Pardons Show the Need to Downsize DOJ

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

The unprecedented number of presidential pardons as Biden exited and Trump entered the White House demonstrates that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is out of control. DOJ has become an unaccountable, unelected branch of government that is undermining representative democracy.

Incoming President Trump, in his first few hours in office, properly pardoned more than a thousand victims of DOJ prosecutions in the one-sided D.C. venue where Trump supporters cannot get a fair trial. More pardons, such as of Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon for protecting executive privilege against the Democrats’ witch hunt against Trump, will surely be granted soon, too.

Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Pam Bondi, faced hostile questioning during her confirmation hearings but no senator seemed interested in scaling back DOJ such that so many pardons by presidents of both parties would become unnecessary. With an annual budget of nearly $40 billion without any real oversight by Congress, DOJ spends more than the entire annual budget of many states in prosecuting whomever it likes for headline purposes.

With over 10,000 attorneys on its payroll, DOJ is more than twice the size of the biggest private law firm. The vast amount of prosecutions and civil cases brought annually by DOJ could be viewed as a jobs program for attorneys.

DOJ is the most bloated of all federal agencies, and the most destructive. A mere investigation of a small company by the DOJ inevitably drives it out of business, even if it did nothing wrong.

Yet so far the House of Representatives has been unwilling to cut the DOJ’s budget. Elon Musk has not talked much about cutting DOJ in connection with his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) downsizing project, despite how our country flourished the most before DOJ was founded in 1870.

Trump immediately suspended all of Biden’s burdensome regulations, and the Trump Administration could likewise withdraw all of DOJ’s unjustified prosecutions and appeals. DOJ has long-running litigation against Texas to remove a few buoys that protect a sliver of our southern border, for example, and DOJ should end its appeal on that issue immediately.

Many cases are pending in the Supreme Court about which DOJ should also promptly reverse its position to align them with Trump’s successful campaign pledges. One of the biggest is U.S. v. Skrmetti, in which the Biden Administration argued strenuously that Tennessee’s ban on transgender surgeries on minors somehow violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

The Trump Administration could notify the Court that it fully supports this ban on transgender operations on children, as Trump was elected by opposing the “transgender lunacy.” In this and other cases throughout our country, DOJ should be promptly informing courts that the liberal stances previously taken by Biden are repudiated and withdrawn.

In another case pending before the Supreme Court, the Biden Administration is appealing a conservative ruling by the Fifth Circuit against the Food & Drug Administration for sending “manufacturers of flavored e-cigarette products on a wild goose chase” and blocking their sales. This regulatory overreach by the power-hungry FDA illustrates what Trump campaigned against, and the FDA’s appeal should be dropped in this Wages and White Lion Investments case.

In another appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by the Biden Administration of a conservative decision by the Fifth Circuit, the Environmental Protection Agency insists that the venue for challenges by small refineries to the EPA’s burdensome clean air regulations must be limited to Washington, D.C. There the EPA enjoys the home court advantage and a big majority by Democrat-appointed judges.

The Trump Administration should withdraw this appeal and allow the decision against the EPA to remain in place, in Environmental Protection Agency v. Calumet Shreveport Refining. Trump won on his pro-energy platform against suffocating energy production with regulatory burdens, and withdrawing this appeal would fulfill his campaign pledges.

Another case pending before the Supreme Court this year is an appeal of a DOJ prosecution that reinterpreted a federal statute criminalizing false statements, by broadening it to include statements that are true but misleading as in omitting additional related information.

DOJ prosecuted the defendant under 18 U.S.C. § 1014, which prohibits making a “false statement” for the purpose of influencing certain financial institutions or agencies. The statements made by the defendant concerning a loan were true but incomplete, and would not be considered a violation of this criminal statute by many courts.

