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The Politics Guys

Kennedy Retires, Travel Ban, Public Unions, CA Abortion Law, TX Redistricting, Immigration

The Politics Guys

Michael Baranowski

Politics, News

4.5772 Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2018

⏱️ 63 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week’s show starts off with Mike and Jay discussing Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement. There’s so much to cover here that the Guys decided to do an entire episode on it, which will drop in the usual Wednesday slot (July 4). There were a bunch of important Supreme Court decisions announced this week, which Mike and Jay then get into. First was a big win for President Trump’s travel ban. Jay thinks the Court make the right call, but Mike - after initially agreeing earlier in the week - has changed his mind, and thinks the four liberal dissenters got it right. After that is another 5-4 conservative ruling that overturned a 41-year-old precedent that allowed public sector unions to charge non-members a collective bargaining fee. Jay once again sides with the conservative majority, while Mike argues that their decision rests on shaky grounds and, as such, he would default to allowing the policy of the states as opposed to what he sees as conservative judicial activism. Then it’s a look at the Court - yet again along 5-4 ideological lines - overturning the California FACT Act, which required anti-abortion ‘pregnancy crisis centers’ to make mention of abortion services available elsewhere as well as to let clients know if the center does not have a state medical license. Mike agrees with the 9th Circuit, which held that this was neutral commercial speech and therefore subject to regulation. Jay believes the majority on the Supreme Court was right in arguing that this amounts to compelled speech promoting abortion, and therefore a violation of the 1st Amendment. The final big case of the week involved a Texas congressional and state legislative redistricting plan that a lower court said was an impermissible racial gerrymander. It was another 5-4 ideological split, with Jay standing with the conservative majority who argued that the burden of proof was on the plaintiffs and they didn’t demonstrate that Texas acted in bad faith. Mike is pretty sure that Texas did act in bad faith, but because he didn’t see clear proof of this, he reluctantly agrees that the Court’s conservatives were right on this one. Finally, Mike and Jay discuss the major developments in immigration policy in the last week: President Trump’s suggestion that immigrants aren’t entitled to due process, the multi-state lawsuit against family separations, a federal judge ordering the administration to reunite families, the incompetence with which the policy has been carried out from the very beginning, and why Congress hasn’t acted, and it’s likely to any time soon. Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-politics-guys/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the politics, guys, a place for a bipartisan, rational, and civil debate on American politics and policy.

0:06.0

I'm Michael Baranowski, a political scientist at Northern Kentucky University. With me today is my regular

0:10.9

co-host, Cleveland Area Attorney and Republican Factotum, Jay Carson. Good morning. How are you doing

0:16.8

today, Jay? I'm doing pretty good. I'm, I got to say, I'm a little exhausted after this

0:22.2

crazy, crazy week. And of course, of all the big news that came out of this week, I'd say

0:28.3

the biggest, no story was at all bigger than Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing

0:33.9

his retirement. Now, President Trump will almost certainly nominate someone to the right of Kennedy as his replacement.

0:41.6

I don't think there's really much question about that, which means it'll give the court a much more reliable five to four conservative majority.

0:50.3

Now, I think there's no question that Senate Democrats are going to wage a pretty ferocious battle against, well, really against whomever President Trump nominates, but because they're in the minority and Republicans ended filibusters on Supreme Court nominees in order to get Neil Gorsuch confirmed.

1:06.8

The chances of them torpedoing a nomination are, I would say, slim to, slim to none.

1:13.3

Would you agree?

1:15.1

I wouldn't say, I'd say slim.

1:18.0

Okay.

1:18.5

Slim.

1:18.6

I wouldn't go sort of the nut.

1:20.2

Had your bet just a little bit.

1:21.3

I also want to, should note, obviously, I'm waiting by the phone.

1:27.2

Yeah.

1:27.6

Well, you know. Just. Well, you know.

1:28.4

Just in case, you know.

1:30.7

You never can't tell, right?

1:31.7

With Donald Trump, sure.

...

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