But that phrase is in the Constitution

A pundit roundup on Daily Kos includes several Labor Day cartoons. Here’s one by McLeod Cartoons with a historic text:

Labor is prior to, and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. – Abraham Lincoln, 1861

Joan McCarter of Kos reported that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse filed a formal complaint against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. It was a seven page letter sent to Chief Justice John Roberts. The letter has several points: 1. Alito said there is nothing in the Constitution that allows Congress to regulate the Court. Whitehouse responded that is an “Improper Opining on a Legal Issue that May Come Before the Court.” 2. Alito essentially invited allies to challenge any ethics legislation that Congress might pass. 3. Whitehouse says Alito is doing it “at the Behest of Counsel in that Matter.” That counsel is David Rivkin of the Federalist Society that got the current conservatives onto the court. 4. All that opining and intruding is on behalf of a “longstanding personal and political relationship” with a person that’s a party of the dispute. In this case it is Leonard Leo, Federalist Society co-chair and companion on that luxurious Alaskan fishing trip. 5. Alito is using the office for personal benefit.

Right now, Roberts is the only one who can do anything about it. The Supreme Court is exempt from all of the rules the rest of the federal judiciary is bound by. Roberts is the only and final authority on justices’ conduct. He has refused to engage with the Senate on the issue and has insisted that the court—meaning him—can and will handle it without any interference from what he clearly believes is a lesser branch. This official complaint from Whitehouse is a challenge to Roberts to do just that.

I’ve talked about the idea that the 14th Amendment’s clause about insurrectionists not being allowed to hold public office. Daniel Estrin of NPR talked about that with Kin Wehle, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Baltimore, and with David Frum, senior editor at The Atlantic. I’ll start with Frum’s comments. He said if the nasty guy is kept off the ballot and Biden wins will the election be accepted? We’ll have “civil disorder” on a grand scale. Part of the country supports these undemocratic measures and that needs to be confronted. We need to drive our friends to the polls to save our country from a threat to democracy. I add that yeah, those undemocratic measures do need to be confronted. So, Mr. Frum, are you? I’m already tired of conservatives saying do it our way or there will be this huge wave of violence. That’s a threat from a mafia don. I’ll let Wehle give a proper rebuttal: Yes, the nasty guy qualifies for being kept off the ballot. This part of the Constitution doesn’t specify how it is to be invoked. A trial or criminal conviction? No court has weighed it yet. But that phrase is in the Constitution because the electoral process can fail. We can’t count on the voters to reject an insurrectionist. If a Democrat wins the election – even if the nasty guy isn’t removed and all measures show the election was legitimate – there will be millions who won’t accept it. We should be committed to the text of the Constitution. It exists. We should reckon with it now because if the nasty guy gets back in the White House we know he will undo democracy. Even so, America’s problems are much larger than whether we pursue this clause or don’t. Also on NPR is the story of Anderson Clayton. She is now the chair of the Democratic Party in North Carolina. And she’s 25. She doesn’t believe the mantra that people living in dying rural areas deserve what they get. Also, Democrats have been ignoring rural areas and have been ignoring young people like herself. Her job for the next 14 months is to spread the word that Bidenomics will improve rural areas too. She says, “Joe Biden is the first president in 50 frickin' years that said, if you live in a rural area, [you] deserve to have a future.” She knows she has a tough job selling her message. Though rural voters are strongly Republican, young rural voters are more evenly split. But she believes the way forward is to do outreach outside the traditional Democratic strongholds. One way to do that is make sure there is a Democratic candidate for every state House and Senate race. In 2022 forty of those races were uncontested. So she has a daunting tasks. Young people are told they need to leave small towns to succeed. But Clayton says there should be opportunity no matter the zip code. Hunter of Kos discussed the Republican obsession with Hunter Biden. He noticed at the first Republican debate none of the candidates mentioned Hunter Biden. The reason is simple. Beyond those actively trying to dig up dirt on the president’s son, nobody cares. In addition, the story Republicans have concocted to declare there really is a story here is so convoluted that eyes glaze over before places like Fox News can get through an explanation. There’s another aspect of the story to ponder. Why are the only ones pushing the Hunter Biden investigation are nasty guy supporters or backers of sedition? Derek Cai and Martin Yip of the BBC report that the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal has ruled that while same-sex couples don’t have a right to marriage they do have a right to a legal framework for their relationships. The lack of legal framework is a violation of their rights.

"The absence of legal recognition of (same-sex partners') relationship is apt to disrupt and demean their private lives together in ways that constitute arbitrary interference," said Justice Patrick Keane.

The ruling gives the government two years to create that legal framework. Support of same-sex couples is growing in Hong Kong. 60% now favor marriage equality compared to 38% a decade ago. Hong Kong will host the 11th Gay Games later this year. Even so, there is backlash.