Progressives Pledge to Keep Pushing Biden to Pack Court

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Progressives Pledge to Keep Pushing Biden to Pack Court

(Headline USA) Since Joe Biden ran away with the Democratic presidential nomination in March, leading progressives have accepted him — sometimes grudgingly — as their party’s leader.

But, in the final weeks of the campaign, the Supreme Court vacancy threatens to inflame old divides.

Some activists on the left are pressing Biden to endorse expanding the number of high court justices should he win the White House and Democrats take control of the Senate.

But Biden hasn’t embraced those calls, worried they may cost him votes.

There’s little indication that large swaths of progressives will abandon Biden or back third-party candidates, moves that wounded Democrat Hillary Clinton‘s 2016 bid. But activists insist they will keep pressure on Biden to pursue dramatic reforms to the Supreme Court if Republicans move forward with a plan to quickly approve President Donald Trump‘s pick to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“The majority of Berniecrats will most likely vote for Vice President Joe Biden,” said Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and top adviser to progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. “That doesn’t mean that they are not going to raise hell all the way.”

“Biden should make it clear that he will fight back by expanding the court if he wins,” said Turner, who is founding a firm to advance progressive causes, Amare Public Affairs.

The Constitution doesn’t mandate the number of Supreme Court justices, which has changed over time. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted legislation to “pack the court” by expanding its number of justices, an effort that stalled once the justices began to rule in his favor on policies tied to the New Deal.

Since then, the makeup of the court hasn’t been a prominent issue in national politics. That began to change after Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious 2018 nomination fight. Calls to add justices grew much louder this week in response to the GOP’s rush to fill Ginsburg’s seat before the election, which would leave the court with six conservatives and three liberals.

“The politics of this are moving very, very fast,” said Aaron Belkin, director of Take Back the Court, which advocates for increasing the number of justices. “And under a Biden administration, when the court has the administration handcuffed on Day One, I think the politics are going to be changing even more quickly.”

That puts Biden in a tough spot. As someone who spent 36 years in the Senate, he built a career revering Washington’s institutions. During the 2020 primary, he pointedly declined to join rivals such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren or California Sen. Kamala Harris, who is now his running mate, in being open to court expansion.

During his first extended comments Sunday about Ginsburg’s death, Biden appealed to the few remaining moderate Senate Republicans to buck their party’s leadership, rather than to progressives looking for him to support larger court.

Since then, Biden has largely sought to avoid the issue as he’s campaigned in battleground states, preferring instead to focus on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and high unemployment. He ducked a question about changes to the court during an interview with a Wisconsin television station, saying a response would “shift all the focus.”

Biden has also said Democrats should concentrate on making it clear for voters why the GOP push to quickly fill Ginsburg’s seat is a “gigantic mistake and abuse of power.”

Some progressives said Ginsburg’s death laid bare why they’re backing Biden.

“Voting for Joe Biden is not about whether you agree with him. It’s a vote to let our democracy live another day,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Instagram last week.

Just getting Biden elected might not be enough for everyone, though. Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, called the coming Senate nomination fight Biden’s chance to offer a “first big show of force as leader of the Democratic Party.”

“He can quickly unify Democrats in saying no confirmation until after inauguration,” Green said. “And promising to expand the court if Republicans do an end run around democracy.”

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Officials Plead for Calm Amid Violence over Breonna Taylor Case

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Officials Plead for Calm Amid Violence over Breonna Taylor Case

(Headline USA) Authorities pleaded for calm while activists vowed to fight on Thursday in Kentucky’s largest city, where a gunman wounded two police officers during violent protests following the decision not to charge officers for killing Breonna Taylor.

Outrage over a grand jury’s failure to bring homicide charges against the officers who burst into the black woman’s apartment six months ago set off a new round of riots Wednesday in several American cities. The state attorney general said the investigation showed officers acted in self-defense when they returned gunfire from Taylor’s boyfriend.

Louisville officers declared an unlawful assembly after they said fires were set in garbage cans, several vehicles were damaged and stores were broken into. A 26-year-old man was arrested and charged with firing multiple gunshots at police and wounding two officers.

