Cross-Examination

• Justices seem skeptical of Colorado ruling on Trump: What gives Colorado the right to decide the presidential election for the rest of the nation? That was the general thrust of the questions from not only the Supreme Court’s conservatives but also its liberals yesterday, as the Court heard oral arguments on whether the 14th Amendment’s Civil War-era “disqualification” clause bars Donald Trump from running for president again. Indeed, some of the toughest questions yesterday came from Obama appointee Elena Kagan and Biden appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson. It was as clear a sign as you’ll ever see that the Roberts Court is seeking a resounding consensus in its ruling on an important constitutional question rather than coming down with a contentious and narrowly decided 5-4 ruling. Not surprisingly, the former president liked what he saw from his home in Florida. “In watching the Supreme Court today,” he remarked, “I thought it was a very beautiful process. I thought the presentation today was a very good one. I think it was well received. I hope it was well received.” Asked whether the events of January 6, 2021, met the Constitution’s disqualification standard, Trump lawyer Jonathan Mitchell answered: “For an insurrection, there needs to be an organized, concerted effort to overthrow the government of the United States through violence.” Apparently, Mitchell thinks a relatively small and unarmed mob of rioters possibly spurred on by a still mysterious number of undercover FBI agents falls somewhat short of that “insurrectionist” standard.

• Biden suddenly finds “new” border enforcement powers: Last month, as senators were wrangling over an eventually failed bipartisan border bill, Joe Biden disingenuously claimed that his hands were effectively tied, that he was all out of “options” in his ability to confront the border crisis if Congress didn’t act to grant him more power to address the situation. That claim was a politically calculated lie, which mainstream media outlets like NBC News were more than willing to report as if it were undeniable. Never mind the fact that the reason millions of illegal aliens have streamed across the southern border is due to the Biden administration enacting a de facto policy of open borders where nearly every migrant who illegally enters is classified as an “asylum seeker.” Now that the Senate’s bipartisan border bill has died, Biden has suddenly discovered that he does indeed have more available powers to enforce border security than previously asserted. Biden is considering issuing an executive order to do so. Of course, this, too, is all political theater aimed at projecting the false narrative that Biden has been seeking to do all within his power to tackle the illegal immigration problem but has been stymied by Republicans.

• Bad press forces NYC DA Bragg: Speaking of illegal immigration, Manhattan’s soft-on-crime District Attorney Alvin Bragg has suddenly had a change of heart thanks to growing public outrage over video footage that captured a group of illegal aliens beating two cops in Times Square. As New York City residents have increasingly become fed up with the influx of migrants into their self-declared “sanctuary city,” the instance of a gang of illegals beating cops and then immediately walking free — middle fingers on display — has only raised the criticism of the city’s Democrat leaders to a fever pitch. Even New York’s Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul weighed in: “Get them all and send them back. You don’t touch our police officers. You don’t touch anyone.” On Thursday, Bragg announced charges against seven of the illegal aliens involved in the beating, stating, “We have absolutely no tolerance for this despicable behavior.” However, thanks to Bragg’s decision to release those same illegal aliens, some of them “have not yet been apprehended.” These criminal illegal aliens are on the lam. This is what failure to uphold the law faithfully gets you.

• Hawaii dismisses Second Amendment: Not content to be outdone by the Colorado Supreme Court’s cockamamie ruling that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist and is therefore ineligible to run for president, Hawaii’s highest court has ruled that our nation’s Second Amendment doesn’t apply to Hawaiians. As Fox News reports: “In the ruling, which was penned by Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Todd Eddins, the court determined that states ‘retain the authority to require’ individuals to hold proper permits before carrying firearms in public. The decision also concluded that the Hawaii Constitution broadly ‘does not afford a right to carry firearms in public places for self defense.’” And what solemn legal principle do these justices cite as justification for this egregious usurpation? Why, “the Spirit of Aloha,” of course. “We read those words differently than the current United States Supreme Court,” wrote Eddins and his fellow travelers. “We hold that in Hawaii there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public.” Don’t get us wrong: We used to watch “Hawaii Five-0” growing up, and we hope to one day visit that earthly paradise before we die. But not if the Bill of Rights doesn’t apply, and not if the people’s right to self-defense is essentially ignored. “Aloha” is, of course, a greeting. But it’s also a means of saying “good-bye.” Which is just what the U.S. Supreme Court should say to this ruling if it ever gets that far.

