Vance breaks key tie after Senate fails to reject Trump’s national emergency on tariffs
The Senate failed Wednesday to pass a resolution rejecting President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff agenda, as several Republicans signaled beforehand they favored halting the relatively new levies, and Vice President JD Vance was called in to break an ensuing procedural tie. The disapproval resolution failed 49-49, with three Republicans joining all Democrats present in attempting to throw a wrench in Trump’s tariff plans. After that, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put forward a motion to reconsider the resolution, then moved to table – or kill – the initial motion, which procedurally would prevent Democrats from forcing such a vote again. That vote also deadlocked, but after about 80 minutes, Vice President Vance cast a tie-breaking vote in his dual role as president of the Senate. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., had introduced the resolution to end Trump’s “national emergency” as a “privileged” one – meaning it would require a vote regardless of the upper chamber being in Republican hands. The House, however, has signaled it is not inclined to pursue the same. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., split from the rest of the GOP and sought to end the national emergency that backs the tariffs. Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., did not vote. CHINA IS ‘CAVING’ TO TRUMP’S TRADE WAR STRATEGY, EXPERT SIGNALS Whitehouse was reportedly on a plane back from South Korea and wouldn’t make the gavel, according to Providence’s CBS affiliate. Before the vote, there was chatter about key absences that could swing the vote one way or another, as key tallies are all about the math. One tariff critic told reporters earlier Wednesday that the disapproval motion sent “the message I want to send” that tariffs must be more “discriminatory.” “It’s not perfect, I think it’s too broad,” Collins said, according to Politico. In remarks on the Senate floor earlier in the day, Paul, – one of the most vocal opponents to tariffs and proponents of free trade – who suggested conservatives may want to reconsider their support for the tariffs. “You know, there was an old-fashioned conservative principle that believed that less taxes were better than more taxes,” Paul said. “That if you tax something, you got less of it. So that if you place a new tax on trade, you’ll get less trade.” TRUMP WAGERS US ECONOMY IN HIGH-STAKES TARIFF GAMBLE AT 100-DAY MARK “There was also this idea that you didn’t do taxation without representation. That idea goes not only back to our American Revolution, it goes back to the English Civil War as well. It goes back probably to Magna Carta,” he said of the phrase, which for some time was the District of Columbia’s official slogan, given its lack of full-vote representation in Congress. Paul said the Constitution forbids taxation being implemented in a way that circumvents Congress and laid out why he thought that was the case today. “An emergency has been declared, as the Senator from Virginia remarked,” he said. “Everywhere, there’s an emergency everywhere. Sounds like an emergency everywhere is really an emergency nowhere.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., had previously balked at Trump’s tariffs on Canada, saying that while fentanyl proliferation is an emergency as the president declared, it is not one that is germane to Canada. Reached for comment, the office of Sen. Mitch McConnell – Paul’s fellow Kentucky Republican – did not offer any further remarks after reports suggested he too is uncomfortable with Trump’s tariff agenda. Fox News Digital also reached out to Murkowski for comment in that regard. Schumer commented on the ultimate result, saying Republicans “voted to keep the Trump tariff-tax in place. They own the Trump tariffs and higher costs on America’s middle-class families.” Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
Ukraine signs deal to give US access to rare minerals
Ukraine has signed a deal with the United States, giving the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare minerals as it continues to work with the Trump administration in an effort to end its three-year war with Russia. Ukrainian Economy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko flew to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to help finalize the deal. “On behalf of the Government of Ukraine, I signed the Agreement on the Establishment of a United States–Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. Together with the United States, we are creating the Fund that will attract global investment into our country,” she wrote on X. This story is breaking. Please check back for updates.
