A few Trump-related Things

On the censorship front:

Oscar-winning actress Julianne Moore said Sunday it was “a great shock” that her 2007 children’s book “Freckleface Strawberry” wound up among those banned by the Trump administration while under “compliance review” at schools run by the U.S. Department of Defense.

In a post on Instagram, the stymied star wrote her book “is a semi-autobiographical story about a 7-year-old girl who dislikes her freckles but eventually learns to live with them when she realizes that she is different, ‘just like everybody else.’”

The nonprofit literature and writing advocacy group Pen America flagged the “Freckleface Strawberry” inclusion, along with “Becoming Nicole” — and “No Truth Without Ruth” about late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Becoming Nicole was cited recently regarding Nicole Maines' autobiography. If a book is a "fellow traveller" to trans-friendly book, no wonder it was red flagged. Moore:

“It is a great shock for me to learn that my first book, ‘Freckleface Strawberry,’ has been banned by the Trump Administration from schools run by the Department of Defense,” she wrote, adding: “It is a book I wrote for my children and for other kids to remind them that we all struggle, but are united by our humanity and our community.”

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Multiple federal judges have flagged that Trump's birthright citizenship (that doesn't even only apply to children of undocumented immigrants) is unconstitutional. A recent one is a good approachable summary. 

The opinion cites multiple former opinions that is but a taste of those that underline what is wrong with the executive opinion. To cite one from the 1980s involving two undocumented immigrants:

Respondents, a married couple, are natives and citizens of Mexico. Respondent husband illegally entered the United States in 1972. Apprehended, he returned to Mexico in early 1974 under threat of deportation. Two months later, he and respondent wife paid a professional smuggler $450 to transport them into this country, entering the United States without inspection through the smuggler's efforts. Respondent husband was again apprehended by INS agents in 1978. At his request, he was granted permission to return voluntarily to Mexico in lieu of deportation. He was also granted two subsequent extensions of time to depart, but he ultimately declined to leave as promised. INS then instituted deportation proceedings against both respondents. By that time, respondent wife had given birth to a child, who, born in the United States, was a citizen of this country.

Note the last sentence. Another good discussion:

There were different rules for each state, because the 1787 Constitution doesn’t say who was a citizen by birth. Then, we get the 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the majority of the Supreme Court held that regardless of what the northern states said, no person of African descent could be a citizen of the United States within the meaning of the federal Constitution. That was part of a nationalization of slavery, and one of the important causes of the Civil War. 

I have seen various summaries noting how Dred Scott v. Sandford seemingly uniquely decided that birthright citizenship isn't the rule. The specific concern was racial. And, it was a median position that free blacks did not automatically by birth become citizens. 

The core problem of the opinion was to nationalize one particularly racist view of non-citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment cleared the field, assuring everyone would become citizens at birth when born on U.S. soil except for a few outliers (diplomats, invaders, and tribal Native Americans, the last disputed some). 

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What happens next if Mayor Eric Adams' prosecution drops? This provides a helpful discussion of the various possibilities, including Gov. Hochul removing him. I won't hold my breath, but that would be nice. 

Now, I'm sure there is a lot more. But, these are just three things I have found of interesting the last 24 hours or so.