“Violence will only be a source of pain, not a cure for pain,” said Mayor Greg Fischer. “Many see Breonna Taylor’s case as both the tragic death of a young woman and the continuation of a long pattern of devaluation and violence that black women and men face in our country, as they have historically.”

“The question obviously is: What do we do with this pain?” the mayor asked. “There is no one answer, no easy answer to that question.”

Activists, celebrities and everyday Americans have called for charges against police since Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was shot multiple times by officers after one of them was fired upon and wounded by her boyfriend while conducting a raid in a narcotics investigation in March.

The officers had a no-knock warrant, but the investigation showed they announced themselves before entering, said state Attorney General Daniel Cameron. The warrant was connected to a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside.

Along with George Floyd, a black man who died during a confrontation with police in Minneapolis, Taylor’s name became a rallying cry during nationwide riots this summer that called attention to alleged systemic racism and demanded police reform, while torching businesses and vandalizing both private and public property.

Activists said they would press on with their calls for justice after a single officer was charged Wednesday with wanton endangerment for shooting into apartments neighboring Taylor’s.

“In our distress, we reaffirm our dedication to the eradication of systemic racism in our city,” the group Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice said in a statement. “We will keep showing up, speaking up, and joining the movement for systemic change led by black people.”

Louisville interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder said the two officers shot during protests were “doing well and will survive their injuries.”

Maj. Aubrey Gregory, a Louisville officer for more than 20 years, was shot in the hip and was treated and released from the hospital. Officer Robinson Desroches, who joined the force 18 months ago, was shot in the abdomen and underwent surgery. Schroeder said he was in stable condition.

Larynzo D. Johnson, 26, was charged in the shootings with two counts of assault on a police officer and multiple charges of wanton endangerment of police officers. An arrest citation said police had video of Johnson shooting at officers as they tried to disperse a crowd. It was not clear if he had a lawyer.

In Washington, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned the violence in his home state and called the officers’ shootings acts of “despicable cowardice that must be met with the full force of the law.”

The FBI is still investigating potential violations of federal law in connection with the raid at Taylor’s home.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Public Opinion Turns AGAINST Race ‘Protests’ as Americans Realize It Really Means RIOTS

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Public Opinion Turns AGAINST Race ‘Protests’ as Americans Realize It Really Means RIOTS

(Headline USA) As the decision in Kentucky to bring charges against only one of three police officers involved in a raid that killed Breonna Taylor sparks renewed protests nationwide, a new survey finds support has fallen for demonstrations against “systemic racism” as they have turned out to only be an excuse for brazen violence.

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 44% of Americans disapprove of riots in response to police actions against black Americans, while 39% approve. In June, 54% approved. The new survey was conducted Sept. 11-14, before Wednesday’s announcement that a lone Louisville police officer would be charged in the Taylor case, but not for her actual death.

Overnight, rioters and demonstrators in cities from New York to Las Vegas marched through streets and chanted Taylor’s name. Two officers were shot and wounded in Louisville, where authorities made close to 100 arrests on charges of damaging businesses, refusing to disperse after curfew and unlawful assembly.

The poll finds the percentage of Americans who believe police violence unequally targets black Americans and that greater consequences for police brutality are necessary have also fallen from June, when an AP-NORC survey found sweeping changes in how Americans view these issues.

The June survey followed the late May killing of George Floyd during a confrontation with Minneapolis police, which renewed focus on Taylor’s earlier death, in March. On Wednesday, a Kentucky grand jury declined to charge any officers for their role in Taylor’s killing; she was shot multiple times after officers entered her home during a narcotics investigation after her boyfriend shot at them first, despite the officers announcing themselves.

It was Floyd’s death in Minneapolis — captured on video by witnesses — that sparked several months of riots in which hundreds of thousands of Americans protested against alleged systemic racism and police brutality, while others — including President Donald Trump — expressed solidarity with police and law enforcement officers.

The new poll finds the recent shift in opinion is pronounced among white Americans and Republicans, whose views on police violence and racial inequity in policing look closer to the way they did in 2015 after the high-profile police killings of some black men. Just 35% of white Americans approve of the protests now, while 50% disapprove. In June, 53% approved, while 34% disapproved.

Among Latinos, 31% approve, compared with 44% in June; 63% of Black Americans support the protests, down from 81%, with more now saying they neither approve nor disapprove.

