- Federal court reinstates death penalty order for Missouri inmate convicted of killing jailers ABC News
- The Jurors Sentenced a Missouri Man to Death. Now Some Are Not So Sure. The New York Times
- Appeals court overturns stay of execution in Michael Tisius’ Missouri death penalty case Kansas City Star
- Missouri governor should halt executions of adolescent offenders • Missouri Independent Missouri Independent
- Federal court overturns stay of execution for man convicted in murder of Randolph County corrections officers KOMU 8
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: reinstates
Musk reinstates reporters on Twitter. Their companies, though, never left.
But without exception, these media organizations kept on tweeting at their usual busy paces Thursday night and into Friday — using their own official accounts to promote their latest stories.
Musk justified the suspensions by accusing the reporters of posting “basically assassination coordinates” for him and his family — a reference, apparently, to their reporting and tweets about Twitter’s decision to suspend an account, @ElonJet, that had been using public flight data to share the location of Musk’s private plane.
The Post could find no evidence that the reporters in question had shared information about Musk or his family’s location.
Early Saturday, after an informal Twitter poll by Musk, he said suspensions would be lifted immediately for “accounts who doxxed my location,” and several reporters’ accounts reappeared. Still, the reaction epitomized the conflicted, and seemingly codependent, relationship between the news media and social media.
In the 15 years since sites like Twitter and Facebook exploded in popularity, traditional news outlets have resolved to see them as much of an opportunity as a threat — potent new vectors for delivering the news directly to the screens of avid readers. Publishers have invested heavily in staff whose primary role is to fine-tune and promote stories over social media; editors prize journalists who have amassed tens of thousands of Twitter followers for the traffic they can bring to their sites.
Some managers have started to question whether Twitter traffic is actually worth the effort. Yet the modest response Friday to a maneuver that drew widespread rebukes from free-speech advocates — as well as from the European Commission, United Nations and members of Congress — suggest that they won’t be quitting it soon.
“How [else] are they going to get the word out? Sadly, Twitter is still the only real game in town,” said Vivian Schiller, a former president of NPR who also served as Twitter’s head of news in 2014. “Don’t get me wrong, Musk is a thin-skinned erratic hypocrite, but he’s got us over a barrel,” she added, until another social media platform comes along to rival it.
At least nine journalists, including Washington Post technology reporter Drew Harwell and New York Times journalist Ryan Mac, were hit with the suspensions, which the American Civil Liberties Union said were “impossible to square with Twitter’s free speech aspirations.”
Early Saturday, some some of those accounts had returned, but others appeared to remain locked until the offending tweet was deleted.
“I don’t know why I was suspended,” Linette Lopez of Business Insider told The Post on Friday, “and I haven’t heard anything from Twitter.” Lopez noted that she had not written or tweeted about the controversy over Musk’s flight data but that she had shared court documents pointing out how Musk had harassed critics and revealed personal information about them in the past. Her account was still suspended early Saturday.
Freedom of speech has been a rallying cry for Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX, since he first moved earlier this year to purchase Twitter and subsequently made a point of undoing many of the company’s previous policies against hate speech and misinformation, rolling back a nearly two-year ban of former president Donald Trump.
But even in conservative-leaning media, where Musk has been roundly praised for reinstating Trump and other right-wing accounts, the suspensions were not uniformly praised.
On Friday morning, some of the hosts of the conservative Fox News talk show “Fox & Friends” expressed bafflement. “This is crazy,” said co-host Brian Kilmeade. “If they were just being critical of [Musk], he’s got to explain why those people were suspended,” said co-host Steve Doocy.
Ben Shapiro, founding editor in chief of the Daily Wire, admitted to some “schadenfreude” about journalists complaining about the move “given their enthusiasm for opaque Twitter censorship” — but seemed to take issue with Musk’s argument that the suspended journalists had actually “doxed” his location. Fox News personality and radio host Dan Bongino said on his show that he disapproved of censoring or suspending journalists’ accounts and said it could have the affect of just giving them more attention.
Some of the firmest criticism of Musk’s decision came from an ally.
“The old regime at Twitter governed by its own whims and biases and it sure looks like the new regime has the same problem,” tweeted Bari Weiss, a former opinion writer for the New York Times. “I oppose it in both cases. And I think those journalists who were reporting on a story of public importance should be reinstated.”
