Appointment Musical Chairs and SCOTUS Makes Everyone Mad - Episode 37

The guys discuss a week of drama-filled musical chairs in two state offices and the landmark rulings issued by the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of its term. Happy Independence Day from all of us at Texas Bullpen.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

A dog bites man story. Those two fighting, not man bites dog. Do you know you don't know that never mind.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

You don't know that saying. Did you see all thoughts go blank in my mind right there?

SPEAKER_05 0:22

Good morning, everyone, and happy Independence Day.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Happy birthday, America. 250. Gosh, they grew up so fast. What is it called? The sesquinnial? Ah. And you think I can say that type of word? No, you definitely can't. But you might know the word. Yeah, I mean, I know the word. I can see it. I can pick it out of a crowd, pick it up at a lineup. Do you know the number that is associated with that? Is it 250? With the word you just said, I need to see it spelled out. Oh, okay. Okay. So you can do the uh the Latin stems of it. Yeah, I'm a big, I'm a big eyeball guy.

SPEAKER_05 0:55

Um I mean it is it's cool. It's cool that we are live for this. You know, it was a big celebration.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

It's the good Lord's willing, we'll be around for 300, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

I don't know about that with with the way uh we can we imbibe. I'm not sure if we'll make it. Man, it's I it's called uh it's just preserving the insides.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:13

Nickling your insides. Yeah. Um no, it's uh it's uh you know, it's a cool holiday. Obviously, it's one of the best holidays, and as an American, this is uh the holiday.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

I mean, give me some the great pyrotechnic ritual with a nice little hot dog and a good warm summer night, some some America to the beautiful playing, and it's straight out of sandlot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:39

You mentioned that in your newsletter. I thought that was uh that took me back to uh childhood when I first watched that. And that was just all downhill for now. All downhill, yeah. And here we are talking about it again. Reminiscing. But um yeah, I mean it's it's a it's a holiday for us to reflect on how lucky we are that we were born in this country.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Aaron Powell It's the reason why we get to do what we can do. You know, I don't think we'd be doing this if we lived in some other horrible country.

SPEAKER_05 2:11

Number one. The upward mobility of this country is something that you're being it's not like it doesn't exist anywhere else, but it is a lot less common elsewhere.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

And just the rich layers of history that we get to enjoy and experience and build off of as Americans and doubly so as Texans, uh, is just, I mean, it is an un indescribable blessing that we get to enjoy that we uh probably take for granted more times than we care to mention. But Fourth of July is always such a good time to come back and recognize with kind of just uh a solemn understanding that the things, the rights, the responsibilities, the liberties that we get to enjoy is the air conditioning. The air conditioning. Yeah. Um God, yes, the air conditioning. Uh is not something that just happened by accident. It's because for 250 years and a little bit before, there have been people uh trying their best to make uh this country something worth living in and something worth uh fighting for as many people have.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

And there's always this debate about um is America an idea or a people. And I think it's clearly both. It's clearly both. Um and you can't separate one from the other uh in the context of how this is hard to have ideas without a person thinking 'em. Right. Absolutely. Uh but this wasn't also just a plot of land with nothing uh no fla underlying philosophy guiding it. So it's it's clearly both, and you can't have one without the other in this case, I think. In my in my opinion. But hey. I'm inclined to agree with you. First time for everything. It is a first time for everything. Um also this weekend is the anniversary of last year's horrible flood uh in central Texas, of course, Camp Mystic. Uh, but also in the surrounding area, surrounding county, a lot of people lost uh loved ones and a lot of particularly children died. And it's uh uh both a reason to a day to celebrate America, but also remember the lives that were lost a year ago.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

And you think the uh Governor Abbott's heading down there to Kerrville to speak at a I think a uh memorial concert for the fourth and stuff. There was a lot of things that happened last year too, because that was also when that raid, that ambush happened at the Prairie Land Ice Detention Center. Um if you remember that, there were like the twelve Antifa people who shot up that detention center. They all just got sentenced like this past week. Just in time for the anniversary, is when the press release brought up. I think altogether they got over five hundred years in prison, um, which is quite a long time. Wow. Dang.

SPEAKER_05 5:09

Well moving on now. I don't know what to say to that. Uh there this week is we're recording on Thursday, trying to get this out of the way, so we have a bit of a long weekend. Yeah. Uh going into the holiday, and of course, brings up another programming note. There won't be a Scoville scale coming out today because we're going to be relaxing and resting and but you will get to enjoy the sweet, dulcet tones of our voices, clearly because you're listening to it right now of this podcast while stuffing your face with hot dogs and miscellaneous types of uh beer and other kinds of drinks.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

What aside from hot dogs, what is like the number one Fourth of July food in your mind?

SPEAKER_04 5:59

Either a hamburger or potato salad.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Potato salad. Interesting. Watermelon? Yeah, watermelon's a good one. Watermelon's a good one. We would always have, at least up in the summers I would spend working on the ranch camp when I was younger, uh the the camp owners would always throw a party for the fourth on that weekend. And if the fourth fell, you know, that that week, uh camp, we would always go go hog wild for it. But um they would always make something like a strawberry shortbread cake or something like that with the you know the American flag on it. So that always stands out to me as well. Yeah. I think Martha Stewart made like a massive one this year.

SPEAKER_05 6:47

Did she do that while she was in prison? Oh, this year.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

So she's been Yeah, yeah, I think she's out now. I think she's out. She's been out for a while now. Soft on crime, man.

