Corrupt Supreme Court OK’s Corrupt Texas Gerrymander. Did you expect any other result?:
The Supreme Court was simply hamstrung, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, unable to knock down Texas’ hyper-partisan, likely racial gerrymander because the election it would govern is so close.
Said election, though, is a whopping 11 months away. Yet that near year of time — plus a March primary, which Texas could delay — counts as the “eve of an election,” Alito wrote in his concurrence, so close to voting that changing the maps risks confusing voters. He’s referring to the Purcell principle, which stems from a 2006 case that concerned a change in Arizona photo ID laws “weeks away” from the election.
This isn’t the first time the Supreme Court’s right wing has invoked Purcell to uphold Republican maps, even when they’re being litigated comically far out from the election. In 2022, the Court blocked a district court order requiring that Alabama draw new maps, even though the state had nine months to draw new ones before the general elections.
Making the invocation of Purcell even flimsier in Thursday’s case — Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens — Texas only produced its new maps in August, under pressure from the Trump administration to eke out a few more Republican seats. The plaintiffs challenging the maps and the district court, Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent, worked as quickly as they possibly could — meaning that the Court just wrote a roadmap for illegal gerrymanders. Just wait to pass them until the “eve” of the election, and no one can stop you.
“And even supposing it is now the ninth or tenth hour, whose choice was that?” she wrote. “It was of course the Texas legislature that decided to change its map six months before a March primary.”
Logic didn’t enter into this 6-3 decision. It was pure partisan politics masquerading as jurisprudence.
Attempted DOJ Persecution Of Letitia James Fails:
The Justice Department failed Thursday to secure a new indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James after a judge dismissed the previous mortgage fraud prosecution encouraged by President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors went back to a grand jury in Virginia after a judge’s ruling halting the prosecution of James and another longtime Trump foe, former FBI Director James Comey, on the grounds that the U.S. attorney who presented the cases was illegally appointed. But grand jurors rejected prosecutors’ request to bring charges.
It’s the latest setback for the Justice Department in its bid to prosecute the frequent political target of the Republican president.
Prosecutors are expected to try again for an indictment, according to one person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.
Have you noticed lately (I have) that certain news organizations are no longer mincing words about what Trump, DOJ, and other rogue agencies are doing? If only the feckless D electeds would follow their lead…
What’s Wrong With This Cartoon? It’s funny, but has one fatal flaw. What is it?:
Speaking of asleep on the job, what exactly was Delaware’s Worst Governor Ever doing when this stuff went on with the Port Of Wilmington?
Standing outside Legislative Hall on Thursday, Delaware State Auditor Lydia York braced against a chilly wind and even chillier reception from state officials after she presented findings from her office’s audit of the Port of Wilmington.
Published that morning, the audit report stated that Delaware’s port oversight board had failed during a recent four-year period to sufficiently supervise and inspect operations at the Port of Wilmington, which York described as the state’s largest public asset.
Among several specific findings, the report claimed that the board of the Diamond State Port Corporation had improperly held meetings in secret; had misled the public about the port’s true condition; did not hold sufficient oversight meetings with the port’s current and past private operators; and relied on outdated jobs projections for a planned port expansion. (Hmmm, sounds like a random jobs projection for the data center to me. But, I digress.)
The audit also followed years of acrimony at the Port of Wilmington under its previous operator — Emirati-based Gulftainer.
In 2023, the Diamond State Port Corporation ousted Gulftainer from Delaware, by voiding its 50-year operating contract and installing Massachusetts-based Enstructure in its place.
Over the next year and half, state officials and Enstructure pushed forward plans to expand the Port of Wilmington at the site of a former Edgemoor chemical plant, north of Wilmington. As part of the effort, then-Gov. John Carney announced last year that he would pull $195 million out of a little-known government fund to pay for about a third of the construction cost for what was to be a new Edgemoor container terminal.
Then, days before Gov. Matt Meyer came into office in January, state finance officials rushed through the actual transfer of that money to the Diamond State Port Corporation.
The Board’s excuse?:
In the official response to the findings, which also was published in the audit report, Diamond State Port Corporation officials indicated that there was no way to force Gulftainer to pay its delinquent bills, after the company “soured on the business opportunity at the Port.”
That’s not an excuse, it’s an admission.
The usual suspects (Senate D’s, the current Secretary of State and her failed predecessor) are taking umbrage. Take Jeff Bullock. Please:
Beyond current port officials, the Diamond State Port Corporation’s previous board chair, former State Secretary Jeffrey Bullock, also defended decisions made during his term, which ended in January.
He said his port board had to discuss certain topics in secret executive sessions in the past because of a potential for legal action against the port’s operator.
“In executive session, we had also discussed the ongoing financial difficulties of Gulftainer, and their refusal to resolve them, resulting in likely legal action with their lenders,” Bullock said.
Jeff? We can see how totally fucked-up your decisions on the Port were. Were there a Delaware Peter Principle Hall Of Fame, you’d be first-ballot.
Here’s the literal bottom line:
Beyond its findings about operations, York’s audit also tallied the total amount of taxpayer dollars that have flowed through the state-owned Diamond State Port Corporation between 2021 and 2025 to support the Port of Wilmington.
Between COVID relief money, transfers from a little-known state purse, forgiven debt, and other dollars the port corporation held, the public supported the Port of Wilmington with as much as $265 million during the four-year period, according to the report.
“In 2018, past DSPC leadership promised the State of Delaware was ‘out of the port business,’” York said. “The reality is, since then, our state has almost doubled its financial commitment to the port.”
Besides the public money that has already flowed to the Port of Wilmington is another $180 million in federal grants that have been committed for the facility’s expansion in Edgemoor.
Karl: I apologize for exceeding Fair Use. I’m upping my monthly Spotlight Delaware subscription as of today. (All of our readers should subscribe, BTW.) Please forgive me.
What do you want to talk about?