Originalism and Supreme Court Historical Arguments

Good morning. President Trump backs away from strikes on Iran and once again says a deal is close The AP tells us what to make of this whipsaw week There was just this feeling that for all intents and purposes, this idea of Ceasefire had become rendered meaningless. Why one European country may vote to cap its population And how a Supreme Court J justice came to draw upon the founding fathatherers' drinking habits in an important case It's Friday june twelf. I'm Gidian Resnik in Famita Basu. This is Apple News today. It was a day that began with threats of escalated strikes and ended with optimism We just made a great settlement of the war with the Red. and we're going to be sububject to finalization of documents, which should get done Over the next few days President Trump spoke with reporters from the Oval Office about the makings of a deal that would end the conflict that is now stretched into its fourth month. He didn't expand much on the details, but said that when an agreement is signed potentially as soon as this weekend, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen. It's far from the first time that the president has leveled threats against Iran, only to reel them in and promise an approaching end to the war There is a huge amount of skepticism that this is a groundhog day moment because It's happened several times. Amarmad Hani is a White House reporter for the Associated Press That is the huge caveat this could fall apart just like all those other times when Trump has said I am on the cusp of a deal. We're just going to have to wait and see if this happens. To that end, Iran said on Thursday that it had not reached a final decision on the agreement, despite the fact that Trump said he believed that Iran's new supreme leader had approved it The announcement from the president came after a dramatic week of escalation that seemed as though it could draw Iran, Israel, and the US back into a significant armed conflict in the region Last night would have marked the third day of US strikes on Iran following the downing of an American helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday Mahhani said the president suggested that retaliation had made an impact question he got over and over again is, what's different now? And the best answer he could give of what's different now is They've taken a pounding, like very few other people could take And they just simply want to make a deal and they want to make a deal even a lot more than I do Ultimately, President Trump said that any deal has to ensure that Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon somethinghing it denies it's trying to do. And in turn, Iran has stated that it wants lifting of international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets, and recognition of its control of the strait Mahhani said what could be agreed to next year is essentially the start of an even harder conversation The idea would be to get maybe a sixty day extension is something they've talked about in the past And that would give them the time to focus in on some of the really important issues on Iran's nuclear program and the U. S and Israel trying to get answers and trying to be sated with their concerns essentially the justification for why they started this war to begin with. There are also domestic economic pressures at play, with rising inflation and the prospect of continued high gas prices as Americans travel over the summer So as much as negotiating may have been successful, it's possible that grim economic numbers could be moving the needle. This was a war that he promised would last four to six weeks. and now we're talking about reaching into maybe a fourth month And he may be right that the pounding is taking effect on Iran. But there is also a political pounding that seems to be taking place here in Washington. And that may be inching this along as well. Voters in Switzerland will head to the polls this weekend to decide if the country will be the first in the world population. And compared to previous initiatives, this one has really struck a nerve Jesse Eujevska Stevens is following the selection for the New Yorker from Switzerland It brings together deebates over immigration, the rapid pace of population growth because Switzerland is such an attractive destination. and discontent over what is framed as the consequences of that growth. Switzerland's population has grown by over twenty five percent since the year two thousand, with immigration accounting for most of that increase The Conservative Swiss Peoples Party or SVP for short, argues that growth is straining housing, transportation and public infrastructure So the party wants to cap the population at ten million until twenty fifty to preserve what it says is Switzerland's long term sustainability The SVP has proposed two ways to keep the country below that threshold First, if the population surpasses nine point five million The government would be required to restrict asylum seekers. And critics have pointed out that this seems both harsh and unfair, given that they are such a small proportion of the population and are not driving the population growth that the initiative ostensibly aims to target Last year, just over seven thousand people seeking asylum were granted a refugee permit in Switzerland A small portion of the country's net migration, which is roughly eighty thousand people a year If the population surpasses ten million people for two years in a row then the government would be required to block citizens of the EU from living, working and studying in Switzerland without a visa, and to limit Swiss residents from doing the same. Now that could dramatically reshape the country's economy Throughout the twentieth century Switzerland became one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. And this success, this prosperity has largely been the product of being such an attractive place for foreign workers. So were that agreement to be cancellled, it would have cascading effects on the other bilateral agreements And that would be a major rupture for those relations. One labor economist told Uu Jefka Stevens that this could jeopardize all of the EU's agreements with Switzerland, which is significant as the EU is Switzerland's closest partner in trade and security. The Swiss government opposes the measure, and in fact implored people to vote against it earlier this year But since Switzerland has a direct democracy, voters will get the final say And it's been gaining popularity in recent months In one survey conducted in April, fifty two percent of respondents said they support the measure That's up from forty five percent in March. This language of presenting this population capap as a solution to unchecked growth itself seems to be resonating with a wider spectrum of the population than your average initiative that is simply more aimed against foreign migration And I think that one thing that is interesting or illustrative for other wealthy democracies is This messaging suggests perhaps that the standard sales pitch for immigration that it boosts the economy might not be as persuasive as it once was. June is typically the busiest month for the Supreme Court, and this year is no different The