When you vote for president, you are voting for the person who appoints federal judges – including those on the US Supreme Court. When you vote for US senator, you are voting for one of the people who confirms those judges.

Federal judges have lifetime appointments. So bad choices for president or senator live on long past the four-year or six-year terms of the elected officials who put those judges on the bench.

If you want to know what a fully Trumpified federal judiciary would be like, check out the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. It covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The Fifth Circuit makes the current US Supreme Court look liberal and capable.

The latest atrocity from the Fifth Circuit involves a decision where a state law forbidding abortion takes precedence over the survival of woman seeking emergency treatment.

The case is Texas v. Becerra, and all three of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s judges who joined this opinion were appointed by Republicans. Two, including Kurt Engelhardt, the opinion’s author, were appointed by former President Donald Trump. The case involves the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal statute requiring hospitals that accept Medicare funds to provide “such treatment as may be required to stabilize the medical condition” of “any individual” who arrives at the hospital’s ER with an “emergency medical condition.” (In limited circumstances, the hospital may transfer the patient to a different facility that will provide this stabilizing treatment.) EMTALA contains no carve-out for abortion. It simply states that, whenever any patient arrives at a Medicare-funded hospital with a medical emergency, the hospital must offer that patient whatever treatment is necessary to “stabilize the medical condition” that caused the emergency. So, if a patient’s emergency condition can only be stabilized by an abortion, federal law requires nearly all hospitals to provide that treatment. (Hospitals can opt out of EMTALA by not taking Medicare funds but, because Medicare funds health care for elderly Americans, very few hospitals do opt out.) This federal law, moreover, also states that it overrides (or “preempts,” to use the appropriate legal term) state and local laws “to the extent that the [state law] directly conflicts with a requirement of this section.” So, in states with sweeping abortion bans that prohibit some or all medically necessary abortions, the state law must give way to EMTALA’s requirement that all patients must be offered whatever treatment is necessary to stabilize their condition. It is important to emphasize just how little EMTALA has to say about abortion. EMTALA does not protect healthy women who wish to terminate their pregnancies. Nor does it preempt any state regulations of abortion, except when a patient is experiencing a medical emergency and their doctors determine that an abortion is the appropriate treatment. But when an emergency room patient presents with a life-threatening illness or condition — or, in the words of the EMTALA statute, that patient has a condition that places their health “in serious jeopardy,” that threatens “serious impairment to bodily functions,” or “serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part” — then Medicare-funded hospitals must provide whatever treatment is necessary. The Texas case, in other words, asks whether a state government can force a woman to die, or suffer lasting injury to her uterus or other reproductive organs, because the state’s lawmakers are so opposed to abortion that they will not permit it, even when such an abortion is required by federal law. And yet, despite the fact that the EMTALA statute is unambiguous, and despite the fact that this case only involves patients whose life or health is threatened by a pregnancy, three Fifth Circuit judges told those patients that they have no right to potentially lifesaving medical care.

Of course the ruling by the Fifth Circuit lacks basic logic. If the mother dies, the fetus is likely lost as well anyway. d'oh!

All three judges on the panel are Republicans – two having been appointed by Trump. Don't expect judicial genius from these folks.

Engelhardt’s opinion is surprisingly brief for such a consequential decision, and for one that reads a straightforward federal law in such a counterintuitive way. The section of the opinion laying out Engelhardt’s unusual reading of this federal law is only about eight pages long — yet it contains at least three separate legal errors.

This case will probably end up before SCOTUS. The best we should expect is for the Supremos to toss out the decision because of the legal errors made by the Fifth Circuit.

But in the long run, to protect reproductive freedom it's necessary to keep Republicans out of the White House and out of the majority in the Senate for the foreseeable future.

Be A Voter - Vote Save America

Brazil high court rules homophobia punishable by prison

Brazil's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that homophobic slurs are now punishable by prison, in a decision applauded by rights activists in a country with rampant violence against the LGBTQ+ community.

The 9-1 ruling puts homophobic hate speech on the same legal level as racist hate speech, which was already punishable by prison in Brazil.

Justice Edson Fachin, the lead judge on the case, said in his ruling it was a "constitutional imperative" to give LGBTQ+ citizens equal protection under the law.

The court had ruled in 2019 that homophobia was a crime, just like racism.

But the earlier decision applied to slurs against the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, not attacks on specific individuals.

Continue reading.

A visualization of the 94 Federal District Courts of the United States.

Daniel Ricciardo and tennis – a masterpost (of sorts).

To start things off, here is a video of Daniel playing tennis that I think about way too often, especially lately, with the recent paddle mania that took over the paddock.

