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Opinion by Elie Mystal

In a little-covered speech, the Supreme Court justice explained how he thinks the court should reverse rulings conservatives don’t like.

In an interview at Catholic University last week, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said what he’s clearly been thinking for the past 30 years: Supreme Court precedents don’t matter, and he’s making things up as he goes along to fulfill his own political agenda.

He didn’t say it in that way, of course. People would have noticed that. Instead, he couched his self-serving philosophy in legal jargon that will fly under the radar of most people, including journalists. Here’s what he said: “At some point we need to think about what we’re doing with stare decisis.… [I]t’s not some sort of talismanic deal where you can just say ‘stare decisis’ and not think, turn off the brain, right?”

To translate: “Stare decisis” is a foundational legal principle in this country and all countries that follow a “common law” system. What it means, in simple terms, is that prior judicial rulings govern future judicial rulings. If a court rules, for instance, that “gay people have the same basic rights as everyone else in this country, including the right to marry other people,” then that ruling is supposed to govern all future cases concerning the rights of gay people.
Story by Jacqueline Sweet and Marisa Kabas

This article is a joint production of Slate and the Handbasket.

Jack Posobiec is very concerned about voter fraud. An influential MAGA voice and prominent conspiracy theorist, he’s perhaps best known for amplifying the 2016 “Pizzagate” conspiracy, which culminated in a man firing a gun in a D.C. pizza restaurant. In the years since, Posobiec has loudly espoused a range of debunked conspiracy theories. That includes the GOP theory—once semi-fringe and now thoroughly MAGA mainstreamed—that Democrats have won elections via millions of fraudulent votes. The Republican National Committee last fall enlisted him to speak to poll watchers about election security. Posobiec is particularly focused on Pennsylvania, repeatedly accusing the state’s Democratic officials of fraud, even spreading conspiracy theories that were followed by an RNC lawsuit.

The focus on voter fraud in Pennsylvania is particularly ironic because it sure looks like, and a trail of documentation suggests, that Posobiec is living in Maryland but voting in Pennsylvania. If so, that would be a violation of voting laws, experts say.

The 40-year-old Posobiec has voted in Pennsylvania elections from 2004 to 2024, both in person and by mail, according to a copy of his voting record viewed by Slate and the Handbasket. Until 2016, Posobiec used military and civilian overseas ballots. After resigning from his job as a Navy Reserve intelligence officer in 2017, he remained in Maryland while becoming a full-time influencer and political activist with groups such as Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. He continued voting in Pennsylvania via absentee ballots and, later, in-person on-demand mail voting, using his parents’ home address in 2018, 2022, and 2024, according to an official copy of his voter information file from Montgomery County obtained through a right-to-know request.

There’s nothing untoward about any of that, provided Posobiec actually lives in Pennsylvania. But the evidence is extremely strong that he doesn’t. Instead, it suggests that, despite growing up in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Posobiec has lived in Maryland for almost a decade.

In a 2017 divorce complaint from his first wife, Posobiec listed a Maryland apartment as his address. Both he and his current wife, Tanya, have posted on their personal social media accounts photos of the suburban Maryland home they appear to have resided in since 2018. Tanya often calls the house “home”—at least five times, according to our review—and shows many milestones of family life there. She also lists her location as the District of Columbia on Facebook and enrolls in family crafts and lessons in the area, according to her social media posts. She registered to vote at their Maryland address on Election Day 2020. (Posobiec voted that year in person in Pennsylvania.)
By  STAN CHOE

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is hanging near its records on Monday, as technology stocks keep rising.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 17 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher.

Advanced Micro Devices soared 32.6% to help lead the market after announcing a deal where OpenAI will use its chips to power artificial-intelligence infrastructure. As part of the deal, OpenAI could own up to 160 million shares of AMD if it hits certain milestones.

A frenzy around AI has been one of the main reasons Wall Street has been hitting record after record, though that’s also raising worries that prices have potentially shot too high. Much of the furor around AI in the last couple weeks has come from OpenAI, which has quickly become a $500 billion company, announcing deals with businesses around the world to develop more AI infrastructure.

Another chip company, Nvidia, announced a deal last month where it would invest $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a partnership, creating criticism that the AI investment pipeline was beginning to appear like a circle. Nvidia fell 1.5% following the AMD announcement.
The Supreme Court did not explain its decision.
By Devin Dwyer

The Supreme Court has declined to take up the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was contesting her prosecution and conviction on grounds that the government had violated a non-prosecution agreement made with Jeffrey Epstein before his death.

The Supreme Court did not explain its decision.
Heard on Morning Edition
Nina Totenberg

The U.S. Supreme Court opens a new term Monday, which promises to be hugely consequential and focused in large part on how much power the Constitution gives to the president.

