Rita’s Weekly News Roundup: November 18 – 24
Theme of Week: Giving and Taking
We will have to give asylum
When people immigrate illegally to the U.S, they can claim asylum. This means that they claim they have a legitimate danger of torture or death if deported back to their country of origin. President Trump issued a proclamation claiming anyone who crossed from the southern border illegally would be not be eligible for asylum. However, asylum is protected by congressional acts, and Trump’s proclamation was struck down by a U.S District judge. This is important because it is the most recent of a series of acts Trump has tried to pass that limit the rights of immigrants. You can read more about it here.
The Supreme Court is taking a stand
The Supreme Court is perhaps one of the most non-partisan entities in our government. But this week, chief justice John Roberts issued a statement that addresses President Trump’s attacks on a federal judge as an “Obama judge.” Robert’s statement read: “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.[The] independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.” It is extremely rare for a supreme court judge, much less the Chief Justice, to publicly criticize a politician. John Roberts has very rarely done so, and never so publicly or directed at a president. You can read more about this here.
Former officials will be giving Testimony
The former FBI director, James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch have been subpoenaed to appear in court. The subpoena addresses two issues — the handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, as well as the handling of the investigation into the Trump campaign and possible ties with Russia. Comey has called for the questioning to be public; if this were to happen, it would give the general public more information on both investigations. You can read more about this here.
Climate will start taking our land and jobs (according to this report)
This report was issued by the Trump administration, and was over a thousand pages long and researched by over a dozen federal agencies. It outlines the effects that a warming climate will have in the coming years, such as rising sea levels, agricultural effects, and health effects, as well as very bad effects for the U.S economy. This study is in contradiction to the Trump Administration policy, which has taken actions such as to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. You can read more about this here. Or here. The actual report is here.
