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JOHN YOO: The left’s war on the Supreme Court just hit a terrifying new low
Last week, the New York Times divulged a fresh trove of confidential internal memoranda between the Supreme Court justices. The documents allegedly show that Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues have abused the Court’s technical procedures to block the agenda of Democratic presidents and to favor Republicans. While this accusation can only succeed by ignoring the broader context of the Court’s work, it heralds the latest progressive attack on the Court as a stabilizing institution in our national politics.
In February 2016, the Court temporarily blocked the Obama administration from enforcing its “Clean Power Plan.” While the Court would eventually strike down the grand plan to rewire America’s energy grid when it reappeared in its Biden guise, in February 2016 the justices only issued an emergency stay to freeze the government plan before lower courts could rule.
The order, which prompted dissenting votes from the liberal justices, garnered little attention at the time but allegedly marked the birth of the “shadow docket.” Using this new procedure, the Court now intervenes quickly to issue emergency orders that can halt executive action before lower court review, which can effectively stop liberal presidents’ agendas in their tracks.
The New York Times alleges that secret memos show this 2016 decision came about not because of concerns over the Obama administration’s abuse of power, but because of Chief Justice Roberts’ campaign against a liberal president. The report claims that Roberts “acted as a bulldozer in pushing to stop Mr. Obama’s plan to address the global climate crisis” and that the memos show the chief justice to be “angry” and “irritated” with the government.
The Times report leaves out many important facts in order to portray the Court as using the shadow docket to pursue a partisan agenda. It claims the order represented a sharp break from Court practice, when in fact the justices regularly use this procedure to review capital executions and even granted such a stay in the Little Sisters of the Poor’s challenge to Obamacare just a few years earlier. The Times suggests that the conservative Roberts Court uses these stays to stop Democratic presidents. It does not provide examples of the Court’s use of the same emergency stays to frustrate parts of President Trump’s agenda as well. The Court, for example, has issued stays against Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans and against his dispatch of federal troops to inner cities.
The emergency stays do not represent an unprecedented weapon wielded by a conservative Court, but rather a response to executive branch regulations that seek to achieve their objectives before courts can intervene. In the Clean Power Plan case itself, the Obama administration hoped that its regulations would force the energy industry to decide on the massive investments required before the case could reach the Supreme Court.
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But the Times report represents a greater affront than just a leak about procedural tussling within the Supreme Court. Last week’s leak of the Court’s memos represents the third breach of the Court’s confidential deliberations in the last four years. It began with the leak — for the first time in American history — of a draft Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade. It continued with a 2024 New York Times story based on documents and interviews that detailed the deliberations behind Trump v. United States, which held the former president immune from federal prosecution for his official acts.
These leaks represent the latest escalation in the use of political tactics against the Court. The Court has never had a draft opinion leak to the press; indeed, it is difficult to recall any leak of an opinion occurring at any federal court, ever. But leaking is all too common at the White House, cabinet agencies and Congress, even of the most sensitive, classified information. The Dobbs leak itself triggered harassment of the conservative justices at their homes and culminated in an assassination attempt against Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the hopes it would change the outcome of the vote.
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These leaks and the accompanying political pressure undermine the independence and integrity of the federal courts under our Constitution’s separation of powers. While liberals once defended the judiciary as an engine for social change in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down racial segregation, they have recently turned against the Supreme Court as Republican presidents have sought to appoint judges committed to originalist principles. Conservatives, meanwhile, have held a far more skeptical attitude toward the Court’s claim of supremacy in interpreting the Constitution. Nevertheless, the Court deserves a robust defense not because of its view on abortion, but because it stands as a valuable institutional limit on simple majority rule.
Progressives are taking unprecedented measures against the justices because of their specific votes on abortion, transgender rights or presidential power, regardless of the logic or reasoning of their opinions. Liberals support or attack the Court based on how decisions affect the interests of the groups — minorities, women, environmental organizations — that compose their political coalition. The only difference between a judge and a politician is that politicians don’t get to wear robes.
Progressives find law and facts to be mostly smoke and mirrors. Courts should not reach correct outcomes by interpreting the law; instead, progressives say, they should make policy due to the inherent malleability of language and the rapid changes in society and the economy. To them, judges enjoy raw political power in determining society’s winners and losers.
