The World and Everything in It: May 22, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. Hi! My name is Alyssa Bootsma, and I am a 2018 World Journalism Institute graduate working as a copy editor and social media editor for Heat Treat Today here in Chicagoland, Illinois. I hope you enjoy today’s program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Today the story of an unforgiving prison guard who’s seeking a second chance in court.

JUSTICE KAGAN: In a case like this, the court is going to look at the person and say: What are you talking about, I already ruled against you?

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on today’s Legal Docket. Also today: the Monday Moneybeat. David Bahnsen will be along and we’ll talk about a possible end to increasing interest rates. And, we remember the life of Harry Reeder, pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church.

HARRY REEDER: The Gospel is the power of God. That's crucial. Why because we're born dead in our sins, and it takes God to take dead people to life.

REICHARD: It’s Monday, May 22nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Debt ceiling » It’s back to the bargaining table for President Biden and top lawmakers this week with the clock ticking on a debt ceiling deadline.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet with the president again today.

MCCARTHY: We’re 11 days out. We’ve got to be able to solve this problem, and we have to spend less than we spent last year.

Republicans say Washington must reduce its overspending before raising the nation’s credit card limit once again. Democrats for months called that a nonstarter but have begun negotiating on that point.

After traveling to Japan for the G7 Summit, President Biden cut short his trip to head home and resume critical debt ceiling talks which stalled out over the weekend in his absence.

Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen Said Sunday:

JANET YELLEN: We are focused on raising the debt ceiling, and there will be hard choices if that doesn’t occur. There will be no acceptable outcomes if the debt ceiling isn’t raised.

She says the United States will begin defaulting on its debts in early June without a debt ceiling deal.

Ukraine/G7 » President Biden wrapped up the G7 Summit with a face to face meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The United States just announced a $375 million aid package to Ukraine yesterday… and Zelenskyy personally thanked President Biden.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: I know that you gave us very big package. We will never foget.

Zelenskyy also refuted Moscow’s claims that its forces have conquered the eastern city of Bakhmut.

Nebraska new laws » A bill to protect unborn children after twelve weeks of pregnancy is headed to the desk of the Governor of Nebraska.

State Senator Kathleen Kauth:

KATHLEEN KAUTH: The reason we brought this bill is because we love kids. We want to see them grow up and be happy, healthy adults. No matter how they chose to live their adult life.

Lawmakers also approved a bill protecting minors from gender transition procedures.

Republican Gov. Jim Pillen is expected to sign the bills into law.

DeSantis trans children » Meanwhile, in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed legislation into law protecting children from transgender procedures, among other things ahead of an expected presidential campaign announcement that could come this week.

RON DESANTIS: They’re having third-graders declare pronouns. We’re not doing the pronoun olympics in Florida. It’s not happening here.

The law bans subjecting children to transgender surgeries and hormone treatments. He also signed a measure banning adult drag queen performances in schools.

DeSantis told a crowd, “It’s kind of sad that we even have some of these discussions.

Multiple media outlets, citing inside sources, have reported that DeSantis will declare his White House bid on Wednesday.

Boycotts-transgenderism » In the wake of a beer boycott that has cost Anheuser-Busch billions of dollars calls are growing for boycotts of other major companies that promote transgenderism. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Starbucks is now pushing transgenderism globally. A recent Starbucks video ad in India depicts a young man dressed as a woman meeting with his parents inside a Starbucks cafe as his mother urges her husband to accept their son’s transition.

AUDIO: [Starbucks ad in Hindi]

Meantime, a new Pride collection at retail giant Target includes clothing for children with trans-friendly slogans as well as swimsuits designed to hide a persons biological gender.

Adidas recently featured men in women’s swimsuits advertising its pride collection, while Nike, like Bud Light, partnered with transgender social media star Dylan Mulvaney.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Gas prices » Gas prices are holding steady after a recent decline. The national average now stands at $3.53 per gallon according to AAA. But fuel price analyst Trilby Lundberg says enjoy that while you can.

LUNDBERG: Gasoline supply is extremely low. At the same time, gasoline demand is growing hotly. This means that they are on collision. And the only response price can do is to jump.

As of now, Mississippi still boasts the nation’s lowest gas prices with a per-gallon average of $2.98.