Weiss is one of the writers recently tapped by Musk to helm his “Twitter Files” project, in which he has aired internal Twitter documents about content moderation, as part of his larger campaign to demonstrate that the company’s previous management dealt unfairly with conservative news site sand accounts.
Despite Musk’s claim last month that Twitter is the “biggest click driver on the internet by far,” one recent study from social-analytics company DataReportal found that it was responsible for less than 8 percent of total social media referrals for the month of November 2021.
Media organizations typically do not share detailed data on their web traffic. But a 2016 report using data from the social-analytics firm Parse.ly found that only 1.5 percent of publisher traffic came from Twitter. “Twitter has outsized influence,” concluded a report from Nieman Lab, “but it doesn’t drive much traffic for most news orgs.”
Meanwhile, media managers have struggled with how to establish standards of behavior for their journalists on social media, where the temptation can be to slip into feistier, or more casual, or more opinionated conversation than would be allowed in their own professional writing — or to tailor their stories for their particular Twitter audiences.
“The really insidious part of Twitter is that it’s very easy for even very good journalists to mistake the reaction that they’re getting on Twitter for the impact or the reaction that their reporting or that their work in general is getting,” said Joseph Kahn, executive editor of the New York Times, in an interview with The Post in June.
Now, the unpredictability of Twitter under Musk’s ownership is further complicating the equation for media bosses.
“It’s a battle between the reputational impact of supporting a volatile platform that is simultaneously reinstating dangerous accounts while censoring legitimate journalists, and a journalistic responsibility to remain active in order to counterbalance rampant misinformation and disinformation,” said one network executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly.
There’s precedent for leaving Twitter: Fox News let its official account go silent from November 2018 to March 2020, reportedly over concerns that a photo with host Tucker Carlson’s home address had been shared on the platform. According to metrics released by the network, it had no negative impact on Fox’s web traffic.
In mid-November, CBS News stepped away from Twitter for two days; a staffer said the company was concerned that it no longer had an official liaison to help with security issues after a major employee exodus under Musk.
For a brief moment on Friday, it appeared that one news organization was preparing a boycott of sorts, when the New York Times announced that it was canceling a discussion to be held on Twitter’s “Spaces” that day about the best books of the year.
Instead, a spokesperson for the Times clarified that the decision was made for “technical reasons.”
Musk Reinstates Journalists He Banned Over ‘Doxxing’ Claim
Elon Musk taketh away, and Elon Musk giveth.
Late Friday night, the mercurial mega-billionaire unilaterally announced that he was unbanning journalists whose accounts had been suspended a day before — which Musk claimed had “doxxed” him by posting links to an account that tracks his private jet. Until this week, the CEO of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX had been OK with the jet-tracker remaining on the social network he acquired for $44 billion.
“The people have spoken,” Musk tweeted just after midnight ET. “Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now.” Musk was referring to a poll he posted about when to reinstate the accounts he’d blocked. After nearly 3.7 million votes, 59% of the votes were in favor of lifting the bans “now” while the rest voted for “in 7 days.” Musk similarly had decided to reinstate Donald Trump’s account last month based on a straw poll, after claiming he was forming a council with “diverse viewpoints” to weigh in on such questions.
The journalists Musk had banned have disputed his assertion they “doxxed” him. To some observers, it appeared that the tech titan — as the sole decision-maker at Twitter — was trying to silence critics of his reign at the company.
“To be clear, there was no ‘doxing’ — even if an impulsive, accountable-to-nobody oligarch said so,” Tony Webster, a journalist and photographer whose account was among those suspended on Dec. 16, tweeted on Friday night. He quoted his most recent tweet before he was suspended, which said, “If you aren’t willing to admit that Elon Musk lied to you about his ‘free speech’ goals, you are simply in denial at this point.”
As of Friday night, accounts that had been restored included those of independent journalist Aaron Rupar (@atrupar), the New York Times’ Ryan Mac (@RMac18), the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell (@drewharwell), CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan (@donie), Mashable’s Matt Binder (@MattBinder), the Intercept’s Micah Lee (@micahflee) and Tony Webster (@webster).
Twitter also Friday reinstated the account of Mastodon (@joinmastodon), which had tweeted a link to the ElonJet account on its own service. Still suspended at press time was the account of political commentator Keith Olbermann.
