The Daily Signal - Israel Allows Fuel into Gaza, Biden Signs Temporary Spending Bill, SCOTUS Weighs in on Florida Drag Show Law | Nov. 17

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Congress averts a shutdown, but has yet to succeed in cutting out of control spending.  Florida asks the Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce its law blocking adults from taking minors to drag shows. The court says no.  President Joe Biden is not likely to face criminal charges in his classified document case.  Israel allows fuel into Gaza on a regular basis.  Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feeling festive. Catch classic holiday favorites, like Home Alone, the Santa Claus, and Die Hard, along with holiday episodes from Family Guy, Abbott Elementary, and more with Hulu on Disney Plus. From festive Disney Flicks to binge-worthy Hulu originals, Hulu on Disney Plus is your home for the holidays. Celebrate the season with Hulu, available on Disney Plus in Canada. I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Friday, November 17th. Here are today's headlines.

The government has averted a shutdown but has yet to succeed in cutting out-of-control spending. On Tuesday, the House passed a continuing resolution that will maintain government spending levels into the beginning of 2024. On Wednesday, the Senate voted on and passed the same stopgap spending measure, and yesterday, President Joe Biden signed it into law. The stopgap spending measure will fund the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, and, and, yesterday, President Joe Biden signed it into law. and Veterans Affairs until January 19th. All other government departments will be funded through February 2nd. This plan allows lawmakers to get past the holidays

and tackle the spending fight in the new year. While the Stop Gap spending bill did pass with support from Democrats and Republicans, 93 Republicans voted against it in the House and 10 Republicans voted against it in the Senate. Some Republican lawmakers argue that Congress needs to get spending under control right now, take action on the board.

border and stop kicking the can down the road. While the Heritage Foundation's director for the center of the federal budget, Richard Stern, says that he agrees that massive cuts must be made to the federal budget, this continuing resolution gives newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson time to propose cuts that can pass through Congress. Stern recently joined Steve Bannon's war room on Real America's voice, and he explained why Speaker Johnson needs the additional time to propose spending bills that actually rein in the federal budget. You know, I think if right now, if we don't give that clean C.R. The Mike Johnson, he's got to play with the hand that McCarthy gave him.

He's got to play with a hand that the establishment gave him. If we give him an extra month or two, that gives him time to clean out the D.C. cartel to go back to renegotiate those bills. Look, you know, I know his staff. I know him. You know, I'm one of those guys there. They want to do the right things here. We need to give them a minute to do that.

Stern argues that Speaker Johnson needs time to pass spending bills that cut spending. And that is what the continuing resolution that keeps spending at the status quo for the next several months has given Speaker Johnson. So stay tuned. Down in Florida, it appears that at least for now, parents are still allowed to take their children to drag shows if they so choose. Florida passed a law earlier this year prohibiting anyone from taking minors. into an adult performance. The law was challenged in court, which blocked the law from being able to be enforced.

Well, then Florida asked the Supreme Court to allow the law to be enforced while the case moves through the courts. But the Supreme Court appears to have said no. Here with us to explain more is Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow, Sarah Partial Perry. Sarah, thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me.

So why did the justices say that they won't allow Florida to enforce the law that prohibits anyone from taking a minor into an adult performance while his case moves forward? Well, this is really a procedural determination, and six of the justices said it's not appropriate for us to get involved, and Grant was called a stay. And a stay is essentially a cessation of the litigation. It holds everything in its tracks.

And the district court in the state of Florida have made a determination that the law violated the First Amendment, but didn't just say that particular law of application against the plaintiff here, which is a chain called Hamburger Marys, that apparently regularly host, quote, family-friendly drag events, but also it showed the application for every other business in the state of Florida. Well, obviously, Florida says that's too broad an application, and they've appealed to the 11th Circuit. But during the pendency of that appeal, they want to do. the Supreme Court to get involved and essentially find the same determination that the district court had made a wrong conclusion about applying its ruling to every business in the state,

not just this particular plaintiff. And Justice Kavanaugh basically wrote the sort of concurrence here saying that it was appropriate for them not to grant the state's request because this is too big a question. And the facts here, the vehicle, as they're call it, aren't particularly right. It goes to the question of a First Amendment was called an over-breath challenge. It is too big to apply that restriction on speech to everyone, every business in the state, and they're looking for a better case in which they can address that very complicated procedural question. But in the meantime, there is still an active appeal occurring in the 11th circuit in the state of Florida. Okay. So this case is still moving through the courts for watching it.

