Cross-Examination

• SCOTUS to hear student loan cancellation cases: Today the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing two cases challenging Joe Biden’s student loan cancellation program. In a move nearly identical to Barack Obama’s DACA gambit, last year Biden declared he didn’t have the authority to cancel student loan debt only to later entirely reverse course and sign an executive order doing exactly that. The rationale behind Biden’s about-face was blatantly political, coming mere weeks ahead of the midterm elections. Thankfully, after lawsuits against Biden’s program, both the Eighth and Fifth Circuit Courts put a hold on the program due to serious constitutional issues, and SCOTUS agreed to expedite the cases. The larger issue at play is a question over the balance of power. If Biden wins, it will represent a significant expansion of the power of the executive over and against Congress’s power of the purse.

• Team Biden admits “9,000 unused oil permits” claim is bogus: One of Joe Biden’s and his administration’s favorite talking points used to deflect criticism of his anti-fossil fuel agenda was the claim that energy companies are sitting on 9,000 unused drilling permits. Biden’s way to handle the soaring gas prices his policies caused was to blame the oil companies, labeling them as greedy liars. Well, it turns out the real liar was Joe, which we noted at the time, as well as the Leftmedia that ran cover for Biden’s bogus claim. Now, suddenly and quietly, the Bureau of Land Management has revised the current number of approved applications for permits to drill down to less than 6,700. BLM explained that “this number has been updated to account for a reporting discrepancy resulting from a transition to a new database in mid-2020.” Oops! It was the computers’ fault, so move along.

• DeSantis World: On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis followed through on his promise to hold Disney accountable for siding with leftist groomers and fomenting woke politics by falsely framing the Parental Rights in Education Act as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Disney’s independent special district known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District is no longer under the Magic Kingdom’s rule, as DeSantis signed legislation stripping the company of its 50-year privileged self-regulatory authority over the district. As he signed the bill, DeSantis quipped, “Look at your watch and you’ll know at what time the corporate kingdom finally came to an end.” Meanwhile, DeSantis’s book, The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival, hits bookshelves today, effectively marking the unofficial entry of DeSantis into the 2024 presidential race.

Headlines

• Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot ripped for playing race, gender cards ahead of election (NY Post)

• Department of Transportation opens internal investigation into Buttigieg’s personal travel (National Review)

• Manchin puts GOP on brink of major win over Democrats by opposing DC crime law (Washington Examiner)

• Biden Pentagon orders military chaplains to bless putting male soldiers in female showers and bedrooms (The Federalist)

• Defense Department tells military personnel to stop jumping from planes with U.S. flags in tow (Fox News)

• Men pretending to be women will be included in Smithsonian’s new American Women’s History Museum (Daily Wire)

• Christian high school withdraws from state tournament rather than compete against team with “trans" player (Daily Wire)

• "Greater Idaho” movement to absorb conservative rural counties from liberal Oregon gains momentum (Fox News)

• Massive fentanyl shipment, enough to kill 50 million people, seized in California (Daily Wire)

• China is full steam ahead with new coal plants (Daily Wire)

• U.S. slips to worst-ever score in 2023 Index of Economic Freedom (Daily Signal)

• Policy: School choice is not enough: The impact of Critical Social Justice ideology in American education (Manhattan Institute)

• Satire: Scientists warn Earth could run out of conspiracy theories by 2025 if they keep coming true at the current rate (Genesius Times)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.