman for illegally voting** in the 2020 election while not a citizen. In a 31-page ruling, Leibowitz declared that the US Congress has no Constitutional authority to bar non-citizens from voting in federal elections.

We won’t torture your brain by explaining his “logic” here when you can read it at the link. Suffice to say that he claims that the states have sole authority over how to conduct elections. Critics are calling the ruling “absurd” and “patently wrong” and predict it will be thrown out on appeal. But as Sen. Mike Lee, co-author of the SAVE Act, noted, this “insane” ruling gives the Democrats’ game away: Block the SAVE Act by claiming that non-citizens never vote in elections, while activist judges try to destroy the laws barring non-citizens from voting in elections.

An attorney for one of the seven Cornell fraternity members named in a sexual assault lawsuit is ** calling for newly-appointed special prosecutor Letitia James to step down** from that role because of her biased prior public statements. Personally, we would be astounded if Letitia James stepped down from a prosecution just because she was personally biased against the accused, since that’s pretty much the basis of her career.

As usual, the Babylon Bee ** used fake news to tell the truth about this topic**.

And for those who haven’t been keeping up with this story, ** Kurt Schlichter has a brutally honest column on it**, from his unique point of view as a longtime trial lawyer whose mother was a criminal defense attorney, a district attorney and a Superior Court Judge.

Food For Thought: This is a very interesting article by a scientist who explains how studying quantum physics ** converted him from an atheist to a Christian**.

Former Illinois Rep. Dennis Hastert ** died Monday at home of natural causes at 84**.

Hastert was the longest-serving GOP House Speaker, but his political career came crashing down after he was accused by former students of serial sexual abuse during his time as a high school wrestling coach, and he was sentenced to prison for bank fraud for trying to cover it up.

Thank you for reading the Huckabee Post.