The Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s injunction preventing the federal government from pressuring Big Tech companies to suppress free speech in a pivotal ruling Wednesday. The court did not rule on the question of whether the government may pressure social media companies to suppress speech in a way that would be illegal for the government to do itself. Instead, the court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to establish Article III standing to bring the case. “We begin—and end—with standing,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the majority opinion for Murthy v. Missouri. “At this stage, neither the individual nor the state plaintiffs have established standing to seek an injunction against any defendant. We therefore lack jurisdiction to reach the merits of the dispute.” Barrett delivered the majority opinion, in which Chief Justice John Roberts joined, along with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch joined. Among other things, Barrett ruled that “The plaintiffs fail, by and large, to link their past social-media restrictions and the defendants’ communications with the platforms.” Alito wrote that if the lower court’s evidence is correct, “this is one of the most important free speech cases to reach this court in years.” He zeroed in on the case of Jill Hines, who he said was “indisputably injured” by the government’s COVID-19 censorship campaign. “This evidence was more than sufficient to establish Hines’s standing to sue… and consequently, we are obligated to tackle the free speech issue that the case presents,” Alito added. “The court, however, shirks that duty and thus permits the successful campaign of coercion in this case to stand as an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear, and think.” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, however, said the ruling cleared the way for further discovery to counter censorship efforts. “My office filed suit against dozens of officials in the federal government to stop the biggest violation of the First Amendment in our nation’s history. The record is clear: the deep state pressured and coerced social media companies to take down truthful speech simply because it was conservative. Today’s ruling does not dispute that,” Bailey said in a statement after the ruling. “My rallying cry to disappointed Americans is this: Missouri is not done,” he added. “We are going back to the district court to obtain more discovery in order to root out Joe Biden’s vast censorship enterprise once and for all.” “We will remain vigilant to build the wall of separation between tech and state, but I could not be prouder of what my team and this case has exposed so far,” he concluded. “Missouri will continue to lead the way in the fight to defend our most fundamental freedoms.” Missouri, Louisiana, and other plaintiffs in the case alleged that the Biden administration “suppressed conservative-leaning free speech” on the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential election; on COVID-19 issues, including the disease’s origin, masks, lockdowns, and vaccines; on election integrity in the 2020 presidential election; on the security of voting by mail; on the economy; and on Joe Biden himself. State Attorneys General Bailey and Liz Murrill represented Missouri and Louisiana, respectively. Other plaintiffs include doctors who spoke out against the COVID-19 mandates, such as Martin Kulldorff, Jayanta Bhattacharya, and Aaron Kheriaty; Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft; and Jill Hines, an anti-lockdown advocate and co-director of Health Freedom Louisiana. Last July 4, Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued an injunction barring the Biden administration from pressuring Big Tech to censor Americans. Doughty compared the administration’s actions to “an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.'” Doughty’s injunction named various federal agencies—including the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (the agency Dr. Anthony Fauci directed for 38 years), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FBI, the Justice Department, and the State Department. The injunction also named officials, including HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit narrowed the extent of Doughty’s injunction, and the Supreme Court stayed the 5th Circuit’s order while taking up the case. Since the case focuses on whether the injunction was valid and Murthy appealed, the Supreme Court styles it as “Murthy v. Missouri,” even though Missouri filed the initial lawsuit. “The Twitter Files” revealed how the process worked: Federal agencies under Biden would have frequent meetings with Big Tech companies, warning about “misinformation” and repeatedly pressuring them to remove or suppress content. Federal agents and politicians occasionally threatened that if the companies didn’t act, the government would reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, removing legal protections the companies enjoyed. In oral argument, Supreme Court justices pressed Louisiana Solicitor General J. Benjamin Aguinaga to create a specific test to determine whether the government had a compelling interest to urge third parties to suppress certain speech. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed concern that Aguinaga’s view “has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways in the most important time periods.” The Supreme Court also suggested it may decide that the plaintiffs don’t have standing to bring the case. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Amy Coney Barrett brought up this issue during oral argument. Murthy-v-MissouriDownload This is a breaking story and will be updated. The post BREAKING: Supreme Court Strikes Down Injunction Preventing Government From Pressuring Big Tech to Suppress Free Speech appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Facts of Life was a classic sitcom originally airing in the late 70s and following the lives of Mrs. Garrett and her charges at Eastland School. Today, many still fondly remember the beloved characters of Mrs. Garrett, played by Charlotte Rae, and Blair Warner, played by Lisa Whelchel. Take a blast to the past and see what some of the cast is up to these days. Kim Fields played the character... Source

