Category Archives: Federalist

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As you probably could guess, based on his radically right-wing record and degree from Yale Law School, Senator Josh Hawley was a member of the Federalist Society in law school. And as you also probably guessed based on those two facts, he was a bit of an asshole back then (I mean, probably now too, but this story is about his law school days, so).

Irina Manta, a professor at Hofstra Law School and a FedSoc darling who was spotted trying to make the law hold people accountable for lying on Tinder and branded a Karen after a neighborhood squabble over fireworks, has an opinion piece on USA Today dishing on Hawleys time in law school and urging him to ditch his sure-to-be-failed attempt to prevent Joe Biden from becoming the 46th President of the United States. Manta is also clear to note, that despite her association with FedSoc, she worked on President-elect Bidens campaign this cycle. But enough with the background, lets get to the (old) hot goss.

Manta and Hawley are both members of YLS 06, and were active in their law schools Federalist Society, so, obviously their paths crossed. But more than just casually cross, they were both elected as Vice Presidents for Events for FedSoc as 2Ls.

As Manta notes, Collaborating in these positions in our second year proved difficult. I organized the lions share of the groups events and frequently received no responses from him on emails I sent to him and the Societys president that year. This puzzled me because I thought our goal was to make the organization as strong as possible, and failure to communicate was an obstacle. ALL THE SIDE EYE.

As Mantas version of the story goes, she did way more work in their joint position, so when both Manta and Hawley threw their hats into the ring for President of FedSoc for the following year, she thought she had it in the bag. But thats where the chicanery begins, according to Manta.

Shortly before the election, a friend tipped me off to how Sen. Hawley was planning to beat me, given that he was uncertain he could do so based on votes only from regular members who knew our records best.

As appeared accurate based on the eventual turnout, Sen. Hawley had obtained from the sitting president the student email addresses for the YLS Federalist Society listserv (and the president, whom I had helped to win the previous year, did not volunteer that information to me at that stage). The rule was that anyone who had signed up for the listserv by a certain earlier date could vote in the Societys elections. This included a bunch of people who did not attend events and had little or no involvement with the Society.

The rule, while easy to administer, was a bad one. It even had the potential for individuals to co-opt the Society for the sole purpose of destroying it. Historically, however, nobody had exploited that rule, to my knowledge. Instead, candidates had campaigned for votes from people actively involved with the Society.

I found out about Sen. Hawleys plans too late to counter them successfully. I lost the YLS Federalist Societys presidential election to him by a handful of votes.The presidency comes with a number of advantages, including entry to key professional opportunities. From my perspective, I was the more deserving candidate and cared more about the organization. The voting rules, again, were problematic, and Sen. Hawley exploited that all the way to victory for himself and the rest of his slate.

So his success is based on following the letter, rather than the spirit, of the law. Got it. And now hes all in a tizzy because Democrats followed both the letter and spirit of election laws? Also, got it. He strikes me as exactly the sort of prick who earnestly believes its fine for him to do it but its cheating when you do it. Unsurprising.

Manta closes with a plea for Hawley to drop his objection over the certification of the electoral college results because she didnt object to his shady law school victory, so he should take a lesson. She notes he is setting a dangerous precedent such that one day, a hostile Congress could overturn a rightful presidential election. Shes not the only Yalie who disagrees with Hawley over his position, but all the obvious double standards in the world are still unlikely to change Hawleys position. At least we have a better sense of the exact sort of person Hawley really is.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email herwith any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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Josh Hawley Was The Exact Sort Of Prick Youd Imagine Him To Be At Yale Law School - Above the Law

Christmas is typically a time of joy, family, and the spirit of giving. In the name of social justice, it is important to quash all those good feelings and instead find something at which to take offense.

Attention typically turns to the popular suggestive duet Baby, Its Cold Outside, whether the lyrics are romantic or indicative of assault, but this song is far from the only piece of classic Christmas media that creates a moral panic.

Its a Wonderful Life is widely considered to be one of the greatest Christmas films of all time, with a beautiful and timeless message about the importance of valuing life and community. Its perfect cast, excellent writing, and heartwarming message, however, do not save it from committing the cardinal sin of being made in the 1940s and representing associated cultural values.

While the courtship of George Bailey and his later-wife Mary leads to some of the sweetest moments ever put to film, he engages in creepy behavior toward her. After the pair fall into a pool during a dance, George and Mary are forced to change into bathrobes. As he walks her home, her robe catches on a branch and falls off, leaving her naked. She runs behind a bush and asks George to hand her the only means she has to cover herself, but he pauses, considering using the opportunity to see her undressed (jokingly, but that doesnt matter).

The film also contains the sexist supposition that the worst thing that could happen to a woman is that she remain unmarried. When George sees what his hometown would have been like had he never been born, he is horrified to see that his wife is an unmarried librarian horror of the same magnitude as realizing his brother died young, his old boss and mentor has gone to prison, his friend Violet became a prostitute, and the corrupt businessman took over the town. Of course, the horror has other causes, such as seeing Marys loneliness and unhappiness, having the woman he loves not recognize him, and knowing his children no longer exist. In the search for offense, however, such nuance cannot be engaged.