DOJ should not be using federal resources to prosecute small beer, such as factually true but potentially misleading statements on routine loans. The defendant appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court in Thompson v. U.S., and the Trump Administration should end this prosecution by agreeing that truth should be a valid defense under a federal false statements statute.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Laken Riley Act Is Not Enough

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Legislation named after the dearly departed Laken Riley, a victim of a heinous illegal alien crime, should secure our border and empower President Trump to deport dangerous immigrants without judicial interference. But the bill named the Laken Riley Act accomplishes neither.

Instead, this Democrat co-sponsored legislation tries to authorize courts to rule in favor of state Attorneys General who might sue the federal government to enforce immigration laws. The recent election gave that mandate directly to President Trump, beginning in less than a week, and Congress should be strengthening his hand rather than diffusing power elsewhere.

Democrats are all-too-happy to support this bill and breathe a sigh of relief at how Republicans on Capitol Hill are failing to enact the strong policies against immigration crime that Trump campaigned on. In this narrow window of time when GOP strength is at its zenith, fresh from winning an election based on this issue, congressional Republicans are not pushing for strong border security legislation.

Nursing student Laken Riley was the victim of a horrible, despicable crime, brutally raped and murdered by an illegal alien while she was taking a morning jog on the nearby University of Georgia campus. House Republicans initially designed, introduced and approved this legislation last year in an attempt to counter Biden rather than empower Trump.

Riley’s killer was previously caught after he illegally crossed our southern border, but then released into our country under Biden Administration policy. Subsequently he was arrested but released by New York officials after being charged with attempting to harm a minor there, and he later murdered young Laken Riley while she was innocently jogging in Georgia.

This Laken Riley Act was the first bill taken up for a floor vote in the new 119th session of the House, but it is far weaker than it should be in light of the election results in November. This legislation is nothing like the strong campaign speeches given by Trump to his record-breaking audiences, and this new law will give more power to liberal judges rather than to the incoming President Trump.

This bill gives new authority to state Attorneys General, but half of them are against Trump on this all-important issue such that giving them more power does not help. Officials in sanctuary or pro-immigration cities can easily circumvent the new requirements in this legislation, and already California has allocated $25 million to frustrate Trump’s deportation of dangerous illegal aliens.

Democrats co-sponsored this misnamed (because it is too weak) Laken Riley Act in the Senate, and 48 Democrats in the House voted for this when it passed last week as H.R. 29.

Democrat senators may dilute this legislation further by amendments that the Republican Majority Leader, John Thune (R-SD), has pledged to accommodate. In its current form this bill requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain illegal aliens who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.

Courts typically side with illegal aliens, and the litigation envisioned by this legislation could take years to resolve. Our country cannot wait, and Trump could order DHS to begin deporting dangerous illegal aliens next week if Republicans in Congress would stand up now on this issue.

Congress should be withdrawing jurisdiction from courts over immigration issues to prevent rulings like the recent one by Obama-appointed federal Judge William Kuntz, which requires the Suffolk County, New York, sheriff to pay $60 million for complying with federal detainer requests issued by ICE. The illegal alien criminals were represented pro bono in federal court by a major law firm funded by large corporate clients.

The crimes targeted by H.R. 29 are offenses against property, even petty shoplifting. People who are in our country illegally committing property crimes should be detained, but this bill fails to prevent the monstrous violent crimes that are being committed by illegals.

Unleashing lawsuits against the federal government could mean allowing new use of the courts by liberal states against the Trump Administration. Congress has this completely backwards to expect federal courts to be fixing the flaws in our immigration system, when Congress itself should be doing that.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that States lack Article III standing under the Constitution to compel enforcement of federal immigration laws, and no bill enacted by Congress can specifically overcome that. Reports in the media that this law will overturn a ruling based on the Constitution by the Supreme Court are false, because Congress lacks such authority.

