WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Health and Human Services secretary on Thursday, giving the longtime vaccine critic who has vowed to take on „big pharma“ and ultra-processed food the power to oversee the nation’s food and healthcare systems.
Archiv: United States Constitution
Senate confirms RFK Jr. as HHS secretary in 52-48 vote
Kennedy, 71, is a longtime environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist whose family has mythic status in Democratic politics. The nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the son of Robert F. Kennedy launched his own White House bid in 2023. And although he initially sought the Democratic nomination, Kennedy changed his bid to independent, before dropping out to endorse President Trump in Augus
Re: Urgent Request for Access to and Information Regarding Immigrants Transferred from the United States and Detained at Guantánamo Bay
(February 7, 2025)
Dear Secretary Noem, Secretary Hegseth, and Secretary Rubio:
We write on behalf of the undersigned immigrants‘ rights and civil rights organizations to request immediate access to the noncitizens transferred from immigration detention facilities in the United States and currently detained at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Since February 4, 2025, the government has transferred nearly two dozen noncitizens to Guantánamo, without providing any information about their circumstances or the government’s legal authority for these unprecedented actions. The government has also announced that it is planning to send tens of thousands of additional immigration detainees to Guantánamo in the near future.
The Constitution, and federal and international law prohibit the government from using Guantánamo as a legal black hole. We therefore request that the government provide our organizations access to the noncitizens detained at Guantánamo so that those individuals will have access to legal counsel, and so advocates and the public can understand the conditions
under which the government is detaining them. We also request basic information that the public has a right to know regarding the noncitizens being sent to Guantánamo and the government’s plans for them.
(…)
Sincerely,
American Civil Liberties Union
Americans for Immigrant Justice
Amica Center
American Gateways
Center for Constitutional Rights
Haitian Bridge Alliance
Human Rights First
International Refugee Assistance Project
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the SF Bay Area
National Immigrant Justice Center
National Immigration Law Center
Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Texas Civil Rights Project
White House says it’s the judges — not Trump — causing a ‘constitutional crisis’
In the weeks since Donald Trump returned to office, Democrats and legal scholars have warned that he’s provoking a constitutional crisis by trying to expand his power and ignore laws that stand in his way.
On Wednesday, the White House had a new response to that. It’s not the president who is causing the problem, said press secretary Karoline Leavitt, it’s the judges who are blocking some of his agenda by saying it’s illegal.
From the American Bar Association: The ABA supports the rule of law
(February 10, 2025)
In the last 21 days, more than a dozen lawsuits have been filed alleging that the administration’s actions violate the rule of law and are contrary to the Constitution or laws of the United States. The list grows longer every day.
These actions have forced affected parties to seek relief in the courts, which stand as a bulwark against these violations. We support our courts who are treating these cases with the urgency they require. Americans know there is a right way and a wrong way to proceed. What is being done is not the right way to pursue the change that is sought in our system of government.
These actions do not make America stronger. They make us weaker.
Trump Administration Non-Adherence to Court Orders
(February 10, 2025)
Tracking the Trump administration’s failure to follow the judiciary’s orders.
Trump’s Actions Have Created a Constitutional Crisis, Scholars Say
(February 10, 2025)
There is no universally accepted definition of a constitutional crisis, but legal scholars agree about some of its characteristics. It is generally the product of presidential defiance of laws and judicial rulings. It is not binary: It is a slope, not a switch. It can be cumulative, and once one starts, it can get much worse.
ADC Announces Its 24/7 Legal Hotline
(January 24, 2025)
With the signing of a new Executive Order that threatens to replicate the discriminatory 2017 “Muslim Ban,” and the swift advancement of IHRA bills at both federal and state levels, the ADC Legal Hotline comes at a pivotal time for Arab and Muslim communities.
For nearly 45 years, ADC has stood at the forefront of defending Arab Americans—particularly during moments of heightened profiling, speech suppression, and persecution. From the post-9/11 era to the original Muslim Ban in 2017, ADC’s legal team has repeatedly exposed and challenged policies designed to silence and intimidate our communities. Today’s increased momentum behind xenophobic Executive Orders and IHRA legislation further underscores the urgent need for robust legal support and community solidarity.
Emergency Fund to Protect Palestinian and Arab Students on College Campuses
ADC has answered the call of several students for legal support against repression and discrimination by their universities, and more support is needed.
The Imperial Presidency and the War on Terror
(March/April 2006)
Since the start of the war on terror, the Bush administration has singlemindedly advanced the view that, in time of war, the president is the law, and no statute, no constitutional barrier, no coordinate branch of the U.S. government can stand in the president’s way when, by his lights, he is acting to preserve national security. Bush administration officials have argued
– that the president has the inherent constitutional authority to designate American citizens suspected of terrorist activity as “enemy combatants,” strip them of any constitutional protection, and hold them for the duration of the war on terror;
– that the president has the power to ignore validly enacted statutes prohibiting war crimes if he believes those statutes impede his prosecution of the war on terror; and
– that the president has the power to launch invasions of other countries at his discretion, without so much as a by-yourleave to Congress.
