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Trump was unseen player in election, experts say

California Governor Beats Back Recall Challenge

Situation described as ‘code red’ in ambitious federal proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Biden Pushes $3.5 Trillion Climate Change Solution

Voters decide fate of Democratic governor

California Recall Has High Stakes for Both Parties

Both sides mobilize as Gavin Newsom fights to keep his job

California Governor Hopes to Beat Back Recall Effort

US lawmakers: Decades-old military authorizations have led to ‘forever wars’

Afghanistan Exit Pushes Congress to Repeal Presidential War Powers

58th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic March on Washington with a message of ‘Voting Rights for All’

Thousands March for Fair, Easy Access to Vote for All

Senate Republicans blocked a vote on a major package of Democratic voting rights reforms earlier this summer, part of a broader state by state battle between the two parties over revamping election laws following the 2020 presidential election

Voting Rights Legislation Stalled in US Senate

Special US House panel launches investigation into January 6 riot

'This Was a Coup': Police Officers Describe Capitol Riot to US Lawmakers

Republican leadership withdraws participation in probe on U.S. Capitol attack

Political Divide Widens as January 6 Hearings Begin

At a recent Conservative Political Action Conference, the former president won 70% of votes in a 2024 Republican presidential nomination poll

Amid Lawsuits, Trump Continues to Wield Outsized Influence

Former president has been banned from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

Trump’s Lawsuits Against Social Media Highlight Platforms’ Power

Republicans in state legislatures seek to pass measures restricting access to vote

Biden Urges Passing of Voting Rights Law but Offers No Strategy

Congress Member Describes Continuing Mental Trauma From January 6 Riots

Voters head to polls Tuesday for a primary election as part of a process to select a new mayor of America’s biggest city

New Yorkers to Cast Votes in Mayoral Primary

Administration’s domestic extremism strategy warns of continued threat five months after Capitol attack

Biden Administration, US Lawmakers Grapple With Domestic Extremism Threat

Locks and dams built nearly a century ago were designed to last only half that long

Infrastructure Bill Would Upgrade Aging US Waterways System

Vice president, charged with addressing 'root causes of migration,' will focus on economic development, humanitarian relief, strengthening good governance and civil society issues

Kamala Harris Set to Head to Mexico, Guatemala

Result of Senate vote had been widely expected

Senate Blocks Push for Bipartisan Commission to Investigate Capitol Breach

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the Middle East to discuss cease-fire terms and rebuild the Gaza Strip

Blinken Works to Build More Lasting Bridges as Israeli Palestinian Cease-fire Takes Hold

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s confrontation with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the latest flash point of American political incivility

Confrontation in Congress Raises Civility Concerns

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U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, paid their respects late Tuesday to Brian Sicknick, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who died defending the Capitol from a pro-Trump mob that stormed the building last month.
Sicknick’s remains arrived at the Capitol a short time earlier and dozens of Capitol Police officers stood at attention as his urn was carried up the steps to the Rotunda where he is lying in honor.
Capitol Police were given an opportunity to participate in a viewing period overnight.
Congressional leaders took part in the solemn arrival ceremony, and lawmakers will pay tribute to Sicknick at a Wednesday morning ceremony before his remains are taken to Arlington National Cemetery.
U.S. Capitol Police officers pay their respects to U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick as an urn with his cremated remains lies in honor on a black-draped table at the center of the Capitol Rotunda, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021, in Washington. …House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority ..


Bidens Pay Respects to Late Capitol Police Officer

House Democratic impeachment managers and lawyers for Donald Trump on Tuesday laid out their arguments in separate briefs ahead of the former president&#039;s Senate trial next week on charges of inciting a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
The House Democratic prosecutors charged that Trump&#039;s incendiary words and actions in the run-up to the attack led his followers to descend on the Capitol &#8220;like a loaded cannon&#8221; to try to prevent the certification of Democrat Joe Biden&#039;s election victory over Trump. The riots left five people, including a Capitol Police officer, dead and dozens of others injured.
&#8220;President Trump&#039;s conduct must be declared unacceptable in the clearest and most unequivocal terms,&#8221; they wrote.
Trump&#039;s defense lawyers rejected the charges and questioned the constitutionality of the trial, saying there is no precedent for trying a president after he has left office. They also said the former president stands by his claim that ..


House Democrats, Trump Lawyers Lay Out Clashing Views Ahead of Impeachment Trial

The U.S. Senate confirmed Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday as transportation secretary in President Joe Biden’s administration.
The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, tweeted he was “honored and humbled” by the Senate’s 86-13 confirmation vote and that he was “ready to get to work.”
Buttigieg, an opponent of Biden during the Democratic presidential primaries, is the first openly gay person to fill a U.S. Cabinet position.
The 39-year-old will play a leading role in advancing Biden’s infrastructure rebuilding and climate change agendas.
He assumes control of an agency with 55,000 employees and a multibillion-dollar budget.
He has vowed to begin quickly promoting safety and restoring trust in the country’s transportation systems as airlines, city subway and bus systems, and Amtrak struggle to regain customers lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
Buttigieg is also expected to play a leading role in implementing Biden’s $2 trillion climate and infrastructure plan that will focus on rebuilding ..


US Senate Confirms Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary

U.S. President Joe Biden signed executive orders Tuesday to start to dismantle former President Donald Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, including an attempt to reunite families that had been separated at the U.S.-Mexican border.
“I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy,” Biden said while signing the orders.
In the first hours of his presidency two weeks ago, Biden acted to halt construction of Trump’s $16 billion wall along the border and sent a far-reaching immigration bill to Congress, where lawmakers have long been stalemated between liberals looking to ease the path to U.S. citizenship and conservatives seeking to stem unauthorized immigration.
Biden’s immediate focus is on the 3,100-kilometer southern border with Mexico, where Trump tried to keep thousands of migrants from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala from entering the U.S.
Trump led repair and expansion of a border wall and imposed tough detention and deportation policies for those who made it..


Biden Signs Executive Orders Reversing Trump Immigration Policies

The influential anti-Donald Trump group Lincoln Project is denouncing one of its co-founders after multiple reports that over several years he sexually harassed young men looking to break into politics.
The Lincoln Project in a statement on Sunday called co-founder John Weaver, 61, &#8220;a predator, a liar, and an abuser&#8221; following reports that he repeatedly sent unsolicited and sexually charged messages online to young men, often while suggesting he could help them get work in politics.
&#8220;The totality of his deceptions are beyond anything any of us could have imagined and we are absolutely shocked and sickened by it,&#8221; the Lincoln Project, the most prominent &#8220;Never Trump&#8221; Republican super PAC to emerge during the 45th president&#039;s time in the White House, said in its statement.
The online magazine The American Conservative first reported the sexual harassment allegations earlier this month.
Days later, Weaver, a strategist who advised the late Republican Sen. John McCain and former Ohio ..


Young Men Accuse Lincoln Project Co-Founder of Harassment

Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced Sunday a new team of lawyers to lead his defense at his second impeachment trial.
Defense lawyer David Schoen, a frequent television legal commentator, and Bruce Castor, a former district attorney in Pennsylvania who has faced criticism for his decision to not charge actor Bill Cosby in a sex crimes case, will represent Trump at the Senate trial that begins next week.
In a statement issued through Trump’s office, both attorneys said Sunday they were honored to take the job.
“The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always,” Castor said.
U.S. Capitol Police officers stand watch outside the Senate as lawmakers vote on procedures to proceed with the impeachment of former President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6, 2021.Two prominent South Carolina lawyers, Butch Bowers and De..


Days Before Impeachment Trial, Trump Names New Lawyers

U.S. President Joe Biden signed two orders expanding health care on Thursday, saying they would &#8220;undo the damage&#8221; of policies favored by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
Biden restored U.S. funding for foreign nongovernmental groups that give information to women about abortions, and also opened a special three-month enrollment period for uninsured Americans who now want to buy health insurance, as well as for those who lost their coverage because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, like past Republican presidents, had supported what critics have called the &#8220;global gag rule&#8221; on abortion information and had refused to reopen the government&#039;s market for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Biden&#039;s order also increased access to health care funding for impoverished Americans under a program called Medicaid.
&#8220;There&#039;s nothing new that we&#039;re doing here,&#8221; Biden said, other than to restore programs as they were before Trump changed them. Biden ..