Congress should be enacting a bill to construct a border wall and to withdraw jurisdiction from federal courts to interfere with any deportations by President Trump. Something called the “Laken Riley Act” should include meaningful protections against repetition of the unspeakable crime committed by an illegal alien against her.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Congress Should Stop Funding Woke Teachers

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Beginning January 1st, public school teachers in New Jersey will be less literate but just as liberal under a revision to the state’s certification requirements. Teachers there no longer have to pass a basic skills exam required in roughly 40 states which ensures literacy and simple math aptitude.

This is a travesty in K-12 education, and Congress should not continue to fund it without strings attached. Congress spends a shocking $119 billion annually on K-12 education, which as of 2022 comprised 14% of its overall funding.

Three decades ago, the Supreme Court plainly held that “Congress is free to attach reasonable and unambiguous conditions to federal financial assistance that educational institutions are not obligated to accept,” in its Grove City College v. Bell decision. As Mark Twain quipped, “Everybody complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it,” and Congress should act on this issue now.

Test scores have not recovered to pre-Covid levels, and students are still chronically absent. There is a shortage of public school teachers not because few want these jobs, which feature many vacation days along with excellent health care and pension benefits, but because cumbersome liberal indoctrination is required for mandatory certifications demanded by teachers’ unions to protect their own power.

Regulatory reform by the incoming Trump Administration will be challenged in court on every issue, and likely blocked before taking effect. Liberals will obtain injunctions by activist federal courts in D.C. against every new administrative rule that goes against their playbook, and the D.C. Circuit is controlled by Democrat-appointed judges as seen in the lawfare against Trump and his supporters.

Reforms should be in spending legislation, similar to how Congress ended discrimination by liberal universities against military recruitment by attaching strings to federal funding. The law schools quickly complied to keep the federal money flowing, after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the condition of accepting military recruitment on taking federal money in Rumsfeld v. FAIR (2006).

Congress should condition its funding of public grade and high schools on giving parents more control, such as choosing or firing the principals in their schools and having veto power over objectionable DEI or transgender indoctrination. Schools should be required to inform parents immediately of any transgender requests by their children.

School choice is not a cure-all, as it just failed in three recent ballot initiatives due to opposition by rural Republicans who do not want to divide their limited resources among multiple schools in sparse populations. Voters just rejected taxpayer funding of private schools in Colorado, Nebraska, and Kentucky.

But classical schools, which are thriving in Florida and Texas, are winning. Florida has established an alternative certification process for teachers at these schools, which emphasize the subjects on which Western civilization was built such as basic skills plus advanced topics like Latin, physics, and calculus.

There are 250 classical schools that have opened nationwide since 2020, and this approach has become so popular that last month a school board in south Florida voted to convert a campus into a classical school. Florida enacted a new law last April to make it easier for these classical schools to bypass the union-controlled certification process, overcoming opposition by Florida’s largest teachers' union.

With conservative teacher certification, there are more than 50 classical Florida schools teaching 13,892 students. Florida’s Education Commissioner, Manny Diaz Jr., pointed out in support of classical schools that “I have yet to find a school that is going to put teachers in the classrooms that are not going to be in the best interest of students, and certainly not going to be in the best interest of the performance of their school.”

Meanwhile in New Jersey public schools teachers must complete a Leftist preparation program, as accredited at only liberal-controlled schools, plus a burdensome requirement of 175 field hours. This typically takes an unreasonable one to two years, which means that successful STEM professionals cannot retire or take time off to teach immediately in public schools.

As in New Jersey, a few years ago Democrat-controlled New York State also ended its requirement that public school teachers pass the basic skills exam, known as the Praxis Core Test. New York eliminated this in order to promote DEI in its hiring of teachers, in contrast with McDonald’s that just abandoned the DEI agenda for its huge workforce.

Half of science and math majors indicate their interest in becoming a teacher, and high school pay in these high-demand subjects is better than many college faculty salaries. Yet a severe shortage of high school STEM teachers persists due to union-demanded certification burdens.

Rather than cut the red tape hindering certification of competent teachers, liberals drop testing requirements for basic proficiency skills. The Republican Congress should end this woke approach to education.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.