Washington Extra – Kids, cover your ears
With Washington gripped by a widening Secret Service scandal, reporters just couldn’t steer clear of the salacious story. Soon after spokeswoman Victoria Nuland saluted the handful of underage observers, the questions moved to charges that Secret Service agents and other government workers cavorted with strippers and prostitutes while on overseas assignments. Nuland lamented the topic du jour and one Department employee jokingly moved to cover his daughter’s ears.
The roughly half-dozen kids were models of decorum. There they sat, on the sidelines of the briefing room, staring down at the floor. None asked a question. But they might have been thinking “Mom, Dad, when we get home tonight, you’ll have some explaining to do.”
Here are our top stories from Washington…
US on guard for attacks ahead of bin Laden anniversary – President Obama has reviewed potential threats to the United States ahead of the anniversary next week of the killing of Osama bin Laden, but there is no concrete evidence that al Qaeda is plotting any revenge attacks, the White House said. Bin Laden’s killing last year by U.S. commandos is touted by the Obama administration as one of his top accomplishments and it may help inoculate the president from Republican election-year claims that he is weak on national security. For more of this story by Alister Bull, read here.
Biden knocks Romney for “back to the future” foreign policy – Vice President Joe Biden blasted Mitt Romney’s foreign policy vision as backward-looking and tied to George W. Bush, hammering the presumptive Republican nominee for thinking like a CEO and not like a commander in chief. The remarks were Biden’s latest attempt to define Romney as out of touch with Americans, and his foreign policy critique marked a shift from the Obama campaign’s focus on economic and domestic differences with the president’s Republican rival. For more of this story by Jeff Mason, read here.
Washington Extra – Moonshot no more
Earth calling Newt: When the biggest news of your presidential campaign is the penguin biting your hand at the zoo, it’s probably time to pack it in.
Even though Newt Gingrich’s odds of winning the Republican nomination were about as long as those of realizing his dream for a moon colony, the 68-year-old seemed to enjoy himself to the end. “I never got the sense that he was quote-unquote down,” said adviser Charlie Gerow. “I got the sense on a couple of occasions that he was tired. Really tired.” And really in debt. His campaign spent $4.3 million more than it brought in.
For all his offbeat ideas, Gingrich did bring a dose of seriousness to this campaign. With some stellar debate performances and a deep knowledge of politics and history, he probably made Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum study more and work harder to win support.
Members of the media, targets of some of his most vicious attacks, may not miss Newt much. But there’s no denying that, for the world of news, Gingrich was the gift that kept on giving, right up to his encounter with a penguin.
Here are our top stories from Washington…
US high court appears to back Arizona on immigration – Conservative justices who hold a majority on the Supreme Court appeared to endorse Arizona’s immigration crackdown, rejecting the Obama administration stance that the federal government has sole power over those who illegally enter the United States. During 80 minutes of oral arguments, the justices suggested by their questions and comments that states have significant latitude to adopt laws that discourage illegal immigrants from moving to and staying in the country. For more of this story by James Vicini and Joan Biskupic, read here.
Washington Extra – The bench’s backstories
The challenge to Arizona’s tough immigration law may have the justices thinking about their own families’ origins and journeys to America. As Reuters reports today, nearly all of them, like their countrymen, descend from people who came looking for a better life (the notable exception is Justice Clarence Thomas whose great-grandmother was a slave).
Their ancestral stories may not tell us how they feel about illegal immigration or whether they will rule in favor of Arizona. But they are clearly a point of pride in their biographies and were often cited in nomination hearings.
Take Justice Samuel Alito, who referred to the experience of his own father, brought to the United States from Italy as an infant. It “is typical of a lot of Americans both back in his day and today. And it is a story, as far as I can see it, about the opportunities that our country offers, and also about the need for fairness and about hard work and perseverance and the power of a small good deed.”
Here are our top stories from Washington…
U.S. eyes options to restart Afghan peace talks – President Obama’s administration, seeking to revive stalled Afghan peace talks, may alter plans to transfer Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison after its initial proposal fell afoul of political opponents at home and the insurgents themselves. For more of this exclusive story by Missy Ryan, read here.
Supreme Court votes 6-3 on attending Obama’s speech
Six U.S. Supreme Court justices plan to attend President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, the same number as last year when Obama criticized the court’s corporate political spending ruling.
There had been speculation that fewer justices might show up after Obama’s rare rebuke for the ruling by the conservative majority striking down corporate election spending limits.
A court spokeswoman said six of the nine justices plan on going. She said one who won’t be attending is Justice Samuel Alito, who happens to be in Hawaii this week for a previously scheduled law school speech.
Alito last year shook his head and appeared to mouth the words “not true” when Obama said the ruling “reversed a century of law” and “will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limits in our elections.”
Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas traditionally never attend the presidential State of the Union speech, which is given right across the street from the Supreme Court in the U.S. Capitol.
That leaves Chief Justice John Roberts, moderate conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy and four liberals — Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The last two were appointed by Obama.
Did the president promise not to use any big words or make them pout.
A first at the U.S. Supreme Court
New Justice Elena Kagan’s first written ruling was released, an 18-page opinion in a bankruptcy-tax case, the first arguments in the court’s term that began in October.
The ruling was not a blockbuster.
In her opinion, Kagan said a debtor who does not make loan or lease payments may not take a car ownership deduction.
She ruled against Jason Ransom, who filed for bankruptcy in Nevada in 2006. He owned his car, a Toyota Camry, outright, and claimed a $471 per month deduction for car ownership expenses. The trustee and some creditors objected. Kagan agreed with them.
“In short, Ransom may not deduct loan or lease expenses when he does not have any,” wrote Kagan, who was nominated for the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama and approved by the Senate in August.
