Posts by Newspaper Staff
Trump on tariff deadline: ‘We can do whatever we want’
President Donald Trump appears unconcerned about an upcoming tariff deal deadline after abruptly ending all trade talks with Canada as his bid to overhaul world trade continues.
Trump is nearing the end of a self-imposed 90-day deadline to strike deals with nearly every U.S. trading partner as he works to reorder global trade by giving America a competitive advantage through tariffs on foreign goods.
Trump now says that the deadline could be extended past July 9 or even accelerated.
“We can do whatever we want. We could extend it, we could make it shorter. I’d like to make it shorter,” Trump said Friday at the Oval Office. “I’d like to just send letters out to everyone ‘Congratulations, you’re paying 25%.'”
On April 2, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on nearly every nation that trades with the U.S. Seven days later, he paused those higher tariff rates for 90 days to give his trade team time to cut deals with key trading partners. That 90-day deadline ends July 9 and thus far Trump has brought home two deals: A limited trade pact with the United Kingdom and a trade truce with China.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg that new deals are on the way, and those could serve as models for others.
“We’re going to do top 10 deals, put them in the right category, and then these other countries will fit behind,” Lutnick said.
He said the U.S. was “close to the finish line” with India. Lutnick also said he had made an offer to the European Union.
Trump’s decision to suspend trade talks with Canada with just days left before the deadline underscored the flexibility of the president’s trade deadline.
“These are very complex negotiations and we are going to continue them in the best interests of Canadians,” Candian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday while leaving his office, according to local reports.
Canada has invariably been one of the top two trading partners for the United States for years. In 2024, Canada was the top destination for U.S. exports and the third-largest source of U.S. imports. On the other side, Canada exported 75% of its goods to the United States and imported almost half of its goods from the United States.
U.S. total goods trade with Canada was an estimated $762.1 billion in 2024, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. U.S. goods exports to Canada in 2024 were $349.4 billion. U.S. imports from Canada in 2024 totaled $412.7 billion. The U.S. goods trade deficit with Canada was $63.3 billion in 2024.
Services trade with Canada, exports and imports, totaled an estimated $140.3 billion in 2023. Services exports were $86.0 billion, and services imports were $54.3 billion. The U.S. services trade surplus with Canada was $31.7 billion in 2023, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Shortly after taking office in January, Trump hit Canada and Mexico with 25% tariffs for allowing fentanyl and migrants to cross their borders into the U.S. Trump later applied those 25% tariffs only to goods that fall outside the free-trade agreement between the three nations, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Trump put a stop to the talks on Friday.
“We have just been informed that Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with, including the fact that they have charged our Farmers as much as 400% Tariffs, for years, on Dairy Products, has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said the digital services tax was a copy of a European Union proposal.
“Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,” the president said. “We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.”
Earlier this month, the two nations seemed close to striking a deal.
Trump said he and Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney had different trade concepts between the two neighboring countries during a meeting at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, in the Canadian Rockies.
Asked what was holding up a trade deal between the two nations at that time, Trump said they had different concepts for what that would look like.
“It’s not so much holding up, I think we have different concepts, I have a tariff concept, Mark has a different concept, which is something that some people like, but we’re going to see if we can get to the bottom of it today.”
Trump put a 10% tariff on non-USMCA compliant potash and energy products. A 50% tariff on aluminum and steel imports from all countries into the U.S. has been in effect since June 4. Trump also put a 25% tariff on all cars and trucks not built in the U.S.
The tariffs have frustrated Canadian leaders and residents. Tensions between the two neighboring countries have been high. And cities on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border have been affected.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that Canada join the U.S. as its 51st state. He previously called former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “governor” regularly.
Rollins backs North Carolina, nation’s pork producers in California tiff
California, says the leader of the USDA and a North Carolina congressman, has the right to enforce its Proposition 12.
The state line, however, is where that enforcement should end.
In the battle of pork production, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins affirmed that position in a congressional hearing this month. This week, U.S. Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., reminded Tarheel State farmers of her allegiances.
“North Carolina pork producers have a friend at USDA in Secretary Brooke Rollins,” Rouzer said, expressing gratitude for her push back against Prop 12. “Secretary Rollins is right, California has the right to do what California wants to do, but NC-07 farm families feed the nation, and they deserve fair, science-based regulations, not California mandates.”
Proposition 12 is the colloquial term for the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative. Egg-laying hens, breeding pigs and veal calves have space requirements, and sale of products from the animals is prohibited if not meeting the standard.
