Supreme Court Breaks With Precedent. Bible Enters Texas Classrooms

Some weeks, the biggest political battles don’t happen at the White House. They happen inside the Supreme Court, where a handful of justices can reshape presidential power with a single opinion. 

This week, the Court handed Donald Trump a major victory, surprised just about everyone with another ruling, and reminded the country that the rules can change in ways few people see coming.

Then I head to Texas, where millions of public school students will be forced to learn Bible stories in the classroom. Is it history? Is it religion? Is it education? Or is it the latest front in America’s never ending culture war? The debate is only getting started.

I’ll also dig into the latest confusion surrounding Donald Trump’s claims about Iran, why the stories coming from both sides don’t match, and why that’s a much bigger problem than another political headline.

Then there’s Donald Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court in the long running E. Jean Carroll case. The justices have now issued their decision, putting the case back in the spotlight and making it one of the week’s most significant legal developments.

I’m convinced we’re living through the strangest political experiment of our lifetime. Every week seems determined to outdo the one before it. And we’re not even at Fourth of July yet!

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Transcript

A World Gone Mad Opening

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is a worldbone. This is a worldbone.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

From Studio 19, I'm Jeff Allen Wolf, and it's definitely a world gone mad. Episode 247. It's Monday, less than a week to go before America's 250th celebration. Here we

Supreme Court Expands Presidential Control

SPEAKER_00 0:23

go. Some days I think the biggest political stories in America don't happen at the White House anymore. They happen across the street at the Supreme Court. Congress argues, president's campaign, cable news spread, you know, spends 24 hours a day screaming at each other. Then the Supreme Court's sixth justice conservative majority issues a few opinions, and suddenly the rules of the game change for the rest of us. One building, six conservative votes, the rest of us just live with the consequences. And the biggest ruling just gave Trump a significant victory. The Supreme Court said presidents can remove the leaders of agencies that were once considered independent, overturning a precedent that's been around since 1935. Think about that. 1935. That's not tweaking the rules. That's opening a history book, ripping out 90 years of legal precedent and saying, let's see how this works. Washington's favorite hobby is collecting power. The only thing that changes is who's holding the shopping cart. Now, before anybody on either side started celebrating too much, the court immediately threw everyone a curveball.

Fed Exception And Mail Ballots Surprise

SPEAKER_00 1:53

The Trump administration wanted to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The court said no, at least for now. So on one hand, the court is expanding presidential authority, and on the other, they're saying, easy there, cowboy. Apparently, the constitutional standard this week is it depends. If you're looking for a simple scoreboard, good luck. Even the scoreboard needs a lawyer. Then came another surprise. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court sided against Republicans, whoa, and upheld mail-in ballot grace periods. Yes, the states that have this in place can count ballots after the day they come in as long as they are postmarked correctly. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and the court's three liberal justices. That's what makes this ruling stand out. It was the exception, not the rule. Somewhere there are professional political pundits deleting tweets they wrote five minutes before the decision came down. It's almost like Supreme Court justices don't spend every waking moment asking themselves, how can I help my party today? Imagine that. That's the part that drives everybody crazy. The court's conservative majority has dramatically reshaped the law over the past several years, which is exactly why this mail ballot decision caught so many people off guard. Now, Republicans cheer one opinion, complain about the next, Democrats do act exactly the opposite. The only group having a great week is the aspirin industry. And we're still

Birthright Citizenship Looms Next

SPEAKER_00 3:56

not finished. The next ruling coming in the next 24 to 36 hours on the horizon is birthright citizenship. And it could come, you know, could become one of the most consequential constitutional decisions in years. Before the opinion is even released, politicians already know how they're going to react. Cable News has probably written half the headlines for the television screen already. We've reached the point where people have pre-ordered their outrage. Why wait for facts when you can reserve your anger in advance? When you step back and look at these rulings together, one thing becomes crystal clear. This isn't really about Donald Trump. It's about presidential power. Every time a president gains authority, supporters call it decisive leadership, opponents call it dangerous, then the White House changes hands, and somehow everybody switches jerseys overnight. Washington has become the only place where people can argue both sides of the same constitutional question without changing a single word. They just change who's sitting behind the resolute disk. That's why these decisions matter. They aren't just deciding today's headlines, they're shaping how every future president governs. Whether that president is Donald Trump, a Democrat, or somebody we've never even heard of yet. Elections still matter. Congress still matters, supposedly. But more and more, the biggest political battles in America don't end on election day. They end when the Supreme Court decides what the rules are. And if that's not a world gone mad, I honestly don't know what is.

