#supreme federal court

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil high court rules homophobia punishable by prison

Brazil's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that homophobic slurs are now punishable by prison, in a decision applauded by rights activists in a country with rampant violence against the LGBTQ+ community.

The 9-1 ruling puts homophobic hate speech on the same legal level as racist hate speech, which was already punishable by prison in Brazil.

Justice Edson Fachin, the lead judge on the case, said in his ruling it was a "constitutional imperative" to give LGBTQ+ citizens equal protection under the law.

The court had ruled in 2019 that homophobia was a crime, just like racism.

But the earlier decision applied to slurs against the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, not attacks on specific individuals.

Continue reading.

#brazil #politics #brazilian politics #LGBT #supreme federal court #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

In October, tens of millions of borrowers will be required to pay their monthly federal student loan bills for the first time since March 2020, the Department of Education clarified Monday.

The pandemic-related pause on both payments and interest accumulation has been set to end later this summer, though the exact date payments would be due was a little fuzzy.

The Biden administration had previously said that the pause would end either 60 days after June 30 or 60 days after the Supreme Court rules on the separate student loan forgiveness program – whichever comes first.

A law passed in early June to address the debt ceiling officially prevented the pandemic-related pause from being extended again. The repayment date has been extended a total of eight times under both the Biden and Trump administrations.

“Student loan interest will resume starting on September 1, 2023, and payments will be due starting in October. We will notify borrowers well before payments restart,” the Department of Education said in a statement sent to CNN Monday.

The update was first reported by Politico.

Borrowers typically receive their bill statements from their loan servicer a few weeks before they are due. Not every borrower’s bill is due at the same time of the month.

The Department of Education has said that it will be in direct communication with borrowers and ramp up its communication with student loan servicers before repayment resumes.

Student loan experts recommend that borrowers reach out to their student loan servicer with any questions about their loans as soon as possible, especially if they are interested in enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan. Those plans, which set payments based on income and family size, can lower monthly payments but require borrowers to submit some paperwork.

Federal student loan borrowers can check the Federal Student Aid website for updates on resuming payments.

SOME BORROWERS COULD BE AT RISK OF DEFAULT

Some borrowers may struggle to resume paying their monthly student loan bills.

More student loan borrowers are currently behind on other kinds of bills than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The report also said that about 1 in 5 student loan borrowers have risk factors that suggest they could struggle when scheduled payments resume, like being delinquent on student loan payments before the pandemic or having multiple student loan servicers.

When payments restart, many people might be confused about how much they owe, when to pay and how. Millions of borrowers will have a different servicer handling their student loans since the last time they made a payment.

Originally, the pause on federal student loan payments was put in place to help borrowers struggling financially due to the pandemic.

From a jobs perspective, the economy has largely recovered from the pandemic-related disruptions. In May, 3.7 million more people were working than in February 2020.

But there are some soft spots. Major layoffs have recently been announced at big companies like Disney and Amazon. Earlier this year, a regional banking crisis was set off by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis. And inflation remains high but is cooling after reaching a 40-year peak last year.

STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS STILL ON THE TABLE

Meanwhile, all eyes are on the Supreme Court as borrowers wait to see if the Biden administration will be allowed to move forward with its student loan forgiveness program. A decision is expected in late June or early July.

Under the proposal, individual borrowers who made less than $125,000 in either 2020 or 2021 and married couples or heads of households who made less than $250,000 a year could see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven.

If a qualifying borrower also received a federal Pell grant while enrolled in college, the individual is eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness.

But several lawsuits argue that the Biden administration is abusing its power and using the pandemic as a pretext for fulfilling the president’s campaign pledge to cancel student debt.

No debt has been canceled yet. But if the Supreme Court allows the program to take effect, it’s possible the government moves quickly to forgive the debts of 16 million borrowers who the administration already approved for relief.

If the Justices strike down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, it could be possible for the administration to make some modifications to the policy and try again – though that process could take months.

#us politics #news #cnn politics #president joe biden #biden administration #student loan forgiveness #cancel student loans #federal student loans #student debt forgiveness #student loan debt #us supreme court #scotus #2023 #Department of Education #politico #Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

[deadpresidents]

I'll co-sign this and add it to the list of recommended Supreme Court books. I've read Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court by Jan Crawford Greenburg (BOOK | KINDLE) and it's excellent and frighteningly prescient about what would happen ten years later under the successful Trump/McConnell push to finally reshape the Court and the federal judiciary, possibly for decades to come. And look at what that conservative-dominated Supreme Court has done in just the past three years.