Jeffries distances himself from Democrat trips to El Salvador as border security debate splits party: report
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is privately signaling to fellow Democrats that it’s time to hit pause on trips to El Salvador aimed at spotlighting the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a move reflecting growing internal tensions over how the party is handling border security and immigration enforcement optics in the 2026 cycle. Though Jeffries has publicly said Democrats are committed to securing Abrego Garcia’s return from a notorious Salvadoran prison, sources told The Bulwark that the New York Democrat has discouraged more lawmakers from traveling to the country. One senior House staffer described the leadership’s position bluntly: “They want to let the El Salvador stuff slow down.” “This is patently false, and thinly sourced innuendo,” said Jeffries staffer Christie Stephenson. “When Leader Jeffries says ‘more is more’ pushback on this lawless administration, he means it. As Leader Jeffries has repeatedly said, House Democrats will never stop fighting for the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia.” DEM SENATOR SAYS ABREGO GARCIA SITUATION ‘NOT GOING TO END WELL’ FOR TRUMP, ARGUES HE’S ‘UNDERMINING’ FREEDOM The issue has divided Democrats. Progressives have embraced Abrego Garcia’s case as a symbol of what they say are unconstitutional deportations under President Donald Trump’s renewed immigration crackdown. But moderates are increasingly uneasy, pointing to the political risk of rallying around a figure with a checkered past. Jeffries, who once demanded that Abrego Garcia be returned “immediately before he is killed,” has not publicly addressed whether he supports the strategy of sending congressional delegations to El Salvador. DEMOCRAT FAULTS HIS OWN PARTY FOR PICKING WRONG BATTLE WITH CASE OF DEPORTED MS-13 SUSPECT His spokesperson recently dismissed reports that he is pulling back from the issue as “thinly sourced” but did not deny the substance when initially contacted by The Bulwark. The stakes are high. As Fox News Digital previously reported, Abrego Garcia, who was deported alongside more than 200 others, reportedly has ties to the violent MS-13 gang and was named in a 2022 Homeland Security investigation into human smuggling. Though never charged, he was stopped while transporting eight undocumented passengers, and court documents in Maryland show a history of alleged domestic violence, including a judge labeling him a “violent repeat offender.” Despite this, Democrat lawmakers like Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Reps. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., and Robert Garcia, D-Calif., have flown to El Salvador in recent weeks to draw attention to Abrego Garcia’s detention. Van Hollen’s visit particularly sparked memes online with the now-infamous “margarita-gate” incident. Critics within the party now worry that continued focus on the case and trips perceived as sympathetic to a deported gang suspect could backfire. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “There’s a moral argument to be made,” one Democrat aide told The Bulwark, “but it’s not clear this is the right poster case, and it’s definitely not the right political moment.”
Rubio reveals obscure Biden administration office kept ‘disinformation’ dossier on Trump official
Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed in a Cabinet meeting that the Biden administration’s State Department kept dossiers on Americans accused of serving as “vectors of disinformation,” including a file on an unidentified Trump administration official. “We had an office in the Department of State whose job it was to censor Americans,” Rubio said during Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting with Donald Trump. “And, by the way, I’m not going to say who it is. I’ll leave it up to them. There’s at least one person at this table today who had a dossier in that building of social media posts to identify them as purveyors of disinformation. We have these dossiers. We are going to be turning those over to these individuals.” Vice President JD Vance interjected, asking, “Was it me or Elon? We can follow up when the media is gone,” and drawing laughter from the Cabinet. “But just think about that. The Department of State of the United States had set up an office to monitor the social media posts and commentary of American citizens, to identify them as vectors of disinformation,” Rubio continued. “When we know that the best way to combat disinformation is freedom of speech and transparency. RUBIO OVERHAULING ‘BLOATED’ STATE DEPARTMENT IN SWEEPING REFORM “We’re not going to have an office that does that.” RUBIO ANNOUNCES CLOSURE OF STATE DEPARTMENT EFFORT THAT ‘WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD ALREADY’ Rubio appeared to be referring to an office within the State Department previously known as the Global Engagement Center, which he officially