Good morning,
We live in an era when itâs particularly important to recognize defenders of democracy in real time. In that light we open todayâs newsletter with a tip of our hat to Tanya Chutkan.
Who is she? Sheâs the federal judge who ruled Tuesday that Donald Trumpâs executive privilege claims around any January 6 documents he is sitting on were bogus. Trump had a right to make such an assertion, she ruled, but the sitting administration was really the controlling authority here. This line from her ruling sums it all up nicely: âPresidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president.âÂ
Chutkan was born in Jamaica in 1962. She had a distinguished career in Washington law firms until Barack Obama nominated her to the bench in 2014. She was confirmed 95â0. Sheâs the judge who sentenced Russian agent and NRA infiltrator-booster Maria Butina to 18 months. And sheâs been clear in recent weeks about the stakes regarding January 6, saying of one defendant: âThere have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government, beyond sitting at home. The country is watching.⦠If Mr Mazzocco walks away with probation and a slap on the wrist, thatâs not going to deter anyone from trying what he did again.â
As for the consequences of the ruling, well ⦠the National Archives is in possession of the relevant documents, and NPR reported Wednesday morning that they could be released as early as this week. Trumpâs lawyers will of course appeal. The whole plan of the Trump team is to stall until after the midterms, when they hope the GOP takes the House and kills the commissionâand, by the way, finds some flimsy excuse to start impeaching Joe Biden, which they will most certainly do.
The noted economist Dean Baker has spent years trying to tell people why our patent and copyright laws help concentrate wealth and worsen economic inequality. Wednesday, Bakerâs concern became big news as The New York Times reports on the bitter struggle between the government and Moderna over who should hold the patent on the companyâs coronavirus vaccine. Aside from the fact that three National Institutes of Health scientists worked with Moderna scientists on sequencing that led to the vaccine, thereâs also the little fact that Moderna was paid by the federal government $1.4 billion to develop the vaccine and $8.1 billion for the doses so far distributed. This is a fascinating story that has vast ramifications for patent law, the broader U.S. economy, and the future distribution domestically and internationally of the vaccine.
In more straight-on political news, New Hampshire Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan got a break yesterday when the stateâs Republican governor, Chris Sununu, said heâd be running for reelection. Sununuâs statement was interesting. He basically said, Iâm having fun as governor and actually getting things done. Why the fuck would I want to go to that dysfunctional place? To drive the point home, he apparently didnât even tell Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott, who heads the GOP senate campaign arm, that he was making the announcement.Â
Sununu was leading Hassan in the polls. She may still have a close race, but now her victory prospects are a lot brighter, and therefore so are her partyâs, to an extent. The other key incumbents who need to win are Nevadaâs Catherine Cortez Masto, Arizonaâs Mark Kelly, and Georgiaâs Raphael Warnock, who looks like heâs going to be running against former how-âbout-them-Dawgs star Herschel Walker.
At NewRepublic.com, Grace Segers takes us inside the aforementioned Sununu announcement; Molly Osberg gives us a smart reminder that just as these recent months have been exciting for organized labor, theyâve also lit a fire under our nationâs union-busting companies and law firms; and Tim Noah wonders why Americaâs corporations are so dead set against their employees getting vaccinated. (Hint: The answer has to do with the political party that thinks tweeting something about killing a member of the House of Representatives is just a little joke.)
Solidarity, Michael Tomasky, editor |
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