The World and Everything in It: July 4, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. I'm Noel Gable from Edmond, Oklahoma. My husband and I are visiting our son, Clark and his wife, Hannah and two adorable grandsons, Matthew and Micah in Kilgore, Texas. We hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Today we wrap up supreme court opinion analysis in cases about homeless encampments and more.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Also, new snares on social media. Plus, the legacy of a composer who penned an iconic Fourth of July tune.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on what the Declaration of Independence means for us today.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, July 4th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MAST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time for news with Kent Covington

SOUND: [Wind and rain in Jamaica]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Hurricane » Hurricane Beryl lashed Jamaica Wednesday with violent winds, dangerous storm surge and sideways rain.

MICHAEL BRENNAN: The core winds of a Category-4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of over 140 miles per hour.

National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan.

The storm had already killed six people in the southeast Caribbean before taking aim at Jamaica and later, the Cayman Islands.

The storm is expected to weaken tomorrow, as it passes over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

BRENNAN: But then expected to reintensify and be at or near hurricane strength as we go from Saturday into Sunday and Monday.

That’s when the storm will take a northwestern turn toward northern Mexico and/or south Texas.

Presidential polling » The numbers aren’t looking good for President Biden in the wake of last week’s concerning debate performance. WORLD’s Christina Grube reports.

CHRISTINA GRUBE: In a New York Times/Siena poll conducted since the Thursday debate, a sampling of 1,500 likely voters disapproved of Biden’s job performance by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

And they backed Donald Trump over Biden by a six-point margin.

The Wall Street Journal sampled 1,500 registered voters and found the same result: A 6-point edge for Trump.

On the top issues, the Republican challenger’s lead is even more pronounced in the New York Times poll.

By a roughly 20-point margin, voters trust Donald Trump more on border security and the economy.

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube.

White House: Biden isn’t going anywhere » Though the Biden campaign has taken on a lot of water, the president says he will not abandon ship.

A reporter asked the president’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if he's considering bowing out of the race …

JEAN-PIERRE: Absolutely not. And you heard, I believe, directly from the campaign as well.

Administration officials are forcefully pushing back against media reports that Biden is considering stepping aside.

And his chief of staff is trying to calm nerves throughout the White House.

JEAN-PIERRE: Jeff Zients did have an all-staff call. He wanted to gather the team across the building and acknowledge what the president has said himself, right, that the last few days have been challenging.

And Reuters reports that the president joined a call with concerned members of his campaign team to reassure them that he’s not going anywhere.

Biden damage control w/lawmakers » But for a growing number of Democrats, his commitment to stay in the race is not particularly reassuring. Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Texas said Wednesday:

LLOYD DOGGETT: I hope that he will put country first and decide to step aside. I think there are a number of candidates that could come in and provide a stronger message.

Democratic Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona is also openly calling for Biden to bow out.

Others are expressing their concerns while stopping short of publicly calling for Biden to step aside. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says the president must reassure members of his party.

WHITEHOUSE: That the president and his team are being candid with us, that this was a real anomaly, and not just the way he is these days, and that, you know, they’ve got a plan to win.

President Biden has been reaching out to leaders on Capitol Hill as he works to contain the fallout from the debate.

UK election preview » Meantime, voters in the UK are set to cast ballots in a national election today.

They are widely expected to do something they have not done since 2005: Elect a left-of-center Labour Party government.

Election analyst Leon Blackman says the poll numbers are not promising for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party.

BLACKMAN: At the moment, this kind of shows Labour’s predicted dominance — 451 projected seats.

Sunak, though, says it be will counted ballots, not poll numbers that determine the winner, and he’s urging conservatives to get out and vote.

SUNAK: I can tell you, it is not over until that final whistle blows, my friends! 

And while Labour has enjoyed a solid double-digit lead since before the campaign began, the party is also warning its supporters not to take the election results for granted.

Title IX » A federal district court judge in Kansas has blocked the Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations from taking effect in four states over concern about potential harm to women and girls. WORLD’s Mary Muncy has more.

MARY MUNCY: Under the changes to Title IX, schools would be forced to allow boys who claim to identify as girls to use female locker rooms and compete on women’s sports teams.

In his ruling, the judge found that the Department of Education did not take into account the potential harm to female students.