Biden Orders Expanded Health Care on Two Fronts

Coffee shops in downtown Tripoli, Libya, are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, so Mohammed Abdulwaheb, 37, got his &#8221;to-go&#8221; and drank it in the parking lot. 
Libya and other countries had been subject to the Trump-era &#8220;travel ban&#8221; for four years before it was lifted last week. Back then, Abdulwaheb had wanted to attend graduate school in the United States. But that was a long time ago, he said.
&#8220;The ban wasn&#039;t fair,&#8221; Abdulwaheb added. &#8220;And of course it impacted our lives. The end of the ban will especially improve the lives of Libyans in America.&#8221;
But experts say it will take time to unravel the regulations that grounded so many travelers. And locals in Libya, Nigeria and Sudan — three impacted countries — say resolving the personal setbacks experienced by individuals may take even longer. 
FILE &#8211; Demonstrators opposed to President Donald Trump&#039;s travel ban listen to speakers during a rally outside the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Richmond, Virginia, Jan..


Effects of Trump-Era Travel Ban Expected to Linger

Facebook Inc&#039;s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday the company would no longer recommend civic and political groups to users of the platform.
The social media company said in October that it was temporarily halting recommendations of political groups for U.S. users in the run-up to the presidential election. On Wednesday, Facebook said it would be making this permanent and would expand the policy globally.
On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey wrote to Zuckerberg asking for an explanation of reports, including by news site The Markup, that Facebook had failed to stop recommending political groups on its platform after this move.
He called Facebook&#039;s groups &#8220;breeding groups for hate&#8221; and noted they had been venues of planning for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Speaking on a conference call Wednesday with analysts about Facebook&#039;s earnings, Zuckerberg said that the company was &#8220;continuing to fine-tune how this works.&#8221;
Facebook groups are communities that form aroun..


Facebook Says it Will Permanently Stop Recommending Political Groups to Users

Three times in American history, the House of Representatives has impeached a president, and each time the Senate has voted to acquit him — most recently a year ago when then-President Donald Trump was charged with seeking to pressure Ukraine&#039;s president into gathering political dirt against Trump’s political rival, Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump made history again this month, when he became the first president to be impeached a second time — this time accused of instigating his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol January 6 to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory over Trump.
The new impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection was approved by the House on January 13, a week before Trump left office. But with the Senate set to formally try the former president beginning on February 9, a constitutional controversy is swirling over whether the Senate can try and convict a former president.
The question is not an academic one. On Wednesday, 45 of 50 Senate Republica..


Controversy Rages Over Whether Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Constitutional 

The new top U.S. diplomat, Antony Blinken, is pledging to work with core allies and partners to confront complex global challenges, while investing in a diverse and inclusive American Foreign Service.
Blinken was officially welcomed to the State Department on Wednesday as secretary of state by approximately 30 of the women and men representing a small cross-section of the larger workforce. 
&#8220;I&#039;m incredibly excited about the work ahead,&#8221; Blinken said later at an afternoon press briefing, where he declared his respect for the press and promised to be transparent with reporters.
&#8220;Here&#039;s what you can count on – we&#039;re resuming daily press briefings starting next week – on Tuesday. That&#039;s an essential part of the day and we&#039;re bringing it back,&#8221; he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is sworn in as the 71st U.S. Secretary of State by Acting Under Secretary of State for Management Carol Z. Perez, at the Department of State in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021. (State D..


Newly-Confirmed US Secretary of State Pledges Cooperation on Global Challenges

The U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Biden&#039;s nominee Antony Blinken to lead the U.S. State Department on Tuesday. As VOA&#039;s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, Blinken faces numerous challenges worldwide as the nation&#039;s top diplomat.
Camera: Adam Greenbaum Produced by: Katherine Gypson


US Senate Confirms Biden Nominee as Secretary of State

President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Justice on Tuesday to end its reliance on private prisons and acknowledge the central role government has played in implementing discriminatory housing policies.
In remarks before signing the order, Biden said the U.S. government needs to change &#8220;its whole approach&#8221; on the issue of racial equity. He added that the nation is less prosperous and secure because of the scourge of systemic racism.
&#8220;We must change now,&#8221; the president said. &#8220;I know it&#039;s going to take time, but I know we can do it. And I firmly believe the nation is ready to change. But government has to change as well.&#8221;
Biden rose to the presidency during a year of intense reckoning on institutional racism in the U.S. The moves announced on Tuesday reflect his efforts to follow through with campaign pledges to combat racial injustice.
Housing policies
Beyond calling on the Justice Department to curb the use of private prisons and address housing discrimination, the new order..


Biden Orders End of Federally Run Private Prisons

Most Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted Tuesday against holding an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump on whether he incited insurrection in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, signaling that he likely has enough votes to secure an acquittal.
The vote was 55-45 in favor of proceeding with a trial, but only five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats. A two-thirds vote is required for conviction, which would require 17 Republicans to turn against Trump, assuming the Democrats vote as a bloc after hearing the case against him when the trial starts in earnest February 9.
In this image from video, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., makes a motion that the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump is unconstitutional in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021.A Trump supporter, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, forced the vote on whether to proceed with the trial, calling it an “unconstitutional sham.”
Paul contended that the Senate cannot hold a tr..


5 Republicans Join Democrats in Vote to Push Trump Impeachment Trial Forward

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the nomination of Antony Blinken to be the country’s next secretary of state.
At a confirmation hearing last week, Blinken said he is ready to confront the challenges posed by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.
He said China “poses the most significant challenge” to U.S. national interests, while noting there is room for cooperation.
&#8220;There are rising adversarial aspects of the relationship; certainly, competitive ones, and still some cooperative ones, when it is in our mutual interests,” he added.
Nominated Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates as US President Joe Biden speaks during a cabinet announcement event in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 24, 2020.He also pledged to rebuild State Department morale and the diplomatic corps. Blinken said he sees U.S. standing abroad as leadership based on “humility and confidence.”
Blinken was deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and has close ties with President J..


US Senate to Vote on Blinken Nomination as Secretary of State

U.S. senators will be sworn in Tuesday as jurors in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
The trial itself will not begin until the week of February 8, after Democratic and Republican leaders agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump’s defense team time to prepare. The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm more of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees.
House lawmakers who will serve as trial prosecutors made a ceremonial walk to the Senate chamber Monday evening to deliver the article of impeachment charging Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month. The assault sent lawmakers scrambling for safety and resulted in the deaths of five people.
Lead House manager Jamie Raskin from Maryland read the charges, saying Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of the govern..


US House Lawmakers Deliver Article of Impeachment to Senate

The Senate on Monday approved President Joe Biden&#039;s nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation&#039;s 78th treasury secretary, making her the first woman to hold the job in the department&#039;s 232-year history.
Yellen, a former chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, was approved by the Senate on a 84-15 vote, becoming the third member of Biden&#039;s Cabinet to win confirmation.
She is expected to play a key role in gaining congressional approval of Biden&#039;s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which is running into stiff opposition from Republicans who believe the price tag is too high.
FILE &#8211; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 30, 2020.Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted the former Federal Reserve chairwoman had bipartisan support.
Schumer said Yellen has a &#8220;breathtaking range of experience&#8221; and support for her nomination reflected &#8220;just how ..


Janet Yellen is First Woman to Lead US Treasury Department

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to officially send its articles of impeachment to the Senate on Monday, charging former President Donald Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month.
The trial in the Senate is set to begin the week of February 8 after Democrats and Republicans agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump&#039;s defense team time to prepare. The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm some of President Joe Biden&#039;s Cabinet nominees.
Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline.
Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 37 MB1080p | 72 MBOriginal | 83 MB Embed&#8221; />Copy Download AudioWATCH: Trump’s Impeachment Article Heads to SenateA two-thirds majority in the Senate would be required to convict Trump. With the Senate politica..


US House to Deliver Impeachment Articles to Senate

Jill Biden, the wife of recently inaugurated President Joe Biden, has made it clear that education policy will be a priority for her in the White House. Jill Biden is familiar with life in Washington as her husband spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as vice president under Barack Obama. VOA&#039;s Esha Sarai and Carolyn Presutti bring us more about the new U.S. first lady in this profile.
Video editors: Marcus Harton, Esha Sarai


Dr. Jill Biden Steps Into First Lady Role

As Joe Biden begins his first full week as U.S. president, he faces many challenges. Chief among them: ramping up the nationwide coronavirus vaccination effort and next month’s Senate impeachment trial of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Mary Cieslak


Challenges Abound as Biden Begins First Full Week as President

Politics

The United States returns to a unified government this week as Joe Biden becomes the 46th president and Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate. With the U.S. House continuing under the Democratic party leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Biden has an opportunity to enact big legislative changes. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports.


With Control of the White House and Congress, Democrats Have 2 Years to Enact Change

With U.S. President-elect Joe Biden set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, one question being debated is whether Congress will pursue a second impeachment of outgoing President Donald Trump over his alleged role in last Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol building. Michelle Quinn reports.


