Alternet: This obscure Supreme Court decision could impact Trump’s agenda — and restore faith in the court

But there is one recent decision where the court was unanimous in its ruling, perhaps because its holding should not be controversial: National Rifle Association v. Vullo. In that 2024 case, the court said that it’s a clear violation of the First Amendment’s free speech provisions for government to force people to speak and act in ways that are aligned with its policies.

The second Trump administration has tried to wield executive branch power in ways that appear to punish or suppress speech and opposition to administration policy priorities. Many of those attempts have been legally challenged and will likely make their way to the Supreme Court.

The somewhat under-the-radar – yet incredibly important – decision in National Rifle Association v. Vullo is likely to figure prominently in Supreme Court rulings in a slew of those cases in the coming months and years, including those involving law firms, universities and the Public Broadcasting Service.

In May 2024, in an opinion written by reliably liberal Sonia Sotomayor, a unanimous court ruled that the efforts of New York state government officials to punish companies doing business with the NRA constituted clear violations of the First Amendment.

Following its own precedent from the 1960s, Bantam Books v. Sullivan, the court found that government officials “cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors.”

https://www.alternet.org/trump-supreme-court-2672423710

WhoWhatWhy: Trump Silences Dissent in the Military

Behind closed doors, the Trump administration is advancing a chilling project: silencing dissent, lowering intellectual standards, and purging independent oversight — all within what was the most powerful military in the world. 

Sound familiar? It’s Donald Trump’s playbook: Reward loyalty, punish competence — this time with an armed force, trained to kill, and stripped of oversight.

Military officerslegislatorslegal scholars, and defense experts are raising alarms about a series of directives that appear to reshape the US armed forces — from a constitutionally grounded institution into a politically compliant weapon.

The Hill: Democrats hammer Hegseth over restoring Confederate names of military bases

Democratic senators on Wednesday repeatedly slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his decision to restore the names of nine military bases originally named after Confederate leaders, with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) criticizing the Pentagon chief for not calling the families whose relatives’ names will now be stripped from the installations. 

The former titles, which the Pentagon earlier this month said would be restored albeit with new namesakes, means seven bases named for notable individuals will soon revert back roughly two years after conversion. Hegseth earlier this year ordered the names of two other bases, Fort Liberty and Fort Moore, changed back to Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, respectively. 

Kaine, whose state holds three of the nine military bases that were originally named for Confederate generals, said Hegseth’s decision strips away “the names of four amazing people that the Pentagon and local communities had chosen to honor.”

The Virginia bases are currently known as Fort Barfoot, named after Col. Van Barfoot who earned a Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II; Fort Walker, honoring American abolitionist and Civil War surgeon Mary Edwards Walker, the only woman to ever receive a Medal of Honor; and Fort Gregg-Adams, named after Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg, the first Black man in the Army to reach the rank of lieutenant general, and Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley, the first Black woman to become an officer in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in WWII.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5357795-democrats-hammer-hegseth-over-restoring-confederate-names-of-military-bases

Raleigh News & Observer: Trump’s Approval Rating Plummets in New Poll

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 38%, according to Quinnipiac, amid a public clash with Elon Musk over the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” A CBS/YouGov poll earlier this month showed 45% approval and 55% disapproval, underscoring the growing public scrutiny he faces.

Republican lawmakers … are viewed unfavorably by 61% of the general public. This disparity comes amid ongoing challenges Republicans have faced in appealing to a wider audience beyond their base.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-approval-rating-plummets-in-new-poll/ss-AA1GVnKX

Associated Press: Coming to America? In 2025, the US to some looks less like a dream and more like a place to avoid

For centuries, people in other countries saw the United States as place of welcome and opportunity. Now, President Donald Trump’s drive for mass deportations of migrants is riling the streets of Los Angeles, college campuses, even churches — and fueling a global rethinking about the virtues and promise of coming to America.

“The message coming from Washington is that you are not welcome in the United States,” ….

https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-deportation-student-visa-c01ab48d12af9e832c7bd88036c79ae1

Esquire: Somehow Republicans Are Defending Kristi Noem After the Forceful Removal of Senator Alex Padilla

I thought assaulting someone holding federal office was a crime. Not anymore, apparently.

So, apparently we’re bum-rushing US senators now. From The Guardian:

In video taken of the incident that has since gone viral on social media, Padilla is seen being restrained and removed from the room by Secret Service agents.“I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla shouts, as he struggles to move past the men removing him from the premises. “Hands off!” he says at one point.Emerging afterward, Padilla, who is the ranking member of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship and border safety, said he and his colleagues had repeatedly asked DHS for more information on its “increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions” but had not received a response to his inquiries.

This tinhorn governor of a state where nobody lives, this puppy-murdering hack whose political career outside of MAGA World was as dead as Custer, now gets to sic her black-shirted thugs on the senior senator of a state that she and her criminal boss and all their attendant lords have been lying about, and about which she had flown to Los Angeles to lie about some more.

Dumbass in a ballcap says what? She just admitted they’re blowing up the town to get rid of the mayor and governor. If the courts ever get their teeth back, this gaffe will figure prominently in many filings.

Meanwhile, Padilla is hauled into a backroom and driven to the floor and handcuffed.

And not for nothing, but threatening and/or assaulting the holder of any federal office is a felony and could draw you five to ten in the pokey. And these goons are pretty identifiable.