shuttered earlier in April. When announcing a massive reorganization of the State Department, the Global Engagement Center engaged with media outlets and platforms to censor speech it disagreed with, Rubio said. The center has been accused by conservatives of censoring them. Journalist Matt Taibbi, for example, previously reported that the center “funded a secret list of subcontractors and helped pioneer an insidious — and idiotic — new form of blacklisting” during the pandemic, Fox Digital reported in 2024. He added that the Global Engagement Center “flagged accounts as ‘Russian personas and proxies’ based on criteria like, ‘Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,’ blaming ‘research conducted at the Wuhan institute,’ and ‘attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.’” TWITTER BOSS ELON MUSK ACCUSES GOVERNMENT AGENCY OF BEING ‘WORST OFFENDER IN US GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP’ Though Rubio did not identify which Trump official the Biden administration kept a dossier on, Elon Musk has previously railed against the Global Engagement Center. “The worst offender in US government censorship & media manipulation is an obscure agency called GEC,” Musk posted to X in January 2023. That was more than a year before Musk endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential race and became a fixture of the administration in his temporary role with the Department of Government Efficiency. “They are a threat to our democracy,” Musk added. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional details on which Trump official was targeted but did not immediately receive a reply. WHITE HOUSE PROPOSAL AXES UN, NATO FUNDS AND HALVES STATE DEPARTMENT BUDGET Former President Barack Obama established the small office in 2016 through an executive order aimed at coordinating counterterrorism messaging to foreign nations before it expanded its scope to also include countering foreign propaganda and disinformation, State Department documents show. In 2024, lawmakers did not approve new funding for the office in the National Defense Authorization Act, and it was scheduled to terminate Dec. 23, 2024. The Biden administration, however, shuffled staffers and rebranded the office. It became the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub in the waning days before Trump’s inauguration, the New York Post reported in January. “I am announcing the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” Rubio said in an April 16 statement announcing the office’s closure. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” he wrote. “This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America. That ends today.” Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
David Hogg faces challenge to DNC role as party tensions escalate
A Native American attorney is challenging David Hogg’s vice chair position at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) amid intra-party tensions ignited by the 25-year-old activist’s $20 million investment through his political action group to primary older incumbent Democrats. “While we are confident that the DNC Officer election was conducted fairly, transparently, and in alignment with the rules that were approved by the DNC Membership in advance of the election, the Party provides an opportunity for any candidate or member to raise concerns for further discussion,” a DNC spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The DNC Credentials Committee will meet virtually on April 12 to consider longtime Democratic Party activist Kalyn Free’s challenge, a decision made before the fallout of Hogg’s plan to primary incumbents, according to a source familiar. Free submitted a complaint following the DNC’s Feb. 1 officer elections, in which Hogg, Malcolm Kenyatta and Artie Blanco secured the vice chair positions. Free alleged in the complaint that the DNC “discriminated against three women of color candidates,” during officer elections earlier this year. The news was first reported by Semafor. DEMOCRATS’ VICE CHAIR GETS ULTIMATUM: STAY NEUTRAL IN PRIMARIES OR STEP DOWN FROM PARTY LEADERSHIP Hogg claimed his vice chair position with 214.5 votes, while Kenyetta had 298. According to the network pool producer at the leadership election, 205 votes were needed to win. Free secured 96. Jeanna Repass had 112, and Shasti Conrad had just 91.5 votes. DEMOCRATS’ VICE CHAIR IGNITES CIVIL WAR, TARGETING ‘ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL’ INCUMBENTS IN PRIMARIES A source familiar shut down Free’s allegation, emphasizing to Fox News Digital that the election results weren’t even close. But Free accused the DNC of a “fatally flawed election that violated the DNC Charter” in her complaint and requested “two new vice chair elections,” according to Semafor. “By aggregating votes across ballots and failing to distinguish between gender categories in a meaningful way, the DNC’s process violated its own Charter and Bylaws, undermining both fairness and