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Supreme Court chief justice pinpoints what Americans misunderstand about he and his colleagues
Political critics of Supreme Court decisions fundamentally do not understand the role of the institution, according to Chief Justice John Roberts.
It is to interpret the law, not make it, he told a judicial conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
“I think, at a very basic level, people think we’re making policy decisions, we’re saying we think this is how things should be, as opposed to what the law provides,” Roberts said Wednesday night. “I think they view us as purely political actors, which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do.”
The decision reviewing the unconstitutionality of race-based gerrymandering under the Voting Rights Act has resurfaced rebukes of the political ideology of the Court. Three conservative justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, were placed on the bench by President Donald Trump during his first term, giving Republican-nominated justices a 6-3 majority.
Justices, however, are making decisions based on the law and contextual readings of the Constitution, not their personal policy preferences, Roberts stressed to the conference of judges and lawyers from the 3rd U.S. Circuit in Pennsylvania.
“I think considered criticism is a very good thing,” Roberts said. “You hope it’s intelligent criticism, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s a free country and I certainly don’t object to it, and I don’t think my colleagues do either.”
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The Supreme Court has also expanded gun rights and overturned the constitutional right to abortion in recent years. Public confidence in the Supreme Court was at a low of 40% after the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion ruling, showing the politics of rulings determines perception as the words of the Constitution remain unchanged.
The rulings are “based on our best effort to figure out what the Constitution means and how it applies” to the existing law, Roberts said.
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“We’re not simply part of the political process, and there’s a reason for that, and I’m not sure people grasp that as much as is appropriate,” Roberts said, stressing that “one thing we have to do is make decisions that are unpopular.”
“On the other hand,” Roberts said, “there is a point where it changes from criticism of the opinion to criticism of the judge and it can lead to some very serious problems.”
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Heated political rhetoric, potentially fueled by violent protest groups, can endanger judges.
In June 2022, an armed suspect was caught outside Kavanaugh’s home. Nicholas John Roske pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 97 months in prison and lifetime supervised release after admitting to the attempted assassination.
“There’s a lot of hostility that’s publicized about judicial decisions and which judge wrote those decisions,” Roberts warned. “I think we have to be a little more careful and make sure people, to the extent you can, are more careful about that.”
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Judges bowing to the pressures of political ideology from the American public would have devastating effects, according to Roberts.
“If you do it cavalierly, overrule precedent just because you think it’s wrong, then the whole system begins to suffer,” he said.
The advanced ages of Thomas and Alito have raised questions of whether they might consider retirement either before the midterms — which could change Congress’ ability to get through another conservative justice nominee under Trump — or before 2028, where a flip of the White House and/or Congress could shift the court back away from a conservative majority.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Tennessee angler lands monster 15-pound largemouth bass that shatters state record held since 2015
A Tennessee angler just landed the fish of a lifetime.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency confirmed this week that a new state record largemouth bass has officially been established after angler Darren Nunley reeled in an absolute monster earlier this year.
And when we say monster, we mean monster.
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Nunley’s fish weighed in at a staggering 15 pounds, 7 1/2 ounces and measured 27 7/8 inches long, officially breaking a state record that had stood for more than 11 years.
According to TWRA, Nunley caught the fish on Feb. 28 in Nickajack Reservoir using a jackhammer chatterbait lure while fishing with a 17-pound fluorocarbon line and a Shimano reel.
The Whitwell, Tenn., resident landed the fish around 8 a.m., and after the bass was weighed on a certified scale and underwent genetic testing, the state officially confirmed the new record on May 9.
The previous Tennessee record belonged to Gabe Keen, whose 15-pound, 3-ounce largemouth bass was caught back in 2015.
Longtime bass guide Hensley Powell was in the boat with Nunley when the record fish hit.
“I gave Darren a Z-Man JackHammer Chatterbait to tie on that morning,” Powell told Outdoor Life. “It was a half-ounce, colored green-pumpkin with a Hog Farmer Spunk Shad plastic trailer on the lure.”
At first, Powell thought Nunley had gotten snagged in grass.
“He was just swimming the lure along and had a strike,” Powell said. “I thought he was hung on grass when his rod bowed and he started cranking … I saw it boil the surface. It never jumped, but when it turned sideways, I told Darren that was a good one.”
Then came the moment every bass fisherman (and woman) dreams about.
“I told him, ‘Now that’s a fish,’” Powell recalled. “Darren was shocked when he saw how big it was.”
And the timing of all this couldn’t be much better for Tennessee’s bass fishing scene.
This fall, the Nashville area will host The Champions, a massive new bass fishing tournament featuring the top anglers from both the Bassmaster Elite Series and Major League Fishing’s Bass Pro Tour competing for a record-setting $3.25 million purse. The event is scheduled for Oct. 28-Nov. 1 on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, just outside Nashville.
And after seeing the kind of fish Tennessee waters are producing these days, it’s pretty easy to understand why the Volunteer State is becoming a bass fishing hot spot.
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Toronto is handing out free World Cup-themed condoms, including one with an eggplant and attached soccer balls
In January, the Toronto Sun reported that Toronto Public Health was spending nearly $200,000 on “condoms and other sex paraphernalia for the World Cup.”
Among the items purchased were 576,000 branded condoms and 200,000 individual packages of lubricant. The outlet added that the wrappers on the condoms would come in six designs.
The free World Cup-themed condoms are so that fans can “score safely” next month when the tournament arrives in the city. The last thing the TPH wants is STDs in Toronto getting out of hand.
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Yesterday, the six World Cup condom designs hit social media and they are something. The six different designs didn’t just have a soccer ball or World Cup logo slapped on them.
These things are supposedly designed for fans “attending a soccer match, a watch party, hitting a summer festival or partying.” They look like they’re designed for collectors.
That’s plain to see when you see the wrappers for the first time. There are phrases like “block those shots” and “what a finish” on them. But the true magic of the designs is the ones with an eggplant emoji with soccer balls attached to it.
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That alone, in my humble opinion, would have made those wrappers. But they went a step further for public safety or promoting sexual health, or whatever they’re doing, by also including a peach emoji on that same condom wrapper standing in front of a goal.
I thought the point of these was for people to use them. Who in their right mind is going to tear open one of these bad boys?
I’m not even a soccer fan, not even when the World Cup is taking place, and if I got my hands on one of these, there isn’t a chance I’m destroying that kind of artwork.
That could just be me. I am a bit of an aesthete.
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