US Lawmakers Discuss Next Moves as Nation Grapples to Understand Violence at Capitol Building

What started as a day of celebration for Black organizers, voters and other Georgians who helped deliver two historic Senate runoff victories was overshadowed Wednesday when a violent, mostly white mob of President Donald Trump&#039;s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
But Black leaders and organizers say the rioters&#039; insurrection won&#039;t deter the momentum achieved after the hard-fought victories of Georgia Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Instead, it serves as a harsh reminder of the work that lies ahead for the nation to truly grapple with white supremacy and racism, which Trump&#039;s presidency emboldened.
&#8220;It&#039;s a little bit bittersweet because on one hand it feels like vindication that if we invest in our communities and our organizations, then amazing things can happen,&#8221; said Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which estimates that it reached 2.8 million individuals in Georgia through text and phone banking campaigns, digital and social med..


Black Leaders Cheer Georgia Success, Push for More Progress

Lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are scheduled to meet Wednesday in a joint session of Congress to count and certify electoral votes based on the result of the November presidential election.
This usually routine and ceremonial function — a final step after the Electoral College officially elected Joe Biden on December 14 — has turned into a litmus test of Republican lawmakers&#039; loyalty to President Donald Trump. More than 100 Trump loyalists are set to challenge certification.
Here&#039;s what we can expect from the meeting.
What usually happens?
Under the 12th Amendment, both chambers must meet to officially count and certify the Electoral College results from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties in the Senate and House are appointed as &#8220;tellers&#8221; from each chamber. Vice President Mike Pence, in his capacity as president of the Senate, presides over the joint session. If he cannot presi..


Will Congress Block Certification of Biden’s Victory?

More than 100 Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and a dozen senators say they will join an almost assuredly futile effort Wednesday to try to block certification of the Electoral College vote showing that Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the November election.
The certification of the 306-232 Electoral College vote favoring Biden is the last step before he is set to be inaugurated as the country’s 46th president on January 20.
Both chambers of Congress would need to uphold the challenges to Biden’s victory for the election outcome to be upended. Democrats narrowly control the House and are certain to certify Biden’s win, while the Democratic minority in the Senate, along with some Republicans who have acknowledged Biden’s win, are likely to do the same in the Senate.
Trump, who for weeks has made baseless claims that he was defrauded of election to a second four-year term, continues to cheer on protests of his loss, an outcome that will m..


Dozens of House, Senate Republicans Joining Likely Futile Effort to Reject Biden Victory

Congress has overridden President Donald Trump&#039;s veto of a defense policy bill, a first by lawmakers since Trump took office nearly four years ago.
In an extraordinary New Year&#039;s Day session, the Republican-controlled Senate easily turned aside the veto, dismissing Trump&#039;s objections to the $740 billion bill and handing him a rebuke weeks before his term ends.
Trump had lashed out at lawmakers from his own party on Twitter, charging earlier this week that &#8220;Weak and tired Republican &#039;leadership&#039; will allow the bad Defense Bill to pass.&#8221;
Trump called the looming override vote a &#8220;disgraceful act of cowardice and total submission by weak people to Big Tech. Negotiate a better Bill, or get better leaders, NOW!&#8221;
The 81-13 vote in the Senate followed an earlier 322-87 override vote in the House of the widely popular defense measure. The bill provides a 3% pay raise for U.S. troops and guides defense policy, cementing decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems a..


In a First, Congress Overrides Trump Veto of Defense Bill 

The congressional joint session to count electoral votes is generally a routine, ceremonial affair. But President Donald Trump&#039;s repeated efforts to challenge Democrat Joe Biden&#039;s victory will bring more attention than usual to next Wednesday&#039;s joint session of the Senate and the House.
The congressional count is the final step in reaffirming Biden&#039;s win, after the Electoral College officially elected him on Dec 14. The meeting is required by the Constitution and includes several distinct steps.
Some Republicans who are echoing Trump&#039;s baseless claims of fraud have said they will officially object to the results, forcing votes in the Republican-run Senate and the Democratic-controlled House that will almost certainly fail. A group of House Republicans had been looking for a senator to sign on because there must be support from at least one member of each chamber to force the votes. That support came Wednesday from Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a possible contende..


How Congress Will Count Electoral College Votes

U.S. President Donald Trump is spending the holiday weekend at his Florida resort as both Democrats and Republicans wait to see whether he will sign a critical pandemic relief and government funding package that he sharply criticized earlier this week.
The $2.3 trillion spending legislation, which includes $892 billion for coronavirus relief, has been flown from Washington to his Mar-a-Lago club to be available for him to sign into law. Trump has not specifically threatened to veto the bill, but he surprised lawmakers in both parties by labeling the legislation as a “disgrace” after it had been passed in the House and Senate, capping months of negotiations.
President Donald Trump&#039;s motorcade drives to Trump International Golf Club, Dec. 25, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla.Trump said the package gave too much money to special interests and foreign aid, and said direct payments of $600 for most Americans should be increased to $2,000. That was seen as a rebuke to members of his own Re..


US Spending Bill Awaits Trump’s Decision

U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed a $740 billion bill setting policy for the Department of Defense on Wednesday, despite its strong support in Congress, raising the possibility that the measure will fail to become law for the first time in 60 years.
Trump said he vetoed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, because it &#8220;fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military&#039;s history, and contradicts efforts by my administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions.&#8221;
&#8220;It is a &#039;gift&#039; to China and Russia,&#8221; he said in a message to the House of Representatives.
Although his previous eight vetoes were all upheld thanks to support from Trump&#039;s fellow Republicans in Congress, advisers said this one looked likely to be overridden, just weeks before he leaves office on January 20.
Both the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-majority House of Re..


Major Defense Bill, Strongly Backed in Congress, Draws Trump’s Veto

Top congressional lawmakers struck a late-night agreement on the last major obstacle to a COVID-19 economic relief package costing nearly $1 trillion, clearing the way for votes as early as Sunday.
A Democratic aide said in an email that an agreement had been reached late Saturday and that compromise language was being finalized to seal a deal to be unveiled on Sunday.
The breakthrough involved a fight over Federal Reserve emergency powers that was defused by an odd couple: the Senate’s top Democrat and a senior conservative Republican.
“We’re getting very close, very close,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said earlier Saturday as he spent much of the day going back and forth with GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Toomey had been pressing a provision to close down Fed lending facilities that Democrats and the White House said was too broadly worded and would have tied the hands of the incoming Biden administration.
The COVID-19 legislation has been held up after months of di..


Deal on Fed Removes Obstacle to US COVID Relief

Congress passed a two-day stopgap spending bill Friday night, averting a partial government shutdown and buying yet more time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package.
The virus aid talks remained on track, both sides said, but closing out final disagreements was proving difficult. Weekend sessions were on tap, and House leaders hoped for a vote on Sunday on the massive package, which wraps much of Capitol Hill&#039;s unfinished 2020 business into a take-it-or-leave-it behemoth.
The House passed the temporary funding bill by a 320-60 vote. The Senate approved it by voice vote almost immediately afterward, and President Donald Trump signed it late Friday.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, walks to his office from the Senate Floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2020.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said both sides remain intent on closing the deal, even as Democr..


Congress Averts Shutdown; Fight Continues Over Pandemic Aid

Republican and Democratic congressional leaders expressed hope late Tuesday about reaching an agreement on a new round of coronavirus aid that has eluded U.S. lawmakers for months.
&#8220;I think we&#039;re moving in the right direction,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said after two rounds of talks. “I think there&#039;s a possibility of getting it done.”
The meetings included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
&#8220;We&#039;re making progress and hopefully we can come to an agreement soon,” Schumer said. “I think there is a genuine desire to come to an agreement.&#8221;  
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, speaks virtually with retired U.S. General Lloyd Austin, nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to be his Secretary of Defense, at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 15, 2020.Without a deal, several key programs are set to expire at the end of month, including unemployment aid that reaches 12 million out-of-work A..


Lawmakers Race to Make COVID-19 Aid Deal Ahead of Holiday Break

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday that could prevent Chinese companies from listing their shares on U.S. exchanges unless they adhere to U.S. auditing standards.
The measure passed by unanimous voice vote, after passing the Senate earlier this year, sending it to the White House, which said President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law.
&#8220;The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act&#8221; bars securities of foreign companies from being listed on any U.S. exchange if they have failed to comply with the U.S. Public Accounting Oversight Board&#039;s audits for three years in a row.
While it applies to companies from any country, the legislation targets Chinese companies such as Alibaba, tech firm Pinduoduo Inc. and oil giant PetroChina Co Ltd.
Measures taking a harder line on Chinese business and trade practices generally pass Congress with large margins, as both Democrats and Trump&#039;s fellow Republicans echo the president&#039;s hard line against B..


