Republicans are a goddam disease, a pustulent, rotting, fatal, disgusting disease. American democracy is going to be in profound existential danger as long as the Republican Party exists or the people comprising the party are allowed to hold office anywhere in the United States.
Anything’s possible, but (1) that argument shouldn’t work because the state can still do whatever it wants with its tax system, it just can’t do it with the stimulus money Congress has given them, and (2) John Roberts has shown zero inclination to interfere with Congress’s taxing and spending powers.
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I was just going to make the same argument.
States can do what they want vis-a-vis their tax policies. Federal money doesn’t really have any direct effect on that at all.
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Ohio AG Yost, who didn’t sign the letter, has beat the other AGs to court. He files suit today.
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This is a really just a backdoor way to keep the stimulus money out of battleground states the GOP control. They’ll scream about sovereignty and blame Biden for why the money isn’t coming, and then they’ll wait for the economic damage to goose voter suppression and put them back in power at the federal level.
Remember that they did this with Obama. Multiple GOP states refused (and continue to oppose) funding for railroads and medicaid expansion, despite the economic and physical pain it caused. Voters don’t see what they’ve never had, so they haven’t imposed much of a cost on the party to date. Sadly, this will probably work just as well.
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Slàinte Mhaith! 
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The federal government limits potential uses of federal dollars all the time. This is purest bullcrap.
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Being the first person quoted, is Steve Bannon really what the GOP is putting up as one of their luminaries these day? The recently indicted slob is what they got? I’m feeling better about our future everyday if this is the brain trust coming after us.
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Same as it ever was
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Roberts + the 3 liberals on SCOTUS = 4
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How’d that work out for Dirksen? I’ve only just heard about him now.
(I Keed, I Keed)
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Are you suggesting that the SCOTUS judges don’t approach each and every case without any sort of preconceived notions or biases?
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Stoners are very much aware of this relationship as it applies to marijuana laws.
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From a poster on WAPO but too good not to plagiarize:
Republican AG’s suing the Biden administration because they can’t take money that has been earmarked for COVID relief for the working class and use it to give more tax cuts to rich people; is so on brand that it would be hilarious if it weren’t so pathetic.
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So Republican states are cool with taking federal money but want to cut their own taxes? Do I have that right? I need simplification.
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I don’t know; maybe it’s in the next volume.
Caro tends to provide a lot of context, but I don’t remember reading much about Dirksen before this particular set of events.
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Happy Padraig’s y’all.
“So be easy and free
When you’re drinking with me
I’m a man you don’t meet everyday”
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Roberts can get one or both of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on board. Attacking Congress’s spending authority simply isn’t part of the conservative judicial agenda.
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Probably depends on how it is intended to be used. Rick Snot fought tooth and nail to prevent a federally-funded high-speed rail project in FL during the Obama administration. His excuse was that he didn’t want FL to be left with any ongoing costs, but I think it was just because republicans hate passenger trains.
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