politics

A provision "hidden" in the sweeping budget bill that passed the U.S. House on Thursday seeks to limit the ability of courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court—from enforcing their orders.

"No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued," the provision in the bill, which is more than 1,000 pages long, says.

The provision "would make most existing injunctions—in antitrust cases, police reform cases, school desegregation cases, and others—unenforceable," Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, told Newsweek. "It serves no purpose but to weaken the power of the federal courts."

Its almost like the Republican approach of burning the seed corn of future prosperity to pay for tax cuts is a really bad policy

The Russian government has introduced a new law that makes installing a tracking app mandatory for all foreign nationals in the Moscow region.

The new proposal was announced by the chairman of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, who presented it as a measure to tackle migrant crimes.

Using a mobile application that all foreigners will have to install on their smartphones, the Russian state will receive the following information:

• Residence location
• Fingerprint
• Face photograph
• Real-time geo-location monitoring

The proposal hasn't reached its final form yet, and specifics like what happens in the case of device theft/loss or similar technical or practical obstacles are to be addressed in the upcoming period during meetings between the Ministry and regional authorities.

The mass-surveillance experiment will run until September 2029, and if deemed successful, the mechanism will extend to cover more parts of the country.

It’s official. As my colleague David Dayen and I both predicted, enough Democratic senators have voted for a crypto “regulation” bill (called the GENIUS Act), basically written by the industry and Donald Trump’s minions, that it passed easily on Monday. If anything, it was even worse than I expected—just nine Democrats were needed to get to the necessary 60 votes, but 16 voted for it. (Two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Jerry Moran of Kansas, voted against it.)

This vote was technically for cloture, meaning the bill couldn’t be halted by a filibuster, but it’s the only vote that mattered. The official vote, now scheduled for Thursday, is only a formality, and I expect several of these senators to vote against it so they can pretend they aren’t monumentally corrupt.

The Crypto Sixteen are the following: Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who co-sponsored the bill, Adam Schiff (D-CA), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), John Fetterman (D-PA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE). Every one of them ought to be primaried in their next election.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who has more experience in financial regulation than anyone in Congress, outlined the problems in a speech on the Senate floor. First, the bill gives a clear green light to Trump’s world-historical corruption. “Passing this bill means that we can expect more anonymous buyers, big companies, and foreign governments to use the president’s stablecoin as both a shadowy bank account shielded from government oversight and as a way to pay off the president personally. For crooks, it’s a two-for-one,” she said.

... the Big Ugly Bill is enacted with the following provision, now hidden in the bill:

“No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued….”

Translated: No federal court may enforce a contempt citation.

It can in theory be stopped if Senators vote against it. Making that happen means having Senators fear that constituents will vote them out and seek their prosecution. If you live in the US, calling your senators a call and letting them know how mad you are at the Republican agenda might just help a little.

The measure would limit courts’ ability to enforce contempt findings, a move that could blunt one of the judiciary’s most powerful tools for ensuring compliance with its rulings.

Would love another source, but this was all I could find.

As if there weren't enough bad things in this budget Bill

As Andrew Cuomo emerges as the front-runner in New York City's mayoral race, several women who accused him of sexual harassment just three years ago say they feel betrayed and forgotten.

In total, the 220 winners of the contest to attend the dinner spent $394 million on Trump’s official cryptocurrency.

More than 200 wealthy, mostly anonymous crypto buyers are coming to Washington on Thursday to have dinner with Donald Trump. The price of admission: $55,000 to $37.7 million.

That’s how much the 220 winners of a contest to meet Trump spent on his volatile cryptocurrency token, $TRUMP, according to an analysis by the blockchain analytics company Nansen.

The top $TRUMP coin holders at a specific time — determined by the dinner’s organizers — secured a seat.

In particular, they're ignoring the Senate rules requiring a supermajority vote, and planning to claim they've taken away California's ability to regulate tailpipe pollution with a mere majority.

If you're an American, it's worth calling your senators and asking them to vote to preserve California's ability to impose stricter pollution controls — much of the country has historically adopted California's rules.

The House narrowly passed Trump's domestic policy bill Thursday following a dramatic all-night session and days of negotiations.

In a 215 to 214 vote, all but two House Republicans supported the massive budget package — the centerpiece legislation of Mr. Trump's second-term agenda — in a vote that came hours after unveiling an updated version of the legislation that GOP leaders hoped would satisfy enough holdouts.

The measure cleared a critical procedural hurdle in the wee hours of the morning, teeing up the vote on final passage after days of consternation among the House Republican conference.

The bill will now go to the Senate, where some Republicans have already voiced some opposition. Congressional leaders have said they want to get it to Mr. Trump's desk by July 4.

I like the part about no new spending is needed. Should we translate that to we will divert people looking into measles and covid to this?