Bill Forcing Chinese Firms to Meet US Accounting Standards Passes Congress

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says time is running out for U.S. lawmakers to reach an agreement on a second massive round of aid addressing the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
With just a handful of days left in session this year, members of Congress are racing to reach an agreement after months of fruitless negotiations.
McConnell told reporters Tuesday he had been in discussion with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows earlier in the day to determine what legislation U.S. President Donald Trump would be willing to sign.
“The way you get a result, you have to have a presidential signature. So, I felt the first thing we needed to do was to find out what the president would in fact sign. We believe we&#039;ve got the answer to that,” McConnell said. He added that given the dwindling days in session, any agreement on coronavirus relief would more than likely be tied to the omnibus bill funding the U.S. government past a D..


US Lawmakers Running Out of Time to Pass Coronavirus Aid

At least there won&#039;t be a government shutdown.
But as lawmakers return to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else.
Talks between top Democrats and the Trump administration broke off last month and remain off track, with the bipartisan unity that drove almost $3 trillion in COVID-19 rescue legislation into law this spring replaced by partisanship and a return to Washington dysfunction.
Expectations in July and August that a fifth bipartisan pandemic response bill would be agreed on despite increased obstacles has been replaced by genuine pessimism. Recent conversations about COVID-19 aid among key players have led to nothing.
Democrats seem secure in their political position, with President Donald Trump and several Senate GOP incumbents lagging in the polls. Trump is seeking to sideline the pandemic as a campaign issue, and Republicans aren&#039;t interested in a deal on Democratic terms — even as n..


Hopes Fade for Coronavirus Deal as Congress Returns to Work

U.S. counterintelligence officials will no longer brief lawmakers on threats to the upcoming presidential election in November, telling them such in-person briefings have led to leaks of “sensitive intelligence” and the politicization of information.
Officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence verbally informed key lawmakers and congressional committees of the change Saturday, saying the intelligence on threats to the November 3 presidential election would still be provided, just in a different form.
“We are committed to meeting our statutory responsibilities and keeping Congress fully and currently informed,” an ODNI official told VOA on the condition of anonymity.
FILE &#8211; U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 5, 2020.“For clarity and to protect sensitive intelligence from unauthorized disclosures, we will primarily do that through written finished intelligence products,” the official said, adding, “We are concerned about un..


Top US Intelligence Official Ends In-Person Election Security Briefings for Congress

The U.S. House of Representatives is preparing for the possibility congressional staff members may have to telework because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The preparations are being launched &#8220;in light of the unique and unusual circumstances presented by the coronavirus.&#8221;
U.S. financial regulators are also preparing contingency plans, as there are COVID-19 cases in suburban Washington, New York, San Francisco and New Jersey, all places where regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and banking regulators have offices.
The Reuters news agency reports the financial watchdogs are allowing more telework, limiting travel and canceling conferences.


House of Representatives, Federal Agencies Prepare to Telework

U.S. President Donald Trump says the highest-ranking member of the country&#039;s legislative branch, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, &#8220;broke the law&#8221; when she shredded a copy of the State of the Union speech he delivered to Congress.
The president told reporters Friday that Pelosi&#039;s act, which was caught on camera just after Trump completed his address late Tuesday, was &#8220;disrespectful to our country, and actually very illegal.&#8221;
A Florida congressman of Trump&#039;s Republican party, Matt Gaetz, has filed an ethics complaint against Pelosi, accusing her of potentially violating federal law (18 U.S. Code § 2071).
The regulation prohibits the destruction of government records, but it only applies to documents that have been &#8220;filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States.&#8221;
&#039;Brilliant&#039; or &#039;tasteless&#039;
&#8220;That&#039;s really a law about preserving official documents, such as the official copy that would make it to the National Archives,&#8221; said..


Trump Accuses House Leader of ‘Very Illegal’ Act

Democrats on Tuesday accused the top Senate Republican of rigging U.S. President Donald Trump&#039;s impeachment trial with proposed rules that would prevent witnesses from testifying and bar evidence gathered by investigators.
Trump&#039;s trial on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges begins in earnest in the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday in a rare use of the constitutional mechanism for ousting a president. The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the charges last month on a party-line vote.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to coordinate the televised trial with the White House, proposed on Monday rules that would execute a potentially quick trial without new testimony or evidence.
He unveiled a resolution that would give House Democratic prosecutors and Trump lawyers 48 hours, evenly split, to present their arguments over four days. Opening arguments are expected to begin this week and could well run into each night..


Democrats Accuse McConnell of Rigging Trump’s Impeachment Trial

In the U.S. Senate, except for important votes, the seats are often empty and only a handful of lawmakers might be listening in person as one of their loquacious colleagues opines on the issue of the day. When present on the floor, senators often carry on private conversations or text or tweet on their cellphones.
But all that will change at the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump, only the third such event in American history. Strict rules have been set that will be new and constraining to many lawmakers — and to Americans watching on television across the country.
For one thing, all 100 lawmakers, acting as jurors to decide whether to convict Trump of two articles of impeachment and remove him from office, have been told to show up for the entire trial. None may skip the long hours of proceedings to meet with constituents or lobbyists or to attend a political fundraiser. They&#039;ve been told to stay in their assigned seats and not to bring along reading material either..


At Trump’s Impeachment Trial, 100 Senators Face Strict Rules

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Millions of U.S. voters are casting ballots in state primary races to determine which candidates face off in November’s midterm elections. The stakes are high for Democrats and Republicans, as the outcome will determine which political party controls both houses of Congress next year. The contest will be a test of new voting laws in many states that restrict access to the ballot in the name of election security.


With barely six months until the 2022 midterms, fierce debate has emerged over voting rights and voting integrity, topics that have long stirred passions in America. In broad terms, Democrats favor making it easier and more convenient to vote, while Republican lawmakers in some states have passed laws to restrict voting access and heighten scrutiny of those who cast ballots.


“I think our democracy is under threat by these new laws,” former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a Democrat, said at a Washington, D.C., event to unveil his new book that chronicles the country’s fight for voting rights.


“Many citizens have only had unfettered access to the ballot since the 1960s. Now, there are efforts to make it harder to vote, not easier,” Holder told VOA earlier this month.


This year, at least 27 Republican-led states have introduced or enacted a total of 250 pieces of voting legislation, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The initiatives range from limiting early or absentee balloting to implementing stricter voter identification requirements. The flurry of activity comes after 19 state legislatures in 2021 approved 34 restrictive voting laws.


Republicans maintain the measures are designed to prevent voter fraud and ensure election integrity. Democrats and voting rights advocates counter that the new laws will disproportionately impact the ability of African Americans and other minority groups to vote.




The laws add to Democrats’ apprehensions ahead of the midterms. Not only are key minority constituencies that tend to vote Democratic registering frustration and low levels of voter enthusiasm in current polls, those who do intend to vote in November may find it more difficult to do so in many states.


“I think many African Americans are concerned about more voting restrictions,” said Jatia Wrighten, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. “Establishing methods to increase voting participation is one of the major ways in which we see change come about in Black communities.”


Florida example


A U.S. federal appeals court recently cleared the way for a restrictive voting law in Florida to go into effect. The court said earlier this month that a lower court order blocking parts of the law had been issued too close to the state’s primary elections in August.


U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker, who blocked the voting law last March, said Florida state legislators had deliberately written provisions to suppress turnout by Black voters. The new measures included tighter rules on mailed ballots, paring back the number of ballot dropoff boxes, limiting voter registration drives and barring people from giving food or other assistance to those waiting in line to vote.


But while Walker found that the right to vote is “under siege” in Florida, the appeals court argued for a “presumption of legislative good faith” among Florida’s elected state representatives who crafted the bill.


Reaction outside the courts has been swift.


“Let’s be clear, this law in Florida undoes the progress that voting rights groups have made and targets the very tools minority communities like ours use to increase voter turnout,” Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of the Florida-based voting rights group Equal Ground, said in a statement.




Not so, according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate.


“I don’t think there is any other place in the country where you should have more confidence that your vote counts than in the state of Florida,” he said during a recent news conference.


DeSantis has made voting legislation a key priority. He recently pushed the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to adopt a new law creating an Office of Election Crimes and Security. Its staff of 15 people would conduct preliminary investigations of suspected election fraud and investigate voting-related complaints.


“We just want to make sure whatever laws are on the books that those laws are enforced,” DeSantis said.


The new measure is the second major overhaul of Florida’s election laws since the November 2020 election in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump, and Democrats narrowly won control of both houses of Congress.


