Supreme Court judge Justice Stephen G. Breyer announced his retirement last week. This comes at a deliberate time before midterm elections where democrats are expected to lose their majority in Congress. Justice Breyer is one of the three liberal Supreme Court judges currently appointed to the court.
President Biden has announced his intention to announce his nomination for the next justice by the end of February. Biden also said that he is dedicated to appointing the first Black woman to the Court. Senator Mitch McConnell has warned Biden against a radical pick. There currently aren’t any clear front runners for Biden’s nomination, but some names will likely start being thrown around more decisively in the upcoming weeks.
A Pennsylvania court has said that the state’s current mail–in voting law is unconstitutional. This decision, which was immediately appealed, could have a potentially harmful impact on voting access, especially in battleground states. This decision comes off the heels of the 2020 Presidential election where former President Donald Trump and members of the GOP party began to stir up distrust for mail in ballots.
As tension rises in Eastern Europe, President Biden is considering sending over thousands of troops. Around 8,500 troops are on potential standby for deployment in Eastern Europe as Russian troops begin to surround the Ukrainian border. This is an attempt by the United States to keep Russia from invading Ukraine. Last week the United States evacuated diplomats’ families in Ukraine out of fear of a Russian attack. With other countries in NATO also providing assistance to Ukraine, the alliance is sending Russia a clear message not to invade.
The F.B.I. purchased an Israeli spyware software named Pegasus to explore its ability to hack smartphones. The software has been able to track down members of drug cartels and terrorists, but it has also been used against people such as journalists and human rights activists by the Israeli government. The F.B.I., after buying and testing the software for a year has decided not to use it. However the software is still in an F.B.I. facility in New Jersey. America then went as fair as blacklisting the Israeli company behind Pegasus, NSO: a move which angered the Israeli government greatly.