If classic musicals are more your style, White Christmas has a single song that undoes all the heart of its two-hour runtime. Within the story of two Army friends-turned-performers who work together to surprise their struggling general over Christmas is a song waxing nostalgic for minstrel shows, a wildly racist type of performance that often included blackface and offensive stereotypes. While the song itself is just an excuse to sing pun-filled lyrics and engage in vaudeville-type humor, its still a song pining for a racist type of show, even if the reference will fly over the heads of many modern viewers.

Do you enjoy the 24-hour marathons of A Christmas Story? The semi-autobiographical story about a young boys memories of Christmas in the 1930s, as he attempts to convince his parents to buy him a Red Ryder BB gun, is a lovely film about family and growing up. It also glorifies gun use through protagonist Ralphies various fantasies with the dangerous weapon.

Further, in a Chinese restaurant scene, strong, caricatured accents of the staff singing Christmas songs is the subject of a joke. The only thing done right in the abomination that was A Christmas Story Live was playing on the expectation for the same joke, only to subvert it with lovely renditions of classic carols, asking the Old Man, and by extension the audience, What were you expecting?

Elf is a hilarious film featuring one of Will Ferrells all-time best performances. He plays a human, raised in the North Pole by elves, who goes to New York to find his biological father and interacts with the human world for the first time. As he is unfamiliar with human customs, he gets into trouble due to navet. One such situation occurs when he walks in on his love interest in the shower because he allegedly doesnt know shes naked. To make matters worse, in the shower, shes singing the aforementioned Baby, Its Cold Outside, underscoring the discomfort of the scene in a post-Me-Too era.

In all seriousness, no film will be perfect, especially ones made decades ago. It is good to note where cultural values have progressed, without writing off excellent films with important messages just because small parts of them reflect outdated and offensive values. We should learn from past mistakes, not erase them. Each of these movies contains a timeless message about family, community, and love that we can all learn from all year, but especially around Christmas.

Paulina Enck is an intern at the Federalist and current student at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service. Follow her on Twitter at @itspaulinaenck

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We Must Ban These Christmas Classics To Please The Wokesters - The Federalist

The prohibitively long and oddly complex document that bails out states that have decided to harm their own citizens contains ridiculous provisions with no connection to the pandemic.

After a long, arduous process of political agendas taking priority over helping Americans suffering under unending lockdowns, killing their ability to provide for themselves, Congress passed a COVID spending bill on Monday evening, after lawmakers came to a compromise on Sunday. The relief package includes many of the expected items, while also including many bizarre items unrelated to the pandemic and its associated economic issues.

If President Trump signs the bill, direct electronic payments $600 for individuals, $1,200 for married couples, and $600 per dependent will be directly sent to every citizen or permanent resident who makes less than $75,000 a year (or $150,000 for joint filing married couples), with the payment amount phasing out for higher incomes. This proves a substantial change from the CARES ACT this summer, which gave $1,200 per individual and $500 per dependent.

The bill funds state and federal unemployment benefits at $300 a week, extending the period in which workers can claim government money to stay unemployed to 50 weeks, or nearly an entire year. Further, money is allocated to support various industries and businesses harmed by the lockdowns, including but not limited to airports, cinemas, theaters, farms, and small businesses.

However, details of the checks, unemployment benefits, and bailouts do not fill the 5,593 pages. Instead, the prohibitively long and oddly complex document contains ridiculous provisions with no connection to the pandemic.President Trump declared he is unsatisfied with the bailout package, promising to veto the bill unless the individual payments be increased from $600 to $2,000, a decision receiving bipartisan support.

Congress can hopefully reallocate money from some of the following places, all of which have nothing to do with recovering from the public health, economic, and societal crisis brought on by the coronavirus.

Pakistan is receiving $25 million in a package supposedly aimed to help America get through the shutdowns; $15 million is going to democracy programs, while another $10 million is being allocated towards unspecified gender programs.

After receiving $25 million in the first COVID stimulus, the Kennedy Center is receiving $40 million for operations, maintenance, and renovations. Unsurprisingly, several senators and representatives, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are on the board.

The bill is quite preoccupied with diversity endeavors within the government. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion of the Appropriations Committee are receiving $1.5 million. Further, the bill gives national intelligence 180 days to demonstrate exercising hiring flexibilities to assure quality and diversity of the workforce.

As the entire world is facing the effects of the coronavirus, it might make sense the bill would have a section focused on Global Health. What makes less sense is spending nearly $200 million on new cars for foreign HIV/AIDS workers. Helping federal health workers abroad is doubtlessly important, but in a bill intended to focus on helping the American people and economy though a difficult time is not the place for it, especially after politicians have been deficit spending to record highs with no signs of making plans for how Americans hobbled by COVID shutdowns will ever pay for all of this.

