SCOTUS Sides With Trump Admin 5-4, Stays Lower Court Ruling Compelling Teacher Training Grants

At last check, we were north of 160 federal lawsuits filed against Trump administration executive actions, and while the district courts have been furiously handing out temporary restraining orders (TROs) and injunctions, a number of the cases have been snaking their way up through the appellate courts to the Supreme Court. Mind you, these are largely procedural rulings rather than decisions on the merits. There’s still a long way to go before all the dust settles.

But the Trump administration scored a win before the Supreme Court Friday afternoon as the high court issued a 5-4 decision granting the administration’s request for a stay of a district court TRO, which enjoined the administration from terminating various education-related grants and required it to pay out past-due grant obligations and continue paying grant obligations as they accrue.

Here’s a bit more background:

A divided Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration by allowing officials to block $65 million in teacher development grants frozen over concerns they were promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.

The 5-4 emergency ruling, for now, lifts a lower order that allowed the Education Department to resume the grants in eight Democratic-led states that are suing. …

In February, the administration began canceling disbursements under two federal education grants aimed at developing educators and combatting teacher shortages:  the Teacher Quality Partnership Program and the Supporting Effective Educator Development Program.

Officials have cast the freezes as part of the administration’s broader crackdown on DEI, and it also comes as Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon look to effectively gut the department.

As noted above, this was a 5-4 decision. It is per curiam, so there’s no designated author of the majority decision, but Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s three liberal justices in dissent.

The full decision may be viewed here, but here are the key factors in the majority’s ruling:

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Have They Even Read the Second Amendment?

I understand not everyone has read the U.S. Constitution in its entirety. It’s not overly long, but it’s not exactly the most riveting work of literature in history. But the Bill of Rights is so short and succinct that there’s no excuse for anyone not to have read it.

So when people say baffling stuff about, say, gun control, it’s hard to believe any of them have read it.

This isn’t some nebulous complaint, either. There was a specific example recently:

“ On Tuesday, Moms Demand Action members fanned out across the capital to ask lawmakers not to pass the age change. The group’s executive director, Angela Ferrell-Zabala, says she remembers how, after Parkland, then-Gov. Rick Scott and a bipartisan group of legislators worked to prevent what she calls, quote, “another senseless tragedy.”

“To actually roll that back right now is just a slap in the face to survivors and advocates that worked so hard for this change to ensure public safety,” she said.

The House easily passed the bill dropping the age of purchase to 18. The vote was 78-34 with Republicans largely in support. Many of the arguments for lowering the age of purchase center around the Second Amendment — which enshrines the right to own weapons in the U.S. Constitution. However, Ferrell-Zabala disagrees with that stance.

“One thing that I often hear that is very frustrating is pitting this against the Second Amendment. That is absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “We have many gun owners amongst us that advocate right alongside us and even gun owners that are survivors of gun violence themselves.

Responsible gun ownership is something that we should be really making sure that we have in this state and across the country. Not anything that’s going to be reckless or endanger public safety.”

I get that it’s frustrating for her, but nothing she says addresses the constitutionality of what she wants.

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Where in all of that is there any mention of “the right of the people if they’re above a certain age beyond the age of majority” or anything of the type?

The fact that there are supposedly gun owners who back gun control doesn’t negate the fact that what they are demanding strips the Second Amendment rights for many lawful, law-abiding adults simply because they’re deemed too young. Considering that these same jackwagons tend to want to lower the voting age to 16 or younger, I find their arguments unconvincing.

One has to wonder if they’ve even read the Second Amendment. I know that despite their protestations to the contrary, they don’t support it, but have they even read it in the first place? Ferrell-Zabala’s comments sure suggest she doesn’t have the first clue as to what it says, that’s for sure.

Then again, when you’re trying to override a fundamental, constitutionally protected right, one wouldn’t expect you’d get hung up on key details like what the rights actually are or anything else.

VA Dems Unsuccessful in Gun Control Veto Override

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates unsuccessfully focused on gun control bills vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin out of a reported 157 bills he nixed in what was his final veto session as the Old Dominion chief executive.

The Washington Examiner is reporting that Democrats were unable to override Youngkin’s veto of HB 1607 which would have prohibited the importation, sale, manufacturing, purchasing, or transferring of so-called assault weapons.