“I was supportive back in June, but after seeing everything up until now, I’m almost dead against them,” said Dave Hipelious, 63, of New Lenox, Illinois, who is a retired pipe fitter in the energy industry.

Hipelious, who is white, said his support for the protests soured when he saw violent unrest, arson and looting following Floyd’s death.

“I was a pretty wild young man,” Hipelious said. “Every time the police stopped me, and every issue I had with them, I was completely in the wrong. I do believe they are doing their job right.”

Eighty-four percent of black Americans, but just 42% of white Americans and 50% of Latinos, say police more often use deadly force against a black person than a white person. While 74% of black Americans say the criminal justice system is too lenient when officers cause injury or death, 47% of white Americans and 50% of Latinos say the same.

The change also comes after months of political sparring between Democrats and Republicans, including Trump.

Among Republicans, 75% say they disapprove of the riots, up from 56% in June. Just 9% approve, down from 29% then. And more Republicans now describe “protests” as mostly or all violent, 52% vs. 36%. Among Democrats, 70% approve, and close to half describe them as mostly or all peaceful. Still, roughly as many describe them as a mix of both.

BriAndia Andrews, 21, of Bloomington, Illinois, who is black, said she believes most of the protests have been done “correctly.” Still, she feels “our voices are not going to be heard once you have people looting and stuff like that.”

Given how race in America has become a key focus of politics this year, Andrews said she believes opinions about the protests among white Americans and Republicans only changed because of Trump’s rhetoric.

“If you’re a Trump supporter and you were also protesting, that could have influenced your opinion of the protests,” she said.

Overall, Americans are less likely than they were in June to say deadly force is more commonly used against a black person than a white person, 50% vs. 61%. And fewer now say that officers who cause injury or death on the job are treated too leniently by the justice system, 52% vs. 65%.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Classless Leftists Jeer as Trump Pays Respects at Court to Ginsburg

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Classless Leftists Jeer as Trump Pays Respects at Court to Ginsburg

(Headline USA) President Donald Trump was booed Thursday as he paid respects to late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

He plans to nominate a replacement this weekend for the liberal justice.

The president and first lady Melania Trump stood silently at the top of the steps of the court and looked down at Ginsburg’s flag-draped coffin, which was surrounded by white flowers.

Ginsburg’s death has sparked a controversy over the political balance of the court just weeks before the November presidential election.

Moments after Trump arrived, booing could be heard from spectators about a block away from the court building.

They chanted “vote him out” as the president stood near the coffin.

Trump walked back into the court as the chants grew louder.

As his motorcade returned to the White House, there were also chants of “Breonna Taylor” from some spectators standing on the sidewalk.

Their calls came one day after it was announced that a Kentucky grand jury had brought no charges against Louisville police for her killing during a drug raid connected to a suspect who no longer spent time at Taylor’s home.

Trump has called Ginsburg an “amazing woman.”

Her body will lie in state at the Capitol on Friday, the first time a woman receives that distinction, and only the second time it will be bestowed on a Supreme Court justice.

William Howard Taft, who had also served as president, was also recognized in such a manner.

The body of Rosa Parks, a private citizen and not a government official, previously has lain in honor at the Capitol.

Ginsburg will be buried alongside her husband, Martin, in a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery next week. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010.

Meanwhile, the president is expected to announce his nominee to replace Ginsburg on Saturday.

He has said he will select from a list of five women.

Republicans are working to move quickly to a confirmation vote, possibly even before the Nov. 3 election.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Shields, Supplies Unloaded from U-Haul Truck for Rioters in Louisville

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Shields, Supplies Unloaded from U-Haul Truck for Rioters in Louisville

Law enforcement were not the only ones who appear to have been preparing in advance for violent riots in Louisville, Kentucky, on Wednesday.

At least two police officers were critically injured in the riots after Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced that the officers involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylor would not be directly charged for her death.

Video that circulated on Twitter showed a U-Haul truck handing out shields, picket signs and other supplies to the rioters.

The operation behind the mysterious van was the California-based Bail Project, according to reports by the National File.

Among its wealthy patrons is Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who contributed $11 million to social-justice groups via the #startsmall initiative with singer Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation.

