Tuesday Executive News Summary
Campus free speech victory, Dems grease the student-loan-forgiveness wheels, climate EO lawsuit, and more.
Top of the Fold
- Near-unanimous Supreme Court sides with Christian student in college free speech case (Daily Caller)
“Justice Clarence Thomas issued the opinion of the high court, siding with Chike Uzuegbunam, a former student at Georgia Gwinnett College, and affirming his right to share his Christian faith on campus. … In 2016, Uzuegbunam was told that he needed to use one of two ‘speech zones,’ which made up less than 1% of the entire campus, if he wanted to continue sharing his Christian faith on campus, according to Alliance Defending Freedom. Uzuegbunam complied, but minutes after speaking in a reserved zone, campus police threatened him with discipline if he continued. … Thomas was joined in his opinion by seven justices from across the ideological spectrum.”
Editor’s note: Raise your hand if you’re shocked John “ObamaCare Is a Tax” Roberts dissented.
- Democrats grease the budget wheels for writing off debt by Biden decree (WSJ)
“A Senate revision to the original [$1.9 trillion COVID] House bill exempts student loans discharged through 2025 from federal income taxes. The IRS treats most cancelled debt as taxable income that must be reported in the year the discharge occurs, and this is a major obstacle to the left’s plans to issue blanket loan forgiveness by executive decree. … The goal of the current Senate Democratic gambit is to remove the immediate legal and practical obstacles to blanket loan forgiveness by President Biden. … Democrats finally discover a tax cut for the affluent that they like.”
Government & Politics
- “Enormous expansion of federal regulatory power”: Biden sued by 12 states over climate EO (Fox Business)
“The suit, which is being led by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, was filed on Monday. State attorneys general from Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah also joined the action. It alleges that Biden's Executive Order 13990, titled ‘Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,’ does not have the authority to issue binding numbers for the ‘social cost’ of greenhouse gases to be used in federal regulations.”
- Stimulus package includes $86 billion taxpayer-funded bailout for mismanaged union pensions (Daily Caller)
“The bailout included in the stimulus package gives government funding to the weakest pension plans, which will be enough to keep the plans solvent for 30 years, according to The New York Times. There are no conditions tied to the funding, meaning plans aren’t required to make changes, pay the government back, or freeze accruals.”
Editor’s note: This exemplifies the problem with government bailouts of any kind. They enable mismanagement, not cure it.
National Security
- Open-borders fallout: DHS chief requests volunteers to help at southern border amid “overwhelming” migrant surge (Fox News)
“The Biden administration has unraveled many of the Trump-era policies … and has been struggling with a dramatic surge in migration in recent weeks, particularly in unaccompanied children (UACs) and families. That crisis has been exacerbated by the Mexican government’s refusal to take families with children in some cases and by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Double Standards
- Twitter silent as Louis Farrakhan’s misleading COVID vaccine claims go unchecked (Fox News)
“A Twitter post by the Nation of Islam linking to a video where its leader, Louis Farrakhan, claims the coronavirus vaccine is deadly has remained on Twitter since March 1. Twitter has yet to take action on the video despite its policies against coronavirus misinformation.”
- New York Times silent on Andrew Cuomo allegations after fixating on Brett Kavanaugh claims (Fox News)
“The Times editorial board, which published multiple columns responding to [Christine Blasey] Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh attempted to sexually assault her at a high school party more than three decades earlier, has yet to mention the allegations against Cuomo, focusing their March columns instead on Big Tech overreach and the state of affairs in Libya.”
Other Notables
Homeland Security designates Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months (DHS.gov)
Unnecessary circular firing squad: Trump and the RNC clash over using his name in fundraising (AP)
Veteran lawmaker Roy Blunt is fifth GOP senator to not seek reelection — with two more possible (The Hill)
Two peas in a pod: New York State Assembly Republicans launch impeachment effort against Governor Andrew Cuomo (NY Post) | Meanwhile, prosecutor indicates criminal charges are possible against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer over nursing home deaths (Daily Wire)
Biden administration signals openness to adding “third gender” option for federal IDs (Examiner)
Stranger Than Fiction
- Oprah’s CBS interview with Harry and Meghan claims 17.1 million viewers (USA Today)
Belly Laugh of the Week
- Burger King UK under fire for tweeting “Women belong in the kitchen” on International Women’s Day (USA Today)
Closing Arguments
Policy: Is Biden going to overstimulate the economy? (1945)
Policy: Time for Congress to reform civil asset forfeiture (National Review)
Humor: Meghan Markle inspires millions of young girls with message that no matter how famous, rich, and powerful they are, they will always be oppressed (Babylon Bee)
Related humor: Man glad he’s American so he doesn’t have to pretend to care about royal family (Babylon Bee)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.
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