SCOTUS
ICYMI: Neil Gorsuch Wrote A Really Good Supreme Court Opinion. Wait, Where Are You Going?
Yes, that Neil Gorsuch.
July 13, 2020 03:54 PM
On the far end of the Trail of Tears was a promise. Forced to leave their ancestral lands in Georgia and Alabama, the Creek Nation received assurances that their new lands in the West would be secure forever. In exchange for ceding"all their land, East of the Mississippi river," the U. S. government agreed by treaty that "the Creek country west of the Mississippi shall be solemnly guarantied to the Creek Indians." Both parties settled on boundary lines for a new and "permanent home to the whole Creek nation," located in what is now Oklahoma The government further promised that "no State or Territory shall ever have a right to pass laws for the government of such Indians, but they shall be allowed to govern themselves."
Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.
(McGirt v. Oklahoma, opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, yes Neil Gorsuch)
Y'ALL, THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT RULED IN FAVOR OF INDIAN TRIBES!
IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD YEAR!
We can hardly believe it, ourselves. And we would have told you about it last week, except for how there were 300 other huge Supreme Court cases that came down last week.
<p>Last Thursday was the final opinion day of the Supreme Court's 2019-2020 term, and boy was it something. We finally got the opinions we've all been waiting for in the <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/scotus-issues-rulings-for-future-trumps" target="_blank">Trump financial records</a> cases. Oh, and by the way, it turns out almost half of Oklahoma is an Indian reservation.</p><p>The case was <em>McGirt v. Oklahoma</em>. At its heart, it was about whether the Muscogee (Creek) Nation still had jurisdiction over the land its people endured the genocidal Trail of Tears to get to.</p><p>In a 5-4 decision, the court's liberal bloc was joined by none other than Scalia replacement and Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch. And credit where credit is due, it's a pretty great opinion. So congrats to whoever had Neil <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/03/neil-gorsuchs-arrogant-frozen-trucker-opinion-shows-he-wants-to-be-like-scalia.html" target="_blank">"Frozen trucker"</a> Gorsuch writing a genuinely moving SCOTUS opinion on their 2020 bingo card! <br></p><p>Seriously, though, it's an excellent opinion. And to be fair to Gorsuch, he isn't entirely irredeemable, like some <del>Kavanaughs</del> other people; he's actually good on Native rights. As Acee Agoyo noted at <a href="https://www.indianz.com/News/2020/07/09/on-the-far-end-of-the-trail-of-tears-nat.asp" target="_blank">Indianz.com</a>, Gorsuch's "experience in Indian law is unprecedented in Supreme Court history[.]" The native Coloradan spent a decade on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma. In that time, he <a href="https://www.indianz.com/News/2017/03/20/supreme-court-nominee-fares-well-in-revi.asp" target="_blank">ruled for</a> tribal interests nearly 60 percent of the time. In fact, when Gorsuch's nomination was up before the Senate, the Native American Rights Fund wrote a <a href="https://www.indianz.com/m.asp?url=http://sct.narf.org/articles/gorsuch-indian-law.pdf" target="_blank">memo</a> noting that Gorsuch had a a pretty good overall record when dealing with Native rights.</p><h2>Wherein we murder and steal from Native Americans<em></em><br></h2><p>The underlying question in <em>McGirt v. Oklahoma</em> doesn't sound very exciting: should a man convicted of serious violent crimes have been tried in federal, rather than state court? But what sounds like a dry procedural issue is actually anything but.<br></p><p>The case began with a conviction. In 1996, Jimcy McGirt was convicted of serious sex crimes against a minor and sentenced to 500 years in prison.</p><p>The problem? McGirt is a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the crimes took place on what he argued was tribal land. And under federal law, state courts have no jurisdiction over crimes committed by tribal citizens in Indian Country; only federal courts can hear those cases.</p><p>This raised the issue of what land in Oklahoma still belongs to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. And to get to the heart of that, we have to go all the way back to the Trail of Tears.</p><p>In the mid-1800s, the United States stole the ancestral homelands of Native Americans living in the southeastern part of the country. Trump's <a href="https://www.indianz.com/News/2017/03/16/trump-praises-andrew-jackson-but-neglect.asp" target="_blank">favorite</a> president, Andrew Jackson, forcibly removed around 60,000 people from the "Five Civilized Tribes" (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole) from their ancestral land. They were then forced to march thousands of miles to what they were told would be their new homeland. Thousands would perish without ever making it there.</p><p>In return for stealing their land and genociding their people, we promised the tribes new land in the American West. But, of course, white colonizers can never just live and let live. As the <em>McGirt</em> opinion notes, Congress and the white people of Oklahoma spent decades screwing over Native Americans. </p><blockquote>Starting in the 1880s, Congress sought to pressure many tribes to abandon their communal lifestyles and parcel their lands into smaller lots owned by individual tribe members.</blockquote><p>According to the state of Oklahoma, the various methods of fuckery used to harm tribes and their citizens disestablished the Muscogee (Creek) reservation. But to that, the Supreme Court said "NOPE."