Neil Gorsuch Doesn’t Think Government Agencies Should Protect the Public from Corporate Predators
Renegade justice. Joe Donnelly of Indiana became the third Democratic senator to announce his support on for Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch. That leaves Republicans, who hold 52 seats in the Senate, five Democratic votes short of breaking any filibuster mounted by Democrats. Gorsuch, like Trump’s close aide Steve Bannon, wants to trash our modern government. He embraces a judicial philosophy that undermines the rules that keep our water clean, regulate the financial markets and protect workers and consumers. Gorsuch opposes a landmark 1984 court case that found agencies can interpret laws when Congress uses ambiguous language. A full Senate vote on the Gorsuch nomination could come as early as this week.
ACTION BOX / What you can do about it
There’s still time. Contact your senator. Call or write. Don’t email. Tell him or her what you think of Neil Gorsuch’s judicial qualifications.
Government of the rich. Twenty-seven top Trump aides had assets worth a total of at least $2.3 billion when they took White House jobs. The richest include Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and daughter, Ivanka. Also on the list is nationalist Steve Bannon.
Sanctuary cities. Trump says he wants to cut off all federal aid to so-called sanctuary cities, but the administration has not defined that term. Eric Garrett the mayor of Los Angeles, and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck asked Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly for a definition. Homeland Security says it doesn’t know when it will have a proposed definition.
Digital strip search. Searches of mobile phones by border agents grew from less than 5,000 in 2015 to 25,000 in 2016.
EPA cuts. The EPA would lay off a fourth of its employees and end 56 programs, according to a spending plan obtained by The Washington Post. Programs that wouldn’t be funded include cleaning up pollution in the Great Lakes and the climate protection program.
It’s your government!
Help DCReport.org keep watch on the Trump Administration and Congress.
[wpedon id=”26″]