The Daily Signal - Supreme Court to Decide Major Transgender Case, Pete Hegseth’s Nomination In Trouble, Trump Names His Pick to Head NASA | Dec. 4

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: The Supreme Court hears oral arguments for a major transgender case. The big question before the court is: Can a state ban transgender treatments on minors?  Trump might replace Pete Hegseth - his pick to lead the Defense Department — with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Trump taps Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Relevant Links:  More Coverage Supreme Court Transgender Case:  Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGy7M_cQsBk https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oav_Q47LBnU  Articles: https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/12/03/supreme-court-case-exposes-transgender-medical-scandal-epic-proportions/  Daily Signal Internship Application: https://www.heritage.org/young-leaders-program  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can a state ban transgender treatments on minors? The Supreme Court will decide. I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal's top news in 10 for Wednesday, December 4th. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today for a major transgender case. The big question before the court is can a state ban transgender treatments on minors? Tennessee passed a law banning such treatments on anyone under the age of 18. But attorneys representing the United States argue that such a ban is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. Now, the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution was passed following the Civil War to prevent discrimination against blacks. Herod Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Sarah Partial Perry told the Daily Signal's Problematic Women

podcast that the Supreme Court has applied the Equal Protection Clause only to immutable characteristics, things like race, sex, or nationality, never to something like gender identity. The Supreme Court has never determined that something that is subjective and internal, something that you choose and you act upon, is sufficient for constitutional protection. In fact, they've been asked to give protection to education level or poverty status. Both times the Supreme Court has said, no way. want to keep it, those immutable characteristics. That's the clean line right here with the Constitution. The Daily Signals, Elizabeth Mitchell, was inside the Supreme Court watching the arguments before

the justices this morning. Elizabeth, thanks for being here. Thanks, Virginia. Let's start with what were some of those big moments in the courtroom this morning. Yeah, so I got to be in oral arguments this morning. And on the plaintiff side, we heard from the U.S. Solicitor General, who is a Elizabeth Prologer and the ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, that's a biological female identifying as a transgender male. And then from the defendant side, we had to Tennessee Solicitor General Matt Rice representing Attorney General of Tennessee Scermetti, Jonathan Scrimetti. And so some key moments were to me that Justice Kavanaugh really focused on the idea that if harm is caused both by permitting and prohibiting transgender procedures for minors, how can the court choose

which side to take if there's going to be harm and benefit on both sides? And another really interesting aspect of this was they talked a lot about the defendant's argument, which was that it is sex discrimination to say a girl could take estrogen, but a boy could not take estrogen to become a girl. They were saying that was sex-based discrimination, while on the other hand, the plaintiff was saying, no, it's not about sex, it's about age. It applies to both sexes. Both sexes cannot take these cross-sex hormones.

They cannot have puberty blockers. It's not about sex. It's about age. It's about them being minors and they're being evidence of regret. And there was really a big focus on preventing detransitioners in that there are a lot of people who regret transitioning and sometimes they have that regret. after taking hormones, which make them infertile or undergoing irreversible surgeries, which changed their bodies forever.

And so a big focus in this case was preventing that type of thing from happening. Miners making these decisions when they're too young for informed consent, which they might later regret. Wow, really, really fascinating. Well, Elizabeth, thank you for your coverage. I want to encourage all of our listeners, check out the daily signal website at daily signal.com. You can find Elizabeth Mitchell's reporting there as well as check out. the Daily Signal YouTube channel to find many videos from today's coverage. Elizabeth,

thanks for being with us. Thanks, Virginia. The rumor mill never stops turning in Washington, D.C. The latest rumor, Trump might replace Pete Hegset, his pick to lead the Defense Department, with Florida Governor Ronda Santis. That's according to Axios. Last month, Trump tapped Pete Hegset to be his defense secretary, but Hegsaith will have a challenging road to be confirmed. Hexeth is a veteran and he has run veteran organizations, but he does not have experience serving in the leadership of the Defense Department. Heg Seth also faces sexual misconduct allegations, which he has denied. In order to be confirmed, Hexeth can only afford to lose three GOP Senate votes, and a number

of GOP senators have yet to say if they will back Hegsseth. Trump is reportedly worried that Hegseth might not be confirmed. The president-elect has spoken to disambor. about taking the role, and DeSantis is receptive to the idea, according to Axios. But DeSantis is not the only name being considered. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is also considering former Pentagon official Elbridge Colby or Senator Joni Ernst, who's a combat veteran. But Pete Hegseth has indicated that he has no plans of giving up the nomination. He wrote on X this morning, the left is afraid of disruptors and change agents. They are afraid of at real Donald