</p><p>And to Oklahoma's argument that wypipo might be sad to learn they're living in Indian Country, Gorsuch has a great quip.<br></p><blockquote>Oklahoma replies that its situation is different because the affected population here is large and many of its residents will be surprised to find out they have been living in Indian country this whole time. But we imagine some members of the 1832 Creek Tribe would be just as surprised to find them there.</blockquote><h2>Neil Gorsuch shocks us all (and John Roberts reminds us he's a conservative Republican)<br></h2><p>It took the Supreme Court a while to get here. The justices first heard arguments in <em>Sharp v. Murphy</em>, another case raising the same issue, in 2018. Gorsuch was recused from that case because he had ruled in it while on the 10th Circuit. The Court never issued an opinion in <em>Sharp</em>, probably because it was going to be a 4-4 tie. Instead, SCOTUS granted cert in <em>McGirt</em>, allowing the justices to take a look at the issue with the full Court.</p><p>And I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank goodness for Neil Gorsuch!</p><p>Noting that "Oklahoma is far from the only State that has overstepped its authority in Indian country[,]" Gorsuch takes the states to task.<br></p><blockquote>In the end, only one message rings true. Even the carefully selected history Oklahoma and the dissent recite is not nearly as tidy as they suggest. It supplies us with little help in discerning the law's meaning and much potential for mischief. If anything, the persistent if unspoken message here seems to be that we should be taken by the "practical advantages" of ignoring the written law. How much easier it would be, after all, to let the State proceed as it has always assumed it might. But just imagine what it would mean to indulge that path. A State exercises jurisdiction over Native Americans with such persistence that the practice seems normal. Indian landowners lose their titles by fraud or otherwise in sufficient volume that no one remembers whose land it once was. All this continues for long enough that a reservation that was once beyond doubt becomes questionable, and then even farfetched. Sprinkle in a few predictions here, some contestable commentary there, and the job is done, a reservation is disestablished. None of these moves would be permitted in any other area of statutory interpretation, and there is no reason why they should be permitted here. That would be the rule of the strong, not the rule of law.</blockquote><p>The majority also took the time to remind us why it's important that states don't get to decide on their own to get rid of tribal land.</p><blockquote>Under our Constitution, States have no authority to reduce federal reservations lying within their borders. Just imagine if they did. A State could encroach on the tribal boundaries or legal rights Congress provided, and, with enough time and patience, nullify the promises made in the name of the United States. That would be at odds with the Constitution, which entrusts Congress with the authority to regulate commerce with Native Americans, and directs that federal treaties and statutes are the "supreme Law of the Land." It would also leave tribal rights in the hands of the very neighbors who might be least inclined to respect them.</blockquote><p>There's been a lot of talk this term, especially the last few weeks, about the man who gutted the Voting Rights Act a few short <strong></strong>years ago secretly being John Roberts, The Liberal. In <em>McGirt</em>, Roberts reminds us that he is, in fact, a gross conservative Republican and there's a reason George W. Bush appointed him.<br></p><p>Roberts doesn't even really attempt to justify his view with anything as silly as legal analysis. Rather than attack the majority's reasoning, the Chief Justice focuses on what he perceives to be problems with the outcome, whining about potential confusion in state and local issues "from zoning and taxation to family and environmental law[.]" And, according to Roberts,<br></p><blockquote>None of this is warranted. What has gone unquestioned for a century remains true today: A huge portion of Oklahoma is not a Creek Indian reservation.</blockquote><p>Clarence Thomas, who joined almost all of Roberts's dissent, also felt the need to chime in with his own one-paragraph dissent to say "SCREW YOU, PEOPLE ASSERTING SO-CALLED 'RIGHTS.'" <br></p><blockquote>I agree with the Chief Justice that the Court misapplies our precedents in granting petitioner relief. Ante, at 6–38 (dissenting opinion). But in doing so, the Court also overrides Oklahoma's statutory procedural bar, upsetting a violent sex offender's conviction without the power to do so. The State of Oklahoma deserves more respect under our Constitution's federal system.</blockquote><p><em>Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh</em>.<br></p><p>Over the tears spouted by the four dissenters, Gorsuch reminds us that tribal sovereignty is not a novel concept.<br></p><blockquote>In saying this we say nothing new. For years, States have sought to suggest that allotments automatically ended reservations, and for years courts have rejected the argument. Remember, Congress has defined "Indian country" to include "all land within the limits of any Indian reservation ... notwithstanding the issuance of any patent, and, including any rights-of-way running through the reservation." So the relevant statute expressly contemplates private land ownership within reservation boundaries. Nor under the statute's terms does it matter whether these individual parcels have passed hands to non-Indians.To the contrary, this Court has explained repeatedly that Congress does not disestablish a reservation simply by allowing the transfer of individual plots, whether to Native Americans or others.