Despite its seedy objectives, the Bail Project was one of those beneficiaries, along with other groups like Black Lives Matter that have sought to mask their radical, anti-democratic objectives behind a thin veneer of civil-rights advocacy.

Other celebrity supporters of the Bail Project include Virgin Group’s billionaire founder Richard Branson, Lethal Weapon actor Danny Glover and musician John Legend.

The group also reportedly has ties to George Soros‘s Open Society Foundations, with some of its top officials having cut their teeth as Soros Justice Fellows.

The driver of the truck was Louisville-based “bail disruptor” Holly Zoller, whom Twitter users noted had a history of appearing on the scene during violent protests such as a 2017 clash in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Some reports indicated that Zoller was posing as a U-Haul employee and raised questions as to whether the van-rental company might also have supported the riot effort. However, there was no evidence to substantiate the speculation.

Zoller, herself, confirmed her involvement in a recorded phone call, downplaying the actions before cutting the interview off for legal reasons.

“We handed out supplies. That’s it,” Zoller said. “… Umbrellas, water, masks, goggles, gloves.”

According to prior Senate testimony from Homeland Security officials, groups like Antifa have often relied upon innocuous-seeming objects like umbrellas to engage in urban guerilla tactics.

While concealing sharp objects and weapons in them, the organized anarchist and domestic terrorism groups blend in with throngs of otherwise—presumably—nonviolent demonstrators in order to foment civil unrest and promote conflicts with law-enforcement.

The Bail Project’s most notable contributions to Wednesday’s riots appeared to be shields and banners with sometimes obscene anti-police messages that exhorted violence.

However, Zoller shrugged off the messaging, asserting her First Amendment rights. “What does it matter what I posted on a sign?” she asked.

Many on the Left, including members of Congress and prominent media outlets, have robustly denied that groups like Antifa are part of a broader, well-funded anti-government network, insisting that they are an ideology and not an organization.

However, the presence of trained agitators has raised suspicions and alarm since the recent spate of riots began in June following the death of George Floyd.

In the immediate aftermath, rumors abounded that pallets full of bricks were among the items being dropped off in the middle of inner-city hot-spots.

NC’s Republican Lt. Gov. Asks DOJ to Investigate Democrat Gov.’s Election-Meddling

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NC’s Republican Lt. Gov. Asks DOJ to Investigate Democrat Gov.’s Election-Meddling

After North Carolina‘s Democrat governor and attorney general colluded with the state Board of Elections to rig voting rules suspiciously in their favor, the Republican lieutenant governor pushed back by calling for a formal Justice Department investigation.

“The fact that an executive agency would dare enter into an agreement that attempts to make substantial changes to our election law less than six weeks before the election raises serious concerns about the motives of all involved,” wrote Lt. Gov. Dan Forest in a letter to US Attorney General William Barr. “It also raises serious legal concerns.”

Forest also happens to be the Republican challenger taking on Democrat incumbent Roy Cooper in the upcoming gubernatorial race.

But Cooper, whose 2016 victory over then-incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory came amid looming accusations of illegal ballot-harvesting, has not relented in his efforts to interfere with the electoral process.

In fact, alongside state Attorney General Josh Stein, the authoritarian governor has sought to leverage his power by radically transforming the once bipartisan elections board.

Cooper “has fought tooth-­and-nail against the Board of Elections being an independent body rather than a partisan body under his complete control,” Forest wrote.

On Wednesday, the board’s two remaining Republican members resigned in protest after being duped by Stein’s office into a settlement agreement that they were told would help preserve election integrity amid the ongoing coronavirus panic.

Instead, the arrangement effectively eradicated many safeguards that the state’s GOP-led legislature recently passed while completely circumventing the duly-elected lawmakers in favor of activist left-wing judges.

“As you may be aware, liberal groups from Washington D.C. have swarmed into North Carolina to file lawsuit after lawsuit against North Carolina, seeking to change, by judicial and executive fiat, laws that were constitutionally passed by our General Assembly,” Forest wrote.

“… They have effectively gutted provisions that ensure a quick resolution of the election, witness requirements for absentee ballots, and the requirement that the in-person drop-off of absentee ballots be by the voter or the voter’s near relative,” he said.

