Biden cheers supreme court upholding protections for Native American children
Joe Biden has released a statement of strong support for the supreme court’s decision upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act. Here’s what the president has to say:
I stand alongside Tribal Nations as they celebrate today’s Supreme Court decision. This lawsuit sought to undermine the Indian Child Welfare Act – a vital law I was proud to support. The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed to protect the future of Tribal Nations and promote the best interests of Native children, and it does just that. The touchstone law respects tribal sovereignty and protects Native children by helping Native families stay together and, whenever possible, keeping children with their extended families or community who already know them, love them, and can help them understand who they are as Native people and citizens of their Tribal Nations. The Indian Child Welfare Act safeguards that which is most precious to us all — our children. Today’s decision from the Supreme Court keeps in place a vital protection for tribal sovereignty and Native children.
Our Nation’s painful history looms large over today’s decision. In the not-so-distant past, Native children were stolen from the arms of the people who loved them. They were sent to boarding schools or to be raised by non-Indian families — all with the aim of erasing who they are as Native people and tribal citizens. These were acts of unspeakable cruelty that affected generations of Native children and threatened the very survival of Tribal Nations. The Indian Child Welfare Act was our Nation’s promise: never again.
Tribal Nations fought hard to pass the Indian Child Welfare Act, and I am proud to have joined them in the ongoing efforts to defend it. Vice President Harris and I will continue to stand with Tribes to protect Native children, honor tribal sovereignty, and safeguard the essential principals of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Key events
There are those who would call Donald Trump a cult leader, but don’t count former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin among them, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:
The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin courted controversy when she denied that supporters of Donald Trump behaved like cult members.
Palin’s attempt to deny that Trump has a cultlike following, however, prompted predictable pushback on social media by those who thought her attempt to define a cult actually precisely described Trump’s enthusiastic fan base.
“The definition of a cult,” Palin told the rightwing network Newsmax, “is a group of people who are excessively supporting one another and a cause. [It’s] all about conformity and compliance and intolerance of anyone who doesn’t agree with what their mission is.
Say what you will about Donald Trump, but he knows how to please a crowd, and that skill was on display on Tuesday when, following his arraignment at Miami’s federal courthouse, he headed to famous Cuban restaurant Versailles.
“Food for everyone!” he declared to a crowd of admirers after walking in. But as the Miami New Times reports, it was a promise the former president did not keep:
So, New Times wondered, did Trump — who famously fancies his chicken from KFC and his steaks well-done and slathered with ketchup but isn’t exactly known for picking up the check — treat his fan club to a spread of croquetas, pastelitos, and cubanos chased with cafecitos?
It turns out no one got anything. Not even a cafecito to-go.
A knowledgeable source assures New Times that Donald Trump’s stop at Versailles totaled about ten minutes, leaving no time for anyone to eat anything, much less place an order.
Of course, with a long campaign ahead of him — possibly punctuated with additional South Florida court appearances — Trump will have plenty of opportunities to make good on Tuesday’s promise.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Republican senator Marco Rubio fretted that special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Donald Trump will just mean more vitriol directed at the FBI and justice department.
But of course, most of those attacks are coming from Rubio’s fellow Republicans. Listen to the Florida lawmaker’s interview here:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) says Special Counsel Jack Smith should have decided that prosecuting Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case was “not worth subjecting our country to.” pic.twitter.com/uDZBKkQPm4
— The Recount (@therecount) June 15, 2023
In other 2024 news, former president Barack Obama has weighed in on Republican presidential contender Tim Scott’s approach to racism and systemic inequality in America.
Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate, has downplayed the impact of systemic racism in the country. Obama pushed back on that:
Fmr. Pres. Obama criticizes 2024 GOP pres. candidate Sen. Tim Scott’s (SC) rhetoric on racism:
“If a Republican … doesn’t have a plan for how do we address crippling generational poverty that is a consequence of hundreds of years of racism … then people are rightly skeptical.” pic.twitter.com/bYqGRMmgy0
— The Recount (@therecount) June 15, 2023
This is what it’s like to be a Republican presidential candidate today.
