4.2 Struggles in Government

1. How has Trump impacted the timeline for Republicans to get a repeal & replace bill for Obamacare passed? He gave executive backing to Republican's want to end Obamacare, however, seeing as it was only 77 days into his presidency, critics said it failed because of its hastiness. 

2. What did Trump and Ryan do to attempt to place the blame on Democratic congressmen? They placed the blame on the Democrats for its failure, while making no effort to try to convert Democrats to agree with them, and they used a reconciliation process that only works in their own party, and then blamed the Democrats for not being on the same boat as them. 

3. How do Trump & Ryan predict voters will see the failures of Obamacare, if the program gets worse? They want the voters to see that the failing healthcare system would be the Democrats' and Obamacare's doing. 

4. Why was it so easy for Republicans to criticize Obamacare under Obama's presidency? Because Democrats have had power for the past 8 years with Obama's presidency, they have had plenty of time to convince the public that Obamacare is insufficient and that it should be replaced by their better, more beneficial healthcare plans. SInce they have so much public support, they can easily use the media to spread their message. 

5. What are the results of Republicans deciding to never compromise any policy principals under Obama's presidency? Congress is inefficient and Republicans remain stubborn in that they will not support Democratic policies, but even with a majority in the house they are still unable to pass anything substantial. 

6. How is Trump using Twitter as the "bully pulpit"? His easy access to Twitter and the Internet will draw substantial attention to any topic is wants to discuss. Twitter is his platform. 

7. What message is he trying to get across to his followers that he won't say publically? Apparently, he blames Paul Ryan for the fail of the bill, and he "says" that he wants him to resign, since he directs the public to Judge Jeanine's show, where she expresses the above opinion. 

8. Why would it be important for the Trump administration that the media blame Republican allies? So that Trump can't be blamed for the failure, rather it should be a collective blame where the president is not the one taking the fall. 

9. If Trump voters blame Republican allies, how does that help Trump gain more control in the party? By doing so, the Republicans question their ability to come to a consensus and work together, so maybe Trump can use this to his advantage and get them to band together rather than being an embarrassment.

10. Why would Trump adviser Steve Bannon (the former Breitbart editor) want to put blame on Paul Ryan? "Bannon thought the bill was a huge giveaway to the insurance industry." 

4.1 What Will Happen to Americans Who Can't Afford an Attorney?

1. What does the Legal Services Corporation do? This corporation helps poor Americans to get an attorney in civil cases, which is important the poor communities, where crime is rampant.

2. How is this different than the role played by public defenders? Public defenders must help everyone going through issues with the criminal justice system, but civil legal aid programs get their funding from parties, and private organizations to fill the gaps in public defense.

3. Which types of states end up getting the most help from this agency? States with poor funding to their legal defense system have the most help from this agency.

4. What types of cases are they typically involved in? They are typically involved in civil cases, but also in criminal ones. These are cases such as veterans benefits, domestic violence, foreclosures, and scams.

5. How do these services help save communities money? These groups help save money because then the communities' legal fees do not have to be directly paid. Also the homeless population gets cut down, which raises values of living.

6. Why can't the lawyers who work for the program advocate for the program? Lawyers cannot advocate because they are prohibited by federal laws from lobbying. Furthermore, they have to help their individual clients.

7. Why is this more prominent in rural areas than urban areas? This is more prominent in rural areas because rural areas are poorer, with poorer people, not as many resources, and more need for aid. Urban areas have more organizations and money to take care of their people.

8. Explain how this agency can be seen as an extension of 6th Amendment civil liberties. The 6th Amendment is that everyone has the "right to counsel," and this agency provides right to counsel to the underprivileged. Thus, the agency can be seen as an extension of the 6th Amendment.

9. Explain how this agency can be seen as an unnecessary government expenditure. This agency can be seen as unnecessary because it does not benefit all people and gets federal and taxpayer funding. It only benefits one group of people--the underprivileged, whom the privileged don't always want to support.

