It’s Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy.
(Photo by ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images)
WHERE EVERY SENATOR STANDS ON GUNS AFTER UVALDE
By Erica R. Hendry, @ericarhendry
Managing editor, digital
It’s been a week since a gunman entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and killed 19 students and two teachers. As the community grieves and the Department of Justice investigates why police took so long to act, the debate on Capitol Hill has quickly returned to gun legislation.
On Thursday, The House Judiciary Committee will hold an emergency meeting to consider a package of eight bills Democrats are calling the “Protecting Our Kids Act,” though questions remain about whether the pieces of that legislation will be broken out individually. While prospects are slim for getting the 60 Senate votes needed to advance the proposed regulations -- which include restricting sales of high-capacity magazines and raising the purchase age for semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 nationwide -- Democratic lawmakers say they hope it is the start of some action that will finally address the growing number of mass shootings in the U.S.
We posed a simple question to every member of the U.S. Senate: What action, if any, do you think should be taken on guns following the school shooting in Texas?
You can see how your senator, along with every other member of the chamber, responded here ([link removed]) .
YOUR QUESTIONS, ANSWERED: THE FILIBUSTER
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews ([link removed])
Correspondent
Recently, we asked about your top issues this election year and you delivered, asking questions on topics ranging from climate change to elections, redistricting, abortion and student debt.
But Barbara Pearson asked a question which touches on nearly every headline of the past year, including the current gun debate: “I'd like to know more about getting rid of the filibuster,” she asked. “Why aren't Dems raising these ‘dirty deal’ issues? Or extending the number of Members on the Court.”
First, the short answer: Democrats do not have the votes to attempt either change. Congress and the president do have the power ([link removed]) to change the number of justices, but Democrats do not have the votes.
A bit longer: In the Senate, 50 members caucus with Democrats. To expand the Supreme Court using regular Senate procedure, Democrats would need 60 votes. So, they are short. They could, however, use an alternate, “nuclear” strategy and change the rules so that only 50 votes are needed to change the size of the Supreme Court. To do that, they’d need just 50 votes. BUT, at least three Democrats – Sens. Joe Manchin ([link removed]) of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, both of Arizona ([link removed]) ., have said they oppose the idea of expanding the Supreme Court.
There is ardent support for expanding the court, especially from farther left-leaning lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren ([link removed].) , D-Mass., Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and a host of other progressives ([link removed]) . They raised particular concerns following the leaked draft Supreme Court opinion indicating a majority of justices wanted to reverse Roe v. Wade, erasing the concept of nationwide legal abortion.
But opponents warn that expanding the court to change future rulings, especially on specific and current issues, is dangerous. They argue it is a Pandora’s box, allowing for more political manipulation of the court.
A little more.
* There is a bill to expand the court. The Judiciary Act of 2021. It’s a quick read ([link removed]) , just 73 words (including section headers!). This would change the court from nine justices to 13. The sitting president would be able to nominate for the new spots.
* But President Joe Biden is publicly undeclared on the issue.
A 34-person commission ([link removed]) he created to study the idea was divided, and in its nearly 300-page report ([link removed]) did not offer any specific recommendations. Instead, several commission members said they approached the report as a way to more deeply explore the issues embedded within the question of how many justices the court should have and how they are appointed -- as a guide not necessarily for now, but for the future.
We’d like to hear from you.
What issues are most important to you when considering your own vote this November? What questions do you have about newly drawn districts, or the big-picture political landscape? Drop your questions to
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected]) . Your questions can help guide our coverage in the next several months.
HAPPY 100, LINCOLN MEMORIAL
By Dan Cooney, @IAmDanCooney ([link removed])
Social Media Producer/Coordinator
One hundred years ago this week, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. On May 30, 1922, a segregated audience listened to speeches from President Warren Harding, Chief Justice William Howard Taft and the Tuskegee Institute's Robert Russa Moton.
In the era of Jim Crow, more than 50 years after the end of the Civil War, the cause and meaning of the war and Lincoln’s role had been revised in the public imagination. In his speech, Harding said that ([link removed]) “emancipation [of enslaved people] was a means to the great end — maintained union and nationality.”
“By 1922, the narrative of the Civil War as a tragic break among white men, in which enslaved people have no speaking role — that is firmly in place,” historian Adriane Lentz-Smith told ([link removed]) American Experience PBS in a 2021 film. “We’ll get to the point where people are saying the Civil War was never about slavery. And so Lincoln as the ‘great emancipator’ is gone out of the narrative.”
In a draft of his keynote address ([link removed]) , Moton wrote that the memorial “is but a hollow mockery, a symbol of hypocrisy, unless we together can make real in our national life, in every state and in every section, the things for which [Lincoln] died.” But Taft, head of the memorial commission, told Moton to remove several sections of his speech deemed too controversial.
Designed by architect Henry Bacon, the western-most structure on the National Mall was modeled on the Parthenon in Greece, a symbol of democracy. In the last century, many Americans have exercised their First Amendment rights on its steps or in its shadows. In 1939, contralto Marian Anderson, who had been barred from DAR Constitution Hall because of her race, performed before 75,000 people on the memorial’s steps. ([link removed]) Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the same steps to express his dream for America in front of a crowd of more than 200,000 at the March on Washington in 1963.
Check out more photos from the memorial ([link removed]) over the years.
#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Tess Conciatori, @tkconch ([link removed])
White House Producer
Today is the last day of AAPI Heritage Month, a celebration of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. and their contributions to the country’s history and culture. It was officially recognized as an annual month-long celebration in 1990, and two years later, Congress designated May specifically for commemorations. But the effort to mark this holiday dates back years earlier. Initially, both the House and the Senate pushed resolutions in support of recognizing AAPI heritage -- as a single week.
Our question: Which president signed that early resolution recognizing a weeklong celebration of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across the U.S.?
Send your answers to
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected]) or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.
Last week, we asked: Who were the first father and daughter to both be elected as governors? And what states (yes, states) did they serve?
?
The answer: Gov. John Gilligan of Ohio and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, both Democrats.
Congratulations to our winners: Diane Hill and Barb McIlvaine Smith!
Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.
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