Ironically, the effort marks a full 180-degree flip–flop from the position that state Democrats—supported by notorious election-stealing lawyer Marc Elias—argued during an attempt last year to reverse the results of a 2018 congressional election by claiming ballot harvesting had tainted the outcome.

Despite previously alleging that a lone independent contractor employed by Republican candidate Mark Harris for local get-out-the-vote initiatives had thrown democracy into disarray, necessitating a complete do-over, Elias and others have now lent their vocal support to measures that would actively loosen and undermine ballot-harvesting restrictions.

Rep. Dan Bishop, the Republican who replaced Harris on the ballot and ultimately prevailed in last year’s special election for the 7th congressional district, joined other party leaders in denouncing the egregious hypocrisy.

“A year after Democrats’ national lawyer Marc Elias nullified a Republican congressional election victory with a withering attack on alleged absentee ballot harvesting, he has reversed position to attack the laws against ballot harvesting,” Bishop wrote in a statement.

“In a lawsuit filed in August, Elias alleged that these requirements are so onerous that they deprive his Democrat plaintiffs of due process and a free election,” he continued. “These claims didn’t pass the straight-face test, but the Democrat defendants promptly surrendered to the Democrat plaintiffs.”

Conservative Media Face Violent Assaults and More While Covering Riots

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Conservative Media Face Violent Assaults and More While Covering Riots

Among the many disturbing reports of anti-police violence and arson emerging from a new spate of race riots on Wednesday, at least two conservative journalists appear to have been critically wounded by the leftist protesters.

Infowars reporter Savanah Hernandez was assaulted and robbed while covering the unrest in Austin, Texas, the site reported.

Hernandez had spent the evening gathering high-impact footage that appeared to show tensions between white Antifa interlopers and black demonstrators protesting the dearth of charges for Louisville police officers in the death of Breonna Taylor.

In Asheville, North Carolina, meanwhile, SKYline News reporter Chad Nesbitt was hospitalized with a brain injury after being assaulted, reported the Nationalist Review.

According to one witness account, a friend of Nesbitt’s was pushed into him, causing him to crack his skull on a parking meter near the city’s police department.

Another Twitter-user suggested that the rioters may have bashed his skull on a fire hydrant.

Rioters reportedly continued to hover over the unconscious Nesbitt afterward, claiming “no one is touching” him.

Some also celebrated his life-threatening injury on social media, referring to Nesbitt as a “troll who collabs w/nazis.”

Among those sending their sympathies to Nesbitt and his family was Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who is currently running for governor of the state.

In addition to the injuries to journalists, the Daily Caller said that its reporters were arrested as part of a mass detention while covering the riot in Louisville.

And TownHall’s Julio Rosas, one of the most prominent names to emerge in conservative-media coverage of the ongoing race riots, was doxed by Antifa, who tweeted his location while on the scene in Louisville.

Material threats aside, conservative media also continuing to wage an ongoing battle against tech-company censorship.

YouTube controversially continued to age-restrict videos depicting the violence, preventing them from being playable on outside websites if embedded.

Twitter and Facebook also were filtering many of the shocking scenes behind warnings that required viewers to click in order to access them.

Democrats Scramble to Fix Mail-In Ballot Scheme in Pa. That Could Backfire

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Democrats Scramble to Fix Mail-In Ballot Scheme in Pa. That Could Backfire

(Headline USA) Democrats are launching a digital ad targeting Pennsylvanians voting by mail to explain how to correctly fill out and return the ballots, hoping to avert worried predictions that 100,000 votes or more could be invalidated because the ballots aren’t put in the proper envelope.

The so-called naked ballots have become a huge concern for Democrats in the state since the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week — in a broad decision that otherwise imposed expansive leniency on voting that mostly favored Democrats’ desires — that ballots had to be rejected if not enclosed in the proper secrecy envelope.

The ruling was a victory for President Donald Trump‘s campaign in the battleground state.

Democrats so far have been far more likely than Republicans to request mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania and the rest of the country.

Trump won Pennsylvania by a mere 44,000 votes in 2016, and polls show a close race between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

A 30-second digital ad released Thursday walks voters through the process of correctly filling out and returning a Pennsylvania absentee ballot.

The June primary was the first election with widespread mail voting in the state and most voters have little experience with the method.

