← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Dunking on Newsom, Forbidden Words for Democrats & SCOTUS Victory for Trump Cancelling $783M in DEI Grants
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- [00:00]
Senator Ted Cruz
This is an iheart podcast.
- [00:05]
Podcast Advertiser/Announcer
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- [01:06]
Senator Ted Cruz
Lowe's knows that more projects mean more tools for a limited time. New and existing Mylowes Rewards credit card members can get 12 month special financing on purchases of $299 or more in store and online. Don't wait to get the things you need. Get get special financing today. Lowe's we help you save now through August 27th. Choose 12 months special financing and purchases of $299 or more offer subject to credit approval and cannot be combined. Minimum monthly payments required. See store@lowe's.com for details. You want smart political talk without the meltdowns? We got you and I'm Carol Markowitz. And I'm Mary Kathryn Hamm. We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently. Normally is about real conversations, thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded and no panic will keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day. Join us every Tuesday and Thursday Normally.
- [01:58]
Lisa Booth
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:06]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome it is Vertical Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And Senator, I gotta say every once in a while you get a little feisty on Twitter and one of your tweets has now gone to 14 million people that have seen it and a follow up tweet is in in the million plus RA and it dealt with electricity. I did not see this one coming. I'm not going to lie.
- [02:28]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, Gavin Newsom it seems has gotten a new Twitterer. He's hired some staff that I'm sure are blue haired transgender freaks. But they've decided that way they're going to make Gavin the hero of the left, is to tweet in all caps and try to do everything they can to sound like Donald Trump. And by the way, it is working in that left wing kooks across the country are sending money to Gavin Newsom. It's raising him a whole lot of money. And so he has gone, he has gone crazy on Twitter, but he's getting dunked on badly. And we're going to talk about one example where he's trying to blame high electricity prices on Donald Trump. And well, let's just say the facts are not backing him up. We're going to break that down for you. We're also going to talk to you about a remarkable story, which is a major Democrat think tank has put out a list of forbidden words, a list of words. They concluded that when Democrats say them, they sound like out of touch freaks. Now, I gotta say, I agree with this think tank, but I don't think Democrats are going to follow this advice. It really is striking though to show just how out of touch they are that they have to be told what sort of words make you sound like a scolding school marm or a radical in a university faculty lounge. And finally, we're going to talk about a Supreme Court decision that upheld the Trump administration's canceling of hundreds of millions of dollars of DEI grants. It was a terrific victory for common sen. It was 5, 4. It was closely divided. We're going to break it down, explain what the court did, what the divide was, and how President Trump is now able to cancel massive amounts of money that were going to completely woke political, ideological projects.
- [04:13]
Ben Ferguson
All of you know that I am a pro second Amendment guy. I've shared on numerous occasions how carrying my firearms saved my life from a gang related attack. But for those of you out there with family members who may not be comfortable having a gun by their side, you still want them to be able to protect themselves and others in times of danger. And that's where the burner launcher comes in. Burn is a handheld pistol that fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker. And I'm here with Josh Sherrard from Burna to share the true story of how an avid hiker used his burner to stop an attacking mountain lion. Josh, tell us what happened.
- [04:49]
Josh Sherrard
You know Jason is an avid hiker, decided to take his family out to on a hike that he's done several times. Super easy hike, but super fun. Armed with his burner. You know, this is one of those things where he didn't expect to see anything. And all of a sudden on this hike, this mountain lion appears out of nowhere. Of course he sends his family on down the trail, watches the lion for a few minutes, realizes it's not going away, so uses his burner, fires a few rounds to scare it off, continues down the trail, but unfortunately this mountain lion appears again, at which point he realized he was going to have to up his aggression with that burner, fires four rounds, was able to strike the mountain lion all four times in chest and torso. So at which point that mountain lion airs off, never to be seen again. These guys make it down the trail, back to their car and back to home safely. Fortunately, this is all it took to make sure and get this family back home safe off a hike that could have taken an obvious turn for the worst.