A few things I could note here, apart from the fact that Daniel himself said that if it wasn't racing, he'd go pro in tennis:

old school-ish (european) one handed backhand which is actually rather solid! Daniel said many times that he is a big fan of Federer (a true goat) and Daniel's technique here is pretty much imitating Roger's smooth and satisfying backhand strokes.

it is just a couple of hits but ball placement court wise in not bad - all past the half court mark, down the line, then cross court and close to the baseline.

his movement on the court itself comes off a bit wonky in comparison to regular players but I do like how he attacks the short ball (even if he swings a bit too wide but it still works).

Some assortment of interesting facts:

Apart from his love for Roger Federer, Daniel was a big Andre Agassi fan.

In 2021 Daniel and Lando stayed up to watch British teenage tennis player Emma Raducanu (who is an avid F1 fan and her fave driver is Daniel) win the US Open, her maiden grand slam tournament. This was right before the win in Monza and McLaren 1-2.

In 2020, Daniel took inspiration for his "Equality" face mask from the four time grand slam winner Naomi Osaka and called her a "strong voice" (which she rightfully was). Lewis Hamilton also considered Naomi a great inspiration in raising awareness of several social issues.

When Daniel was a kid, he would smash his racquet if he lost (that's so real of him and i do that too):

Ricciardo is widely regarded as motorsport’s nice guy. But when does the mongrel come out? "I’m a born competitor. As a kid I was a sore loser. If it was a tennis match, I’d smash a racquet or something," he said, laughing. (source)

Once Daniel was playing with his cousin and apparent he got a little outplayed, so in retaliation Daniel hit his cousin point blank with a tennis ball (which hurts A LOT). His cousin cried and then Daniel's dad gave him "a clip across the ear". Daniel also talks about it in one of the Grill the Grid videos. (big thanks to @go-daniel for finding the article and the video to back this story up!)

Daniel is childhood friends with Marcus Stoinis (an Aussie cricketer) and they grew up together playing tennis, driving to Dunsborough south of Perth and they would play tennis together for the whole day, practically hogging the court. (via this post)

Now, to the photos!

Carlos and Daniel playing a tennis match in 2013. Daniel won 6-3 2-6 7-6. It's from Daniel's old twitter post.

Daniel and Jannik Sinner in Piatti Tennis Center in 2020. Jannik is an Italian darling and current world number 3 on the steady rise to the top (i love my carrot boy so much).

Daniel on court.

Daniel attending semifinals of Wimbledon 2021.

Daniel with Juan Martín del Potro during Miami 2023 Grand Prix. Del Potro, now retired, was a prominent tennis player from Argentina, a "gentle giant" and he is also a fan of Fernando Alonso.

Daniel with Matteo Berrettini (and Francesco Carrozzini in the middle), Italian tennis player, current world number 142, during Met Gala 2023 (the way i yelled when this photo dropped omg).

It is all I have managed to gather for now but I will update if I stumble upon something new.

10% of my brain power at minimum every day is reserved for playing this on loop in my mind 

Sometimes it is so hard to not editorialize when doing archival work. Tragic that I have to stay professional in my entry descriptions and can't add little personal comments like, "heads up: this did not age well" or "wow, this local politician was being SUPER sus in his statements, check it out."

In October, tens of millions of borrowers will be required to pay their monthly federal student loan bills for the first time since March 2020, the Department of Education clarified Monday.

The pandemic-related pause on both payments and interest accumulation has been set to end later this summer, though the exact date payments would be due was a little fuzzy.

The Biden administration had previously said that the pause would end either 60 days after June 30 or 60 days after the Supreme Court rules on the separate student loan forgiveness program – whichever comes first.

A law passed in early June to address the debt ceiling officially prevented the pandemic-related pause from being extended again. The repayment date has been extended a total of eight times under both the Biden and Trump administrations.

“Student loan interest will resume starting on September 1, 2023, and payments will be due starting in October. We will notify borrowers well before payments restart,” the Department of Education said in a statement sent to CNN Monday.

The update was first reported by Politico.

Borrowers typically receive their bill statements from their loan servicer a few weeks before they are due. Not every borrower’s bill is due at the same time of the month.

The Department of Education has said that it will be in direct communication with borrowers and ramp up its communication with student loan servicers before repayment resumes.

Student loan experts recommend that borrowers reach out to their student loan servicer with any questions about their loans as soon as possible, especially if they are interested in enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan. Those plans, which set payments based on income and family size, can lower monthly payments but require borrowers to submit some paperwork.

Federal student loan borrowers can check the Federal Student Aid website for updates on resuming payments.

SOME BORROWERS COULD BE AT RISK OF DEFAULT

Some borrowers may struggle to resume paying their monthly student loan bills.

More student loan borrowers are currently behind on other kinds of bills than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The report also said that about 1 in 5 student loan borrowers have risk factors that suggest they could struggle when scheduled payments resume, like being delinquent on student loan payments before the pandemic or having multiple student loan servicers.

When payments restart, many people might be confused about how much they owe, when to pay and how. Millions of borrowers will have a different servicer handling their student loans since the last time they made a payment.

Originally, the pause on federal student loan payments was put in place to help borrowers struggling financially due to the pandemic.

From a jobs perspective, the economy has largely recovered from the pandemic-related disruptions. In May, 3.7 million more people were working than in February 2020.

But there are some soft spots. Major layoffs have recently been announced at big companies like Disney and Amazon. Earlier this year, a regional banking crisis was set off by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis. And inflation remains high but is cooling after reaching a 40-year peak last year.

STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS STILL ON THE TABLE

Meanwhile, all eyes are on the Supreme Court as borrowers wait to see if the Biden administration will be allowed to move forward with its student loan forgiveness program. A decision is expected in late June or early July.

Under the proposal, individual borrowers who made less than $125,000 in either 2020 or 2021 and married couples or heads of households who made less than $250,000 a year could see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven.

If a qualifying borrower also received a federal Pell grant while enrolled in college, the individual is eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness.

But several lawsuits argue that the Biden administration is abusing its power and using the pandemic as a pretext for fulfilling the president’s campaign pledge to cancel student debt.

No debt has been canceled yet. But if the Supreme Court allows the program to take effect, it’s possible the government moves quickly to forgive the debts of 16 million borrowers who the administration already approved for relief.

If the Justices strike down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, it could be possible for the administration to make some modifications to the policy and try again – though that process could take months.

The Satanic Temple is very bad at court cases (December 2023)

Changes from November include:

Confirmation both Travis County, Texas, lawsuits have not seen any new filings in more than one year.

Ninth Circuit granted TST partial victory in form of an additional opportunity to make defamation claims in federal district court against Johnson et al Defendants.

Full list on The.Satanic.Wiki

Full list on r/TheSatanicCirclejerk

Moreover, we’re still being sued by The Satanic Temple in federal appellate court and now King County Superior Court.

TST is also still suing Newsweek and its reporter (but maybe not her anymore!) for writing about us. In addition, The Satanic Temple is now suing a TikToker in Texas for talking about our case. Check the pinned post for more.

While it looks bad on its own, compare how things looked just one short year ago for The Satanic Temple and notice how so many of those "ongoing" cases turned out.

When it comes to The Satanic Temple, there's always more and it's always worse.

Palestinians are taking the Biden administration to court this week

The week, a federal court in Oakland will begin hearing arguments in a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of failing to prevent a genocide in Gaza. The case could bring U.S. support for the Israeli assault on Gaza to a halt.

[Link]

Sam Bankman-Fried, the indicted crypto con-man, just had his bail revoked by Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan for discussing his case in the media. He will now await his trial in the slammer. Donald Trump should learn from this – but probably won't.

A prominent billionaire is arrested on criminal charges. At his arraignment, the presiding judge releases him pending trial on condition he not try to influence potential witnesses and orders him not to speak with the media about the pending trial. He repeatedly violates the order. Eventually, the judge has had enough. He revokes bail and orders him jailed pending trial. I’m not referring to Donald J. Trump — although on Thursday, Judge Tanya Chutkan designated witness interviews and recordings as covered by a protective order and warned Trump once again against trying to influence or intimidate potential witnesses. Trump had spent much of the past week blasting former Vice President Mike Pence — likely to be a key witness — and others. No, the person I’m referring to is Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried — whose wealth had soared to $28 billion before the collapse — had been under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, since his arrest in December on fraud charges stemming from FTX’s implosion. At a hearing yesterday, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court in Manhattan revoked Bankman-Fried’s bail and ordered him to await his October trial in jail. Prosecutors showed that Bankman-Fried had twice tried to interfere with witnesses, including by giving documents to reporters and engaging in numerous conversations with others in the media despite the judge’s order not to do so. “He has gone up to the line over and over again, and I am going to revoke bail,” Judge Kaplan said from the bench. Bankman-Fried was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. There is a lesson here for Donald J. Trump, as there is for other ultra-wealthy people who for too long have assumed that the law doesn’t really apply to them because they can buy their way out of whatever fix they’re in. Federal prosecutors and the federal courts are not buying it.

Judge Kaplan's words about Bankman-Fried ("He has gone up to the line over and over again") could easily apply to Donald Trump's behavior. Given that Trump is a pathological blabbermouth, I'd say the chances of pre-trial detention for him are over 50%.

Trump should not be allowed to use his upcoming trials as campaign stops for 2024.

Few things would do more to restore public confidence in the justice system than for people to see wealthy celebrities not getting preferential treatment in court. So Judge Kaplan and Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan seem determined not to let billionaire defendants hijack trials.

Judge Repeatedly Reminds Lawyers Trump Will Be Treated Like Any Criminal Defendant

Brazil can become the next country to step up to guarantee the right to abortion

To mark International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:

“Despite the green wave’s numerous victories in the Americas over the last few years, the rights gained and the opportunities to expand abortion protections are under attack by anti-rights actors. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States last year was a wakeup call for the movement, reminding us once more that the fight to defend and expand our rights must be ongoing.”

“Brazil has the opportunity to join the green wave and recognize the right to access a safe and legal abortion for women, girls, and all people who can become pregnant. For decades, the criminalization of abortion has violated our sexual and reproductive rights, and disproportionately discriminated against women who are Black, Indigenous and living in poverty. It is time for the Supreme Federal Court to end this injustice.”

Continue reading.

I figured out why none of the fanart of Coronabeth Tridentarius seems right to me, it's cuz she looks like my friend Audrey who sat two seats over from me in torts class my first semester of law school

Audrey is the second-most physically attractive person I've ever seen in my life (first place goes to my appropriately-named college friend Helen, who I know mostly from burlesque club) (it was a lot, guys) so I really understand where Gideon was coming from. Like if Audrey asked me to participate in an inadvisable sword fight against someone way more practiced than me I would totally do it

Down Memory Lane • 10 years of Fedal

I'll co-sign this and add it to the list of recommended Supreme Court books. I've read Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court by Jan Crawford Greenburg (BOOK | KINDLE) and it's excellent and frighteningly prescient about what would happen ten years later under the successful Trump/McConnell push to finally reshape the Court and the federal judiciary, possibly for decades to come. And look at what that conservative-dominated Supreme Court has done in just the past three years.

In a major setback for the Biden administration’s vaccination mandate, a federal judge has ruled that military brass cannot punish any Marine who refuses to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons.⁠ ⁠ “U.S. Marines who filed for religious exemption and were denied, at least at the first level, are now protected,” Mat Staver, the founder of @LibertyCounsel.⁠

Link: https://www.washingtonstand.com/news/oorah-marines-win-major-victory-over-bidens-vaccine-mandate

The Biden administration is launching a beta website for its new income-driven student loan repayment plan today, officials told CNN, allowing borrowers to begin submitting applications for the program as federal student loan payments are set to resume in October.

The SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan was finalized after the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness initiative in June. It marks a significant change to the federal student loan system that could lower monthly loan payments for some borrowers and reduce the amount they pay back over the lifetime of their loans.

“Part of the President’s overall commitment is to improve the student loan system and reduce the burden of student loan debt on American families,” a senior administration official said, previewing the beta website first to CNN. “The SAVE plan is a big part of that. It is important in this moment as borrowers are getting ready to return to repayment.”

Federal student loan borrowers can access the beta website at https://studentaid.gov/idr/. The enrollment process is estimated to take 10 minutes, and many sections can be automatically populated with information the government has on hand, including tax returns from the IRS, administration officials said.

Borrowers will only need to apply one time, not yearly as past systems require, which officials said would make this plan “much easier to use.” Users will receive a confirmation email once the application is submitted, and the approval process, which can be tracked online, is expected to take a few weeks.

Those already enrolled in the federal government’s REPAYE, or Revised Pay As You Earn, income-driven repayment plan will be automatically switched to the new plan.

The full website launch will occur in August, and applications submitted during the beta period will not need to be resubmitted. The beta period will allow the Department of Education to monitor site performance in real time to identify any issues, and the site may be paused to make any necessary updates, officials said.

The SAVE plan, which applies to current and future federal student loan borrowers, will determine payments based on income and family size, and some monthly payments will be as small as $0. The income threshold to qualify for $0 payments has been increased from 150% to 225% of federal poverty guidelines, which translates to an annual income of $32,805 for a single borrower or $67,500 for a family of four. The Education Department estimates this means more than 1 million additional borrowers will qualify for $0 payments under the plan.

Some borrowers could have their payments cut in half when the program is in full effect next year and see their remaining debt canceled after making at least 10 years of payments, a significant change from previous plans.

With the new plan, unpaid interest will not accrue if a borrower makes their full monthly payments.

But the new plan does come at a cost to the federal government. Estimates of the program’s expense have varied depending on how many borrowers sign up for the new plan, but they range from $138 billion to $361 billion over 10 years. By comparison, Biden’s student loan forgiveness program was expected to cost about $400 billion.

The Education Department has created similar income-driven repayment plans in the past and has not faced a successful legal challenge, officials noted.

The beta site launch comes as borrowers will need to begin making federal student loan payments again in October after a pause of more than three years because of the pandemic.

Since the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s effort to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt for millions of borrowers, the administration has taken a number of steps aimed at helping federal student loan borrowers in other ways.

Earlier this month, the Education Department announced that 804,000 borrowers will have their student debt wiped away – about $39 billion worth of debt – after fixes that more accurately count qualified monthly payments under existing income-driven repayment plans.