Ever since Raiders Of The Lost Ark excited and delighted audiences in 1981, Indiana Jones has remained an enduring and beloved cultural institution. Although Harrison Ford also cut an iconic figure as Han Solo in the Star Wars films, nobody else can say they are Indiana Jones. And while the series has seen some highs and lows over the years, each step of the way took a staggering amount of time... Source

Ancient Egypt has always been shrouded in mystery and intrigue, with its towering pyramids, powerful pharaohs, and legendary figures like Cleopatra and King Tut. However, recent discoveries have shed new light on the secrets of this fascinating civilization, including mummies and the practices surrounding their creation and preservation. Egyptians are believed to have invented fingerprint powder... Source

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Around 6 million antelope have been recorded on a trek across East Africa, marking the world’s largest land mammal migration ever recorded.The scale of the Great Nile Migration recently became apparent through an ongoing project between African Parks and the Government of South Sudan.Between April 28 and May 15, 2023, after the first rains of the season, planes were used to carry out an extensive aerial survey of the Boma Badingilo Jonglei Landscape in the east of South Sudan, documenting the migration of roughly 5 million white-eared kob, 300,000 tiang, 350,000 Mongalla gazelle, and 160,000 Bohor reedbuck.“The results of this survey are nothing short of staggering. The astonishing scale of the migration is only equaled by the responsibility to ensure that it survives into the future in an extremely complex landscape,” Peter Fearnhead, CEO of African Parks, said in a statement.Along with the galavanting antelopes, the survey noted how elephants, giraffes, lions, and cheetah populations have persisted in the area. Likewise, there are still massive populations of large birds, including open-billed stork, marabou stork, yellow-billed stork, Abdim’s stork, woolly-necked stork, black-crowned cranes, herons, and several species of vultures.White-eared kob tackle a difficult part of the migration.Image credit: ©Marcus WestbergWhile this may suggest that wildlife is abundant in the region, its biodiversity is facing a myriad of threats. Comparisons with surveys carried out in the 1980s show there's been “catastrophic declines of most sedentary species," such as elephant, warthog, cheetah, hippopotamus, and buffalo. One of the main threats is illegal poaching, which Fearnhead said is “at a scale that we have never witnessed before.” To make matters more difficult, South Sudan went through a bloody civil war over the last few decades, and ethnic violence still lingers. Along with causing immense human suffering, the conflict has impacted the movement of animals and made wildlife surveys almost impossible.              As the country strives to recover, the future of these rich ecosystems could ultimately hinge on how human relations in the area resolve.“This wildlife and larger ecosystem is the basis for survival for multiple ethnic groupings which are often in conflict with each other over resources. Successful management of this landscape will only be possible through building trust with and amongst these ethnic groupings,” explained Fearnhead.“Working with these local communities to protect this vital ecosystem will help perpetuate this global phenomenon whilst also bringing about stability, safety, and security and creating a sustainable future for the people who live in this area – many of whom are still recovering after years of war and disruption,” he continued.

In 2019, Anna Lee Dozier, who lives in Washington, DC, bought a vase at a local thrift store. The piece, which is richly decorated with Maya-like imagery, was in a clearance sale and only cost $3.99. However, it turns out this Maya-like decoration was authentic, and the vase is a genuine ancient artifact.“It did look old to me, but not old-old, like 20 to 30 years old, maybe,” Dozier told NPR.For Dozier, the vase had special significance even before she knew it was a real artifact. This is because she had worked in Mexico for the human rights advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide, so the vase struck her as a reminder of those days.Then, five years later, Dozier visited the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, and noticed that the piece was strikingly similar to some of the other objects on display. Although she was still not convinced she had a real Maya object on her hands, she nevertheless decided to consult a museum specialist who then recommended she contact the Mexican embassy in Washington. Dozier then sent them photos of the vase.The embassy was extremely excited by what they saw and, after confirming it was a real Maya object, they requested it back.“I am thrilled to have played a part in its repatriation story. I would like it to go back to its rightful place and to where it belongs,” Dozier told WUSA, a CBS affiliate, as reported by NBC 15 News. “But I also want it out of my home because I have three little boys and I have been petrified that after two thousand years I would be the one to wreck it!”According to a post on X, Mexico’s ambassador to the US, Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, said the vase is a “valuable witness of our Maya history” that has been returned “thanks to the generosity of [Anna] Lee Dozier.”The vase purchased by Anna Lee Dozier has joined 19 other artifacts that have been returned to the Mexican embassy in Washington, DC.Image credit: SRE“This historic jewel will be reintegrated within the collection of [Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology and History] to preserve our rich cultural heritage.”The vase itself is thought to come from the southeast of the country and is likely between 1,800 and 1,200 years old. This would place it within the timeline of the Maya Classical period, which eventually declined due to various factors, including droughts, civil conflict, and eventual conquest by the Spanish.In addition to this precious and serendipitous object, the Mexican embassy in the US received 19 other archaeological pieces that were donated anonymously. These pieces will also be returned to Mexico where they will be kept in the care of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.   All these objects will join more than 13,500 others that have been recovered in recent years as part of the Mexican government’s strategy of committing itself to recovering artifacts related to its national heritage that are located abroad.  