Californians on the other end are paying $4.81 per gallon.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: News from the Supreme Court on Legal Docket. Plus, remembering PCA pastor Harry Reeder.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Monday May 22nd, 2023. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s time for Legal Docket.

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down six opinions last week. We’ll cover those plus one oral argument today. And to get us up to speed, legal correspondent Jenny Rough is here. Good morning, Jenny.

JENNY ROUGH: Hi, Nick and Mary. Good morning. Before getting to the cases, and speaking of speed, here’s a little SCOTUS trivia. Last Wednesday, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson ran the Capital Challenge. That’s a road race in D.C. between the three branches of government and the news media. It’s been going on for 41 years. Members of Congress run it. The White House has a team. The Department of Justice, the FBI, members of the judiciary.

REICHARD: Sounds fun! And two of the justices had a team.

ROUGH: They did. Justice Kavanaugh’s team name was Running Circuit. And Justice Jackson’s team name, are you ready for this, the Jackson 5k.

REICHARD: Creative!

EICHER: Now that WORLD has a D.C. news bureau, you know what I’m thinking.

ROUGH: Yes! I’m on it. We’ll apply for a spot to compete. And awards are handed out each year for best and worst team names. So I’m collecting suggestions — send ‘em in!

REICHARD: Alright, moving right along, six opinions, so we’ll cover them quickly

First, a copyright fight. Pop artist Andy Warhol made a series of portraits based off of a celebrity photographer’s images of the musician Prince. Warhol had proper permission for a one-time use of Lisa Goldsmith’s copyright. But he later sold his Prince portraits again without Goldsmith’s consent. In a 7-2 opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Warhol’s art had the same purpose as the photographer, that is commercial sales, so it wasn’t fair use and he infringed on her rights.

Next, I’ve got another 7-2 ruling, it’s a labor dispute that involves so-called “dual status” employees …federal employees who work as technicians in the Ohio National Guard. The court held that the federal agency has authority to regulate the labor practices of state militias.

EICHER: Next opinion: Biotech company Amgen accused a pharmaceutical company of patent infringement. Specifically, its patents related to a drug designed to lower “bad” cholesterol. The pharmaceutical company argued the patents weren’t properly granted. A lower court agreed and invalidated the patents. And in a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court affirmed that. A patent law requirement known as enablement says a patent application must describe the invention in clear and concise terms. If that’s done, the inventor is granted the exclusive right to use the invention for a set amount of time. But here, Amgen failed adequately to describe the broad claims it said its patents covered.

ROUGH: Onto opinion four—another unanimous decision. And a victory for the IRS. On its paper chase to collect a tax debt, the IRS issued summonses to the delinquent taxpayer’s banks where his wife and law firms had accounts. But the IRS didn’t give notice to the wife or the law firms. The question in the case: Can the IRS withhold notice when it’s collecting a tax debt? Answer: yes. The court said an ordinary reading of the statute’s language permits that.

REICHARD: Finally, the last two cases involve the accountability of tech and social media companies. In one, a family alleged that Twitter permitted ISIS to promote terrorist content on its platform and that amounted to aiding and abetting an international attack. But a unanimous court said Twitter didn’t have the proper intent required for someone to sue.

EICHER: In a related case against Google, the justices remanded the case to the lower court and gave a set of instructions to consider the plaintiff’s claims in light of the Twitter ruling that Mary just mentioned.

REICHARD: But they didn’t mention my name. And last but not least, one oral argument to cover today. The case Dupree v. Younger. Jenny, set that up for us.

ROUGH: Right, so I’ll begin with the legal question in the case. It centers on what a party must do to properly preserve a matter for appeal.

Let’s back up to September 30, 2013, the night of a violent assault at a Baltimore prison. Three prison guards yanked inmate Kevin Younger out of the top bunk of his prison bed and beat him up. A prison official, Neil Dupree, ordered the assault.

So Younger sued Dupree in federal court for violating his civil rights.The facts aren’t in dispute. Here’s lawyer Andrew Tutt, representing Dupree.

ANDREW TUTT: And I want to make very clear we don't dispute anything that Mr. Younger says he did or happened to him. We don't dispute any facts in this case. Nothing is disputed.

ROUGH: What is in dispute: a procedural question.

Before trial, Dupree filed a motion for summary judgment. That says even if everything the plaintiff claims is true, he’s still going to lose. So judge, you should get rid of the lawsuit.