gender diversity,” Free wrote. While Free’s complaint was filed before Hogg made headlines this month for his brutal plan to primary incumbent Democrats in deep blue districts, the fallout is the latest blow to the young Democratic leader. Hogg pledged to donate $20 million through his political action committee, Leaders We Deserve, to primary-challenge some older Democrats in blue districts. DNC chair Ken Martin affirmed last week that the DNC will stay neutral in intra-party primaries, giving Hogg the ultimatum to either rescind his vice chair position or forego his political influence via his PAC. “No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election, whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger,” Martin said last week, adding, “If you want to challenge incumbents, you’re more than free to do that, but just not as an officer of the DNC, because our job is to be neutral arbiters. We can’t be both the referee and also the player at the same time.” Following Hogg’s primary fallout, Martin announced new investments for the state parties and a strengthened neutrality pledge for DNC officials. The proposal, which would require DNC officials to pledge neutrality in primaries, is expected to be voted on by the party’s Rules and Bylaws committee next month. If the panel approves the proposal, the full DNC membership would take a final vote during the party’s annual summer meeting in August. Hogg replied to the news on social media later that day, accusing the DNC of “trying to change the rules because I’m not currently breaking them. As we’re seeing law firms, tech companies, and so many others bowing to Trump, we all must use whatever position of power we have to fight back. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.” “This moment requires us to have the strongest opposition party possible to stop Trump from destroying people’s retirement savings, disappearing people, plunging our economy into oblivion—and to provide a real alternative to the Republican Party for voters that we simply do not have right now,” Hogg added. The move by Hogg comes as Democrats disagree about how to respond to President Donald Trump’s first 100 days back in the White House. During an interview with CNN last week, longtime Democratic strategist James Carville ripped Hogg for challenging those within his own party when he could be investing those same funds to “take on a Republican.” “The most insane thing I ever heard is the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee is spending $20 million running against other Democrats. Aren’t we supposed to run against Republicans?” Carville asked. Hogg and Free did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The ‘F-word’: Schumer says Trump’s first 100 days can be distilled to single utterance
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and dozens of his bicameral colleagues addressed reporters on the Capitol steps Wednesday, blasting President Donald Trump’s first 100 days. Schumer, flanked by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and others, said Trump failed the nation predominantly via his tariff agenda and purportedly cozying up with “dictators.” “Donald Trump’s first 100 days can be defined by one big F-word: failure,” Schumer said. “Failure on the economy, failure on lowering costs, failure on tariffs, failure on foreign policy, failure on preserving democracy, failure on helping middle-class families.” HOUSTON ROCKETS OWNER AMONG TRIO OF TRUMP AMBASSADOR NOMINEES CONFIRMED BY SENATE “Today’s new economic news showed that Donald Trump is running the American economy the way he ran his family business into the ground,” claimed Schumer, who grew up in Brooklyn, where Trump’s father’s real estate empire was based. Schumer claimed Trump turned nations against the U.S. and drove them into China’s arms, saying former economic allies now see China as a better partner in that regard. The Democratic leader later called Trump a “would-be dictator” and claimed he wants to be “king” of America. “[W]e Democrats … around the country will fight him at every turn,” Schumer said. GRAHAM MOCKS DEMOCRATS AS DEA CHIEF CONFIRMS MS-13 GANG TATTOOS Later, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., rose to the podium to cries of “preach-preach-preach” from fellow Democrats. Warnock is the pastor at Martin Luther King Jr.’s church in Atlanta. “We are witnessing an all-out assault on our Constitution, an all-out assault on our norms and our values, an assault on the pocketbooks of ordinary people,” Warnock said. “But, in a real sense, an assault on the spirit of the American people. They are trying to convince us that our neighbors are our enemies. We should know better than that by now, and we do.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Clark also lambasted the GOP, claiming congressional Republicans are “choosing their careers … over that of their constituents.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Senate GOP leadership for comment.