• Trump wins unopposed in Nevada, leads Haley 60-29 in South Carolina: Lost amid the tumult about the Constitution’s 14th and 25th Amendments was yesterday’s Republican presidential caucus in the swing state of Nevada. There, Donald Trump won easily in an event that Nikki Haley boycotted due to what she considered a rigged system favoring Trump. Instead, Haley ran in the Silver State’s symbolic Tuesday primary and finished with 31% of the vote, well behind someone named “None of These Candidates,” who finished with 63% of the vote. As the AP reports: “From Nevada, the GOP contest pivots to the South Carolina primary in Haley’s home state on Feb. 24. Trump remains popular in the deeply conservative state but Haley, who won two elections as South Carolina’s governor, is hoping her local roots give her an edge. Trump is eyeing a massive delegate haul during the March 5 Super Tuesday contests, which would move him closer to becoming the GOP’s presumptive nominee.” As for Haley’s prospects going forward, the RealClearPolitics average has her trailing Trump 74-18 nationally and 60-29 in South Carolina. Her path to victory seems somewhat south of plausible.

• House probes John Kerry: Joe Biden’s climate czar John Kerry, who is soon leaving the post, ostensibly to join Biden’s reelection team, may have actually been motivated to jump ship for other reasons. House Republicans on the Oversight Committee have launched an investigation into Kerry in his role as Special Envoy for Climate (SPEC) over claims that he colluded and coordinated “with leftist environmental groups.” Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “Meetings with leftist environmental organizations, sometimes collectively addressed as the ‘Kitchen Cabinet,’ go far beyond normal briefings and raise questions regarding possible conflicts of interests involving SPEC staff’s ties to these groups regarding climate finance investments.” Comer further alleges that SPEC has failed to comply with any oversight measures. In other words, Kerry has effectively run a rogue executive entity that has hidden the details of its working with leftist environmentalist groups.

• ChiComs’ useful Microsoft idiots: Doing the bidding of an evil genocidal communist regime should be a bridge too far for Silicon Valley and its famous expressing concerns for human rights and even human feelings. But as the saying goes, money talks. And apparently, it has been talking so loudly to Microsoft that the tech giant has been more than willing to develop search algorithms for Chinese users that filter out and censor any reference to the genocide Beijing meted out on its Uyghur population. In fact, Microsoft also helped promote false propaganda of images of a happy Uyghur population with absolutely no hint of any negative experience under China’s communist government. And it’s not as if Microsoft doesn’t know, as the UN has officially accused China of “serious human rights violations.” But never mind that. Beijing rejects the well-documented accusations and claims these are merely “anti-China voices trying to smear China.” Evidently, that excuse is good enough for Microsoft to run interference for Beijing and help pull the wool over Chinese citizens’ eyes.

• Trans people are happy so shut up you bigot: In its ongoing effort to promote the lucrative industry of gender confusion and sexual mutilation, the National Center for Transgender Equality, one of the country’s most prominent “transgender” rights organizations, is trumpeting the results of a survey of more than 90,000 so-called transgender people finding that they continue to experience workplace and medical discrimination. “However,” as NBC News dutifully reports, “the overwhelming majority of them still report more life satisfaction after having transitioned.” The survey is being heralded as “the most comprehensive look to date at life for transgender people in the U.S.” It comes “as hundreds of bills in the last three years have attempted to roll back trans rights” — you know, like the right of men to shower with adolescent girls and compete against them in sports. Frankly, this survey should be seen as an act of defensive desperation. As our Emmy Griffin reported recently, “We are starting to see a litany of these older teens and adults coming forward with their testimonies, and they are going after the medical industry that led them down the veritable garden path.” The survey is meant to silence any dissent.

Headlines

• Republicans furious after Biden avoids charges in classified documents case (Washington Examiner)

• Special counsel: Biden has “significantly limited” memory, didn’t remember when he was VP or when son died (Daily Wire)

• Biden angrily pushes back at special counsel’s report that questioned his memory, handling of docs (AP)

• Biden confuses his presidents in another embarrassing gaffe — moments after fuming, “My memory is fine!” (New York Post)

• Conservative commentator Mark Steyn hit with $1 million fine for calling climate scientist’s work fraudulent (Not the Bee)

• Senate advances Ukraine and Israel aid after GOP blocked larger border bill (NBC News)

• Dem senator torched for calling illegal migrants the “people we care about most” (Fox News)

• Biden says Israel went “over the top” in Gaza (Daily Wire) | Antony Blinken accuses Israel of trying to “dehumanize” Palestinians (Breitbart)

• Budget gap to top $1.6T this year, growing another $1T over next decade (Politico)

• Tech layoffs just keep coming as sector resets for AI (WSJ)

• Mayor London Breed backs Republican-led campaign to overhaul Prop 47 (SFist)

• Harvard obstructs congressional probe into widespread anti-Semitism (Washington Free Beacon)

• Virginia’s largest school district put a “kink-affirming” bondage specialist in charge of reviewing parent complaints about books (Daily Wire)

• Five trans players dominate women’s college volleyball game (New York Post)

• Pediatricians group says research doesn’t support “gender-affirming” treatments (Daily Wire)

• Humor: Troy passes border protection law limiting entrance of wooden horses to 5,000 a day (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.