Joy Reid, host of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, was joined by abortion activists Shannon Brewer and NARAL president Mini Timmaraju to discuss the second anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. While the three lamented the decision and its effects throughout the country, Timmaraju outrageously claimed that the U.S. had consequently become a “segregated society.” To open the segment, Reid played a video of Vice President Kamala Harris audaciously proclaiming, “In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty.” She then cited a statistic from Planned Parenthood to demonstrate the apparent “cruelty of the post-Dobbs world” which allowed “21 states [to enact] some form of abortion ban…more than 28 million women, trans, and nonbinary people of reproductive age live in them.” It was interesting to watch even a liberal like Reid struggle with the left’s ridiculous woke gender terms. She evidently gave up on the proper, all-inclusive language and settled on (correctly) referring to them as women for the remainder of the segment.     Like most of Reid’s guests, this panel adored their racial allusions, with Timmaraju, of course, stating: “What you're seeing now is we're essentially living in a segregated society again. We have states rights and states where you can live as a pregnant person with freedoms and states where you cannot.” For her part, the host referred to the “disproportionate impact” of the decision on women of color: This is the statistics as far as the disproportionate impact of the end of Roe. Black women–this is the percentage of reproductive age women who live in states with abortion bans. 54 percent of black women live in states with reproduction–with abortion bans. 42 percent of Hispanic women, 24 percent of Asian American women, and 7 percent of indigenous women.  Hypocrisy abounds as they conveniently omitted the disturbing history of pro-abortion organizations like their beloved Planned Parenthood, which outspoken racist and eugenicist Margaret Sanger founded.  Timmaraju invoked a “moral obligation” of “fight[ing] for a federal bill, a federal protection so that we have laws across all 50 states and women are protected,” practically characterizing women seeking abortions as heroines for “having to go from state to state and risk[ing] your life.” Turning to Brewer, Reid vented her indignation at the fact that males held “overwhelming membership” in legislatures that decided on abortion rights. Her guest immediately agreed and falsely suggested that the pro-life cause was almost exclusively championed by men: That's who you see standing outside of these clinics. You see a few women but the majority of people out there are men. These are the ones who really want it to be the way it is. They want women at home. They want you at home and having babies. They truly believe that that is how it should be. And they'll fight for it.  Towards the close, Brewer and Reid pushed the tired narrative of the Supreme Court’s partisan bias, pathetically expressing displeasure in the unanimous Mifepristone case decision, a clear win for the pro-abortion movement. Instead, the miserable pair insisted that the justices were politically motivated in light of the upcoming election. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: MSNBC’s The ReidOut 6/24/2024 07:34:34 PM EST [Cuts to video] VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: This is a healthcare crisis. And we all know who is to blame. Donald Trump. [transition] Trump has not denied, much less shown remorse, for his actions. Instead, he, quote, “proudly” takes credit for overturning Roe. [transition] In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty. [Cuts back to live] JOY REID: Today marks two years since Donald Trump's hand-picked Supreme Court justices ripped away abortion rights from millions of American women, overturning Roe v. Wade with their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health. Since then, the cruelty of the post-Dobbs world has impacted people all across this country. New data from Planned Parenthood shows that since Dobbs, 21 states have enacted some form of abortion ban and more than 28 million women, trans, and nonbinary people of reproductive age live in them. That is nearly 43 percent of all women of reproductive age nationwide. And we’ve heard directly from women affected by those bans. [Cuts to video] KATE COX: My state chose to drive me out of my home, my community, away from my children, my doctors, rather than to let me access care. [Transition] AMANDA ZURAWSKI: I couldn't leave the state, and if I had, I probably would have died. So I had to just wait until I did become near death. It took three days, and the trauma of that waiting and being in terror and fear for those three days, I mean, it's cruel. It is inhumane. [Transition] ANYA COOK: Her heart was still beating, but they told me that at that point, because I had lost all my fluid, there's nothing that I can do. So I looked at him, I said, “Okay, so what are you going to do? Are you going to–what are we supposed to do, are we terminating?” He said, “We can't do anything.” I said, “Excuse me? You can't do anything? What does that mean exactly?” He says, “We can't do anything.” [Cuts back to live] REID: Joining me now is Shannon Brewer, former director of the Jackson Women's Health Organization in Mississippi, the plaintiffs in the Dobbs case. She is now the executive director of the Las Cruces Women's Health Organization in New Mexico. And Mini T–Mini–Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All.  