1. President Donald Trump will get another Supreme Court Justice and Democrats will pout
—Justice Anthony Kennedy will be stepping down next month, opening the door for President Donald Trump’s second pick for the bench. Senate Majority Mitch McConnell has said the pick will get a vote this fall.
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews channeled the left’s rage by saying there will be “hell to pay” for Democrats if they can’t stop Trump’s pick, which they can’t.
2. Alabama’s Governor Kay Ivey and senior Senator Richard Shelby have weighed-in and both are very excited about this opportunity.
— Gov. Kay Ivey supports President Trump’s pick and the future it brings for the judiciary, tweeting “I am proud to stand with President Trump as he chooses a nominee to usher in a new era of conservative values.”
— Sen. Richard Shelby, who will get a vote on Trump’s pick, backed the president with a tweet seizing on “a great opportunity to nominate and confirm a strong, conservative jurist on the United States Supreme Court, someone who will serve this nation with honor for many years to come.”
3. Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall did the saddest thing I have ever seen a political figure do
— Last Sunday, the Attorney General’s wife committed suicide via gunshot and the online rumor mill began to churn about what happened, forcing the AG to make a statement publicly.
— The gut-wrenching statement laid bare the mental health issues of Bridgette Marshall and the events surrounding her suicide. Marshall was clearly angry and sad to be having this press conference but he felt it was necessary due to reporting being done by media outlets that he said contained only “half-truths.”
4. Sen. Doug Jones will probably remain silent on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick
— During the campaign, Jones refused to say whether he supported Trump’s first pick, Neil Gorsuch or not, but Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana did.
— Let’s be honest, Jones is screwed here, a Washington Post article from 2017 lays out his abortion stance as follows: “Jones opposes the Hyde Amendment, which prevents any federal funding for abortion; while stopping short of endorsing Sanders’s ‘Medicare for All’ bill, he supported the Democratic effort to save the Affordable Care Act, and criticized Alabama for declining to expand Medicaid. In an interview, he said he would have voted against Betsy DeVos’s nomination to be secretary of education, and might have opposed Neil M. Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court.”
5. Congress’s more “moderate” immigration bill fails, as judge determines immigration policy
— President Trump went back on his request that Congress not pass an immigration bill and back Speaker Paul Ryan’s latest effort to get a bill through the House. That bill failed 121-301.
— 112 Republicans voted no on this bill, once again showing there is no appetite for amnesty or amnesty lite in Congress. This bill would give two million ‘Dreamers’ a path to citizenship and provide $30 billion for the wall.
6. Alabama has three big dogs sitting at the table during the appropriation process in Congress
— Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa), Rep. Martha Roby (R-Montgomery) and Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) were all present at the White House while discussing new spending bills.
— The cumulative goal is to avoid two very likely things, a large omnibus spending bill and a last minute panic-striken vote for huge spending.
7. Freedom wins at the Supreme Court
— USA Today referred to the decision as a “deeply-divided” court “dealt a major blow to the nation’s public employee unions” by ruling that the unions could not force people to give them money, claiming the required fees violated the free speech of objecting employees.
— Somehow a sitting Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagen, made an argument that giving people a choice on joining a union robs them of freedom. Seriously.
