Nation

Judge bars BLM from suing Trump over Lafayette Square clash

Published

2 years ago

June 22, 2021

Screen Shot 2021 06 09 at 4.05.17 PM scaled

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By Jenny Goldsberry

District of Columbia Judge Dabney L. Friedrich released her ruling Monday that Black Lives Matter cannot sue former President Trump over police clearing Lafayette Square a year ago. The ruling also applies to former Attorney General William Barr. Friedrich was appointed by then President Trump in 2017.

The lawsuit against Trump comes from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) representing BLM. But now it has stopped in its tracks because Friedrich says police cleared the square out of “national security considerations.”

“First, national security—specifically, the country’s national-security interest in the safety and security of the President and the area surrounding the White House—strongly weighs against creating a . . . remedy here,” her decision read.

“In this context, it matters not whether the national security risk actually justified the particular action taken,” the judge wrote. Instead, the real question is about “whether ‘national-security concerns’ were present in the decision-making process the federal officials faced and thus ‘whether the Judiciary should alter the framework established by the political branches for addressing [similar] cases.'”

However, there must still be current national security concerns because Lafayette Square is still on a significant lockdown.

“To this day, over a year after the events of June 1, Lafayette Square remains subject to heightened restrictions that periodically limit protesters’ access to the Square,” Friedrich reminded readers in her decision.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism

Israel

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar kicked off House Foreign Affairs Committee

Published

1 day ago

February 2, 2023

Alexander Carter

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar was voted off the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday. The action was expected, as Republican members of Congress had criticized Omar’s antisemetic and anti-American rhetoric.

After intense debating on the House floor, the resolution passed with a 218-211 vote. Democrats attempted to pull the race card, accusing Republican House members of racism for removing Omar from the committee.

Omar also accused House Republicans of racism, saying, “I am Muslim, I am an immigrant, and interestingly, from Africa…Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy, or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced?”

“There is this idea that you are a suspect if you are an immigrant or if you are from certain parts of the world or certain skin tone or a muslim.” Omar said during the heated debate. A fiery Alexandria Ocasia Cortez also chimed in shouting, “This is an attack on women of color!”

Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, from New York, said she had personally witnessed Omar spew anti-American rhetoric. Malliotakis said, “I have been in that committee room where, the representative, equates Israel and the United States to Hamas and the Taliban. Absolutely unacceptable for a member of that committee.”

A four-page resolution was written for the justification of removing Omar from the house Foreign Affairs Committee. The resolution states that in 2019, Omar suggested that Jewish people were buying U.S. political support when she posted on Twitter, “it’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”

Omar also commented on the September 11th attacks saying, “some people did something.” This type of comment is unacceptable for any representative who is sitting on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lawmakers said.

In the resolution it states that members of this committee should all be held to an “equal standard of conduct due to the international sensitivities and national security concerns under the jurisdiction of this committee.”