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Huckabee Announces Support For Term Limits – For Supreme Court Justices

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2016 GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee wants the Supreme Court justices to be term-limited.

The President of the United States is a single individual with more power over the nation and the world than any other person on earth. That power includes day-to-day decisions of great consequence, and implementation of policies that can have longstanding effects for years. Some presidents also have what arguably is the most long-term, farthest reaching power of his entire tenure: nominating a Supreme Court justice – or possibly a few.

President Barack Obama nominated and successfully oversaw the confirmation of two Supreme Court justices: Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, and Elena Kagan in 2010.

Currently, the Court has several justices who some believe will resign or retire in the next few years, including 79-year old Antonin Scalia, 78-year old Anthony Kennedy, and 82-year old Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The next president America elects, especially if they are re-elected, likely will have the honor and ability to impact the course of the nation for decades, if not a centuries, based upon having their nominees confirmed.

Mike Huckabee says he’d like to be president, and he’d also like the ability to replace more than just a few Supreme Court justices, along with many federal court judges.

According to Article III of the U.S. Constitution, all federal judges are appointed for life, unless they are impeached.

Today, Mike Huckabee held a Facebook Q&A, during which he gleefully answered questions from supporters.

I will begin answering questions for our Facebook Q&A in about 10 minutes. Please leave your question below and I will…

Posted by Mike Huckabee on Monday, June 22, 2015

In fact, one “supporter” asked Huckabee, “Are you a closeted homosexual?,” to which the ordained Southern Baptist preacher replied, “No, what a very odd question. I’m sorry I’m not available–happily married for 41 years; 3 children; 5 grandchildren. Keep looking.”

When asked, “What would your first act be after being named President?,” Huckabee responded, “Get on my knees and ask for wisdom.”

And several times he mentioned his unwavering support of the Constitution.

In response to a question about NSA spying, Huckabee responded, “We have to abide by the Constitution. Franklin said that if we give up liberty for security, we will have neither. Government needs probable cause and a warrant. On that, the Constitution is quite clear.”

Explaining why he refused to take a side on the issue of South Carolina’s Confederate flag, Huckabee said, “I take the Constitution seriously.”

But when asked, “What is your opinion on term limits for Congressmen?,” Huckabee said, “I support term limits for all 3 branches of government.”

Translation: If I become president, I’d like to get rid of all the liberals on the Supreme Court bench, and across the nation in every federal court.

That’s not inconsistent with his prior statements. Huckabee just last week called for Christians to choose civil disobedience, rather than biblical disobedience if the Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality.

And in a letter to supporters last week, Huckabee railed against these “nine, unelected Supreme Court justices,” stating, “I also refuse to surrender to the false god of judicial supremacy, which would allow black-robed and unelected judges the power to make law and enforce it, which upends the separation of powers so very central to our Constitution. Too much power concentrated in the courts is a threat to our Republic. I will fight judicial tyranny and return power to the people.”

But remember, Mike Huckabee says, “I take the Constitution seriously” and “We have to abide by the Constitution.”

Apparently, only when it suits him.

 

Image by The White House via Flickr

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Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation

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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.

Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”

“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”

In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”

He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”

“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”

“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”

“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”

The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.

“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”

Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”

Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.

Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.

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Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs

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President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.

“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”

The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”

Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”

TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”

Critics blasted Trump.

“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.

One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”

Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”

The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”

 

Image via Reuters 

 

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One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won

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President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.

According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.

Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”

“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”

Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”

Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.

Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.

The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.

“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.

The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.

“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”

 

Image via Reuters

 

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