And I think probably for the majority of Americans, they would all agree that, yeah, there's something that feels morally wrong about a child being allowed to be taken into a drag show performance. I think people on both sides of the aisle can agree. Yeah, there's something that doesn't feel appropriate about that. But Sarah, kind of circling back to what you just said, let's talk a little bit about the legal situation here. I mean, does the government have the right to tell a parent what they can and cannot expose their child to? You know, it's interesting because we've seen a lot of states past legislation, which is eventually signed by these largely Republican states by the Republican governors, trying to restrict drag performances out of

concern for the nature of childhood innocence and their susceptibility to really what we see in terms of this increasing sexualization of children at younger and younger ages. But the problem with drag performances here is that there are implications of the First Amendment. And so often we are seeing challenges because the Supreme Court has actually said pornography is acceptable under the First Amendment. Absentity is not. and what the standard as articulated by the Supreme Court has been is something that appeals only to a purient interest in sex without any political, cultural, historical, or artistic significance. Well, I think a lot of people in the drag community have tried to present this as a form of art,

much akin to people dressing up back in Shakespeare in England, when there were no women who were allowed on the stage, we know that to be really a red herring. So we've got to find a better vehicle for passage of these particular restrictions. And in many instances, the opportunity might be better to use something like, for example, public accommodations law, those that we've seen, for example, out in the state of California and Colorado, when we're dealing with people like Jack Phillips or Lori Smith of 303 creative, those were public accommodations laws.

If we can restrict those performances to only certain types of businesses, we might be able to keep children away. But while the state doesn't have the power to say where a parent can and cannot take their minor child, it does have the power to regulate what types of businesses are allowed to perform what services. And I think that's what we're going to see next. Do we have any sense of the timing on this Florida case of when we'll get a ruling from the courts? No, but it's interesting that Florida did not frame its request for a stay as an emergency request, and it didn't address the First Amendment consideration. It was really only going to the question

of whether or not the federal judge made the right decision or whether he exceeded his authority in blocking enforcement of the law against every business in the state. So it was a very mechanical determination. The merit, the bigger question, which I think is where everyone's interest lies, is to determine whether or not the state has the power to restrict businesses from hosting these types of drag performances when the businesses are being processed. they're being utilized by average American families. That's the bigger question, but it's now pending in the 11th Circuit. So we'll all be very curious to see exactly how that appellate court rule. Yeah, we sure will be. Sarah, thank you so much for your time today. Sarah, partial Perry, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation. You can find all of her work at heritage.org. Sarah, thanks for your time. Thanks for having me. We have learned that President Joe Biden is not likely to face criminal charges in his classified document case.

Remember that classified documents from Biden's time as vice president were found at an old office of his in D.C. And at his home in Delaware. But the Wall Street Journal broke the news yesterday that Special Counsel Robert Hurr is putting together a report on Biden's actions, but it is unlikely that the report will result in any criminal charges against. Biden. Former President Donald Trump sounded off about the news on his social media platform True Social. Trump called the situation prosecutorial misconduct and selective prosecution. Trump called Biden's classified document case much bigger than his and said we are living in a very corrupt country. Her has reportedly told the Justice Department that he hopes to have his

report done before the end of the year. Right now, Trump's trial date for his classification, document case is set for May 24. Israel announced today that they will allow fuel trucks into the Gaza Strip. Israel is going to allow about 37,000 gallons of fuel into Gaza every two days for humanitarian needs. So what exactly is this fuel going to be used for? According to Reuters, a U.S. State Department official says 31,700 gallons of fuel coming in every 48 hours will be used for.

for trucks of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, and other needs like desalinization of water, sewage pumping, bakeries, and hospitals in South Gaza. An additional 5,280 gallons of fuel will go to power generators of the telecoms company, Paltel. These regular fuel deliveries may begin as soon as tomorrow. But with that, that is going to do it for today's episode. So thanks for being with us here on the Daily Signal Top News on this Friday. If you haven't had the chance, make sure that you check out our morning show. We're super excited to be bringing you an interview on Monday morning with former Vice President Mike Pence and his daughter, Charlotte Pence Bond.

As they talk about their new book with the Daily Signal's Mary Margaret Ollahan, the book is titled, Go Home for Dinner, advice on how faith makes a family and family makes a life. Really excited to bring you that conversation. Also, take a minute today to subscribe to The Daily Signals. You never miss out on our interviews or top news editions. We're across all podcast platforms. And if you would, take a moment to leave us a five-star rating and review. Have a great weekend. We will see you right back here on Monday morning.

The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Luey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.