- [05:44]
Ben Ferguson
And I'm going to guess that burner has been used to stop other types of animal attacks as well.
- [05:49]
Josh Sherrard
Absolutely. We get stories all the time of users with whether it be dogs or other wildlife. We even have an ecological park whose security carries burner for bears out in, in the Smoky Mountains out there. That's been effective there as well. So once again, not just a tool for people, but very effective against animals as well.
- [06:09]
Ben Ferguson
It's really incredible. If you want to get more information on how you and your family member can protect themselves with burner launcher, go to Burna.com that's by R N A.com again by RNA.com Burna.com all right, Senator, so let's talk about this interesting tweet. And Democrats, anything that goes up price wise right now, it's automatically Donald Trump's fault. That is the simplistic liberal logic 101. Anything that they can blame Trump for, they're going to try it every time they put out this tweet. Gavin Newsom clearly acting as if he's running against the whole MAGA world. He's obviously launched his presidential campaign and is just trying to take these easy shots. The problem is you hit him back hard with the facts. So let's talk about what he tweeted out first and then what you said in response.
- [07:02]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, sure, he sent out a tweet that said electricity prices have gone up 10% since January. Great work, Donald Trump. And so, you know, look, as Gavin Newsom is want to do, he is fact free, he is data free, he is Evidence free. He is usually reality free, but he's pretty slick and drives a message. And so I responded, actually relying on AI, and I'm kind of enjoying doing this online. And so I just asked Grok to chime in. And so I responded, hey, Grok, electricity prices have gone up 10% since January. In what cities and states are they the highest? So I had no political content to it. I just asked, where is this the worst? And to date, we've got 14 million views on that. Here's what Grok came back with, based on August 2025 data from EIA and other sources. Highest state, number one, Hawaii. Number two, California, number three, Connecticut, number four, Massachusetts, number five, Rhode Island. And then highest city rates, number one, Honolulu, Hawaii, number two, San Francisco, California, number three, New York, New York, number four, Boston, Massachusetts. And number five, Hartford, Connecticut. And so I looked at that. Just that grok response has 1.2 million views. My initial query has 14 million. And so I responded to that. I said, hey, Grok, what do the five states with the highest electricity rates all have in common? And it wasn't difficult to figure this out. But here's what Grok responded. Based on EIA data, the top five, Hawaii, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode island, all have Democratic governors and strong renewable energy mandates. Factors include high fuel import costs, for example, Hawaii, urban demand and infrastructure investments. Rates vary by policy and geography. So it's an amazing example of how. Look, I didn't even bother to argue with Gavin. I just simply pointed to facts. And the beauty of it is I didn't need adjectives, I didn't need to make any claims. I just need to ask a simple question. Where is it the highest? Now I do the answer. And the thing about it is, Gavin knew the answer. Electricity rates are incredibly high in California, the second highest of any state in the country. Why? Because of the wacko left wing policies Gavin Newsom and the legislature put in place. That's true of Democrat legislatures. And yet here's what Gavin Newsom wants to do. He wants to tell Californians, you know, your high electricity rates. It's because Donald Trump is there and it's fundamentally dishonest. And look, that's one of the reasons Ben, you and I do this podcast, is it's designed to give information. The left. You know, if you think about the difference between being a Democrat or Republican, today, Democrats, their policies don't work. Their policies are a train wreck. Whether it's open borders, whether it is boys and girls sports, whether it is massive spending and high taxes and job killing regulations, whether it is appeasement abroad, whether it is letting terrorists into this country, all of their policies are a mess. So what do they do? They have to spin, they have to obfuscate. And there is a fundamental dynamic in politics, which is liberals win when they effectively obfuscate their views because their policy views don't work. Conservatives win when we effectively articulate what it is we believe. Why? Because our policy views work. They are common sense. Most people with any sense, they want secure borders, they want law enforcement protecting their family. They want their constitutional rights protected. They want low prices, low energy prices. And so that tweet exchange, I think really embodies much of what I'm trying to do speaking out in the public debate. But much of what we're trying to do with this podcast as well, well.