<br><br>It isn't so hard to see why. The federal government issued its own land patents to many homesteaders throughout the West. These patents transferred legal title and are the basis for much of the private land ownership in a number of States today. But no one thinks any of this diminished the United States's claim to sovereignty over any land. To accomplish that would require an act of cession, the transfer of a sovereign claim from one nation to another. And there is no reason why Congress cannot reserve land for tribes in much the same way, allowing them to continue to exercise governmental functions over land even if they no longer own it communally.</blockquote><h2>Tribal sovereignty wins for once!</h2><div>This case is a huge victory for tribal citizens and tribal rights.</div><div>Jonodev Chaudhuri, Muscogee (Creek) Nation ambassador, <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/good-day-to-be-indigenous-high-court-ruling-cheered-futwtM8XcEmuRm1fNVwWew" target="_blank">noted</a> that, for the Muscogee (Creek) people, this was about much more than criminal jurisdiction:<blockquote>Many folks are in tears. Despite a history of many broken promises, as is true with many tribal nations, the citizens feel uplifted that for once the United States is being held to its promises.</blockquote><p>And like McGirt's attorney, Ian Gershengorn, <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/high-court-backs-tribal-designation-for-wide-swath-of-oklahoma-land/" target="_blank">said</a>,</p><blockquote>Congress persuaded the Creek Nation to walk the Trail of Tears with promises of a reservation — and the court today correctly recognized that that this reservation endures[.]</blockquote></div><div>Oklahoma's state and tribal governments are already working together to implement the decision. On Friday, five tribes and the state of Oklahoma released a <a href="http://www.oag.ok.gov/state-muscogee-creek-cherokee-chickasaw-choctaw-and-seminole-nations-release-joint-statement-in-response-to-scotus-decision-in-mcgirt-case" target="_blank">joint statement</a> saying:</div><div><blockquote>The State, the Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole Nations have made substantial progress toward an agreement to present to Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice addressing and resolving any significant jurisdictional issues raised by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma.<br><br>The Nations and the State are committed to ensuring that Jimcy McGirt, Patrick Murphy, and all other offenders face justice for the crimes for which they are accused. We have a shared commitment to maintaining public safety and long-term economic prosperity for the Nations and Oklahoma.<br><br>The Nations and the State are committed to implementing a framework of shared jurisdiction that will preserve sovereign interests and rights to self-government while affirming jurisdictional understandings, procedures, laws, and regulations that support public safety, our economy, and private property rights. We will continue our work, confident that we can accomplish more together than any of us could alone.</blockquote></div><div>There is a lot of terrible stuff going on right now. But at least this one time, justice has prevailed.<br></div><p>You know what? I'll let Justice Gorsuch have the last word on this one.<br></p><blockquote>The federal government promised the Creek a reservation in perpetuity. Over time, Congress has diminished that reservation. It has sometimes restricted and other times expanded the Tribe's authority. But Congress has never withdrawn the promised reservation. As a result, many of the arguments before us today follow a sadly familiar pattern. Yes, promises were made, but the price of keeping them has become too great, so now we should just cast a blind eye. We reject that thinking. If Congress wishes to withdraw its promises, it must say so. Unlawful acts, performed long enough and with sufficient vigor, are never enough to amend the law. To hold otherwise would be to elevate the most brazen and longstanding injustices over the law, both rewarding wrong and failing those in the right.</blockquote><p>Many thanks to the Native American Journalists Association for this excellent <a href="https://najanewsroom.com/2020/07/08/naja-reporting-guide-u-s-supreme-court-cases-mcgirt-v-oklahoma-and-sharp-v-murphy/" target="_blank">reporting guide</a> on the case!<br></p><p>Here's the [shockingly good] opinion!</p><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="null" data-auto-height="true" data-rm-shortcode-id="cb95a75eaf22532b94c29dea035413d8" frameborder="0" height="600" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/468613829/content?start_page=1&show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><p>[ <a href="https://najanewsroom.com/2020/07/08/naja-reporting-guide-u-s-supreme-court-cases-mcgirt-v-oklahoma-and-sharp-v-murphy/" target="_blank">NAJA</a> / <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/high-court-backs-tribal-designation-for-wide-swath-of-oklahoma-land/" target="_blank">Courthouse News</a> / <a href="http://www.oag.ok.gov/state-muscogee-creek-cherokee-chickasaw-choctaw-and-seminole-nations-release-joint-statement-in-response-to-scotus-decision-in-mcgirt-case" target="_blank">Joint Statement</a> / <a href="https://www.indianz.com/News/2020/07/09/on-the-far-end-of-the-trail-of-tears-nat.asp" target="_blank">Indianz.com</a> ]<br></p><p><strong>For more hot legal takes, follow Jamie on <a href="https://twitter.com/jamielynncrofts" target="_blank">Twitter</a></strong><strong>!</strong><br></p><p><strong>And if you love reading hot legal takes, donate to Wonkette by clicking below!</strong></p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Nice Time
Here Is Your Fourth Of July Nice Things Spectacular!