3.7 Judicial Drift Measured

1. What does the Martin-Quinn score attempt to measure? The score represents how left or right the justice is by taking their votes and placing them on a scale. The more positive the score, the more right the justice is, and vice versa.

2. What trend do you notice as justices serve on the Supreme Court for many years? Justices have become more and more liberal as time goes on, and Republican justices become liberal faster than Democratic nominees.  

3. How does the Greenhouse Effect theory try to explain this phenomenon? This is also known as the Liptak Effect, but it states that justices will try not to be to left wing or right wing, in order to appeal to the majority, who are moderates, but funny enough, this makes them more liberal overtime.

4. How does the Cocktail Party theory try to explain this? This theory states that justices are likely to lean liberal in attempt to fit in with other justices. But this is usually untrue since it depends on D.C. people being liberals.

5. How might the historical reputation of a justice effect their decision making? Historically conservative justices have a bad rep, so overtime they may lean more liberal.

6. Why have conservatives been disappointed so far by Chief Justice John Roberts? He ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act, so conservatives question his stance,

7. Of all the theories for why this occurs, which do you think is most realistic?  Why?

I have to agree with the Greehouse Effect since it is the most plausible as media plays a big role in the public's view of politicians, so it is understandable they they'll try to appeal to them.

3.6 Introducing Neil Beans

1. Where is Neil Gorsuch currently working? He is currently a judge on the federal appeal courts; he is on the 10th circuit, his home state being Colorado.

2. Why are Democrats likely to attempt to fight this nomination? They are likely to fight this because in the past, Republicans stopped Merrick Garland from taking the seat, and Democrats will probably find many faults in his pro-life views and other points.

3. How are people predicting the way he might rule on abortion cases that reach the court? He has implied that he is pro-life, and he is in support of judicial restraint and originalism (much like Scalia, really).

4. How would you describe his views on religious freedom? He is conservative about religious freedom, but he supports religious expression in public places.

5. What opinions about the role of judges does the share with former justice Scalia? He loves judicial restraint, which means he'd rather not have judges be policymakers, and also he favors the death penalty. Gorsuch also favors Congress's role in regulating interstate commerce and federalism.

6. What percentage of all federal court cases end up being decided by a split SCOTUS? Only 0.014%

7. What does that tell you about the vast majority of federal court cases? It means that most work in appellate courts does not make its way to the public view/public controversy.

8. Why do people think that Gorsuch will have an important role in swaying "swing vote" Anthony Kennedy on so many issues? Gorsuch was a clerk for Justice Kennedy, so people hope that he can persuade Kennedy to side with his view points for a 5-4 majority. :(

3.5 Outdated Court Stuff

1. Describe the way most judicial branch nominations went down in Obama's first term. During Obama's administration, he had a democrat majority, so he filled empty spaces with Democratic judges; however, he faced a lot of Republican filibustering, so of course being moderate is the way to go.

2. How did Senate Democrats change the rules for nominations in Obama's second term? Because the republicans were getting stronger and stronger, the Democrats used majority vote to filibuster opposition during the nomination of judges.

3. How did Senate Republicans respond when they gained control of the Senate in 2014? Of course, Democrats retaliated by also outlawing fillibusters in confirmation hearings, so basically it backfired.

4. How many vacancies are there in the District Court level? In April 2016, there were 72 vacancies at the District level, and then in August, about ten percent of District seats were vacant. 

5. How will the Senate Republicans' gamble pay off significantly now that Trump is the president? Well, they did two things: they made sure that Obama could only fill the seats with moderates, and then they hld off judge selection until the day Trump came into office to ensure that the judges would have the same ideology. This means more power for Trump/the Republicans of course.

6. When is the hearing on Trump's travel ban Executive Order? The emergency hearing was on January 28th at 7:30 pm. in New York.

7. What type of court would this be since it's the first time hearing the case? District Court with original jurisdiction. 

8. Who are the plaintiffs? Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, both who worked in the US military in Iraq, and they are sponsored by a few large names. 