Florida and other Republican-led states have acted amid persistent false claims by Trump and his supporters that his election defeat was the result of widespread election fraud. Those claims were rejected by multiple courts and state election authorities. Extensive research has found that voter fraud in the U.S. is exceedingly rare and generally detected. An Associated Press investigation found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots cast in the six states where Trump and his allies disputed his loss to Biden.


Voting protections


Voting rights advocates have called on the Justice Department to ensure free and fair elections nationwide. However, the department has limited powers following a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Shelby County v. Holder) that dismantled part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The provisions the high court nixed required states with a history of voting discrimination to get pre-approval from the Justice Department before changes are made to state election laws.




The case centered around an Alabama county that sued Holder to stop the Justice Department from enforcing key sections of the Voting Rights Act.


“Immediately after the Supreme Court decision, you saw states around the country putting in place voter suppression measures that would have been prohibited had part of the (Voting Rights) Act stayed intact,” said Holder. “The decision had a negative impact on our democracy.”


Efforts to win congressional approval for nationwide voting rights protections stalled in Congress last year. The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives but was ultimately shelved in the politically divided Senate


The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named for the late Georgia Democratic representative and civil rights leader, would restore Justice Department review of changes in election laws in states with a history of discrimination. Another measure called The Freedom to Vote Act set nationwide standards for how elections are conducted and expands voting access.


Historically, it has been left up to individual states to determine how to conduct elections. Republican lawmakers oppose attempts to federalize voting in America with uniform rules set in Washington.


Earlier this year, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who played a critical role in blocking the voting legislation, took issue with any suggestion that state legislatures were seeking to disenfranchise Black voters.


“The concern is misplaced because if you look at the statistics, Black people vote at similar rates to all American voters,” McConnell said.


Despite an increasingly challenging legal landscape, voting rights groups say they will work even harder to get Americans to turn out to vote — and to overcome any obstacles they may face to cast a ballot.

Looming Midterm Elections Put US Voting Rights in Spotlight

Democrats and Republicans are less likely to live near each other than they were a generation ago.



This political segregation is a phenomenon journalist Bill Bishop wrote about in his book “The Big Sort,” which suggested that Americans are increasingly moving to places where neighbors share their political views.



But are they doing that on purpose?



“It may well be that some of them are doing that, but I think from the data, that's not entirely what they're doing. … It looks like when people are moving, they're mostly looking for communities that have certain features, like say, art walks or gun stores, big box stores or small indie coffee shops, that kind of thing,” says JP Prims, a visiting lecturer in the department of psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “It could just be that they are finding places that have things that they like, and they tend to like things other liberals like, or they like things other conservatives like.”



Prims co-authored a report on political segregation that found distinct differences that are not inherently political in the sorts of communities that appeal to liberals and conservatives.




Liberals who participated in the survey identified political liberalism, ethnic diversity, public transportation and a vibrant arts scene as important characteristics of their ideal community. Meanwhile, conservatives value political conservatism, patriotism, many churches and rural areas when considering ideal places to live.



“We've known for a while that liberals tend to prefer more urban places,” Prims says. “Conservatives want it to feel like a small town and be a bit more rural.”



Political sorting myth?



Samuel Abrams, a professor of politics and social sciences at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, does not buy into the concept of political self-sorting.



He points to the large numbers of people from liberal states like California, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey who are moving to more conservative states like Florida and Texas.



“They're going because taxes are lower, restrictions are lower. For half-a-million dollars, instead of a one-bedroom closet like we have here in New York, you can have a sprawling house most likely with a pool, basketball court and a fire pit,” Abrams says.



Significant numbers of Californians are moving to Texas at a time when the Lone Star state is making political moves that outrage liberals.



“Look at the restrictive abortion laws that the state has imposed. ... Let's look at their recent work on abortion or gun control or even redistricting,” Abrams says. “Those positions that the state has taken run directly against all these progressive liberals that are suddenly moving there at the same time. So, I don't think the geography is what's really driving a lot of this.”



A report from Texas A&M University found that the largest share of people moving to Texas came from California and that most settled in liberal-leaning Texas counties.



COVID effect



Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt says it’s likely that the COVID-19 pandemic is driving increased political sorting.



“We've heard a lot about that during COVID. In New York and California, a lot of people who are center-right are leaving because they just can't stand the social policies and the COVID policies,” says Haidt, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. “So, there certainly is a movement from New York and California to Texas and Florida driven not just by the weather, but by the politics, by wanting to be in a place that’s not so woke.”




The real estate brokerage firm Redfin predicts more people will move to places that align with their political beliefs in 2022. A survey conducted by the firm shows that a substantial share of homebuyers won’t move to a place where the laws conflict with their political beliefs.


Haidt expects to see more political sorting now that more Americans than ever before have the option to work virtually.



“Lots of people are questioning what they did before. Lots of people now have the freedom to work remotely, to live wherever they want. So, my prediction would be that (journalist) Bill Bishop's thesis about 'The Big Sort’ is even more true in the wake of COVID,” Haidt says. “Given how much things have intensified in the last few years, even before COVID, under (former president Donald) Trump, and now, with COVID, affecting our life far more than political arguments used to affect them, I would predict that political sorting has increased.”



Bishop pointed out in his book that while America is more diverse than ever, the places many Americans live are actually becoming less diverse, as people move to communities made up of people who think and vote like they do.



That segregation could lead to increased rancor between conservatives and liberals.



“Because liberals don't see conservatives as much, and conservatives don't see liberals as much in person and aren't encountering them as often, both online and in person, that is certainly, I would say, contributing to political polarization, because we're seeing these people as less human. We understand how they think less, or hearing their arguments less,” Prims says. “We do know that putting people in communities where everybody thinks the same thing leads to these echo chambers where people do tend to become more extreme.”

Are Americans Purposely Moving Next to People Who Share Their Politics?

The political sway of former U.S. President Donald Trump over Republican Party politics 16 months after he left office was tested again Tuesday as his preferred candidates face off with Republican opponents in party primaries in key states.


Five states held Republican and Democratic primaries, but political analysts paid particularly close attention to Trump’s fortunes in two states — Pennsylvania in the eastern U.S., which Trump lost in his reelection bid in 2020 after winning there in 2016, and the mid-Atlantic state of North Carolina, which Trump won in 2016 and two years ago.


In one key race in Pennsylvania, which was too close to call early Wednesday, Trump endorsed celebrity television doctor Mehmet Oz to be the party’s Senate candidate in the November election for a seat left open by the impending retirement of Republican Senator Pat Toomey.




Oz, who holds dual Turkish and American citizenship, would be the first Muslim U.S. senator. But he is facing stiff competition from David McCormick, a former hedge fund executive and undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs during former President George W. Bush’s administration, as well as from Kathy Barnette, a conservative commentator and author who has surged in polling in the contest.


The Club for Growth, a national anti-tax group that has often aligned itself with Trump’s picks, pumped $2 million into a television ad campaign for Barnette, giving her a quick boost among Republican voters.


But Trump took notice, saying over the weekend that she “will never be able to win” the general election matchup against the Democratic nominee, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who calls himself “just a dude” as he campaigns in his favorite clothes — shorts and a hoodie.




At 6 feet, 8 inches tall, he stands out in any crowd. Fetterman halted his campaign several days ago when he suffered a stroke but says he suffered no cognitive impairment and is recovering. Fetterman won his Tuesday primary by a wide margin.


Trump, while attacking Barnette, contended that Oz “is the only one” who can defeat Fetterman.


In the race for Pennsylvania governor, Trump endorsed Republican state Senator Doug Mastriano, who easily defeated a crowded field of Republican candidates in Tuesday’s primary.




Mastriano, who has staunchly endorsed Trump’s false claims that vote fraud cost him another four-year term in the White House, was already leading in polling for the gubernatorial contest when Trump endorsed him.


But some Republican analysts have voiced fears that Mastriano’s views on the 2020 Trump defeat might prove to be too extreme in the November campaign against the Democratic nominee, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.


Trump also endorsed a conservative firebrand supporter of his, Congressman Madison Cawthorn, whose reelection bid ended Tuesday with a loss to state Sen. Chuck Edwards in the Republican primary. Edwards will face Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara in November.


 




 


Cawthorn drew the ire of top Republican congressional officials and has been mired in a string of accusations, such as carrying a loaded gun into an airport check-in line, driving without a valid driver’s license and alleging without evidence that he had been invited to drug-infused sex orgies in Washington.


In still another state, sparsely populated Idaho in the western part of the country, Trump-endorsed Republican Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin lost a gubernatorial primary to incumbent Republican Governor Brad Little. Little will face Democrat Stephen Heidt in the general election.