In a 1977 interview with David Frost, Richard Nixon described his view of the president’s national security authority: “Well, when the President does it, that means it is not illegal.” In the arguments it has advanced, both publicly and privately, for untrammeled executive power, the Bush administration comes perilously close to that view.
How Trump Is Pushing at Limits of Presidential Power in Early Orders
After President Trump left the White House in 2021, critics of his norm-breaking use of executive power implored Congress to tighten legal limits on when presidents can unilaterally reshape American government with the stroke of a pen. But lawmakers largely did not act.
18 States Sue to Stop Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order
The states view Mr. Trump’s attempt to limit birthright citizenship as “extraordinary and extreme,” said New Jersey’s attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, who led the legal effort along with the attorneys general from California and Massachusetts. “Presidents are powerful, but he is not a king. He cannot rewrite the Constitution with a stroke of the pen.”
RESTORING FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ENDING FEDERAL CENSORSHIP
Section 1. Purpose. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference. Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve. Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.
Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to: (a) secure the right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech;
(b) ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen;
(c) ensure that no taxpayer resources are used to engage in or facilitate any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen; and
(d) identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to censorship of protected speech.
Sec. 3. Ending Censorship of Protected Speech. (a) No Federal department, agency, entity, officer, employee, or agent may act or use any Federal resources in a manner contrary to section 2 of this order.
(b) The Attorney General, in consultation with the heads of executive departments and agencies, shall investigate the activities of the Federal Government over the last 4 years that are inconsistent with the purposes and policies of this order and prepare a report to be submitted to the President, through the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, with recommendations for appropriate remedial actions to be taken based on the findings of the report.
Trump orders government not to infringe on Americans’ speech, calls for censorship investigation
It’s not yet clear how the order could affect the work that several U.S. agencies do to track false claims that pose threats to election security, including the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA.
Immigrants’ Rights Advocates Sue Trump Administration Over Birthright Citizenship Executive Order
“Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values. Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is. This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans. We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration‘s overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
ACLU files lawsuit against Trump order that seeks to end birthright citizenship
A collection of advocacy groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit late Monday challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order to halt the automatic granting of citizenship to children born in the United States.
Trump’s executive orders already face pushback, legal challenges
The executive orders include some things that scholars and legal experts say may be out of the reach of the president’s pen and could be tied up in courts or legislatures for years, including ending birthright citizenship, a right embedded in the Constitution and bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling that grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States.
Birthright citizenship, Paris treaty, death penalty: Donald Trump‘s key executive orders on day 1 at White House
Deportations and birthright citizenship: Donald Trump called for a crackdown on criminal “aliens” and signed an order to end automatic birthright citizenship for children of non-permanent residents. However, the order faces legal hurdles as birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US Constitution.
Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations And Specially Designated Global Terrorists
(b) Within 14 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate action, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to make operational preparations regarding the implementation of any decision I make to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, 50 U.S.C. 21 et seq., in relation to the existence of any qualifying invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States by a qualifying actor, and to prepare such facilities as necessary to expedite the removal of those who may be designated under this order.
What to know about Trump‘s immigration and border executive actions
The incoming administration will sign an executive order to designate drug cartels and other criminal organizations, including the U.S.-El Salvadoran-based MS-13 and Venezuela‘s Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations or specifically designated global terrorists (SDGT).
An incoming White House official said Monday that the order will direct authorities to specifically remove members of Tren de Agua from the United States. And, citing the Alien Enemies Act enacted more than two centuries ago, the official said Tren de Agua has become an „irregular armed force of Venezuela‘s government conducting a predatory incursion and invasion into the United States.“
Trump declares war on illegal immigrants, cartels from Mexico
Trump also declared that he will sign a Day 1 executive order designating cartels foreign terrorist organisations, allowing the government to take deadly measures against them.
„Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organisations. And by invoking the alien enemies act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to us, soil, including our cities and inner cities,“ Trump said.
A little-known law from 1798 could be a key part of Trump’s deportation plans
(November 14, 2024)
The text of the Alien Enemies Act says it can be invoked whenever:
– A war is declared between the US and “any foreign nation or government” OR
– “Invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government” AND
– “the President makes public proclamation of the event”
Supreme Court refuses to delay Trump’s hush money sentencing
Trump turned to the high court in a last-ditch effort to stop the hearing, citing the conservative majority’s explosive opinion in July that granted him and other former presidents immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts.
But five of the nine justices said Trump’s immunity concerns about evidence presented at his trial can be addressed “in the ordinary course on appeal.”
Trump responds to Trudeau resignation by suggesting Canada merge with U.S.
Trump reacted to Trudeau‘s resignation with a post on his Truth Social platform.
„Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned,“ Trump said in the post.
„If Canada merged with the U.S.,“ Trump continued, „there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!“
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is Trump‘s pick for director of national intelligence
(November 13, 2024)
„Trump ended up with some neocons around him who were trying to undermine his objectives so they could feed their goals of continuing to keep us in a perpetual state of war,“ Gabbard said, discussing his first administration. „This administration has us facing multiple wars on multiple fronts and regions around the world and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before,“ Gabbard said when she endorsed Trump during a campaign event in Michigan.