The move by Musk — who claims he’s a “free speech absolutist” — to suspend the accounts of the high-profile journalists came after he banned the @ElonJet account and other plane-tracking bots on Wednesday, citing the need to ensure the safety of his family. Also Wednesday, Twitter issued a brand-new rule prohibiting accounts from sharing the real-time location of individuals, even if the data information is otherwise publicly available. Several of the journalists’ accounts that were suspended had tweeted about the jet-tracker and linked to its new account on rival social network Mastodon.
Last month, Musk said Twitter would grant “amnesty” to all suspended accounts and reinstate them (“provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam”). That included neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin, founder of white-supremacist site the Daily Stormer, whom Twitter banned in 2013.
Rupar, after his account was reinstated, tweeted, “I want to thank everyone for all the support and kind words over the past day and some change. I was pretty bummed about getting suspended initially but quickly realized it’d be fine because I’m blessed to have an amazing online community. Seriously, I appreciate it a lot. Cheers.”
Rupar previously had told CNN that he had not posted anything on Twitter about @ElonJet. He has been critical of Musk in his tweets and reporting. For example, on Dec. 15, Rupar tweeted, “can’t wait for Twitter to ban Elon Musk for violating the policy the company just announced hours ago,” quote-tweeting a video clip Musk had posted of a masked person in a car that revealed its license plate and asking, “Anyone recognize this person or car?” Earlier, Musk had said in a tweet that a car in which his 2-year-old son was riding on Tuesday evening in L.A. “was followed by [a] crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood.”
Since closing the deal for Twitter less than two months ago, Musk has massively shaken up the company. In addition to axing 50% of Twitter’s staff, he’s moved to try to generate revenue from Twitter Blue by making the paid service the only way to get a “verified” blue check-mark going forward.
California county reinstates indoor mask mandate
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
In California’s Bay Area, Alameda County residents will be required to mask up in most public indoor settings again.
Effective Friday, officials cited rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, noting that daily reported cases have exceeded the peak of last summer’s delta wave and are “now approaching levels seen during the winter 2020-21 wave, at comparable lab-reported testing levels.”
Reported cases are believed to be an underestimate of the total.
“Hospitalizations are also rising after remaining stable during the early weeks of this wave. Daily new admissions of patients with COVID-19 rapidly increased in recent days and now exceed last summer’s peak. We expect to reach [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC)] ‘High’ COVID-19 Community Level soon, given current trends,” the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency said in a release. “In addition, when COVID-19 cases started to rise again in April, we did not observe in our data the disproportionate impacts on communities of color. That is no longer true and Hispanic/Latino residents now have the highest case rate in Alameda County among the largest race/ethnicity groups.”
BIDEN ADMIN SAYS COVID VACCINE MAY BE AVAILABLE TO CHILDREN UNDER 5 BY LATE JUNE
While vaccination provides protection against severe illness, the agency said that the virus is circulating at “very high levels” and noted that masking provides an additional layer of protection.
“Rising COVID cases in Alameda County are now leading to more people being hospitalized and today’s action reflects the seriousness of the moment,” Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss explained in a statement. “We cannot ignore the data, and we can’t predict when this wave may end. Putting our masks back on gives us the best opportunity to limit the impact of a prolonged wave on our communities.”
“We are seeing the same pattern of disproportionate impact on hard hit communities play out again with rising cases,” said Kimi Watkins-Tartt, Director of AC HCSA’s Public Health Department. “Many Black and Brown residents are frontline workers who can’t work from home and are in workplaces where they frequently interact with the public. A masking order will limit the spread of COVID in these vulnerable communities.”
According to KTVU, the mask mandate applies to government offices, healthcare facilities, shelters and rideshare services.
SAN FRANCISCO PROPOSES TO SPEND $6.5 MILLION TO END HOMELESSNESS FOR TRANSGENDER PEOPLE
Children under the age of 2 should not mask and the county will not require masking in K-12 school settings through the end of the 2021-2022 school year.
Masks will be required in all other children and youth settings, including summer school and youth programs.
The order does not apply to the City of Berkeley, which is an independent Local Health Jurisdiction.
Oakland International Airport tweeted that everyone over the age of 2 must once again wear masks in indoor settings there.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
AC Transit also announced that it would restore its mask mandate policy on all buses “until further notice.”
