The Red Folder

Archived from June 24, 2024.

Key stories for the week, brought to you by Lindsey Zhao and the Red Folder team.

Reading for the sake of reading sucks. Telling yourself to read to win a round is nice but ineffective. This condensed news brief helps you understand current domestic and international issues, analyze the news, and gives you opportunities to read more.

Publishing since January 2024.

Domestic Stories

4 key domestic stories for the week:

1) Supremely Important: A Look at SCOTUS’s Recent Rulings Daniel Song

The Supreme Court might be the highest court in America, but there’s actually a basketball court directly above the Supreme Court chambers. Beyond slam-dunking some esoteric legal arguments, a member of the high court itself, and the 5th Circuit, the Supreme Court has recently issued a flurry of impactful rulings with significant implications for the United States.

As a minor note of interest, the Supreme Court has issued many highly controversial and partisan rulings in recent years, such as the Dobbs decision removing the right to abortion and Students for Fair Admissions, which ended affirmative action at US colleges. However, a rather surprising fact is that most Supreme Court cases are not as sharply divided. An analysis by POLITICO found that only 5 of 57 cases were decided 6-3 with the six Republican appointees all on one side and the three Democratic appointees on the other. In fact, 90% of the 57 cases were decided with at least one liberal justice in the majority. Granted, many of these cases are less controversial, but it still goes to show that there is more potential for cooperation on our highest court than we may think.

Moving on to the controversial cases, first on guns, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Rahimi that a federal law that makes it a crime for people subject to domestic violence restraining orders to own guns does not violate the Second Amendment and is legally sound. This marks a retreat from the unfettered bounds of gun ownership the court seems to suggest with its 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen case, in which the court struck down New York’s requirement that people carrying a handgun outside the home for self-defense must establish “proper cause.” The Bruen case signaled the court’s support for expanded gun rights and decreased gun control regulations, but this most recent ruling that the court is pulling back from continuing to attack gun control regulations. However, the court also ruled in a 6-3 partisan decision to overturn former President Trump’s ban on bump stocks. Bump stocks are gun attachments that increase a semiautomatic weapon's rate of fire to hundreds of bullets per minute. Bump stocks allowed the 2017 Las Vegas shooter to kill 60 people at a concert and gun control advocates assert that the ban should’ve remained in place to prevent expanded access to lethal weapons.

Second, on politics, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that former President Trump can remain on the ballot in Colorado, after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was ineligible to appear on the 2024 ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits insurrectionists from holding office. The court ruled in another 6-3 partisan decision to allow South Carolina to keep using a congressional map that a lower court decided was an illegal racial gerrymander that disenfranchised Black voters. The map moved hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians to different congressional districts to politically benefit GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina’s 1st District. Previously, the court had invalidated an Alabama congressional map that sought to maintain a 6-1 advantage for Republicans congressionally at the expense of black Democratic voters because it violated the Voting Rights Act. However, the South Carolina map was argued under the basis of the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. While the court didn’t officially decide on a ruling, the timing of the ruling means that the gerrymandered map will be used in the 2024 election.

Third, on abortion rights, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that access to the abortion pill mifepristone is legal. However, the court left open for states and localities to individually restrict access to the pill. Mifepristone is very safe and is used for safe abortion procedures, especially in states where other ways to get an abortion are illegal.

With many more rulings to come and just a few weeks remaining in the term, the Supreme Court is more influential and controversial than ever.

Read more here

3) The Tax Relief Act: A Chance at Bipartisan Agreement Rohan Dash

If there’s anything we know about Congress, it’s a lack of bipartisanship. Indeed, polarization has become extreme within the Chamber to the point that for critically needed bills to be passed, a group negotiates for additional terms that favors a particular party to be added. And it’s this very issue that has led to the 118th Congress to be on track to become one of the least productive Congresses in United States history. However, they might finally have an opportunity to beat their reputation.

The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 seems like the perfect bill to be passed. It puts billions of dollars towards reducing the stress of taxes for taxpayers across the nation - a major issue in the economy that citizens have been caring about. This brings economic relief in the form of expanded refundables as well as a revision of current tax percentages.

Specifically, we can see the tax credit in several areas. First, low-income families will observe child tax credit increasing, alleviating economic stress for parents, especially those who have struggled in recent months. On top of that, there's tax breaks for businesses, allowing them to expand, benefitting millions of companies from coast to coast. Furthermore, there's additional tax relief for natural disaster victims, and steps to address the housing shortage crisis in America by reducing requirements to finance homes.

So, why hasn't it been passed yet?

Well, it has - sort of. The Republican-led House passed the bill with a stunning vote of 357-70, with 169 Republicans and 188 Democrats voting for it. Now, it’s up for debate in the Senate. And unfortunately, Republicans in the Senate have not been too kind towards the bill, rather they've opposed it entirely, and even expressed concerns over the bill "making Joe Biden look good", something they definitely don't want in an election year. But that isn't the only issue.

We can turn to Senator Mike Crapo, the senior US senator from Idah and ranking member of the US Senate Committee on Finance. Most Republicans, including minority leader Mitch McConnell, have asked for his advice on this bill, and he's pointed out economic issues with the bill. Thankfully, there is hope, because he stated he likes the business tax breaks.

What does this mean?

It means that there is finally a chance for a bill to be passed, and there can be support on both sides of the aisle. It's up to the two parties to not kill this bill, but to work together and resolve certain disputes, because this can benefit millions of Americans across the nation - whether its families, small business owners, or low income workers. And maybe, just maybe, the perception of this Congress being unproductive can change for the better.