These leaks threaten the careful line between law and politics. They make the Court an object in the arena of electoral politics. They also threaten to turn the Court into a political actor internally. If leaks become the norm in important cases, clerks could begin disclosing the Court’s internal arguments and votes, the changing coalitions around different drafts, and even the thought processes of individual justices. Justices might take explicit political factors into account in their decisions.
For progressives who claim they are defending our institutions from a renegade president, their attacks on the Court deliberately undermine one of the core elements of our constitutional order.
The Los Angeles Unified School District voted Tuesday to limit students’ screen time.
The resolution to limit students’ use of laptops and tablets in class and incentivize pen-and-paper assignments passed 6-0, and mandates that the district to develop a screen time policy for each grade and subject, bar students in first grade and younger from using devices, evaluate education technology contracts, and make clear the steps parents need to take in order to opt their child out of using technology at school, NBC News reported.
“The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education approved a resolution today to limit student screen time across the district,” the district said in a press release. “Building on last year’s cell phone ban, the proposal calls for comprehensive, developmentally appropriate guardrails on instructional technology for all grade levels, including key provisions to eliminate use of student devices for youngest learners, prohibit student-led use of YouTube and other video streaming platforms, and review and present a public report of all existing classroom technology contracts.”
The resolution came from Board Member Nick Melvoin, a Democrat who has served on the board since 2017.
“During COVID, student devices became a necessary lifeline, and seemingly overnight, screen time limits were shelved to ensure every child had access to the technology they needed to continue learning and stay connected with their teachers and peers. Our charge now is to recalibrate, evaluate the role of educational technology in the classroom, and balance access to that technology with the kinds of instruction and interaction we know help students thrive,” Melvoin in the press release.
It was co-sponsored by Board Members Karla Griego, Tanya Ortiz Franklin, Kelly Gonez, Board Vice President Rocío Rivas, and Student Board Member Jerry Yang.
Ortiz Franklin said in the press release that when the district is “intentional about how our students engage with technology, we invest in their focus, their health, and our future.”
Ortiz Franklin added in the press release that “providing guidelines for our students affords our youngest learners the space for human interaction and play to develop foundational cognitive and social skills and gives our oldest learners opportunities for meaningful connection and collaboration within their community. I am proud to co-sponsor this resolution that balances how and when we use technology in our classrooms, preparing our students to be Ready for the World.”
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In the press release, Griego called the move “long overdue.” She added, “As a cosponsor, I am honored to cosponsor this resolution that establishes clear, developmentally appropriate guidelines around screen time and the use of single-use devices in our schools to ensure a balanced approach to technology that helps our students learn, grow and thrive.”
Gonez, another board member, said that, “Technology can be a powerful tool, but too much screen time has real harmful effects on our students.”
She added that the resolution “will ensure we are prioritizing important skills and learning experiences for students, while protecting their childhoods and well-being by setting research-based screen time limits.”
In the press release, acting Superintendent Andrés E. Chait called the move necessary for the current technology climate.
“As we continue to navigate the evolving role of technology in education, our priority remains ensuring it is used in ways that support high-quality instruction, student engagement, and overall well-being,” Chait said. “Technology is an important tool that can expand access and enhance learning, but it is most effective when used purposefully and guided by educators.”
According to an August report from Ballotpedia, 26 states have enacted laws or policies requiring local school boards to restrict or prohibit cellphone use in K-12 classrooms, with 22 adopted in 2025 alone.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Los Angeles Unified School District for comment.
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FLASHBACK: Obama tried to make Trump a punchline at 2011 dinner before rise stunned Washington
President Donald Trump will attend the White House Correspondents‘ Dinner on Saturday, marking his first appearance at the annual event as commander in chief after skipping it throughout his first term.
The decision puts Trump back at a Washington ritual long tied to his fraught relationship with the press and political establishment. His return also revives memories of the 2011 dinner, when then-President Barack Obama and comedian Seth Meyers mocked him from the dais at a moment that later became a widely discussed part of Trump’s political story.
“Donald Trump is here tonight,” Obama said at the 2011 dinner. “Now, I know he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald.”
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“And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter — like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?” he continued. Trump had publicly called for the release of Obama’s birth certificate, which the State of Hawaii did release that year.
The exchange underscored longstanding tensions between Trump and the Washington establishment that predated his entry into politics.
Speculation mounted that the jabs helped fuel Trump’s eventual decision to launch a presidential run, culminating in a stunning upset victory in 2016. Trump had denied that Obama’s 2011 jokes prompted his candidacy, telling The Washington Post in 2016 that “there are many reasons I’m running, but that’s not one of them.”
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“Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he’d be running as a joke,” comedian Seth Meyers added when he took the podium that night.
Trump told Fox News’ “The Five” earlier this year he was treated “rudely and crudely” during the dinner, which he said influenced his decision not to attend while he was first in office.
“The press was so nasty, I just – so I didn’t do it,” said Trump.
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He once again denied it was the 2011 dinner that sparked his interest in running for office.
“There is this theory: I was there while Barack Hussein Obama was speaking, and he was hitting me a little bit. Actually, it was very nice, and I was actually – I loved it. I really loved it,” said Trump.
Trump announced he would attend this year’s dinner as part of America’s 250th birthday celebration. The first lady will join him.
“The White House Correspondents Association very nicely asked the President to join them at their annual dinner this year as the Honoree, which he gladly accepted,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle previously told Fox News Digital.
Trump did not attend during his first term due to a contentious relationship with the media at the height of coverage of the Russia investigation.
The banquet was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic and revived in 2022 during President Biden’s administration. Trump also did not attend last year.
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Mom who got 2-day sentence after killing baby while high arrested for endangering someone else’s child
A Pennsylvania mother who was previously convicted of accidentally killing her infant son while she was high was arrested again for allegedly endangering another child.
Pennsylvania prosecutors charged 32-year-old Arissa Ward with felony child endangerment and misdemeanor recklessly endangering another person after a 2-year-old she was supposed to be babysitting was found wandering in the middle of the road with no shoes or socks on, a spokesperson for Pennsylvania State Police told Fox News Digital.
At approximately 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop J, York Station was advised a young child was found in the middle of the road on W Main St. in Windsor Borough, York County,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“Investigation determined, the young child’s baby sitter, Arissa Ward, had fallen asleep and the child had gotten out of the house. The child was located in the middle of the road by a passerby who contacted PSP. The child was found with no shoes on,” the spokesman concluded.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law & Crime, the boy “was cold to the touch due to the temperature.”
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The boy’s mother dropped him off to Ward around 6:30 a.m. the morning of the incident.
The woman “stated the front door was unlocked, which is not common,” according to the affidavit. “She walked in the residence and took [the boy] upstairs to Ward’s bedroom, which the door was open. [The mother] stated Ward was asleep and she had to wake her up,” the affidavit continued.
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The mother then placed her son in the bed with Ward, after which Ward immediately fell asleep and had to be woken up again, Law & Crime reported, citing court documents. She told law enforcement that she did not close the bedroom door behind her, but did close the front door when she left.
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Ward texted the mother shortly after 9 a.m.
“Good morning babe!! Whatcha doin. B—- where is you,” Ward texted.
“Hey girl!!! im at work lol. i was a little late today hope i dont get into trouble lol,” the mom replied.
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About 30 minutes later, Ward texted “Where’s [the boy]???” according to Law & Crime.
The boy’s mother then started calling Ward, but got her voicemail all five times she called, according to court documents. Police called the mom at 10 a.m. letting her know they had her son.
When police knocked on Ward’s door, she allegedly answered it saying “I’m babysitting and I just woke up. What is going on?” The cops asked if she was “missing a kid,” and she replied, “Yes, yes, but he is not mine,” the affidavit said, according to Law & Crime.
“[The boy’s mom] dropped him off with me this morning,” she allegedly continued. “He’s a little boy, he’s 2… with blonde curly hair.”
When troopers found the boy, they contacted Children and Youth Services, according to Law & Crime. The group told them to “check Arissa Ward.” Ward had previously spent two days in jail after suffocating her 2-month-old son while drunk and high.
In December 2016, after a night of drinking with her partner, Ward fell asleep on the couch next to her baby. The child died of asphyxiation and had marijuana in his system.
Pleading no-contest to a manslaughter charge, Ward was supposed to receive a three-month minimum sentence. However, Judge William T. Tully instead sentenced her to only two days and then house arrest, citing her living daughter, who was 3 years old at the time, according to Penn Live Patriot News.
“I’m going to give you the opportunity to do a little bit of penance. This will be a chance to prove yourself,” Tully told Ward. “You have got to put yourself back together. Your daughter doesn’t need a semi-mom. She needs a whole mom.”
Ward posted bail for the recent child endangerment case and is due back at court on May 5, Law & Crime reported.
Fox News Digital reached out to Windsor Police Department and York County Court for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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