Listeners want to know from John: did Justice Clarence Thomas let us down with his ruling in this week’s 7 – 2 decision upholding the unique funding structure of Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), which she designed precisely to avoid congressional control as much as possible? John says no, and makes a persuasive three-part case for why Thomas’s opinion is thoroughgoing originalism, and good history to boot. If we want to get rid of Warren’s regulatory handiwork (AND WE DO!), it will be to be done directly by Congress, rather than indirectly by the courts.

This week also marked the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which we have deplored before on account of the poor reasoning for the halfway right result, but a our Article of the Week from our friend Shep Melnick of Boston College draws our attention to some ongoing ambiguities of Brown that still afflict our civil rights law. You’d think after 70 years we might have figured it out, but no—and worse, the ambiguity is likely on purpose, because it suits the shifting strategy and tactics of the identitarian left.

Other topics covered briefly this week include the collapsing case against Trump in Manhattan, Trump’s VP sweepstakes (you can scratch Kristi Noem from the list), the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and King Charles’s ghastly portrait (hard to say which is worse here), Harrison Butker’s cultural butt kick, and, finally, how to devise some tests to judge whether higher education is truly reversing its multi-decade slide into pernicious leftism.

Subscribe to Power Line in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.

Published in: General

There are 5 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Richard Easton Coolidge
    Richard Easton
    @RichardEaston

    This was an excellent program (no surprise). Lucretia missed the best part of one of the Babylon Bees. Reuters fact checked it!

    • #1
  2. WilliamWarford Coolidge
    WilliamWarford
    @WilliamWarford

    Sydney Sweeney is the name Steve was searching for. Yes, she is a much better candidate for the cover of magazines than Sydney Powell. 

    Look at things the right was saying in 2020: Lockdowns bad, Virus obviously leaked from Wuhan lab, DEI bad, Defund the Police bad, Abolishing the SAT would be stupid; Transgender Hysteria bad.

    Look at what the left is saying in 2024: Gosh, maybe shutting the schools was not the best idea: Hmm, looks like the virus may been the result of a lab leak; DEI statements should be abolished (WaPo editorial), We never said defund the police, we’ve restored funding; We’re bringing back the SAT because it’s essential for determining college success; It turns out some doctors might have been overzealous is transitioning minor children.

    They will never say, “We were wrong,” but then again, they don’t need to. Everyone knows. 

    • #2
  3. Richard Easton Coolidge
    Richard Easton
    @RichardEaston

    • #3
  4. WilliamWarford Coolidge
    WilliamWarford
    @WilliamWarford

    Richard Easton (View Comment):

    Wow. That was great. Glad they did it, but the cynic in me says they probably did it so they can say, “We spoof both sides!”, even though the ratio is 1000:1.

    • #4
  5. LibertyDefender Member
    LibertyDefender
    @LibertyDefender

    WilliamWarford (View Comment):
    They will never say, “We were wrong,” but then again, they don’t need to. Everyone knows. 

    Not everyone knows.  They themselves don’t know.

    They need to say that they were wrong. 

    If they don’t, they will always think they were correct.

    • #5
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.