SPEAKER_05 7:00

Uh but going into this week, of course, it's a holiday week, and so you get a lot of uh news dumps.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Um, jinxed it because we said on Monday it'd been a slow start to the week. Yeah, and it was slow. And then it just go woo.

SPEAKER_05 7:15

Yeah. Uh we've got the various uh SCOTUS cases opinions released at the end of the term, or at least the end of uh the opinion releasing part of the term. And uh tech I hear technically today, the term doesn't end until October when they reconvene for the next term. So technically speaking, it's not the end of the term.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Technically.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

So we'll talk that. We'll also talk uh a couple other uh miscellaneous things that happen this week. But first, and I think the big obviously the big story here is the kind of musical chairs that's happening at the state level uh with both the uh comptroller's office, primarily comproller's office in this case, but also it dovetails with the Secretary of State's uh situation as well. So uh this week we saw uh Kelly Hancock, acting compontroller, announce his resignation or his uh he was stepping down at the end of this month, end of July. Um so that gives uh Abbott, you know, a f four weeks to find a replacement, and he didn't need four weeks, he needed less than a day. He announced that Don Huffines would be was a point is appointed and will be taking over for Hancock on August first.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

So this has been quite the roller coaster of a ride, because if we go back in time over a year, you have you know, then comptroller Glenn Hager becomes Chancellor of AM and Hancock, who, you know, was kind of on the outs in the Senate gets not appointed acting comproller because that violates the emolments clause in the Texas Constitution where you know if you're a lawmaker who voted a pay raise, you can't then be appointed to that you can't take that position then.

SPEAKER_05 9:09

In the same term.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

In the same term. So he gets appointed. Uh they kind of sidestep. They kind of sidestep it. Yes. They do. Hager hires Hancock as the chief clerk. The chief clerk, according to the statutory setup, automatically becomes the acting comptroller if the comptroller resigns and there is no then appointed comptroller. So that's exactly what happens. Hancock gets hired as chief clerk, and then when Hager steps away, there is no appointment, and Hancock takes over that. The whole thinking was that it would give Hancock some incumbency advantage for running independently for Controller, which was what Greg Abbott wanted.

SPEAKER_05 9:58

And in that contest, being the only candidate of the three who would not run statewide, he was at a severe name ID deficit.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Yeah. Because you had Christy Craddock and then, of course, Don Huffeins. Um and while in his tenure there, you know, they roll out the Texas uh education school choice stuff. Which Hancock has been a true believer in for his entire career. And uh he also does like the Texas bullion depository, roll out of the commemorative coins, um things like that. Gets hit with a lot of lawsuits over the school choice.

SPEAKER_05 10:36

The HUD policy, too, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Yeah, the HUD uh HUB. Hub, sorry, Hub policy. Historically underunilized businesses, uh all of which draw legal c challenges, all of which are still going. He also gets very feisty with uh Ken Paxton, uh, which is not the first time that's happened, and you know, maybe it maybe it is the last.

SPEAKER_05 10:57

That's very much a a dog bites man story, those two fighting, not man bites dog. Do you know you don't know that never mind, you don't know that saying?

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Did you see all thoughts go blank in my mind right there? Yes. It's a it's a man bites dog. A dog bites man?

SPEAKER_05 11:17

The old newspaper saying is it's a story if it's not a story if a dog bites a man, but it is a story if a man bites a dog, and that's kind of the shorthand for deciding what is story worthy in the news business and what's not. You've never heard that before?

SPEAKER_02 11:32

No. What kind of reporter are you? Well, it's confusing because we did cover all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_05 11:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

But it my point is it wasn't. It's not surprising. Yeah, no, of course not. Some some elected available.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Yeah, exactly. Um Hancock was one of the uh two people in the Senate, uh, Republicans, who voted to acquit Paxton on uh at least some of the charge. I mean, convict Paxton on some of the charges. He did vote to acquit him on other charges, too. Um of that ended up being for not because he got the uh bricks beat off of him by Hufflines in the uh in the controllers race. Uh additionally, too, they lost the special, special election for his Senate district. Uh so that was a big flip, a big uh boost for Democrats going into November just in the terms of uh energy. And well, they are very worried about winning that seat back at all. Yeah. So uh it kind of not none of it really worked out for Abbott on all of that. No, it was a like it kind of failed at every turn in terms of a political. You lose the Senate seat, your guy gets, I mean, mollywapped in the primary that didn't even go to a runoff. Um and now he has to resign, and the great rival, one of the great rivals in the past, they've been working on making it up, I think, uh, is now you have the distinct honor of of appointing.

SPEAKER_05 13:16

I wrote in the newsletter on uh that we'll go out Friday, the just odd path that those two, Abbott and Huff Einz, have been on. Like if you were to let's let's have uh you know Dan Patrick and his leather jacket take us back as a time traveler to 2022 to the anyone but Abbott primary, where you have Huff Einz, Alan West, Chad Prather, a few others. It falls flat. Abbott gets over 60% of the vote. But since then, there were Abbott and Huff Finds have just been uh in a flat out cold war and sometimes hot war ever since. Uh, you know, Abbott Allies, when the Zoro Ranch stuff came out, were uh were trying to we're shopping that around forgot all about that. Yeah, we're shopping that around as a hit against Huff Fines. Now, the reason is because Hancock was in the primary against Huff Fines, so they're trying to use it as uh a political ish ammunition. Uh but those two it it's you're calling it a checkered past is under underselling it. Like they those two have just hated each other for years. And these two guys, uh Huff Eins is independently wealthy, Abbott is politically wealthy and financially wealthy with his pack. So these two dudes who uh feel in for in their own ways untouchable or feel secure, just throwing bombs at it at each other. And then you get into the great national pastime. Yeah, right. Uh thank God for it. You know, I don't think we'd be able to fill five newsletters a week if we didn't have this kind of no, no.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

And it's it's so it's just such a rich narrative here.