EXCLUSIVE: Mom’s fight with school over teen daughter’s gender transition gets boost from parents group
EXCLUSIVE: The American Parents Coalition (APC) is weighing in on a lawsuit against a Florida middle school accused of secretly socially transitioning a 13-year-old girl behind her family’s back. The group, which advocates for the rights of parents and families across the country, filed a brief in support of the Littlejohn family with the 11th Circuit Court on Wednesday. APC is arguing that so-called social transitioning is a type of medical treatment and that “parents have a substantive due process right to be informed about the treatments a school administers to their minor child and to refuse those treatments.” The girl’s parents, January and Jeffrey Littlejohn, filed the suit against the school board of Leon County, Florida. In an interview earlier this year, January Littlejohn, who was one of President Donald Trump’s guests at his address to a joint session of Congress, shared how the school’s actions had an extreme, “destructive” effect on her daughter and entire family. Littlejohn said that despite the school’s behavior, her daughter has worked through her gender confusion. But she said the school’s actions created a “huge wedge between us and our daughter” that “took many years to repair.” TRUMP GUEST WHOSE DAUGHTER WAS TRANSITIONED BEHIND HER BACK SPEAKS OUT She explained that the school “took it upon themselves to intervene and socially transition my child” when the girl and her friends became fixated on their gender identity. Though some consider social transitioning virtually harmless, Littlejohn explained that it “goes way beyond name and pronouns.” “They sit the child down, and, in our case, it was behind closed doors with three adults that consisted of the school counselor, the assistant principal and a social worker I had never met, and they did an official ‘gender support plan,’” she explained. In this session, Littlejohn said, the school staff asked her daughter what bathroom and locker rooms she wanted to use, which sex she wanted to room with during overnight trips and whether she wanted her parents to be notified. PARENTS TELL SCOTUS: LGBTQ STORYBOOKS IN CLASSROOMS CLASH WITH OUR FAITH “They put the burden on her as to whether or not my parental rights would be honored by deciding she was the sole decision-maker as to whether or not my husband and I would be notified of the meeting,” she explained. Littlejohn said that when she made inquiries about the session to the school, she was told “they could not give me any information about that meeting” and “that my daughter was now protected by a nondiscrimination law.” Despite this, a three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court ruled 2-1 against the Littlejohns, saying the incident did not violate the parents’ due process rights. COLORADO’S ‘TOTALITARIAN’ TRANSGENDERISM BILL SPARKS CONCERNS FROM PARENTS After this ruling, the Littlejohns appealed to have their case heard by the entire 11th Circuit Court. The American Parents Coalition joined in support of the Littlejohns’ lawsuit Wednesday. In its brief, APC states that the Leon County School Board “violated the requirements of substantive due process when it started a minor child on the road to gender transition without the knowledge and consent of the child’s parents.” ‘LET US BE THE PARENTS’: SUPREME COURT SHOULD LET PARENTS OPT KIDS OUT OF LGBTQ SCHOOL LESSONS, LAWYER ARGUES The brief argues that, regardless of debates about the safety and efficacy of gender transition treatments, “this much is clear: social transitioning is the first step in a process to treat a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria that then leads to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries.” The group said that “even for proponents of this care, this first step can’t be taken lightly.” Yet, in the Littlejohns’ case, “the local school board decided that the parents should not be informed and need not consent before their middle-school age child is socially transitioned.” “There’s no doubt that social transitioning is a medical treatment,” the group argues. “Parents should be involved in the medical process from this very first step — they should walk with their children through the challenges of growing up.” Alleigh Marré, executive director of APC, explained the decision to join the Littlejohns’ suit, telling Fox News Digital her group is determined to “support parents