“We know that policy changes can be frustrating to everyone. However, in support of our frontline workers and greater community, we ask our riders to respectfully comply with the restored mask mandate,” it wrote in a statement.
Philadelphia reinstates indoor mask mandate as COVID-19 cases rise across city
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The City of Philadelphia will once again be under an indoor mask mandate.
The Department of Public Health made the announcement on Monday afternoon during a press briefing.
🧵 Due to increasing COVID-19 cases, @PhiladelphiaGov will move to Level 2: Mask Precautions beginning today. In order to provide a one-week education period for businesses, masks will be required in all indoor public spaces as of Monday, April 18, 2022. (1/4)
— Philadelphia Public Health (@PHLPublicHealth) April 11, 2022
Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said mask precautions begin Monday, but in order to provide a one-week education period for businesses, masks will be required in all indoor public spaces as of Monday, April 18.
“If we fail to act now, knowing that every previous wave of infections has been followed by a wave of hospitalizations, and then a wave of deaths, it will be too late for many of our residents,” said Bettigole, noting about 750 Philadelphia residents died in the wintertime omicron outbreak. “This is our chance to get ahead of the pandemic, to put our masks on until we have more information about the severity of this new variant.”
Starting April 18, masks will be required in all indoor public spaces, including schools and child care settings, businesses, restaurants, and government buildings.
At that time, residents will be asked to report any business not complying with the mandate to 311.
Bettigole cited a rise in COVID cases as the reason why the city is reinstating the mask requirements for indoor public spaces. Confirmed COVID-19 cases have risen more than 50% in 10 days.
The health department says the city will move to Level 2: Mask Precautions under its COVID-19 Response guidelines.
Level 2 is reached when the city meets two of the following three criteria:
- Average new cases per day are less than 225
- Hospitalizations are less than 100
- Cases have increased by more than 50% in the previous 10 days.
Under Level 2, you must wear a mask when indoors in public places.
However, there is no vaccine or testing requirement for places that serve food or drink under Level 2.
The city had lifted its indoor mask mandate and moved to the All Clear Level 1 on Wednesday, March 2. Now, 41 days later, the city is bringing it back.
The restaurant industry pushed back against the mandate, saying workers will bear the brunt of customer anger over the new rules.
“This announcement is a major blow to thousands of small businesses and other operators in the city who were hoping this spring would be the start of recovery,” said Ben Fileccia, senior director of operations at the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association.
Councilman Allan Domb said business owners have been calling his office to express concerns.
This spring was thought to be the comeback for many businesses, including restaurants that were lucky to survive after months of closures and restrictions during the pandemic.
Mask mandate reaction from @prlaorg
“This announcement is a major blow to thousands of small businesses and other operators in the city who were hoping this spring would be the start of recovery.” https://t.co/GuQDybp8Rx— Annie McCormick (@6abcAnnie) April 11, 2022
Reinstating a mask mandate has some concerned that customers may just decide to go elsewhere, like New Jersey or the collar counties that haven’t had any restrictions in months.
“I’m hoping I can get to the health commissioner and try to convince her we should look at other options — maybe making it strongly recommended but not required,” said Domb.
PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia said Friday that while it expects some increased transmission in the northern U.S. over the next several weeks, hospital admissions have remained low and “our team advises against required masking given that hospital capacity is good.”
Bettigole said requiring people to mask up will help restaurants and other businesses stay open, while a huge new wave of COVID-19 would keep customers at home. She said hospital capacity was just one factor that went into her decision to reinstate the mandate.
“I sincerely wish we didn’t have to do this again,” Bettigole said. “But I am very worried about our vulnerable neighbors and loved ones.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2022 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.
Biden news today: US appeals court reinstates president’s vaccine mandate for federal workers
Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmed as first Black woman Supreme Court justice
The controversial Covid-19 vaccine for federal employees introduced by Joe Biden has been reinstated by an appeals court, which overruled a January decision by judge in Texas. According to the White House, more than 93 per cent of government workers have received at least one shot.
Mr Biden’s first Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was yesterday confirmed by a vote on the Senate floor. Having garnered the support of three Republican senators – Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney – she also received the support of all 50 Democrats, becoming the court’s first Black woman justice.
The vote comes after a seven-week nomination process that saw her heavily criticised by Republicans who focused on her supposed record of leniency towards sexual offenders who targeted children. That criticism was in turn widely rejected as a distortion of her past decisions.
Earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she has tested positive for Covid-19, this having just appeared next to President Biden, Chuck Schumer, and other senior figures at a bill signing. The speaker’s team said she is currently asymptomatic.
Jackson confirmation takes Biden political story full circle
It’s a moment 46 days — and more than 46 years — in the making.
President Joe Biden on Friday will celebrate the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court, marking the pinnacle of her legal career and bringing his political story full circle.
Andrew Naughtie8 April 2022 09:35
Vaccine mandate reinstated by appeals court
The vaccine mandate for federal workers that Joe Biden introduced last year has been reinstated by an appeals court after being blocked by a judge in Texas earlier this year.
Under the policy, about 3.5m government workers are required to be vaccinated (religious and medical exemptions notwithstanding) or face disciplinary proceedings and/or dismissal. The government’s appeal against the Texas ruling rested on the claim that the dispute over the mandate should have been heard via a civil service grievance resolution process rather than in judicial proceedings.
Andrew Naughtie8 April 2022 08:59
Jen Psaki dismisses Abbott’s vow to bus migrants to DC ‘publicity stunt’
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called Texas governor Greg Abbott’s vow to send buses to bring undocumented immigrants to Washington a “public stunt”.
“I’m not aware of what authority the governor would be doing that under. I think it’s pretty clear this is a publicity stunt,” Ms Psaki said when asked about the threat during a press briefing.
“His own office admits that a migrant would need to voluntarily be transported, and he can’t compel them to because, again, enforcement of our country’s immigration laws lies with the federal government, not a state,” Ms Psaki added.
Mr Abbott had said that he would send back immigrants who would cross into Texas to Washington, in response to Biden administration’s move to rescind Title 4.
“We are sending them to the United States capital where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border,” Mr Abbott said.
Shweta Sharma8 April 2022 08:45
Biden’s sanctions plan to starve Russia’s ‘war machine’, says deputy treasury secretary
US deputy treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo told Reuters that the US is ramping up sanctions against Moscow to deprive the country’s “war machine” of money and components needed to sustain its invasion of Ukraine, but curbing a main source of funding.
He said the US and its allies have “a lot more that we can and we will do”. “What this means is that Russia will be deprived of the capital it needs to build up its economy, but also to invest in its war machine,” Mr Adeyemo said.
He said the US and EU will target Russia’s military supply chains to deny access to “things that are important to building their tanks, to supplying missiles and making sure that they have fewer resources”.
“I think the impact will be immediate in the same way the impact on the economy has been immediate” from prior sanctions, Mr Adeyemo said.
US officials estimate that Russia’s economy is headed for a 10 per cent contraction this year and inflation is approaching 20 per cent.
Shweta Sharma8 April 2022 08:00
Jackson will join more diverse and conservative high court
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will join a Supreme Court which is ever more diverse and conservative than it’s been since the 1930s.
After being selected with a 53-47 vote by the Senate, she will join the court in the next several months, until Justice Stephen Breyer retires.
When Jackson takes the bench as a justice for the first time, in October, she will be one of four women and two Black justices — both high court firsts.
And the nine-member court as a whole will be younger than it’s been for nearly 30 years, when Breyer, now 83, came on board.
Shweta Sharma8 April 2022 07:11
Delays expected in passing $10bn in Covid aid in Senate – report
A bill to pour $10bn more into Covid programs is reportedly being delayed until after Easter when the senators return from their two-week spring break, reported Politico, citing multiple senators.
“The Republicans are playing politics with the health of the American people,” said senator Elizabeth Warren. “Blocking Covid protection money is a ticking time bomb for public health. So Democrats will come back and try to get the money we need, but this is not a good day for the health of the world.”
This comes after Senate Republicans move to block the legislation from advancing as they were not guaranteed an amendment vote on reinstating Title 42 — a policy by Mr Trump that allowed expulsion of migrants at the border during the pandemic.
Shweta Sharma8 April 2022 06:58
Chinese scientist sentenced over 2 years prison for ‘spying’
Department of Justice sentenced over two years of prison term to a Chinese national for “conspiring to commit economic espionage”.
Xiang Haitao, 44, who was residing in Chesterfield, Missouri, pleaded guilty to the charge in January 2022.