- [11:15]
Ben Ferguson
Let'S dive into also, so people understand and they may say to themselves, well, hold on a second, why is it that one state has higher prices than another state? Why is it that California is higher? Is it just because everything costs more in California? Can you break down, explain to people how this is such a statewide issue? This is where your actual state government matters and the policies of your state and it's going to dictate the pricing you see?
- [11:40]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, it's a whole host of things. One chunk of it is taxes. And you have big blue states, they tax everything they see. And so one of the reasons when you fill up your tank in California, it costs so much is you've got massive state and local gasoline taxes. But not only that, when it comes to electricity generation, when you put mandates, as blue states do, when you put massive renewable energy mandates, that drives up the cost of generating electricity. Consistently, the cheapest form of generating electricity is either coal or natural gas. States like California don't want you to use coal or natural gas, so they mandate instead, you use very, very expensive forms of electricity generation and that ends up driving costs. But it's not just the generation, it's also getting the fuel. It's also building the transmission lines, the environmental permitting, the regulatory barriers, the lawsuits that are entailed in big blue states. Every one of these drives up costs and those costs are paid by consumers. On the other hand, when you have red states, red states make it easier to build power generation that is more cost effective and to build transmission lines. And it's interesting, if you look at the state of Texas, and I'm not saying renewable energy is necessarily bad, the number one producer of wind energy in America is the state of Texas. The number one Producer of solar energy in the country is the state of Texas. But if you look at how it happens in Texas, that's not subject to a mandate. And so we also have quite a bit of energy that is generated via natural gas and some that is generated via coal as well in California, by driving it overwhelmingly to renewables, especially renewables that if the weather is uncooperative, you know, sometimes the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, and wind and solar works fine, but other times, if it's overcast, you may not have any sunshine. You have days when the wind doesn't blow. And so if you're powering a power grid, you need electricity that can be generated day in, day out. And that typically comes from either natural gas or coal or the alternative is nuclear. And we have nuclear energy in Texas. But again, blue states make it incredibly difficult to build nuclear as well. Every time you put an additional amount. I'll give you another example. Let's take Massachusetts. Massachusetts, the cost of natural gas to heat your home is massively high. And one of the big reasons there's enormous natural gas deposits in Pennsylvania, the Marcellus Shale, it would be very simple to bring that natural gas from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts. Well, you know what? The state of New York has decided New Yorkers don't want natural gas. So the costs are very high there. And they've decided no one else in New England wants it. So New York will not let them build a pipe across New York to get the natural gas to New England. And so as a result, what they've been doing is importing their energy from Russia instead. By the way, it's worse for the environment. It pollutes more, it emits more carbon, and it also does things like enrich Vladimir Putin. But that is left wing liberal logic is, no, no, no, no. We think oil and gas is bad, so therefore no pipelines whatsoever and we'll just buy Russian gas and pollute even more. That's where facts matter.
- [15:14]
Ben Ferguson
Final question on this. Have you seen any fact checks yet come out on Gavin Newsom in this tweet? Because I was scouring the Internet as you and I were chatting earlier. I can't find a single fact checker that's come out saying, hey, you're not telling all the facts here. This is a misleading tweet, misleading statement, misleading anything. It's like no one's doing it but you.