You throw your hat into the ring, only to find yourself immediately set upon by Donald Trump’s surrogates. Miami mayor Francis Suarez found this out when Carlos Gimenez, a Republican lawmaker representing Miami’s suburbs in the House, went on Fox News to denounce him:
Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL), who endorsed Trump, reacts to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) running for president:
“I don’t think that he’s qualified to be president of the United States in any way, shape, or form … He’s not qualified to be VP, he’s not qualified to be anything.” pic.twitter.com/7pqBq8iRK0
— The Recount (@therecount) June 15, 2023
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Trump-aligned Super Pac Maga Inc is circulating an email titled “What Conservatives Need To Know About Francis Suarez,” which includes the line, “Francis Suarez represents everything wrong with swampy, RINO politics.” Quite the welcome for Suarez to the 2024 field.
The mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, is due to make a speech at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, later today as he launches his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
Suarez officially launched his campaign with a video released this morning, alongside the caption:
My dad taught me that you get to choose your battles, and I am choosing the biggest one of my life. I’m running for president.
Suarez will be an outsider in a crowded field dominated by two other Florida men: Donald Trump, the twice indicted former president, and Ron DeSantis, the hard-right governor. Trump leads most polling averages by more than 30 points. The former vice-president Mike Pence leads the rest of the pack, way back.
The New York Times noted an ad buy in early voting states charging Biden with failing to control crime. The paper also referenced an FBI investigation that could damage Suarez’s run. The Times said:
Mr Suarez is little known outside his state, and he is facing emerging allegations of influence-peddling on behalf of a real estate development company.
The editorial board of the Miami Herald said “$10,000 monthly payments [Suarez] received from a developer for consulting work – while serving as mayor”, while “small potatoes compared to Trump’s legal problems … look like a conflict of interest”. The board added:
Is being president really Suarez’s goal?
Here’s more on Suarez’s 2024 presidential campaign launch.
The Republican Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has called on the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, to “stop pussyfooting around” on whether he is going to run for president in 2024.
DeSantis, at a press conference in Fort Pierce, Florida, suggested Newsom had “real serious fixation on the state of Florida” while he had his own “huge problems” in California. He said:
What I would tell him is, you know what? Stop pussyfooting around.
He added:
Are you going to throw your hat in the ring and challenge Joe? Are you going to do it? Or are you going to sit on the sidelines and chirp? Why don’t you throw your hat in the ring, and then we’ll go ahead and talk about what’s happening.
DeSantis’ remarks came after Newsom said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he would debate the Florida governor in a forum moderated by Hannity. “I’m all in. Count on it,” Newsom said in the interview, aired on Monday.
“You would do a two-hour debate with Ron DeSantis?” Hannity asked. “Make it three,” Newsom replied, adding:
I would do it one day’s notice with no notes. I look forward to that.
In the same interview, the California governor insisted he did not intend to challenge Biden to the Democratic presidential nomination next year.
Kamala Harris has released a statement supporting the supreme court’s decision upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act.
In the statement, the vice president said the decision was a “victory for Tribal sovereignty and Native communities”. She added:
For centuries, Native children were torn away from their families and their communities. These acts were not only violations of the basic human rights of those children and their families but also an attack on the very existence of Tribal Nations.
The Indian Child Welfare Act – or ICWA -was passed to address this systemic injustice. As District Attorney of San Francisco, I represented children and families in ICWA cases. As Attorney General of California, I partnered with Tribal leaders, child welfare agencies, and law enforcement officials to enforce ICWA. So I have seen firsthand how essential this law is to the safety and wellbeing of Native children.
Harris said she and Joe Biden would “continue to fight to protect Native families, children, and communities”, and to “stand with Tribal Nations in defense of Tribal sovereignty”.