And, of course, the administration’s prevarication mill went into full operation almost instantly. From The New Republic via Yahoo:

In posts on X, the official DHS account and Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement attempting to justify wrestling Padilla to the ground and handcuffing him. “Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem,” the statement read.

Tricia learned to lie like this at the AEI’s Leadership Institute.

But in a video of the altercation from Padilla’s office, the senator could be heard clearly identifying himself. “Hands off! I’m Senator Alex Padilla, and I have questions for the secretary,” said the California Democrat as a security guard pushed him out of the room.

It’s clear that the goons looked at him and just saw another angry brown face. And by their reactions, Tricia and her boss are similarly afflicted.

This is also all my bollocks. Noem knows who Padilla is and, if she doesn’t, she should, and he did identify himself. Third-rate hack with a fourth-rate alibi.

And what about Speaker Moses? What did you expect?

That sanctimonious sumbitch wants Padilla censured. And he spent the afternoon hiding. If he’s a Christian, I’m an Ostrogoth.

The day was not without its burlesque, however. In a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Maxwell Frost asked Chairman James (Jughead) Comer to issue a subpoena for Noem regarding the events of the day. Comer, of course, refused, probably because Padilla was not carrying Hunter Biden’s laptop at the time. And then we were off.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a65058840/senator-padilla-kristi-noem-james-comer-marjorie-taylor-greene

DHS sends out provocative new poster

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a new poster online featuring World War II imagery, urging citizens to help locate and report immigrants who are in the country without documentation.

“Help your country and yourself,” reads the poster, which shows Uncle Sam with a hammer nailing a flier to a wall. “Report all foreign invaders,” it says, providing a phone number to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The poster’s language mirrors a sentiment coming from President Trump and his aides in the White House in recent weeks characterizing immigrants in the country illegally as “foreign invaders” and blaming Democrats for allowing mass migration into the U.S. during former President Biden’s time in office.

The poster was posted to DHS’s social media channels and was being widely shared on social platform X this week, including by White House officials.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5346337-dhs-sends-out-provocative-new-poster

From Los Angeles to Washington, Trump leans in as commander in chief

On one coast, military forces are arriving by the thousands to defend federal buildings and agents. On the other, they’re readying a celebration of American military might.

President Donald Trump loves displays of military force. He’s parading two very different kinds this week.

On one coast, military forces are arriving by the thousands to defend federal buildings and agents, facing off with civilians protesting the president’s immigration agenda. On the other, they’re readying a celebration of American military might in a parade held on the Army’s — and Trump’s — birthday.

Trump has wanted to hold a military parade in Washington since he accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron to a 2017 Bastille Day parade, where troops marched down the Champs-Élysées while fighter jets flew overhead, leaving trails of red, white, and blue smoke behind them. Trump later called it “one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen,” but aides advised him against throwing a similar affair.

Trump seems to forget that Bastille Day largely marked the end of French royalty. King Donald, too, shall pass.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/11/trump-military-parade-protests-00398716

New York Times: Trump Declares Dubious Emergencies to Amass Power, Scholars Say

In disputes over protests, deportations and tariffs, the president has invoked statutes that may not provide him with the authority he claims.

To hear President Trump tell it, the nation is facing a rebellion in Los Angeles, an invasion by a Venezuelan gang and extraordinary foreign threats to its economy.

Citing this series of crises, he has sought to draw on emergency powers that Congress has scattered throughout the United States Code over the centuries, summoning the National Guard to Los Angeles over the objections of California’s governor, sending scores of migrants to El Salvador without the barest hint of due process and upending the global economy with steep tariffs.

Legal scholars say the president’s actions are not authorized by the statutes he has cited and are, instead, animated by a different goal.

“He is declaring utterly bogus emergencies for the sake of trying to expand his power, undermine the Constitution and destroy civil liberties,” said Ilya Somin, a libertarian professor at Antonin Scalia Law School who represents a wine importer and other businesses challenging some of Mr. Trump’s tariffs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/us/politics/trump-emergency-powers-invasion.html?unlocked_article_code=1.N08.tEO-.S_2DmAE6Yws9&smid=url-share

Bloomberg: Unrestrained Trump Turns to Military in Second-Term Power Play

President Donald Trump’s moves to deploy US troops to Los Angeles and hold a splashy parade on the Army’s 250th birthday fulfills his longtime goal of leaning on the military for a show of force and political power.

Stymied in his first term by cabinet members who resisted the use of soldiers on American soil, Trump has a more compliant team around him this time. After sending in the National Guard this weekend, he escalated his showdown with California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday by mobilizing 700 active-duty Marines, a decision that Newsom called a “provocation.”

Late Monday, Trump went even further, authorizing an additional 2,000 National Guard members to deploy there, bringing the total to 4,000, not including the Marines.

David Leopold, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the presence of the National Guard and Marines was a “shocking” development meant to deliberately spread chaos, confusion and fear. “What we’ve seen is people exercising their First Amendment rights,” Leopold told Bloomberg Television. “That is what these troops are being sent out to suppress.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-10/unrestrained-trump-turns-to-military-in-second-term-power-play

Also here (no paywall):

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/unrestrained-trump-turns-to-military-in-second-term-power-play/ar-AA1Gq3xN