For a stimulus package, this bill is also surprisingly educationally minded, even though the majority of the nations public schools have remained closed and online schooling for the better part of the last year. The bill funds educational campaigns to teach Americans not to put flammable liquids next to open flames. The bill also includes funding for programs to dissuade teenagers from underage drinking, drug use, and sex.

It is also randomly historically-minded, promising funding for researching the 1908 Springfield Race Riot and engaging in archeological study of the associated locations.Aside from allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to wholly unrelated projects, the purported relief bill is filled with arbitrary, vague, oppressive, or merely irrelevant regulations.

The last COVID spending spree severely hampered states ability to increase school choice with their education allocation. In the CARES Act, $3 billion was allotted to Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEERF), which gave governors the flexibility to fund whatever educational initiatives they deemed important. GEERF funds were allocated at the discretion of the governors, but could be used to strengthen school choice programs, as was done in Florida, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina.

The new bill specifically undid this flexibility, stating the money cannot be used to provide tax support vouchers, tuition tax credit programs, education savings accounts, scholarships, scholarship programs, or tuition assistance programs or provide indirect help for any organization that grants scholarships for elementary or secondary education.

While Americans struggle financially and psychologically, Congress also focused on the all-important world of horse racing regulations. In a section entitled The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020, a committee is formed to enact anti-doping measures. It also bans the use of tranquilizers before races. Because, when people are struggling financially and psychologically due to seemingly ceaseless shutdowns, the rules of fair practices in horse racing is a truly important federal matter.

Paulina Enck is an intern at the Federalist and current student at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service. Follow her on Twitter at @itspaulinaenck

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8 Of The Craziest Items In The $900 Billion COVID Blue-State Bailout Bill - The Federalist

Multiple infants were born alive after botched abortions in Texas, a new report indicates.

According to statistics from Texas Health and Human Services, abortion facilities and physicians each reported at least six infants were born alive during abortion attempts in the state in 2019 an increase by at least two from the previous year.

In 2019, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill requiring physicians present during a botched abortion must exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of a baby born alive as if it were delivered under normal circumstances. Physicians are also required to facilitate the immediate transfer of the infant to a hospital. Violators of this law risk being fined at least $100,000 and being charged with a third-degree felony.

Texas State Rep. Jeff Leach, who authored the legislation, called for an investigation into the care provided to the 2019 babies born alive despite attempts to abort them, saying that the numbers in the report should shock the collective conscience of the Lone Star State.

I call on the Texas Attorney General and appropriate law enforcement agencies, with the full weight and force of Texas law, to investigate and unleash holy hell on those responsible for these heinous crimes, Leach wrote.

Leach also called on other legislators to recommit ourselves to our most fundamental duty to safeguard the fundamental liberties and freedoms of all Texans, starting with the sacred right to life.

Without question, we must fight to ensure the 87th legislative session is meaningful and monumental for the pro-life cause in Texas, he continued.

Other complications of the induced termination of pregnancy procedures in Texas in the report included more than 100 incomplete abortions, as well as more than 50 hemorrhages and infections in the women combined.

A large majority of the women who received the abortions were unmarried at the time, with more than 57 percent of the abortions occurring in women between 20 and 29 years old and more than 300 abortions occurring in girls ranging from 11 to 15 years old. 4,788 abortions were carried out in teens aged 16 to 19 years old.

Most of the abortions in Texas were performed in the first trimester, but just under 3000 were also executed in the second trimester.

In total, more than 56,600 babies of Texas residents were killed in 2019.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Report: Infants Born Alive During Botched Abortions In Texas In 2019 - The Federalist

Federalist Senior Editor Mollie Hemingway said on Fox News Wednesday that President Donald Trumps fight against the latest pork-stuffed coronavirus relief package is emblematic of conservative populisms strength.

I think what the president is showing here is that he still is the president, that hes more in line with that populist sentiment throughout the country than he is the swamp, and that he still has something to say, Hemingway said the day after Trump threatened a veto of the legislation he declared a disgrace.

Congress basically has one job, which is to pass the budget for the year. They have the whole year to do it, Hemingway said. They do this thing where they hold people hostage. They know that people need COVID relief, so they dangle that out there and say Well, you know we need this thing so youre going to have to pass this horrifically bloated and ridiculous bill with aid going all over the world.'

The $900 billion COVID spending bill, recently passed by both houses with bipartisan majorities, is combined with the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill to fund the government. Both are riddled with line items to special interests, foreign ventures, and art centers that remain closed.

These things should be separated. They always should have been separated. The aid to Americans who have had their lives destroyed by radical government shutdowns should have been coming a long time before now, Hemingway said, emphasizing that while the threat of a looming government shutdown used to terrify people, shutdowns have become routine again in the year of COVID.

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Trump Fight On COVID Bill Shows Strength Of Conservative Populism - The Federalist