Politics
Opinion: The Supreme Court is power hungry. There is one sure way to rein it in
President Biden’s initiative to establish Supreme Court term limits and an enforceable ethics code could help restore much needed public trust in the court. Just as importantly, it’s a reminder that we need not surrender to a court that has aggrandized itself at every turn.
The president’s proposals will require congressional approval, and that in turn highlights the role every American can play in reining in a court that has tilted into ideological activism: The key is what we do on Nov. 5. You were probably taught that the justices have the final say on our laws, but in reality that power belongs to voters.
To start, there is no question that the court would be better off with term-limited justices who can no longer play politics with the timing of their retirements, and with an ethics code that has teeth and could eliminate even the appearance of impropriety in the justices’ behavior.
But the president should be asking for more — congressional action that responds specifically to the alarming decisions issued by the court’s current conservative supermajority.
Its most dangerous ruling, delivered on July 2, was its holding that Donald Trump enjoys “presumptive” immunity from criminal prosecution based on his “official acts.” The upshot is that the court, not a jury of ordinary Americans, will likely get to make the final call on Trump’s accountability for his 2020 election falsehoods and schemes.
In another sweeping decision, the court set aside four decades of precedent and arrogated power long held by federal agencies. Instead of deferring to, say, the Environmental Protection Agency on the technical how-tos of applying laws like the Clean Water Act, the court claimed that it should have the final say — expertise and democratic accountability be damned.
The court similarly substituted its judgment for the otherwise apparent meaning of federal statutes by upending what constitutes a “machine gun” and obstruction of official proceedings. As Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in her dissent from the latter ruling, the majority had to do “textual backflips to find some way — any way” — to get to its preferred outcome. In doing so, it blocked a crucial gun safety measure and narrowed the basis for charging those involved with the Capitol attack on Jan. 6.
Fortunately, as supreme as the Supreme Court is, it doesn’t have to be the final word on these cases. The court gets to interpret the law, but we voters, through our representatives, decide what that law is.
For those who object to the current court’s power grab, that means showing up at the polls this year and voting for a Democratic majority in Congress, despite reasonable, good-faith disagreements with President Biden and his party. Those concerns will matter little if an unaccountable Supreme Court continues to aggrandize itself at the people’s expense.
Here’s how a Democratic majority could push back.
In the presidential immunity case, one worry is that even if lower courts deem much of Trump’s Jan. 6 conduct to have been unofficial, and thus subject to prosecution, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices will simply band together to reverse that determination.
And yet Article III of the Constitution allows Congress to make “exceptions” from the Supreme Court’s power to hear appeals. A reestablished Democratic House majority could pass a law declaring the lower court’s ruling final, and a Democratic majority in the Senate could do the same by voting for a one-time suspension of the filibuster, just as the Republican majority did when it confirmed Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
As for the court’s takeover of deference to federal agencies, a Democratic majority in Congress could amend the Administrative Procedure Act to unambiguously grant agency experts the benefit of the doubt on reasonable regulations. Likewise, a Democratic Congress could enact legislation to override the court’s aberrant interpretations of laws regulating machine guns and defining the obstruction of official proceedings.
If voters in November keep the court in mind as they mark their ballots, they can not only undo this term’s most harmful decisions, but also send a forceful message to the power-hungry justices: The highest court in the land can either have the final word on the hard cases that divide us, or it can lurch the law far to the right. But it can’t do both.
Aaron Tang is a law professor at UC Davis and a former law clerk to Justice Sonia Sotomayor. He is the author of “Supreme Hubris: How Overconfidence Is Destroying the Court — and How We Can Fix It.” @AaronTangLaw.”
Politics
Trump plans to meet with Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado next week
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President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he plans to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in Washington next week.
During an appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Trump was asked if he intends to meet with Machado after the U.S. struck Venezuela and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro.
“Well, I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump said.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado waves a national flag during a protest called by the opposition on the eve of the presidential inauguration, in Caracas on January 9, 2025. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)
This will be Trump’s first meeting with Machado, who the U.S. president stated “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to lead.
According to reports, Trump’s refusal to support Machado was linked to her accepting the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump believed he deserved.
But Trump later told NBC News that while he believed Machado should not have won the award, her acceptance of the prize had “nothing to do with my decision” about the prospect of her leading Venezuela.
Politics
California sues Trump administration over ‘baseless and cruel’ freezing of child-care funds
California is suing the Trump administration over its “baseless and cruel” decision to freeze $10 billion in federal funding for child care and family assistance allocated to California and four other Democratic-led states, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Thursday.
The lawsuit was filed jointly by the five states targeted by the freeze — California, New York, Minnesota, Illinois and Colorado — over the Trump administration’s allegations of widespread fraud within their welfare systems. California alone is facing a loss of about $5 billion in funding, including $1.4 billion for child-care programs.
The lawsuit alleges that the freeze is based on unfounded claims of fraud and infringes on Congress’ spending power as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This is just the latest example of Trump’s willingness to throw vulnerable children, vulnerable families and seniors under the bus if he thinks it will advance his vendetta against California and Democratic-led states,” Bonta said at a Thursday evening news conference.
The $10-billion funding freeze follows the administration’s decision to freeze $185 million in child-care funds to Minnesota, where federal officials allege that as much as half of the roughly $18 billion paid to 14 state-run programs since 2018 may have been fraudulent. Amid the fallout, Gov. Tim Walz has ordered a third-party audit and announced that he will not seek a third term.
Bonta said that letters sent by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announcing the freeze Tuesday provided no evidence to back up claims of widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in California. The freeze applies to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Social Services Block Grant program and the Child Care and Development Fund.
“This is funding that California parents count on to get the safe and reliable child care they need so that they can go to work and provide for their families,” he said. “It’s funding that helps families on the brink of homelessness keep roofs over their heads.”
Bonta also raised concerns regarding Health and Human Services’ request that California turn over all documents associated with the state’s implementation of the three programs. This requires the state to share personally identifiable information about program participants, a move Bonta called “deeply concerning and also deeply questionable.”
“The administration doesn’t have the authority to override the established, lawful process our states have already gone through to submit plans and receive approval for these funds,” Bonta said. “It doesn’t have the authority to override the U.S. Constitution and trample Congress’ power of the purse.”
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan and marked the 53rd suit California had filed against the Trump administration since the president’s inauguration last January. It asks the court to block the funding freeze and the administration’s sweeping demands for documents and data.
Politics
Video: Trump Says ‘Only Time Will Tell’ How Long U.S. Controls Venezuela
new video loaded: Trump Says ‘Only Time Will Tell’ How Long U.S. Controls Venezuela
transcript
transcript
Trump Says ‘Only Time Will Tell’ How Long U.S. Controls Venezuela
President Trump did not say exactly how long the the United states would control Venezuela, but said that it could last years.
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“How Long do you think you’ll be running Venezuela?” “Only time will tell. Like three months. six months, a year, longer?” “I would say much longer than that.” “Much longer, and, and —” “We have to rebuild. You have to rebuild the country, and we will rebuild it in a very profitable way. We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need. I would love to go, yeah. I think at some point, it will be safe.” “What would trigger a decision to send ground troops into Venezuela?” “I wouldn’t want to tell you that because I can’t, I can’t give up information like that to a reporter. As good as you may be, I just can’t talk about that.” “Would you do it if you couldn’t get at the oil? Would you do it —” “If they’re treating us with great respect. As you know, we’re getting along very well with the administration that is there right now.” “Have you spoken to Delcy Rodríguez?” “I don’t want to comment on that, but Marco speaks to her all the time.”
January 8, 2026
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