Station Selected:
Beginning with both the warning and the hope of journalist Brian Williams about the future of the United States, an in-depth presentation on and analysis of the two, landmark oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court this week—the first on whether the discredited but still dangerous “independent state legislature theory” should be adopted and applied (in whole or in part), and the second on whether a provider of commercial services, invoking free speech and religious liberty rights, has the lawful authority to disregard a state law prohibiting discrimination based on, among other immutable characteristics, sexual orientation. [A series of terrifically insightful calls from broadcast listeners animated much of this discussion, including practical and rhetorical questions about the cataclysmic consequences if the High Court “gets these cases wrong.”]
Then, updates on three, highly important legal events of recent days—including the status of the request by the Justice Department to hold the office of former President Trump in contempt for failure to produce all of the classified and other records illegally taken by him to the Mar-a-Lago venue and other locations in early 2021; the meaning and likely import of the criminal (felony) conviction of the Trump Organization for tax fraud and other financial crimes in a New York state court; and the announcements by the House Select Committee on the January 6 insurrection of its intention to make “criminal referrals” to the Justice Department and, no less important, to release its long-anticipated official report on its factual findings and legislative proposals—expected on Friday, December 16. [The “Morning Cannolis” broadcast the following day, Saturday, December 17, will be devoted almost exclusively to a description and analysis of that official release.]
Finally, in the wake of the positive action of the United States Congress in passing the landmark Respect for Marriage Act, a brief look back at two other, major legislative accomplishments of 2022—namely, the enactment (after a century of trying) of the Emmett Till Act, making lynching a federal crime, along with the renewal (after years of inactivity) of the omnibus Violence Against Women Act, funding and otherwise supporting a variety of victim-supporting initiatives and programs, including those recognizing the sovereignty of our Native American Indian governments in enforcing Trial laws and victim rights.