Thank you both for being here. I do want to go to you, Shannon Brewer, and just ask you to reflect on two years without Roe. What has been the impact on women and the women that you work with now? SHANNON BREWER: Hmm. In two years…the biggest impact I’ve seen is women having to travel so far to these different states. It has not deterred a lot of women, I must tell you that. It has–it’s hurt women as far as having to find places where they can get adequate care. And that's what I’ve been–we’ve been dealing with basically for two years and we're still dealing with it every single day. REID: I mean, you operated the Pink House in Mississippi for a really long time. When you talk to folks back in Mississippi, because they're also a state where maternal mortality is high, particularly among black women, where healthcare is hard to find–there's no expansion of Obamacare, there’s not a lot of resources there’s offered to women. What are women in Mississippi dealing with? BREWER: I don't know exactly what all they're dealing with, but the women that we talk to, they’re unfortunately some are dealing with the fact that they have to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, that they cannot afford, you know, care for–to care for as far as the insurance, Medicaid, child care, so you have a lot of women, you have a lot of underage girls that are having to have unwanted pregnancies and unwanted children, unfortunately. And that's–I don't understand how that makes sense still–two years later, I still don't understand how that is a better option for these people. REID: Yeah. Mini Timmaraju, talk about the national impact that you’ve seen for women in this country. MINI TIMMARAJU: Well, you know, it's been devastating. As you pointed out, 21 states have bans and restrictions and folks in places like Mississippi having to go all the way to places like New Mexico. What you're seeing now is we're essentially living in a segregated society again. We have states rights and states where you can live as a pregnant person with freedoms and states where you cannot. And you're seeing the real life consequences of elections.  You know, in New Mexico, you have Governor Lujan Grisham who has really expanded access and created opportunity. You know, I was at the event, this morning, with the Vice President. I got to hear from Kate Cox. You know, she talked about the devastation she's faced in her life at her home state of Texas.  What's next for us as a movement is we gotta fight for a federal bill, a federal protection so that we have laws across all 50 states and women are protected because right now, having to go from state to state and risk your life and be forced into pregnancies that you don't want, it's untenable. And we cannot continue this way. So, we have a moral obligation to get this done. REID: Yeah, especially if you're a child and they forced children to have to flee their states as well because they were raped and pregnant. Here's the new ad that the Biden/Harris campaign is running. And they rolled it out today. [Cuts to video] KAITLYN JOSHUA: I was right around 11 weeks when I had a miscarriage. The pain that I was feeling was excruciating. I was turned away from two emergency rooms. That was a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade. He's now a convicted felon. Trump thinks he should not be held accountable for his own criminal actions but he will let women and doctors be punished. [Cuts back to live] REID: Shannon, this is the statistics as far as the disproportionate impact of the end of Roe. Black women–this is the percentage of reproductive age women who live in states with abortion bans. 54 percent of black women live in states with reproduction–with abortion bans. 42 percent of Hispanic women, 24 percent of Asian American women, and 7 percent of indigenous women.  The disproportionate impact has been heavily on people like Caitlin Joshua, who we just saw in that ad. Can you talk about that? BREWER: Yes, that's so true. That doesn't surprise me at all. This is exactly what's going on, is that it's affect–the people that it's affecting the most are the people who actually need this the most. Yeah. REID: And let me tell you, Mini, that, you know, Donald Trump is not sorry. It’s like, he’s bragging about it. This is his brag. He said it was an “amazing” thing to end Roe v. Wade. He said this at an Evangelical conference. He says it should be left up to the states.  