McGeachin is perhaps best known for seizing on Little’s absences from the state to enact her own policy agenda — such as banning mask mandates in schools and public buildings during the height of the coronavirus pandemic — only to have her orders reversed by Little upon his return. She also supports Trump’s claim of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.


In North Carolina, Trump nearly a year ago endorsed Congressman Ted Budd as the Republican Senate candidate to fill the seat being vacated by Republican Senator Richard Burr. Budd won Tuesday with about 59% of the vote, more than double his closest challenger. He will face Democrat Cheri Beasley, the former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in November.

Trump’s Republican Political Clout Yields Split Results in Primary Test

A U.S. military investigation found that American troops did not violate the law of war or deliberately cause civilian casualties in a 2019 airstrike in Syria that killed dozens of people, including women and children. It did find that the military committed procedural mistakes in the aftermath of the attack.


The Pentagon said Tuesday that no one, including the ground force commander, was disciplined as a result of the strike, which was launched in support of Syrian partner forces who were under heavy fire from the Islamic State group near the town of Baghuz, in eastern Syria.


Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who ordered a new review of the airstrike last November, said he was "disappointed" with deficiencies in the handling of the initial review of the operation, which missed deadlines and led to delays in reporting to Congress and the public about civilian casualties.


"The process contributed to a perception that the Department was not committed to transparency and was not taking the incident seriously — a perception that could have been prevented by a timely review and a clear explication of the circumstances surrounding the strike," Austin said in a memo released Tuesday.


The investigation comes amid new scrutiny on the U.S. military for strikes that cause innocent deaths. And it has all prompted Austin to order the department to create a new "Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan" to better prevent civilian deaths in military operations. He also ordered Army Gen. Michael Garrett, currently the head of U.S. Army Forces Command, to do an independent review of the Baghuz strike.


Late last year, another independent review concluded that a U.S. drone strike that killed innocent Kabul civilians and children in the final days of the Afghanistan war was not caused by misconduct or negligence. It found breakdowns in communication and in the process of identifying and confirming the target of the bombing.


The strike killed a longtime employee of an American humanitarian organization and nine of his family members, including seven children. The U.S. has promised to pay financial reparations to the family, and potentially get them out of Afghanistan, but none of that has happened yet.


In the Tuesday memo, Austin directed department leaders to meet deadlines in reporting civilian casualties, conduct thorough reviews, and reinforce the importance of the procedures to commanders across the force.


The initial investigation into the attack concluded that the strike constituted legitimate self-defense in support of Syrian partner forces under fire from the Islamic State group. Garrett, in his investigation, agreed with that conclusion.


According to Garrett's investigation, 52 enemy combatants were killed and two were injured, and four civilians were killed and 15 were injured. Of the civilians, one female and three children were killed, and 11 women and four children were wounded. One of the enemies killed was a child.


Asked why no one was being held personally accountable for the civilian deaths, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Tuesday that Austin was holding the department accountable, and that's why he ordered changes in the process.


"I understand the questions about accountability, I get it," Kirby told Pentagon reporters. "In this case, General Garrett found that the ground force commander made the best decisions that he could, given the information he had at the time, given a very lethal, very aggressive (Islamic State) threat, in a very confined space. It is deeply regrettable … we apologize for the loss of innocent life."


Garrett, in an unclassified summary of his report, said that the ground force commander "did not deliberately or with wanton disregard cause civilian casualties." He said the decision to strike was necessary to defend the Syrian Democratic Forces and that "multiple efforts to distinguish civilians" from Islamic State insurgents were made.


Garrett added, however, that information not available to the commander at the time, showed that he relied on data "that was not fully accurate." But he said the commander's actions can't be judged on information available only in hindsight.


Garrett, in his review, also said that while he found problems with policy compliance, "I found no evidence to support the allegation that these deficiencies were malicious or made to conceal decisions or actions."

Review Finds US Troops Didn't Violate Law in Syria Airstrike

The political sway of former U.S. President Donald Trump over Republican Party politics 16 months after he left office is being tested again Tuesday as his preferred candidates face off with Republican opponents in party primaries in key states.


Five states are holding Republican and Democratic primaries, but political analysts will be paying particularly close attention to Trump’s fortunes in two states — Pennsylvania in the eastern U.S., which Trump lost in his reelection bid in 2020 after winning there in 2016, and the mid-Atlantic state of North Carolina, which Trump won in 2016 and two years ago.


While winning voter approval this year for many of his endorsed candidates for lower-level offices, Trump has split in two higher-profile contests in the past two weeks.


Author J.D. Vance, his choice in the midwestern state of Ohio for a Republican Senate nomination, won. But his choice for the Nebraska gubernatorial nomination, business executive Charles Herbster, lost.




In one key race in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Trump has endorsed celebrity television doctor Mehmet Oz to be the party’s Senate candidate in the November election for a seat left open by the impending retirement of Republican Senator Pat Toomey.


Oz, who holds dual Turkish and American citizenship, would be the first Muslim U.S. senator. But he is facing stiff competition from David McCormick, a former hedge fund executive and undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs during former President George W. Bush’s administration, as well as from Kathy Barnette, a conservative commentator and author who has surged in polling in the contest.


The three candidates are believed to be in a virtual dead heat heading into the balloting.


The Club for Growth, a national anti-tax group that has often aligned itself with Trump’s picks, pumped $2 million into a television ad campaign for Barnette, giving her a quick boost among Republican voters.




But Trump took notice, saying over the weekend that she “will never be able to win” the general election matchup against the likely Democratic nominee, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who calls himself “just a dude” as he campaigns in his favorite clothes — shorts and a hoodie.


At 6 feet, 8 inches tall, he stands out in any crowd. Fetterman halted his campaign several days ago when he suffered a stroke but says he suffered no cognitive impairment and is recovering.


Trump, while attacking Barnette, contended that Oz “is the only one” who can defeat Fetterman.


Trump also has endorsed Republican state Senator Doug Mastriano for governor in a crowded field of Republican candidates. Mastriano, who has staunchly endorsed Trump’s false claims that vote fraud cost him another four-year term in the White House, was already leading in polling for the gubernatorial contest when Trump endorsed him.




But some Republican analysts have voiced fears that Mastriano’s views on the 2020 Trump defeat might prove to be too extreme in the November campaign against the Democratic nominee, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.


But Trump was undaunted by such fears, saying in a statement endorsing Mastriano, “There is no one in Pennsylvania who has done more, or fought harder, for Election Integrity than State Senator Doug Mastriano. He has revealed the Deceit, Corruption, and outright Theft of the 2020 Presidential Election, and will do something about it.”


In North Carolina, Trump nearly a year ago endorsed Congressman Ted Budd as the Republican Senate candidate to fill the seat being vacated by Republican Senator Richard Burr. Budd, according to polling, is comfortably ahead in the contest and is likely to face Democrat Cheri Beasley, the former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in November.


Trump has also endorsed a conservative firebrand supporter of his, Congressman Madison Cawthorn, for renomination to a seat in the House of Representatives from a western North Carolina district. Cawthorn is facing seven Republican opponents who have attacked his 17-month tenure in office.




Cawthorn has drawn the ire of top Republican congressional officials and has been mired in a string of accusations, such as carrying a loaded gun into an airport check-in line, driving without a valid driver’s license and alleging without evidence that he had been invited to drug-infused sex orgies in Washington.


In still another state, sparsely populated Idaho in the western part of the country, Trump has endorsed Republican Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin in a gubernatorial primary against incumbent Republican Governor Brad Little.


McGeachin is perhaps best known for seizing on Little’s absences from the state to enact her own policy agenda — such as banning mask mandates in schools and public buildings during the height of the coronavirus pandemic — only to have her orders reversed by Little upon his return. She also supports Trump’s claim of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump’s Republican Political Clout Faces Another Test on Tuesday

U.S. authorities said Monday they stopped migrants more than 234,000 times in April, one of the highest marks in decades as the Biden administration prepares to lift pandemic-era restrictions on claiming asylum. 


U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials made 234,088 stops on the Mexican border last month, a 5.8% increase from 221,303 in March, according to a Justice Department filing in a lawsuit filed by Texas and Missouri. 


The April total would have been lower without more than 23,000 people — many of them Ukrainian refugees admitted on humanitarian parole — who went through a San Diego border crossing. The number of Ukrainians has dropped sharply since April 25, when the administration began directing those fleeing Russia's invasion to U.S. airports from Europe, instead of through Mexico. 


On May 23, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to end restrictions that have prevented migrants from seeking asylum under U.S. law and international treaty on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Migrants have been expelled more than 1.9 million times since March 2020 under Title 42 authority, named for a 1944 public health law. 