- [15:32]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, unfortunately, the so called fact checkers are not, in fact, objective. They are not checking facts. Things like outfits like Politifact are left wing editorial outlets and they mask their often deceptive editorial views as objective fact checking. It really is. It's amazing. The things. Number one, they inevitably fact check conservatives many, many more times than liberals. Sometimes they'll fact check liberals on some innocuous statement just to conclude it's true. And the bias with which they have it. You know one of the funniest fact checks, PolitiFact. Once I said years ago that in Iran they celebrate Death to America Day and then that they have a holiday that they celebrate Death to America Day. And PolitiFact fact checked me and they concluded, well, yes, it is true that there is a holiday that's actually on the official calendar in Iran. And the holiday is the date that the Iranian radicals and revolutionaries took over the American Embassy and took Americans hostage. That's on the calendar. And it is true. They celebrate it every year. And it's true as well that mobs go out in the streets and they chant Death to America on this day every year. And those chants are frequently led by the Ayatollah. All of that political politifact concludes, true, true, true, true, they say, but you know, the holiday is not technically called Death to America Day on the calendar. So we rate this flat out false. And I literally doubled over laughing. It was the most absurd. I actually retweeted their fact check and said, read this, because the facts that they lay out are exactly what I said. They make my case for it, but ideologically, because they're leftist, when the Ayatollah chants Death to America, apparently the PolitiFact editors are chanting right along with them. So they see nothing to complain about. So Gavin Newsom is not going to get fact checked on this. He is going to. I mentioned that liberals win when they obfuscate. Well, to Gavin Newsom's credit, he is much like Bill Clinton. If you remember years ago, a backhanded compliment of Bill Clinton. It was said he's an unusually good liar. Well, like Bill Clinton is an unusually good liar. And the fact checkers are in the business of lying, so they're not going to be fact checking what Gavin Newsom says.
- [18:00]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, great point there. I want to move to something else that's happening, and this is very interesting. Democrats are going back to their wokeness and adding new words and phrases that you shouldn't be able to say. Apparently, this is part of their strategy to reach more voters because they're hemorrhaging voters all over the place. Some of the things they want to bring back with a vengeance center is not breastfeeding of a child, but it's chest feeding of a child. That's just one example of this lunacy. And they're rolling it out like, hey, this is how we're going to get people to come back to us.
- [18:34]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, it's very amusing. This Democrat think tank Third Way has put out a list of 45 words and phrases that they're asking Democrats, please stop saying this because you guys sound like kooks when you say this. And Politico's Playbook reported on it. Here's what Playbook said. The blue blacklist. In a new memo, the center Left think tank Third Way is circulating a list of 45 words and phrases they want Democrats to avoid using, alleging the terms put, quote, a wall between us and everyday people of all races, religions and ethnicities. It's a set of words that Third Way suggests. Quote, people simply do not say. Yet they hear them from Democrats. And these banned words, they span six categories from quote, therapy speak to, quote, explaining away crime. And they put in sharp relief a party that the authors say makes Democrats, quote, sound like the extreme divisive, elitist and obfuscatory enforcers wokeness. And the Third Way argues that, quote, to please the few, we have alienated the many, especially on culture issues where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant. All right, so let's, let's go through some of the words that Democrats now are supposed to not say. Number one, privilege. Number two.
- [20:10]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, that's a bad one.
- [20:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
Violence, as in environmental violence, not actual violence like mugging or murder. That, that violence they don't say, but environmental violence, dialoguing, whatever that is triggering, which you and I believe in triggering. But I think we have a very different meaning for that than leftist when we talk about triggering othering othering one on Earth. It's othering othering, othering microaggression, holding space, body shaming, subverting norms, systems of oppression, cultural appropriation, overton window, existential threat to the climate, democracy, economy, radical transparency, stakeholders, the unhoused, food insecurity, housing insecurity, person who immigrated, birthing person, cisgender, dead naming.
- [21:19]
Ben Ferguson
Can we go back to birthing birthing person real quick? That's the one that like, I think most. Yeah, that would be a mom. But they don't want to say that. They don't think it's a woman that can have a child, even though it's only women that can have children. So they want to say it's a birthing person. And this is supposed to like, bring them more people. It's incredible, isn't it?