Among the issues already on the court's docket: a case that could end what's left of the landmark Voting Rights Act; a case that could do away with one of the few remaining laws that limits campaign fundraising; a challenge to the Trump tariffs; a challenge to his firing of independent  agency commissioners before their fixed terms are completed; and much much more.

Indeed, coming soon is likely to be the unanswered question from last term: Did President Trump exceed his authority when he issued an executive order barring a constitutional provision that guarantees automatic citizenship for every child born in the United States.

Record-breaking eight months
Since Trump took office for a second term, the conservative court's 6-to-3 majority has been rocking the boat big time.  In just eight months, it has broken all records for granting a president's wishes on the "emergency docket."

By the end of last week, the court had granted 20 of Trump's requests  to block lower court orders opposed by the administration. In contrast, the court ruled against  the administration in these emergency cases just three times.
Historically, government shutdowns have led to furloughs, not mass layoffs—until the Trump administration introduced a different approach.

By Andrea Shalal and Leah Douglas

WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The Trump administration will start mass layoffs of federal workers if President Donald Trump decides negotiations with congressional Democrats to end a partial government shutdown are "absolutely going nowhere," a senior White House official said on Sunday.
As the shutdown entered its fifth day, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNN's "State of the Union" program he still saw a chance that Democrats would back down, averting a costly shutdown and federal employee layoffs that have been threatened by White House budget director Russell Vought.

"President Trump and Russ Vought are lining things up and getting ready to act if they have to, but hoping that they don't," Hassett said.
Later on Sunday, Trump was asked by reporters when the administration would begin laying off federal workers. Trump responded, without elaborating: "It's taking place right now."
The White House's Office of Management and Budget, which has played a key role in Trump's campaign to sharply scale back the size of the federal government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NO SIGN OF TALKS
No tangible signs of negotiations have emerged between congressional leaders since Trump met with them last week. The shutdown began on October 1, the start of federal fiscal 2026, after Senate Democrats rejected a short-term funding measure that would keep federal agencies open through November 21.
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"They've refused to talk with us," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told CBS' "Face the Nation" program, saying the impasse could be solved only by further talks between Trump and the four congressional leaders.

Democrats are demanding a permanent extension of enhanced premium tax credits to help Americans purchase private health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and assurances that the White House will not try to unilaterally cancel spending agreed to in any deal.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he is willing to address Democrats' concerns but that they must first agree to reopen the federal government.
Trump also expressed an interest in the healthcare question while emphasizing Republican interests in reforming the ACA, also known as Obamacare.
"We want to fix it so it works. Obamacare has been a disaster for the people, so we want to have it fixed so it works," the president said.
By Melody Gutierrez and Daniel Miller

Hours after California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to seek a court order to stop President Trump from deploying 300 of the state’s National Guard troops in Oregon, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on Sunday night.

Officials from California and Oregon sought the restraining order after the president sent California Guard troops to Oregon earlier on Sunday.

“The rule of law has prevailed — and California’s National Guard will be heading home,” Newsom said in a statement. “This ruling is more than a legal victory, it’s a victory for American democracy itself. Donald Trump tried to turn our soldiers into instruments of his political will, and while our fight continues, tonight the rule of law said, ‘Hell no.’”
Opinion by D. Earl Stephens

We are just a few days removed from the most toxic, anti-American speech ever given by a sitting President of the United States, and I am not letting it go.

And neither should you.

While addressing a gathering of military leadership from across the globe at Marine Corp Base Quantico in Northern Virginia Tuesday, the vile, America-attacking Donald Trump called on our generals and admirals to “… use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” so that he can attack us again.

There’s no sense being cute about it, or trying to sanitize it. The President of the United States is intent on using our military against us. And because I am one of the few in media — or the Democratic or Republican Party for that matter — who refuse to just merrily skip to the next Trump-made catastrophe, I want to repeat this again, until everybody hears it and understands it:

NOTHING Trump does with our military will be to protect the citizens of the United States of America. EVERYTHING Trump does with our military will be to protect himself from the citizens of the United States of America.

By words and by deed it is clear as day that Trump has absolutely no respect for the country he violently assaulted, nor our men and women who wear the uniform, because like any authoritarian leader he sees them as servants to him, and not our country.

And just so there was no misunderstanding about his objectives, Trump went on to say that the people who protest against him in America and disagree with his policies are, “The enemy within.”

Can you please read that again?
Story by Will Neal

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has eviscerated Donald Trump over his push to deploy military forces into Democratic-run cities across the country.

“This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power by the President of the United States,” he wrote on X Monday. “America is on the brink of martial law. Do not be silent.”

Newsom was replying to another post from his Democratic gubernatorial colleague in Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, sounding the alarm after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the deployment of 400 Texas National Guard troops to locations in Illinois, Oregon, and other Blue states where protests are being staged against the MAGA administration’s immigration crackdown.