#History #Books #Book Recommendations #Book Suggestions #Supreme Court #Judicial Branch #Judiciary #Federal Judiciary #Supreme Court Books #Supreme Conflict #Jan Crawford Greenburg #Hopefully we're talking about the same book!

[kp777]

Supreme Court to consider conservative effort to block federal power and a challenge to 'qualified immunity' for police officers | CNN Politics

#u.s. supreme court #federal government

[tomorrowusa]

When you vote for president, you are voting for the person who appoints federal judges – including those on the US Supreme Court. When you vote for US senator, you are voting for one of the people who confirms those judges.

Federal judges have lifetime appointments. So bad choices for president or senator live on long past the four-year or six-year terms of the elected officials who put those judges on the bench.

If you want to know what a fully Trumpified federal judiciary would be like, check out the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. It covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The Fifth Circuit makes the current US Supreme Court look liberal and capable.

The latest atrocity from the Fifth Circuit involves a decision where a state law forbidding abortion takes precedence over the survival of woman seeking emergency treatment.

The case is Texas v. Becerra, and all three of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s judges who joined this opinion were appointed by Republicans. Two, including Kurt Engelhardt, the opinion’s author, were appointed by former President Donald Trump. The case involves the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal statute requiring hospitals that accept Medicare funds to provide “such treatment as may be required to stabilize the medical condition” of “any individual” who arrives at the hospital’s ER with an “emergency medical condition.” (In limited circumstances, the hospital may transfer the patient to a different facility that will provide this stabilizing treatment.) EMTALA contains no carve-out for abortion. It simply states that, whenever any patient arrives at a Medicare-funded hospital with a medical emergency, the hospital must offer that patient whatever treatment is necessary to “stabilize the medical condition” that caused the emergency. So, if a patient’s emergency condition can only be stabilized by an abortion, federal law requires nearly all hospitals to provide that treatment. (Hospitals can opt out of EMTALA by not taking Medicare funds but, because Medicare funds health care for elderly Americans, very few hospitals do opt out.) This federal law, moreover, also states that it overrides (or “preempts,” to use the appropriate legal term) state and local laws “to the extent that the [state law] directly conflicts with a requirement of this section.” So, in states with sweeping abortion bans that prohibit some or all medically necessary abortions, the state law must give way to EMTALA’s requirement that all patients must be offered whatever treatment is necessary to stabilize their condition. It is important to emphasize just how little EMTALA has to say about abortion. EMTALA does not protect healthy women who wish to terminate their pregnancies. Nor does it preempt any state regulations of abortion, except when a patient is experiencing a medical emergency and their doctors determine that an abortion is the appropriate treatment. But when an emergency room patient presents with a life-threatening illness or condition — or, in the words of the EMTALA statute, that patient has a condition that places their health “in serious jeopardy,” that threatens “serious impairment to bodily functions,” or “serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part” — then Medicare-funded hospitals must provide whatever treatment is necessary. The Texas case, in other words, asks whether a state government can force a woman to die, or suffer lasting injury to her uterus or other reproductive organs, because the state’s lawmakers are so opposed to abortion that they will not permit it, even when such an abortion is required by federal law. And yet, despite the fact that the EMTALA statute is unambiguous, and despite the fact that this case only involves patients whose life or health is threatened by a pregnancy, three Fifth Circuit judges told those patients that they have no right to potentially lifesaving medical care.

Of course the ruling by the Fifth Circuit lacks basic logic. If the mother dies, the fetus is likely lost as well anyway. d'oh!

All three judges on the panel are Republicans – two having been appointed by Trump. Don't expect judicial genius from these folks.

Engelhardt’s opinion is surprisingly brief for such a consequential decision, and for one that reads a straightforward federal law in such a counterintuitive way. The section of the opinion laying out Engelhardt’s unusual reading of this federal law is only about eight pages long — yet it contains at least three separate legal errors.

This case will probably end up before SCOTUS. The best we should expect is for the Supremos to toss out the decision because of the legal errors made by the Fifth Circuit.

