Prop 8 Supporters Lose Federal Ruling – Tapes To Be Released
In a ruling on the Prop 8 case, a federal court judge has found no valid reason to hide videotapes of the trial that found Prop 8 unconstitutional, and has ordered them released — on September 30. Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Ware found “no compelling reasons” to continue to keep the tapes from the public, and called the anti-gay Prop 8 supporters’ claims that witnesses testified in favor of Prop 8 might suffer harm from Prop 8 opponents an “unsupported hypothesis.”
Which means, Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization For Marriage (NOM), Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (FRC), the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), ProtectMarriage.com, and all the other “family” anti-gay groups can band together and file a motion to appeal this appealed ruling, all the way to the Supreme Court if they like.
Let them. The more cash they spend on senseless arguments that have already been twice decided is cash they don’t have to spend creating lies like this.
Pam Spaulding asks, “Imagine what gold can be mined from those tapes to fight amendment efforts and to bolster marriage equality in states where there is a prospect of it!”
Towleroad notes,
The San Diego Gay & Lesbian News reported on the late August hearing:
David Thompson, an attorney for the Prop 8 supporters, contended that the release of the videotape would put their two star witnesses in harm’s way because their faces and voices would become publicly known. AFER attorneys argued that because the two witnesses are already publicly known because they have frequently testified for anti-gay groups in trials. Furthermore, the AFER attorneys noted that the two witnesses have not been “intimidated†in any way since the Prop 8 trial last year.
And Politico expands,
Same-sex marriage opponents had sought to keep the trial recording under wraps, citing what they contended were assurances from the judge who handled the trial and later retired, Vaughn Walker. Those opposing public release of the video also argued that release was effectively barred by a Supreme Court order overturning plans for a live, closed-circuit broadcast of the trial to various courthouses across the country.
However, Ware said that the Supreme Court ruling didn’t amount to a requirement to seal the video and that the recording had been used both by the judge and at trial.
“The Court finds that the record does not support the contention that Judge Walker limited the digital recording to chambers use only,” Ware wrote. “Judge Walker, without objection, made copies of the digital recording available to the parties for use during closing arguments….At least two of the parties obtained copies of the digital recording, and one of the parties played segments on the record during closing argument in open court.”
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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is under fire for deflecting blame over the escalating crisis at Newark Liberty International Airport—issues his department has yet to resolve. Critics point to his references to “cracks in the system” nationwide and a so-called “Brand New Air Traffic Control System Plan” that, so far, lacks meaningful public detail.
Politico described the Secretary’s lack of specifics by saying that the “Trump administration has closely held the exact contents of Duffy’s plan, but it’s likely to contain some combination of investments in new technologies, facilities upgrades and consolidation along with money for air traffic controller retention and hiring and overhauling the FAA’s infrastructure that allows facilities to communicate together.”
There is already “a multibillion-dollar FAA program called NextGen, which aims to transition the country away from passive radars to a satellite-based system for tracking planes, has been ongoing since 2003,” including during the Biden administration. And, as Politico also reported, the “agency is also in the early stages of a $2.4 billion, 15-year contract with Verizon, issued during the Biden administration, to replace the copper wires that have plagued Newark with modern fiber-optic cables across the country.”
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But according to Secretary Duffy, “Biden and Buttigieg ignored the warning signs at Newark. It was shameful.”
Biden and Buttigieg ignored the warning signs at Newark. It was shameful.
We are fixing the problem. Here are the actions @USDOT is taking now. pic.twitter.com/i73WBOYKrh
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 13, 2025
National security and civil liberties journalist Marcy Wheeler commented, “if this guy would just stop blaming the President whose efforts to fix FAA Republicans refused to fund and did something he might actually fix the problem. Stop whining, Crash @SecDuffy. Please do your job and stop whining.”
Duffy has repeatedly attacked his predecessor and the prior administration, attempting to blame the current crisis on them.
“So the blame belongs to the last administration?” asked former Marine F/A-18 pilot and Democratic former political candidate Amy McGrath. “You’ve got to be kidding me. The last administration passed major legislation for funding the fix [to transportation] infrastructure problems DESPITE Republicans (like Duffy) voting against it for years.”
“More lies from another failed reality show contestant,” charged U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY). “Also, pointing fingers instead of addressing our current air traffic issues? Passengers are delayed, airlines are struggling & ATC is understaffed. We need action, not excuses. Less blame game, more solutions.”
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CNN’s David Axelrod mocked Duffy, writing: “Nothing like taking responsibility.”
And Professor of Public Policy Robert Reich, the former Clinton Labor Secretary, added, “when Sean Duffy was a congressman, he and other Republicans voted against upgrading air traffic control systems. Now, he’s trying to blame those systems for Newark airport’s outages – while claiming DOGE’s cuts of critical support staff at the FAA had nothing to do with it. Hello?”
Secretary Duffy on Tuesday warned, “We’re starting to see cracks in the system.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Reporter: You have been saying that this is a decades-old problems. Why didn’t this administration initiate change in the first term?