„This is one of the main reasons why I‘m committed to doing all that I can to send President Trump back to the White House, where he can, once again, serve us as our commander in chief.“
Trump picks Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his Department of Health and Human Services secretary
President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a choice that would add to Trump’s list of provocative picks whose confirmation processes will test the loyalty of Senate Republicans.
Trump on Thursday announced the selection, confirming CNN’s earlier reporting, saying he was thrilled to share the pick.
Biden suggests Trump supporters are ‘garbage’ after comic’s insult of Puerto Rico
“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Well, let me tell you something, I don’t, I don’t know the Puerto Rican that I know, the Puerto Rico where I’m fr — in my home state of Delaware. They’re good, decent honorable people,” he said.
The president then added: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
Voters Are Deeply Skeptical About the Health of American Democracy
Three-quarters of voters in the United States say democracy is under threat, though their perception of the forces imperiling it varies widely based on partisan leanings. And a majority of voters believe that the country is plagued by corruption, with 62 percent saying that the government is mostly working to benefit itself and elites rather than the common good.
Obama: `This War, Like All Wars, Must End`
(23. Mai 2013)
Now, the speech:
The president who dramatically expanded the CIA secret drone war, ordered a troop surge in Afghanistan and aggressively prosecuted leakers made a forceful defense of his actions and an even more forceful case for winding down the war on terrorism.
The key line: „This war, like all wars, must end. That‘s what history advises. That‘s what our democracy demands.“
Die “Authorization For Use of Military Force” vom 14. September 2001 im Wortlaut
(29. August 2014)
Seit Beginn des weltweiten Terrorkrieges in 2001 herrschten in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika zwei Personen als Kriegspräsidenten und “mächtigste Männer der Welt”, George Bush Junior und Barack Obama. Der Kern ihrer Legitimation für
– fast jede seit dem 14. September 2001 angeordnete militärische Aktion, Operation und Invasion, wie der Eroberung von Afghanistan (2001), Irak (2003), Libyen (2011), Luftangriffen bzw Bodenoperationen z.B. in Somalia, Jemen, Pakistan, Kenia, etc, etc, pp,
– den versuchten Aufbau einer “Totalen Informationskenntnis” (“Total Information Awareness”) über alle Menschen, Gruppen, Strömungen und Organisationen im Macht- bzw Einflussbereich der U.S.A. (also dem, was die Gesellschaft heute als “Totalüberwachung” versteht),
– die folgende Erschaffung eines informationstechnologischen, Privatleben fressenden Frankensteins, eines weltweit vernetzten Golem der “Nationalen Sicherheit AG” bzw dem “sicherheitsindustriellen Komplex”, der allein 800.000 Personen (Stand: 2010) Zugang zu “streng geheimen” Informationen und damit Zugang zu praktisch allen u.a. aus Telekommunikationssystemen wie dem Internet gesammelten bzw geraubten Daten von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern in ungezählten Datenbanken und Tauschbörsen der Spione, Militärs und (Geheim)Polizeien und Behörden allein in den U.S.A. gibt, samt einer bis heute nicht verifizierten Zahl assoziierter Kräfte und Stellen, z.B. in der Republik Deutschland,
– die Errichtung des Lagers Guantanamo, sowie einer unbekannten Zahl geheimer Folterkammern und Kerker auf eigenem Territorium, in Besatzungszonen und / oder in kollaborierenden Staaten, in denen Menschen willkürlich eingesperrt, gequält oder ermordet wurden,
sowie weitere offene oder klandestine Maßnahmen, wie z.B. die “Uminterpretation” von geltendem Recht zu faktischem geheimen Kriegsrecht in ungezählten Staaten, ist ein am 14. September 2001 bei alleiniger Gegenstimme von Barbara Lee durch den Kongress gejagter und, zumindest in der Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, präzedenzloser Gesetzestext: die “Authorization for Use of Military Force”.
Hier dessen gerade einmal 60 Worte und keinerlei zeitliche oder räumliche Einschränkung enthaltende Wirkungstext, beschlossen am 14.09.2001 von beiden Kammern des Kongresses, Repräsentantenhaus und Senat:
A Presidential Proclamation to End the Iraq War: Unilateral Executive Action to Defang a Zombie AUMF
(August 20, 2024)
The current blockage in the House—particularly given its potential use for a war with Iran— should prompt the White House to consider alternative means to disarm the 2002 Iraq AUMF. One reported reason that repeal legislation has yet to receive an up-or-down vote in the House is that some members are concerned about losing a potential authority for war with Iran. (The House of Representatives already voted to repeal the 2002 authorization in a previous Congress.) To be clear, it does not do so (see here and here). Nevertheless, a desire to keep the 2002 Iraq AUMF on the books as authority to fight Iran was certainly expressed by a number of senators who opposed repeal.
Senate votes overwhelmingly to keep 2001 authorization for war on terror
(March 23, 2023)
Senators rejected the amendment 86-9 as they are debating a separate repeal of two authorizations of military force in Iraq. There is broad bipartisan support to withdraw that congressional approval granted in 1991 and 2002 for military strikes against Saddam Hussein‘s regime.
