Trump and Musk pick their man at NASA
Derek Robertson, Politico
President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of billionaire space enthusiast Jared Isaacman to lead NASA earned immediate congratulations from Elon Musk and an explosion of enthusiasm from the stargazing corners of the right.
1 big thing: Biden’s haunting twin sins
Mike Allen, Axios AM
President Biden’s post-presidency now looks as bleak as his brutal final months, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a “Behind the Curtain” column.
- Some top Democrats tell us they’re so furious about Biden’s abrupt, clumsy pardon of his son Hunter that they’re threatening to withhold donations from his future presidential library.
- “If they had their sh*t together, they would have been doing the work on this over the summer — right after he announced he was stepping aside,” one well-wired Democrat told us. “Now, it’s just too late. Hopefully they are rightsizing their expectations and budget!”
The horrifying implications of this week’s transgender rights argument in the Supreme Court
Ian Millhiser, Vox
It’s hard to divorce this case from its political context. During his recent victorious presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump went all in on anti-trans rhetoric — spending literally hundreds of millions of dollars on ads that, in the Washington Post’s words, “paint trans people as a menace to society.” Republicans control six of the nine seats on the Supreme Court, so it’s not surprising that a majority of the Republican justices seemed to align with their party’s position on trans rights (the Court’s three Democrats, for that matter, also appear aligned with their own party).
SCOTUS hears case on treatments for trans minors
Isaac Saul, Tangle
During oral arguments, the court’s three liberal justices — Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor — seemed receptive to the challengers’ argument. “The evidence is very clear that there are some children who actually need this treatment,” Sotomayor said.
Conversely, five of the court’s conservative justices — Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, and Chief Justice John Roberts — all signaled skepticism with the challenge. Roberts and Kavanaugh focused on not wanting the courts to settle medical issues, while Alito added that he was concerned that siding with the plaintiffs would invite “endless litigation.” Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the majority opinion in Bostock, was silent throughout oral arguments.