But in the long run, to protect reproductive freedom it's necessary to keep Republicans out of the White House and out of the majority in the Senate for the foreseeable future.

Be A Voter - Vote Save America

#abortion #the sanctity of reproductive freedom #reproductive freedom #a woman's right to choose #texas v. becerra #emtala #the federal courts #trump judges #us court of appeals for the fifth circuit #kurt engelhardt #us supreme court #donald trump #election 2024 #vote blue no matter who

[transrevolutions]

Full stop, we don't live in a democracy. Not even a republic, either.

We live in an oligarchy, with republican* characteristics at best. We have a president that doesn't even need the popular vote to be elected (executive branch), a two-party congress bought out by corporates and lobbyists (legislative branch) and a group of nine appointed-for-life 'justices' who can make decisions overturning decades of legal precedent, who are given their positions not by election but by the president that doesn't even need a popular vote to get in office (judicial branch).

We don't live in a democracy. We live in an oligarchy run by corporations, gun and oil lobbyists, old money, and the Christian fascist far right.

*'republican' here does not mean the GOP, it refers to the system of government, although in these times, the error is easy to make.

#politics #us politics #roe v wade #supreme court #congress #executive branch #federalism #democracy #republic #popular vote #oligarchy #fuck corporates #fascism #pigeon.txt

[frankenshane]

the lack of schoolhouse rock basics in understanding us civics is really galling and supremely annoying

#there's a reason clinton was talking about the importance of the supreme court in 2016! #and frequently things that are good have never had the votes and public support to become federal law or constitutional amendments

[nando161mando]

According to the FBI I'm a domestic terrorist.

Nice to know.

#federal bureau of investigation #fbi corruption #fbi most wanted #fbi cover up #cops ‘didn’t search’ for missing sc woman julia ann bean ‘who was last seen with rex heuermann’ as fbi launches probe #fbi #domestic terrorism #terrorism #class war #1312 #acab1312 #acab #all cops are bastards #all cops are bad #fuck the gop #fuck the police #fuck the patriarchy #fuck the supreme court #fuck the system #ausgov #politas #auspol #tasgov #taspol #australia #fuck neoliberals #neoliberal capitalism #anthony albanese #albanese government #eat the rich

[catgirltoes]

The funniest thing on Wikipedia is the timeline for the legalization of gay marriage, because the rest of the world is coloured in terms of individual countries but North America has separate dates for every Canadian province, US State, and Mexican State.

#well the canadian provinces all legalized gay marriage within like a year of each other before the feds legalized it countrywide #and dragged alberta and pei kicking and screaming into the 21st century #and about half the us states had it legalized at the same time a decade later by the us supreme court #but mexico it was done state by state with minimal federal involvement which i respect a lot #to be clear i respect the activists who had to go through the shit not the federal government #catgirltxt

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil can become the next country to step up to guarantee the right to abortion

To mark International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:

“Despite the green wave’s numerous victories in the Americas over the last few years, the rights gained and the opportunities to expand abortion protections are under attack by anti-rights actors. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States last year was a wakeup call for the movement, reminding us once more that the fight to defend and expand our rights must be ongoing.”

“Brazil has the opportunity to join the green wave and recognize the right to access a safe and legal abortion for women, girls, and all people who can become pregnant. For decades, the criminalization of abortion has violated our sexual and reproductive rights, and disproportionately discriminated against women who are Black, Indigenous and living in poverty. It is time for the Supreme Federal Court to end this injustice.”

Continue reading.

#brazil #politics #feminism #abortion #reproductive rights #brazilian politics #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt #supreme federal court

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The Biden administration is launching a beta website for its new income-driven student loan repayment plan today, officials told CNN, allowing borrowers to begin submitting applications for the program as federal student loan payments are set to resume in October.

The SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan was finalized after the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness initiative in June. It marks a significant change to the federal student loan system that could lower monthly loan payments for some borrowers and reduce the amount they pay back over the lifetime of their loans.

“Part of the President’s overall commitment is to improve the student loan system and reduce the burden of student loan debt on American families,” a senior administration official said, previewing the beta website first to CNN. “The SAVE plan is a big part of that. It is important in this moment as borrowers are getting ready to return to repayment.”

Federal student loan borrowers can access the beta website at https://studentaid.gov/idr/. The enrollment process is estimated to take 10 minutes, and many sections can be automatically populated with information the government has on hand, including tax returns from the IRS, administration officials said.