- [21:35]
Senator Ted Cruz
All right, I've told this story on Verdict before, but we actually had a hearing in judiciary where a Democrat senator made multiple references to birthing people. And afterwards I came up to him and I said, dude, is your party really that whack job crazy that you can't say mom? And he just nodded and said, yeah, like that's who they are. All right, let me finish this list. Hetero, normative, patriarchy, lgbtqia plus element op. I added the element op, Bipoc, ally, ship or allyship or whatever the heck it is. Incarcerated people and involuntary confinement. So these are the naughty words. Now, look, I'm old enough to remember George Carlin's list of the seven words you can't say on radio. And since you are a radio host, you probably know those seven words because this is a family show. I'm not going to repeat the seven words you can't say on radio. But it is a classic bit of stand up comedy. And this is now, I guess, the inverse of that. This is the words Democrats should stop saying because they make them sound like clowns.
- [22:50]
Ben Ferguson
Okay, you'll, you'll love this center. So, true story. When I was, gosh, really young in radio, I want to say 16, 15, 16. Somewhere in there, every year you had to do your broadcasting license interview. And at the radio station, HR is who you'd go meet with and you'd have to write down those words you're not allowed to say on air, right? Like the seven words that you're not allowed to do. So everyone in the radio station, they came to me when it happened, they started laughing. They're like, hey, Ben, make sure you, when you do it, tell them that your dyslexic. I have a learning disability. Because then you do the test orally instead of writing it down. So everyone went into the HR department and you said the words out loud. The HR lady who was like 75 years old and she would just shake her head and then she finally looked at me, she's like, you're not dyslexic. I'm like, no, ma'.
- [23:37]
Senator Ted Cruz
Am.
- [23:38]
Ben Ferguson
They all told me I had to do this. She's like, yeah, you're like the 17th person today. So there's your little. Back in the day of radio, everybody at the station, no one knew how to write anything. Everyone knew, go in here and just mess with her mic. What are the words you're not allowed to say in the air? And of course you would enunciate them like perfectly. And she would just be cringing. And she's like, you don't have a learning disability. I'm like, no, ma', am, I don't. They just, they put me up to it. She's like, yeah, so did everyone else. It was the best every year.
- [24:03]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, I appreciate your, your refraining from going through the list right now, but, but look, here's what Third Way said as as to the reason they put out their list. Quote, we're doing our best to get Democrats to talk like normal people and stop talking like they're leading a seminar. Seminar at Antioch. Look, this is one of the few times when I'm gonna say I agree with Democrats. When they say words like that, they sound like freaks. But there's a reason for that because they are. It's not just the words. Notice the memo doesn't say to stop believing this stuff. The memo doesn't say to stop, you know, destroying jobs. The memo doesn't say, hey, let's actually secure the border. The memo doesn't say if we find a murderer, let's arrest the murderer and make him. What is it? An incarcerated person? No, no, no. They're perfectly fine with letting murderers and rapists go. They just don't want you to say it in a way that people realize what they're doing.
- [25:03]
Podcast Advertiser/Announcer
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- [26:02]
Sonos Sponsor/Announcer
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- [27:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
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- [27:18]
Ben Ferguson
Hey, everybody, it's Ben Ferguson here, and let's talk real for a second. If you're feeling uneasy about the economy, inflation, or what's happening in Washington, you're not alone. And that's why I decided to bring on a good friend of mine, Dr. Kurt Elliott from Kurt Elliott Precious Metals. Kurt, welcome.
- [27:35]
Dr. Kurt Elliott
Thanks, Ben. Always a pleasure to talk with you.
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Ben Ferguson
So, look, people are watching their retirement accounts shrink. The dollar is losing value. What are you telling folks right now?
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Ben Ferguson
Yeah, I've seen it for myself. You guys make it incredibly easy. You walk people through everything, step by step. And that's important.
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- [28:34]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, that's really a big deal. And the question is, how do people get started?
- [28:38]
Dr. Kurt Elliott
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- [29:02]
Ben Ferguson
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- [29:20]
Dr. Kurt Elliott
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Ben Ferguson
Oh, hey.
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Hey. Thanks for meeting me here on such short notice. This place isn't bugged, is it?
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Senator Ted Cruz
Bugged?
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Ben Ferguson
Wait, Jamie, what's going on?
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Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
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Ben Ferguson
Ah, I think I need to get back to you on that.