No fireworks here, though; it would scare the pets.
July 04, 2020 11:23 AM
It's the Fourth of July, at a time when going out and doing the usual Fourth of July things might be a bit more dangerous than the typical sunburns, potato salad that sat out too long, or tongs-related injuries (you silly BBQ klutz, you). So let's make the best of it, maybe watch Hamilton, and relax with a collection of oddments from around the webs. If you want to, you could even look at our Independence Day reading collection from last year, one part of which we're going to just copy-paste right into this post here, because it's timelier than ever. Stay safe, wear that mask, and if you need to join the dogs under the coffee table when the neighbors start shooting off fireworks, scritch 'em behind the ears for me. The dogs, not the neighbors.
<h2>Frederick Douglass: Still Doing An Amazing Job</h2><p>
This year, as many Americans lurch unsteadily toward what looks like a serious attempt at reckoning with our Original Sin, Frederick Douglass's July 5, 1852 speech to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society,
<a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/" target="_blank">"What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"</a> feels more important than ever. It's an impressive indictment of our founding myths, and a hell of a good piece of rhetoric, too, daring to implicate even his allies, the abolitionist society that had invited him, in the enslavement of fellow humans. Yes, they opposed slavery, and were on the right side of history. But Douglass was compelled to remind his white allies that the holiday they'd marked the day before belonged to them — not yet to all Americans. If you have time, go <a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/" target="_blank">read the full thing here.</a>
</p><p>
On
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/03/887027326/what-the-fourth-of-july-meant-to-those-enslaved-in-the-u-s" target="_blank">NPR yesterday, </a>Yale historian David Blight, author of the biography<em> </em><a href="https://amzn.to/38rVOSy" target="_blank"><em>Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,</em></a> described the speech as a "symphony with three movements":
</p><blockquote>
First movement, he sets them at ease by honoring the Founding Fathers. He calls the Declaration of Independence the ring-bolt of American liberty. He calls the Fourth of July the American Passover. He sets them all at ease, but then he takes them through a litany of all the horrors of the slave trade, of the slave ships, of slave auction blocks. He takes that audience to the dark heart of what slavery really is.
<br>
<br>
And then that middle movement - he says, oh, be warned. Be warned. There is a horrible reptile coiled up at your nation's heart. And then he ends. And the last movement of the speech, he says, your nation is still young. It is still malleable, changeable. It's not quite too late. You might yet have a chance to save yourselves.
<br>
<br>
This speech is a rhetorical masterpiece. And its great theme is American secular and religious hypocrisy for the practice of slavery. And it is a great warning that if the country doesn't find a way to face this problem, it will face tremendous disruption, tremendous violence. Today, it will remind people so much of the current crisis we're in and this ever-lasting problem that we never quite are able to solve — the question of race.
</blockquote><p>
Here's a small excerpt from that middle movement, just before the part that
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=frederick+douglass+fourth+of+july&search%5Bsource%5D=goodreads&search_type=quotes&tab=quotes" target="_blank">shows up everywhere.</a>
</p><blockquote>
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
<br>
<br>
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. [...]
<br>
<br>
But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? [...]
<br>
<br>
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
</blockquote><p>
We could do with fewer military parades and a lot more Frederick Douglass, if you ask me.
</p><h2>As The Statues Come Down, Signs Are Going Up</h2><p>
Historian Kevin Levin
<a href="https://twitter.com/KevinLevin/status/1279037556437417984" target="_blank">lets us know</a> that, as the gross old monuments to the Confederacy have been coming down in Richmond, Virginia, a local group of vigilante historians and artists calling itself "History is Illuminating" has been <a href="https://www.nbc12.com/2020/07/02/new-historical-markers-popping-up-place-confederate-monuments/" target="_blank">putting up signs</a> along Monument Avenue that resemble roadside historical markers, but with a more pronounced editorial perspective on the city's Black history.