SPEAKER_05 15:02

Um but the the opening salvo for Abbott when he endorsed Hancock over Huff Heinz included a shot at Huff Heinz, and it said, uh, we need a candidate who's actually beat Democrats before, talking about Huffein's losing his seat in 2018 to Nathan Johnson. I mean, it was just pure animosity the whole way through. But then, of course, when the writing's on the wall, Huff Heinz wins by a landslide, overtures start being made. They start trying to bury the hatchet, of course. Takes a while, but eventually they get there, and now you have Hancock, who has been who threw a lot of jabs at Huff Heinz in the primary, speaking well of Huff Heinz in his resignation letter, and Abbott appointing Huff Heinz to this and speaking well of Huffein's in the announced statement.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Yeah. It's like uh, all right, everybody hold hands and kiss, you know, make it. Unity. Unity. There's the unity we've been searching for. The great Sybileth of this election cycle. Well, and all this stuff with the um Comptroller's office bleeds over into another high-level state position, one that Abbott actually does have the authority over, because it's not elected, the Secretary of State's office, where you've had Jane Nelson being pushed out and has submitted her resignation letter, uh, which will become a fact, sh I think her last day is uh later this month, July 17th. And so far there hasn't been an announcement of who will take it over. Of course, behind the scenes, we know that uh state rep Nate Schatzline was the pick. But you run into some issues there, the same issues they had with Hancock, the emolments. Why they didn't think about this? I don't know. You just went through this, like you know this.

SPEAKER_05 16:52

Um uh and there were probably so it was a huge debate topic during the regular session when we were when they were trying to raise judicial pay, because all these, I think all these salaries, or at least the uh the retirements is indexed on the judicial salary. So that was a at least it was, I think they found a way to untie it eventually, but it was a whole mess and it dragged on, it almost didn't pass because of that. Um and lawmakers were very careful about uh a lot of them were very careful about untying uh the uh retirement level from the judicial pay because lawmakers already don't make any money doing this, and uh the argument as as it was relayed to me is that if you do that, you really ensure that only wealthy people can afford to do this to run for legislature.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Yeah. Um but unlike with Hancock, they don't hire Shatzlein in at some I don't know, deputy secretary of state. Uh and just today, on Thursday, they announced that Shatzlein is joining Abbott's office as like a special advisor on closing the primaries, which was one of the big battles that Jane Nelson was fighting against Ken Paxton and the Texas Republican Party on whether or not it was possible to close the primaries to ensure that only Republicans can vote in the Republican primary. Uh and she had pushed back against that uh in in a certain way. Um and Shanceline was very much a pro closing it uh person. So but, you know, the law is a pesky thing. So he's now gonna be at Abbott's office. He resigned today as well from his uh uh seat in the house.

SPEAKER_05 18:51

And there's no way Abbott sets a special election for that seat. No. It's already you know, I wouldn't call it um it's not one of the diceyest uh districts in Tarrant County, but it is dicey for sure, especially in a special election in this environment.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

Exactly. So um yeah, a lot of, as you said, musical chairs in in these positions um and a lot of interesting movements. You know, you go from Abbott uh, you know, crowning Hancock as the comptroller to now Abbott uh trying to get Shatzline and as SOS, those are two very different wings of the the GOP. Uh and it definitely indicates a shift in thinking, most likely, in the part of Abbott and Abbott world, right? If Hancock can't, you know, crack 30% in a race against Don Huffeins, you see Cornyn go down by 27 points, you see all of these kind of, you know, Reagan-ish Republicans, these old school guys, you know, Abbott's gotta sit there and ask, all right, what type of what type of Republican is going to win and be received in Texas these days? And he's making the determination it's going to be the guy's more like Shatzline.

SPEAKER_05 20:17

And also Nelson is an old school Reagan-type Republican. And um it's not that she because that office is not an elected office, oddly enough, even though they handle the elections. Um but that's probably why they're not elected office. There are other Ohio Secretary of State's elected, plenty of other states have it. So it's not like it's unheard of, but I yeah, I I see the logic there. Um but this is a clear shift, and this actually kind of dovetails well with one of my fourth readings a couple weeks ago, while the focus there was about David Covey reinventing himself and finding a way back into elected office. Now that was it's vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas, so it's you know, still a far cry from what he sought as uh state legislator, but uh it worked for him, and he managed to reinvent himself back into being a viable candidate for office. But you know who else has done that? Greg Abbott. Abbott, Abbott before COVID is not the same as Abbott after COVID. And it was kind of the combination of COVID and that primary that Huffeines ran against, Huff Heinz and West ran against him, that caused a different kind of Greg Abbott to be created. Um and Mecca Greg Abbott. If he listens to this or one of his employees, they're gonna tweet out a meme of him, kind of like him in the Wolverine costume. Uh but the uh this is a a clear philosophical shift and strategic shift. By the governor uh in terms of what c the people he surrounds himself with.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

