The Supreme Court closed a door, so Biden’s looking for a window.
The Navajo Fight for Water
As states struggle to divvy up the Colorado River, the federal government has another obligation to fulfill:
he Supreme Court is currently hearing a case that will determine whether or not the government is obligated to ensure water access for Native American tribes. The arguments in the case, Arizona v. Navajo Nation, hinge upon whether or not the government has violated past treaties with the tribe by not providing adequate water.
Guest: Heather Tanana, assistant professor of law at the University of Utah and citizen of the Navajo Nation.
May232023
Clarence Thomas’s Friends in High Places: Who is Harlan Crow and why is he the justice’s vacation benefactor?
A ProPublica investigation revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas has been gifted luxury vacations by Republican donor and billionaire Harlan Crow. For over two decades, Justice Thomas has taken private jets, gone on yachts and stayed at private resorts alongside powerful Republican donors, all funded by Crow. For the most part, Justice Thomas did not disclose these vacations.
The investigation raises questions on the legality of these types of gifts, as well as the lack of oversight and ethics standards for the Supreme Court. Did these vacations break the law? To what extent could Justice Thomas’s court rulings have been influenced by Crow and other people on these trips? And even if some of these gifts may not have been illegal, why doesn’t the Supreme Court have more oversight and ethical guidelines to prevent potential conflicts of interest?
Guest: Justin Elliot, reporter at ProPublica.
Apr112023
Local News Roundup: Ripple effect of leaked Supreme Court draft opinion; $3.2 billion proposed budget for Charlotte; Cawthorn in the headlines again
The leaked draft Supreme Court opinion on the possible overturning of Roe vs. Wade has people talking all over the country about the potential impact of the ruling. We’ll talk about how overturning Roe vs. Wade would impact North and South Carolinians and what local people are saying about it.
No property tax increases are in the plan for the Charlotte’s new budget, with employee bonuses and raises at the top of a $3.2 billion proposed budget. We’ll talk about some of the budget details and reactions.
Madison Cawthorn continues to make headlines, this time after a nude video was released.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police holds a news conference calling attention to a series of sexual assault cases in Charlotte. We’ll talk about the cases highlighted and why.
And despite work to improve them, Mecklenburg County’s park system ranks among the worst in the country.
Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and all the week’s top local and regional news on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.
Guests:
Erik Spanberg, managing editor for the Charlotte Business Journal
Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Claire Donnelly, WFAE health reporter
Joe Bruno, WSOC-TV reporter
May062022
Local News Roundup: NC, SC Senators question Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, CMS reading scores continue to fall
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee spent much of the week questioning Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had their chance to engage the nominee, and in the case of Graham, it got quite heated. We’ll hear what both had to say.
Third grade reading scores are getting worse in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, even after students have returned to in-person classes. Preliminary testing indicates that less than 15% of all third graders are expected to hit the mark for academic success in reading this year.
That and other academic challenges serve as a backdrop for Superintendent Earnest Winston’s budget proposal this week. How the school system and board plan to approach spending strategies for meeting academic goals.
In the ongoing funding dispute between the city of Rock Hill and the Carolina Panthers, leaders in York County approved a plan for providing economic incentives for the headquarters project. What they’re offering, and what happens next.
Those stories and more with our roundtable of reporters.
Guests
Joe Bruno, reporter for WSOC-TV
Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Nick Ochsner, executive producer for investigations & chief investigative reporter for WBTV
Ann Doss Helms, education reporter for WFAE
Mar252022
A balancing act that’s worth it
In a brief mention in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden described his Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson as a “consensus builder” and touted her support from the Fraternal Order of Police, before moving on to other topics.
That was understandable in a time of war and division, overseas and closer to home. But that doesn’t mean that Jackson’s spot is guaranteed. As she makes the rounds this week, visiting with senators from both parties, it’s a reminder of the tightrope she must walk, the challenges she must overcome even as the rules in this high-stakes game keep changing.
As an African-American woman who has achieved much, she’s proved she is up to the task.
Understandably, many Black women in America celebrated when Biden fulfilled his campaign promise and nominated Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court. She would be the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court, though there have been many who were deserving, one of the most obvious being the first Black woman appointed to the federal bench, Constance Baker Motley, whose life and work are chronicled in the new book “Civil Rights Queen.”
Black women formed a strong part of the coalition that put Biden in the Oval Office and have been stalwart citizens throughout American history, on the forefront of human rights, civil rights and voting activism through icons such as Fannie Lou Hamer, Dorothy Height and Shirley Chisholm and so many others who never received the recognition they deserved.
I have a hunch that if former President Barack Obama had nominated Jackson, who reportedly was on his short list, instead of Merrick B. Garland to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the court, her almost-certain dis by Senate Republicans, led by then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, would have triggered a groundswell that would have carried Hillary Clinton into the White House.
Jackson, then and now, would have to be prepared for whatever might come her way during confirmation hearings, set to start March 21 before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
She’s already been subjected to a grilling from Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn. During her hearing last year for her spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Cornyn asked: “What role does race play, Judge Jackson, in the kind of judge you have been and the kind of judge you will be?”
Mar032022
Black women are Americans, and representation raises the bar — legal and otherwise
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was shocked and, indeed, insulted that anyone would ascribe even a hint of racist intent to his recent statement that divided the electorate into African Americans and Americans: “If you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.”
On the one hand, that outrage was pretty rich coming from the man who treated the first Black president of the United States as an annoyance to be dismissed or ignored, especially when that president attempted to appoint a Supreme Court justice, one of the duties of — the president of the United States.
On the other hand, the Republican senator from Kentucky was just doing what a whole lot of Americans do: Treat “white” as the default and everyone else as someone or something “other,” and, by statement or inference, someone or something “less.”
Of course, McConnell being McConnell, he “misspoke” while explaining his stand against the shrinking voting rights of Americans who only began to fully share in the franchise after a law passed by Congress in 1965 — one that came only after fierce debate and the bloody sacrifice of civil rights workers.
It’s Black History Month, Senate minority leader. Read a book, watch “Eyes on the Prize,” examine your own party’s Southern strategy. And do it before bills that would ban teachers from talking about race in a way that could make anyone uncomfortable make their way through the legislature in your home state of Kentucky.
It could be any month, though, as the pending appointment of the next Supreme Court justice by President Joe Biden has ushered in yet another round of “Let’s pretend that all those white, male judges were perfect and perfectly qualified and these Black women on the short list with long résumés and years of experience could never measure up.”
Only white men on the Supreme Court, well, that was the way it was. If merit and good character were criteria, Black women — and representatives of Americans of every race and gender and creed whose fate has been decided by the highest court in the land — would have been appointed to the court long ago. But in those days, years, decades and centuries, the “white” was silent, and understood.
Feb032022
Biden’s First Year Wins and Flops
On PBS Black Issues Forum, with host Deborah Holt Noel and panelists Steve Rao and Harold Eustache, weighing in on the first year in office for President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris and Biden’s plans to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
Jan302022