justices have many consequential cases left to decide this term Among them, the legality of mail in ballots, gun rights for drug users, and birthright citizenship. But what's notable about this term is how more and more obscure and sometimes bizarre historical arguments have made it before the court in the name of a legal philosophy known as originalism. Originalism is the belief that the meaning of the Constitution's words, the meaning of its text doesn't change over time. James Romoser is the Supreme Court reporter for the Wall Street Journal So the meaning of the Constitution's provisions when they were ratified is what they should mean today, and that's how the Supreme Court should interpret them. in modern times. Originalism isn't a new concept by any stretch, but Ramosa reports that the court's current conservative majority is embracing it with gusto And that's meant that lawyers on both sides of cases are turning into de facto amateur historians in order to help support their arguments things like dictionary entries from the nineteenth century or obscure newspaper articles or legal treatises written in the seventeen hundreds or the eighteen hundreds to try to figure out what people at the time understood to be the meaning of certain statutes or of certain constitutional provisions, they really have dusted off all kinds of Acane evident? Several arguments this term have devolved into theoretical and academic debates over what historical sources actually mean That came up in oral arguments in US vvers. Himani, the case where justices are considering whether people who use illegal drugs should be allowed to own guns. The challenge for an originalist approach here is that drug use and addiction was not widely understood in the nineteenth century. And so justice Neil Gorsuch reached for another example John Adams took a tankard of hard cider with his breakfast every day James Madison reportedly drank a pint of whiskey every day Thomas Jefferson said he wasn't much of user of alcohol. He only had three or four glasses of wine a night Okay. Are they all habitual drunkards who would be properly disarmed for life under your theory His argument there is if being intoxicated disqualified a person from gun ownership, some of the very people who wrote the Second Amendment might be in that group. Advocates for originalism say that these kinds of arguments, even if they appear strange, are the only way to ensure that modern justices don't infringe on constitutional rights The legal philosophy is also being applied in President Trump's efforts to end birthright citizenship Long believed to extend to any person born on U. S. soil as enshrined in the fourourteenth Amendment They're taking a very contrarian view. And their argument is that the fourourteh Amendment actually has been misunderstood all along and that the original meaning of birthright citizenship in the fourourteh Amendment was never to extend citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants. To defend the position, the administration has used artifacts including an eighteen eighty one document from a Confederate officer trying to deny citizenship to Chinese immigrants and another unsigned letter purportedly written by President Andrew Johnson They are dusting off a number of quirky historical sources to try to make that point. And I use the word quirky because that's the word that Chief Justice John Roberts used in the oral arguments when he was grilling Trump's solicitor general about the historical sources that the administration has marshalled. Romoser notes that Roberts is the only member of the conservative majority who does not identify as an originalist, despite the fact that he is a history buff Here's a few other stories we're following today. Amid a firestorm over his last election, President Trump nominated a permanent replacement to be the next director of National intelligence Jay Clayton, the U. S. attorney in Manhattan, was named after members of both parties revolted over Trump's prior temporary pick, Bill Poutty A housing official with no intelligence experience. Polty's appointment had stalled efforts to renew what is known as FISA, a federal surveillance authority Lawmakers left Washington yesterday after rejecting a short term extension. Clayton is a former Securities and Exchange Commission chair and came recommended by CIA Director John Ratliffe While some Democrats praisise the selection, others said that Trump would need to remove Polty in the interim. The Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled a hearing with Clayton for next week, with the aim of filling the permanent spot soon El Nino has officially begun The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed the phenomenon's presence, which is marked by a warming of the Pacific Ocean near the equator. El Nino has the power to affect weather patterns around the world, likely driving higher temperatures and exacerbating flood and drought conditions Noah said that this year's pattern could be strong enough to rank among the largest events on record leading some scientists to declare it a potential super El Nino. Weather outcomes vary by area as a result of El Ninho. For example, the Middle East could see some relief from drought while places in the Pacific like Hawaii are at an increased risk of hurricanes The pattern typically peaks in winter and causes higher temperatures the following year The previous El Nino in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four coincided with the two hottest years on record And finally tonight, the US men's national team will play their first official match in the World Cup group stage against Paraguay. It'll take place in Los Angeles Brendan Hunt, you might know from Ted Lasso, and one of the hosts of the Apple News original podcast After the Whistle, says that along with Winger Christian Palisic There are two other US players that he'll be watching closely. Two players who are in the spine of the team who are both immensely important and also a little bit injury prone which is the central midfielder Tyler Adams and the central defender Chris Richards Those two guys are just phenomenally phhenomenally important Hunt says he feels pretty good about the US team's chance of making it out of the group stage, where they will also play Turkey and Australia to not get out of the group stage which is not impossible. You know, the U.S. doesn't have any Any mugs in that group, There's no tomato cans, like there's no all star teams either. but It's a low ceiling, but a high floor So it could be tough, but I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't make it out. Beyond that, it's hard to know exactly how the US men's team will fare. But to hear more from Hunt on the team's chances, the players to watch and why a deep run could bring the country together Check out this week's episode of Apple News in Conversation If you're listening in the news app, that is queued up to play for you next If you'reisting in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News in Conversation to find that episode, or just come back to the Apple News Tay feeed tomorrow All new episodes of In Conversation will be available there on Saturdays as well Enjoy the weekend and I'll be back with the news on Monday