I mean, we we think of Abbott like, you know, governor, but before that he was A. G. Before that, I mean, he has held statewide elected office since I what was it, 99? The last century. I mean, he is, you know, not maybe not exactly age-wise, but ele for time in office, he is very much of the John Cornyn generation-ish. Not as I mean, that guy was in the 80s, he's I think was getting his first elected office. Um and his whole career trajectory mirrors that very closely. Uh except instead of becoming senator, he becomes governor after his time as a Supreme Court Justice and A.G. Um, but unlike Cornyn, unlike other people from that era, he is not. He's stuck by their positioning. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:02

I mean, Cornyn did adjust on some things, but he never he never cast off the establishment type.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

Yeah, it's almost less of a like uh I don't know, it's almost less of an ideological thing and more of a tone and style and shift and what are you prioritizing for. There is a bit of an idea. Trevor Burrus, Jr. But you're right. It's not all ideological. Yeah. It's not like, oh, you go back and look at Greg Abbott 20 years ago and it's unidentifiable politically. Like, yeah, no, it's but there's certainly been a stronger emphasis, especially post-COVID and post that election against Huff Heinz, um, you know, you go back and you r look at what Huff Heinz ran on in that election, and then you look at like the things Abbott's doing today, there's not much daylight there between them. Um So it's been it's a very interesting just watching the political evolution, and now of course everybody's uh everybody on a certain side are kumbayaing, and those that aren't are being left discarded on the side of the road like some old junker.

SPEAKER_05 24:13

The other uh thing that's uh crossed my mind when talk when thinking about this is that um while the quote, anyone but Abbott primary did not succeed and it really flopped electorally, it's kind of won in the long game in terms of forcing a change by the governor. And uh, you know, that's been that wing of the party, that's been their their strategy this whole time is moving the Overton window, and the way you do that is you it's constant barrage and constant siege, and eventually uh lawmakers either are elected who agree with you more, or if uh just officials generally, or they get tired of getting beaten down constantly and they start to give ground. Now, that's not to say that uh you know the the right wing part of the party has not taken over the legislature and they're actually far from it, but they're a lot closer than they ever were before. Yeah. I mean, look at the Texas House and a a group of let's say 15 to 20, depending on the issue, solid votes for uh uh that wing of things. And you know, that's not really ever been certainly not recently been the case.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

That's enough to throw your weight around um in that chamber.

SPEAKER_05 25:32

Um and also that is that is without a speaker, uh a very old school moderate speaker that Strauss was, because you look at the speakers you've had with for all their faults, um, all of them have been significantly more conservative, policy-wise at least, than Strauss ever was. Yeah. Um and so even with that, they've still gained ground, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Yeah, it's very interesting. I mean, you even look at just the slate this year for Republicans, and then you go back and, you know, another one of those, you know, defeated corpses on the side of Texas political history, you see, you know, Governor Rick Perry. All of his endorsements didn't really go anywhere. And they haven't really for a couple years. The most persona non grata in kind of the Republican party these days. Uh not among all Republicans, of course, but among the ones that the ascendant wing of the party, right? Uh and it just you almost are left scratching your head, and like, man, Rick Perry, the guy who runs around and shoots dogs, isn't like still the king, maybe Texas problem. You know, like Mr. Texas himself is not around anymore. Uh and it's just very interesting. Uh I can I can definitely sympathize with somebody like John Corner who wakes up one day after getting his, you know, just absolutely smoked and be like, man, what happened? Yeah. Where did where did the day go?

SPEAKER_05 27:05

Life comes at you fast sometimes. And you know, with the point I was getting out of my in my newsletter, my my column, was that to survive in politics, you have to reinvent yourself. You cannot uh you cannot sit there in your same positioning as you had ten, twenty years ago and expect things to just be okay because it times change. And there's nothing almost nothing you can do about it. You as an individual elected official can do almost nothing about it. Uh it just it's forces beyond one person's control.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Gotta float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Yeah, yeah, that I think that works. That that is kind of the saying. I know. You're just rage baiting me. Yeah, it is one that's my national pastime. Some people uh like baseball, some people like NASCAR. I gotta be honest, I am like kind of really jonesing for a NASCAR comeback. I've been I've been really thinking about it a lot lately. I used to watch NASCAR all the time as a kid, but it was on the TV the other day at the bar, and I was just like, I mean, it was like putting an Amish dog in front of a TV, just enraptured. An Amish dog, okay. Like a dog that was raised in an Amish community, it's never been like seen a TV. They love TVs. Have you ever met an Amish dog? I have one. An Amish dog? Like bought him from an Amish. Yeah, he probably likes TVs. Not really. Wow, then well, your dog is weird. He is neurotic. Like you gotta get him checked out and take him to a dog therapist. Dog therapist? Yeah. I was walking, you know, not to go straight to camera right here, but I was walking this guy's dog, this joker's dog the other day. And it actually made me this made me worried about you. We pass the neighborhood bar, and this dog plants it. He will not leave. He keeps trying to dart inside the bar. And I'm like, gosh, how bad is it when your dog's an alcoholic too?

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Talk about a booze hound.