Duffy: The President was going to fix it four years ago but the last administration did nothing about it pic.twitter.com/L3KXKHQHeJ
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 12, 2025
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Image via Reuters
House Republicans, intent on increasing work requirements for assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and promoting marriage, have devised a new definition for “dependent child.” Currently, an adult has a dependent child if that child is under 18 years of age. Under the new proposed House definition for SNAP, once that child turns seven—usually someone in second grade—they could no longer be considered a dependent, with one exception.
The new House proposal also adds ten years to the time when the adult needs to continue working in order to receive SNAP benefits, from 54 to 64 years of age. However, it removes the work requirement if the adult with the dependent child is married and lives with someone who already complies with the new regulations. Unmarried couples with a child would not qualify for the exemption.
The new proposal would be part of Republicans’ legislation that would provide $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, largely benefiting the wealthy.
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The new bill refers to work requirements for “Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents,” or ABAWD. It reads:
“Specifically, this section would increase the age with which ABAWDs must continue working to qualify for SNAP to 64 (up from 54 currently); it changes the generic, functional definition of ‘dependent child’ for ABAWD purposes from under 18 years of age to under 7; and it carves out an exception to the work requirements for a person responsible for a child 7 years of age or older who is married and resides with an individual who complies with the SNAP work requirements.”
An April 30 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reveals that the GOP’s proposal “could take food away from millions of people in low-income households who are struggling to find steady work or who face substantial barriers to employment, including families with children.”
That report also notes that “the people who would be newly at risk of losing food assistance under the Johnson proposal include…1.4 million older adults aged 55 through 64 without children in their homes,” “More than 3 million adults who live with school-aged children,” “Veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young people who have aged out of foster care,” and, “About 1.6 million people living in areas without enough jobs.”
The move also comes as states lower or remove protections for child workers.
Last year, the Center for American Progress published a report titled, “Project 2025 Would Exploit Child Labor by Allowing Minors To Work in Dangerous Conditions With Fewer Protections.”
READ MORE: ‘Bystander’ Trump Keeps Saying ‘I Don’t Know’ — Critics Ask ‘Who’s in Charge?’
Image via Reuters
Speaker Mike Johnson’s House Republicans want to insert a provision into their massive tax cuts bill that would create a system to hand private and religious schools $5 billion annually and wealthy donors yet another tax break.
Calling it an “unprecedented effort to use public money to pay for private education,” the Associated Press reports that it “would advance President Donald Trump’s agenda of establishing ‘universal school choice’ by providing families nationwide the option to give their children an education different from the one offered in their local public school.”
If enacted, the system would provide a vehicle for donors to donate cash or stocks, then receive full value via a tax credit —”100% of the contribution back in the form of a discount on their tax bills,” according to the AP. “It would allow stock holders to avoid paying taxes that would be levied if they donated or transferred the stock.”
READ MORE: ‘Bystander’ Trump Keeps Saying ‘I Don’t Know’ — Critics Ask ‘Who’s in Charge?’
Samantha Jacoby, Deputy Director of Federal Tax Policy with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities described it as “a new federal tax credit to subsidize private school vouchers — effectively the first nationwide voucher program.” She called it “a costly tax break for the wealthy [with] an egregious capital gains tax loophole.”
Jacoby added, “this is a much more generous tax break than the existing charitable deduction. The max benefit from the deduction is 37 cents per $ donated, but the voucher credit would make taxpayers fully whole; i.e., the federal government pays the full cost of the vouchers.”
Critics are blasting the proposal.
“Voters have never approved vouchers in any state,” noted public education advocate Mike DeGuire, Ph.D. “Now the Republican-led Congress wants to spend billions to gut public education with their voucher scheme for the wealthy.”
“Trump and his cronies want [to] kick 9 million vulnerable people off Medicaid to pay for (1) tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, and (2) $5 BILLION to send to religious schools that are unaccountable to taxpayers,” observed constitutional attorney Andrew L. Seidel, a vice president at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
In 2019, then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos proposed a similar program, Education Freedom Scholarships, which was met with opposition by Democrats.
Then-U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) called it “a shell game to fund private and religious schools and their providers using taxpayers as the middleman.”
READ MORE: ‘Barely Literate’: Education Secretary’s ‘Deranged’ Letter Gets Major Red Ink Corrections
Image via Shutterstock
GOP Plan Redefines Dependent Child as ‘Under 7’—But Adds Loophole for Married Couples
GOP ‘Voucher Scheme for the Wealthy’ Would Hand $5 Billion to Religious, Private Schools
‘Less Blame Game, More Solutions’: Duffy Urged to ‘Do Your Job and Stop Whining’
‘Less Blame Game, More Solutions’: Duffy Urged to ‘Do Your Job and Stop Whining’
GOP Plan Redefines Dependent Child as ‘Under 7’—But Adds Loophole for Married Couples
GOP ‘Voucher Scheme for the Wealthy’ Would Hand $5 Billion to Religious, Private Schools
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