A judge ruled twice over the weekend against the MAGA administration’s efforts to send troops into Portland to “protect” immigration detention facilities from “domestic terrorists,” a threat Trump’s critics have described as “pure fiction.” The president has appealed that decision.
Story by Janna Brancolini

A judge appointed by President Donald Trump blocked his latest blue-city takeover for the second time in as many days after a contentious emergency hearing.

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut said during an at-times contentious Sunday night telephone hearing that the administration appeared to have deliberately violated her ruling temporarily halting the deployment of Oregon National Guard troops to Portland.

After the first ruling, Trump pivoted and ordered hundreds of members of the Texas and California National Guard to deploy to Oregon, forcing Immergut to issue a second injunction blocking deployment of any “federalized members of the National Guard” to the state.

The judge, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, seemed incredulous that the government would send troops from other states just hours after her ruling, considering the constitutional principles are the same regardless of which state they come from, the Associated Press reported.

“How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention to the temporary restraining order I issued yesterday?” she questioned the federal government’s attorney, cutting him off.
What happened to free speech?

Story by Ted Johnson

Donald Trump once again called for an FCC investigation of a television network over their news coverage, this time over MSNBC’s continued employment of Al Sharpton.

On Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I knew Al Sharpton for many years, not that it matters, but he was a major ‘TRUMP’ fan. He'd ask me to go to his fake Rallies all the time, because I brought BIG Crowds, and he couldn't get anybody to come without me. Then he did the Tawana Brawley Hoax, one of the worst Low Level Scams in History, and that set him back, BIG TIME! Then he got to know Brian Roberts, Chairman of Fake News NBC, who gave him what would become one of the Lowest Rated Shows in Television History. Roberts is afraid to take him off because it wouldn't be ‘Politically Correct.’ This is just one of the many reasons that the Federal Communications Commission should look into the license of NBC, which shows almost exclusively positive Democrat content. Likewise, ABC Fake News - About the same thing, 97% negative to Republicans!”
Story by Mary Spiller

Actor Tyrese Gibson is facing legal trouble after authorities issued an arrest warrant on Sept. 22, following reports that his dogs were involved in a deadly attack in his Atlanta neighborhood.

According to Fulton County officials, Gibson's four Cane Corsos were allegedly roaming freely through the upscale Tuxedo Court area in Buckhead on Sept 18 when they fatally mauled a neighbor's 5-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel.

The spaniel's owner, Harrison Parker, described the heartbreaking scene to Good Morning America.

"The pack of those four dogs were there minutes before I found Henry’s body," Parker said. "And there was absolutely no cars, no humans, just the dogs. And he was dead. And the fact he died like that alone in the darkness at night and I wasn’t there… it’s just horrible."

Parker added that he hopes "justice is fully served" following the Gibson incident.
Daniel Gala

Across the five companies he runs and even in his brief foray into government with the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk has a well-earned reputation for being a demanding boss. While this trait has helped him build a business empire that spans multiple industries and amass vast personal wealth, it seems that many of those working for him have had enough.

In a detailed report based on conversations with more than a dozen current and former Musk employees, the Financial Times highlighted the massive turnover that has been taking place among the top ranks across all of Musk's companies.

What's happening?
According to the Forbes Billionaires List, Musk is the wealthiest human on Earth, with a personal fortune of nearly $500 billion. However, the same drive and intense focus that led him to that level of financial success can also make him very challenging to work for.

Add in Musk's increasingly controversial political stances, and many employees, both relatively new hires and long-term workers, have decided to take their talents elsewhere.
By Alayna Treene, Bryan Mena

Washington — American farmers are having a tough year, in no small part because of President Donald Trump’s trade war. Now, the White House is gearing up to extend them a multi-billion-dollar bailout, sources tell CNN.

Surging costs and foreign retaliation from tariffs have hurt the US agriculture industry — as have immigration-related labor shortages and plummeting commodity prices. Farm production expenses are estimated to reach $467.4 billion in 2025, according to the Agriculture Department, up $12 billion from last year.

Farm bankruptcies rose in the first half of the year to the highest level since 2021, according to US courts data.

Trump’s policies have exacerbated those woes, from the deportation of the industry’s key migrant workforce to renewed trade tensions between the United States and China. And for traditional American crops, such as soybeans, the situation has grown particularly precarious.

“There’s no doubt that the farm economy is in a significant challenge right now, especially our row croppers,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters Tuesday. “So not just soybeans, although I think they’re probably the top of the list, but corn, wheat, sorghum, cotton, et cetera.”

Indeed, the US soybean industry has become the poster child of the farm economy’s plight in the first year of Trump’s second term. The president recognizes these problems, White House officials tells CNN, and has increased pressure on his administration to address them urgently.
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