Cross-Examination

• Terrorism, social media, and Big Tech: The U.S. Supreme Court handed down two decisions yesterday directly involving Big Tech social media platforms. The plaintiffs in the two nearly identical cases argued that tech giants Google and Twitter should be held liable for the actions of terrorists who may or may not have used their social media platforms. In both cases, the Court unanimously agreed that neither of the companies was liable. As Justice Clarence Thomas observed: “It might be that bad actors like ISIS are able to use platforms like defendants’ for illegal — and sometimes terrible — ends. But the same could be said of cell phones, email, or the internet generally.” He further noted, “If aiding-and-abetting liability were taken too far, then ordinary merchants could become liable for any misuse of their goods and services, no matter how attenuated their relationship with the wrongdoer,” such as “those who merely deliver mail or transmit emails.” The justices intentionally avoided addressing what many have been clamoring for — clarifying Section 230 protection for internet companies.

• TN governor officially defines a woman: What is a woman? Well, in the state of Tennessee, there is now an official, definitive, and unambiguous legal answer. On Wednesday, Republican Governor Bill Lee signed SB 1440, which clarifies that “sex” is “a person’s immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth.” Therefore, in the Volunteer State, the definition of a woman will remain what it has been since God first created Eve — an adult human female. Republican State Representative Gino Bulso, who sponsored the legislation, explained that the lawmakers’ motives were “to amend the Tennessee code to define the biological term sex to ensure that our laws are crystal clear so that judges and bureaucrats understand the biological and genetic differences between a man and a woman.” Tennessee now joins Kansas in legally recognizing and defining sex based on biology and not expressed “identity.”

• Justice Gorsuch speaks out on COVID abuses: In what effectively amounts to calling the “cure” worse than the disease, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch condemned the government’s response to the pandemic as a “breathtaking” abuse of emergency powers. Gorsuch’s statement comes from the Court’s recent decision to render a case calling for the lifting of Title 42 moot since it expired last week. Gorsuch noted that “the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis” as he criticized states that have attempted “to manipulate our docket to prolong an emergency decree designed for one crisis in order to address an entirely different one.” He then let loose, writing: “Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country. Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale.” After listing several examples of federal and state abuses of emergency powers, he concludes: “If emergency decrees promise to solve some problems, they threaten to generate others. And rule by indefinite emergency edict risks leaving all of us with a shell of a democracy and civil liberties just as hollow.”

• MTG files slew of impeachment articles: Dubbing it “Impeachment Week,” Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene filed articles of impeachment against Joe Biden and several members of his administration. Those in the Republican’s crosshairs include FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves. Calling his agenda “America last,” Taylor Greene asserted that Biden “has been working since January 20, 2021, to systemically destroy this country.” Pointing to the border crisis, she charged that “his administration has willfully refused to maintain operational control, as required by the law.” She defended her action by noting that “the Constitution outlines a very simple process to fire the corrupt politicians serving in the federal government: impeachment.” Whether the House actually acts to impeach any of the derelict officials on Greene’s list remains to be seen, but it does appear unlikely.

• Cori Bush’s crazy $14T reparations demand: Radical leftist Democrat Representative Cori Bush (MO) called on the federal government to dole out 14 trillion in taxpayer dollars to black Americans. She justified her ridiculous reparations demand as a “moral and legal obligation” to atone “for the enslavement of Africans.” She further insisted that “America must provide reparations if we desire a prosperous future for all.” What is amazing about this continued push for reparations to be paid to those who were never enslaved by those who never did the enslaving is the blatant injustice of such a demand. Holding the innocent to be guilty and liable for the actions of those who lived before them is the very definition of injustice. In the American context, the call for reparations is ironically an expression of straight-up racism, wrapping itself in the guise of “justice.” There’s another word for the reparations Bush is calling for: stealing.

Headlines

• McCarthy says House could vote on debt ceiling deal as soon as next week (CNBC)

• Dems push Biden to consider 14th Amendment in debt ceiling fight (Daily Wire)

• Not a terrorist? The Biden team killed the wrong person again (Townhall)

• State Department slaps pronouns on emails and misgenders staff (Free Beacon)

• Ex-Biden nuclear official Sam Brinton arrested as “fugitive from justice” for luggage theft (Daily Wire)

• A new “Orange Man Bad” just dropped (Not the Bee)

• The 10 most nauseating lines from Wired’s Pete Buttigieg profile (Free Beacon)

• Texas Children’s Hospital performs sex-change procedures on children as young as 11 (Daily Wire)

• Deutsche Bank will pay massive sum to settle Epstein victim lawsuit (Daily Wire)

• Tampa man demands $3 million for every black person in viral video (Fox News)

• Four Oregon lawmakers banned from reelection after reaching Capitol walkout limit (Washington Examiner)

• Months after making out at State of the Union, Dr. Jill and Kamala’s husband spotted leaving SoulCycle together (Free Beacon)

• Policy: Work requirements just make sense (National Review)

• Humor: Fox News announces new primetime show: A computer playing Tucker’s Twitter show (Babylon Bee)

• Humor: To win back old customer base, Bud Light adds mullets to cans (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.