One of the plaintiffs, an Oklahoma student named Katie Rowland, said she stopped using the restrooms at her public school because of males using the girl’s bathroom.

The judge also asserted that Title IX was clearly written with the traditional view that there are only two sexes.

Two judges last month halted the regulations from taking effect in 10 other states.

A total of 26 states have filed lawsuits against the changes.

For WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Analysis of Supreme Court opinions. Plus, the Stars and Stripes Forever.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Thursday the 4th of July, 2024.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Up first: final opinions.

The Supreme Court issued 59 rulings by my count in merits cases this term…and if you’ve been listening to Legal Docket on Monday and all of our midweek coverage, you’ve heard analysis in all the decisions except two, which we get to today with World’s legal reporter Steve West. He joins me to talk about the court’s decisions in cases about homelessness and air quality.

Steve, good morning!

STEVE WEST: Good morning, Mary.

REICHARD: Well, let’s start with Ohio v. EPA. Remind us what the facts were in that case.

WEST: Well, under the Clean Air Act, the EPA sets air pollution standards for the states and then requires states to come up with plans for meeting the goals it set. And so here, the EPA was focused on reducing ozone pollution, a product of emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities. And under what's called a Good Neighbor Policy, it required states, those that were upwind of other states, to show that their emissions would not negatively impact air downwind. So it rejected plans submitted by 21 states and then published its own plan for those states and two others that didn't submit plans. Three of those states, and some companies as well, challenged the federal plan and asked the court below to put it on hold while litigation continued. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals declined to do that, so they came to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis, asking for a stay.

REICHARD: And they got it, too, in a 5-4 ruling, the court granted the stay. That means the EPA’s plan is on hold while the D.C. Circuit determines the validity of the rule without harming industry in the meantime. Anything stick out to you about the majority opinion to stay that Good Neighbor policy?

WEST: I think you also have to look at this case in conjunction with the court's decision a week ago to overturn the Chevron doctrine, a rule that said courts defer to reasonable agency interpretations of the law, and one that's allowed for a broad expansion of regulatory power. So here too, in this case, the court has taken a harder look at what agencies do. And then, on the other hand, the fact that Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote a dissenting opinion joined by three liberal justices may signal that she's not going to be as hard on agencies as perhaps the other conservative justices may be.

REICHARD: Well, we'll have to keep an eye on that then. Well, turning now to City of Grants Pass v Johnson, our colleague Jenny Rough covered the oral arguments for that one, but Steve, you also wrote a Roundup for that case back when it was argued in April. What were the issues that stood out to you?

WEST: Well, a couple of rulings out of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have made it almost impossible for western cities to do anything about homeless encampments. Those bring more crime and disease and safety issues for those who live in the cities. Grants Pass, Oregon has a population of around 38,000 and officials there tried to deal with this homeless population of around 600 people. They camp out in public parks, on sidewalks and under bridges.

REICHARD: Alright, so who sued who, and on what grounds?

WEST: Well, two people, Gloria Johnson and John Logan, who are homeless, sued represented by an advocacy group out of Georgetown School of Law. Their grounds was that the public camping restrictions violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

REICHARD: What did the circuit court rule on all that?

WEST: The circuit court agreed and ruled that it was cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th amendment to penalize someone for sleeping outside when there was no available bed in the shelter, meaning the number of homeless people exceeds the number of available beds, but it depends upon how you count the number of beds. Beds in a religious shelter weren't included in the account because the court deemed it a violation of the First Amendment to condition shelter for a homeless person on attending a worship service or other faith-based requirements. But the Supreme Court, by a 6-3 majority, overruled the Ninth Circuit. The majority found that rules to restrict camping and sleeping in public areas are neither punishment nor cruel or unusual. They said this was not what the drafters of the Bill of Rights had in mind when they included the Eighth Amendment.

REICHARD: I read the opinion as well. It pointed out that it’s a stretch to call cruel limited fines and a maximum of 30 days in jail after multiple warnings. Cruel is usually defined as imposing terror, pain, or disgrace. Nor are fines and jail time unusual. Those are the usual mode of punishment for criminal offenses. I wonder, Steve, did any of the justices pick up on the exclusion of religious shelters from the count of available beds?