SPEAKER_05 29:13

Yeah. Didn't you say there was a bachelorette party in there too? That's maybe that's what he was trying to go in there for. I don't know. Uh it's almost more concerning. Yeah. What's he doing when I leave him at home all day? Um moving on. Anything else you want to say about this part of the lot of it.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Howdy, everyone. We'd like to thank the sponsor of today's podcast, the Lowy Law Firm. For over 20 years, Adam Lowy has helped injured Texans recover and heal. From car accidents to dog bites, Adam Lowy is there to help and gets results. Go to LowyLawfirm.com to find out more and get a free consultation. Adam, of course, is very well known on Twitter for his commentary and observations on Texas politics, so be sure to give him a follow as well. Thanks to our sponsor, the Lowy Law Firm.

SPEAKER_05 30:06

Let's move on to the SCOTUS rulings. There were three big ones this week. You want to run us through the biggest one, uh policy-wise, which was the birthright citizenship case that we all were waiting for for a while. What was the ruling? How'd it come down? Are there any nuances to this?

SPEAKER_02 30:27

Are there any nuances to this? No, there's absolutely zero nuances to a lot of things.

SPEAKER_04 30:32

It was a rhetorical question. So you don't want me to answer it? I do want you to answer it. So then you want to spell it out.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Then it wasn't rhetorical.

SPEAKER_04 30:39

Sarcastic question? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

There we go. Um I had to moderate myself there. I was about to start start swearing at you. What the hell? Now you're rage baiting me. That's what we should just have called the podcast rage bait. It's just the two of us just making each other increasingly more mad. Uh yeah, so the biggest one I in my opinion was uh in the opinion of I think uh the vast majority of people everywhere, uh, was the ruling on birthright citizenship, in which the majority narrowly struck down uh Trump's executive order, basically limiting uh and getting rid of birthright citizenship for uh people who are here illegally or on a temporary status. And so the majority opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts um really goes kind of hard in the pain on saying the Fourth Amendment, I mean the the Fourteenth Amendment is the law of the land, and we should interpret the jurisdiction thereof to mean uh really anybody who's in this country with the specific carve-outs of like Native American tribes, which was specifically in there, and that got changed by statute later. Um the in the offspring of like ambassadors and things of that nature. Um first things of that nature. Everyone drinks. Oh I thought you had water in there, no? Of course not. I mean, I it's mostly water. Um, I think. I don't know about that. Uh yeah, I mean it's gotta be it's gotta be mo it's everything's mostly water, right? Anyways, uh that was joined by uh Amy Cohen Barrett, who was appointed by Trump, and then of course the uh three liberal justices on the court. There were three and a half dissents, I guess we could say. Uh Kavanaugh, who is really big on procedure, did a half concurrence and a half dissent. His concurrence was that procedurally the Trump executive order contravenes a uh congressional law that was passed, but his dissent portion was that it did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, which is pretty big. So he says, look it violated statute, not the Constitution. So if that statute changes, good to go. You can this is within the the uh legislative wheelhouse on clarifying who is included under this in in achieving automatic citizenship. Um Gorsuch did a dissent, which uh was like, yeah, this is this is wrong, you do have the authority to limit, but his was a little different on who exactly he would include underneath, because it all came down, everything comes down to what is the legal definition of jurisdiction, subject to the jurisdiction thereof. What does that mean? Um and what did that mean when the 14th amendment was ratified and written. So Gorsuch was much more kind of different on that. The main descent, though, and Alita wrote a dissent much shorter, I think like two pages. The main one was Justice Clarence Thomas. I will note another big fan of NASCAR, Justice Thomas. Yeah, you put in the group chat this week. I know with Dale Earnhardt. I had never seen that picture before of Clarence Thomas with Del Earnhardt, you know, R.I.P.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

Um one of your patron saints there.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Yeah, yeah. Well, when I was growing up, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was like the guy that we root for. Um so we were a big Earnhardt family. Um we would never vote for some scoundrel like Jeff Gordon or Did I say vote? Root never root for Jimmy Johnson. No, Jimmy Deboo, Jimmy Johnson, just to Earnhardt through and through. Um so yeah, uh I th I thought that picture was like sick as hell. I was like, dude, that's awesome. Um so Thomas's dissent, which was over 90 pages, basically pushes back on every single element of the majority's opinion, and specifically on the definition and interpretation of what the uh intent was uh by the people who framed and then ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. Uh and so he points historically saying that, you know, illegal aliens and temporary residents and things, people like that, wouldn't be considered having legally domiciled in America because they haven't formally, legally, or otherwise renounced their allegiances to wherever it is that they came from. So if you haven't done that, then you very well can't be considered as having domiciled in America. Uh it was kind of in my interpretation, reading of it is the big thrust there, uh, which is, you know, the main arguments for both sides. But uh Texas had been involved in some of the arguments. Paxton had signed on to an amicus brief. Senator Cruz had signed on to a separate amicus brief of senators who um Paxson's one was very big, kind of more on the Clarence Thomas side of things. The Cruz one was as well, but it really focused more on legislative uh prerogative in this matter, um, you know, and definitely hit on some of the points that Kavanaugh hit on. And since then, there's been a lot of discussion amongst conservatives. You have Chip Roy, you also had Governor Abbott calling for Congress to pass laws to rectify this, and any law that gets passed by Congress on this issue will obviously go back to the Supreme Court. Um but it was all very interesting uh to look at on this. It's a major, major question. It's a huge issue for both sides of the aisle. Uh the uh Democrats got a uh a big win on this one. And it's interesting. We were talking, you know, who does this help going into midterms? Yeah, it's the other side, that's the political side of the political side. Um I was of the opinion that it it helps Republicans because it gives them something to be energized about. Um it gives them something to kind of it gives them kind of a club to go into a lot of these Senate races and congressional races and be like, do you know, support changing this law? Um and of course, no Democrat can say yes to that. So then it gives them a big wedge issue to to use and deploy. Something that might be a little bit better than like uh Sharia law, which is the the big one right now.