Specifically, Dupree argued Younger first needed to exhaust the prison’s internal grievance process before bringing a case in court. But the judge denied that motion. At this point Dupree couldn’t appeal because there’s no final judgment. The case isn’t over yet.

REICHARD: It went to trial. Dupree didn’t re-raise his defense that Younger first needed to exhaust the grievance process. A jury found in favor of Younger and awarded him $700,000. At this point, Dupree filed another motion, one to reduce the verdict. In that post-trial motion, he didn’t mention the exhaustion defense either.

With a final judgment, the time had come for appeals. And Dupree wanted to appeal the trial judge’s denial of the summary judgment motion, the one filed before trial. But the appellate court refused to hear it on the grounds it was a preliminary matter, not part of the final judgment. At the Supreme Court, Dupree’s lawyer argued that’s wrong.

TUTT: Any good lawyer would think that after exhaustively briefing this issue and after an opinion on it saying this fact is established and, under this fact, you cannot prevail on this defense, they would not believe that they needed to do anything further to preserve that issue for review.

ROUGH: Justice Neil Gorsuch didn’t understand why Dupree didn’t just bring up the defense again at trial.

JUSTICE GORSUCH: I would have thought that an affirmative defense, you would have had to raise something at trial. You didn't even make a proffer of evidence. You didn't do anything at trial on your own affirmative defense.

ROUGH: But Justice Jackson jumped in to disagree with Gorsuch and side with Dupree.

JUSTICE JACKSON: As a district judge, I think I would be annoyed if you tried to re-raise issues related to this exhaustion question that I had already ruled on, you know, in this way.

TUTT: No, Your Honor, I accept the help. I think you're agreeing with me that you would never raise this at trial because the judge has already said this claim is over.

REICHARD: Justice Gorsuch wasn’t letting go easily. He said it’s just good lawyering to bring up all defenses at trial, or at a minimum, add one sentence in the post-trial motion to preserve it.

GORSUCH: Prudent counsel will always put that line in anyway to avoid malpractice possibilities later.  I think, I mean, I'm just thinking back to my practice days, and I would always put that line in. Better safe than sorry.

ROUGH: Amy Saharia argued for Younger.

AMY SAHARIA: When a court denies a defendant's motion for summary judgment on an affirmative defense, as here, the defendant must raise his defense at trial to preserve it.

ROUGH: But Justice Elena Kagan challenged that logic.

KAGAN: In a case like this, the court is going to look at the person and say: What are you talking about, I already ruled against you?

SAHARIA: I don't think the district court necessarily would have come to that conclusion at all. We don't know because he didn't ask the court.

ROUGH: Justice Gorsuch came back again to hammer away at his position: one sentence on paper is the way to go. Especially these days.

GORSUCH: Counsel, we used to live in a world of trials. Now nobody wants to try—everybody wants to do everything on the papers.

SAHARIA: I go to trial, Your Honor.

GORSUCH: I miss it too. It's a lot of fun, isn't it?

SAHARIA: It sure is.

JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR: More fun than here.

GORSUCH: I expect you're having fun here today too, though.

SAHARIA: There's only one judge at trial. [Laughter]

REICHARD: The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure govern here. They set forth the do’s and don’ts with regard to summary judgment and post-trial motions. And Justice Samuel Alito hit the heart of the problem about them in this exchange with Dupree’s attorney.

JUSTICE ALITO: What if this rule were spelled out in black and white in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure? So it would be simple that going forward, attorneys would be charged with reading the rule and seeing that this is what they have to do, and it would be very simple.

TUTT: Your Honor, if that were in the rules, I think we’d have to follow it.

ALITO: But, right now, it's not clear?

TUTT: It's not clear. It's not in the rules.

ROUGH: The technicality of adding one-line to the post-trial motion has crept into practice. Some follow it, others don’t. And it has resulted in a circuit split. Most of the circuits support Dupree here. Raising a matter in a summary judgment motion before trial is enough to preserve it for appeal. Either way, a uniform rule about proper procedure is called for.

That’s this week’s Legal Docket. I’m Jenny Rough.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: The Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Time now to talk business markets and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bahsen. He is head of the wealth management firm, the Bahnsen Group. And he is here now, David, good morning to you.

DAVID BAHNSEN: Good morning, Nick, good to be with you.

