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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Announces Hiring of Law Clerks Through 2019

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Retirement Unlikely

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the de facto head of the progressive wing of the Supreme Court, has announced the hiring of law clerks through the 2019 term.

“The announcement bucks ongoing speculation that Ginsburg, 84, is nearing retirement,” Newsweek reported Friday. “Typically, justices planning on stepping down don’t hire all of their clerks for the upcoming term.”

Above the Law, which provides news and insights about the world of law, provided the list of Supreme Court clerk hires:

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. Alyssa Barnard (Columbia 2015 / Nathan (S.D.N.Y.) / Katzmann)
2. Marco Basile (Harvard 2015 / Watford / Barron)
3. Susan Pelletier (Harvard 2016 / Garland)
4. Michael Qian (Stanford 2016 / Garland / Bristow Fellow)

“I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” Ginsburg told The New York Times in an interview published in July 2016. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”

Ginsburg subsequently apologized, noting that “judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office. In the future I will be more circumspect.”

Trump, naturally, attacked her on Twitter for the apology—advising “her mind is shot” and calling for her to resign. Ginsburg, thankfully, did not resign.

Months later, and nearly a year into the Donald Trump presidency, it isn’t Ginsburg’s mental state that’s being questioned—it’s Donald Trump’s. Early Saturday, just six days into 2018, the president asserted he is a “very stable genius” and noted that his two greatest assets were “mental stability and being, like, really smart.”

The claims, which Twitter users quickly noted were ridiculous, follow Michael Wolff‘s bombshell tell-all “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, as well as Yale University psychiatry professor Dr. Brandy X. Lee’s warnings to Capitol Hill lawmakers that Donald Trump is unstable, and is only going to get worse.

“We feel that the rush of tweeting is an indication of his falling apart under stress,” Lee told the lawmakers.

In July, Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the New York Times she intends to remain a Supreme Court Justice “as long as I can do it full steam.” Her voice is essential for LGBT equality cases that head before the nation’s highest court.

In December, the court reviewed the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, in which an anti-gay Christian baker refused to sell a same-sex couple a wedding cake. As NCRM has reported, the Supreme Court was seen as dismissive and skeptical of LGBT civil rights in the case.

While no final judgments should be made about how justices will rule, reporters who covered the case noted that Ginsburg was “extremely skeptical” of the anti-gay arguments.

As some on Twitter have noted:

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‘Get in the Game’: Greene Rebukes GOP Leadership on Policy Vision

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the once-loyal MAGA soldier whose recent attacks on her own party have led some to wonder if she is the “New Republican Voice of Sanity,” is out with another thrashing of the GOP, this time on health care.

“More of my Republican colleagues are finally talking about the unaffordable health insurance crisis, but yesterday on our GOP conference call Speaker Johnson said he has ideas and pages of policy, but did not say a single policy plan,” she wrote on Wednesday. “I think that is unacceptable.”

Congresswoman Greene did not reserve her criticism for just Republicans.

READ MORE: Majority Call Trump a ‘Dangerous Dictator’ Leading Nation Off Course: Report

Claiming that “Democrats created this nightmare 15 years ago, then made it worse in 2021 by extending the ACA tax credits that are now expiring,” she declared, “I find it unacceptable that Republicans are sitting on the sidelines doing nothing to fix this healthcare disaster that is leading many Americans into financial ruin.”

Numerous reports say some — and including many of Greene’s fellow Georgia residents — will see Obamacare premiums “more than double” unless Congress reinstates the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which Republicans to date have refused to do.

Greene blames Democrats for the expiring subsidies, and alleges that Democrats “are admitting they screwed the whole health insurance system up and they are admitting original Obamacare is now way too expensive.”

Reminding her colleagues that they are the party in power, she called on Republicans “to build the off ramp off of Obamacare in a responsible way, deregulate healthcare and pharmaceuticals and demand price transparency across the board, and incentivize the market in such a way to open up competition which will drive down cost.”

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Jeffries Torches Trump’s ‘Out of Control’ Press Secretary

“Pick up your bat and ball and get in the game,” she urged, while taking a swipe at MAGA loyalty.

“Our districts voted for us. Our districts sent us to Congress. No one else. No one or any lobby deserves our loyalty and support.”

President Donald Trump, during his first term, promised multiple times he would put out a plan to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. No comprehensive plan ever surfaced. During the 2024 presidential campaign, he said he had the “concepts of a plan.”

Last year in September, KFF reported that “Trump has long talked about making the ACA less expensive, but the question is less expensive for whom. Trump’s past proposals would certainly have made the ACA less expensive for the federal government, but with the trade-off of higher out-of-pocket premiums for people, more uninsured, and higher spending and greater risk for states.”