SPEAKER_05 38:31

Your counterpoint I think it also helps Republicans, but for a different reason, because if you look back at the kind of the the table setting of this poor environment, of course, there's the economy uh that's very pregnant right now, there's uh the straight-of-for moose, the Iran war. Set that stuff aside as much as you can. But the big issue early on this year were the deportations and especially the shock and awe campaigns, which if you notice have stopped. We do not see that happening constantly. The deportations have continued, um, but the uh men in the ice agents in masks, I haven't seen anything much about that recently.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

The publicity, the PR strategy on that has changed dramatically. In fact, I think uh the new uh Mark Wayne Mullen uh he I think recently announced earlier this week that like deportations are actually at an all-time high where we're on track for that. But you do not see the like Christy Noam riding with them in a camera amplifying it as much because the optics were just too bad.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

Oh, yeah. And it was blowing up the issue as a losing one for Republicans, even though they on the issue of immigration, for years Republicans have been on the winning side of it.

SPEAKER_04 39:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:51

Uh in terms of just broad sentiment of the American people. Um but if this had gone the other way, if this had gone in this decision on the policy, had gone in the administration's favor, you have the possibility of a bunch of people um who are here and have been here for a long time who are citizens, all of a sudden no longer citizens. And sure, those people now can't vote if this if the if Trump snapped his finger and all of a sudden they're no longer citizens, it of course would not be that uh cut and dry. There'd be a lot of uh messiness to it. But then you have all the people that are related to them that are actual legitimate uh in this scenario, continuous citizens, who would be in an uproar. And you'd kind of have the same inflammation of the PR problem that we saw with the shock in awe campaign on the deportation stuff dredged up again. And so I think Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief right now over this ruling. Because also they look at it, and not all Republicans, of course, there are some that are very upset about this. Um, but it does still leave the door open, at least per the the Kavanaugh opinion, yeah. For this to be addressed in a different way down the road.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Yeah. And I'm not sure if the majority would buy that, but it would certainly it's another chance to run the ball.

SPEAKER_05 41:23

I think you you drastically increase the possibility of a majority developing for it when it's Congress actually. It's easier for them instead of a president.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I feel I feel like the whole slate of things on the whole probably helped Republicans going into November because what you did have a unanimous win-on, mostly, a mostly unanimous uh win-on was the uh Save Women's Sports Acts that have passed nationally. This was over one, I think, in in West Virginia and uh Iowa. Idaho Idaho. Yeah, I think it was Idaho. It's marginal, those are marginal states, honestly. Um what's what's the difference, really? Uh corn versus potatoes. Who's the corn? Iowa's West Virginia? Iowa's corn. Iowa and Idaho. Yeah, that's true. Um does a potato grown in America have citizenship?

SPEAKER_05 42:23

Is it an American potato?

SPEAKER_02 42:24

Is it an I I guess yeah, technically, right? But of course, cows born and raised in other countries, but finished and slaughtered in America. Are American cows. It's interesting. Wow. I know it almost feels like fake. A double standard. Wow. Oh my gosh. Are cows potato? Somebody give me my whiteboard. Looking like Charlie Kelly.

SPEAKER_05 42:56

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

But anyway, so the So yeah, you had the save, which um the argument was again another Fourteenth Amendment case on equal protections. The conservatives on the court all said that states have a right to uh limit and stipulate and safeguard women's sports on biological grounds because of the Fourth Amendment, um, and also because of Title IX, the congressional law, the Liberals uh said no, the Fourteenth Amendment argument is is too much. And in fact, it uh if we were to say the Fourth Amendment 14th Amendment on it like equal protections, well then you're not equally protecting uh like biological males who identify as female in it. But they did all say that the the Title IX, the ban on biological males and women's sport. is compliant with Title IX statute. And so that part was unanimous, which was interesting.

SPEAKER_05 44:05

And they kind of threw it back to the states, right?

SPEAKER_04 44:07

Yeah. They said state laws on this are permissible.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

Yeah. State laws in that are in compliance or not in contradiction to the 14th or 9th Amendment. And that's another huge win for uh Republicans. And it's something too that like you'll notice uh James Tallerico didn't say anything about that ruling. Didn't respond to requests for comment from from Texas Bullpen on it. It's not a win is winning issue for them.

SPEAKER_05 44:36

So Republicans get to Democrats in 24.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

And you'll notice Paxton spent the whole day posting prior clips of Talarico basically arguing that, you know, this is what but it's not a winning issue for them. It is for Republicans. Uh it's all these wedge issues that they get to to hit Dem Zone going on into into midterms. Will it be enough? Who knows? It all depends on the price of gas really at that point, which has been going down. Um I stopped at Bucky's on my drive back to Galveston. 301 was the price I know.

SPEAKER_04 45:13

Almost below three bucks.

SPEAKER_05 45:14

I know. We'll see if that lasts.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

Yeah well it all depends.

