Cross-Examination

• SCOTUS takes on abortion pill: In August, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FDA acted illegally when it lowered the safety standards for the abortion-inducing drug known as mifepristone. The Fifth Circuit’s ruling effectively ended the Biden administration’s attempt to make mifepristone available in states that have laws limiting or banning abortion. Under the Biden administration, the FDA in 2021 lowered the standards for obtaining mifepristone by eliminating the requirement of in-person doctor appointments and by allowing prescriptions of the drug to be sent through the mail. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case after the Biden administration appealed the lower court’s ruling. This sets up another significant abortion-related ruling by SCOTUS next summer, right in the midst of a presidential election year.

• Supreme Court fails on 2A: As liberty-loving Americans, we’re lucky to have a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Otherwise, we might see an erosion of, for example, our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Oh, wait. In a head-scratcher of a ruling yesterday, the High Court allowed to stand an Illinois law banning certain semiautomatic weapons. As Fox News reports, “In a Thursday order with no noted dissents or explanation of its decision, the Supreme Court denied a request from the National Association for Gun Rights, which asked for a preliminary injunction.” The ban, which was signed in January by the state’s gun-grabbing governor, J.B. Pritzker, covers anyone who “carries or possesses … manufactures, sells, delivers, imports, or purchases any assault weapon or .50 caliber rifle,” and it includes any device that increases the firing rate of a semiauto weapon. That “assault weapons” language is especially dubious, not only because it’s a meaningless term but also because rifles and shotguns are used in less than 3% of all homicides. The petitioner, though, isn’t backing down. Said NAGR President Dudley Brown: “A right delayed is a right denied, and every day these gun bans are enforced is a travesty to freedom. We will be back to the Supreme Court as soon as our legal team finishes drafting our cert petition, and they will have to decide if they really meant what they said in Heller and Bruen.”

• Corrupt FBI “keenly focused” on 2024 election security: In a statement that ought to send chills down the spines of all 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump in 2020, FBI Director Chris Wray says his people are “keenly focused” on the possibility of election interference. “It is not seriously disputed,” he told lawmakers, “that our foreign adversaries have tried and are continuing to try to interfere in our elections,” adding, “We’re keenly focused on the risk … whether it’s Russia, whether it’s China, whether it’s Iran or others.” That’s all well and good, but the real interference in our last election didn’t come from without. It came from within. Indeed, the FBI executed the “Russia collusion” hoax against our nation’s duly elected president, and it intentionally sat on Hunter Biden’s laptop for nearly a year prior to the 2020 election. Furthermore, as the bureau’s own whistleblowers revealed, it used a disinformation campaign in an effort to throw Republican senators off the scent of the Biden family’s influence-peddling operation three months prior to the election. In addition, as Elon Musk’s Twitter Files revealed, the bureau interfered with the election by colluding with Big Tech and social media to “prebunk” and ultimately censor the New York Post’s bombshell laptop story — a story that polling later revealed would have changed the outcome of the election. So when Wray says he’s “keenly focused” on “election interference,” he’s actually making a threat. And we ought to take him seriously.

• Good news: Oklahoma axes DEI: Thanks to an executive order issued by Oklahoma Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, no taxpayer dollars will be going to any state agency or institution for the funding of “diversity, equity, and inclusion positions, departments, activities, procedures, or programs.” Stitt defended his order by explaining: “In Oklahoma, we’re going to encourage equal opportunity, rather than promising equal outcomes. Encouraging our workforce, economy, and education systems to flourish means shifting focus away from exclusivity and discrimination, and toward opportunity and merit. We’re taking politics out of education and focusing on preparing students for the workforce.” According to Stitt’s order, state funding may not be used for a number of things: to force an individual to “participate in, listen to, or receive any education, training, activities, procedures, or programming”; to compel anyone to “swear, certify, or agree to any loyalty oath that favors or prefers one particular race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin over another”; to order that they “certify or declare agreement with, recognition of, or adherence to, any particular political, philosophical, religious, or other ideological viewpoint”; or to require a job applicant to “provide a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement” or “disclose their pronouns.” Oklahoma now joins Florida in banning taxpayer funding of DEI programs and initiatives within state-run agencies or institutions.