and families and ensure nothing stands between parents and their child.” FLORIDA AG LAUNCHES OFFICE OF PARENTAL RIGHTS, LENDING LEGAL FIREPOWER TO DEFEND PARENTS’ ‘GOD-GIVEN RIGHT’ “No parent should ever be kept in the dark about their child,” said Marré. “When the school took steps to socially transition the Littlejohns’ daughter without their knowledge or consent, it wasn’t a misstep, it was a deliberate attempt to cut parents out of critical decisions while pushing gender ideology onto a child. “This blatant flouting of parental rights and authority simply cannot be accepted or normalized.” Leon County Schools did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Republican lawmakers seek to strip District of Columbia of its sanctuary city policies
FIRST ON FOX: Republican lawmakers are launching an effort that would require the nation’s capital to abandon its sanctuary city policies. Sanctuary cities are local jurisdictions that restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities, including refusing to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests. As a result, the District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act would eliminate sanctuary city laws in the District of Columbia and bar Washington, D.C., from implementing any policy that allows it to circumvent complying with Homeland Security and ICE on detainer requests for illegal immigrants. TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER CRACKING DOWN ON ‘SANCTUARY’ CITIES, THREATENS THEIR FEDERAL FUNDING “Unconscionable that our nation’s capital would facilitate illegality and thwart federal law enforcement efforts,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., who introduced the measure in the Senate Wednesday, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “President Trump’s efforts to enforce immigration laws should not be undermined by local leadership anywhere in the United States, let alone Washington, D.C.” Washington has a series of sanctuary city policies. For example, the D.C. City Council adopted a measure in 2020 that restricts D.C. officials from learning the immigration status of individuals in custody, and bars the jurisdiction from transferring individuals to federal immigration agencies. Other jurisdictions with sanctuary city policies include Chicago, New York City, Boston and Los Angeles, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Meanwhile, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration in April from restricting federal funds for sanctuary cities, claiming it violates the Constitution’s separation of powers principles and the spending clause, in addition to the Fifth and 10th Amendments. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., introduced the legislation in the House in March. “Sanctuary policies have devastating real-life consequences,” Higgins said in a Wednesday statement. “As our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., should be the safest, most ‘America First’ city in the United States, and Congress has the constitutional authority to end the city’s sanctuary status.” YOUNGKIN TO DRAFT SANCTUARY CITY BAN, MAKING STATE FUNDING CONTINGENT ON ICE COOPERATION The legislation aligns with initiatives from the White House to crack down on sanctuary cities. On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order demanding the Justice Department and Homeland Security establish a list of all sanctuary cities failing to follow federal immigration laws. Per the executive order, cities will receive notification and have the opportunity to drop the sanctuary status. Failure to do so could cause them to risk losing federal funding, according to the executive order. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The order also instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “pursue all legal remedies” to encourage sanctuary cities into compliance with federal law, according to a Monday White House fact sheet shared with Fox News Digital. “It’s quite simple: obey the law, respect the law, and don’t obstruct federal immigration officials and law enforcement officials when they are simply trying to remove public safety threats from our nation’s communities,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. “The American public don’t want illegal alien criminals in their communities. They made that quite clear on Nov. 5, and this administration is determined to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.”
