Why Trump’s legal strategies are working — some of the time

When President Donald Trump decided last month to send the California National Guard to Los Angeles over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, many political and legal watchers were certain that courts would view the move as illegal, a belief that was quickly shattered when a panel of appellate judges appointed by presidents from both political parties ruled unanimously in Trump’s favor.

But the judges were responding to a carefully crafted argument on the part of Trump administration lawyers that showcased wording in the law governing the deployment of the Guard for federal purposes, as well as a Supreme Court decision from 1827 that gave the president the power to decide when a call-up was required.

Those arguments over a temporary restraining order in the ongoing case of Newsom v. Trump, as well as the administration’s approach in a case defending its executive order restricting birthright citizenship, shed light on Trump’s strategies for backing up his barrage of executive orders, many of which appear to run counter to decades of law and precedent.

Bit by bit, incremental wins on the cases can add up to powerful precedents. The National Guard case is expected to be back in court this month, as lawyers for Trump and Newsom spar over evidence that California is requesting from the federal government.

—The Sacramento Bee

It was ‘incredibly easy’ for customs officer to fly cocaine ‘bricks’ to US, feds say

A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer convicted of smuggling 16 “bricks” of cocaine inside his carry-on bags has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

Ivan Van Beverhoudt was traveling in his official capacity when he boarded an Atlanta-bound flight in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands with cocaine stashed inside a red roller bag and black handbag in January 2020, according to federal court filings, McClatchy News previously reported.

He bypassed a TSA security screening in St. Thomas because he checked in with his CBP credentials and had his CBP-issued firearm, which was loaded, according to court documents and prosecutors.

“(Van Beverhoudt’s) position as a CBP officer made it incredibly easy for him to smuggle drugs across the United States’ borders, as he could simply board the plane with the drugs undetected,” reads a sentencing memo written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bethany L. Rupert, for the Northern District of Georgia.

—The Charlotte Observer

JPMorgan Chase CEO Blasts ‘Idiots’ in Democratic Party Focused on Ideology

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said the Democratic Party went too far in its focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, prioritizing ideology over practical solutions.

“I have a lot of friends who are Democrats, and they’re idiots,” Dimon said Thursday at a foreign-ministry event in Dublin. “I always say they have big hearts and little brains. They do not understand how the real world works. Almost every single policy rolled out failed.”

Dimon has said previously that U.S. companies were overly concerned with DEI, and that JPMorgan would scale back spending on some diversity initiatives that he sees as a waste of money while reiterating the bank’s commitment to working with Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ communities. On Thursday, he went after the Democratic Party directly.

“They overdid DEI,” said Dimon, who has described himself in the past as “barely a Democrat.” “We all were devoted to reaching out to the Black community, Hispanic, the LGBT community, the disabled — we do all of that. But the extent, they gotta stop it. And they gotta go back to being more practical. They’re very ideological.”

—Bloomberg News

In Sweden, smokeless products drive tobacco harm reduction push

VAXHOLM, Sweden — The solution is simple, according to Karl Fagerström. Now retired, the Swedish researcher and inventor has dedicated his life to smoking cessation therapies and strategies.

In 2000 he founded Niconovum, a pharmaceutical company that created the first tobacco-free nicotine pouches, sourcing nicotine the same way as for patches or gum. The rationale? To create a better way to stop smoking.

Niconovum was later sold to Reynolds American Inc., which British American Tobacco then acquired in 2017. After the European Union embraced e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches became a consumer product sold by tobacco companies.

But the initial interest in such pouches as a cessation aid from public health experts has largely faltered. The tobacco industry, in turn, has embraced the sale of noncombustible products. That’s also been the case in the United States, which is one of the few places where both tobacco-based snus and nicotine pouches are sold.

—CQ-Roll Call