According to court documents, Xiang conspired to steal a trade secret from The Climate Corporation, an internationally based company doing business in St Louis, Missouri, for the purpose of benefitting the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
“Xiang conspired to steal an important trade secret to gain an unfair advantage for himself and the PRC,” said assistant attorney general Matthew G Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
“The victim companies invested significant time and resources to develop this intellectual property. Economic espionage is a serious offense that can threaten US companies’ competitive advantage, and the National Security Division is committed to holding accountable anyone who steals trade secrets to benefit a foreign government.”
Shweta Sharma8 April 2022 05:41
Biden and Jackson celebrate moment with a selfie
The eagle-eyed will notice the photo was taken while everyone waited for Senator Rand Paul to vote.
Oliver O’Connell8 April 2022 05:30
White House dismisses Covid risk for Biden after Pelosi meet
The White House has dismissed concerns over Joe Biden being at the risk of contracting Covid after he met with speaker Nancy Pelosi, who tested positive earlier in the day on Thursday.
“The way a close contact is defined, it’s not arbitrary, it’s not something made up by the White House, it’s CDC guidelines, and how they define it is being within six feet for a cumulative total of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
“They were not. All of their interactions were publicly available, I think you saw them, and that’s how that assessment is made,” Ms Psaki added.
The two were at the White House, at times in very close proximity, before Ms Pelosi tested positive during an event marking the Affordable Care Act at which former president Barack Obama was also in attendance.
President Joe Biden kisses House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., during an Affordable Care Act event in the East Room of the White House in Washington
(AP)
Shweta Sharma8 April 2022 05:03
History made: Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmed as first Black woman Supreme Court Justice
Ketanji Brown Jackson made history on Thursday when the Senate voted 53 to 47 to make her the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice in the country’s history.
Vice President Kamala Harris, herself a historic first as the first Black and Asian American woman vice president, was on hand to preside over the confirmation vote. Ms Jackson’s ascent to the highest court in the land was a moment of celebration for many Democrats.
Eric Garcia reports for The Independent from Capitol Hill.
Oliver O’Connell8 April 2022 04:45
Chief Justice John Roberts joins with liberals to criticize ‘shadow docket’ as court reinstates Trump-era EPA rule
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberal justices in dissent, arguing that the court’s majority had “gone astray” by granting an unwarranted request on its emergency docket.
“That renders the Court’s emergency docket not for emergencies at all,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the four dissenters. She said that the Republican-led states and others that had petitioned the court for emergency relief had not shown they would suffer the necessary irreparable harm to make their case.
“This Court may stay a decision under review in a court of appeals only in extraordinary circumstances and upon the weightiest considerations,” Kagan wrote. She said the challengers’ request for a stay rested on “simple assertions — on conjectures, unsupported by any present-day evidence.”
The majority’s move, Kagan insisted, signals the court’s view of the merits even though the applicants have failed to make the irreparable harm showing “we have traditionally required.”
The emergency docket, she said, “becomes only another place for merits determination — except without full briefing and argument.”
The five conservative justices did not explain their reasoning for reinstating the Trump-era rule.
The emergency docket — referred to by some justices and outside observers as the “shadow docket” — has increasingly come under criticism by those who say that important issues are being resolved without the benefit of full briefing schedule and oral arguments.
While the court’s liberals, especially Kagan, have often criticized the use of emergency petitions, this is the first time Roberts has explicitly joined in.
“We’ve seen Chief Justice Roberts join the Democratic appointees in dissenting from some of the Court’s prior shadow docket rulings,” said Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law, who is penning a book on the shadow docket. “But today’s ruling is the first time he’s joined in publicly criticizing the majority for how it is using and abusing the shadow docket. That’s a pretty significant development, and a strong signal for the Court’s de facto leader to be sending.”
In the dissent, Kagan wrote that the challengers had failed to offer “concrete proof” that they would be harmed if the Environmental Protection Agency rule were not reinstated. She noted specifically that they had waited five months after the lower court vacated the rule to make their request. In addition, she said, a federal appeals court is set to hear the dispute next month and that the rule that is currently in place had previously been on the books for some 50 years.
Last September, conservative Justice Samuel Alito launched a 10-point rebuttal in an unusual speech, defending the court’s practice when it comes to the emergency docket. He said the complications surrounding the emergency requests and said that the justices do “the best we can” under the time constraints imposed by the situation. Alito called criticism “very misleading,” stressing that there is “absolutely nothing new about emergency applications.”