The day so far
The supreme court’s liberals together with most of its conservative majority united to reject a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act, which protects Native American children from being removed from their tribal communities for fostering or adoption. While the decision was a win for indigenous rights and the Biden administration, the nation’s highest court has plenty of high-stakes decisions left to make in its term, including cases dealing with affirmative action, Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan and congressional redistricting. Those could be among the verdicts released tomorrow at 10am eastern time, when the court will announce more decisions.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
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Donald Trump hired a lawyer who tried to convince him to negotiate with the justice department over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, but the former president declined to do so, according to a report.
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The Senate’s Republican leader Mitch McConnell expressed hope the court would stop Biden’s attempt to relieve federal student loan debt.
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Interior secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary, welcomed the supreme court’s upholding of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Deb Haaland, secretary of the interior, welcomes court decision
Deb Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and made history as the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary when she was confirmed to lead the interior department under Joe Biden.
Haaland was also among the petitioners in Haaland v Brackeen, the just-decided supreme court case upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act. Here’s what she had to say about the decision:
One of the major outstanding cases before the supreme court is a challenge to Joe Biden’s plan to relieve some federal student loan debt.
The plan is currently on hold due to a court ruling, and opposed by most Republican and a few Democratic lawmakers. On the Senate floor today, Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s powerful Republican minority leader, expressed hope that the court would soon issue a ruling stopping the plan for good:
In the coming days, the Supreme Court will rule on President Biden’s plan to impose student loan socialism on millions of working families across America.
The Court’s decision will settle whether the President is allowed to use two-decade-old’“emergency’ authorities dating back to the early days of the War on Terror to put $430 billion in debt on the American taxpayer’s tab without Congressional approval.
But the American people don’t need to wait for the Supreme Court to explain to them why letting wealthy people dine and dash doesn’t make sense. They know the Biden Administration’s plan adds up to a raw deal.
He concluded his remarks: “The Biden Administration’s student loan socialism plan is painfully unfair. And very soon, we’ll find out if it isn’t just downright illegal.”
The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also hailed the supreme court’s decision upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act.
“The Indian Child Welfare Act has been the law of the land for decades and today the Supreme Court upheld the Constitutional right of tribal sovereignty,” the New York lawmaker said in a statement. “For hundreds of years, indigenous communities have fought for their very existence, and today is nothing short of a momentous day that ensures that indigenous children maintain a connection to their culture.”
Biden cheers supreme court upholding protections for Native American children
Joe Biden has released a statement of strong support for the supreme court’s decision upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act. Here’s what the president has to say:
I stand alongside Tribal Nations as they celebrate today’s Supreme Court decision. This lawsuit sought to undermine the Indian Child Welfare Act – a vital law I was proud to support. The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed to protect the future of Tribal Nations and promote the best interests of Native children, and it does just that. The touchstone law respects tribal sovereignty and protects Native children by helping Native families stay together and, whenever possible, keeping children with their extended families or community who already know them, love them, and can help them understand who they are as Native people and citizens of their Tribal Nations. The Indian Child Welfare Act safeguards that which is most precious to us all — our children. Today’s decision from the Supreme Court keeps in place a vital protection for tribal sovereignty and Native children.
Our Nation’s painful history looms large over today’s decision. In the not-so-distant past, Native children were stolen from the arms of the people who loved them. They were sent to boarding schools or to be raised by non-Indian families — all with the aim of erasing who they are as Native people and tribal citizens. These were acts of unspeakable cruelty that affected generations of Native children and threatened the very survival of Tribal Nations. The Indian Child Welfare Act was our Nation’s promise: never again.
Tribal Nations fought hard to pass the Indian Child Welfare Act, and I am proud to have joined them in the ongoing efforts to defend it. Vice President Harris and I will continue to stand with Tribes to protect Native children, honor tribal sovereignty, and safeguard the essential principals of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Supreme court justice Neil Gorsuch is among the court’s conservative majority, and has lent his support to opinions overturning Roe v Wade, expanding the ability to carry a concealed weapon, and other rightwing priorities.
But, in an example of the nuances to these justices’ legal philosophies, Gorsuch has shown a surprising amount of support for Native American tribes when issues concerning them have come before the court. Here’s Slate, with more on that:
