Making news: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito came to Heritage last Tuesday for the annual Joseph Story Distinguished Lecture—and made quite a few headlines from his appearance.

• John Malcolm, vice president of Heritage’s Institute for Constitutional Government and director of the Meese Center, asked Alito about his legal career, his judicial philosophy, and the Dobbs case.

New levels mean new devils: Alito said the unprecedented leak of his Dobbs draft opinion in May—nearly eight weeks before the Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling—made the justices targets of assassination in an attempt to prevent them from overturning Roe v. Wade.

• “It was a shock because nothing like that had happened in the past,” Alito said of the leak. “So, it certainly changed the atmosphere at the court for the remainder of last term.” 

Learn more: Justice Alito’s remarks were widely covered by the media with more than 100 broadcast and print mentions. You can watch the entire conversation here.

In the news: The Department of Homeland Security finally made public the latest numbers on illegal immigration encounters at the southern border. It’s another one for the history books: 

• A record 227,647 encounters in September.
• A record 2.7 million encounters in fiscal year 2022, beating last year’s record of 1.9 million. Plus 600,000 known “got aways.” 

Heritage experts weigh in: Former Trump administration officials and visiting Heritage fellows Mark Morgan and Tom Homan called these numbers unacceptable and wildly dangerous.

• Morgan: “We have simply never seen these numbers before in our history, and the Biden open-borders policies are the reason.” 
• Homan: “The time for excuses is over—the next Congress needs to take actual steps to hold this administration accountable for the chaos and carnage they have unleashed on our southwest border.” 

Learn more: Read Morgan and Homan’s full statements here.

Academics in decline: What happens when you lock children out of schools for two years? The biggest decline in math scores in three decades and significant declines in reading comprehension.

• 49 of 50 states had significant declines in eighth-grade math; 33 states had declines in eighth-grade reading.
• Student scores declined more in states where remote learning was more prevalent. 

Root causes: Despite evidence that children were not at risk of COVID-19 from attending class in person, teachers’ unions forced schools to stay closed. 

• “Plus, special interest groups were preoccupied with radical gender ideology and critical race theory during this crisis,” says Lindsey Burke, director of Heritage’s Center for Education Policy. Read her analysis here. 

Stay up to date on education freedom in America by subscribing to the Center for Education Policy newsletter.  

Good news? President Biden wasted no time cheering on the news of the 2.6% gain in the third-quarter GDP. He, and the biased media, should have kept the cork in the champagne bottle.

• Even with this uptick, GDP has been virtually flat for the first nine months of this year. 
• All growth in Q3 came from exports, and most of that was a temporary boost in sales to a desperate Europe. 
• Business investment, however, plunged 8.5%, and consumer spending was anemic.

Bad news: “Far from signs of growth, these data indicate decline,” writes research fellow EJ Antoni in a commentary for Fox Business.  

 

Go deeper: Heritage research fellow Joel Griffith provides a deep dive into the numbers on a special edition of the “Heritage Explains” podcast that was streamed live on Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms. Watch it here. 

Looking for work on Capitol Hill? The maxim “people are policy” is especially true on Capitol Hill. As the next Congress quickly approaches, hiring for hundreds of positions in the U.S. House and Senate will start soon.

• These positions represent unique professional opportunities to go on offense for conservatism in Washington, D.C.    

Send your résumé and spread the word: Are you interested in serving on Capitol Hill? Do you know conservatives who might be interested? 

• Submit your information to the Heritage Job Bank’s Capitol Hill résumé submission portal today, and encourage conservatives in your network to do the same. 

No events are scheduled for November.

• Biden Knows His Policies Increase Energy Costs for Americans 
• Why Are Feds Still Funding EcoHealth Alliance When Its COVID-19 Role Remains Unresolved? 
• Including Noncitizens in Census Devalues Votes of Citizens, Unjustly Alters House Representation 
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Funding Scheme Ruled Unconstitutional 
• Don’t Fall for Democrats’ ‘Voter Suppression’ Myths 
• U.K. Newspaper Takes Pro-Abortion Deception to Next Level 
• Phoenix, Atlanta, and Miami Metros See Fastest Inflation 
• Washington’s New $6 Billion Metro Line Needs Simpler Solutions 
• With Immigration, Biden Tries ‘Open Windows’ Theory 
• Report Says GDP Is Up, But the Underlying Truth Is More Disturbing, Economist Warns 
• Women of Iran Risk Their Lives for Freedom 
• Justice Alito: Roe Leak Made Us ‘Targets for Assassination’ 
• For the Larger Navy U.S. Needs, American Shipping and Shipbuilding Must Be Revived 
• Oklahoma National Guard Deepens Strategic Engagement with Azerbaijan 

“The Kevin Roberts Show”: Brendan Carr, one of two Republican commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, offers an insider’s perspective on how the FCC is taking on Big Tech, the threats posed by apps like China’s TikTok, and what needs to be done to ensure that America has a robust communications network. Listen here. 

 

“Heritage Explains”: tk

 

Check out Heritage’s complete lineup of podcasts here.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s comments at Heritage’s Joseph Story Distinguished Lecture last week generated tremendous press coverage, including by mainstream news outlets like ABC. Watch that clip here. 

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