A federal judge in Louisiana is expected to rule in favor of 24 states seeking to keep Title 42 in effect while litigation proceeds. U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, has said he will rule before May 23. 


Even if the judge allows Title 42 to end, Congress may try to keep it alive in an alliance between Republicans and some Democrats who worry that a widely anticipated increase in illegal crossings will put them on the defensive in an already difficult midterm election year.

Migrant Border Entries Rise in April, Boosted By Ukrainians

The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Monday sided with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in his challenge to a provision of federal campaign finance law, in a ruling that a dissenting justice said runs the risk of causing "further disrepute" to American politics.


The justices, in a 6-3 decision that divided the court along ideological lines, agreed that the somewhat obscure section of the law violates the Constitution. The decision comes just as campaigning for the 2022 midterm elections is intensifying.


Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that the provision "burdens core political speech without proper justification."


The Biden administration had defended the provision as an anti-corruption measure, and in a dissent Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the majority, in striking it down, "greenlights all the sordid bargains Congress thought right to stop." She said the decision "can only bring this country's political system into further disrepute."


The case may be important for some candidates for federal office who want to make large loans to their campaigns. But the administration has also said that the great majority of such loans are for less than $250,000 and therefore the provision Cruz challenged does not apply.


The case involves a section of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The provision says that if a candidate lends his or her campaign money before an election, the campaign cannot repay the candidate more than $250,000 using money raised after Election Day. The loans can still be repaid with money raised before the election.


Cruz argued that makes candidates think twice about lending money because it substantially increases the risk that any candidate loan will never be fully repaid. A lower court had agreed the provision was unconstitutional.


Cruz, who has served in the Senate since 2013 and ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016, lent his campaign $260,000 the day before the 2018 general election for the purpose of challenging the law.


The government has said that in the five election cycles before 2020, candidates for Senate made 588 loans to their campaigns, about 80% of them under $250,000. Candidates for the House of Representatives made 3,444 loans, nearly 90% under $250,000.


The case is Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate, 21-12.

US Supreme Court Rules for Sen. Cruz in Campaign Finance Case

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the United States supports Finland and Sweden applying for NATO membership. This follows statements from those countries’ leaders in the wake of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Leaders say the war has them rethinking their own security. A warning: some viewers may find images in this report disturbing. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

Blinken Meets European Counterparts as Finland Seeks NATO Membership

A House panel issued subpoenas Thursday to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other Republican lawmakers in its probe into the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, an extraordinary step that has little precedent and is certain to further inflame partisan tensions over the 2021 attack.


The panel is investigating McCarthy’s conversations with then-President Donald Trump the day of the attack and meetings the four other lawmakers had with the White House beforehand as Trump and his aides worked to overturn his 2020 election defeat. The former president’s supporters violently pushed past police that day, broke through windows and doors of the Capitol and interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.


The decision to issue subpoenas to McCarthy, R-Calif., and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama is a dramatic show of force by the panel, which has already interviewed nearly 1,000 witnesses and collected more than 100,000 documents as it investigates the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries.


The move is not without risk, as Republicans are favored to capture back the House majority in this fall’s midterm elections and have promised retribution for Democrats if they take control.


After the announcement, McCarthy, who aspires to be House speaker, told reporters “I have not seen a subpoena” and said his view on the Jan. 6 committee has not changed since the nine-lawmaker panel asked for his voluntary cooperation earlier this year.


“They’re not conducting a legitimate investigation,” McCarthy said. “Seems as though they just want to go after their political opponents.”


Similarly, Perry told reporters the investigation is a “charade” and said the subpoena is “all about headlines.”


Neither man said whether he would comply.


The panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, had previously asked for voluntary cooperation from the five lawmakers, along with a handful of other GOP members, but all of them refused to speak with the panel, which debated for months whether to issue the subpoenas.


“Before we hold our hearings next month, we wished to provide members the opportunity to discuss these matters with the committee voluntarily,” said Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel. “Regrettably, the individuals receiving subpoenas today have refused and we’re forced to take this step to help ensure the committee uncovers facts concerning January 6th.”




Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s Republican vice chair, said the step wasn’t taken lightly. The unwillingness of the lawmakers to provide relevant information about the attack, she said, is “a very serious and grave situation.”


Congressional subpoenas for sitting members of Congress, especially for a party leader, have little precedent in recent decades, and it is unclear what the consequences would be if any or all of the five men decline to comply. The House has voted to hold two other noncompliant witnesses, former Trump aides Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows, in contempt, referring their cases to the Justice Department.


In announcing the subpoenas, the Jan. 6 panel said there is historical precedent for the move and noted that the House Ethics Committee has “issued a number of subpoenas to Members of Congress for testimony or documents,” though such actions are generally done secretly.


“We recognize this is fairly unprecedented,” said Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the other GOP member of the panel, after the committee announced the subpoenas. “But the Jan. 6 attack was very unprecedented."


Kinzinger said it is “important for us to get every piece of information we possibly can.”


McCarthy has acknowledged he spoke with Trump on Jan. 6 as Trump’s supporters were beating police outside the Capitol and forcing their way into the building. But he has not shared many details. The committee requested information about his conversations with Trump “before, during and after” the riot.


McCarthy took to the House floor after the rioters were cleared and said in a forceful speech that Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack and that it was the “saddest day I have ever had” in Congress — even as he went on to join 138 other House Republicans in voting to reject the election results.


Another member of the GOP caucus, Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, said after the attack that McCarthy had recounted that he told Trump to publicly “call off the riot” and said the violent mob was made up of Trump supporters, not far-left antifa members, as Trump had claimed.


“That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said, 'Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,'” Herrera Beutler said in a statement last year.


The GOP leader soon made up with Trump, though, visiting him in Florida and rallying House Republicans to vote against investigations of the attack.


The other four men were in touch with the White House for several weeks ahead of the insurrection, talking to Trump and his legal advisers about ways to stop the congressional electoral count on Jan. 6 to certify Joe Biden’s victory.


“These members include those who participated in meetings at the White House, those who had direct conversations with President Trump leading up to and during the attack on the Capitol, and those who were involved in the planning and coordination of certain activities on and before January 6th,” the committee said in a release.


Brooks, who has since been critical of Trump, spoke alongside the former president at the massive rally in front of the White House the morning of Jan. 6, telling supporters to “start taking down names and kicking ass” before hundreds of them broke into the Capitol.


Perry spoke to the White House about replacing acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with an official who was more sympathetic to Trump’s false claims of voter fraud, and Biggs was involved in plans to bring protesters to Washington and pressuring state officials to overturn the legitimate election results, according to the panel. Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, spoke to Trump on Jan. 6 and was also involved in strategizing how to overturn the election.


Several of their efforts were detailed in texts released to the panel by Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff at the time.


“11 days to 1/6 and 25 days to inauguration,” Perry texted Meadows on Dec. 26, 2020. “We gotta get going!”

Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas McCarthy, 4 Other Republican Lawmakers

In a bid to strengthen alliances and counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific, President Joe Biden is hosting Southeast Asian leaders in Washington in a two-day U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit. While trade, regional security and Ukraine are high on the agenda, activists are urging him to address the region’s human rights concerns and democratic backsliding, including the 2021 coup in Myanmar. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
Camera: VOA Indonesian, VOA Burmese       Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov

Biden Seeks to Balance Human Rights and Geopolitics in US-ASEAN Special Summit

In his draft opinion overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion, conservative U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito stressed that his ruling was limited to abortion and would not affect other rights.


“Nothing in this opinion,” Alito wrote in the leaked document, “should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”




The document is an initial draft and could change before a final decision is handed down in the next several weeks. But despite Alito's assurances, the sweeping case it makes for reversing the 1973 decision and a subsequent abortion ruling from 1992 has raised alarm among liberals that the same rationale could be used to roll back other rights.


Among them: the right of adults to use contraception, the freedom to marry outside one's own race, and the right to same-sex marriage — freedoms known collectively as "substantive due process rights."


“If the rationale of the decision as released were to be sustained, a whole range of rights are in question, a whole range of rights,” President Joe Biden said last week.


Central to Alito’s argument is an old conservative objection that Roe v. Wade “manufactured” a right that has no basis in the Constitution.


In affirming the right of Norma McCorvey — the Jane Roe in the court case — to end her pregnancy, the justices ruled 7-2 that abortion is part of a “fundamental right to privacy” inherent in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.




Adopted in 1868, the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause has been used by the Supreme Court to affirm a panoply of constitutional rights such as the right to marry and the right to use contraception.


But Alito argued that neither abortion nor privacy can be found in the Constitution.