While those two authorizations are rarely used and focused on just one country, Iraq, the 2001 measure gave President George W. Bush broad authority for the invasion of Afghanistan and the fight against terrorism, approving force „against those nations, organizations, or persons“ that planned or aided the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Anti-Genocide Students Are Fulfilling Their Duty to Prevent War Crimes; Will You?
In a world order in which the Great Powers and many lesser ones are turning to war and genocide, popular enforcement of international law is one of the few means for protecting ourselves and the world against a cataclysmic plunge into unlimited military destruction.
By virtue of the U.S. Constitution, international law and international treaties are explicitly a part of U.S. law. U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert Jackson stated, “The very essence of the Nuremberg Charter is that individuals have international duties which transcend national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual state.” So, obligations under international law are also obligations under U.S. law.
SCOTUS probes assassinations and coups in Trump immunity hearing
The immense gravity of the case weighed heavily on the Supreme Court on Thursday, with justices across the ideological spectrum expressing fears of the new order they could unleash.
The immediate question is whether Trump will face trial in his Jan. 6 criminal case before the 2024 election. But the conservative-led court‘s decision will shape history well beyond November.
„We‘re writing a rule for the ages,“ Justice Neil Gorsuch observed.
Takeaways from Trump’s big win at the Supreme Court in the 14th Amendment case
Monday’s Supreme Court decision appeared certain to shut down those and other efforts to remove the frontrunner for the GOP nomination from the ballot.
“States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office,” the court’s unsigned majority opinion read. “But states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency.”
Supreme Court rules 9-0 that Trump can stay on Colorado election ballot, preventing future removal efforts
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that former President Donald Trump can remain on Colorado’s presidential primary ballot, reversing an extraordinary state court ruling that had deemed him ineligible to run for the presidency and preventing future attempts by states to remove him from their ballots.
The decision, which came one day ahead of a slate of Super Tuesday primary elections from coast to coast, further cements Trump’s widening path to the Republican presidential nomination.
Tell the Biden administration to drop the Assange case now
The U.S. Department of Justice claims that Assange broke the law by receiving classified documents from a source, speaking with that source, possessing the documents, and publishing some of them. In other words, things journalists at news outlets around the country do every day.
If Assange is convicted under the Espionage Act, there will be nothing to stop the government from prosecuting other journalists who publish government secrets.
Take action to protect press freedom: Tell the Biden administration to drop the Assange case now.
I tell @DrMercola that when I‘m President, I will get the Federal Reserve under control and make sure we restore sovereignty in the American people over our money supply. #Kennedy24
(03.02.2024)
Democratic and Republican elites fear RFK Jr.’s growing path to victory
As noted on the Archives website: “The House of Representatives elects the President from the three (3) Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes …”
Now, we come back to that magic number: 34.
If Kennedy were to get 34 percent of the vote, there would be a great deal of pressure on the House of Representatives to “do the right thing.”
“Impossible” yet again?
I give you Donald J. Trump being elected our 45th president in 2016 as evidence as to why such a scenario is entirely possible.
Forget No Labels. Biden’s Third-Party Peril is on the Left.
Biden’s deep-seated fear: that Netanyahu is eager to drag the U.S. into a wider war in the Middle East, a conflict that would ensure American weapons keep flowing to the region, troops soon follow and, in the maelstrom, international pressure on him to agree to a Gaza cease-fire and his domestic political difficulties both dissipate.
Not that the president would ever say such things in public.
Die “Authorization For Use of Military Force” vom 14. September 2001 im Wortlaut
(29. August 2014)
Seit Beginn des weltweiten Terrorkrieges in 2001 herrschten in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika zwei Personen als Kriegspräsidenten und “mächtigste Männer der Welt”, George Bush Junior und Barack Obama. Der Kern ihrer Legitimation für
– fast jede seit dem 14. September 2001 angeordnete militärische Aktion, Operation und Invasion, wie der Eroberung von Afghanistan (2001), Irak (2003), Libyen (2011), Luftangriffen bzw Bodenoperationen z.B. in Somalia, Jemen, Pakistan, Kenia, etc, etc, pp,
– den versuchten Aufbau einer “Totalen Informationskenntnis” (“Total Information Awareness”) über alle Menschen, Gruppen, Strömungen und Organisationen im Macht- bzw Einflussbereich der U.S.A. (also dem, was die Gesellschaft heute als “Totalüberwachung” versteht),
– die folgende Erschaffung eines informationstechnologischen, Privatleben fressenden Frankensteins, eines weltweit vernetzten Golem der “Nationalen Sicherheit AG” bzw dem “sicherheitsindustriellen Komplex”, der allein 800.000 Personen (Stand: 2010) Zugang zu “streng geheimen” Informationen und damit Zugang zu praktisch allen u.a. aus Telekommunikationssystemen wie dem Internet gesammelten bzw geraubten Daten von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern in ungezählten Datenbanken und Tauschbörsen der Spione, Militärs und (Geheim)Polizeien und Behörden allein in den U.S.A. gibt, samt einer bis heute nicht verifizierten Zahl assoziierter Kräfte und Stellen, z.B. in der Republik Deutschland,
– die Errichtung des Lagers Guantanamo, sowie einer unbekannten Zahl geheimer Folterkammern und Kerker auf eigenem Territorium, in Besatzungszonen und / oder in kollaborierenden Staaten, in denen Menschen willkürlich eingesperrt, gequält oder ermordet wurden,
sowie weitere offene oder klandestine Maßnahmen, wie z.B. die “Uminterpretation” von geltendem Recht zu faktischem geheimen Kriegsrecht in ungezählten Staaten, ist ein am 14. September 2001 bei alleiniger Gegenstimme von Barbara Lee durch den Kongress gejagter und, zumindest in der Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, präzedenzloser Gesetzestext: die “Authorization for Use of Military Force”.
