Later today on The Hustings home page: Arguments in Thursday’s Braver Angels Community Debate; “Citizens threatening violence against oppression is a critical part of our political process.” Submit your comments on the debate for posting in the left and right columns. Email editors@thehustings.news or click on the “comments” tab at the bottom of the page.
The Manchin Compromise – After Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, commented on why he would not vote for Senate Bill 1, the For the People Act, in a guest editorial in the Charleston Gazette-Mail early this month, he explained to a closed-door caucus of Senate Democrats last week which parts of the 800-page bill he could not support. This week, he shared with Capitol Hill reporters a list of the components of S-1 he could support, and on Tuesday, the bill is headed to the full Senate for a vote.
“There is in the making for a very, very substantive bill that can combine all 50 Dems,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA, told The Hill.
[Read pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary on Manchin’s objections to S-1 in the Charleston Gazette-Mail at https://thehustings.substack.com/p/bi-partisan-means-both-not-one-someone]
The Manchin compromise includes these provisions of S-1:
•Makes federal elections a national holiday.
•Mandates at least 15 consecutive days for early voting in federal elections.
•Bans gerrymandering.
•Has tighter campaign finance requirements than in S1 (but throws out the bill’s public campaign financing).
•Requires voter identification, but makes registration automatic through state motor vehicle departments, and allows for use of utility bills.
Manchin’s compromise has the support of Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, and Raphael Warnock, of Georgia (who is up for re-election next year), as well as voting rights advocate and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
But Capitol Hill’s most powerful politician isn’t Manchin on this one. It’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, who quickly rejected the Manchin Compromise Thursday as yet another attempt at federal encroachment into states’ rights. At best, it looks like the compromise would garner support from the usual Republican suspects, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah and Rob Portman of Ohio. That leaves the Senate six Republicans short of cloture.
Note: It seems the only Democratic hope for a federal voter rights bill to counter the restrictive bills winding their way through several state legislatures (and already passed in Georgia and Texas) is for Senate Democrats to kill the legislative filibuster. Manchin has been the Capitol’s most powerful politician on this one, having voiced his opposition to its removal. Democrats are sure to raise the question with Manchin again after Republicans sink his S-1 compromise in the Senate Tuesday.
Note II: For what it’s worth, Braver Angels debaters on both sides of the issue of the House of Representatives’ version of the 800-page For the People Act were dubious about its prospects, and those in favor of HR-1 generally felt it was too long and overreaching: https://thehustings.news/braver-angels-debate-voting-in-america/
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Narrow Victory for Religious ‘Freedom’ in SCOTUS Ruling – The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 Thursday that the City of Philadelphia violated the First Amendment’s free-exercise clause when it stopped working with Catholic Social Services, which refused to certify same-sex couples as potential foster parents, according to SCOTUSblog. But the court left intact, 6-3, the 1990 Employment Division v. Smith ruling that government actions usually do not violate the free-exercise clause as long as they are neutral and apply to everyone.
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Inglis Named National Cyber Director — The Senate has confirmed, in a voice vote, Chris Inglis to be head of the Office of the National Cyber Director, who will operate inside the White House, coordinating the cyber work of various federal agencies, Politico reports. Inglis, 66, attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he received a BS in Engineering Mechanics. He went on to receive an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia, a professional degree in Computer Science, and an MS in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins. Among his professional credentials, Inglis was with the National Security Agency for nearly 30 years and had been on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, established to “develop a consensus on a strategic approach to defending the U.S. in cyberspace against cyberattacks of significant consequence.” The bicameral, bipartisan group released its final report March 11, 2020.
Note: Given the SolarWinds hack of the U.S. government, which was announced on December 13, 2020, but which had been going on for months prior, arguably the Solarium Commission’s report wasn’t high on the reading list of the Trump Administration. Cyber didn’t seem to be much a concern for Trump, as the White House cybersecurity coordinator position was eliminated in May 2018. Although the recent hacks of an oil distributor and meat processor have garnered attention (presumably because of temporary shortages of gasoline and sirloin), reportedly the departments of Defense, Labor, Energy, State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, and Justice, as well as the National Institutes of Health and Department of Homeland Security were all hacked in SolarWinds, which is somewhat more troubling than gas and meat. That is arguably one of the most profound failures of the Trump Administration. Sad.
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First Firearm Charges for Alleged Insurrectionist – Guy Wesley Reffitt of Texas is the first defendant in the January 6 insurrection on the Capitol to face firearm charges under a law making it unlawful to carry a firearm in a riot, The Hill reports. Reffitt was arrested in January after his wife told the FBI he threatened to shoot his family if they turned him in for participating in the riot. Reffitt pleaded not guilty in March to obstruction of official proceedings, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and obstruction of justice by hindering communication by physical force or threat of physical force. A superseding charge of having a firearm in the Capitol was added. – Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods