Supreme Court Opens New Term, School Board Elections, and Federal Budget Battles

Kim Monson opened the October 2, 2023 broadcast marking the Supreme Court’s return from summer recess. Legal reporter Matt Vadum previewed major cases on affirmative action and social media regulation. School board candidate Maria Sumnicht outlined her campaign for Douglas County District F. Finance professor Kurt Gerwitz examined federal spending as Congress passed a 45-day stopgap budget to avert a government shutdown. Federal Spending Crisis as Interest Payments Exceed Military Budget Start listening at 59:03 – Hour 2 Kurt Gerwitz, business and finance professor at Regis University, analyzes Congress’s 45-day continuing resolution that averted a government shutdown. The stopgap notably excluded Ukraine funding, prompting Senator Michael Bennet’s vocal objection. Gerwitz contextualizes federal spending using vivid comparisons: a million pennies stacks one mile high, a billion reaches 870 miles into space, and a trillion extends to the moon and back twice. Gerwitz warns that the United States has achieved budget surplus only five times in the past 50 years, with the most recent in 2001. Over the next 12 months, 30 percent of federal debt must be refinanced at current elevated interest rates after a generation of near-zero rates. In a historic milestone, monthly interest payments now exceed military spending for the first time. The discussion turned to immigration policy stalemates and the political incentives that prevent resolution on border security. “This month was the first time in history, or since I can remember, our interest payments right now, as we sit here, our interest payments are more than we spend on the military in the United States.” Kurt Gerwitz, Finance Professor, Regis University Supreme Court Reconvenes with Landmark Cases Ahead Start listening at 33:42 – Hour 1 Matt Vadum, legal and justice reporter for The Epoch Times, breaks down the Supreme Court’s October 2023 term opening on the first Monday of October. Vadum explains that while many cases involve administrative law, they carry significant implications for limiting government power. The Court’s conservative 6-3 majority has already delivered landmark rulings, including the 2022 Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade and the Bruin decision recognizing Second Amendment carry rights. Vadum addresses universities evading the Court’s recent anti-affirmative action ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Congressional hearings revealed colleges pursuing workarounds to continue race-based admissions. On social media censorship, Vadum notes the Fifth Circuit placed a hold on a lower court ruling that blocked the Biden administration from communicating with social media companies to encourage content moderation. The Supreme Court will also hear challenges to Florida and Texas laws regulating how social media platforms moderate content, potentially establishing whether these platforms constitute the new public square. “The Supreme Court has a conservative majority, six to three, at least in theory, and they have done a lot of things in the last year or two to move the court to the right, and they may continue doing that in this brand new Supreme Court term.” Matt Vadum, Legal Reporter, The Epoch Times School Board Candidate Champions Parental Rights and Academic Basics Start listening at 18:24 – Hour 1 Maria Sumnicht, a legal immigrant from Colombia running for Douglas County School Board District F, argues that t...