WEST: Yes, Justice Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, and he pointed to the friend of the court brief filed by the city's gospel rescue mission. He noted that the religious nature of a shelter is sometimes a reason a homeless person declined to go there, but he doesn't answer the question of why a practical solution is ignored, as it's not really before the court.

REICHARD: Ok, that’s it for opinion analysis. We made it through!

I will say this was an exciting term to watch, particularly with how the court dismantled Chevron deference…putting federal agencies on notice that they can’t fill in the blanks where Congress is unclear. Are there rulings you were disappointed to see?

WEST: Well, I was a bit underwhelmed this term in terms of the liberties perspective. I was not encouraged by the fact that the court failed to deal with a couple of the social media cases that were before it in terms of regulation of social media, or the Biden administration's attempts to to encourage or even coerce social media to take down certain posts. But I think you nailed it with Chevron. That might be the most far reaching ruling of the term, with the longest lasting effect. I think alarmist cries that it will hamstring the government are an overreaction, but there's no doubt it will give agencies and presidents pause in issuing regulations. Just one example I'm watching is the Biden administration's attempt to rewrite Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in education. They want to make it encompass sexual orientation and gender identity. I just don't think that'll fly under this new rule.

REICHARD: I agree. Well, wrapping up here, the Supreme Court will be taking up some big issues next term. What cases will you be watching?

WEST: Well, two cases are on my radar. One is the court's review of Tennessee and Kentucky laws that protect minors from harmful treatments and surgeries to attempt to change their gender. Another is its review of a Texas law that requires porn sites to verify the user's age and attempt to keep porn away from kids.

REICHARD: That's been a long windup for those two issues. Well, Steve West is a legal reporter for WORLD, and editor of the liberties newsletter. Steve, thanks so much for your time and Happy Independence Day.

WEST: Yes, let's be thankful for the blessings of liberty. Happy Independence Day, Mary!

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a social media platform heading into dangerous territory.

Heads up to those with young listeners nearby. This deals with a sensitive subject inappropriate for children. You may want to fast forward about 6 minutes.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It was back in May when the social media platform X — that used to be Twitter— announced it would officially allow pornographic content on its platform. X also announced some new restrictions, but advocates for online safety are worried…as are parents.

WORLD Correspondent Juliana Chan Erikson has the story.

KATHERINE MARTINKO: My gut reaction is no: I think that’s a terrible idea.

JULIANA CHAN ERIKSON: X.com’s “adult content” announcement caught Katherine Martinko off guard. The Canada-based blogger writes about kids and technology. She’s also a mom with three boys between the ages of 9 and 14.

MARTINKO: It seems like a recipe for disaster to be honest.

ERIKSON: Twitter, or X, is now the only major social media platform to sanction pornography. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others still officially ban it. It’s still possible to find objectionable material on these platforms, though some say X’s decision to allow pornography raises the level of concern. Benjamin Bull is general counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.

BENJAMIN BULL: The fact is I think they have a box that says, you know, check this if it's, if the material is sensitive. That's like advertising for people who are looking for porn. It's not going to result in less pornography, it's gonna result in more and more viewership.

ERIKSON: More views may be exactly what Twitter is looking for. With more than 600 million active users, it remains one of the most active social media platforms in the world. But it’s dwarfed by platforms like Instagram and TikTok that have amassed 1 and 2 billion subscribers over just a few years. And according to recent reporting from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times many of those subscribers are teenagers already scrolling through racy images and videos.

MARTINKO: If parents are truly worried about limiting their kids’ exposure to that, then they need to be rethinking their whole relationship to social media in general.

So what can parents do to protect their children online? One option is to use third-party software to filter out bad content. But social media companies make that difficult. Some, like X, charge high fees for safety software to filter their content. Others, like TikTok, don’t allow filtering software at all.

MARC BERKMAN: The fact that they do not allow third party safety software is unconscionable.

Marc Berkman is the CEO of the Organization for Social Media Safety.

BERKMAN: ​​It's tricky. I mean, we're a little bit in the wild west now. Our major legislative focus both federally and statewide, is a piece of legislation called Sammy’s Law.