EICHER: Well, David, just by way of an update on JPMorgan Chase, and for the benefit of the listener who may be unaware, you put forward last week a shareholder resolution calling on JPMorgan Chase, to investigate whether the bank has adopted a policy of so called de-banking. Now, that is canceling the accounts of Christians and conservatives for ideological reasons. And when we talked last week, you were predicting that that resolution would not succeed, but that at least going through these motions would call attention to an obvious and serious problem. So David, maybe just start off by telling us how things went last Tuesday.

BAHNSEN: Yeah, I was really encouraged in the sense that, um, the, the Board of Directors, particularly by the way, CEO Jamie Dimon, he specifically addressed my resolution at the shareholder meeting and his argument for denying it was not No, no, no, we want to be able to keep doing this. We want, you know, some of these religious groups to be scrutinized. Their reasoning is that they didn't want to do an investigation and follow my resolution, the reasoning is because they're not doing it and wouldn't do it, and if he ever finds out they’re doing it, he's going to fire people. So I think that if they were saying, we want to be able to close people like Sam Brownback’s account, it would be a discouraging thing. Now, if they're doing it and denying they're doing it, that's not exactly great, either. But my point is that they are now really on the defensive. I mean, there has been substantial national widespread scrutiny that has the CEO of the largest bank in the country, promising they won't do it again. And I believe that heads will roll if there is additional activity like this. I think this was lower level and regional level woke risk officers and branch managers making individual decisions in certain select cases. And that JPMorgan doesn't have the checks and balances in place to keep it from happening. And so this required some national attention and national attention we gave it and I'm encouraged.

EICHER: All right, David, well, off the top, what would be your big story of the week?

BAHNSEN: Oh, I don't think there was much as far as macro economic news that came out this week, most of the media attention is on the debt ceiling discussions. And I think it's rather obvious that they're in the midst of one of these kinds of painful back and forth negotiations, the deals generally have to die before they come back to life. And that's what will happen here as well. Both speaker McCarthy and President Biden assuring that there won't end up being any kind of a default situation, I mostly find this to be more of a media story that the media coverage of it is so intentionally ignorant and reckless. It's somewhat troublesome, but I can't say it's surprising. And that and so there's a lot of attention around where that is headed. And yet, there was the biggest up week in the stock market and a couple of months. The bond market is obviously not pricing in any kind of a default, you know, yields have dropped, bond prices have gone higher. And we'll there were a couple of Fed governors this week that were coming out saying, Hey, we think we want to keep rates going even higher, although Chairman Powell came out and talked a little different tune Friday. So they're getting some messaging out there from Fed governors to try to see how financial markets respond.

EICHER: Yeah. So to clarify, I listened to the Powell comments Friday of last week, and I was hearing the possibility of a pause. But what is the messaging that you think the Fed is trying to send here? How were you reading it?

BAHNSEN: Well, I don't think that they're trying to do one message. I think that they're trying to put a few messages out there and see how the markets respond to different messages at the Fed Funds Futures is real money from real people, forecasting what they think will really happen and I tend to use the futures market as a heavy indication, and the futures market is reflecting or implying, almost assurance that there will be a pause at the next meeting, but some possibility, it's you know, in the 20% range of one more rate hike. But then what is really interesting is that there is a 100% chance in the futures market have some rate cut from the current level by the end of the year, and actually like a 40% chance of rate cut by July. So that's basically the market saying the Fed will either pause here or maybe even do one more. And then the recession or recessionary indications Come on, the Fed will panic and start cutting the other way. And that's what the market believes is going to happen.

EICHER: All right, and let me mention this morning, we are on the campus of Dort University here in Sioux Center, Iowa. Today is day one of the world journalism Institute collegiate and early career class of 2023. It is an especially interesting time to be in Iowa, because you just never know when you'll get a presidential candidate visit Ron DeSantis, for example, was right here in this little town just about a mile away from where we are now. But, David, I wonder whether you might have a word of encouragement to journalism students, and maybe those who might be interested in a career reporting on business, economics and finance, because we are deliberate about identifying and developing students like that. What would you say, David to this new generation of journalists?