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Senator Ted Cruz
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Ben Ferguson
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Senator Ted Cruz
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- [31:21]
Ben Ferguson
Call 562-314-4603 for details. I want to move to another big story as well, and this is one that is not going to get a lot of media attention. So I hope everyone listening will actually pay attention to this because it was a big victory from the Supreme Court allowing Donald Trump tax millions of dollars center in funding for DEI related grants. This is huge.
- [31:47]
Senator Ted Cruz
It is. So it was a 54 vote and it allowed the Trump administration to terminate $783 million worth of grants. They're grants from the National Institute of Health. And they were granted, they were canceled because of the administration's policy positions on diversity, equity and inclusion and gender ideology. And the Trump administration quite reasonably said, we're not going to give away $783 million for DEI. And these were awards that were studying all sorts of ideological objectives. And in many instances, these are awards that were granted because of the researcher's race. They made that a criterion. And listen, I gotta say, there is an important role for scientific and medical research. NIH does good work. And early in the Trump administration, I was flying from D.C. back to Houston and a woman came up to me on the plane and she said she was a cancer researcher at MD Anderson, and she said she was very worried about funding getting cut. And she wanted to express that to me. And I said, listen, thank you for the work you do. MD Anderson is incredible. They do phenomenal work fighting cancer. And I said, everyone, or at least everyone with any sense agrees that we ought to be doing cancer research. And part of the reason, a big part of the reason you want to scrutinize and you want to cut out wasteful expenditures, things like funding transgender education in Guatemala, which was one of the USAID grants that the administration canceled, is so that you can spend the money where it actually should be spent. And so $783 million in NIH grants, that is not actually going to disease and curing disease and helping people who are suffering, but instead are granted based on ideology. That is an absolute waste and it is wrong But I got to tell you, the ruling from the court was only 5, 4. It was very narrow and it had a bit of a complicated, bit of a complicated lineup. So four justices dissented. The four who dissented were Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan and Justice Jackson. So you had the Chief justice plus the four liberals. Now you had four conservatives, Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh, who would have granted the Trump administration's request entirely. And so what happened was plaintiffs had their grants cancelled. They went and filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts because of course, in this lawfare that they deliberately seek out left wing judges at extreme left wing jurisdictions. And so Massachusetts and San Francisco have been incredibly popular places for left wing attorneys general and radical groups to file lawsuits. And the district judge with a district judge did is two things. Number one, vacated the guidance that the Trump administration had issued, saying they were not going to give funding to dei. And then secondly, the district court ordered the Trump administration give the $783 million to these grant recipients. That went up on appeal to the Court of Appeals. And the Court of Appeals agreed with the district court and and again ordered the Trump administration give the money. Now. It went to the U.S. supreme Court and the Supreme Court 5, 4 said, no, you do not have to give the money. So the $783 million, the Trump administration is holding onto it. And, and the deciding vote on this was, was Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who voted with the liberals on part of the case and the conservatives on part of the case. So she voted with the conservatives on you don't have to give the money. And the basis for it, by the way, is what the five justices said is the lawsuit was filed in the wrong place, that the lawsuit should have been filed in the Court of Federal Claims, which is where if you have a breach of contract case against the federal government, if you have a contract and they broke it under federal law, the place to bring that case is the Court of Federal Claims. It's a specialized court that exists to adjudicate breach of contract cases against the government. They did not bring this in the Court of Federal Claims. They brought it just in an ordinary federal district court. So five, four, the court said, wrong court. They don't have jurisdiction to decide this, so they don't have to give the money. Now, Justice Barris Barrett sided with the liberals in refusing to reverse the district courts vacating the guidance on dei. So the guidance on DEI is currently blocked, although that lawsuit will continue. So it's not necessarily permanently blocked. And she declined to have the Supreme Court reverse that decision. And so this was, at the end of the day, this really should have been 9 0. But I'm glad it was at least 5, 4, the right way because that means that this money doesn't have to go out the door.