Texas Schools Add Bible Stories

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Texas is about to require millions of public school students to learn Bible stories. I'll let that sink in. Not attend church, not join a religion, learn Bible stories as part of the curriculum. Now, before everybody starts yelling, let's separate two completely different questions. Learning about religion and teaching religion aren't the same thing. You can't understand history, literature, art, or even politics without understanding the influence religion has had on civilization. That's just reality. But here's where this gets interesting. Who gets to decide which Bible stories make the cut? Noah, Moses, David and Goliath, the Good Samaritan, the Sermon on the Mount? Or do we include the part where Lot's wife turns into a pillar of salt? The plague's revelation? Because if we're going all in, let's not suddenly become picky at the gift shop. If the state is deciding what belongs in the curriculum, somebody is also deciding what doesn't. And while we're at it, who's writing the test? Question number seven. Explain the theological significance of Jonah and the whale. Bonus points if you can identify whether the whale gets a speaking role. This is what always fascinates me about politics. The same people who spend years saying schools should stick to reading, writing, and arithmetic are suddenly adding theology to the lesson plan. Apparently, algebra was already too easy. Imagine being the teacher. Okay, class, today we're covering fractions, unless we run out of time because we've got to finish Exodus. Some were a math teacher staring at the lesson schedule, wondering whether quadratic equations just lost another week. And you know what's coming next. Every parent will want to know exactly which stories are being taught, how they're being taught, who approved them, what translation they've used, whether something was left out, or whether something was emphasized too much. Congratulations. You've just turned the PTA meeting into a seminar at Divinity School. In a country with teacher shortages, struggling reading scores, overcrowded classrooms, and schools begging for funding. Somehow we found time for another culture war. It's almost as if solving actual education problems is harder than arguing about them. Because that's what this feels like to me. Not an education debate, another political debate that just happens to take place inside a classroom. And somehow, once again, it's the kids sitting at the desks while the adults fight in the parking lot. Maybe that's the real lesson being taught here. Adults still haven't figured out how to disagree without dragging schools into every political battle. If we're serious about giving students the best education possible, maybe we should spend at least as much energy fixing the schools as we do fighting over them. Okay, switching directions.

Trump And Iran Talks Confusion

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Donald Trump is taking so much heat over Iran that now we're right back where we've been for years. Donald says, new talks are starting. Turan says, we don't know what you're talking about. It's like watching one person announce a dinner reservation while the restaurant is standing outside saying, we're closed. This is becoming a pattern. An announcement gets made, headlines explode, everybody starts debating it. Then the other side says, Nobody talk to us. At some point, diplomacy probably works better if both countries know they're supposedly having diplomacy. That's what makes this so strange. If negotiations are actually restarting, that's important news. If they aren't, that's important news too. But they can't both be true. Either talks are scheduled with Iran or they aren't. This isn't one of those situations where everyone gets their own reality. What it feels like is bully ball politics from Trump. Keep projecting confidence, keep acting like everything's under control, keep moving so fast that nobody has time to stop and ask whether any of it is actually happening. Just days ago, Donald Trump warned Iran that if it didn't cooperate in the peace agreements, they just won't exist anymore. Uh hello, Clue Donaldin. That's not diplomatic language. That's a statement that can reasonably understood as threatening Iran's existence. Maybe that's effective in real estate negotiations. Maybe it's effective in television. But international diplomacy isn't a cable news interview. Countries don't just nod because somebody declared a victory at a microphone. And here's what concerns me, Wolfpack. The stakes aren't poll numbers or campaign messaging. They're wars, sanctions, nuclear programs, American troops, allies, and global stability. That's a pretty dangerous place to start freelancing like Trump is. If talks really are coming to a conclusion, great. I hope they succeed. But if one side says final negotiations are underway, while the other side says nobody even called, somebody isn't negotiating. Somebody's just talking.

E Jean Carroll Judgment Stands

SPEAKER_00 12:16

And finally, Donald Trump just took another legal hit, and this one isn't going away. The Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's appeal, leaving intact the $5 million judgment awarded to E. Carroll after a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. Think about how unusual that sentence is. Most politicians spend their time bragging about ribbon cuttings or tax cuts. Trump is collecting legal judgments like their airline reward points. Now, before somebody says, well, Trump wasn't convicted of a crime, that's true. This was a civil case. But let's not pretend $5 million is the legal equivalent of getting a parking ticket. Juries don't hand out that kind of money because somebody forgot to say thank you. What amazes me again is how numb we've all become to these things. Imagine hearing that any other president had lost a sexual abuse case, owed millions of dollars, appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, and lost. It would dominate history books for decades. With Donald Trump, it barely survives a news cycle before everyone moves on to the next headline. That's the Trump effect, okay? The news comes so fast that yesterday's earthquake becomes today's weather report. One controversy buries another until the extraordinary starts feeling ordinary. Trump spent years acting like the rules apply to everyone else. Delay it, appeal it, attack the judge, attack the jury, attack the witnesses, attack the entire legal system if it doesn't give you the answer you want. This time Trump took it all the way to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court said no. Sometimes the ending really is that simple. Trump tried to be above the law, and the law said no. Trump tried to run out the clock, and the clock kept ticking. Trump tried to make accountability disappear, and the bill still came due. For once, Trump didn't get the escape hatch. Even Trump, in this case, finally ran out of places to appeal. That's my insight today into a world gone mad.

Final Takeaways And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 14:49

If you've enjoyed the podcast, found it informative, maybe got a laugh or two, then please continue to keep this podcast around. I'm Jeff Allen Wolf. This is a World Gone Mad. I'll be back Wednesday. Until then, ARG the Wolfpack, remain skeptical, question everything, please don't lose hope, and most of all, stay alert.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

There is chaos in the world.