The court’s order on Wednesday reinstates a rule that restricts the authority of states under the Clean Water Act to reject federal permits for projects that affect waters within their borders. The Trump-era rule will go back into effect while the Biden administration issues a new rule which is expected to be finalized by spring 2023.
It is a loss for more than 20 Democratic-led states, the District of Columbia, environmental groups and tribes that challenged the rule put in place by the Trump administration in 2020. They said it limited the abilities of states and local communities to weigh in on projects that could harm their communities. Challengers said the Trump rule could lead to projects — such as a strip mall on a wetland, a hydroelectric project or oil and gas pipelines — that could alter waterways without input from the state.
Earthjustice, representing environmental groups and tribes opposed to the Trump rule, criticized the court’s order.
“The court’s decision to reinstate the Trump administration rule shows disregard for the integrity of the Clean Water Act and undermines the rights of tribes and states to review and reject dirty fossil fuel projects that threaten their water,” said Moneen Nasmith, senior attorney for the group.
A lower court had vacated the rule, prompting a group of Republican-led states and various industries to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court.
This story has been updated with additional details.
Australian judge reinstates tennis star Djokovic’s visa
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian judge has reinstated tennis star Novak Djokovic’s visa, which was canceled after his arrival last week because he is unvaccinated.
Circuit Court Judge Anthony Kelly also ordered the government on Monday to release Djokovic from Melbourne hotel quarantine within 30 minutes of his decision.
Government lawyer Christopher Tran told the judge after the ruling that the minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Alex Hawke, “will consider whether to exercise a personal power of cancelation.”
That would mean mean Djokovic could again face deportation and could miss the Australian Open, which starts on Jan. 17.
The Australian government canceled 34-year-old Djokovic’s visa shortly after he arrived in Melbourne late Wednesday to play in the Australian Open because officials decided he didn’t meet the criteria for an exemption to an entry requirement that all non-citizens be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
Djokovic, who court documents say is unvaccinated, argued he did not need proof of vaccination because he had evidence that he had been infected with the coronavirus last month.
Australian medical authorities have ruled that a temporary exemption for the vaccination rule can be provided to people who have been infected with COVID-19 within six months.
Circuit Court Judge Anthony Kelly noted that Djokovic had provided officials at Melbourne’s airport with a medical exemption given him by Tennis Australia, which is organizing the tournament that starts on Jan. 17, and two medical panels.
“The point I’m somewhat agitated about is what more could this man have done?” Kelly asked Djokovic’s lawyer, Nick Wood.
Wood agreed with the judge that Djokovic could not have done more.
Transcripts of Djokovic’s interview with Border Force officials and his own affidavit revealed a “repeated appeal to the officers with which he was dealing that to his understanding, uncontradicted, he had done absolutely everything that he understood was required in order for him to enter Australia,” Wood said.
Djokovic has been under guard in hotel quarantine in Melbourne since Thursday, when his visa was canceled.
But the judge ordered that the world No. 1-ranked tennis player be released from hotel quarantine during his court hearing. It was not clear where Djokovic relocated to during his hearing. He did not appear on screen in the first hours of the virtual hearing.
Djokovic’s lawyers submitted 11 grounds for appeal against his visa cancellation. The lawyers described the cancellation as “seriously illogical,” irrational and legally unreasonable.
Lawyers for Home Affairs Minister Karen Andres said in their submission that if the judge ruled in Djokovic’s favor, officials might cancel his visa a second time.
They said the vaccination requirement could only be deferred for arriving travelers who have had a COVID-19 infection if their illness was acute.
“There is no suggestion that the applicant (Djokovic) had ‘acute major medical illness’ in December” when he tested positive, the written submission said.
The virtual hearing crashed several times because of an overwhelming number of people from around the world trying to watch the proceedings.
At one point, an expired court link was apparently hacked and broadcast pornography, The New Daily News website reported.
Djokovic is a nine-time Australian Open champion. He has 20 Grand Slam singles titles, a men’s record he shares with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
___
McGuirk reported from Canberra. Associated Press journalists John Pye and Dennis Passa in Brisbane and Tom Moldoveanu in Melbourne contributed to this report.