- [37:06]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's certainly big that it didn't have to go out the door. Moving forward, does this also have some sort of precedent that the president will be harassed maybe a little bit less? Or do you think Democrats say we'll harass no matter what, we'll argue wherever we can, a liberal court we can find and that will at least slow him down?
- [37:23]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, the Democrats are going to keep trying and the left wing activist groups are going to keep trying. This is their next generation of lawfare. Just like before when they indicted him four times, that was an effort to use the courts to use law enforcement to stop President Trump, but also to stop the voters from re electing him. They failed in that this is now their effort and it is relentless every day of the Trump presidency. He's going to be sued. The administration is going to be sued. I will say the Supreme Court, we talked about this at an earlier podcast. It has made important steps to rein in the abuse of nationwide or so called universal injunctions. That was important and this decision is important. And I will say Justice Gorsuch, joined by Justice Kavanaugh, wrote a concurring opinion that was significant. Here's what Justice Gorsuch said. Quote, lower court decisions may sometimes disagree with this court's decision, but they are never free to defy them. In Department of Education vs. California, this court granted a stay because it found the government likely to prevail in showing that the district court lacked jurisdiction to order the government to pay grant obligations. The California decision explained that, quote, suits based on any express or implied contract with the United States do not belong in district court under the Administrative Procedure act, but in the court of Federal claims under the Tucker Act. Rather than follow that direction, the district court in this case permitted a suit involving materially identical grants to proceed to final judgment under the apa. As support for its course, the district court invoked the, quote, persuasive authority of the dissents in California and an earlier court of appeals decision that California repudiated that was error. In casting California aside, the district court stressed that the court there granted only interim relief pending appeal and a writ of certior or and did not issue a final judgment on the merits. True enough, but this court often addresses requests for interim relief, sometimes pending a writ of certiorari, as in California. And either way, when this court issues a decision, it constitutes a precedent that commands respect in lower courts. He went on to say, quote, if the district court's failure to abide by California were a one off, perhaps it would not be worth writing to address it. But two months ago, another district court tried to compel compliance with a different order that this court had stayed. Still, another district court recently diverged from one of this court's decisions, even though the case at hand did not differ in any pertinent respect from the one this court had decided. So now this is the third time in a matter of weeks this court has had to intercede in a case squarely controlled by one of its precedents. All these interventions should have been unnecessary, but together they underscore a basic tenet of our judicial system. Whatever their own views, judges are duty bound to respect the hierarchy of the federal court system created by the Constitution and Congress. Look, this highlights a pattern we're seeing of lawless district judges. That is Justice Gorsuch and Kavanaugh lay out three in just three weeks that have defied the Supreme Court of the United States, said, we don't care what the court said. And you know, it was striking. Look, I'm reading from a Supreme Court opinion and some of that sounds like legalese, but I'll tell you, one of the most amazing things that Justice Gorsuch described the district court did is it said it found persuasive the dissents in the California decision. Well, a dissent by definition means you lost. You did not get the majority. The majority issues the opinion. A dissent is someone who disagrees with the opinion. And the way precedent works, the way our judicial system works, is a decision that it issues from the Supreme Court is a precedent that all of the district courts and all of the courts of appeals are bound to follow. So if you are citing a dissent, you are saying right on the front of it, I don't care what the majority held. I agree with the dissenters. No lower court judge has the authority to do that. That is the definition of lawlessness. And it is why these plaintiffs are seeking out radicals on the bench who they know will be lawless.
- [42:24]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, great point there. Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So hit that subscribe or auto download button wherever you get your podcasts so you do not miss a single episode. Make sure again, put this up on social media wherever you can. And the center, I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.
- [42:42]
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- [43:42]
Senator Ted Cruz
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns? We got you and I'm Carol Markowitz. And I'm Mary Kathryn Hammond. We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently. Normally is about real conversations, thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded and no panic. We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day. Join us every Tuesday and Thursday Normally.
- [44:04]
Lisa Booth
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or.
- [44:06]
Senator Ted Cruz
Wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.