Virginia limits its governors to a single term at a time. They may not serve consecutive terms. Republican Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, a Marine Corps veteran, is running hard to succeed him, and she is also considered pro-rights when it comes to the Second Amendment.

According to the Courthouse News, gun control joined voting rights and raising the state’s minimum wage as top-of-the-heap priorities with Democrats, who have a slight majority, as they come back in session. However, the CN acknowledged the slim majority might not play in their favor entirely, and they were right.

Youngkin came into office as a breath of fresh air after Democrats under former Gov. Ralph Northam rammed through several restrictive measures five years ago.

Courthouse News illustrated the divide between Republicans and Democrats in the commonwealth where guns are concerned, by quoting two delegates.

Democrat Dan Helmer, a veteran, complained about Youngkin’s veto of a ban on so-called “assault weapons.”

“These firearms were designed for the battlefield, not for our streets,” Helmer reportedly declared, mouthing an argument that has been made repeatedly by the gun prohibition lobby and its legislative allies.

Republican Nick Freitas, a former Green Beret combat veteran reportedly countered, “The only people in this room terrified of something are apparently our Democrat colleagues, of our own law-abiding citizens. The reason why we have the Second Amendment is not because the founders got back from an especially rigorous hunting trip. The reason why we have the Second Amendment is because our founders recognize that free citizens have to have the means to be able to provide for their own security.”

Voters in Northern Virginia strongly vote Democrat, primarily because many work in government. The south and west parts of the state are traditionally more conservative.

With Earth Day just a few weeks off, it’s great to see yet more leftists declare “Mission Accomplished” on global warming.

If your side is burning electric cars after years of screeching “Just Stop Oil,” while attempting to deface timeless artifacts, you’ve just admitted it’s all politics, and the existential crisis doom- mongering was just a pose.

Looks like ‘Stop Drop & Roll’ didn’t cut it for the jihadi.
Orange car in the lower right center

The demoncrap leadership has made it clear they approve of violence against their opponents. I wonder what they’ll think when -not if, when – people get fed up enough with that and decide to turn this into a two way range, likely under Bill Clinton’s Rules of Engagement?

When the Philanderer in Chief, frustrated with Serbian intransigence in 1999, changed the rules of engagement to include the political leadership, news media and the intellectual underpinnings of his enemy’s war effort, he accidentally filed suit under the Law of Unintended Consequences.
The Serbians knuckled under, yes.
But the rest of the world took note, including us.
I assure you, the appeal to the higher court of history in that case has yet to be decided.

Tesla Vandals Keep Getting Caught, Democrats Keep Staying Silent.

There are two stories here. Once is the ongoing wave of vandalism and domestic terrorism by left-wing nutjobs and the other is the silence of Democrats. Neither of these stories is really breaking news at this point, but I haven’t stopped caring and I don’t think our readers have either.So on that note, let’s just go over a few acts of vandalism and the people who’ve been either identified as suspects or already arrested. Apparently these people don’t understand that Tesla’s have lots of cameras.In Boston, a woman was captured on video throwing a brick through the window of a Tesla.

This happened on Sunday. Boston PD is now looking for the suspect. Something tells me she won’t be too hard to identify.

This one happened in Dallas where a guy keyed a Tesla at an airport parking lot. He has now been arrested and is being sued by the owner in a civil case. Here’s a local news story on the lawsuit:

And this guy from West Fargo, North Dakota is now facing a felony charge.

He apparently confessed when questioned by police. Not much doubt about the politics that motivated him.

In Gilbert, Arizona a man named David Moller was arrested for keying a Cybertruck.

And in Kentwood, Michigan, police released a photo of two suspects they believe spray painted five Tesla Cybertrucks in a mall parking lot.

Again, the politics motivating this are pretty clear.

In the small city of Town and Country, Missouri a man named Matthew Reynolds has been arrested for keying a woman’s Model 3 in a parking lot.

Reynolds is also facing a felony charge. Here’s his mugshot.

In Aventura, Florida just north of Miami, a woman was arrested after spreading chewing gum on the door handle of a Tesla parked in a mall parking lot. Her name is Yamaris Marrero.