The ruling partly turned on interpreting the language of the bankruptcy law, which provides that a debtor may claim only “applicable” expense amounts.
While the law does not define applicable, Kagan in summarizing her opinion from the bench cited dictionary definitions such as relevance and appropriate.
In Brown vs. Kagan, the decision is in…
Just because he introduces you to his colleagues, doesn’t mean he’ll vote for you.
That’s what U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan found out on Thursday about Senator Scott Brown.
Usually there wouldn’t have been great expectations for a Republican senator to vote for a Democratic president’s nominee, but in the case of Brown vs. Kagan the outcome was a question mark.
He did after all introduce her to the Senate Judiciary Committee at her confirmation hearing, given that they’re both from Massachusetts.
But on Thursday, Brown said he would be voting against President Barack Obama’s nominee to the highest U.S. court.
“First, let me say that I have a great deal of respect for Elena Kagan,” Brown says in the statement.
“However, I cannot vote to confirm Elena Kagan. The reason is simple. I believe nominees to the Supreme Court should have previously served on the bench. Lacking that, I look for many years of practical courtroom experience to compensate for the absence of prior judicial experience. In Elena Kagan’s case, she is missing both,” he said.
May 26 is the real Court drop-dead date
Amidst the fever of speculation about when President Barack Obama will unveil his next nominee to the Supreme Court, administration officials quietly point to one date — May 26 — as the absolute deadline for him to make his choice.
May 26 is the date last year when Obama named then-appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his first nominee for a Supreme Court vacancy. And despite what became a fairly nasty battle over her qualifications, she was confirmed on August 6, before the Senate adjourned for its August recess.
The logic at the White House is that opposition Republicans cannot argue that there is not enough time to consider a nominee if Obama makes his announcement before May 26, because there was enough time last year for Sotomayor.
In the meantime, an announcement is still expected by mid-May, with the White House refusing to rule this week out, the way it did last week.
Last week, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the announcement would not come before Friday. But he has refused to rule out the current week, and in fact has teased reporters. On Friday, he said Obama would announce his choice “In the next little bit of time,” and declined to rule out this week. On Monday, Gibbs offered more of the same, by saying the president was “close,” and nothing more.
“I am happy to advise you of when the event is, when we do announce it. It might be duplicative to announce each day when the event’s NOT going to be,” Gibbs said. He did say he could not rule out this week, adding, “See, I just handled a whole week’s worth of duplicate e-mail.”
U.S. Supreme Court closes front entrance, by 7-2 vote
The Supreme Court’s famous front entrance, at the top of its marble steps and under the words “Equal Justice Under Law,” will be closed to the public.
Starting Tuesday, visitors will no longer be able to enter the building through the front doors at the top of 44 marble steps on the plaza directly across from the U.S. Capitol. On days when there are arguments in major cases like abortion or free speech rights, the line to hear the arguments often stretches well beyond the plaza.
Instead, visitors will enter the building through ground-level side doors, going through a new screening facility that has been built as part of the Supreme Court’s modernization project.
“The entrance provides a secure, reinforced area to screen for weapons, explosives and chemical and biological hazards,” the court said in a statement by spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. Most government buildings and their surroundings have had added stepped-up security measures in recent years in a bid to thwart damage from potential terrorist attacks.
But Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, issued a separate statement that called the change unfortunate and unjustified.
“To my knowledge, and I have spoken to numerous jurists and architects worldwide, no other Supreme Court in the world — including those such as Israel’s that face security concerns equal to or greater than ours — has closed its main entrance to the public,” Breyer wrote.
“And the main entrances to numerous other prominent public buildings in America remain open,” he said.
Happy Birthday Justice Stevens, from Barack Obama
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens celebrated a milestone birthday Tuesday when he turned 90, and received a letter of congratulations from President Barack Obama.
“For the last 35 years of your remarkable 90, the nation has benefited from the rigor, courage, and integrity that have marked your service on the Supreme Court,” Obama said in a letter to Stevens.
“Our system of justice and our nation are stronger and fairer because of your sterling contributions,” Obama wrote in the letter released by the Supreme Court.
Stevens is the second oldest justice in court history. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes retired in 1932 just two months before his 91st birthday.
In 1931, on the only other occasion that a sitting Supreme Court justice celebrated his 90th birthday, President Herbert Hover wrote to Holmes his congratulations, Obama noted.
Stevens earlier this month announced he would retire from the court this summer, giving Obama the opportunity to name his replacement.
“Your retirement at the end of the court’s term will mark the completion of a judicial career, like that of Justice Holmes, that has left an undeniable imprint on our country’s jurisprudence,” Obama wrote.
Busted at the U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court unveiled a white marble bust of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who was remembered as an exceptional lawyer, a skillful judicial administrator and an avid tennis player.
The $50,000 marble portrait of the influential conservative jurist wearing his judicial robe will join the busts of 15 other former chief justices in a prominent hallway before the entrance to the courtroom. Rehnquist died from cancer four years ago after serving on the nation’s highest court for more than 33 years.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who once worked for Rehnquist as a Supreme Court law clerk and then succeeded him, and Justice John Paul Stevens, both described Rehnquist as a great chief justice at a special ceremony Thursday.
James Duff, a top aide to Rehnquist, recalled how the chief justice also wrote four books, played tennis and enjoyed watching sports — especially college football — and singing songs.
Duff said Rehnquist appreciated brevity and would have been particularly pleased the speakers at the ceremony had a five-minute limit.
Son James Rehnquist recalled that his father, formerly at a small law firm in Arizona, had become a top Justice Department attorney during Richard Nixon’s presidency.
He recalled how his father, drinking apple juice and eating vanilla wafer cookies at the family home in Virginia, broke the news to him in 1971 that Nixon would be announcing two appointments to the Supreme Court.