READ MORE: Not a ‘Gut-Wrenching’ Problem: Ron Johnson Shrugs Off Millions Losing Subsidies

 

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Majority Call Trump a ‘Dangerous Dictator’ Leading Nation Off Course: Report

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A sweeping new poll seen as a “reliable pre-election barometer” finds majorities of Americans deeply unhappy with the nation’s course and increasingly describing President Donald Trump as a “dangerous dictator.”

“The survey offers a snapshot of the nation’s sour mood just more than a year before the 2026 midterms — and suggests that anger could rewire political alliances and test the durability of Trump’s support,” Axios reported.

PRRI, the Public Religion Research Institute, found that six in ten Americans (62%) see the country headed in the wrong direction. That includes strong majorities of Democrats (92%) and independents (71%), as well as nearly one in four Republicans (24%).

On how the president is doing his job, well over half of Americans (56%) disapprove. But nearly nine in ten Republicans (86%) approve, as do 32% of independents, and just 8% of Democrats. Overall, Trump has a 58% unfavorable rating, and a 40% favorable rating.

READ MORE: ‘Travesty’: Trump Reportedly Seeking ‘Bizarre’ $230 Million Payout From DOJ

The negative perceptions of the president appear to run even deeper.

A majority of Americans agree ‘President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy’ (56%), up from 52% in March 2025, compared with 41% who agree ‘President Trump is a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.'”

Additionally, PRRI found that most Americans “agree with the statement ‘What President Trump is doing to the federal government is an assault on constitutional checks and balances and the rule of law’ (54%), compared with 43% who agree with the statement ‘What President Trump is doing to the federal government is a long-overdue correction of disastrous policies pushed by elites at the expense of ordinary Americans.'”

Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) are dissatisfied with the economy and how the federal government is functioning. That includes nine in ten Democrats, and nearly three in ten Republicans.

READ MORE: Not a ‘Gut-Wrenching’ Problem: Ron Johnson Shrugs Off Millions Losing Subsidies

When asked about how the federal government is handling undocumented immigrants, 57% disapprove, including 89% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans.

The survey also found that majorities “say that the cuts in federal funding of health care programs (60%) and universities and research institutions (55%), the implementation of new tariffs on imported goods (54%), and the increase in funding for ICE to speed up efforts to arrest, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants (52%) have gone too far, though partisan differences are stark, with Democrats being far more likely to say such changes have gone too far.”

PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman told Axios that it “looks like political independents are very unhappy with Trump’s actions,” with “close to two-thirds on many indicators saying the administration has gone too far in its policies.”

She added: “That’s a warning sign for the GOP ahead of the midterms.”

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Jeffries Torches Trump’s ‘Out of Control’ Press Secretary

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Smash-and-Grab’: Trump Torched for ‘Corrupt’ $230 Million Payout Push

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President Donald Trump is under fire after a New York Times bombshell revealed he wants $230 million from the Justice Department over two investigations targeting him during his campaign.

The Times explained that there is “no parallel in American history, as Mr. Trump, a presidential candidate, was pursued by federal law enforcement and eventually won the election, taking over the very government that must now review his claims.” The paper of record also called it “the starkest example yet of potential ethical conflicts created by installing the president’s former lawyers atop the Justice Department.”

Critics are blasting the president.

“It’s hard to think of an action more purely corrupt than a …. president ordering the executive branch to pay him hundreds of millions of dollars,” wrote David French, a New York Times opinion columnist. “I cannot wait to read the MAGA defenses of this (and there will be many). They’ll display Soviet levels of sycophancy.”

READ MORE: Not a ‘Gut-Wrenching’ Problem: Ron Johnson Shrugs Off Millions Losing Subsidies

Attorney Andrew Weinstein, a former Obama and Biden appointee, noted that “$230 million could feed every homeless veteran in America for more than 3 years.”

Jesse Lee, a former Obama and Biden official, remarked, “What a g– crook.”

Marlow Stern, who teaches at the Columbia Journalism School and is a former Rolling Stone senior editor, asked, “now he’s extorting… the u.s. justice department?”

Mother Jones reporter Dan Friedman quoted the Trump White House Press Secretary: “’I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit,’ Karoline Leavitt said in May. ‘He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service.'”

Political historian Brian Rosenwald commented, “Like come the f– on, this is the most blatant corruption in American history. He’s just stealing from us the taxpayers.”

Derek Martin, founder and president of Pathfinder Research, wrote: “Trump is demanding taxpayers write him a check for $230 million while Republicans tell us they can’t afford to help ordinary Americans pay for health insurance. Cartoonishly evil.”

Jeff Hauser, who writes the Revolving Door Project on Substack, observed: “The dude is desecrating the White House and extorting the Treasury during a shutdown [after] several million Americans protested him. It’s kind of now or never for an opposition party to be provocative in attacking corruption. Trump is too busy enriching himself to govern.”

Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz wrote: “The president of the United States is attempting a smash-and-grab on the U.S. Treasury, and the people with the ability to say no are his former personal lawyers, this is insane.”

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Jeffries Torches Trump’s ‘Out of Control’ Press Secretary

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