Has leaving it up to the states made things–made abortion rates go down? Have–I mean, it has gone down at least to some extent because people can't get access to them, but has–has that solved the Evangelicals' wish of making abortion go away? TIMMARAJU: You know, it's so interesting. Donald Trump just can't help himself, right? He keeps bragging about overturning Roe because it was a major achievement for that administration, because he's completely aligned with these extremist right-wing demagogues and these folks who really believe that abortion should not happen in this country and they're not stopping.  You know, you’ve covered this, but it's really important for folks to understand should there be a second Trump administration, they're not gonna stop at leaving this to the states. They're going to pursue a national abortion ban and they're going after contraception and IVF because that's always been the end game. But look, when Donald Trump says leave it up to the states, he means let the–let the chaos continue in places like Mississippi, Florida, Texas, and he's fine with that, and his movement behind him is fine with that.  And that's why actually today, we announced a broad coalition of reproductive rights health and justice groups including those reproductive justice organizations led by black and brown, indigenous women to make major investments in Get Out the Vote and voter education campaigns to make sure folks understand the stakes and what's happening in this country so we can have a federal solution, because Donald Trump leaving it up to the states, it's not going to end well for us. And we’ve already seen the devastation that’s wrought in just two short years. REID: Yeah. BREWER: Yes. REID: And Shannon, last word to you. What do you make of the fact that most of these laws are being passed by legislatures where men are the overwhelming membership of these legislatures? So, it's largely men passing these laws banning abortion for women and girls. BREWER: That's not surprising. That's what I’ve been seeing long before Roe v. Wade was overturned in Mississippi. That's who you see standing outside of these clinics. You see a few women but the majority of people out there are men. These are the ones who really want it to be the way it is. They want women at home. They want you at home and having babies. They truly believe that that is how it should be. And they'll fight for it.  You know, everybody seems to think that this Supreme Court–the one that just passed with the Mife case–it was, you know, it was a win, but it was just a win for a minute, is what it is. This, you know, all of this, they only came about because this is election. Let's be honest, come on. Because there are a lot of people, a lot of Republicans who did not–you know, they're needing those votes. REID: Yeah. Absolutely. BREWER: That just bought us a little more time. REID: Indeed. And the time to act is going to be in November. Shannon Brewer, Mini Timmaraju, thank you both very much, on this very somber anniversary. (...)

Elon Musk has become an enemy of the left for rejecting the government’s censorship agenda by prioritizing free speech on the X platform. Now, Musk has made even more enemies for his “democratization” of X. In an interview with Linda Yaccarino, Musk explained to the X CEO why journalists specifically are furious about his reformed blue check-mark policy. Watch Host's Face as Elon Musk Exposes This Group's Real Motivations youtu.be Under the former Twitter regime, a blue check mark signified the user’s authenticity and notability — a false honorary badge reserved for “verified identities.” Now, under Musk’s ownership, a blue check mark simply means “the account has an active subscription to X Premium and meets [X’s] eligibility requirements.” “It’s the same for everyone,” Musk told Yaccarino, but “the thing that a lot of traditional journalists don't like is they don't like being put on the same platform as the average citizen. They don't like their voice being the same.” “Yes, there are several news organizations who don't like your push for democratization and what they believe is the devaluing of the badges [check marks] because they were differentiated,” Yaccarino confirmed. “I think it’s very important to elevate citizen journalism. I think it’s very important to hear the voice of the people — the actual voice of the people, not the filtered voice of the people. Let the people choose the narrative, and let the people determine the truth and not five editor in chiefs of major publications,” Musk responded. Dave Rubin calls Musk’s democratization of X “[shifting] where the megaphone is.” He explains that in an ideal world, we could rely on “a group of journalists” who could “make sense of the world,” allowing the average citizen to “vote appropriately” and “have a sense of what is happening in the world.” But true journalism seems to be a thing of the past. We can’t trust journalists to report the facts anymore. “Unfortunately, the journalist layer — the media layer — they do not deserve [our] trust anymore,” says Dave. That’s why Musk “democratized” the X platform. Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.