Rouzer comes from the 7th Congressional District, the southeastern portion of the state where trips on country roads often mean getting behind a hog truck hauling to the world’s largest pork production facility in the Bladen County crossroads community of Tar Heel. North Carolina’s $111.1 billion agriculture industry includes a No. 3 national ranking in pork production behind Iowa and Minnesota.
California’s market includes about 40 million people and 15% of domestic pork consumption. Compliance with the Golden State’s law can require new construction or retrofits with enormous fiscal impact.
In the Committee on Agriculture, Rollins told panelists, “No one is more of a believer in federalism, the 10th Amendment, and our Founders vision of the state’s rights to be able to be their own laboratories of innovation. When those ideas, those rules and laws begin to impact other states in such a negative way, that is not what our Founders intended.
“The extreme impact of Prop 12, especially on our pork producers – I believe this is a bipartisan question. We may not all agree in this room, but I think most agree even on the Democrat side of the House, that it cannot stand. I stand in full support of your effort.”
Rollins said her department may be able to inject something toward a solution.
“California has a right to do what California wants to do,” she said. “The minute that crosses the border and begins to compromise, in such a significant way, our pork producers we need to act.”
China undermining American energy independence, report says
The Chinese Communist Party is exploiting the left’s green energy movement to hurt American energy independence, according to a new report from State Armor.
Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, says the report shows how Energy Foundation China funds green energy initiatives that make America more reliant on China, especially on technology with known vulnerabilities.
“Our report exposes how Energy Foundation China functions not as an independent nonprofit, but as a vehicle advancing the strategic interests of the Chinese Communist Party by funding U.S. green energy initiatives to shift American supply chains toward Beijing and undermine our energy security,” Lucci said in a statement before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee’s hearing on Wednesday titled “Enter the Dragon – China and the Left’s Lawfare Against American Energy Dominance.”
Lucci said the group’s operations represent a textbook example of Chinese influence in America.
“This is a very good example of how the Chinese Communist Party operates influence operations within the United States. I would actually describe it as a perfect case study from their perspective,” he told The Center Square in a phone interview. “They’re using American money to leverage American policy changes that make the American energy grid dependent upon China.”
Lucci said one of the most concerning findings is that China-backed technology entering the U.S. power grid includes components with “undisclosed back doors” – posing a direct threat to the power grid.
“These are not actually green tech technologies. They’re red technologies,” he said. “We are finding – and this is open-source news reporting – they have undisclosed back doors in them. They’re described in a Reuters article as rogue communication devices… another way to describe that is kill switches.”
Lucci said China exploits American political divisions on energy policy to insert these technologies under the guise of environmental progress.
“Yes, and it’s very crafty,” he said. “We are not addressing the fact that these green technologies are red. Technologies controlled by the Communist Party of China should be out of the question.”
Although Lucci sees a future for carbon-free energy sources in the United States – particularly nuclear and solar energy – he doesn’t think the country should use technology from a foreign adversary to do it.
“It cannot be Chinese solar inverters that are reported in Reuters six weeks ago as having undisclosed back doors,” he said. “It cannot be Chinese batteries going into the grid … that allow them to sabotage our grid.”
Lucci said energy is a national security issue, and the United States is in a far better position to achieve energy independence than China.
“We are luckily endowed with energy independence if we choose to have it. China is not endowed with that luxury,” he said. “They’re poor in natural resources. We’re very well endowed – one of the best – with natural resources for energy production.”
He said that’s why China continues to build coal plants – and some of that coal comes from Australia – while pushing the United States to use solar energy.
“It’s very foolish of us to just make ourselves dependent on their technologies that we don’t need, and which are coming with embedded back doors that give them actual control over our energy grid,” he said.
Lucci says lawmakers at both the state and federal levels need to respond to this threat quickly.
“The executive branch should look at whether Energy Foundation China is operating as an unregistered foreign agent,” he said. “State attorneys general should be looking at these back doors that are going into our power grid – undisclosed back doors. That’s consumer fraud. That’s a deceptive trade practice.”
AZ governor says she’ll sign $17.6 billion budget
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Friday afternoon she will sign the bills for the bipartisan $17.6 billion budget passed by the Legislature earlier in the day.
Hobbs said she expected to sign the legislation later on Friday. When she does, that will avert what would have been Arizona’s first state government shutdown on Monday.
Earlier Friday, the Senate approved the budget bills with the help of a bipartisan coalition.