Hier dessen gerade einmal 60 Worte und keinerlei zeitliche oder räumliche Einschränkung enthaltende Wirkungstext, beschlossen am 14.09.2001 von beiden Kammern des Kongresses, Repräsentantenhaus und Senat:
60 Words And A War Without End: The Untold Story Of The Most Dangerous Sentence In U.S. History
(Jan 17, 2014)
By the end of the meeting, it was clear that this was the resolution, a single sentence and 60 words:
That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.
That was it. After more than a day of negotiations between the White House and Congress, Republicans and Democrats, this is what had emerged. Congress could take it or leave it. There would be no going back to the drawing board.
Let’s be clear. In a democracy, intelligence agencies are not supposed to interfere or “be active” in elections. They are supposed to be the servants of the people. They are not in charge. The people are in charge, and whoever they elect is the boss. #Kennedy24
The Supreme Court will decide if Donald Trump can be kept off 2024 presidential ballots
Underscoring the urgency, arguments will be held on Feb. 8, during what is normally a nearly monthlong winter break for the justices. The compressed timeframe could allow the court to produce a decision before Super Tuesday on March 5, when the largest number of delegates are up for grabs in a single day, including in Colorado.
Supreme Court agrees to decide whether Trump can be barred from holding office
The high court’s decision to hear the case puts the nine justices squarely in the middle of the 2024 election as voting starts in the early primary contests and represents the court’s most significant involvement in a presidential race since its highly consequential decision 23 years ago in Bush v. Gore.
CAIR Says President Biden Is ‘Ignoring the American People and Enabling Genocide’ After Bypassing Congress to Arm Israel Again
(31.12.2023)
President Joe Biden once again bypassed Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel, despite growing domestic and international outrage over Israel’s mass killing of more than 21,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and including hundreds of UN workers, journalists and medical personnel.
[NOTE: Yesterday, CAIR welcomed the launch of a case by South Africa in the United Nations’ top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.]
Congress, not the White House, is the legislative body of the United States. The Biden administration’s abuse of emergency authority to sell weapons to Israel—or any foreign country—is unrepresentative, irresponsible, and unethical.
Where did Blinken get the authority to approve foreign aid packages? Where are the checks and balances? Why is Congress sitting idly by? This total mob rule.
The Biden administration once again bypasses Congress on an emergency weapons sale to Israel
“Given the urgency of Israel’s defensive needs, the secretary notified Congress that he had exercised his delegated authority to determine an emergency existed necessitating the immediate approval of the transfer,” the department said.
The War in Gaza Is Splintering the Democratic Party
(November 17, 2023)
Already, there are signs that the party is fracturing over Israel. According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, about three-quarters of Democrats want a cease-fire, but few in the Democratic establishment share their views. Last week, in a rare gesture of defiance, more than 100 congressional staffers walked out to demand that their bosses back a cease-fire. More than 500 alumni of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and Democratic Party staff members have signed a letter imploring Biden to call for a cease-fire, saying, “If you fail to act swiftly, your legacy will be complicity in the face of genocide.”
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy 60 Years After the March on Washington
(August 10, 2023)
On Aug. 28, 1963, about 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech advocating for economic and civil rights for Black Americans.
Arab American support for Biden, Democrats plummets over Israel, poll shows
(31.10.2023)
A quarter of Arab Americans said they were unsure whom they would support in 2024; 13.7% said they would back Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and 3.8% are backing Cornel West. (…)
The poll showed that 45% of Arab Americans were concerned about their personal safety due to the recent violence in Israel and Palestine.
Zur Verfassung von Palästina
(14.Januar 2015)
Stets wurden die Palästinenser von den Großmächten für geopolitische Zwecken missbraucht. Ihre eigene Oberschicht hat diesen oft zugearbeitet. Dieser Artikel soll nun keinen Versuch einer Intervention darstellen oder einer solchen direkt oder indirekt zuarbeiten, sondern in ehrlichem Interesse an der prosperierenden Koexistenz zweier Staaten im für drei Weltreligionen heiligen Land ein paar Ideen vorbringen.