Supreme Court weighs religious liberty dispute over public funding for Catholic charter school
The Supreme Court offered clear divisions Wednesday in a religious liberty case involving public education and whether religious charter schools can receive taxpayer funding. At issue is whether providing public money to a faith-based educational institution violates the First Amendment’s separation of church and state mandate. In more than two hours of wide-ranging oral arguments, the high court appeared divided along ideological lines, with a majority prepared to allow St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in Oklahoma City to become the first such religious charter school in the country. LIBERAL SUPREME COURT JUSTICES GRILL RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION IN LANDMARK SCHOOL CHOICE CASE The appeal comes amid a renewed pitch in some Republican-led states to bring a greater religious presence to public education. The conservative high court in recent years has, in select cases, allowed taxpayer funds to be spent on religious organizations to provide “non-sectarian services” like adoption or food banks. In the courtroom public session, the justices debated what limits on curriculum supervision and control would be placed on the religious charter school, if its contract with the state was allowed to move forward. “Our [prior] cases have made very clear,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “You can’t treat religious people and religious institutions and religious speech as second class in the United States. And when you have a program that’s open to all comers except religion, no, we can’t do that. We can do everything else. That seems like rank discrimination against religion. And that’s the concern.” BIDEN-APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE KEEPS BLOCKING TURMP ADMIN FROM NIXING FUNDING FOR LAWYERS FOR MIGRANT CHILDREN “All the religious school is saying is don’t exclude us on account of our religion,” Kavanaugh added. But others on the bench worried about government entanglement in approving some religious charter schools, and not others, potentially favoring one faith over another. “What you’re saying is the free exercise clause trumps the essence of the establishment clause,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor told the attorney for the state’s charter school board. “The essence of the establishment clause was, ‘We’re not going to pay religious leaders to teach their religion.’” The Constitution’s First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett was not on the bench and is recused in the case. She offered no public explanation of why. If the court divides 4-4, the ruling below holds, with the charter school losing its appeal. The vote of Chief Justice John Roberts may be key. He asked tough questions of both sides. At one point, Roberts noted of the current dispute: “This does strike me as a much more comprehensive involvement,” by the state than prior cases dealing with “fairly discrete” public money going to religious groups, such as tax breaks and private school tuition credits. In an unusual split within the Oklahoma government, the state’s governor, head of public education, and the statewide charter school board are all backing St. Isidore. But Attorney General Gentner Drummond sued to block the approval of the school’s state charter, calling it an “unlawful sponsorship” of a sectarian institution, and “a serious threat to the religious liberty of all four-million Oklahomans.” He has the backing of some GOP state lawmakers and parents’ groups, who argue that funding parochial charter schools would drain resources from public education – especially in rural areas already struggling with limited funding. When it signed a contract with the state charter school board in 2023, St. Isidore – formed as a nonprofit corporation by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa – agreed it would be free and open to all students “as a traditional public school,” and would comply with local, state and federal education laws. But in its application to the charter board, it also indicated, “the School fully embraces the teachings” of the Catholic Church and participates “in the evangelizing mission of the church.” Shortly after Oklahoma’s highest court ruled against it, the school said it remained “steadfast in our belief that St. Isidore would have and could still be a valuable asset to students, regardless of socioeconomic, race or faith backgrounds.” The Trump administration is supporting the school. Some Catholic sources note the namesake seventh-century archbishop and scholar is now known as the patron saint of the internet, given the title by Pope John Paul II in 1997. Much of the high court oral arguments turned on whether St. Isidore – a K-12 online school – is public or private in nature. The distinction is important, since charter schools in Oklahoma are considered public, free and openly accessible to all. That is true in the 46 states – plus the District of Columbia – where charter schools operate. The Supreme Court has previously said states may require public schools be secular, but also cannot prevent private religious institutions from public benefits and contracts. The issue now is whether those precedents apply to charter schools. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said charter schools are “a creation and creature of the state.” Justice Elena Kagan said contracts signed by schools like St. Isidore have basic requirements to meet state classroom standards, with state oversight. “I’ve just got to think that there are religions that are going to have no problems dealing with all the various curricular requirements and religions that are going to have very severe problems dealing with all the curricular requirement,” she said. “I’m suggesting to you is this notion that the state can do this while still maintaining all its various curricular requirements. I mean, either that sort of fantasy land, given the state of religious belief and religious practice in this world or if it’s not, it’s only because what’s going to result is treating, shall we call them majoritarian, religions very differently from minority religions,” said Kagan. But Justice Clarence Thomas noted: “The argument that St. Isidore and the board are making is that it’s a private entity that is participating in a state [charter] program.