• It’s happening — first charging station built: Two years after the Biden administration pushed Congress to allocate $7.5 billion for building “a national network of EV chargers” across the country, the first inaugural station is finally open for business. Located in the small town of London, Ohio, the station features an Arby’s and a Cinnabon. It opened on December 8, though on the first day no one was using it by midday. If you build it, they will come? Eh, apparently not. According to recent polling, just 19% of Americans say they are “very” or “extremely” likely to buy an EV when they purchase their next vehicle. Indeed, automakers are cutting their planned production rate of EVs; Ford announced it is halving its production of the F-150 Lightning next year. Anyway, based on the rate at which the Biden administration is rolling out its network of charging stations, why would anyone handicap their future mobility by buying an EV?

• San Francisco is a homeless camp again: It might be time to invite Chinese President Xi Jinping back for another visit to the City by the Bay. Last month, when the Chinese strongman showed up for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom prepared for the visit by doing the “impossible” — he got San Francisco cleaned up. And that cleanup consisted primarily of ridding the city of its massive homeless population. When questioned about the rapid cleanup, Newsom admitted it was a show: “I know folks say, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all these fancy leaders are coming into town.’ That’s true because it’s true." To Newsom’s, er, credit, he wasn’t lying — human feces and tents once again litter the sidewalks of San Francisco with the return of its homeless population. "It’s recognizable. San Francisco, same as before,” observed Crossfit Golden Gate Gym owner Danielle Rabkin. “Anyone they pushed out of important zones has just slowly crept right back in. Business as usual.”

• Gaza’s useful idiots: Is the Arab world amenable to living in peace with the tiny Jewish state in its midst? Not if the beliefs of the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are any indication. A recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows that only 10% of these residents believe that Hamas committed war crimes during its October 7 invasion of Israel and its border communities. According to the poll: “The overwhelming majority of respondents say that they have not seen videos from international or social media showing atrocities committed by Hamas members against Israeli civilians that day, such as the killing of women and children in their homes. Indeed, more than 90% believe that Hamas fighters did not commit the atrocities contained in these videos.” Are these people filled with hate, or are they oblivious to the facts? As National Review adds, “The widespread backing of the 10/7 invasion, which featured the well-documented slaughter of civilians, has led to increased support for Hamas in both enclaves of the Palestinian territories.” Anyone who doubts the existential threat posed by Hamas to Israel should consider these numbers, and consider the sad reality of how far away from the prospect of peace are the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people.

• Christian vet beheads Satan: We have some good news on a Friday — good news that concerns the ongoing battle between Good and Evil. A devout Christian and former Navy pilot named Michael Cassidy recently tore down and beheaded a Satanist altar that had been erected in the Iowa capitol building. As the Sentinel reports: “Members of the Satanic Temple of Iowa recently received permission to install the exhibit, which included a statue depicting the idol Baphomet holding a pentacle and surrounded by candles, on the first floor of the Iowa Capitol near displays of the Nativity. Cassidy pushed over and decapitated the statue before he discarded the head in a trash can.” Cassidy then turned himself in to the police. And he’s going to need some good legal representation because the satanic cultists have indicated that they’re going to press charges. Cassidy, though, seems certain in the righteousness of his cause: “The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan,” he said, “but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment. Anti-Christian values have steadily been mainstreamed more and more in recent decades, and Christians have largely acted like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water.” We wish him well. As this post by End Wokeness notes, “Not all heroes wear capes.”

Headlines

• Biden admin pushes Israel to end large-scale war with Hamas (Free Beacon) | “High intensity” phase of Gaza war needs to end within weeks, Sullivan tells Netanyahu (Axios)

• FBI official who helped launch Trump-Russia probe sentenced to four years in prison for work with Russian oligarch (National Review)

• Capitol Police commander who ordered evacuations of Senate and House: “J6 was not an insurrection” (PM)

• Federal prosecutor who allegedly interfered in Hunter Biden probe leaves Justice Department (New York Post)

• “Defund the rot”: Congress eyes elite universities’ endowments amid anti-Semitism probe (New York Post)

• House unites behind plan to end Obama-era ban on whole milk in school lunches (Washington Times)

• Virginia Supreme Court backs teacher fired for not using student’s preferred pronouns (Daily Wire)

• First Satanic Temple kids club comes to Memphis elementary school (Daily Wire)

• Facebook’s former head of DEI pleads guilty to swindling the company out of $4 million (Hot Air)

• Megan Rapinoe calls playing for U.S. team “worst job in the world” (Daily Wire)

• VW spent $2 billion to build America a charging network. It’s ranked dead last. (Washington Post)

• Satire: Boston mayor hires bouncer to check skin color outside of entrance to holiday party (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.