</p><div id="3a670" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="75bdd5689f2cba439421521352b9bbab"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1278999848730189824" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">I think we have to see these historical markers that are popping up along Richmond's Monument Avenue as another exa… https://t.co/PVatARYwAb</div> — Kevin M. Levin (@Kevin M. Levin)<a href="https://twitter.com/KevinLevin/statuses/1278999848730189824">1593772301.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
Here's a sign near the spot where the Robert E. Lee statue formerly stood:
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQzNTU1OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MjAzNjg1MX0.eJ9WM2xOZoiRb0gP41pn1tj3ULkqFxqecPrcAx-FHNQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="a3baf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2d67d3b55c50aa30800aab70833865fd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Monumental Opposition: Monuments often generate controversy. Robert E. Lee was asked about potential memorials at Gettysburg in 1869. Lee wrote that he felt it better "to obliterate the marks of civil strife" and "not to keep open the sores of war. Nonetheless, twenty-one years later a statue was erected here in Lee's honor. John Mitchell, Jr. wrote of the unveiling in the Richmond Planet, the Black-run newspaper, that the South's reverence for its former leaders slowed progress and forged "heavier chains with which to be bound." ">
</p><blockquote>
Monumental Opposition: Monuments often generate controversy. Robert E. Lee was asked about potential memorials at Gettysburg in 1869. Lee wrote that he felt it better "to obliterate the marks of civil strife" and "not to keep open the sores of war. Nonetheless, twenty-one years later a statue was erected here in Lee's honor. John Mitchell, Jr. wrote of the unveiling in the Richmond Planet, the Black-run newspaper, that the South's reverence for its former leaders slowed progress and forged "heavier chains with which to be bound."
</blockquote><p>
In a
<a href="http://cwmemory.com/2020/07/03/blurring-the-lines-between-history-and-activism-on-richmonds-monument-avenue/" target="_blank">blog post</a> on the project, Levin reflects,
</p><blockquote>
Clearly, these markers have a limited shelf life. The narratives work in conjunction with the process of removal, but it does raise the question of whether interpretive markers will find a place on this re-imagined urban landscape. My hope is that the city can find a way to tell the full story of why these monuments were created, sustained for so long, and finally removed in 2020.
<br>
<br>
The removal of monuments continues to be framed as an attempt to erase history, but over the past few weeks we've seen the opposite in the former capital of the Confederacy. It is history that has propelled people to take to the streets and make demands on their local government.
<br>
<br>
It is the acknowledgment of history in these historical markers that is helping to reshape a city and give new direction to its future.
</blockquote><p>
Way to go, Richmond.
</p><h2>Also, The Cute Animals And Twitter Stuff</h2><div id="9eec7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3f315814f98801461db87e03d3018053"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1279124359970353152" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Thornton is in a deep Zen Purring state at the moment. https://t.co/jCtanfsGb3</div> — Doktor Zoom (@Doktor Zoom)<a href="https://twitter.com/DoktorZoom/statuses/1279124359970353152">1593801987.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
<br>
</p><p>
<br>
</p><div id="40882" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d9f986a33508159df0ded6582f1879f1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1278745107035041798" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Lockdown has provided important research time for science https://t.co/3F0szNPLxo</div> — Theo Shantonas (@Theo Shantonas)<a href="https://twitter.com/TheoShantonas/statuses/1278745107035041798">1593711566.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
<br>
</p><div id="e5ea2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d642dc20b8264c5e222f14dd8b711d5c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1278482103055929345" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">“uhm excuse me is that a taco” https://t.co/iKYISc4u1r</div> — Jessica Huseman (@Jessica Huseman)<a href="https://twitter.com/JessicaHuseman/statuses/1278482103055929345">1593648861.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
This Politically Correct Cancel Culture has gone too far, 238 CE edition:
</p><div id="9069e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0235d69657b3e5fb2573025a57982b7d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1278398645809733632" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">just learned a NEW FAVORITE FACT, which is that after the roman emperor maximinus thrax was overthrown, somebody de… https://t.co/xYY5nnWLTR</div> — Josh Fruhlinger (@Josh Fruhlinger)<a href="https://twitter.com/jfruh/statuses/1278398645809733632">1593628963.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
Giggling foxes!
</p><div id="7de25" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5e9bfcc8b53728ce1b216dbd0dda9706"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1277601602866761729" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">If you've never heard a fox laugh, you’re welcome!
https://t.co/jOLVddXWJ1</div> — mollyfprince (@mollyfprince)<a href="https://twitter.com/mollyfprince/statuses/1277601602866761729">1593438933.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
Yes, that's from the same fox rescue that bought us the greatest video of all time, and I do not mind repeating it.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a4786b5e9c690ca2a60052dc6bc3a5d1"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GegN_AXWWqc?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Dixiedo fox runs away with my phone. Tries to bury it</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://youtu.be/GegN_AXWWqc" target="_blank">youtu.be</a>
</small>
</p><p><br></p><p> Also, little tiny musk oxen:</p><div id="5c985" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="36c5b751b9d35db6161f8aca2ff2f298"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1261974308315901952" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Just a reminder that they don’t really get super big either. People imagine them to be quite large, but they’re act… https://t.co/SOXVRTGhgQ</div> — Beth Windle (@Beth Windle)<a href="https://twitter.com/WindleBeth/statuses/1261974308315901952">1589713096.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
Two-dimensional birbs:
</p><div id="827c4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b28491733e9d301a2b4eaae696f5cdb4"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1248361515494912000" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#2DBirbs is my #quarantineArtProject that blends my love of birds and silliness. I made paper cutout illustrations,… https://t.co/VjC4e49BEw</div> — Charlotte Belland (@Charlotte Belland)<a href="https://twitter.com/bellandpixel/statuses/1248361515494912000">1586467553.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
And we'll close with this reminder, via noted political pundit Our Girlfriend: <em>Do not taunt Happy Fun Goat.</em>
</p><div id="dd436" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="50ffcf4eee1ec315d4be466b0dcdc66f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1276971350104686595" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Audio way up.