Die Republik
Die Staatsform Palästinas wird letztlich auch dessen Gesellschaftsordnung prägen, vielleicht sogar entscheiden. Die Republik ist die höchste Form der Demokratie, da sie diese schriftlich durch eine Verfassung sichert und bei entsprechender Umsetzung und Teilung der Gewalten garantiert, statt sie der Willkür und dem Missbrauch ehrenwerter Monarchen, Medienmogulen, imperialer Präsidentschaften und manipulativer Mechanismen ausliefert.
Anzunehmen ist, dass es auf eine Republik Palästina hinauslaufen wird.
Sicherlich ist ebenfalls anzunehmen, dass es gesellschaftliche Gruppen in Palästina gibt, die eine Islamische Republik nach dem Vorbild des Iran bevorzugen würden. Die P.L.O. sollte diesen Standpunkt akzeptieren und gegen diesen einen eigenen Verfassungsentwurf vorlegen, ohne zu versuchen andere Entwürfe zu unterdrücken oder den sinnlosen Weg eines Konsens zu versuchen. Gruppen, letztlich lediglich Milizen, wie der “Islamische Dschihad in Palästina” oder die “Volksfront zur Befreiung Palästinas”, sind bei jedem auf Wahlen basierenden politischen Prozess irrelevant. Bei der Hamas sieht das schon anders aus. Gegen sie verlor die P.L.O. die Wahlen von 2006. Das sollte der P.L.O. zu denken geben.
Entscheidend wird sein, wie die Palästinenser, die als Staatsvolk genauso divergent und vielfältig sind wie jedes andere, einerseits ihre Differenzen austragen und andererseits ihre verschiedenen Strömungen insoweit interagieren, dass sie sich auf einen tragfähigen Gesellschaftsvertrag einigen, eine Verfassung.
Jedweder Verfassungsentwurf, der von provisorischen, indirekt gewählten, oder sogar gar nicht gewählten Gremien entwickelt werden sollte, etwa durch die Autonomiebehörde oder den Legislativrat, ist zum Scheitern verurteilt. Selbst wenn dieser Entwurf, in westlicher Manier von “magischen” Rechtszerbrechern zu London entworfen und auf die Etablierung einer weiteren Finanzkolonie in Vorderasien zugunsten des weltweiten Bankenkartells ausgerichtet, alternativlos dem Palästinensischen Volk vorgelegt werden sollte, würde dieser bereits den Keim des Verfalls und der Destruktion in sich tragen. Von Neid zerfressene Imperialisten und Usurpatoren, allen voran die Menschenschinder der saudischen Monarchie und ihre Brüder und Schwestern in der Nomenklatura Israels, würden alle Hebel in Bewegung setzen um die Republik Palästina und deren Aufblühen über ihren leider immer noch vorhandenen Einfluss auf die winzige palästinensische Funktionärs-Kaste bereits im Keim zu ersticken.
Nur ein Gremium, dessen Mitglieder ausschließlich die Aufgabe der Entwicklung eines tragfähigen Verfassungsentwurfs haben, die mit dieser Aufgabe keine weiteren Profit- und Karriereinteressen verbinden können und die direkt aus dem Volke Palästinas gewählt sind, wird dieser Aufgabe gerecht werden.
Womit wir zur Verfassungsgebenden Versammlung kommen.
Die Verfassungsgebende Versammlung
Was die Meisten nicht wissen: nach der Revolution in den nordamerikanischen Kolonien des Britischen Imperiums im Jahre 1776 dauerte es zwölf Jahre und einen Krieg, bis vom ersten Kontinentalkongress (1774-1775), vom zweiten Kontinentalkongress (1775 – 1781) und dem Kongress der Konföderation (1781-1789), bis sich die dreizehn, bis dahin lose über die “Konföderationsartikel” verbundenen ehemaligen Kolonien schließlich 1787 in einer über vier Monate andauernden Versammlung in Philadelphia auf eine Verfassung der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und ein Regelwerk zu deren Inkraftsetzung einigten.
Mal abgesehen vom Schicksal der dortigen Ureinwohner: das kann kein Maßstab für das 21. Jahrhundert sein. Aber einerseits ein Hinweis darauf, wie schwierig die Entwicklung einer Verfassung tatsächlich ist, sowie andererseits für die Größe der Chance die mit einem Gelingen verbunden sind.
United States Electoral College: Contingent presidential election by House
If no candidate for president receives an absolute majority of the electoral votes (since 1964, 270 of the 538 electoral votes), then the Twelfth Amendment requires the House of Representatives to go into session immediately to choose a president. In this event, the House of Representatives is limited to choosing from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes for president. Each state delegation votes en bloc—each delegation having a single vote; the District of Columbia does not get to vote. A candidate must receive an absolute majority of state delegation votes (i.e., from 1959 (which is the last time a new state was admitted to the union), a minimum of 26 votes) in order for that candidate to become the president-elect. Additionally, delegations from at least two thirds of all the states must be present for voting to take place. The House continues balloting until it elects a president.
The House of Representatives has been required to choose the president only twice: in 1801 under Article II, Section 1, Clause 3; and in 1825 under the Twelfth Amendment.