Borrowers will only need to apply one time, not yearly as past systems require, which officials said would make this plan “much easier to use.” Users will receive a confirmation email once the application is submitted, and the approval process, which can be tracked online, is expected to take a few weeks.

Those already enrolled in the federal government’s REPAYE, or Revised Pay As You Earn, income-driven repayment plan will be automatically switched to the new plan.

The full website launch will occur in August, and applications submitted during the beta period will not need to be resubmitted. The beta period will allow the Department of Education to monitor site performance in real time to identify any issues, and the site may be paused to make any necessary updates, officials said.

The SAVE plan, which applies to current and future federal student loan borrowers, will determine payments based on income and family size, and some monthly payments will be as small as $0. The income threshold to qualify for $0 payments has been increased from 150% to 225% of federal poverty guidelines, which translates to an annual income of $32,805 for a single borrower or $67,500 for a family of four. The Education Department estimates this means more than 1 million additional borrowers will qualify for $0 payments under the plan.

Some borrowers could have their payments cut in half when the program is in full effect next year and see their remaining debt canceled after making at least 10 years of payments, a significant change from previous plans.

With the new plan, unpaid interest will not accrue if a borrower makes their full monthly payments.

But the new plan does come at a cost to the federal government. Estimates of the program’s expense have varied depending on how many borrowers sign up for the new plan, but they range from $138 billion to $361 billion over 10 years. By comparison, Biden’s student loan forgiveness program was expected to cost about $400 billion.

The Education Department has created similar income-driven repayment plans in the past and has not faced a successful legal challenge, officials noted.

The beta site launch comes as borrowers will need to begin making federal student loan payments again in October after a pause of more than three years because of the pandemic.

Since the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s effort to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt for millions of borrowers, the administration has taken a number of steps aimed at helping federal student loan borrowers in other ways.

Earlier this month, the Education Department announced that 804,000 borrowers will have their student debt wiped away – about $39 billion worth of debt – after fixes that more accurately count qualified monthly payments under existing income-driven repayment plans.

#us politics #news #cnn politics #cnn #president joe biden #biden administration #student loan forgiveness #cancel student loans #student debt forgiveness #student loan debt #Saving on a Valuable Education #federal student loans #Revised Pay As You Earn #Department of Education #us supreme court #scotus #debt forgiveness #2023

[falseandrealultravival]

There are many deficiencies in the USA presidential system (Essay)

Trump is the only president to be impeached twice. He was recently ruled by the Colorado Supreme Court to be ineligible to run for president from the state as the mastermind behind the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Of course. Trump did mastermind the insurrection. However, he insisted he was not involved and appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.

The issue is the Federal Supreme Court. Judges here are appointed for life, and once you become a judge, you remain a judge until you die. This is a problem because, after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who fought for minority rights, Trump was quick to replace her with a female judge loyal to him. This gave Republicans an absolute advantage on the U.S. Supreme Court, which immediately overturned 50-year-old gender precedents. The Colorado Supreme Court's ruling is also likely to be overturned. Isn't this the harmful effects of too much power being concentrated in the hands of the president?

And if Trump were to be reelected as president, he would be able to crush multiple lawsuits, including allegations of spying, by ``using presidential authority.'' Trump is aiming for this and has the gall to prolong the trial until the presidential election is over. --A crime is a crime. This is a case that cannot be undone even if Trump returns to the presidency.

In the USA, we cannot help but think that there are many deficiencies in the laws and regulations regarding the presidential system. Even presidents who can be called national figures make mistakes. Even more so, for Trump, who is a fraud, the current presidential system can be said to be a ``dangerous knife''.

