The Supreme Court took no action today on the Trump administration's plans to shut down a program that shields some 700,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation. The court's inaction almost certainly means it will not hear the administration's challenge in its current term, which ends in June. The justices' next private conference to consider petitions seeking review is scheduled for February 15. Even were they to agree to hear the case then, it would not be argued until after the next term starts in October. What does this mean for DACA going forward? So, with the court's inaction today, are people celebrating, or is this just a positive step in a very long journey?
Jailed Press TV anchor Marzieh Hashemi appeared in court in Washington, DC, last week before a grand jury. Her children were also called in to testify and were not allowed to speak with her. No charges have been filed. Her son Hossein Hashemi told the Associated Press that his mother would have been willing to cooperate with the FBI and did not need to be jailed as a material witness. He says no one in his family can fathom why she would be considered a material witness for federal investigators. What going on here?
The Supreme Court on Tuesday revived the Trump administration's policy of barring most transgender people from serving in the military. In a brief, unsigned order, the justices temporarily allowed the ban to go into effect while cases challenging it move forward. The vote was 5 to 4, with the court's five conservative members in the majority and its four liberal members in dissent. What dose this mean for transgender Americans who want to serve in the military, and will there be a ripple effect into other sectors of American society?
According to the New York Times, "When the Trump administration announced last month that it was lifting sanctions against a trio of companies controlled by an influential Russian oligarch, it cast the move as tough on Russia and on the oligarch, arguing that he had to make painful concessions to get the sanctions lifted. But a binding confidential document signed by both sides suggests that the agreement the administration negotiated with the companies controlled by the oligarch, Oleg V. Deripaska, may have been less punitive than advertised." What's going on here? What were the implications on aluminum prices as Trump's sanctions took effect?
A crowd of teenagers surrounded a Native American elder and other activists and appeared to mock them after Friday's Indigenous Peoples March at the Lincoln Memorial. Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky is closing today over security concerns. Protests were originally planned for today outside of the school but were held outside the Diocese of Covington instead. Students from Covington were thrown into the national spotlight over the weekend when a video emerged of one student wearing a Make America Great Again hat facing off with Native American activist Nathan Phillips. Nick Sandmann, a junior at Covington Catholic High School, who said he is the student in the video, said he was trying to defuse a tense situation and denied insinuations that anyone in the crowd was acting out of racism or hatred. How did this story really unfold, and did the media stir up a provocative and sensational visual for a situation that proved to be more complex than originally described?
GUEST:
Carlos Castaneda — Attorney at Garcia & Garcia.
Nargess Moballeghi — Freelance journalist and associate of Marzieh Hashemi's family.
Evan Young — National president of the Transgender American Veterans Association.
Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: The Frozen Republic, The Velvet Coup, and America's Undeclared War.
Joseph L. Graves Jr. — American scientist and the associate dean for research and professor of biological studies at the Joint School for Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, which is jointly administered by North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and UNC Greensboro.
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