Covid news live: infections hit record highs across Europe; South Africa reinstates contact tracing and isolation | World news
04:39
03:59
China’s Xi’an marks first week of lockdown
Updated
03:36
03:05
US reports single highest number of daily cases
Updated
02:09
01:49
01:27
California first US state to record more than 5m infections
01:06
WHO warns Omicron could overwhelm health systems
00:47
Hundreds more US flights cancelled in fifth day of travel chaos
Updated
00:28
Appeals Court Reinstates Biden Covid-19 Vaccine Rules for Large Employers
A federal appeals court Friday reinstated Biden administration rules that require many employers to ensure that their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly for Covid-19.
A divided panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved a stay issued by another court that had blocked the rules. The majority, in a 2-to-1 ruling, said legal challenges to the administration’s vaccination-and-testing requirements were likely to fail.
The ruling is a near-term boost to the White House but was immediately appealed on an emergency basis to the Supreme Court by some employers who oppose the mandate.
The requirements, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and scheduled to take effect in January, apply to businesses with 100 or more employees and cover roughly 84 million workers.
Employers who don’t comply with the requirements could face penalties of up to around $13,600 a violation. The requirements don’t apply to employees who don’t report to a workplace where other individuals are present, employees who only work from home or employees who work exclusively outdoors.
Three Biden administration vaccination requirements have been challenged in courts around the country. One set of rules, applying to many healthcare workers, is already pending at the high court after the Biden administration on Thursday asked the justices to reinstate the requirements as lower courts put them on hold in parts of the country.
The federal appeals court ruling was immediately appealed on an emergency basis to the Supreme Court by employers who oppose the mandate.
Photo:
Bill Clark/Zuma Press
Other vaccine rules that apply to federal-government contractors could land at the Supreme Court soon after lower courts have put them on hold.
The Biden administration has argued its rules are legally sound and urgently needed in light of the continuing health threats posed by the pandemic, including the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 that has led to a spike in infections.
“It’s critical we move forward with vaccination requirements and protections for workers with the urgency needed in this moment,” a White House spokesman said after the ruling.
Republican officials and business owners are among the litigants who have sued the administration, arguing the rules are heavy-handed regulations that exceed the powers of the executive branch.
The requirements “will cause irreparable harm to businesses and employees across the country, and will wreak havoc on supply chains that are already stretched to their limits,” said Robert Alt of the Buckeye Institute, an organization representing one group of employers challenging the rules.
Republican officials and business owners opposed to Covid-19 vaccine mandates are among the litigants who have sued the administration.
Photo:
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
In Friday’s decision reinstating the OSHA rules for private employers, the Sixth Circuit majority cited the continued Covid-19 public-health crisis and said the federal government had broad authority to ensure workplace safety.
“OSHA has wide discretion to form and implement the best possible solution to ensure the health and safety of all workers, and has historically exercised that discretion,” Judge Jane Stranch wrote for the court.
“It makes sense that OSHA’s authority contemplates the use of medical exams and vaccinations as tools in its arsenal,” wrote Judge Stranch, an Obama appointee. She was joined by Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, an appointee of
George W. Bush,
who said judges should not substitute their judgment for OSHA’s on a matter in which reasonable minds may disagree.
The ruling by the Cincinnati-based court negated a decision by a sister court, the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, which put the vaccine-and-testing requirements on hold last month. That court said the Biden administration approach raised “grave statutory and constitutional issues.”
The Fifth Circuit lost jurisdiction over its case after legal challenges filed around the country were all consolidated and transferred to the Sixth Circuit by a judicial panel that manages multidistrict litigation.
In dissent Friday, Judge Joan Larsen, a Trump appointee, said OSHA had not offered sufficient justification for adopting a broad vaccine-or-testing mandate, and she questioned whether Congress had given the agency the power to do so.
“OSHA has alerted us to no prior attempt on its part to mandate a solution that extends beyond the workplace walls—much less a permanent and physically intrusive one, promulgated on an emergency basis, without any chance for public participation. But that … is what OSHA has done here,” Judge Larsen wrote. “A vaccine may not be taken off when the workday ends; and its effects, unlike this rule, will not expire in six months.”
Other conservative judges on the court registered displeasure with the Biden administration rules in dissent Wednesday, when the court declined to hear the case with all active Sixth Circuit judges participating, rather than just a three-judge panel. Almost all cases are heard initially by three judges.
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
Copyright ©2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8