The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

On the Friday before the Supreme Court’s term began, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told a crowd celebrating her investiture as the court’s first Black female member that they would be hearing more from her.

“I have a seat at the table now,” she said at the Library of Congress event. “And I’m ready to work.”

Still, few were prepared for Jackson’s venturesome debut in the court’s first sitting. Over eight oral arguments, she dominated the questioning and commentary, speaking twice as much as her next most loquacious colleague. It is likely a record for a new justice, according to Adam Feldman, who tracks such things for his Empirical SCOTUS blog.

Jackson was a persistent questioner in every case. Her contributions ranged from the sweeping — a rejection of an originalist interpretation of a colorblind Constitution that provoked swoons from the liberal legal community — to the kind of mundane minutiae upon which even Supreme Court decisions turn.  [snip]

Janai S. Nelson, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said Jackson’s focus on issues large and small “was a delight to witness.”

“Many of us have advocated for increased diversity on the court, but I don’t think that we anticipated there would be such an appreciable difference out the gate,” Nelson said, adding that Jackson demonstrated oral arguments at the court are not just “performative.”

“She is asking very trenchant questions and demonstrating that it’s important for the justices to actively engage with the material and issues and arguments and people before them.”

The bad:

Russia blasted the Ukrainian capital with a deadly wave of “kamikaze” drones Monday, in a renewed attack that set apartments ablaze as soldiers fired into the air.

The drones, carrying explosives and their distinctive buzz, terrorized Kyiv just a week after the Kremlin’s forces unleashed a deadly barrage against civilian and infrastructure targets across the country.

Ukraine said the attacks included Iranian-made drones, which it has accused Moscow of increasingly deploying as it runs low on precision missiles, and appealed again for Western allies to provide aerial defensive help.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has escalated his strikes on Ukrainian cities in the wake of a series of battlefield setbacks that have weakened his military’s grip on territory it claims to have annexed as well as the Kremlin’s hold over the mood at home.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said "kamikaze" drones caused five explosions that rocked the city in the early morning hours on Monday. One of them hit a residential building in the central Shevchenkivskyi District, the mayor said.

The ugly:

On a weekend day when Donald Trump didn't have a self-promoting rally in the guise of boosting the election chances of fellow Republicans scheduled, the former president managed to set off a furious firestorm with a social media posting about American Jews.

Early Sunday the former president lashed out at U.S. Jews on Truth Social for not being enough like Evangelical Christians -- and immediately was attacked for what one Jewish group called "unabashed antisemitism."

According to Trump, "No President has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S. Those living in Israel, though, are a different story - Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.! U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel - Before it is too late!"

His id is constantly exposing who he is:  a profoundly sick, anti-Semitic, racist, mob boss (some reactions to his extortionist threats will be in Tweets of the Day, later).