“I am thrilled that the legislature passed the bipartisan and balanced Arizona Promise budget to expand opportunity, security and freedom in our state,” the Democratic governor said in a statement Friday afternoon.
“By working together, we have secured pay raises for state police and firefighters, made child care more affordable and accessible, taken action to stop drug smuggling and human trafficking, and invested in public education from kindergarten through higher ed,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs noted the budget includes 5% pay raises for state troopers and 15% pay raises for state firefighters and $8 million for the governor’s SAFE Initiative to secure the border by helping law enforcement fight drug smuggling and human trafficking. The governor added the budget fully funds K-12 education and includes $297 million to build new K-12 schools and improve existing school facilities.
The budget was championed by Sen. John Kavanagh, the Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. He noted it ultimately took “three to tango,” with the House on Thursday night passing a budget that Hobbs would sign. That came after Hobbs vetoed two House budget proposals Wednesday, but Kavanagh said the latest budget had the support of the two chambers and the governor.
After the budget’s passage Friday in the Senate, House Speaker Steve Montenegro said the chamber’s Republican majority had a choice: “Allow a shutdown or improve the plan left on the table.”
“We chose to fight — and secured more than $100 million in savings and critical reforms that would not have happened without us,” the Republican said in a statement emailed Friday afternoon to The Center Square.
Back in the Senate, lawmakers quickly approved a series of bills on the budget and other matters before adjourning and ending the chamber’s 2025 session at 1:20 p.m.
And in other legislative news, Republicans announced they decided to promote Kavanagh to majority leader. He succeeds Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise.
“As a state lawmaker for 19 years, Sen. Kavanagh brings a wealth of experience and institutional knowledge of the inner-workings of state government and will be able to unite the caucus as we work to advance a conservative agenda for the citizens of Arizona,” Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said in a statement emailed Friday afternoon to The Center Square.
Kavanagh said he was humbled to be elected to the position and wanted “to concentrate on moving forward — united.”
The next regular legislative session will start in January 2026.
Judge orders overseer for LA’s ‘failed’ homeless programs
A federal judge ruled the city of Los Angeles is failing to meet its court-ordered agreement to provide another 12,915 new beds for the homeless by 2027.
U.S. District Court Judge David Carter ordered the selection of a third-party monitor and quarterly, in-person court hearings on the status of the city’s programs.
In 2022, the LA Alliance for Human Rights reached a settlement with the city of Los Angeles to create new “housing or shelter solutions” by June 13, 2027.
The federal ruling focused on the city’s failure to adhere to the agreement. The judge noted the city did not verify that contractors are providing the services they are paid for and that half of the new homeless beds it says it created were either not open or could not be verified. According to the ruling, the city has recently inflated its bed count by counting nearly 2,000 beds from the city’s Inside Safe program, which places homeless individuals in hotels.
The Inside Safe program has been particularly controversial due to its high costs and limited outcomes.
In 2023, an investigation from The Center Square uncovered that Los Angeles was spending $17,009 per homeless individual per month on the Inside Safe program, which temporarily places homeless individuals in hotels.
Last summer, City Controller Kenneth Mejia released data showing the $341 million spent thus far on Inside Safe had served only 2,728 individuals, only 30 of whom were either reunited with family or back on their feet in unsubsidized housing.
City officials now say taxpayer costs for room and board alone for Inside Safe beneficiaries are $7,000 per month, a figure that does not include additional, often standard supportive services.
The $84,000 annual room and board cost per Inside Safe beneficiary is even higher than the Census-reported $80,366 median household income in the city, which typically supports a family of three.
The ruling also found the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has failed to consistently verify “programmatic compliance” — that contracted services are provided — and that “over half (51%) of planned reviews omitted such checks.”
“In a sample of 10 contract monitoring reviews for fiscal year 2023–24, LAHSA failed to maintain adequate workpapers for any of the reviews — one review had no documentation at all, and the remaining nine lacked clear support for the conclusions drawn,” wrote Carter. “Additionally, none of the reviews showed evidence of supervisory oversight.”
The ruling also identified that while Los Angeles had set its own milestones in the settlement agreement, it has consistently failed to meet them, and has not presented accurate information on its milestone status.
Carter said a review of 1,106 reported beds found “28% of those beds were not actually open and occupiable, and the City could not provide documentation to confirm that another 24% were either,” meaning half of the 4,815 beds the city reports to have cumulatively created by December 2024 may not exist.
