There’s a common thread in some recent stories about crazy Leftists: the people involved have gone so far off the deep end that even their own side is wondering if things have gotten out of hand.
Here are a few of the most absurd stories from the week in case you missed them:
Even Her Own Allies Have Had Enough of Justice Jackson
Last year when the federal workforce layoff case reached the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a 15-page solo manifesto howling that the layoffs represented a “wrecking ball” against democracy.
The only problem— the case before the court had nothing to do with whether layoffs were good or bad. The justices were merely tasked with ruling on a narrow procedural question. But KBJ felt compelled to showcase her leftist credentials regardless.
Jackson’s soliloquy was so out of line that even fellow liberal Justice Sotomayor publicly corrected her, clarifying that “the [layoffs] themselves are not before this Court. . .”
Then, earlier this year, Jackson showed up at the Grammys and gave a standing ovation when Billie Eilish declared “no one is illegal on stolen land” and shouted “f*ck ICE” from the stage. Hardly appropriate for a sitting Supreme Court Justice, sworn to uphold the Constitution— including immigration law.
If you were hoping she was just settling into a new role on the bench, think again.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Chiles v. Salazar— a controversial Colorado state law that effectively banned therapists from helping gender-confused kids.
Under the new law, if a boy who thinks he’s a girl goes to counseling, it’s against the law for the psychologist to help the boy see himself as a boy. According to the State of Colorado, the only acceptable answer is, “OF COURSE YOU’RE A GIRL!”
The Supreme Court ruled almost unanimously that this law violates the Constitution because it infringes upon the therapist’s free speech.
Even ultra-liberal justices Kagan and Sotomayor ruled that the Colorado law violated freedom of speech.
Justice Jackson was the lone dissent. And she wrote a 35-page opinion— longer than the majority opinion and Kagan’s concurrence combined— arguing in favor of the Colorado law.
Jackson’s opinion was so bonkers that Justice Kagan, her own ideological ally, took the unusual step of publicly rebuking her, writing “Her view . . . rests on reimagining—and in that way collapsing—the well-settled distinction” of free speech.
Pretty embarrassing.
But then on Tuesday, during oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case, Jackson waded into the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause.
The amendment grants citizenship to anyone “born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
The case hinges on those last five words. The Trump administration argued that illegal migrants are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States because they don’t have “allegiance” to the US— and hence birthright citizenship does not apply to them.
Jackson tried to gut that argument with a curious example: ““If I steal a wallet in Japan, I am subject to Japanese laws….. in a sense, it’s allegiance.”
In short, a sitting Supreme Court Justice thinks that breaking the law = allegiance = entitled to citizenship.
Canadian Socialists Spent Their Convention Arguing Over Who’s Most Oppressed
Canada’s New Democratic Party— the country’s far-left political party— held its federal leadership convention last week in Winnipeg.
The party distributed color-coded “equity cards” to convention delegates at registration. The NDP recognize five “equity-seeking groups” in its constitution— women and non-cis men, racialized members, Indigenous members, 2SLGBTQ+ members, and persons with disabilities.
If you belonged to one of those groups, you got a card. Green for gender, pink for race, etc.
The cards gave holders priority access to the microphone during floor debates, allowing them to cut the speaking line.
If you’re doing the math, you’ve probably noticed: the only person at this convention without any cards would be a straight, white, able-bodied man.
Hilariously, at what amounts to a victimhood convention, that’s roughly nobody. So in practice, almost everyone had cards.
The system had no rules for what happens when two card-holders both want to speak. Whose card wins? They built an entire hierarchy of oppressed people and forgot to rank it. So naturally, this led to a kind of victimhood Olympics.
One woman stood at the microphone waving her green gender equity card, complaining that the chair had called on someone else first.
A black woman responded by playing her actual race card: “I want everyone to be mindful that these cards, for individuals like myself who identify as a Black woman, have no value outside of this space.” Her point: but my oppression is more real than yours— so my card should outrank yours.
What trumps black woman? Trans. And as one trans delegate complained,
“It’s hard as a racialized and transgender delegate to sometimes use this card… it’s frustrating when these are my rights being directly under attack right now in Alberta and a cisgender woman had spoken over me.”
Meanwhile, the convention chair— who identifies as nonbinary— halted proceedings at one point because a delegate, mid-speech about the Iran conflict, addressed the chair as “madame.” The substance of what was being said didn’t matter. The pronoun did.
And on the final day, the party’s solution to the chaos was not to scrap the system. They expanded it.
This party used to be about healthcare and workers’ rights. Now they spend their time building a color-coded hierarchy of victimhood, then arguing over whose suffering entitles them to speak first into a microphone, even though no one is listening to the substance of their ideas, but rather privilege-checking their use of pronouns.
Oregon’s Animal Cruelty Measure Would Criminalize Farming, Hunting, and Pest Control
In Oregon, animal rights activists are closing in on enough signatures to put a ballot measure before voters in November called Initiative Petition 28, or the “PEACE Act” (People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions).
Like every state, Oregon exempts certain activities from animal cruelty charges: hunting, fishing, farming, medical research, pest control, etc.
This law would eliminate all of those exemptions. The only remaining exceptions would be self-defense and good veterinary practices.
Hunting and fishing— which currently produce $1.9 billion in economic activity— would become crimes.
Raising cattle for beef or dairy— Oregon’s largest livestock commodity— would be illegal. 37,000 farms and ranches and 80,000 agricultural workers would be affected.
Artificial insemination of livestock would be classified as “animal sexual assault.” Pest control would become a crime.
Don’t worry, though. The campaign’s own website helpfully explains that exterminators could “easily continue their profession in the broader field of rodent management” by humanely catching mice alive and releasing them outside… no doubt after a good mouse-massage.
Funded by PETA and other national organizations paying signature gatherers $25 an hour, they’ve collected over 100,000 and only need a few thousand more by July to get it on the ballot.
