Plus: Your Monday news roundup
â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â [The Fisc]( Â Â By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Chief Justice Roberts (front row, center) wrote the majority opinion. (Reuters) Supreme Courtâs Conservative Majority Hands Trump a Historic Win in Immunity Case Welcome to July! Itâs only the first of the month, but weâve already got fireworks going off in the nationâs capital, where the Supreme Court handed down a landmark 6-3 [ruling]( decided along ideological lines, that held that former presidents have considerable immunity from criminal prosecution for their actions while in office. âAt least with respect to the Presidentâs exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute,â Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the decision for the courtâs conservative majority. âAs for his remaining official actions, he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity.â Only unofficial conduct would not be protected from prosecution. Roberts wrote that such immunity is necessary to ensure that the president can be as âenergeticâ and âvigorousâ as the framers of the Constitution envisioned. The decision is a major victory for former President Donald Trump, as it wipes out one set of crimes alleged in Trumpâs indictment in the January 6 election subversion case and makes it more than likely that the trial in that case will be delayed past the November elections â and might never happen. If Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, wins another term, he could have the case dropped or seek to pardon himself. In a social media post, he hailed the decision: âBIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!â The court decision means that Trumpâs conversations with Justice Department officials regarding the 2020 election are shielded and other elements of Special Counsel Jack Smithâs case must be analyzed by District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine whether they involve official or unofficial conduct. An invitation to corruption and criminality?: In a scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said the majorityâs decision reshapes the presidency in ways that run counter to the historical evidence and established nature of the office and that could be disastrous for U.S. democracy, turning the nationâs top executive into âa king above the law.â âIt makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law,â Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, which was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. âRelying on little more than its own misguided wisdom about the need for âbold and unhesitating actionâ by the President ... the Court gives former President Trump all the immunity he asked for and more.â In a separate dissent, Jackson wrote that, under the majorityâs system, a president who admits to having political rivals assassinated or who instigates an unsuccessful coup could be deemed to be immune from prosecution. âIn the end,â she wrote, âunder the majorityâs new paradigm, whether the President will be exempt from legal liability for murder, assault, theft, fraud, or any other reprehensible and outlawed criminal act will turn on whether he committed that act in his official capacity, such that the answer to the immunity question will always and inevitably be: It depends.â The courtâs majority said the dissenters were âfear mongeringâ and striking a âtone of chilling doom that is wholly disproportionate to what the court actually does today.â Read more about the Supreme Court decision [here]( or [here](. SCOTUS Chevron Decision Could Make the IRSâs Job Much Harder
The Supreme Courtâs decision last week to overturn the so-called Chevron rule is expected to affect virtually all federal agencies, including the IRS. Howard Gleckman of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center says the decision could make it harder for the IRS to write regulations that address the many gray areas of tax law that have not been clearly defined by Congress. âRegulatory flexibility is especially important for tax law,â Gleckman [says](. âCongress frequently leaves it to Treasury and IRS to fill in statutory gaps, either because taxes are so complex or because lawmakers cannot agree on how to address a specific issue. Indeed, lawmakers often leave implementation of tax law to the IRS and Treasury because they know they can, thanks in large part to Chevron.â That flexibility could be sharply reduced thanks to the high court decision. At the same time, the Supreme Court said that Congress could explicitly provide flexibility to regulatory agencies. But the limits of that flexibility may be hard to define for lawmakers â and an inviting arena for political combat in what Gleckman calls a âhyper-partisan environment.â âRepealing Chevron extends the Courtâs recent enthusiasm for weakening executive branch power,â Gleckman says. âBut it may upend the way Congress writes tax law, create an administrative mess for Treasury and the IRS, and complicate life for taxpayers who crave and deserve legal clarity.â White House Requests $4 Billion for Baltimore Bridge, Disasters
The Biden administration has requested $4 billion in emergency funding from Congress to help pay for the replacement of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as for additional disaster relief spending. In a [letter]( sent Friday to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young said she was reiterating her October request for emergency funding, citing the bridge collapse as well as âthe devastating fires on Maui last summer, and tornado survivors in Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and throughout the Midwest.â About $3.1 billion of the request is for highways and bridges damaged by disasters throughout the U.S., including the Baltimore bridge. The White House repeated its commitment to covering the full cost of the Baltimore bridge cleanup and replacement. No specific number was cited for the bridge project but estimates put the cost close to $1.7 billion. Key Part of Biden Student Loan Plan Resumes
A federal court on Sunday lifted an injunction against an element of the Biden administrationâs student loan repayment program, known as SAVE, for Saving on a Valuable Education. The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said it would allow a provision in SAVE that lowers monthly payments for some student loan debtors from 10% of discretionary income to 5%, reversing a hold placed last week. The rule will take effect today, July 1, as scheduled. The SAVE program has 8 million enrollees. In addition to lowering the required monthly payment, the program sets payments for those earning $32,800 or less per year to $0. It also provides loan forgiveness for those who owe less than $12,000 and have made payments for at least 10 years. --------------------------------------------------------------- Send your feedback to yrosenberg@thefiscaltimes.com. And please encourage your friends to [sign up here]( for their own copy of this newsletter.
--------------------------------------------------------------- Fiscal News Roundup - ['Five Alarm Fire': Supreme Court Immunity Ruling Raises Fears About Future Lawless Presidents]( â NBC News
- [Majority Opinion Has Echoes of Famous Nixon Quote]( â CNN
- [Republicans Tout Supreme Court Immunity Ruling as Victory in âWeaponizationâ Fight]( â The Hill
- [The Supreme Court Rules for a North Dakota Truck Stop in a New Blow to Federal Regulations]( â Associated Press
- [Supreme Court Ruling Creates Health Policy Ripples]( â The Hill
- [Biden Team Works Furiously to Quell Any Democratic Revolt After Debate]( â Washington Post
- [How Conservative Judges Secured a âChain Sawâ to Derail Environmental Rules]( â Washington Post
- [Biden Requests $4B From Congress to Address Baltimore Bridge, Natural Disasters]( â Politico
- [Bets on Republican Sweep Drive Treasury Yields Higher]( â Wall Street Journal Views and Analysis - [4 Takeaways From the Supreme Courtâs Trump Immunity Decision]( â Aaron Blake, Washington Post
- [Trump Immunity Ruling Invites Presidents to Commit Crimes]( â Timothy L. OâBrien, Bloomberg
- [With Immunity Ruling, Supreme Court Raises the Stakes in 2024 Race]( â Steve Benen, MSNBC
- [What The Supreme Courtâs New Curbs on Regulatory Power Could Mean for Tax Law]( â Howard Gleckman, Tax Policy Center
- [What the Chevron Decision Means for Health Policy]( â Rachel Roubein, Washington Post
- [How the Supreme Court's Massive Chevron Decision Will Affect Climate Policy]( â Ben Geman, Axios
- [Any Budget Deal Should Preserve Parity]( â Bobby Kogan and Jessica Vela, Center for American Progress
- [12 Experts on What Biden Needs to Do After His Debate Debacle]( â Politico
- [Biden Ought to See Macronâs Drubbing in France as a Danger Sign]( â Dan Balz, Washington Post Copyright © 2024 The Fiscal Times, All rights reserved.
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