You won't be disappointed. https://t.co/vIm8mkE4Cx</div> — GenXmuse (@GenXmuse)<a href="https://twitter.com/LCbasecamp/statuses/1276971350104686595">1593288669.0</a></blockquote></div><p>
OK, fine, it's not her goat or anything, she just found the video. Point stands.
</p><p>
Have a safe and happy Fourth, you!
</p><p><strong>Update: </strong>Well phoo, this was supposed to go up at 11 EDT and be yr OPEN THREAD, so I've changed the timestamp so it'll be in the right spot on the front page. </p><p><br></p><p>
[<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/03/887027326/what-the-fourth-of-july-meant-to-those-enslaved-in-the-u-s" target="_blank">NPR </a>/ <a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/" target="_blank">Teaching American History</a> / <a href="https://www.nbc12.com/2020/07/02/new-historical-markers-popping-up-place-confederate-monuments/" target="_blank">WWBT </a>/ <a href="http://cwmemory.com/2020/07/03/blurring-the-lines-between-history-and-activism-on-richmonds-monument-avenue/" target="_blank">Civil War Memory</a>]
</p><p>
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Environment
Do Californians Dream Of Electric Trucks?
Yes, yes they do.
June 26, 2020 10:28 AM
California regulators are fixing to issue the nation's most ambitious mandate to replace diesel trucks with electric vehicles, with a regulation that would require half of trucks sold in the state be zero-emission by 2035, and all new trucks to have zero emissions by 2045. The move is expected to push technology development and clean the air, not to mention helping the state reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030.
Not surprisingly, the oil and trucking industries oppose it because just pumping out filth has been profitable up until now, and who cares about a planet that's habitable by our descendants when there's a third-quarter profit goal to meet? Besides, COVID-19 has already been bad for business and now you want trucks to not make low-income areas hell to live in?
<p>The push for clean trucks isn't just part of the fight against global warning; in California, moving away from reliance on diesel is literally a quality of life issue since trucking is essential to the tech industry. As the <em>New York Times</em> notes, </p><blockquote> On one freeway in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, near the largest concentration of Amazon warehouses in the country, a community group recently counted almost 1,200 delivery trucks go by in one hour. [...]<br><br>Transportation makes up 40 percent of California's greenhouse gas emissions, and is a major contributor to smog-causing nitrogen oxides and diesel particulate matter pollution, which are linked to health problems including respiratory conditions. Of those transportation sector emissions, as much as 70 percent of smog-causing pollution and 80 percent of particulate matter are from diesel trucks, even though they make up just 7 percent of the 30 million vehicles registered in California.</blockquote><p>California's Air Resources Board <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/overview-diesel-exhaust-and-health" target="_blank">estimates</a> that currently, particulates from diesel engines "increase statewide cancer risk by 520 cancers per million residents" along with killing people via heart disease and hospitalizing people for asthma and other heart and lung diseases. Getting diesel trucks off the road <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/climate/zero-emissions-trucks-california.html" target="_blank">could result</a> in </p><blockquote> at least $9 billion in public health benefits. California also estimates that the rule will lower the state's carbon dioxide emissions by 17 million metric tons, roughly the same amount as pollution from burning almost 100,000 rail cars' worth of coal, and save truck operators $6 billion in fuel costs.</blockquote><p>Yeah, yeah, those fuel savings come after they've sunk a load of money into new fleets. But it has to be done, and also just think of all the manufacturing jobs, plus the long-term benefits of a population that<em> isn't dying from dirty air.</em> </p><p>That truck survey in the Inland Empire was conducted by the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, whose president, Anthony Victoria, points out that with over 20,000 trucks driving around the area on the busiest days, "Children oftentimes can't play outside on certain days because the air quality is so bad," and not even the coronavirus has led to less traffic, since more people are ordering stuff online now. The <em>Times</em> also notes that in 2018, the area </p><blockquote>exceeded federal smog standards for almost 90 days straight. In its latest assessment, the American Lung Association warned residents of wider San Bernardino county: "<a href="http://www.stateoftheair.org/city-rankings/states/california/san-bernardino.html" target="_blank" title="">The air you breathe may put your health at risk</a>." </blockquote><p>The new rules would set clean-vehicle requirements for all categories of commercial trucks, from highway-going big rigs to local delivery trucks. The percentage of zero-emissions trucks sold would be required to increase each year until it reaches 100 percent in 2045. California has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/climate/california-electric-buses.html" target="_blank">already committed</a> to purchasing only electric buses for public transit systems by 2029, with a goal of making all public buses electric by 2040.