Carter also reported the city’s most recent quarterly bed count from March jumped to 6,724 created beds due to the “the recent inclusion of Inside Safe beds,” which the judge noted city officials estimated to be nearly 2,000, or about the same as the quarterly increase.
By counting the Inside Safe beds, the city was able to quickly jump to just 58 beds short of its 6,724 bed required milestone at the time, but should, as supported by the bed count audit, a couple thousand of the reported beds not exist, the city would be well short of its mandated goal.
Carter also explained his reasons for not appointing the rumored receivership of the city’s homelessness programs, writing such an action is “the last resort after all other less intrusive remedies have been exhausted,” and that “a gradual approach incrementally ramping up compliance measures” is “more appropriate.”
“Although democracies can be inefficient and even wasteful, only the voters of Los Angeles have the power to elect representatives to solve these problems,” the judge wrote. “Public pressure has recently led the City and the County to begin to make structural reforms to the homelessness system including withdrawing funding from LAHSA and forming new agencies.”
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors defunded LAHSA, which had been jointly funded by the the county and city of Los Angeles. It’s unclear if the city will continue to fund and opt to reform LAHSA, or create a new homelessness agency.
“Plaintiffs speculate that these impending, massive changes will not make a difference, but the people and their elected officials have the right to try,” concluded Carter.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass seems to have responded to the ruling by continuing to tout the effectiveness of the Inside Safe program. She announced Friday that a new operation at an encampment in Highland Park allegedly brought “more than 45” homeless individuals “inside.”
“Through more than 100 operations, Inside Safe has and will continue to save lives,” Bass said in a statement. “Inside Safe is urgently bringing Angelenos inside from schools, places of worship, businesses and more to restore communities through Los Angeles.”
Newson sues Fox News for $787M for alleged defamation
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is suing Fox News for alleged defamation over its coverage of a phone call he had with President Donald Trump during immigration enforcement protests in Los Angeles.
Newsom filed a $787 million lawsuit against Fox News Friday morning, accusing the cable network of playing an edited clip of Trump that made it appear Newsom had lied about the timing of their phone call. Newsom’s legal team is arguing the situation meets the legal standard for defamation and will harm the governor’s vote counts in future elections.
Newsom is termed-out as governor, but is widely expected by politicians and others to run for president in 2028, although he hasn’t made an announcement.
In Newsom’s lawsuit filing, the governor claims his phone call with Trump was on June 7, the day before Trump deployed 2,000 California National Guard members to Los Angeles in response to immigration protests. Newsom said the call lasted approximately 16 minutes.
While taking questions in the Oval Office on June 10, Trump told a reporter he had a phone call with Newsom “a day ago,” implying he spoke to the governor the same day he deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles.
“There was no call,” Newsom said in response to Trump’s claim on X June 10. “Not even a voicemail.”
Trump reached out to Fox News reporter John Roberts on June 10 and shared his call log from June 7 showing he had a phone call with Newsom.
“More than anything else, this shows what a liar he is – Said I never called,” Trump told Roberts according to a post on X from Roberts. “Here is the evidence.”
Newsom’s lawyers said in a letter Roberts reported the situation on air later that evening, claiming Trump said he had his phone call with Newsom “yesterday or the other day.”
“Mr. Roberts chose to present a factually incorrect picture to Fox viewers to obscure President Trump’s false statement of fact,” Newsom’s lawyers said in the letter.
Newsom’s attorneys also said that that same night, Fox host Jesse Watters went on air and played an edited clip of Trump’s remark from the Oval Office, which was edited to have Trump only speaking after he had already said “a day ago.”
The governor claims his response to Trump’s statement on X was in reference to Trump’s claim of having a phone call with him on June 9.
The governor said he will dismiss the lawsuit if Fox retracts its claim that Newsom lied about the timing of his phone call with Trump, and if anchor Jesse Watters and Fox issue a formal on-air apology, according to the letter from Newsom’s lawyers.
“Governor Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him,” Fox News said in a statement, according to Politico. “We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed.”
AZ Legislature passes long-delayed $17.6 billion budget
The Arizona Legislature Friday passed a budget that Gov. Katie Hobbs is expected to sign, with just days left to keep the government running.
“When it comes to the budget, it takes three to tango,” state Sen. John Kavanagh, the Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said on the floor before senators approved Senate Bill 1735, the General Appropriations Act, by a bipartisan vote of 21-8. He was referring to the Senate, the Governor’s Office and, as the last partner in the budget dance, the House.
