themarketswork

a common sense approach to a liberal world

Leakers, MSM Hysteria & Trump’s Middle East Mission

by

President Trump is headed to the Middle East for a historic trip – in its scope one never undertaken by any other national leader. President Trump will head first to Saudi Arabia where he will meet with King Salman who has reportedly assembled a greeting committee of more than 20 heads of state. Following Saudi Arabia, President Trump will continue on to Israel to meet with officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and also a visit into Bethlehem where he will meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. From there he will continue on to Rome for a meeting with Pope Francis. The trip wraps up with a visit to Brussels for a meeting with NATO leaders and finally to Sicily for the G7 Summit.

This will not be the first series of meetings President Trump will have with Middle East leaders. Rather, they are a continuation in a series of strategic meetings. In early April, I wrote about President Trump’s ongoing meetings with Middle East leaders in Trump’s Strategic Syrian Strike:Continue Reading

The Injustices of Obama’s Department of Justice

by

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is comprised of 60 Agencies. The organizational view is presented here. There are 93 U.S District Attorneys and 94 Districts (Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands share a District Attorney). The DOJ employs approximately 115,000 individuals with about 35,000 of these contained within the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). In 2015, the DOJ had an operating budget of $31 billion.

And the DOJ is a swamp.

Under Obama, the DOJ was fundamentally pushed to the left by Attorney General Eric Holder and then by his successor, Loretta Lynch. Sally Yates rounded out the Obama appointed DOJ leadership with her famously short stint before being fired by President Trump.

J. Christian Adams—who served in the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush – points to the DOJ’s notoriously left-leaning  Civil Rights Division, saying that “it touches more parts of American’s lives than any federal agency and impacts issues like police, voting, schools, transgender, hiring practices, education. It’s not just voting rights, it’s everything.”Continue Reading

Lies, Damn Lies & the Media (and Comey)

by

The New York Times, in offering an explanation into why President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, ran an article stating that in the days prior to his firing, Director Comey had requested additional resources for the Russia Inquiry. According to the Times, the appeal was made to Assistant Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein is the man who sent the recommendation letter to fire Comey. The Times cited four anonymous congressional staffers.

The Washington Post later reported that Rosenstein threatened to resign over Comey’s firing – citing a “person close to the White House”.

Two breathless articles full of conspiratorial accusations providing true fodder for the “Russian Connection” and the “crimes” of President Trump…

Except they are both totally inaccurate. Fake News.Continue Reading

The Blue Slip Rule – A Senatorial Roadblock to Judicial Appointments

by

Yesterday I wrote about President Trump’s many court vacancies – and the vast promise they hold for our courts.

Democrats previously invoked the Nuclear Option – a process that allows a simple majority vote in place of a three-fifths vote on presidential nominations for federal court judgeships. That rule has since been expanded by Republicans to include Supreme Court Justices. And Republicans hold a slight majority at 52 to 48 in the Senate.

All good, right?

Well, there is one hitch to the process – and it has to do with an archaic Senate process – really a tradition – and two small slips of blue paper. Allow me to explain.Continue Reading

Trump’s Judicial Vacancies – A Hope for Our Courts

by

One of the most powerful and influential duties of any President is the appointment of Judges. Supreme Court appointments always take precedent – a little legal humor – but in their sheer number, appointments to the lower, lesser courts can be almost equally as important – and highly influential on our nation’s direction.

“There are 13 appellate courts that sit below the U.S. Supreme Court, and they are called the U.S. Courts of Appeals. The 94 federal judicial districts are organized into 12 regional circuits, each of which has a court of appeals. In addition, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has nationwide jurisdiction to hear appeals in specialized cases.”

A total of 13 Appeal Courts sitting just below the Supreme Court.

A primary reason for the legal – and social & cultural – influence of our lesser courts is that the Supreme Court hears so few cases – perhaps 80 per year are chosen to be argued before the court plus another 50 in which they hear no arguments. Judicial activism – and judicial errors – at the lower court levels are simply too numerous to be addressed at the highest legal level of the Supreme Court.Continue Reading

Judge Bork’s Olympians & the Danger of Judicial Activism

by

“Liberals attempt through Judicial Activism what they cannot win at the ballot box” – Rush Limbaugh

“A Constitution is not meant to facilitate change. It is meant to impede change, to make it difficult to change.” – Justice Antonin Scalia

“The role assigned to judges in our system was to interpret the Constitution and lesser laws, not to make them. It was to protect the integrity of the Constitution, not to add to it or subtract from it – certainly not to rewrite it.” – Ronald Reagan

What is Judicial Activism?

