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Elon Musk Buys Twitter. Will He Bring Back Banned Users? - Tesla CEO Elon Musk is buying Twitter. News broke Monday afternoon that the social media platform had accepted Musk’s $44 billion offer to buy it. Musk, who also runs the rocket company SpaceX, previously had expressed frustration at Twitter’s perceived anti-free speech policies. The billionaire began seriously implying that he might buy Twitter following the platform’s series of high-profile bans last month. We “look forward to seeing Musk and Twitter address the rampant and deeply entrenched anti-conservative bias their platform has long exhibited and am confident this will allow for more effective and productive discourse in the future.” Heritage Experts: Douglas Blair and Annelise Butler
Oral Arguments at Supreme Court Offer Glimmer of Hope for Praying Coach in First Amendment Case Against School District - The questions facing the justices are these: When a public-school employee says a brief, quiet prayer by himself while at school and visible to students, is he engaged in government speech that lacks any First Amendment protection? And if not, assuming that kind of religious expression is private and protected by the First Amendment, does the Constitution’s Establishment Clause require the public school to prohibit it anyway? Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement’s arguments relied heavily on the trial court’s finding and the school district’s that the apparent “endorsement” of religion was the only reason given by the school district for Kennedy’s firing. In fact, in multiple letters exchanged during the pre-litigation phase, the school district mentioned “endorsement of religion” eight times but said nothing about other concerns that might have prompted his termination. Clement stressed that previous cases make clear that a school does not endorse private, religious speech if it fails to censor it. But the Ninth Circuit seemed to have forgotten that principle. Heritage Expert: Sarah Parshall Perry
Biden Administration Should Lose Its Mask Mandate Appeal - The Justice Department has filed what hopefully is a doomed appeal of a federal judge’s order Monday vacating the federal mask mandate for airline, train, and bus passengers. District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of Florida ended what had become a severe (and unjustified) annoyance to travelers, judging by the cheers that erupted on flights across the country when she issued her decision in Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Biden. If the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals follows the law, the Biden administration will lose again because, contrary to the claims of critics who are busy attacking her personally, Mizelle’s opinion is well researched and well written. The Biden administration’s attempt to reimpose a mask mandate that is immensely unpopular among Americans who no longer have to wear a mask practically anywhere else is like trying to put a cork back in a bottle of champagne. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakovsky
Food Price Inflation Continues to Worsen. Here’s What Should Be Done About It. - Food prices are continuing to rise at an alarming rate. The 8.8% year-over-year increase (March 2022 compared with March 2021) is the largest in more than 40 years. Over the past seven months, each month’s year-over-year food price increase has been above 4% and each successive month has been higher than the previous month (starting at 4.6% in September and reaching 8.8% in March). This upswing in food prices is being reflected across multiple food categories, from fresh fruit (10.1%) to fish and seafood (10.9%). Skyrocketing food prices are regressive and particularly damaging to low-income Americans, as they spend a greater share of their after-tax income on food compared with higher-income Americans.
Heritage Experts: Joel Griffith and Daren Bakst
Congress’ Overspending Is the Problem, Not a Lack of Tax Dollars - The left-wing Tax Policy Center reported that in 2021, 57% of Americans didn’t pay federal income taxes. The reason that this eye-popping statistic is higher than usual is the myriad “stimulus” checks distributed by the IRS last year. Those checks more than offset the income taxes paid or withheld from the average American’s paychecks. Of course, even Americans that ostensibly didn’t pay income taxes are now paying the price for those deficit-financed stimulus checks in the form of 8.5% inflation. And besides the income tax, working Americans—directly or indirectly—pay plenty of other taxes, from the payroll tax to tariffs. Americans pay more federal taxes as a percentage of gross domestic product today than the historical norm. Heritage Expert: Preston Brashers