Rei Morishita

USAの大統領制には不備が多い（エッセイ）

トランプは、大統領として2度も弾劾された稀有の存在である。最近ではUSA連邦議会乱入事件の首謀者として、コロラド州の最高裁判所に「大統領として州から立候補する資格がない」と判決された。当然である。トランプは確かに反乱を首謀した。だが「自分は関わっていない」と強弁し、連邦最高裁に上告した。

問題はその連邦最高裁である。ここの判事は終身制で、いったん判事になれば、死ぬまで判事だ。これは問題で、マイノリティーの権利のために戦ったルース・ベイダー・ギンズバークが死去すると、トランプはすかさず、自分に忠実な女性判事を後釜に据えた。これで連邦最高裁は共和党が絶対優位になり、さっそく５０年まえのジェンダーに関する判例を覆した。コロラド州最高裁の判決も覆される可能性が高い。これは、大統領一個人に権限が集中しすぎている弊害ではないのか？

そして仮にトランプが大統領に再任されたら、スパイ疑惑など複数の訴訟も、「大統領権限で」握り潰すことが出来る。トランプはそれを狙って大統領選が終了するまで裁判を長引かせる魂胆なのである。―犯罪は犯罪だ。トランプが大統領に返り咲いても、取り消せない事例だ。

USAにおいては、大統領制に関する諸法令には不備が多いと考えざるを得ない。国士と言える大統領でもミスを犯す。ましてや詐欺師のトランプにとっては、現行の大統領制は、「キチガイに刃物」だと言えよう。

#USA presidential system #deficiencies #essay #rei morishita #the Federal Supreme Court #Ruth Bader Ginsburg #using presidential authority #dangerous knife #Trump

[deadpresidents]

Every single MAGA supporting conservative appointed to the courts should star in my new theater play: "Thick Clots Sit In the Pillory and Are Pelted with Rancid Tomatoes". Admission is free.

Sounds great, but do you know what the really awful thing is? They'd still have the power to do exactly what they are currently doing to the country when it comes to abortion, LGBTQ+ issues, race, guns, voting rights, climate change, corporate regulation, economic inequality, immigration, education, the freedom of speech, expression and religion (or the freedom to not believe), and so on.

So, while the idea of throwing tomatoes sounds like a nice way to blow off some steam and win a minor skirmish, they are winning the war. Because ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES and the worst possible person won the wrong election at the scariest possible time. And it resulted in a federal judiciary dominated by very conservative judges who have their jobs as long as they live.

Seeing a free play is always nice, but make no mistake, a lot of us are probably going to be paying for this right-wing federal judiciary for the rest of our lives. I'd rather pay to watch something else.

#ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES #Judicial Branch #Federal Judiciary #Supreme Court #U.S. Supreme Court #Law #Constitution #Politics #Elections #Right-wing judges #Federal Judges #Abortion Rights #LGBTQ+ #Gun Safety #Voting Rights #Climate Change #Corporate Regulation #Greed #Economic Inequality #Immigration #Freedom of Speech #Religious Freedom #Freeom of expression #Vote #Always Vote #And run for office too

[kp777]

Supreme Court’s SEC case ruling could ‘upend government as we know it’

MSNBC

Dec 3, 2023

NYU Law Professor Melissa Murray and Ali Velshi discuss the US Supreme Court case on the SEC and why it could have wide-reaching impacts on the powers of the so-called administrative state and the functioning of our government, stripping agencies of authority. The case “has the potential to completely upend the way government as we know it is run,” Murray explains. “There’s a lot riding on this… it does not just effect the SEC, it impacts a lot of federal agencies.” 

#federal government #u.s. supreme court #Youtube

[tomorrowusa]

From a legal standpoint, having states attempt to individually decide on eligibility for federal office under the US Constitution was bound to end up before the US Supreme Court. That's not a surprise.

Probably the best outcome we can hope for is that SCOTUS will say that a conviction for insurrection would be needed to make Trump ineligible.

But we should not rely on the courts to save us from doom. We need to start right now talking up democracy, getting every moderate to liberal eligible voter to register and vote, and be more visible about supporting Team Blue. Preaching to the choir may feel good but we need to go forth and do some political missionary work.

Relevant to the cartoon: Actively remind people that it's the president who nominates US Supreme Court justices and it's US senators who vote to confirm them. Useless "protest votes" for impotent third parties can have a catastrophic effect on the federal judiciary for decades.

#us supreme court #us constitution #federal judiciary #insurrection clause #14th amendment - section 3 #eligibility #scotus #donald trump #january 6th #assault on the us capitol by pro-trump terrorists #clarence thomas #samuel alito #gop presidential nomination #tom tomorrow #dan perkins #election 2024

[paulmccartneygrindr]

paid off over 25k in student loans in 1 year who want me

#thoughts and prayers that the supreme court doesnt fuck me over w loan forgivenes so i'll only have ~10k in federal debt and not 30k 🙏