SPEAKER_05 45:18

There's usually an uptick in summer when everyone's traveling. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

Well and you know they have the MOU for the Iran thing but they're still like it's you know whatever.

SPEAKER_05 45:28

It's Schrdinger's MOU. Yeah right until we see that thing actually enacted. Until that boat goes through that straight or wherever the other big one this week was Campaign finance. You're like I mean you love that stuff. You love campaign finance I was giddy waiting for that's a word.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

That's a word I mean you were you were hopped up I mean you were crashing it's important it is a big one.

SPEAKER_05 45:52

So NRSC versus FEC rural came down and it was I believe a 6-3 majority along typical lines conservatives on one side the liberals on the other and essentially it found that spending coordinated spending limits on party committees violates the First Amendment. And so groups like the NRSC, the NRSCC, the DSC, uh the DCC, these are all grie affiliated committees that then spend money on behalf of candidates. Now under I think McCain Feingold for the last twenty years there was a limit to the amount of coordinated spending that could be done from uh from those committees to the candidates. This does away with that. And I think the for a Senate candidate the limit was four million up to four million dollars for a congressional candidate the limit was up to like 160,000 which is a wild difference. I mean yes obviously there's a lot more house seats but going from 4.6 million I think it was down to 1600 that's just wild. Um but this blows that door open this now says uh the RNC which has 125 million dollars in the bank they can come in and they can supplement oh I don't know let's say Ken Paxton's bid for for US Senate and pump in a bunch of money so that he And it can be coordinated now.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Coordinated and that's the big that's the big thing they can discuss so it's not just like a shot in the dart type of spending.

SPEAKER_05 47:50

Yeah RNC could come in and spend that money anyway but now they don't have to go through these like burner accounts to signal how they want the messaging to come where they think what they're seeing in the poll it can just be flat out campaign calling the committee talking about it. What type of ad do you want what do you want to hit them on what's working what's not what's your polling showing and that's important because the campaigns themselves will know better the the dynamics on the ground of the national guys who are following 50 states you know um on the Democratic side first of all this is not as advantageous for them although it could be if their party committees were good at raising money because the DNC is three million dollars in the hole still from the 24 presidential election. The the Senate and House committees are not as I mean they're still in the green but they're not raising as much money as the Republicans are. And traditionally Democrats are a lot more effective you see this with James Tallerico he is prolific at it small dollar fundraising. Well when you have small dollar fundraising through Act Blue the uh contribution limits you know almost never hit them. But Republicans they have a smaller pool of donors who are willing to give more money but you hit that $2700 limit really fast.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

A lot of them kick it to PAX.

SPEAKER_05 49:10

So they kick it to PAX and that's why we've seen this system develop where these third party packs versus the parties has become uh uh such a a popular thing uh because it's just easier it's easier to give more money it's easier to spend the money but now you have actually with this ruling kind of a a restoration or at least the potential for restoration of the power of the parties which have been in in the tank for years like they have just been powerless because they haven't controlled the purse strings. Uh now they have to be able to raise money in the first place but And this possibly helps them do that because they can be more helpful now. Yep. And the limits the contribution limits to these parties is something like six hundred thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_02 49:57

Yeah. So I thought your um your point about what this does to TV because there are different price points if you ver if you're a candidate versus you're a pack and things like that.

SPEAKER_05 50:10

So from that perspective it uh is even more advantageous cost effective wise for these campaigns and the committees because they can get the lower rates for TV advertising. But you know who this really hurts other than uh I guess Democrats on under this scenario but for the Democrats it's like it's more indirect than direct. Directly it hurts the broadcasters because now they are going to have to give the ad space they have to these political candidates and now committees who get the lower rate versus these PACs who are charged a higher rate for the advertising. And so the pocketbooks of these TV stations are going to take a serious hit. Uh now I don't think anyone's gonna be crying over big TV but it is going to be noticed by by these broadcasters. So um the it's a bit of a weedy issue but when it comes to campaigns in which is of course we're in one right now it's very this one is very important uh and has a lot of political ramifications for many years to come um and eventually you know it's possible you get even more chips away at this the basically McCain Feingold the big campaign finance reform um I think we're starting to see the writing on the wall there Republicans have already been against uh these spending limits broadly speaking uh but Democrats they're starting to embrace big money uh as well and uh you know despite uh James Tallerico talking about criticizing you know uh billionaires spending in politics he has his billionaires that are supporting him too and eventually it at n at this moment it feels like we are on a glide path to basically it's the Wild West you can spend whatever you want in whatever fashion you want um maybe it things take a turn at some point but it feels like we're going that way jurisprudentially so and I mean every single election cycle it seems like you're breaking records on expensive races.

SPEAKER_02 52:24

I mean it is big money and it's getting bigger. Yep and I don't really see there being a stop to that.

SPEAKER_05 52:31

Yeah how much time we got one more thing I want to touch on before we close out uh we posted a a memo that was sent from John Rosenthal's campaign Democrat running for Railroad Commission that he had given in a meeting to the oil majors specifically I think TechSogapak was one of them at least but um he like we kind of Cassie and I kind of talked about this last week a bit but now we have more details to show it. Rosenthal is courting the oil and gas industry and of course he should be he needs as much uh as many votes and as much support as he can possibly get to to win this seat against Bo French and he feels like he has a window of opportunity there where past candidates for Railroad Commission haven't because Bo French was opposed so substantially by most of the oil and gas industry in the primary. Now it's one thing to oppose uh a right wing candidate in the primary it's a another thing entirely to go with a Democrat. Yeah. Especially you know Rosenthal he has been in the oil uh the energy industry he's a I think he's an oil field engineer by trade uh at least some kind of engineer that deals with oil and gas so he knows the ropes of things and so he does naturally have a bit more new nuanced of a position than what has been the hardline progressive line. But John Rosenthal is a progressive.