9. How is the lawsuit going to try to turn this into a "class action"? (You definitely remember what a class action lawsuit is, right?) The lawsuit will ask that the government should treat all immigrants as a class, so the ruling can be applied to all immigrants whichever the outcome. 

3.4 Trumps Plan to Destroy Chapter 14

1. How did the Obama Administration prepare for the Trump Administration's plans for the EPA? Obama knew Trump would try to dismantle his energy policies, so he tried to pass as many regulations before he leaves office.

2. What does Trump have to do to policies that Obama enacted by Executive Order instead of Congressional action? To reverse Obama's executive orders, he just have to pass some of his own, and besides it is easier to override the executive orders than congressional decisions, because congress hard to please. 

3, What policies did Obama's Administration pass through the rule making process and what does Trump have to do to get rid of these? Obama passed many fuel economy standards, the Clean Power Plan, and rules on pollution. To reverse these rules, the Trump administration has to restart the formal rule making process, and rewrite his policies, notifying the public, and justify the changes to everyone.

4. What history does Trump's pick for head of the EPA have with the agency? Trump's pick is an Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has sued Obama's EPA a lot (but luckily to no avail). But by placing him in this position, he's probably going to change everything.

5. What is the main way that Congress can limit the effectiveness of the EPA? Using the Congressional Review Act, they can probably stop certain restrictions Obama has put into place, but since it requires majority vote in both houses, they won't resort to it. They could also cut off the EPA's fundings.

6. How could Trump and Congress alter the future of all EPA rule making? (What would the REINS act do?) The REINS act can restrict EPA regulations some more, and then all their policies and stuff must go through the government to be approved. 

7. Based on what you know about environmental protection and Congress - what do you think the impact of this would be if it were to pass? Congress would definitely get more inefficient, and they will reverse many of the thing Obama advocated for because of their ideology, and due to Republican majority in both houses, it'll be so hard for EPA policies to succeed. The two parties will clash. 

3.3 Cory Booker & President Trump

1. How does Paste Magazine characterize Cory Booker? Cory Booker seems to teeter totter on his stances, and he usually agrees with what's popular to try to appeal to the audience and get more popularity, regardless of what he supported in the past. He is inconsistent.

2. Why did Cory Booker vote against an amendment that seems like it would help people? New Jersey (his home state) has many pharmaceutical companies, so it would make sense that he'd want to side with them and corporate interests. 

3. How does Cory Booker justify his vote publicly? He was weary about the drugs imported from Canada and the safety of them.

4. Where does Cory Booker get his campaign funding from? He gets it from pharmaceutical companies of course. 

5. What else, besides sources of campaign funding, may impact his vote? His allies on Wall Street may influence his votes, and also he must please his constituency who are in pharmaceuticals.  

6. Why did Cory Booker testify against Jeff Sessions? He wanted to gain support/popularity and seem more progressive to the people. 

7. Why would this impact his "national ambitions"? He wants to appeal to wider audience, so if he is well-liked in his constituency, he might reach national popularity. 

8. How do his ties to industry & special interest jeopardize those? He is separate from true progressives, and he teeter totters in his stances, because he is loyal to his state and their pharmaceutical ties, and has business allies who are influential. 

9. What will serve as Trump's "bully pulpit"? Social media of course, with his twitter account, and he can stage events and such. 

10. How are Trump's nominations serving to keep his party happy? The people he nominated have all been conservative, and these people would no doubt back the party agenda because of their stance.

11. Why is it important that Trump get more attention than the policies he is likely to enact? His goal is to win over some of the country so they like him more.

12. Why would Trump meet with high profile candidates like Al Gore, but chose someone else for the job? He wants to appear more likable with his meetings and wants people to think that he is not as bad as people think he is, but end up chosing far right people. 

13. In what ways might the role of the Cabinet change under a Trump presidency? The power might shift back to the Cabinet, whereas in the Obama years :'( more focus was on the White House staff, rather than the Cabinet.