DL Open Thread: Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Post-Democratic America–Day Two:  Turn Department Of Justice Into Department Of Retribution?  Check:

New acting leaders at the Justice Department moved quickly to shuffle at least 20 career officials, according to sources. Those include senior lawyers in the national security division, which in the past has been insulated from shifting political winds, and international affairs, which works on extraditions and immigration matters, the sources said.

Paul Abbate, the deputy FBI director, announced Monday morning he was retiring effective immediately. Abbate was already at the FBI’s mandatory retirement age, but former Director Chris Wray – who himself had resigned this month after Trump had vowed to fire him years before his term ended – gave Abbate an extension to continue working through April to ensure a smooth transition.

There’s now a leadership vacuum atop the FBI. Senior FBI special agent Brian Driscoll, the special agent in charge of the Newark Field Office, was named acting director on Monday. The Trump administration has promised to overhaul the FBI, starting with appointing ally Kash Patel as director. Trump’s team has also weighed plans to install a political appointee into the deputy director position, which traditionally has been a career FBI agent, CNN has previously reported.

Both the chief judge and the general counsel of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the nation’s immigration court system, were also asked to leave Monday. Their positions are now listed as vacant on the Justice Department website.

And the acting US attorney in Washington DC, Bridget Fitzpatrick, was also relieved of her position atop the office Monday. Fitzpatrick will stay at the US attorney’s office but is being replaced as the top official by Ed Martin, a hardline, socially conservative activist and commentator.

Martin was an organizer with the “Stop the Steal” movement and was involved in the financing of the January 6 rally on the Ellipse that occurred directly before the attack on the Capitol. He has also publicly advocated for a national abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest and has raised imposing criminal penalties on women and doctors involved in abortions.

There’s more.  Read on if you must.

Shut Down Federal Diversity Efforts? Check:

Officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across federal agencies were expected to be placed on leave on Wednesday after the Trump administration ordered their offices to be closed. The directive was a swift attempt to carry out elements of President Trump’s Day 1 executive order dismantling federal diversity efforts.

That’s all I can stand for today.  Let’s see what non-Trump stuff I can dig up…

Supreme Court (!) Strikes Down So-Called ‘Independent State Legislature’ Theory.  You just know which two justices dissented:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up Montana Republicans’ efforts to revive two state election laws under a version of the so-called “independent state legislature” theory.

In 2023, the justices rejected the maximalist version of the theory, which would give state legislatures near-total control over setting election rules by preventing state courts from restraining their actions.

Though the Supreme Court ruled that state courts can conduct judicial review, the majority opinion stressed they do not have “free rein.” Under the Constitution’s Elections Clause, judges cannot intrude on state lawmakers’ authority to regulate federal elections, but the high court’s decision did not set a specific test for determining when that boundary is crossed.

Yep, Citizens United Opened The Floodgates.  There is, however, a hopeful scenario (I don’t buy it, but it’s a scenario):

It is a salutary recognition that, especially since the US supreme court started to open the floodgates of dark money in politics, wealthy individuals face few obstacles in purchasing political power. But now oligarchs like Musk put themselves at the center of political campaigns and aspire to govern. That new visibility – evidenced by the tech leaders seated in front of Trump’s cabinet at the inauguration – could also make oligarchs more politically vulnerable.

“Oligarch” is not just a swearword for the uber-rich or a synonym for “elites”, nor does it just signify rule by the few. If the latter were true, all representative democracies would have to count as oligarchies, since members of Congress undoubtedly have more political power than the rest of us. Rather, Aristotle – to whom we owe the designations of different regimes – understood oligarchy as rule by the wealthy (conversely, democracy meant rule by the poor).

Jeffrey Winters, the most astute social scientist studying the phenomenon today, observes that the politics of oligarchs can take very different shapes – they are not all necessarily conservative – but that they always have one interest in common: protecting their wealth.

Cut to the (faint) cause for hope:

In the end, the best bet remains countervailing power: strong organizations, be it trade unions or civil society associations and, lest we forget, democratic politics: FDR, who also did not shy away from the o-word, did not automatically have a mandate to go after concentrated power because of the Great Depression; he claimed and constructed it. Having oligarchs become visible, as they jump up and down next to the president, helps with this.

Matt Meyer’s Inaugural Address Offers Promise:

Meyer, a former public school math teacher, said schools, teachers and students have an ally in the governor’s office. He called the public school system in the First State one of the worst performing in the country.

“We can’t fulfill our potential unless we all have a chance to contribute. That will be my focus every day of these next four years,” he said. “Students aren’t failing; our schools are failing our students. As a teacher and as governor, I refuse to accept that. I refuse to write off any of our kids.”

A quick aside:  Didn’t now-Mayor John Carney stress education in his first address as Mayor?  After eight years of malign neglect as governor?  Yes.  Aside over:

The new governor addressed high prices and rising inequality and described housing and health care as human rights. He has previously expressed support for adding another income tax bracket for wealthier Delawareans.

Decent start all around.  The General Assembly’s (and the Governor’s) work begins in earnest today.  Which reminds me, I’ve got another article to write…

What do you want to talk about?