“Remember, you must place the ballot in the secrecy envelope first for your vote to count,” the ad’s male narrator says.

After walking voters through a four-step process, he closes by saying: “That’s all there is.”

The ad is aimed at voters who have already requested a mail-in ballot.

“With vote-by-mail requests surging, it’s important that every voter using a mail ballot for the first time has all the information they need so that their ballot will be counted, including the importance of sealing their ballot in the secrecy envelope,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.

The Democratic Party said it and the Biden campaign will also engage in additional outreach, including videos of various political leaders correctly filling out a mail ballot, to combat the problem.

Philadelphia’s top elections official, a Democrat, this week warned of “electoral chaos” in Pennsylvania if the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature does not clarify state law to allow counties to count mail-in ballots returned without secrecy envelopes.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Two Louisville Officers Shot as Cities Erupt Over Breonna Taylor Non-Charges

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Two Louisville Officers Shot as Cities Erupt Over Breonna Taylor Non-Charges

(Headline USA) Hours after a Kentucky grand jury brought no charges against Louisville police for Breonna Taylor‘s death and rioters took to the streets, authorities said two officers were shot and wounded Wednesday night during the demonstrations expressing anger over the killings of Black people at the hands of police.

Interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said a suspect was in custody but did not offer details about whether that person was participating in the demonstrations.

He says both officers are expected to recover, and one is undergoing surgery.

He says the officers were shot after investigating reports of gunfire at an intersection where there was a large crowd.

Several shots rang out as rioters in downtown Louisville tried to avoid police blockades, moving down an alleyway as officers lobbed pepper balls, according to an Associated Press journalist.

People covered their ears, ran away and frantically looked for places to hide.

Police with long guns swarmed the area, then officers in riot gear and military-style vehicles blocked off roadways.

The violence comes after prosecutors said two officers who fired their weapons at Taylor, a black woman, were justified in using force to protect themselves after they faced gunfire from her boyfriend. The only charges were three counts of wanton endangerment against fired Officer Brett Hankison for shooting into a home next to Taylor’s with people inside.

The FBI is still investigating potential violations of federal law in connection with the raid at Taylor’s home on March 13.

Ben Crump, a lawyer for Taylor’s family, denounced the decision as “outrageous and offensive,” and protesters shouting, “No justice, no peace!” immediately marched through the streets.

Scuffles broke out between police and protesters, and some were arrested. Officers fired flash bangs and a few small fires burned in a square that’s been at the center of protests, but it had largely cleared out ahead of a nighttime curfew as demonstrators marched through other parts of downtown Louisville. Dozens of patrol cars blocked the city’s major thoroughfare.

Rioters also inflicted destruction in cities like Seattle, Portland, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Asheville, NC.

Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was shot multiple times by officers who entered her home during a narcotics investigation. State Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is black, said that while the officers had a no-knock warrant, the investigation showed they announced themselves before entering. The warrant used to search her home was connected to a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside.

Along with the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, Taylor’s case became a major touchstone for nationwide riots. Taylor’s image has been painted on streets, emblazoned on protest signs and silk-screened on T-shirts worn by celebrities. Several prominent African American celebrities joined those urging that the officers be charged.

The announcement drew sadness, frustration and anger that the grand jury did not go further. The wanton endangerment charges each carry a sentence of up to five years.

Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said he authorized a limited deployment of the National Guard. He also urged Cameron to post online all the evidence that could be released without affecting the charges filed.

“Those that are currently feeling frustration, feeling hurt, they deserve to know more,” he said.

Cameron said the officers acted in self-defense after Taylor’s boyfriend fired at them. He added that Hankison and the two other officers who entered Taylor’s apartment announced themselves before entering — and so did not execute the warrant as “no knock,” according to the investigation. The city has since banned such warrants.

“According to Kentucky law, the use of force by (Officers Jonathan) Mattingly and (Myles) Cosgrove was justified to protect themselves,” he said. “This justification bars us from pursuing criminal charges in Miss Breonna Taylor’s death.”

Cameron said an FBI crime lab determined that Cosgrove fired the bullet that killed Taylor.

Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire when police burst in, hitting Mattingly. Walker told police he heard knocking but didn’t know who was coming in and fired in self-defense.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

GOP Senators See Big Potential Payoff in Coming Court Battle

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GOP Senators See Big Potential Payoff in Coming Court Battle

(Headline USA) At a rally late Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Trump told supporters how surprised he was in 2016 over voter reaction to the Supreme Court.

That February, just before a crucial presidential primary debate in South Carolina, the sudden death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia sent shockwaves through Washington.

Republicans remember the moment well: Trump on the debate stage started naming possible replacements.

It was a jaw-dropping instant for advocates who have been working to restructure the courts since the Reagan era. And all the more stunning from Trump, a newcomer to politics who had supported abortion just years earlier but was now naming conservative judicial champions.

“I was like, wow, I didn’t see that coming,” said Carrie Severino, president of the conservative advocacy group Judicial Crisis Network.

Now as Republicans strain to hold their slim majority in the Senate, they believe another court battle in the countdown weeks to the 2020 election will similarly bring wayward Trump voters back into the fold—or at least they’ll go down in defeat having secured the long-sought goal.

Despite Democrats’ threats—including the possibility of arson and violence—they’re hoping the battle over filling the seat left vacant by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg will help them keep their Senate majority as well as Trump’s job in the White House.

Beyond the Nov. 3 elections, faced with a radical Left that has sought to leverage judicial activism to undermine some of the nation’s most basic founding principles, some feel the generational goal of a solidly conservative court is worth the fight.

“Most of us came to the Senate, ran for the Senate, in a lot of ways for big moments like this—for an opportunity to fill seats on the Supreme Court,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the GOP whip who is not up for reelection this year.

Whatever their personal views of Trump and his presidency, Republicans also see a political payoff in sticking with him and plunging ahead to confirm his pick to fill the court vacancy before the election.

By Wednesday, they were preparing for confirmation hearings as soon as Oct. 12, with a possible full Senate vote Oct. 29. Trump is to announce his choice Saturday.

“The process is going to go very quickly,” Trump said at the White House.

The president suggested doing away with confirmation hearings, and said later he wants the new justice confirmed before the election. “It’s better,” he said about the timing.

Democrats, led by presidential nominee Joe Biden, continued to complain that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led Republicans in refusing to consider a nominee of President Barack Obama nominee in February 2016, long before that year’s election.

Although several recent justices have been confirmed in a shorter period of time, no Supreme Court nominee has been confirmed by the Senate so close to balloting.

But Republicans sense a reward greater than risk.

“It’s a really exciting time,” said Severino. “This is a new era.”

The top contender for Trump’s nomination is Amy Coney Barrett, a judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the Midwest, though the president may also meet Friday with Judge Barbara Lagoa in battleground Florida.

There’s little the Democrats can do to block it. The Senate is controlled by Republicans, 53-47, with a simple majority needed for confirmation. Under Senate rules, Vice President Mike Pence can break a tie.

In contrast with Trump, whose list of potential justices in 2016 helped reassure uneasy conservatives, Biden had avoided saying whom he would hypothetically pick.

His own Democrat base remains sharply divided between traditional establishment liberals and extreme progressives, who have actively embarked upon pressure campaigns to fill the court with like-minded radicals.

Biden has hinted at the possibility of packing the court by adding additional left-leaning justices if elected, raising the stakes of the November race even higher.

It also may open up a Pandora’s box that would see future presidents continue piling on even more of the lifetime appointed federal jurists.

Some moderate Democrats see that as a losing issue. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., whose seat is considered to be among the most vulnerable in the coming election, this week proposed a constitutional amendment to prevent future court-packing.

For vulnerable Republicans facing similar prospects, on the other hand, the court battle offers the prospect of a fresh jolt of enthusiasm.

One by one, GOP senators facing tough reelections—Martha McSally in Arizona, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Steve Daines in Montana and Joni Ernst in Iowa—all threw their support behind voting on Trump’s choice.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee who faces his own tough race in South Carolina, estimated it will help him in win.

Even in Colorado, where the blue-trending politics are more uncertain, Sen. Cory Gardner joined the push for a new justice—better to be seen as part of the movement, despite the political risks.

“These sorts of fights bring Republicans together,” said Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., the party’s Senate campaign chairman.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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