In Brookhaven, Mississippi a Cuban migrant named Osvaldo Torres-Rodriguez is still wanted for (allegedly) vandalizing a Tesla with a pair of pliers or wire-cutters.

Here’s one from Columbus, Ohio. Don’t know if this person has been caught yet.

Unfortunately, I could go on. There are many more examples of people who haven’t been arrested yet but who probably will be soon. You can see a bunch of them on this X account.

Meanwhile, the Democrats who have inspired all of this have said almost nothing about it. AOC has been asked about it twice and has replied that Republicans say all sorts of things about her. But of course she has called out others for “stochastic terrorism” in the past.

Questioned by Fox News Digital, “Squad” member and leading Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York refused to answer whether she believes Democrats’ inflammatory rhetoric against Elon Musk has any connection to the violent attacks and vandalism against Tesla owners and dealers across the country…

Though she would not comment on the acts of terror against Tesla owners and workers, Ocasio-Cortez, considered  one of the country’s leading Democratic voices, has previously accused her Republican opponents of engaging in “stochastic terrorism,” using inflammatory language to incite violent action, by criticizing her, which she said prompted her to hire security.

Speaking on CNN in 2023, she said, “It’s uncomfortable serving with people who engage in what many experts deem stochastic terrorism, which is the incitement of violence using digital means and large platforms so that individuals themselves may not be the one that’s wielding a weapon.

Few national Democrats have criticized the wave of arson and vandalism. It’s almost as if they know the vandals are on their side.

Lawsuit challenges constitutionality of Prop KK guns and ammunition tax.

COLORADO SPRINGS — An El Paso County resident, a Colorado licensed firearms dealer and several gun rights advocacy organizations are asking for an injunction in Denver District Court to halt a new state excise tax on guns and ammunition.

Zachary Langston along with the National Rifle Association, the Colorado State Shooting Association (CSSA), the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and Magnum Shooting Center of Colorado Springs are asking a judge to stop Proposition KK from taking effect.

The defendants named in the case are Heidi Humphreys, the Executive Director of the Department of Revenue, who is required by statute to “administer and enforce the tax,” and Michael J. Allen, the District Attorney of El Paso County, who is charged with prosecuting the criminal penalties imposed by Proposition KK.

Proposition KK — passed in November with 54 percent of the vote — will add a 6.5 percent excise tax on the manufacture and sale of firearms and ammunition. It will be imposed on firearms dealers, manufacturers and ammunition vendors, with the exception of those selling less than $20,000 per year as well as law enforcement agencies and active-duty military.

The lawsuit was filed on the basis that the tax is unconstitutional because it does not pass a “means-end” test handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2022 Bruen decision, which says gun rights restrictions must be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulations.

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The Globalist Authoritarians Are Playing With Fire

What happened with Marine Le Pen, the most popular politician in France who was just banned from standing for election on the flimsiest of pretenses, is no exception. It’s becoming the rule around the West and in other places, too, where being outside the mainstream of authorized establishment left-leaning globalist politics has become criminalized.

In some places, like the UK and Spain, it takes the form of persecuting people for saying things that those in power don’t want to hear. In other places, like Germany, upstart populist parties that earned a significant number of votes are informally, and sometimes formally, marginalized and threatened with being banned. But it’s the criminal persecution of leaders that is becoming the go-to.

It happened to Bolsonaro in Brazil, Netanyahu in Israel, Georgescu in Romania, and Le Pen in France. In each of these cases, the establishment authoritarians essentially attempted to frame a politician they couldn’t beat at the ballot box. Of course, their American analogs tried to do the same thing to Donald Trump here, and when that didn’t work, their allies tried to murder him. Thankfully, they failed at both – with the people who instigated these atrocities too dumb to know that they are the ones who should be the most thankful they failed.

These are not the acts of strong and confident leaders who believe in the strength and popularity of their ideology. These are the cowardly acts of authoritarians who differ from Putin not in their nature but only in their extent. They haven’t thrown anybody out of a fifth-story window yet that we know of, though we don’t know if they actively put the murderer who tried to kill Trump in Butler up to it – the one who tried to ambush him in Florida was an active member of their collective – but they would’ve cheered if either attempt had succeeded.

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