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For Immediate Release
July, 26 2018, 12:00am EDT
Thursday July, 26 2018, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Hamid Bendaas, 202-450-0491, hamid.bendaas@mail.house.gov
Conference Committee on National Defense Authorization Act States that Trump Has No Legal Authority to Strike Iran
House expected to vote on bill today
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives is expected to vote today on the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), as approved by a conference committee composed of top House and Senate defense legislators. The bill includes language clarifying that “nothing in this Act may be construed to authorize the use of forces against Iran” and an attached statement indicating “the conferees are not aware of any information that would justify the use of military force against Iran under any other statutory authority.” This clear bipartisan statement, signed by prominent GOP Iran hawks, makes it clear that President Trump does not have the authority to use military force against Iran.
The explanatory statement was prompted by Rep. Ellison’s bipartisan amendments which passed the House unanimously in May and contained similar language.
Statement of Representative Keith Ellison
“I’m grateful to see Congress’ top defense legislators go on the record and agree that President Trump does not have an authorization to use military force against Iran. Given Trump’s recent irresponsible all-caps tweet threatening Iran, it’s critical to know that he has no legal authority to use military force without explicit approval from Congress.”
Rep. Keith Ellison has represented the Fifth Congressional District of Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives since taking office on January 4, 2007. The Fifth Congressional District is the most vibrant and diverse district in Minnesota with a rich history and traditions. The Fifth District includes the City of Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs.
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Texas Families Sue to Stop Display of Ten Commandments in Public Schools
“As multiple courts have reaffirmed, the First Amendment safeguards the rights of individuals to choose whether and how they engage with religion, and that protection extends to every classroom,” said one lawyer.
Sep 22, 2025
The battle over Texas’ Senate Bill 10 continued on Monday, with families in the state filing a federal lawsuit to block the display of a Protestant Christian version of the Ten Commandments in a “conspicuous place” in every public school classroom.
“This lawsuit, brought on behalf of a new group of Texas families, underscores a critical principle: Public schools across the state must uphold—not undermine—the constitutional protections afforded to every student,” said Jon Youngwood, global co-chair of the litigation department at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, which represents the plaintiffs.
"As multiple courts have reaffirmed, the First Amendment safeguards the rights of individuals to choose whether and how they engage with religion, and that protection extends to every classroom," Youngwood continued.
The new complaint, filed in the Western District of Texas, explains that "last month, this district court ruled that SB 10 is 'plainly unconstitutional' and likely violates the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment... And in June, the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit held the same regarding a Louisiana statute similar to SB 10."
"Despite these precedents, the defendant school districts have pressed forward with actually posting SB 10 displays in classrooms, or have confirmed they will do so shortly—even after receiving a letter from plaintiffs' counsel," the filing explains.
"All students—regardless of their race or religious background—should feel accepted and free to be themselves in Texas public schools."
After US District Judge Fred Biery, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, issued a preliminary injunction against SB 10 last month, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for US Senate, said that only the school districts involved in that case are affected and all others must abide by the law. Paxton also appealed the previous decision to the 5th Circuit.
With the latest filing, the families are seeking a declaratory judgment that SB 10 is unconstitutional. In both Texas cases, the plaintiffs are represented by not only Simpson Thacher but also Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the state and national ACLU, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
"This lawsuit is a continuation of our work to defend the First Amendment and ensure that government officials stay out of personal family decisions," said Chloe Kempf, staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. "All students—regardless of their race or religious background—should feel accepted and free to be themselves in Texas public schools."
The families behind this latest filing have various beliefs. Nichole Manning, for example, called SB 10 "a calculated step to erode the separation of church and state and the right for my family to exercise our nonreligious beliefs."
Another plaintiff, Lenee Bien-Willner, said that "forcing religion, any religion, on others violates my Jewish faith."
"It troubles me greatly to have Christian displays imposed on my children," she said. "Not only is the text not aligned with Judaism, but the commandments should be taught in the context of a person's faith tradition. State-sponsored religion, however, does not belong in the public classroom."
Even some Christians are opposed to the Texas law. Plaintiff Rev. Kristin Klade said that "as a devout Christian and a Lutheran pastor, the spiritual formation of my children is a privilege I take more seriously than anything else in my life."
"The mandated Ten Commandments displays in my children's public school impede my ability to 'train up my child in the way he should go' (Proverbs 22:6)," she said. "I address questions about God and faith with great care, and I emphatically reject the notion that the state would do this for me."
After Kimmel Suspension, 400+ Entertainers Rip Government Campaign to ‘Pressure’ Them Into Silence
“In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board,” the letter said.
Sep 22, 2025
After the Trump administration successfully pressured ABC to kick Jimmy Kimmel off the air last week, hundreds of artists signed an open letter Monday denouncing the government’s campaign to “pressure” entertainers and journalists into silence.
The letter, organized by the ACLU, was signed by numerous household names, including Jason Bateman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana DeBose, Jane Fonda, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Regina King, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Diego Luna, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Natalie Portman, Olivia Rodrigo, Martin Short, and Ramy Youssef.
"Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after our government threatened a private company with retaliation for Kimmel’s remarks. This is a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation," the letter says. "This is unconstitutional and un-American. The government is threatening private companies and individuals that the president disagrees with. We can’t let this threat to our freedom of speech go unanswered."
Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after our government threatened a private company with retaliation, marking a dark moment for free speech in our nation.More than 400 artists across our nation signed on to say: We refuse to be silenced by those in power.
