Biden administration scales back student debt relief for millions amid legal concerns

Biden administration scales back student debt relief for millions amid legal concerns

But there are significant business interests that depend on the federally guaranteed loan program — a wide range of private lenders, banks, guaranty agencies, loan servicers and investors. That industry is widely seen, both inside and outside the administration, as presenting the greatest legal risk to the debt relief program.

Many of those companies face economic losses when they lose borrowers who convert their federally guaranteed loans into new loans that are made directly by the Education Department through a process known as consolidation.

Can’t afford to lose those campaign donations!

3.8 million tenants in the US could be evicted in the next two months

According to the United States Census Bureau, 3.8 million tenants are likely to be evicted in the next two months. Comparatively, only 3.6 million eviction cases were filed in the entire year of 2018. In 2018, the Eviction Lab at Princeton University estimated that there were only 898,479 evictions in 2016, although this number may be a low estimate compared to more recent reports.

3.8 million tenants in the US could be evicted in the next two months

Nebraska Mother, Daughter Face Abortion Charges After Facebook Shares Chats With Police

Digital rights advocates on Tuesday said an abortion case in Nebraska illustrates how powerful tech companies like Facebook could play a major role in prosecutions of people who self-manage abortions as more states ban the procedure, and called on the social media platform to reform its privacy policies to protect users.

Nebraska Mother, Daughter Face Abortion Charges After Facebook Shares Chats With Police

Could this SCOTUS case push America toward one-party rule?

The court considers ‘Moore v. Harper’ to be a legitimate constitutional question. Critics say it’s a ‘power grab.’

Could this SCOTUS case push America toward one-party rule?

Related:

Beware the “Independent State Legislatures doctrine” — it could checkmate democracy

The Independent State Legislatures doctrine used to be a fringe theory, but not anymore. Multiple Supreme Court justices are on the record in support of it. Right-wing legal activists from the Federalist Society and its “Honest Elections Project” are pushing for it in legal briefs authored by white-shoe law firms (BakerHostetler, counsel for the Honest Elections Project, has defended Republican gerrymandering in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.) And some GOP-controlled state legislatures, including Arizona, are considering bills that would allow them to intervene in presidential elections to choose electors themselves if election results are “unclear.” If a state were to pass this type of law, it would set the stage for a court to agree that the Independent State Legislature doctrine requires that in some circumstances, state legislatures rather than voters should determine election outcomes.

As Jane Mayer reported recently, right-wing funders like the Bradley Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have been working with Republican state legislators to advance ways to re-engineer how states allocate Electoral College votes. Last year, a GOP state representative from Arizona, Shawna Bulick, sat on an ALEC-convened working group that discussed the Electoral College, and this year, she introduced a bill that would have given the state legislature power to undo the certification of presidential electors by a simple majority vote up until the inauguration.

Nebraska AG Says Doctors Can Legally Prescribe Ivermectin, HCQ for COVID, Calls Out FDA, CDC, Fauci, Media for ‘Fueling Confusion and Misinformation’

By Megan Redshaw | The Defender | October 18, 2021

Few subjects have been more controversial than ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine — two long-established, inexpensive medications widely and successfully used in many parts of the world for the prevention and treatment of COVID.

Nebraska AG Says Doctors Can Legally Prescribe Ivermectin, HCQ for COVID, Calls Out FDA, CDC, Fauci, Media for ‘Fueling Confusion and Misinformation’

Vax Passports: Where Your State Stands

Alliance for Natural Health | May 27, 2021

As more Americans get vaccinated against COVID-19, and vaccination recommendations extend to younger and younger Americans, we are starting to see more efforts to require vaccination as a condition of receiving services, as we’ve seen at American universities. This endangers autoimmune patients who are more at risk of serious adverse events following COVID vaccination. States can take a stand for medical freedom and privacy rights. To prevent de facto vaccine mandates that endanger millions of patients, we must encourage state leaders to take action to protect our health.

Vax Passports: Where Your State Stands

Bill Gates is now America’s biggest private farmland owner, says new report

Bill Gates is now America’s biggest private farmland owner, says new report

Additionally, Gates has a stake in more than 25,000 acres of transitional land on the west side of Phoenix that is being developed as a suburb. According to the Arizona Republic, plans for the suburb call for as many as 80,000 homes, 3,800 acres of industrial, official and retail space, 3,400 acres of open space and 470 acres for public schools.

Seeking ‘Biggest Incident of Voter Nullification’ in US History, 18 Republican AGs Back Texas Effort to Overturn Biden Win

Seeking ‘Biggest Incident of Voter Nullification’ in US History, 18 Republican AGs Back Texas Effort to Overturn Biden Win

Texas doesn’t have standing to raise these claims as it has no say over how other states choose electors; it could raise these issues in other cases and does not need to go straight to the Supreme Court; it waited too late to sue; the remedy Texas suggests of disenfranchising tens of millions of voters after the fact is unconstitutional; there’s no reason to believe the voting conducted in any of the states was done unconstitutionally; it’s too late for the Supreme Court to grant a remedy even if the claims were meritorious (they are not).

Richard Hasen, University of California Law Professor