“The only losers, in my opinion, are the reporters, who until January will be desperate for stories,” Kavanagh said, referring to the start of the next regular legislative session.
The House approved the newest version of the $17.6 billion budget Thursday night after Hobbs vetoed two of the House’s budget proposals Wednesday night, while noting she supported the budget the Senate passed June 20.
Senators from both parties noted Friday’s legislation, despite some changes by the House, is virtually identical to the earlier Senate budget.
Voting yes for the latest budget, Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, criticized the House for its tardiness in passing a budget that Hobbs would sign.
“The more savvy media folks know what happened. We should have finished two months ago,” Petersen said, speaking calmly but with a serious tone. “For those who allowed this to happen, I would say, ‘Get your house in order,’ because I’m certain this body and the public won’t be fooled a second time.”
Without a budget signed by Hobbs, the Arizona government would shut down Monday for the first time in its history.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers largely agreed the budget was one they could live with in the face of a divided government. Republicans hold majorities in both houses of the Legislature, but lack enough seats to override the Democratic governor’s vetoes.
Sen. Lauren Kuby, D-Tempe, said on the floor that the budget wasn’t perfect and fails to fully reflect “the people’s proposals, the people’s values.”
But she said she would vote for the bipartisan budget.
“As it turns out, the third time is a charm,” Minority Leader Priya Sundareshan told senators.
“The House has finally come to the conclusion that this chamber landed on weeks ago,” the Democrat said.
“Despite the changes we’ve seen from the House, the budget we vote on today is nearly identical to” what the Senate approved June 20, Sundareshan said.
While noting she was still voting “no” on the budget, Sundareshan noted passage would keep the Arizona government operating.
“Arizona will not shut down,” she said.
Sen. Kiana Maria Sears, who’s been in the Senate for 90 days as of Friday, said she was grateful the budget includes money for the arts, which helps the economy to thrive. She added she was glad to secure an additional $2 million for the Commission for the Arts, $2 mllion more for the Area Agency on the Aging and $2 million for a program to encourage Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients to purchase fresh, farm-to-table Arizona food.
In a news release, the Democrat said she was proud of the work she and Minority Whip Rosanna Gabaldón did to prioritize spending for higher education and capital investments for state universities.
“I look forward to the day when we can fully fund education,” Sears said on the Senate floor.
DRC, Rwanda sign U.S.-brokered peace deal Friday
President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda at the White House Friday afternoon after Secretary of State Marco Rubio presided over their signing of a peace agreement aiming to end decades-old unrest.
The countries border each other in the heart of Africa and have been at war for 30 years for reasons rooted in the Rwandan genocide. The violence between Rwandan and DRC militant groups, and at times other African states, has resulted in approximately six million deaths, according to some estimates. The U.S. mediated the agreement, which aims to end fighting in the eastern Congo while also securing access to more critical minerals for the U.S.
“We engaged with the two parties in early April, and within three weeks, they signed the declaration of principles. And now, within about two months from that, we have signed today the final peace agreement,” said Massad Boulos, the senior advisor for Africa at the U.S. Department of State.
The visit comes on the heels of Trump’s second declaration of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel that appears to be holding, even though both countries broke the first one Tuesday. Trump has taken credit for ending what he calls the ‘12-Day War’ between the two countries, citing both Saturday’s U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and his calls for a ceasefire – and many of his supporters agree.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-GA, nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this week for his action in the conflict.
Pakistan also nominated the president for the prize for his intervention in its conflict with India. After an initial attack by Pakistan that left 26 dead in India, followed by retaliation from India, it appeared the two nuclear-armed countries were headed for war. But the two agreed to sign a ceasefire deal after diplomatic efforts from Trump, Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. An African reporter at the White House Friday told Trump that the DRC president is considering nominating him as well. Trump has been nominated before for the Abraham Accords but has not been selected.
Foreign affairs have played an outsized role in the first roughly five months of the president’s second term, as the Russia-Ukraine war rages on, Pakistan and India seemed headed for war, Israel and Gaza continue to fight, and most recently, Israel and Iran traded blows. The president has urged ceasefires in each case and appealed for a lasting end to all the conflicts.
SCOTUS ruling on universal injunctions to impact dozens of cases
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday ruling limiting the power of judges to block a president’s policies nationwide will have widespread implications for similar lower court decisions, an analyst says.