Sammy’s Law is named after Sammy Chapman, a 16 year old who died in 2021 from a lethal dose of fentanyl. The teen met the drug dealer on Snapchat. So far, only Illinois and California have introduced the bill. If it goes into effect, Sammy’s Law will require social media platforms to allow third party filtering software to monitor their content.

Meanwhile, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working on legislation that would require social media companies to protect minors from sexual exploitation and a host of other harms. Though it may be a while before those protections go into effect.

Lawyers like Benjamin Bull say they’re hoping lawsuits will keep social media accountable. His group is representing two boys who say that X allowed an adult to post graphic images of them on the platform when they were both 13 years old.

BULL: They were groomed by somebody they thought was a beautiful 16 year old girl turned out to be a 40 something year old pedophile.

Bull says a moderator for X reviewed the images but found they did not violate their policy on sexual content at the time. So the images stayed online, and the number of viewers grew.

BULL: Finally, the parents through a friend of a friend got in touch with law enforcement Homeland Security, which contacted Twitter directly and it was only then that Twitter deleted the posts. In the meantime, there have been over 200,000 views that we know of, hundreds of downloads and when something is downloaded, you know can be uploaded, these boys are going to be on the internet forever.

Many social media companies hear the growing complaints and have already agreed to implement changes to make their platform safer and less addictive. TikTok added a tool that filters out videos with certain words or hashtags. And Instagram’s Sensitive Content feature will be turned on by default for young users.

But warning labels, policy changes, and lawsuits aren’t coming fast enough to change Martinko’s mind. She’s decided that all three of her sons will have to wait until at least age 18 to get access to social media.

MARTINKO: I can't wait, my my oldest son is almost 15 years old. My job is right now, to help him grow up and get through high school without the negative influence of spending nine hours a day on his phone, which is the national average right now in the U.S. for kids his age.

For kids with nothing to do this summer, it can be easy for parents to let their kids kill time scrolling through social media, but Martinko says it’s worth making the effort to replace it with other activities. 

MARTINKO: I think they need a good mix of, you know, active, outdoor, stimulating interactions with their families as well as time and space for quiet play, for contemplation, and for creative endeavors to grow.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Juliana Chan Erikson.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: They say you can’t find lost time again… but a lost watch? Well, sometimes.

A silver pocket watch of President Teddy Roosevelt has returned to New York’s Sagamore Hill National Historic Site… 37 years after it disappeared!

Roosevelt’s family gave it to him before he left for Cuba during the Spanish-American war.

The FBI says someone stole the engraved watch while it was on loan back in 1987.

Audio here from Roosevelt’s great-grandson, courtesy of WABC.

AUDIO: When you think of what that watch went through, it was given to him before he went through the San Juan hill…so there it was so all the way through his adventures down the Brazilian rivers, in Africa… but what’s really interesting is what it heard in the White House.

The watch was scheduled for private sale before an auction house owner pulled it. It’s now back on display at Sagamore Hill.

MARY RECHARD, HOST: It wound its way back home.

MAST: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, July 4th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: The story of the “king of the march.”

John Philip Sousa composed and conducted so much wonderful music throughout his life. But it was one particular march that became a staple for celebrating Independence Day.

WORLD reporter Emma Perley brings us the story.

MUSIC: [The Stars and Stripes Forever]

EMMA PERLEY: Just as fireworks and finger-lickin’ barbeque are popular on Independence Day, so is this especially lively tune. The “Stars and Stripes Forever” is standard Fourth of July fanfare. Trumpets, drums, and clashing cymbals tend to bolster patriotic spirits, and that’s the intention behind the piece, according to composer John Philip Sousa. Voice actor Kim Rasmussen reads a quote from an 1897 interview with Sousa.

SOUSA: I began to think of all the countries I had visited, of the foreign people I had met, of the vast difference between America and American people and other countries and other peoples, and that flag of ours became glorified and to my imagination it seemed to be the biggest, grandest, flag in the world, and I could not get back under it quick enough.

Sousa was born in 1854 in Washington D.C. His father played trombone in the U.S. Marine Corps Band, and growing up Sousa enjoyed listening to the melodies drifting from the nearby barracks. His musical journey began by playing the violin, and he enlisted in the Marine Band aged 13. Sousa wrote this in his autobiography, Marching Along.