BAHNSEN: Well, there's a lot I would like to say, and if any of them want to become financial media journalism, which by the way, there's more money in financial media journalism than there is in normal media journalism. But if they go into financial media, I would like to say that it is immoral to use fear mongering as a way of getting clicks and ratings. But primarily, as of course, the world journalism Institute, knows advocates and teaches there is such thing as objective truth, and you shall know the truth and it will set you free. I think that this is a big problem. The tendency for the whole society and it's evidenced in our media to hold the idea of objectivity and truth in disdain. And I think that people entering this profession with a high regard for objective truth can change the world.

EICHER: Well, David Bahnson is founder managing partner and chief investment officer of the Bahnson group. His personal website is bahnsen.com his weekly dividend cafe you can find at dividendcafe.com. David, thank you. I hope you have a terrific week. 

BAHNSEN: Same to you, Nick. Good to be with you.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Monday, May 22nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Last Thursday, senior pastor Harry Reeder of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, died in an automobile crash. Known for his dynamic preaching, commitment to Biblical orthodoxy, and shepherd’s heart, Reeder was a powerful voice within the Presbyterian Church in America…and beyond.

REICHARD: He came to faith as a young man and felt the call to ministry. He graduated from Covenant College, as well as Westminster and Reformed Theological Seminaries.

EICHER: Reeder became the founding pastor at Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte North Carolina in 1983. Sixteen years later, he was called to become senior pastor at Briarwood —where he served for 24 years until his death on Thursday.

He is survived by his wife Cindy, three children, and nine grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday and streamed on the church website.

REICHARD: To honor his more than 30 years of local church ministry, we end today’s program with an excerpt of a sermon he delivered nine years ago at the 2014 Gospel at Work national conference. In this clip, he paces the platform—quoting scripture from memory and speaking from the heart, clearly explaining the gospel from Romans chapter 1. Here’s Pastor Harry Reeder.

HARRY REEDER (January 24, 2014): Romans 1:16 & 17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel…” watch it closely there in your copies of God’s word… “for I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, for the righteous man…” And he quotes from Genesis, the Gospel verse from Genesis: “for the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Now that passage tells you five things about the gospel. Very quickly - this is not the purpose of it - but I want to enumerate it. It tells you five things about the gospel. Number one, the gospel is definitive. It is definitive. See the definite article. It doesn't say “I'm not ashamed of a gospel.” It says “I'm not ashamed of the gospel.” So, I didn't pay a lot of attention, unfortunately, in my high school years in grammar class, but I did find out that the definite article means that what it is modifying, it can be defined. So there's something called “the gospel.” It is what the Bible says is the first of the first things. Paul said, “I delivered to you that which is of first importance, the Gospel.” Now, everything in the Bible is important, but some things are more important than others. If you get the gospel wrong, then you get baptism wrong, you get the Lord's Supper wrong, you get everything wrong. The gospel is foundational. You got to get it right. So it's definitive. “I am not ashamed of the gospel.”

Secondly, the gospel is the power of God. The gospel is the power of God. That's crucial. Why? Because we're born dead in our sins, and it takes God to take dead people to life. So every believer has been uprooted out of a spiritual cemetery by the power of God and the gospel, and has been brought to life from the tomb of sin, to the triumph of Christ's resurrection. It is the power of the gospel.

Number three, the gospel is the righteousness of God. You don't get to heaven without righteousness. Heaven is not for the forgiven, heaven is for the righteous. We have to be first forgiven, so that the gates of hell are closed, and then the gates of heaven are opened by righteousness. Well, my righteousness is like filthy rags. Praise the Lord, the gospel gives you another righteousness imputed to you. So his power is infused within you, his righteousness is credited to you. So you are empowered and cleansed by his glorious, redeeming work, and then you are clothed with his perfect righteousness, so you are forgiven and accepted in the Beloved, the righteousness of Christ.

Number four, the gospel is inclusive. It is for all who believe. It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile, it doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, black or white, old or young, male or female, the gospel is inclusive, God's people are being called from all the tribes and nations, and all the spheres and categories of life.

Number five, the gospel is exclusive. It is only those who, by the gospel have been brought to Christ, that are saved. It is only those who are, by faith in Christ, that are saved. Now that's the power of the gospel.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: South Carolina’s heartbeat legislation and the political battle to get it to the governor’s desk.

Plus, recent accusations against Justice Clarence Thomas raise questions about ethics on the bench and ethics in the news media. We’ll have a report.

That and more tomorrow. I’m Nick Eicher.

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 Psalmist writes:
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.” Psalm 119, verses 105 and 106.

Go now in grace and peace.

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