Vance reveals ’empowering’ aspects of Trump’s leadership that enables ‘trust’ and squashes ‘turf battles’
EXCLUSIVE: WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said he feels “very empowered” by President Donald Trump, telling Fox News Digital that there is “complete trust across the senior team,” and “good synergies” in “service of a common vision.” Vance sat for an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital Wednesday in his West Wing office inside the White House. The vice president reflected on his role as vice president, which, notably, is not limited to a specific portfolio, but rather a broad role touching on foreign and domestic policy issues and more. FOX NEWS POLL: THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SECOND TERM “Obviously, the president makes decisions. And what’s so good about the team that we have, both on the economic side, but also on the foreign policy side, is the president gives directives, and each person has their role in fulfilling those directives, and there is complete trust across the senior team,” Vance explained to Fox News Digital. “It’s kind of empowering, because you don’t have to constantly check in — you don’t have to micromanage some of these things.” Vance told Fox News Digital that he spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio Tuesday, after not having spoken to him “for four or five days before then.” “It’s kind of nice to just know that you’ve got the secretary of State working on his stuff, the Department of Defense secretary who’s working on his stuff, and I’m, of course, working on my stuff,” Vance said. “And then we all come back; we update the president; we go from there.” But Vance said it is “a very fluid and dynamic situation.” WHITE HOUSE LISTS DOZENS OF ‘HOAXES’ PUSHED BY MEDIA, CRITICS IN TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS “I think that will certainly continue over the next 100 days — over the next four years,” Vance said. “But I think what enables it — what makes it possible — is that people actually trust one another.” Vance told Fox News Digital that the president “has full faith in his team.” “And it just makes it very easy to actually work successfully when you’re not constantly checking in and you’re not constantly, you know, dealing with the bureaucracy,” Vance said. “You can just go and do your job.” Vance told Fox News Digital that he, as vice president, feels “very empowered by the president.” “I was talking to Secretary Rubio about this yesterday, and I think Marco Rubio feels very empowered, and there’s just this sense that the President both likes and trusts his senior team, and so he’s able to govern effectively,” Vance explained. “The president is dealing with a million different things, but it’s a lot more digestible when you can give directives to your team and say, ‘Go and do this.’ And that’s what’s happening on the economic side. It’s what’s happening on the national on the national security side.” “And obviously, because I’m the vice president, I have a more global view of this, but it’s really an amazing thing to see, because there’s just a lot of good synergies that, you know, I don’t know if the president had the first administration — I don’t know if any president has had in prior administrations — where there was such great confidence in the team.” “You read stories about, you know, Kamala Harris’s portfolio, or you read stories about other vice presidents, about, even Dick Cheney’s portfolio, where there was this dynamic of, there were turf battles, and one person was trying to say, ‘This is what I work on, and this is what you work on, and don’t step on my territory,’” Vance explained. “There’s just none of that.” Vance added: “Because our territory is what the president has told us that we have to get done, and we don’t mind sharing that territory if it’s in service of a common vision, which it is.” PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT: HOW TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS STACK UP AGAINST INAUGURATION DAY PLEDGES Meanwhile, when asked for highlights of the first 100 days of the Trump administration, Vance pointed to his first foreign trip in February to France to discuss artificial intelligence. “A lot of people were very excited about American leadership in AI, but then, of course, we gave a speech heard around the world at Munich where I thought — it’s just one of the things you can do with this office is say things that need to be said,” Vance told Fox News Digital. “And I thought it needed to be said that some of our European allies have gone backward on free speech, on religious expression, on border control, and in the same way that President Trump is trying to change that dynamic in the United States of America, I think it would behoove our European friends to do the same.” Another highlight, Vance said, was visiting Eagle Pass, Texas. “That was another highlight, because there was a sense of — and I don’t mean this negatively — almost boredom at Eagle Pass because the Border Patrol agents were showing me photos of these places that were just overwhelmed by illegal immigrants and now — you can’t see anybody.” Vance reflected on “visualizing the drop in just a few short weeks of a 95% reduction in illegal immigration, and the fact that these guys felt like they didn’t have as much to do.” “But if they don’t have that much to do, that means we’re doing the American people’s business,” Vance said. “And just seeing that so crystal clear — a connection between Donald Trump’s policies and the end of the border crisis — just good things for the American people.” “It was a very cool day,” he said. “I also got to ride in a helicopter.”