</p><p>And California hopes to be at the center of clean-vehicle manufacturing, too; electric truck builder Rivian will be expanding its operations in California, shifting its product development team from Michigan. Last fall, <a href="https://www.motortrend.com/news/rivian-electric-delivery-van-amazon-photos-specs/" target="_blank">Amazon ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans</a> from Rivian, with the first units expected to hit the road in 2021, 10,000 in service by the end of 2022, and the full fleet on the road by 2030. Unless Donald Trump is reelected and requires Amazon to switch its entire delivery fleet to coal. </p><p>And yes, there really are electric big rigs currently being developed; <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/25/883233434/california-regulators-set-to-approve-nations-1st-electric-truck-mandate" target="_blank">this NPR story</a> lets you hear one, sort of, because it makes virtually no sound at all. </p><p><br></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><iframe frameborder="0" height="290" scrolling="no" src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/883233434/883233435" title="NPR embedded audio player" width="100%"></iframe></div><p>For Crom's sake, get some of those great big trucks to the White House so Donald Trump can pretend he's driving one. "It doesn't make any noise at all! Who would believe it? Next it'll be invisible like the stealth fighter!"</p><p>One of the tricks in getting to an electric vehicle future, of course, will be making charging easier, and for a look at the challenges and opportunities involved there, see <a href="https://www.niskanencenter.org/electric-vehicle-chargers-build-it-and-they-will-come/" target="_blank">this article</a> on the House's latest infrastructure bill, which would provide $1.75 billion over five years to build public electric vehicle charging stations. It's a circular problem: Consumers would buy more electric vehicles if there were more options to charge them while traveling. BUT companies are reluctant to invest in charging infrastructure because there isn't enough demand yet. The good news? Build public charging infrastructure, and people will use it: "After Kansas City built 1,000 charging stations, there was a subsequent increase in electric vehicles, from <a href="https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/kcp-l-reaches-goal-to-install-1-000-electric-vehicle-charging-stations" target="_blank">80 to at least 5,000</a>."</p><p>The relatively small amount of funding in the infrastructure bill amounts only to a pilot program; it would pay for about 7,000 new fast-charge stations to supplement the 14,000 charging stations that currently exist. (Tesla's nearly 2000 "Supercharger" stations only work for Tesla cars, also too.) What we <em>really </em>need is more like 300,000 to 1.6 million of 'em (for a fleet of 50 million EVs in the US) by 2030 to meet decarbonization goals. Hell yes, it's daunting, but it would also create jobs and economic growth, plus the nice benefit of keeping the planet habitable for big mammals who drive cars and trucks. </p><p>[<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/climate/zero-emissions-trucks-california.html" target="_blank">NYT </a>/ <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/25/883233434/california-regulators-set-to-approve-nations-1st-electric-truck-mandate" target="_blank">NPR </a>/ <a href="https://www.motortrend.com/news/rivian-electric-delivery-van-amazon-photos-specs/" target="_blank">Motor Trend</a> / <a href="https://www.niskanencenter.org/electric-vehicle-chargers-build-it-and-they-will-come/" target="_blank">Niskanen Center</a>]</p><p>Yr Wonkette is energized entirely by reader donations, and that keeps us AD FREE, if not yet carbon neutral. Help us bring you more snark per minute with a donation, won't you? </p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Nice Time
Florida Men Sad Racist Monument Was Moved, Even Sadder When Court Tells Them To Suck It
Cry cry cry baby cry cry.
June 25, 2020 03:45 PM
In the midst of a national conversation about systemic racism, a conservative federal appellate court based in Georgia ... did the right thing in a suit about a Confederate monument! Nice times!
Earlier this week, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals told some racists who were whining about the relocation of a Confederate monument to pound sand, ruling they didn't have standing to even bring the case in the first place.
Gardner v. Mutz is about a cenotaph (empty tomb/monument) for Confederate veterans that used to sit in the Munn Park historic district, in the town square of Lakeland, Florida. Incredibly, the monument was never even going to be destroyed or put into a private collection; it was simply moved to a different spot. Rather than sitting in a place of honor in the town square, it's now placed in a veteran's cemetery.
Yeah, it's all dumb.