„Press freedom does not exist while my husband Julian Assange is in jail“ „Press freedom groups and journalists recognise that the fate of the press is tied up with what happens to Julian“ | Stella Assange @Stella_Assange
Courts Strike a Blow Against White House‘s Social Media Censorship | Opinion
The plaintiffs in the case, led by the states of Missouri and Louisiana, eminent doctors, and others alleged that under guise of combating „mis-, dis-, and mal-information,“ the Biden White House and nearly a dozen federal agencies have, alongside private-sector cutouts, cajoled and colluded with Big Tech platforms to silence millions of Americans. The topics social media platforms have censored at the government‘s direction, measuring likely hundreds of millions of posts, range from the Hunter Biden laptop story, to matters of election integrity, to virtually every aspect of the coronavirus pandemic.
Freedom Caucus won’t support Ukraine ‘blank check.’ What‘s that mean?
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) expressed hesitancy about whether and when it was worth it to pass a funding measure at this point in time. “Why are we talking about Ukraine supplemental when we can’t figure out how to fund our own operation of government to do what it‘s supposed to do?” he asked during a press gaggle on Monday morning.
“I want to see what claim there is for actual success in Ukraine,“ he added. „And I want to know how every dollar that $113 billion is going to be spent. Come present that to me as a member of Congress, and then talk to me about” what future funding should look like.
America Since 9/11: 22 Years of Lies and Despotism
Just last week, Dick Cheney took to social media to condemn Donald Trump as a threat „to our republic.“ This video echoes a similar condemnation from George W. Bush in 2021.
In a more reasonable world, people like Cheney, Rice, Bolton, et al, would all be forgotten, shamed, disgraced politicians. They all would have been forced into retirement and shunned years ago after overseeing multiple disastrous wars abroad and the creation of a surveillance state at home. Many of them would just now be emerging from prison for their crimes against both international law and the US Constitution.
Unfortunately, we don‘t live in a more reasonable world.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS, ET AL., APPLICANTS 21A244 v. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, ET AL
(13.01.2022)
Administrative agencies are creatures of statute. They accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided. The Secretary has ordered 84 million Americans to either obtain a COVID–19 vaccine or undergo weekly medical testing at their own expense. This is no “everyday exercise of federal power.” In re MCP No. 165, 20 F. 4th, at 272 (Sutton, C. J., dissenting). It is instead a significant encroachment into the lives—and health—of a vast number of employees. “We expect Congress to speak clearly when authorizing an agency to exercise powers of vast economic and political significance.” Alabama Assn. of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Servs., 594
U. S. ___, ___ (2021) (per curiam) (slip op., at 6) (internal quotation marks omitted). There can be little doubt that OSHA’s mandate qualifies as an exercise of such authority. The question, then, is whether the Act plainly authorizes the Secretary’s mandate. It does not. The Act empowers the Secretary to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures.
(…)
The Solicitor General does not dispute that OSHA is limited to regulating “work-related dangers.” Response Brief for OSHA in No. 21A244 etc., p. 45 (OSHA Response). She instead argues that the risk of contracting COVID–19 qualifies as such a danger. We cannot agree. Although COVID–19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most. COVID–19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather. That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases. Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life—simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock—would significantly expand OSHA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization.
The Supreme Court blocked President Biden‘s OSHA mandate, which was blatantly and egregiously unconstitutional. The principle is simple: The president is not a king with the power to do whatever he wants regardless of the law and the facts.
(Jan 13, 2022)
Die “Authorization For Use of Military Force” vom 14. September 2001 im Wortlaut
(29. August 2014)
Seit Beginn des weltweiten Terrorkrieges in 2001 herrschten in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika zwei Personen als Kriegspräsidenten und “mächtigste Männer der Welt”, George Bush Junior und Barack Obama. Der Kern ihrer Legitimation für
– fast jede seit dem 14. September 2001 angeordnete militärische Aktion, Operation und Invasion, wie der Eroberung von Afghanistan (2001), Irak (2003), Libyen (2011), Luftangriffen bzw Bodenoperationen z.B. in Somalia, Jemen, Pakistan, Kenia, etc, etc, pp,
– den versuchten Aufbau einer “Totalen Informationskenntnis” (“Total Information Awareness”) über alle Menschen, Gruppen, Strömungen und Organisationen im Macht- bzw Einflussbereich der U.S.A. (also dem, was die Gesellschaft heute als “Totalüberwachung” versteht),
– die folgende Erschaffung eines informationstechnologischen, Privatleben fressenden Frankensteins, eines weltweit vernetzten Golem der “Nationalen Sicherheit AG” bzw dem “sicherheitsindustriellen Komplex”, der allein 800.000 Personen (Stand: 2010) Zugang zu “streng geheimen” Informationen und damit Zugang zu praktisch allen u.a. aus Telekommunikationssystemen wie dem Internet gesammelten bzw geraubten Daten von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern in ungezählten Datenbanken und Tauschbörsen der Spione, Militärs und (Geheim)Polizeien und Behörden allein in den U.S.A. gibt, samt einer bis heute nicht verifizierten Zahl assoziierter Kräfte und Stellen, z.B. in der Republik Deutschland,
– die Errichtung des Lagers Guantanamo, sowie einer unbekannten Zahl geheimer Folterkammern und Kerker auf eigenem Territorium, in Besatzungszonen und / oder in kollaborierenden Staaten, in denen Menschen willkürlich eingesperrt, gequält oder ermordet wurden,
sowie weitere offene oder klandestine Maßnahmen, wie z.B. die “Uminterpretation” von geltendem Recht zu faktischem geheimen Kriegsrecht in ungezählten Staaten, ist ein am 14. September 2001 bei alleiniger Gegenstimme von Barbara Lee durch den Kongress gejagter und, zumindest in der Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, präzedenzloser Gesetzestext: die “Authorization for Use of Military Force”.
