DL Open Thread: Sunday, April 30, 2023
How George Mason Became The Federalist Society’s Go-To Law School:
In the fall of 2017, an administrator at George Mason University’s law school circulated a confidential memo about a prospective hire.
Just months earlier, Neil M. Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge from Colorado, had won confirmation to the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia, the conservative icon for whom the school was named. For President Donald J. Trump, bringing Judge Gorsuch to Washington was the first step toward fulfilling a campaign promise to cement the high court unassailably on the right. For the leaders of the law school, bringing the new justice to teach at Scalia Law was a way to advance their own parallel ambition.
“Establishing and building a strong relationship with Justice Gorsuch during his first full term on the bench could be a game-changing opportunity for Scalia Law, as it looks to accelerate its already meteoric rise to the top rank of law schools in the United States,” read the memo, contained in one of thousands of internal university emails obtained by The New York Times.
By the winter of 2019, the law school faculty would include not just Justice Gorsuch but also two other members of the court, Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett M. Kavanaugh — all deployed as strategic assets in a campaign to make Scalia Law, a public school in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, a Yale or Harvard of conservative legal scholarship and influence.
Rethugs Rebrand Peaceful Protest As ‘Insurrection’:
Montana Republicans persisted in forbidding Democratic transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from participating in debate for a second week and her supporters brought the House session to a halt Monday — chanting “Let her speak!” from the gallery before they were escorted out.
Zephyr defiantly hoisted her microphone into the air as her supporters interrupted proceedings for nearly half an hour in protest of Republicans denying her requests to speak on a proposal that would restrict when children can change the names and pronouns they use in school and require parental consent.
The interruption — hours after supporters rallied on the Capitol steps — was the latest development in a standoff over Zephyr’s remarks against lawmakers who support a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Zephyr, a first-term Democrat from Missoula, hasn’t spoken on the Statehouse floor since last Tuesday when she told Republican colleagues they would have “blood on their hands” if they banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.
The disruption drew the ire of Republican leaders, who described it as a “riot” and an “insurrection.”
“Today’s riot by far-left agitators damages our discourse and endangered legislators and staff. Their actions did not represent Montana values,” House Speaker Matt Regier, Speaker pro tempore Rhonda Knudsen and Majority Leader Sue Vinton said in the statement.
The conservative Montana Freedom Caucus, which called for Zephyr to be censured after her comments last week, issued a statement condemning the actions of “the violent protesters” in the Capitol. It said a small minority of people disrupted the legislature’s business, showing “why we must enforce the rules of decorum when engaged in public debate.”
You guys are smart, unlike the Montana trogs. I needn’t point out the misuse of language and the false equivalency here. Just like what happened in Tennessee.
‘Age-Appropriate’ Book Review To Cost Indiana Library $300 K. Because RWNJ’s got on the library’s Board of Trustees:
The shelves of the “Teen Zone,” the young adult section of the Hamilton East Public Library, are mostly empty. Manga, Japanese graphic novels, are missing. Racks of comic books sit half empty.
It’s a jarring scene for a library, where shelves typically offer seemingly endless reading materials from which to choose.
But at the Hamilton East Public Library in Noblesville, almost vacant shelves greet borrowers in the Teen Zone due to an extensive review process ordered by the library’s Board of Trustees. Last year the board saw four seats turn over, including one now occupied by Micah Beckwith, a conservative pastor and former Republican candidate for a U.S. Congressional seat.
Meanwhile, Indiana legislators are preparing bills to ban certain books they deem offensive. Got Fascism?
I’ll be back with more soon. We’ve got an early family brunch (family in from out of town).
Until then, what do you want to talk about?
Having failed to install a dictator at the federal level the far right now concentrates on red states school boards, and of course banning any and all possible books as education remains their implacable foe. History suggests the book burners will fail as will those who attempts to drag the nation back into the past. Time heals all wounds, and at some point returns those who live in the past to the fate they deserve. And it’s not telling the rest of us what to do.
No NASCAR race today here in Dover, rainout. We’ll see how many hardcore race fans stick around for the event tomorrow at noon. At least it’ll finally stop raining then. I never attend but it’s kinda neat to hear the hum through the windows all afternoon about two or three miles away. Now I’ll be stuck at work Monday afternoon instead.
Had the best of intentions. Got back from brunch around 10. And then–the power went out all over Arden.
Just came back on. Too late and too bad. Just might have been My Best Open Thread Ever…