<p>Some racist idiots, Wade Steven Gardner, Randy Whittaker, and Mary Joyce Stevens, teamed up with Southern War Cry, the Judah P. Benjamin Camp #2210 Sons of Confederate Veterans, Veterans Monuments of America, and Save Southern Heritage to fight against the monument's relocation. Of the organizations involved in this case, the only one that doesn't exist solely and explicitly to preserve monuments to slavery and white supremacy is Veterans Monuments of America. </p><p>Amazingly, the plaintiffs in this case put their bigotry and ignorance on full display, arguing that they were trying to "vindicate the cause for which the Confederate Veteran fought[.]" Because apparently they never got the memo that "owning" other people is, you know, a bad thing.</p><p>The legal arguments here are so fucking stupid that I was amazed these fools had even found a lawyer to bring the case — until I googled their lawyer.</p><p>The plaintiffs were represented by David McAllister, a Florida Man who leads the Tampa chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and acted as a spokesperson for Save Southern Heritage Florida, which exists to protect monuments to slavery and racism. Save Southern Heritage Florida is known <span></span>for <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/southern-heritage-group-draws-fire-for-posting-personal-information-of/2334690/" target="_blank">doxxing</a> civil rights activists and calling them things like "resentful black man," "resentful black woman," and "anti-law enforcement" in a spreadsheet posted on their website. McAllister also recently <a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/288373-david-mccallister-to-run-as-pro-trump-candidate-in-hd-38-special-election" target="_blank">ran</a> for the Florida state legislature as a "pro-Trump Republican," with a platform based on protecting racist monuments, letting people have all the guns and bump stocks they want, and discriminating against pregnant people.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-proxy-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGd3AtY29udGVudCUyRnVwbG9hZHMlMkYyMDE5JTJGMDIlMkZTY3JlZW4tU2hvdC0yMDE5LTAyLTE0LWF0LTEuMjIuMjMtUE0ucG5nJmhvPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGM28xNWgwMzN6bXB3cmFjd3gyaTAwcnF4LXdwZW5naW5lLm5ldGRuYS1zc2wuY29tJnM9Njc5Jmg9OGQ5MGRjZGQwZGNhMzc2YTM4YjI5MGM4YmYyNDIxZDg1ZWY2MTViYzI1YmEzYjU1NzY2N2M1ZmZkYWI1NjNlOCZzaXplPTk4MHgmYz0yNzcwNjEyODkwIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDI3NDYzMH0.6Qbb2Hf_KqbJTC9VmGk3s0HCwGw4Hke-SJ7-Os-yEfc/img.jpg" id="52c29" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="75cc7dab95691af02bfe29b5a6789a25">
</p><p>So yeah. All of the people on the plaintiff's side here are real gems, lawyer included.<br></p><p>When the racists filed their suit, Lakeland hadn't yet moved the monument. After the case was dismissed by the District Court, the plaintiffs appealed to the 11th Circuit but, for reasons passing understanding, didn't ask for a stay. Because the plaintiffs never even asked for a stay, the city was able to relocate the cenotaph. By the time the appellate court heard the case, the statue was already in its current location. (Legally speaking, trying to get a court to make the government move a statue is <em>even fucking dumber</em> than trying to get a court to make the government keep a statue up.) </p><p>In dismissing the appellant racists' claims, the court found that they never actually had the <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/emoluments-clause-standing" target="_blank">standing</a> to sue in federal court in the first place. "Standing" is a legal doctrine that comes from the Constitution's requirement that federal courts can only hear actual "cases or controversies." Basically, standing means you have to actually be harmed by something in order to sue over it. </p><p>Because the coalition of racists never had standing to sue in the first place, the court didn't even get to the fun part of ripping apart their absurd First Amendment arguments, which is kind of sad. It would have been fun to watch a court rip apart this absolutely batshit "hurr durr FREE SPEECH" lunacy.</p><p>As the court noted, to establish standing, a plaintiff must suffer "an invasion of a legally protected interest that is both concrete and particularized." (internal quotes omitted). </p><p>At <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/confederate-groups-fight-to-revive-lawsuit-over-florida-statue-removal/" target="_blank">oral argument</a> in April, McAllister argued to the 11th Circuit that his clients had suffered "psychological damage" because of the racist statute's relocation. Which says a lot more about him and his clients than it does anything else. <em>Shockingly</em>, the court did not accept the plaintiffs' psychological distress at the relocation of a racist monument as significantly concrete and particularized to give them standing to sue in federal court. As the court held, the racist "interests" presented by the plaintiffs "are simply too vague, inchoate, and undifferentiated" to give them standing to sue.<br></p><p>So suck it, racist losers. And welcome to the 21st century. You can throw your complaint in the trash, where it belongs.</p><p>Here's the opinion:</p><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="null" data-auto-height="true" data-rm-shortcode-id="b83784c46205555b048732fc5a0d87ef" frameborder="0" height="600" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/466696805/content?start_page=1&show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><p><br></p><p>Follow Jamie on <a href="https://twitter.com/jamielynncrofts" target="_blank">Twitter</a>!</p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p>Wonkette is funded ENTIRELY by YOU! Be the funding you want to see in the world! Click the thingie below if you are able! </p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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