Sunday Issues-January 5, 2025
Fifteen days until the Inauguration.
Good morning. A lot is going on in Washington, but today, I am covering only part of the news. If I had more space, I would have commented on the Surgeon General's advisory on alcohol and cancer and President Biden’s decision to block the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel.
Speaker Johnson saves his job, but challenges to his leadership will continue.
The drama of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s future ended yesterday when the House elected him as its presiding officer for the 199th Congress. The president-elect called the action “unprecedented.” Johnson reiterated his commitment to press for Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda. As expected, the election was contested by a handful of Freedom Caucus Republicans. Johnson failed to win the requisite number of votes on the first ballot. After Trump made a few calls, several reluctant Republicans came into line.
I hope Johnson enjoys his election because his tenure as speaker could be brief. Republicans have a razor-thin majority. Insiders suggest challenges to his leadership and Trump’s agenda are just starting.
We will hear more from the Freedom Caucus in the coming weeks.
Biden vetoes the JUDGES Act.
With little media attention, President Biden vetoed the Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved Act of 2024 (The JUDGES Act), a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate unanimously. The legislation would have increased the number of Federal judgeships.
Why would Biden veto the bill when legislators from both parties acknowledge the need for more federal judges to oversee the record number of federal cases? The answer is that the JUDGES Act would have created dozens of new judgeships that Donald Trump would fill. And you need to look no further than Judge Aileen Cannon, the jurist who dismissed the indictments against Trump in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, for the answer.
In his veto message, Biden cited additional problems with the legislation:
The House of Representative’s hurried action fails to resolve key questions in the legislation, especially regarding how new judgeships are allocated, and neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate explored fully how the work of senior status judges and magistrate judges affects the need for new judgeships. The efficient and effective administration of justice requires that these questions about need and allocation be further studied and answered before we create permanent judgeships for life-tenured judges.
S. 4199 would create new judgeships in States where Senators have sought to hold open existing judicial vacancies. Those efforts to hold open vacancies suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now.
Biden was right to veto the bill. The Republican Congress can pass the JUDGES Act again, allowing Trump to appoint more Aileen Cannons to the bench. They are not difficult to find.
Trump to be sentenced in ‘hush money’ case.
New York Judge Juan Merchan will sentence Donald Trump on January 10 in the ‘hush money’ case involving payments Trump made of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels. Merchan has indicated he will not sentence Trump to jail.
The sentencing will mean that Trump’s record will include felony convictions.
Trump claims the indictments that led to his May 24th conviction on 34 felony convictions were politically motivated. He reiterated his attacks on Judge Merchan on Friday.
Judge Merchan should be congratulated for scheduling the sentencing. Equal justice under law, right?
D.C. is on high alert.
Presidential Inaugurations used to be grand celebrations of new beginnings in Washington. The Inauguration scheduled for January 20 will be a new beginning, but it will not be a grand celebration for most of us. While MAGA supporters will be partying at a January 19th celebration rally at Capitol One Arena, police will be on the lookout for possible terrorist attacks. Security will be even greater the next day.
In years past, I sometimes had the opportunity to watch Inaugurations in person. I recall Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s Inauguration parade, which I watched from the rooftop of a building on Pennsylvania Avenue. This year, I suspect, only the police will be on that roof, looking for snipers and other troublemakers.
The tension in Washington is not all Donald Trump’s fault. There are enough troubled people, motivated by a variety of real and perceived grievances, to justify high security.
I will watch the Inauguration from home, or at least enough of it before my stomach turns. Then, I will turn off the TV and return to my book.
Do you know what tomorrow is?
Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a day which will live in infamy.
Thank you.
Thank you for reading Sunday Issues. And special thanks to those of you who subscribed to Dean’s Insights & Issues in December. I appreciate you more than you might imagine.