presented by Amway.

Good morning and happy Halloween. I'm Playbook co-author Rachel Bade. It's Tuesday, October 31st,

and I am counting down the hours until I can take my 16-month-old trick-or-treating. She's going as

Rogu, the baby Yoda from Star Wars TV shows The Mandalorian and the

Book of Boba Fett. And yes, I will be eating all her candy because she's too young to have it.

Now for the news, here's what's driving the day. Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin announced

last night that his panel will vote to authorize subpoenas in its probe of justices

receiving lavish gifts from billionaires with business before the high court. The panel will be

issuing compulsory summons for Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo, and Robin Ardley the second. And this is

all related to reporting about gifts they apparently gave to conservative justices who then failed

to disclose those things,

including private plane rides, yacht trips, and even private school tuition for family members

on disclosure forms. This comes after those individuals refused to fully comply with requests

for information from the committee. It is, needless to say, a significant escalation in this probe,

one that Durbin says is actually the fault of the court itself. He and basically all Democrats

have been harping on Chief Justice John Roberts to impose a stricter ethics code on not only

himself, but his colleagues. And while Justice Roberts did try to do that in the past,

others have blocked substantial progress. In a statement last night, Durbin said the chief justice

could fix this problem today and adopt a binding code of conduct. As long as he refuses to act,

the Judiciary Committee will. Over in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson is coming out swinging.

When he won the gavel, he promised to shake things up in Washington, and in just the first week on the job, he's certainly ruffling feathers and doing so.

Johnson's decision to offset $14.3 billion worth of assistance to Israel with spending cuts raised eyebrows amongst Democrats,

...