SPEAKER_02 54:07

Yeah. Um but of course this memo tries to tell a different story. Yeah. Because it goes through and says you know I Rosenthal voted with the Republican chair of Drew Darby energy resources. Energy resources ninety percent of the time. Yeah you know I'm a ninety percent Republican when it comes to oil and gas. Just ask my my chair. Yeah. Um which is an interesting pitch to see a Democrat make because a lot of the other Democrats have also been trying to distance themselves from the national Democratic brand. You saw and Nathan Johnson talk about that. Taler Rico's been trying to do that to a certain degree as well and here you have Rosenthal kind of almost doubling that up you know doubling pass to the next person. I'm not only distancing myself from national Democrats on this I'm distancing from Texas Democrats. And of course you know Talerico's has been saying I'm the I'm a I'm a big fan of oil and gas now as well a little bit in contradiction of his prior statements but uh it is very above energy approach. Yeah now that's not what he said in previous campaigns. Um so it's you know it's been very interesting to see how DIMS were trying to run and I think it's because they r they think that this is a year that they might could win it. Oh yeah and walk away with a couple of big statewise and and probably out of the Republican slate I would think French and Paxton were the two most damaged by the primary or at least the ones with you know French only barely I mean he didn't almost barely he won but it was he was the last one it was like a three point rate right so it was much closer than certainly the 27 points that between Paxton and Cornyn. But they are potentially viewing those as big pickups.

SPEAKER_05 56:04

Well they they because they see those two candidates as opponents with a lot of baggage and a lot of ammunition to use against them. I mean Bo French's his campaign in the primary was the main the foundational pillar of his campaign was stopping the invasion of Islam while running for railroad commission. That's not a traditionally oil and gas related energy related topic and Democrats feel like they can use that against him and maybe they can maybe they can't but um that's going to require along with Tal Rico getting crossover voters in every every Democrat running for statewide is going you need to get crossover voters. You have to do it in order to win this is Cassie and I talked about this last week. This is not there's a lot of Democrats who like to say uh Texas is not a red state it's a non-voting state that's not true. You have to get crossover voters and you know one thing I saw I I've been pretty uh open about my uh skepticism of polls after the primary and um you know that's not to say every poll's bad and then that's not to say there's nothing used to be aren't you a poll? I am about 40% Polish yeah it's mighty big you just say not every poll is bad. Yeah right you're gonna use that against me and attack my guess I know I'm gonna clip that I'm gonna clip that hard uh but one of the the data points that caught my eye in the New York Times Siena poll of course everyone's talking about how there it was a 47% tie between Talarico and Paxton. But if you look at the independence and the crosstabs they're still not on board with Talarico. Yeah and it goes back to what you were saying about the um uh trying to distance themselves from the national brand when we read money marbles and chalk this was a point discussed back then yeah back in the 60s and 70s were not national Democrats national the National Democratic Party has long had an image problem with Texas voters back then it was the de it was within the Democratic Party today it's primarily within the Republican Party and and independence but there is an image problem uh particularly in the recent period after uh COVID and all the stuff that you know the Great Awokening or whatever want to call it that happened in uh 2020 2021 and they still haven't fixed it but they know enough they know that they have to distance themselves from it Rosenthal's doing it here uh Tallerico's doing it Johnson's doing it and they have to do it otherwise they're not gonna have any prayer of winning a seat you heard it here maybe not first maybe not last but you certainly heard it here certainly hear it well I hope everybody is having a brilliant wonderful lovely 4th of July I know by the time that you're listening to this um whether it be Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday whatever but by the time that this is released I know uh two people here will be raucously celebrating um the birth of our country with hooping and hollering cheering maybe some yees and maybe some Haas uh I'm gonna be out in Fredericksburg watching the horse races um which I've never gone to a horse race before so I'm very excited to see you're a big race guy so you should go I just want to line things up and let them rip you know did you ever do like crawfish racing when you were a kid?

SPEAKER_04 59:38

No we didn't just catch two of them and dash hound racing Dash Hound? Dash hound? What's a dash hound? A wiener dog?

SPEAKER_02 59:47

Oh a dochin Yeah you call them dash hounds yeah this yeah this report I think they're interchangeable.

SPEAKER_05 59:54

I've never heard this before in my life just add add it to the list of the things you've never heard of dash hound of Halloween parades you've never heard of a doxin it's a doxin it's interchangeable this is wild this is crazy I'm crashing out I need another drink we better get to the bar though uh happy independence day y'all we appreciate you listening each and every week make sure to subscribe at Texasbullpen.com if you do an annual subscription you get a free Texas bullpen mug if you're watching on YouTube you can see Richie modeling it like Vanna White holds anything anything coffee water whiskey bourbon perhaps bourbon perhaps I wouldn't know that as a fact but I've heard rumors but uh enjoy the holiday thanks for sticking around and we will talk to you next week