Pardon Our Language
November 24, 2020
The Good News
- Let’s take another jab at it: 3rd major COVID-19 vaccine shown to be effective and cheaper (AP)
- On Running While Black, With More Hope Than Before (NYT, $)
- In the room where it happens: Joe Biden picks first women and first Latino for key cabinet roles (Guardian)
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” — Charles Dickens
“Take one thing with another, and the World is a pretty good sort of a World; and ’tis our Duty to make the best of it and be thankful” — Benjamin Franklin
Trump Shouldn’t Take The Constitution For “Granted”
(GraphicaArtis via Getty Images)
Here’s some food for thought as we all think about what food we’ll actually be eating in the next few days. It’s about another topic on a lot of folks’ minds: whether President Trump will try to ‘pardon’ himself of any imaginable federal crime before leaving office. Eric Muller, who teaches constitutional law, criminal procedure, and legal history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says the question the Constitution requires us to ask is not whether Trump can ‘pardon’ himself, but whether Trump can ‘grant’ himself a pardon. They are not the same thing.
Judges and other legal scholars have methodologies for determining the meaning of constitutional text. One way is to peruse the entire document for hints. If the same word appears in multiple constitutional clauses, one should assume it has the same meaning throughout unless a clear reason exists to think otherwise.
Article II of the Constitution says the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” In other words, the president has the power, not to pardon people, but “to grant … Pardons.”
The words ‘pardon’ and ‘grant’ in this context are transitive verbs denoting actions. Some actions cannot be reflexive, meaning you can’t do them to yourself. Like ‘pardon’ and ‘grant,’ the verbs ‘surrendering,’ ‘relinquishing,’ or ‘handing over’ something entails a transfer to someone else — the actor (transferor) cannot also be the recipient (transferee).
The word ‘grant’ appears a few times in Article 1 of the Constitution, such as all of the “legislative power herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” Here “We the People” are doing the granting by giving Congress the power to make policy. ‘Grant’ is transitive — passing power from one entity to another.
Article 1 also gives Congress the power “to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal.” Those are permission slips that let private commercial vessels make war against ships of enemy nations and do things that would otherwise be piracy. Again, ‘grant’ is transitive — from Congress to ships. Article 1 prohibits states from ‘granting’ (transitive) titles of nobility. Article II also allows the president to ‘grant’ (transitive) certain commissions to individuals. So based solely on other uses of ‘grant’ in the Constitution, a person could reasonably determine that a president cannot grant himself a pardon.
The late, ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia championed the idea that the text of the Constitution isn’t all that counts — the meaning of the words must be evaluated according to the “original public meaning,” i.e. the meaning that ordinary English speakers of the late 18th century would have attached to a given term when coming upon it in a legal document like the Constitution.
In consulting a law dictionary in use at that period in our history, the word ‘granting’ clearly meant a transfer from one man to another. Additionally, we have a fantastic technological tool today, Google Books Ngram Viewer, that allows a user to pick a beginning and an end date and request a calculation of the frequency with which words and phrases appear in all of Google’s scanned written material from that time period. Reflexive uses of the verb ‘grant’ — where the person doing the granting is also the person on the receiving end — simply didn’t exist in the late 18th century.
Thus, by asking the right question, and studying the text of the Constitution as well as its original meaning, Muller concludes that there is simply no evidence supporting Trump’s ability to grant himself a pardon.
American Tech Chips In On Human Rights Abuses
- US technology is being used in a Chinese supercomputing center that tracks people in Xinjiang, known for its surveillance and suppression of mostly Muslim minorities. Chips made by the American semiconductor companies, Intel and Nvidia, have powered the complex since its opening in 2016. Both companies say they weren’t aware of what they call misuse of their technology, but many questions are being raised about the tech industry’s responsibility when it comes to their implication in national security or human rights issues.
- In 2019, the Trump administration banned the sale of advanced semiconductors and other technology to Chinese companies. Some people argued the ban went too far, cutting off valuable sales of American products with plenty of harmless uses. Companies often point out they have little say over where their products wind up. But critics of the use of American technology in repressive systems say that buyers exploit workarounds and that the industry and officials should track sales and usage more closely.
- A former Google engineer and founder of the advocacy group, Tech Inquiry, said technology helps sort vast amounts of data that humans cannot process. The primary limitation a surveillance state has is its ability to identify events of interest within its feeds. “The way you scale up your surveillance is through machine learning and large scale AI,” he said. Publicity over Intel’s China business appears to have had an impact, prompting one of the company’s business units to draft ethics guidelines last year for its technology’s AI applications. (NYT)
Somebody Can’t Keep A Saudi Arabian Secret
- An Israeli cabinet member said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia over the weekend to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Israel has been pushing for a meeting in its efforts for regional acceptance, but this would have marked the first time the leaders of the long-time foes had met face-to-face.
- Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister denied Netanyahu and MbS had spoken. “No such meeting occurred,” he tweeted. “The only officials present were American and Saudi.” It’s possible there had been an agreement to keep the meeting under wraps, perhaps to save Saudi leadership from facing anger from its pro-Palestinian population. But the secret was soon out. “The very fact the meeting happened and was outed publicly, even if half officially right now, is a matter of great importance,” Israel’s education minister said.
- Netanyahu has long promoted himself as a politician who can boost Israel’s standing in the region without giving concessions to the Palestinians. When asked about the trip on Monday, the 71-year-old leader simply declined to comment. Officially, the Saudi kingdom’s position, and that of the Arab League, is that Israel would only receive “normal” diplomatic ties in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians. (Guardian)
Additional World News
- Trump’s lonely G-20 marks a fitting end (WaPo, $)
- US formally withdraws from Open Skies Treaty that bolstered European security (CNN)
- China Says It Remains Open to the World, but Wants to Dictate Terms & For China, Ending Poverty Is Just the Beginning (NYT, Foreign Affairs)
- Xi Jinping asks for the moon: China prepping for mission to bring back material from moon (AP)
- Joshua Wong and fellow activists plead guilty in Hong Kong protests trial (BBC)
- Netanyahu holds secret meeting with Saudi crown prince & Netanyahu says Biden must not go back to Iran deal (Guardian, Axios)
- UK, France and Germany discuss working with Joe Biden on Iran nuclear deal (Guardian)
- A landmark for Merkel: Germany’s ‘eternal chancellor’ Angela Merkel marks 15 years in office (France24)
- Pope Francis hosts NBA players after season defined by social justice activism (WaPo, $)
- Ortega media enrich first family, squeeze rivals across Nicaragua (Reuters)
- Take heed from the Swedes: Covid-19 case surge forces Sweden to rethink strategy praised by US conservatives (NBC)
- Climate change: Covid pandemic has little impact on rise in CO2 (BBC)
COVID-19
- Coronavirus vaccine by AstraZeneca and Oxford up to 90 percent effective (WaPo)
- AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine: Why it’s different (Vox)
- Bill Gates: ‘Almost all’ coronavirus vaccines will work by February (Cnet)
- Now the U.S. Has Lots of Ventilators — but Too Few Specialists to Operate Them (NYT, $)
- Will the U.S. heed Canada’s Thanksgiving lesson? (Politico)
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Biden’s Cabinet Is Formed In The Blinken Of An Eye
(Bryan Bedder via Getty Images)
- Some Republican senators are signaling they’ll confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet picks come January, as long as they’re “mainstream.” It’s a rare bright light for a White House that could be facing clashes with a GOP Senate majority for years to come. Many Republicans still refuse to concede that Biden will be the next president, but others have said that Biden has the right to his Cabinet, indicating he may be able to staff his administration largely to his liking.
- Biden knows a GOP Senate wouldn’t confirm a progressive choice like Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) or Bernie Sanders (I-VT). But it’s certainly possible to envision someone like Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) or Doug Jones (D-AL) winning confirmation to a role like attorney general. Biden has already tapped 58-year-old Antony Blinken for secretary of state, along with a number of other high profile foreign policy and national security picks that were announced Monday.
- Some well-qualified individuals, like Susan Rice, were under consideration for the leadership position, but not chosen due to anticipated GOP opposition. Blinken has extensive foreign policy experience, including serving as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser under President Barack Obama. Blinken’s choice indicates Biden intends a return to a more traditional foreign policy that favors strong international relationships. If confirmed, Blinken’s early work would be focused heavily on repairing relationships, between Washington and foreign governments and allies, that have been torpedoed during the Trump administration.
- He’ll also have his hands full putting the beleaguered State Department back together after its hollowing out during the last four years. John Kerry has been tapped for a newly created post not requiring Senate confirmation — special presidential envoy for climate, based on the National Security Council. Kerry has spent decades advocating for action on climate change as a US senator and then secretary of state. He played a significant role in negotiating the Paris climate accord in 2016. (Politico, NPR)
Hitting The Gas On Last Midnight Regulations
- In the waning hours of the Trump administration, efforts are still being made to whittle away at investments that factor in industries’ societal impact. Earlier this month, the Labor Department finalized a rule that put a high burden on retirement funds that want to include investments that strip out fossil fuel companies and other non-sustainable businesses.
- Now, a major regulator is racing to thwart big banks’ refusal to lend and service certain industries and projects, including Arctic oil drilling and new coal mining. America’s biggest banks are increasingly scaling back ties with fossil fuel, prison, and gun-manufacturing businesses amid public pressure and changing investment preferences.