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— ACLU (@aclu.org) September 22, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Kimmel's suspension came hours after the Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, threatened to revoke the broadcast license of ABC News affiliates unless the network pulled the comedian's late-night show off the air following comments he made criticizing the President Donald Trump's reaction to the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Major entertainment unions have condemned Kimmel's suspension, including SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America, which organized demonstrations in Times Square and outside ABC's parent company Disney over the weekend that drew hundreds of protesters, while some actors have pledged to stop working with Disney until Kimmel is reinstated.
In subsequent days, Trump continued to issue threats to the media, suggesting that he would seek to strip the broadcasting licenses of networks that give him "bad press," saying, "They’re not allowed to do that.”
The letter says that "In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board. This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees."
Members of the Trump administration, including JD Vance, have also promoted a wide-ranging campaign to have private citizens reported to their employers over critical comments they made about Kirk following his assassination.
Students for Trump National Chair Ryan Fournier created a database with tens of thousands of social media accounts and has boasted of having gotten dozens of people fired over their posts, many of which simply state disagreement with Kirk even without endorsing his assassination.
"We know this moment is bigger than us and our industry. Teachers, government employees, law firms, researchers, universities, students, and so many more are also facing direct attacks on their freedom of expression," the letter says. "Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country. We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power—because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us."
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, described these blacklisting efforts as the dawn of "a modern McCarthy era" with Americans "facing exactly the type of heavy-handed government censorship our Constitution rightfully forbids."
Noting that former Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) "was ultimately disgraced and neutralized once Americans mobilized and stood up to him,” Romero said that "we must do the same today because, together, our voices are louder and, together, we will fight to be heard.”
Working-Class Americans Are Hurting—And Traditional Statistics Aren’t Showing How Much
Recent data show the costs of groceries, healthcare, and electricity have all been rising faster than overall inflation.
Sep 22, 2025
With the rising cost of groceries, housing, healthcare, and other essentials a central issue facing communities across the United States due to the Republican agenda, one expert believes that commonly cited economic statistics aren’t capturing the depth of working families’ struggles.
Gene Ludwig, former US comptroller of the currency under President Bill Clinton, is arguing that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) no longer delivers an accurate portrait of families’ hardships because it does not focus enough on the core costs that impact working people on a daily basis.
As reported by Bloomberg on Monday, Ludwig believes the CPI tracks too many goods that are either luxury purchases or are only bought sporadically. A relevant measure of inflation, he told the outlet, should primarily include goods that are essential to living, such as groceries, housing, healthcare, and energy.
Ludwig and his colleagues at the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity have developed their own measurement called True Living Cost (TLC), which focuses on core household needs and excludes items such as plane tickets and golf carts that are included in the CPI formula.
Prices as measured by the TLC have grown 1.3 times faster than prices as measured by the traditional CPI over the last 24 years, which may explain why US consumer sentiment has remained low even during times when the unemployment rate and the rate of inflation have been falling.
The biggest gap between TLC and CPI has been in measuring the cost of healthcare, as TLC shows that the rise in costs has been much more severe than what has been shown in traditional inflation statistics.
"In the CPI, medical care mostly measures reimbursements to providers made by private insurers and Medicare, in addition to patient payments, but the TLC tracks only households' out-of-pocket expenses and contributions to medical and dental plans," explained Bloomberg. "The CPI shows medical costs have doubled since 2001, whereas the TLC shows they’ve almost tripled, largely from a massive rise in premiums."
Ludwig's arguments about traditional inflation measures not capturing the true state of Americans' fiscal stability were backed up by a report from The Washington Post on Sunday, which examined recent trends in housing, healthcare, food, and utility prices, and found that all of them have been rising faster than the top-line rate of inflation as measured by CPI.
The Post cited the most recent CPI data showing that natural gas bills have risen by nearly 14% over the last year, while electricity bills have surged by 6% over the same period. Grocery prices also registered their biggest spike since 2022, thanks in part to US President Donald Trump's tariffs on imported staple foods such as coffee and bananas.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told the Post that these costs are not mere luxuries that people can sacrifice until their financial situation improves.
"It’s not that they have a choice," he said. "We’re talking about things that people must buy. They have to live somewhere... They have to heat their homes. They need lights."
A recent CNN report focused on factors related to the most recent spike in grocery prices and found that Trump's policies were to blame for at least two of them.
Most directly, CNN found that the tariffs on imported foods resulted in higher prices at the grocery store checkout line. Additionally, the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented farm workers has harmed the supply of food that's grown domestically, which has also resulted in price increases.
And finally, CNN reported that droughts exacerbated by human-caused climate change have also hurt supplies of beef and oranges, which have led to further price squeezes.
David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, told CNN that Trump's current policy agenda "is more likely to increase the price of food" than make it more affordable.
Given the rising cost of staple groceries, many Americans have been turning to cheaper alternatives. According to The New York Times, sales of Hamburger Helper have grown by 14.5% over the last year, which is a sign that shoppers are bypassing more expensive cooking ingredients in favor of low-cost, easy-to-make meals.
Additionally, the Times report found that sales of foods that are "commonly purchased by consumers when financial times get tough—such as rice, canned meats such as tuna, and boxes of macaroni and cheese—have also been strong.
Sally Lyons Wyatt, global consumer packaged goods and food service industry adviser at research firm Circana, told the Times that US shoppers right now seem to be "looking for foods that fill them up for the least amount of money."
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