SOUSA: From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else—strange is the boy who doesn’t love a band! I loved all of them, good and bad alike. So far as I know, there was no question of heredity in my love for music; I simply loved it because it was music.

Sousa played in the Band for seven years and formally studied composition. He then joined a theater ensemble and learned how to conduct from the orchestra pit. At just 19 years-old, he published his first march called The Review. Audio here from the Seacoast Wind Ensemble.

MUSIC: [The Review]

Sousa had the chance to go abroad and study under prominent European music masters. But he instead turned to entertainment and opera music. He traveled around the country conducting and performing in various orchestras.

All the while he composed operettas, waltzes, and marches. Audio here from the Marine Band performing Sousa’s “Our Flirtation,” composed for an 1880 musical comedy.

MUSIC: [Our Flirtation]

Sousa accepted a position as conductor of the Marine Band that same year, beginning a new era of marching compositions. He raised the standards of the band’s performance, tightened rehearsal discipline, and replaced almost all of its music with his own.

Under his leadership, the band became a popular and respected show of military excellence and refinement. And Sousa’s jaunty tunes—found in ballrooms and government ceremonies around the country—soon made him a household name. In his autobiography, Sousa muses on the march.

SOUSA: The march speaks to a fundamental rhythm in the human organization and is answered. With me the thought comes, sometimes slowly, sometimes with ease and rapidity. The idea gathers force in my brain and takes form not only melodically but harmonically at the same time. It must be complete before I commit it to paper.

But it wasn’t simply Sousa’s innovative arrangements and methods that set him up for success. The country was well-primed for music that spurred on flag-waving and pride in America.

The national mood was optimism for the future as America experienced economic growth and flourishing industries. And this idealism went hand in hand with Sousa’s spirited anthems. No sound was more distinctly American than Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Sousa himself was a patriot through and through. Having been in the military service for more than 19 years, Sousa believed that the American flag meant dogged pursuit of freedom. “Hurrah for the flag of the free!” he writes, “May it wave as our standard forever …”

LYRICS: Hurrah for the flag of the free! May it wave as our standard forever. The banner of the right. Let despots remember the day…

The country heralded Sousa as The March King. And Sousa’s legacy influenced other bands to standardize methods of performance and perfection.

And nothing is perhaps more appropriate for fairground fireworks than Sousa’s rousing marches.

MUSIC: [The Stars and Stripes Forever]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Perley.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, July 4th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. WORLD commentator Cal Thomas now…with a reading recommendation for this 4th of July.

CAL THOMAS: It's called the Declaration of Independence, meaning independence from England. It's always worth reviewing the Declaration, because it served as the philosophical and spiritual foundation of the Constitution.

Consider again: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

There's a lot to unpack in that one paragraph. But today, we are in practice believing something far different from what the Founders believed. Are truths “self -evident” anymore? All the evidence appears to suggest not. In fact, to quote Pontius Pilate, the rhetorical question today seems to be, “what is truth?”

Truth has become personal, not objective. What about all of us being “created equal?” Evolutionists disagree on the creation part because it implies a creator. “Endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights.” Too many now believe rights come from government, which tells us what we can and cannot do. For many, government has become a false god.

“The right to life…” not for the unborn. “Liberty,” in too many circumstances, has become license. “Pursuing happiness” is grasping at clouds. Contentment is better than happiness, which comes and goes. America is officially 248 years old this July 4th. As I wrote in a previous book, “America's Expiration Date,” great empires and superpowers, on average, last a mere 250 years.

There are exceptions, but all follow the same path to either their demise or irrelevance. That path includes massive national debt, which we have, uncontrolled immigration, which we have, and the loss of a shared moral value system. Does anyone disagree we have that in abundance? Scripture and history warn what happens to nations and individuals that forget God.

I recall something evangelist Billy Graham said many years ago. “America is not at a crossroads as some say. America is a long way down the wrong road and needs to come back to the crossroads and take the right road.” That was a self-evident truth when he said it. And it is today. Happy 248th birthday, America.

Revival seems to be the only option that can truly save us, and that will not come from any politician, only from our Creator. 

I'm Cal Thomas.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet joins us for Culture Friday. And, the movie Despicable Me 4 is now in theaters, does it bring anything new to the franchise? That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” —Matthew Chapter 5:14-16

Go now in grace and peace.

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