Echoing another conservative criticism, he wrote that the 1973 ruling was “egregiously wrong” in part because the right to an abortion is “not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions.”


In fact, he noted, abortion was criminalized by many states at the time of the 14th Amendment’s ratification after the American Civil War.


But just because something was illegal in the 19th century and is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution doesn’t mean it can’t be constitutionally protected, said Sonia Suter, a law professor at The George Washington University Law School.


“When you look at the way he does the analysis to say how terribly wrongly decided Roe was, you could use that exact same analysis to determine that there are aren’t other rights that are not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution,” Suter told VOA in an interview.


Caroline Fredrickson, a law professor at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the left-leaning Brennan Center, said Alito’s assurance that his ruling would have no bearing on other precedents is “misleading.”


“It just doesn't work that way,” she said in an interview with VOA. “Anybody who is familiar with the common law system understands that precedents are based on legal reasoning, and they develop. One precedent follows another. If you strike down a law based on a fundamental disagreement with the legal reasoning that underpins it, the same exact arguments will allow the other decisions to be overturned.”


Here is a look at four Supreme Court decisions that a Roe v. Wade reversal could impact.




Griswold v. Connecticut


Widely seen as a precursor to Roe v. Wade, this 1965 ruling struck down a Connecticut law that banned the use of contraception.


In 1961, Estelle Griswold, a Planned Parenthood official, and C. Lee Buxton, a Yale University gynecologist, were arrested and fined for operating a birth control clinic in Connecticut.


The two challenged their conviction, arguing that the Connecticut law violated their rights under the 14th Amendment.


In a 7-2 ruling, the court found Connecticut’s law infringed on the constitutional “right of marital privacy.”


The decision paved the way for Roe v. Wade, according to Suter.


"Roe relied heavily on the line of reasoning (in Griswold) and the sort of substantive due process," she said.


If the Supreme Court overturns Roe, many liberals fear it could use the same reasoning to invalidate Roe’s precursor.


“If Casey (the 1992 opinion that reaffirmed abortion rights) is to fall, if Roe v. Wade is to fall, then Griswold v. Connecticut presumably is to fall, as well,” Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, a constitutional scholar, said last week on MSNBC.


But while many conservatives have raised questions about the legal reasoning behind the contraception ruling, few expect an outright ban on birth control.


Instead, Fredrickson said, overturning Roe could lead to "a chipping away (of the right to contraception) by increasingly describing forms of birth control as abortion or ‘abortion-like’ and allowing states to regulate access to them."




Loving v. Virginia


Before this 1967 case, more than a dozen U.S. states prohibited white people from marrying African Americans.


This historic case involved Mildred Jeter, a Black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man. Unable to marry in their own state in 1958, they traveled to Washington, D.C.


They were arrested when they returned to Virginia under the state’s laws banning interracial marriages.


Tried and convicted, they were each given a one-year jail sentence on the condition that they leave the state and not return as a married couple for 25 years.


The Supreme Court found that Virginia’s so-called anti-miscegenation statute violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.


“Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides within the individual and cannot be infringed by the state,” Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the court’s unanimous decision.


“Going after Loving would be extreme,” Fredrickson said.


Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, considered the court’s most conservative member, is an African American and married to a white woman.




Lawrence v. Texas


A landmark ruling for gay rights, this 2003 decision struck down a Texas law that criminalized homosexual sex, leading to the repeal of so-called “anti-sodomy laws” around the country.


In 1998, John Lawrence and a male partner were found having sex when police entered Lawrence’s apartment in response to a disturbance call.


After being arrested and fined under Texas’ anti-sodomy law, the men challenged the statute as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.


The Supreme Court agreed. Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, a prominent champion of LGBTQ rights on the court, wrote the majority opinion.


“Petitioners’ right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in private conduct without government intervention,” he wrote.


For LGBTQ rights activists, the decision, which overturned a 1986 Supreme Court ruling upholding a similar anti-sodomy law in Georgia, was a major victory.




Obergefell v. Hodges


This 2015 decision established gay marriage as a constitutional right.


The case was brought by a group of same-sex couples challenging state laws that did not allow them to legally marry.


In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that states must allow gay couples to marry and recognize such marriages performed in states where they were legal.


Again, Kennedy wrote the majority opinion. “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."


Hailed as a major achievement for the LGBTQ community in America, the narrowly decided case is now in jeopardy, Fredrickson said.


“I think there is a very fervent disagreement with the Obergefell decision based on the same idea of tradition in our society,” he said.


All six conservatives currently on the bench disagree with the Obergefell ruling, according to legal scholars. But whether they’d join forces to overturn it “is another story,” Suter said.

Four Supreme Court Rulings That Could Be Impacted by Reversal of Abortion Decision

The Supreme Court's nine justices will gather in private Thursday for their first scheduled meeting since the leak of a draft opinion that would overrule Roe v. Wade and sharply curtail abortion rights in roughly half the states.


The meeting in the justices' private, wood-paneled conference room could be a tense affair in a setting noted for its decorum. No one aside from the justices attends and the most junior among them, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is responsible for taking notes.


Thursday's conference comes at an especially fraught moment, with the future of abortion rights at stake and an investigation underway to try to find the source of the leak.


Chief Justice John Roberts last week confirmed the authenticity of the opinion, revealed by Politico, in ordering the court's marshal to undertake an investigation.


Roberts stressed that the draft, written by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated in February, may not be the court's final word. Supreme Court decisions are not final until they are formally issued and the outcomes in some cases changed between the justices' initial votes shortly after arguments and the official announcement of the decisions.


That's true of a major abortion ruling from 1992 that now is threatened, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, when Justice Anthony Kennedy initially indicated he would be part of a majority to reverse Roe but later was among five justices who affirmed the basic right of a woman to choose abortion that the court first laid out in roe in 1973.


Kennedy met privately with Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter to craft a joint opinion, with no hint to the public or even to other justices about what was going on.


"I think it's tradition and decorum that everyone corresponds in writing about things that are in circulation," said Megan Wold, a former law clerk to Alito. "But at the same time, there's nothing to prevent a justice from picking up the phone to call, from visiting someone else in chambers."


A major shift in the current abortion case seems less likely, at least partly because of the leak, abortion law experts and people on both sides of the issue said.


"I think the broad contours are very unlikely to change. To the extent the leak matters, it will make broad changes unlikely," said Mary Ziegler, a scholar of the history of abortion at the Florida State University law school.


Sherif Gergis, a University of Notre Dame law professor who once was a law clerk for Alito, agreed. "I'll be surprised if it changes very much," Gergis said.


At least five votes in December


It's not clear who leaked the opinion, or for what purpose. But Alito's writing means that there were at least five votes in December to overrule Roe and Casey, just after the court heard arguments over a Mississippi law that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.


Based on their questions at arguments, Justice Clarence Thomas and former President Donald Trump's three appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Barrett, seemed most likely to join Alito.


Roberts appeared the most inclined among the conservatives to avoid reaching a decision to overrule the landmark abortion rulings, but his questions suggested that he would at the very least vote to uphold the Mississippi law. Even that outcome would dramatically undermine abortion rights and invite states to adopt increasingly stricter limits.


If Roberts, who often prefers incremental steps in an effort to preserve the court's legitimacy, wanted to prevent the court from overruling Roe and Casey, he'd need to pick up the vote of just one other colleague. That would be enough to deprive Alito of a majority.


The liberal justices, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, are expected to dissent from either outcome. But no dissent, separate opinion from Roberts, or even a revised draft majority opinion has been circulated among the justices, Politico reported.


Majority opinions often change in response to friendly suggestions and barbed criticisms. The justices consider the internal back-and-forth a crucial part of their work.


Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg remarked that pointed criticism from her friend and ideological opposite, Justice Antonin Scalia, made her opinions better. Scalia died in 2016; Ginsburg, four years later.


The lack of any other opinions surprised some former law clerks to the justices, though Wold said it's also true that bigger, harder cases traditionally take more time.


Spring usually 'tense'  


Several former clerks also said they expect the leak to be discussed at the weekly meeting on Thursday, at which the justices typically finalize opinions in cases they've heard and choose cases to hear in the coming months. The spring normally is a tense time at the court, with major decisions looming that often reveal stark divisions and sometimes produce sharp words.


"I would be shocked if it doesn't come up," Wold said, adding that, given what has happened, the court would probably take additional precautions with drafts circulating in the future, including limiting who has access to them.


Kent Greenfield, a Boston University law professor who spent a year as a clerk to Souter, also speculated that the leak would be on the table Thursday. "Roberts is in a complete bind. He has to address it, but it doesn't strike me that he has many options," Greenfield said.

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