In a 6-3 decision in a case challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, the Supreme Court said a lower court’s issuance of an injunction could only apply to those who sue to block Trump’s orders, not the U.S. as a whole.
More than 300 lawsuits have been brought against the administration in its first five months, with federal judges issuing 40 universal injunctions against Trump’s policies, according to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
All of those universal injunctions likely face similar limitations, Carrie Severino – president of JCN, a group “dedicated to strengthening liberty and justice in America” – told The Center Square.
Severino called the court’s ruling “outstanding,” noting that lower courts have overstepped their bounds in issuing universal injunctions against the Trump administration.
“This is an issue that lower courts have tried to exploit,” Severino said. “It’s good to see that the [Supreme] Court pushed back so firmly. Any court that is worth its salt” should get the message.
Severino said Friday’s decision will directly impact the other cases against the Trump administration.
“Any case that has a universal injunction in it, they are all in different stages in court, but yes, this ruling sets precedent” and the lower courts have to take notice.
In most of those cases, she said, the Trump administration likely will quickly file motions demanding the lower courts reconsider their universal injunctions.
“I would think there will be a very swift action [from the Trump administration] because this decision clearly states that those injunctions were outside their authority,” Severino said. “In some instances, the courts themselves may say they will take a look” before any new filings, but in most cases, “you will have to at least ask before you receive.”
Even critics of the decision acknowledged its wide-reaching implications.
“The Supreme Court has green-lighted Trump to run roughshod over a critical constitutional right,” Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper, co-executive directors of Popular Democracy, said in a statement. This is not a slide into authoritarianism – this is a one-way plummet.
“This ruling takes away the power of lower courts to block unconstitutional moves from the government on a federal level – allowing the government to act with impunity and apply law inconsistently across the country,” they wrote.
Severino compared Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s majority opinion to past rulings from the late Justice Antonin Scalia, an originalist and one of the most influential justices in Supreme Court history.
“Universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts. The Court grants the Government’s applications for a partial stay of the injunctions entered below,” Barrett wrote in the decision for the majority. “But only to the extent that the injunctions are broader than necessary to provide complete relief to each plaintiff with standing to sue.”
“Justice Barrett’s decision was Scalia-esque. It was a very clear decision, very concise and to the point,” she said. “I’m excited the court was as clear as it was. … It’s instructive that the court did a very careful walkthrough of the history here.”
Severino also noted Justice Samuel Alito’s concurring opinion.
“Today’s decision is a victory for our constitutional separation of powers,” she said in a statement. “Justice Alito’s concurrence sounds the alarm that litigants have been attempting to abuse class actions and standing processes as well and shows that the Court is well aware of the problem and prepared to police those boundaries to shut down judicial activists.”
Rural Nevada sees $34 million federal payday
Nevada counties have received their annual federal land payments, or Payments in Lieu of Taxes, to the tune of nearly $34 million.
The federal PILT program paid counties across the United States to make up for funds lost by not being able to develop federally owned lands. Despite being the state with the largest portion of federally owned land, Nevada received less PILT money than nine other western states.
“PILT payments support vital services that help rural counties and towns thrive, from public safety to infrastructure and education,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a press release. “We recognize that local governments are the backbone of our nation, and we will continue working to support their efforts to grow local economies and serve their citizens.”
The 2025 PILT payment of $33,801,823 was more than the Silver State has ever received in a single year since the program began in 1977. The federal funding comes amidst efforts by the Trump administration to sell vast portions of western public lands to help fund tax cuts, a move that has faced resistance in Nevada.
“Nevada’s rural communities rely on PILT funding to complete projects and carry out critical services,” said U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, in a press release. “Close to a million more than last year — to ensure local governments across the Silver State can continue to deliver for families that call our rural counties home.”
Cortez Masto cosponsored the Small County PILT Parity Act to increase funding through the program for counties with smaller populations. The bill was introduced in March but has not been acted on since.
Four counties — Clark, Washoe, Elko and Nye — received over $4 million in PILT payments. Because the payment is curved by population, Clark County received nearly $1 per federally owned acre, with several other counties receiving a better ratio. With more than 2.2 million residents, Clark County is the state’s most populous county, and it’s where Las Vegas is located.
Storey County, with the least publicly owned land, was awarded the least amount of PILT funds at $50,033.
Unlike many federally funded programs, PILT money can be used for any reason by Nevada counties, but is most often put to operational costs such as infrastructure or public schools.
For information on how much PILT money a Nevada county received, click here for the U.S. Department of Interior website.