Trump and me. So they smear with fake anonymous sources and BS stories. They don't want truth. Our warriors never back down and neither will I. Stay tuned. Speaking of Trump's nominations, the president-elect was busy today announcing a slew of appointments. Among some of the biggest nominations Trump made today is Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. If confirmed, Isaacman will be one of the few top NASA officials in history, who's actually been to space. Isaacman has a close relationship with Elon Musk and travel to space on SpaceX missions. Isaacman is a businessman and a billionaire. He has headed and founded multiple companies, including a global financial technology company and a defense aerospace company.

Also today, Trump tapped Peter Navarro to serve as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. Navarro is an economist and served in the first Trump administration as the director of the White House National Trade Council. He also served time in prison after refusing to cooperate with the House January 6th investigation. Another significant nomination today is Adam Boller, who Trump tapped to be his special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Trump on true social wrote that Boller worked for him as a lead negotiator on the Abraham Accords team. He has negotiated with some of the toughest people in the world, including the Taliban, according to Trump. With three, Americans still believed to be alive and being held hostage in Gaza.

Trump said that Buller will work tirelessly to bring our great American citizens home. Now let's hit our news flashes for the day. First up, the last congressional house race of the 2024 election has been called. Democrat Adam Gray won California's 13th congressional district by only 187 votes. He defeated incumbent Republican Representative John Duarte. This firms up the final House count with Republicans holding 220 House seats and Democrats holding 215. Next up, the CEO of the largest private health insurer in the U.S. United Healthcare was shot and killed in Manhattan today. Brian Thompson was on his way to United Healthcare Group's Investor Day at the Hilton Hotel.

The suspect fired multiple shots at Thompson outside. the hotel. Thompson was declared dead at the hospital less than an hour after the shooting. The suspect fled the scene on foot and was still at large as of the recording of this show. Before we go today, we have one more guest joining us. Annie Marino has served as a Daily Signal intern this fall. Every semester, we welcome three or four interns to our team here at the Daily Signal. They write articles, create social media content, and assist our editorial team. And Annie you have written a number of pieces for the Daily Signal during your internship. Do you have a favorite piece that you've written while you've been here? Yes, absolutely. My favorite piece that I've

written is one about a Shakespeare play that I would say was a little wokeified and definitely modernized. It was set in modern day Washington, D.C. And my co-worker Christina and I both reported on it and it aired at the Folger Shakespeare Theater in D.C. And we got to go around and interview a lot of different audience members. I reached out to the director and the creative team for comment. I gathered some photos. And it was just a really cool learning experience and a lot of reporting, but it all compiled into this one beautiful project that I think made a really wonderful story. And I'm just grateful to have gotten to write about the arts because that's something that personally I'm passionate about. And then also just becoming a better writer because of how amazing

the Daily Signal team is and meeting really wonderful people. Well, I promise I did not pay Annie to say that. No, she's not. Annie, we so appreciate all of the hard work that you have done this fall at the Daily Signal. We always say we couldn't do what we do at the Daily Signal without our awesome interns. So for anyone who's listening who thinks, hey, I would be interested in applying to intern at the Daily Signal. Or maybe you have a daughter or a grandchild or a son or a grandson who would be interested in applying. You can find all of the information.

on how to apply by simply searching for the Young Leaders Program. That's Young Leaders Program. It's under the umbrella of the Heritage Foundation internship program. And you can also find a link in today's show notes. For anyone who's interested in applying for our summer internship, those applications close on February 2nd. But Annie, thank you so much for joining us today. You're welcome. Have a nice day. And we're going to leave it right there for today. Thanks for joining us here for the Daily Signal's top news in 10. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and share the show with friends. If you like what you hear, and if this is a helpful show to you to catch up on the news of the day,

every weekday, let your friends know. Every time more individuals like yourself, subscribe, that helps us spread the word to more and more listeners. And if you have a second, let us know what you think about the show by leaving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Have a great rest of your night. We'll see you right back here tomorrow for another edition of Top News and News. Thank you.