Elizabeth Slattery of the Heritage Foundation offers the following from her article, How to Spot Judicial Activism:

“A simple working definition is that judicial activism occurs when judges fail to apply the Constitution or laws impartially according to their original public meaning, regardless of the outcome, or do not follow binding precedent of a higher court and instead decide the case based on personal preference.Continue Reading

Reversing the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

by

“Unless judges are bound by the text of the Constitution, we will, in fact, no longer have a government of laws, but of men and women who are judges.” – President Ronald Reagan

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is not actually the most overturned court at present. That award currently goes to the 6th Circuit Court which serves Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee, with an 87% rate. The 9th Circuit Court comes in at third place with a 79% overturn rate. This is according to an examination of data from 2010-2015.

The Ninth Circuit’s overturn rate is somewhat overblown – but not by much. It’s true the Supreme Court actually reviews very few cases and the ones it selects are likely to be contentious. But that does not change the fact that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals consistently ranks near the top for overturn rates. During the period of 1999-2008, a study by the ABA found the 9th Circuit ranked 2nd at 80.0% – placing behind the Federal Circuit Court which came in at 83.3%. The long-run average rate of reversal was 68% by comparison.

And the 9th Circuit is often reversed by a unanimous Supreme Court vote.Continue Reading

Judge Orrick’s Judicial Activism

by

“The role assigned to judges in our system was to interpret the Constitution and lesser laws, not to make them.” – President Ronald Reagan

Federal Judge William Orrick recently issued an injunction against President Trump’s proposed termination of certain types of federal funding for Sanctuary Cities through Executive Order 13768:

“The Counties’ motions for a nationwide preliminary injunction, enjoining enforcement of Section 9(a), are GRANTED. The defendants (other than the President) are enjoined from enforcing Section 9(a) of the Executive Order against jurisdictions they deem as sanctuary jurisdictions. This injunction does not impact the Government’s ability to use lawful means to enforce existing conditions of federal grants or 8 U.S.C. 1373, nor does it restrict the Secretary from developing regulations or preparing guidance on designating a jurisdiction as a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” IT IS SO ORDERED.”Continue Reading

The EU’s Two Intractable Issues & Election Anxiety

by

Brussels is breathing a sigh of relief. The first round of the French elections have passed with Marie Le Pen, the anti-immigration, anti-European Union candidate, and Emmanuel Macron, a centrist, pro-open borders and pro-European Union, heading for a runoff election on May 7th. Macron is heavily favored to win the runoff election according to polls. It is telling that both candidates are effectively outsiders – candidates from the French establishment parties were defeated.

But Brussels should not feel overly confident with this short-term respite. While Le Pen is likely to lose the runoff election, she will remain a political force. If she somehow pulls off an upset win, the shock to the EU will be severe – perhaps fatal. Italy, however, may be the true test for the EU. Indeed, Italy may be the place where the fate of the European Union is decided.Continue Reading

The March for Science & the Reality of Dr. Lucy Jones

by

“Scientists begin from the assumption that there is an objective reality, independent of our hopes and desires.” – Dr. Lucy Jones

The March for Science took place on Saturday. Although billed as a non-partisan event, it was not. The movement was forced to update their website by changing multiple sections, including their statement on diversity. Here is the current statement:

“Inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility are integral to this mission and to our overall goals and principles. People have rightly pointed out that some of our own public communications, including social media posts, have not affirmed this stance. We hear your feedback and have been working to align our communications with our values. We are actively partnering with and seeking advice from organizations and individuals with expertise in this area. We cannot ignore issues of racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, xenophobia, or any other form of discrimination in the discussion and implementation of science. Nor can we ignore the ways in which science has been misused to harm marginalized communities. The lack of inclusivity and diversity in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] thwarts scientific advancements not only by limiting who conducts the research, but also by influencing what topics are studied, who participates in the research, and who will benefit from or be harmed by it.”

Bear in mind, the above reflects the March for Science’s adjusted and “de-politicized” statement.  Now, here are direct quotes – really, I’m serious – from the original statement:Continue Reading