The Daily Signal - Chaos at the Border, Another Supreme Court Justice Threatened With Violence | Dec. 19

Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm Brian Gottstein, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Tuesday, December 19th. Here are today's headlines. A man has pled guilty to threatening to kill a Supreme Court justice. According to Politico, Neil Sidwani, a 43-year-old man from Florida, pled guilty Friday in a Jacksonville federal court for threatening to kill Chief Justice John Roberts. That threat was made over the phone and left in voicemail messages on July 31st. Though prosecutors didn't identify which Justice Sidwani had threatened, a court-ordered psychological evaluation reviewed by Politico reveals that it was Roberts.

Starting point is 00:00:52 Authorities arrested the Florida man in August and he's been in custody since. It's not immediately clear why he threatened to kill Roberts. Supreme Court cases have increasingly become fraught with peril for conservative justices, especially after the May 22 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating that Roe v. would be overturned. Shortly after the leak in 2022, the radical pro-abortion group Ruth Sentos posted the justices addresses and began urging protesters to go to the homes of what it called the six extremist justices, who likely voted in support of the opinion overturning row.

Starting point is 00:01:32 That included Roberts and justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney-Barratt, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch. There were more than 14,500 encounters with aliens at the southern border on Monday, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. That's a record for a single day at the border. According to the Washington Examiner, a large majority of encounters were of immigrants who walked around the port of entry and crossed into the country illegally,

Starting point is 00:02:02 while a small percentage tried to enter at the port of entry but were denied admission. This broke the short-lived record of just over 12,000 encounters. encounters in a day set last week. The examiner reported that if this level of encounters remained the same for an entire month, it would translate to more than 435,000 illegal immigrants. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's funeral was held on Tuesday. O'Connor died on December 1st at the age of 93. She was appointed the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, and she was the first

Starting point is 00:02:39 female Supreme Court justice in U.S. history. On Monday, she lay in repose in the great hall of the Supreme Court. President Joe Biden delivered a eulogy at the funeral. This is from Bloomberg. Sandra Day O'Connor, the daughter of the American West, was a pioneer in her own right, breaking down the barriers in legal and political worlds and the nation's consciousness. To her, the Supreme Court was bedrock, the bedrock of America. It was the vital line of defense for the values and the vision of our republic. She was especially conscious of the law's real impact on people's lives. One need not agree with all her decisions in order to recognize that her principles were deeply held

Starting point is 00:03:37 and of the highest order, and that her desire for civility was genuine. How she embodied such attributes under such pressure and scrutiny helped empower generations of women in every part of American life, including the court itself, helping to open doors, secure freedoms and prove that a woman can not only do anything a man can do, but many times do it a heck of a lot better. Excuse my language for it. Chief Justice John Roberts also delivered remarks. Via C-SPAN, we have this. The last several weeks after Justice O'Connor's passing, I have spoken with many women judges and lawyers who were young adults when Justice O'Connor became the first. They say the same thing.

Starting point is 00:04:36 Younger people today cannot understand what it was like, before Justice O'Connor, in what now seems a distant past. That distance is a measure of time, but is also a measure of Justice O'Connor's life and work. In nearly a quarter century on the court, she was a strong, influential, and iconic jurist. Her leadership shaped the legal profession, making it obvious. that judges are both women and men. The time when women were not on the bench seemed so far away because Justice O'Connor was so good when she was on the bench.

Starting point is 00:05:17 She was so successful that the barriers she broke down are almost unthinkable today. But not so in her lifetime. Sandra Day O'Connor had to study and launch a career in the law when most men in the established profession did not want women lawyers, let alone judges. She had to find her own style to cajole, persuade, and unite colleagues when there was no example to follow

Starting point is 00:05:46 for the first female Senate leader in the country. She had to ignore slights and work to bring people together in social, professional, and political life. She had to demonstrate excellence as the one hundred and six second member of the Supreme Court, all the while setting a model as the first woman on the job. She had to fight cancer and Alzheimer's in public ways that helped others and that promoted dignity and respect. She had to speak and teach and inspire through the country and around the world about the necessity of judicial independence, so our generation and the next would have a roadmap

Starting point is 00:06:30 to safeguard it with all the gifts God has given us. She had to be both the most important woman in government and also a devoted wife who with her devoted husband, John, raised three sons of whom they were so very proud. All this and more she had to do, and she got it done. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to the Daily Signal's top news. If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed,

Starting point is 00:07:07 where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Join us tomorrow morning for the Daily Signal's interview edition. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcasts, and help us to reach more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read all of your feedback. Thanks again for listening. Have a great night, and we'll be back with you again tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

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The Daily Signal - Chaos at the Border, Another Supreme Court Justice Threatened With Violence | Dec. 19

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