Hier dessen gerade einmal 60 Worte und keinerlei zeitliche oder räumliche Einschränkung enthaltende Wirkungstext, beschlossen am 14.09.2001 von beiden Kammern des Kongresses, Repräsentantenhaus und Senat:
What Does Niger Have to Do with the AUMF?
(October 26, 2017)
Q1: Several members of Congress have shared that they weren’t aware of U.S. military presence in Niger. What is the appropriate role of Congress in the oversight of foreign troop deployments?
A1: At best, the Constitution is ambiguous about the congressional role in the use of military forces abroad. Under Article I, the Congress is given the power to create a military and to declare its use in wartime. Yet Article II names the president as commander in chief and thus establishes a system whereby the executive and legislative branches share the power to use force. Furthermore, since the mid-twentieth century, the range of military activities outside the strict definition of declared war has broadened dramatically. Although the War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to notify the Congress about combat deployments in a timely manner, notification of deployments under conditions where combat is not anticipated, nor war-like engagements intended, is up to the president’s discretion.
Exclusive: CNN obtains the tape of Trump’s 2021 conversation about classified documents
(27.06.2023)
CNN has previously reported that Trump at the time was furious over a New Yorker article about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley that said Milley argued against striking Iran and was concerned Trump would set in motion a full-scale conflict. (…)
“He said that I wanted to attack Iran, Isn’t it amazing?” Trump says as the sound of papers shuffling can be heard. “I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this – this is off the record but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”
Alito says Congress has ‘no authority’ to regulate Supreme Court
(28.07.2023)
“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it,” Alito told the Journal. “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period.”
Although the Constitution enables Congress to structure the lower federal courts, it explicitly vests judicial power within a singular Supreme Court.
(…)
The piece also revealed Alito’s first public comments on the recent ethics push since he authored an op-ed for the same paper that was shared just before a ProPublica investigation into an undisclosed Alaskan fishing trip the justice accepted in 2008 paid for by a conservative donor was made public.
Biden faces renewed pressure to embrace Supreme Court overhaul
(04.07.2023)
As Democrats reel from another painful set of defeats at the Supreme Court in recent weeks, President Biden is facing renewed pressure from a range of elements in his party, from liberal lawmakers to abortion rights activists, to more forcefully embrace far-reaching changes to the high court.
Netanyahu: Supreme Court striking down Reasonableness bill ‚uncharted territory‘
„We had to put Israeli democracy back on an equal footing with other democracies. The essence of democracy is the balance between the will of the majority and the rights of the minority. This balance has been violated over the last 20 years, because we have the most activist court on the planet,“ Netanyahu declared.
He also referred to the „internal debate going on right now in the United States about the powers of the Supreme Court, about whether it‘s abusing its powers, whether they should be curtailed.“
Netanyahu won’t commit to abiding by ruling if Supreme Court blocks controversial law
(Fri July 28)
“What you’re talking about is a situation, or potential situation, where in American terms, the United States’ Supreme Court would take a constitutional amendment and say that it’s unconstitutional, Netanyahu said. “That’s the kind of the kind of spiral that you’re talking about, and I hope we don’t get to that.”
The so-called “reasonableness” law is an amendment to one of Israel’s Basic Laws, which exist in place of a formal constitution.
President Biden Is Trampling the Bill of Rights by Prosecuting Julian Assange | Opinion
When I met with Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, I was most impressed by his intelligence, his compassion, and his belief in the power of truth. „If wars can be started by lies,“ he said, „peace can be started by truth.“ Now, Assange is being prosecuted for the publication of the Afghan War Diary and the Iraq War Logs, uncovering war crimes, torture, and civilian deaths perpetrated by the United States government in our name and with our money. Assange‘s award-winning publications have been cited as a crucial factor in changing public perception of these wars, which have cost trillions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, and displaced 37 million people.
In other words, the truth matters.
To Foreign Policy Veteran, the Real Danger Is at Home
Mr. Haass recently published a book called “The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens,” outlining ways Americans can help heal their own society, like “Be Informed,” “Remain Civil,” “Put Country First” — all admittedly bromides and yet somehow often elusive these days. (…)
Putting his foreign policy hat aside for now, he said he wants to expand the message from his book and help refocus the country on the core values embodied in the Declaration of Independence as the 250th anniversary of the document approaches three years from now.