- On Friday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), one of three key banking regulators, floated draft rules that say banks can’t turn away entire industries. Instead, they have to prove that they decided not to lend because applicants didn’t meet “quantitative, impartial risk-based standards.” The proposal says “Politically controversial but lawful businesses” deserve “fair access to financial services under the law.”
- An administration official said the banking industry’s decisions to back away from certain hot-button practices were “creeping politicization” and “very very dangerous.” But a spokesman for the Sierra Club said “Contrary to the claims of oil-backed politicians, banks don’t want to finance more drilling in the Arctic not because of some vast liberal conspiracy, but because it’s bad business.” (Axios)
Additional USA News
- A PSA from the GSA, it’s time to hand Biden the reins: Trump administration officially authorizes Biden transition (NBC)
- Read GSA Administrator Emily Murphy’s letter to President-elect Joe Biden (WaPo, $)
- Taking stock of today’s big news: Dow futures rise 200 points as Trump administration begins transition process (CNBC)
- The Certification of the 2020 US Election Results is on Schedule. Here’s a Timeline. (NYT, $)
- The secretive consulting firm that’s become Biden’s Cabinet in waiting (Politico)
- Joe Biden’s Silence on Ending the Drone Wars (The Intercept). Is he droning on by keeping quiet?
- How do you build a government on Zoom? The World’s Most Important Videoconference (Atlantic, $)
- ‘Welcome To The Party, Zoom’: Video App’s Rules Lead To Accusations Of Censorship (NPR)
- Trump Campaign Distances Itself From Lawyer Sidney Powell (Intelligencer)
- White House plans holiday party as Americans urged to stay home (Reuters). No Donald, not that type of political party.
- Congress is on Thanksgiving recess instead of passing a Covid stimulus bill (Vox)
Houston, We Have A Holiday Prank
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space, was established in 1958. In the early days, it didn’t behave like the buttoned-up space agency it is today. There was room for practical jokes, even within the sanctum of Mission Control.
- In his book The Birth of NASA, Manfred “Dutch” von Ehrenfried writes about an infamous practical joke that took place a few weeks before John Glenn’s first orbital flight atop an Atlas rocket in 1962. It was played on NASA’s legendary first flight director, Chris Kraft, by his key lieutenant, Gene Kranz, whom we’d like to picture as a fun practical joker and sardonic nice guy Jim Halpert in NBC’s “Office Space.”
- Another practical joke played on the next lead flight director, Milt Heflin, happened in the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day in 1991. Crew members onboard space shuttle Atlantis were sleeping when all of a sudden Heflin faced a crisis. The flight dynamics officer in Mission Control informed Heflin that the Air Force station that tracked orbital traffic had called to warn that a dormant Turkish satellite had a potential conjunction with the space shuttle in only 15 minutes.
- Furthermore, this potential debris strike was due to occur in the middle of a communications blackout with the crew. Heflin was furious, and terrified. There was no way his engineers could calculate an avoidance maneuver, wake the crew, and communicate with them before the blackout period began. Why hadn’t the Air Force warned about a potential collision? If that satellite hit Atlantis the astronauts could die as they slept.
- What Heflin didn’t know was that he was being pranked by two of his flight controllers, on an otherwise boring overnight shift, during a fairly routine shuttle mission. There was no derelict satellite — the allusion to “turkey” on Thanksgiving had gone over Heflin’s head. Worse, when one of the controllers tried to get Heflin to check out at the ground track display that showed the orbital track of Atlantis — and on which someone had coded a large turkey to appear on the computerized display — Helfin, who thought he couldn’t do anything about it anyway, said “I don’t need to see the damn thing!” and went off to the restroom. Ruffled feathers all around. Good times. (Arstechnica)
Additional Reads
- China Has Launched the World’s First 6G Satellite. We Don’t Even Know What 6G Is Yet. (Popular Mechanics) …Wait, there are two more G’s!?
- Helicopter pilot finds ‘strange’ monolith in remote part of Utah (Guardian)
- Today in seemingly obvious headlines: Dinosaurs would have continued to thrive had it not been for the asteroid, researchers say (CNN)
- When Science Was the Best Show in America (Nautilus)
- Art imitates life: There’s Already a Disturbing Amount of Pandemic Content in the Works (Vice)
- How affluent people can end their mindless overconsumption (Vox)
- Cops Bust 80-Person Party at a Sex Club in Queens (The Cut)
- TikTok Mansions Are Publicly Traded Now (NYT, $)
- RIP to a philanthropic phenomenon: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Co-Creator Dies At 37 (NPR)