Source: Newsweek

Donald Trump is considered to be the most-admired man by more Americans this year than in his first two years in office, tying with Barack Obama as the most admired men in the country, with 18 percent of respondents of a new poll naming either the current or former president as top on their list.

The new Gallup poll released Monday shows that admiration for Trump has increased in 2019, despite the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller's report and the president's impeachment in the House of Representatives. In 2017, the president was the second-most admired man, chosen by 14 percent of respondents, while in 2018 the number decreased to 13 percent. Comparatively, Obama has been the most admired man for 12 years in a row.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the survey results showed a clear partisan divide, with most more Democrats saying they admired Obama the most, and the more Republicans supporting Trump. However, Obama had a slightly more non-partisan fan base, with 3 percent of Republicans as well as 12 percent of independents choosing the former president as their favorite. Only 2 percent of Democrats listed Trump as the man they most admired, while just 10 percent of independents did so.

As Gallup noted—according to its polling—the result is in line with Trump's increased overall popularity. The polling agency shows the president finishing out 2019 with a higher approval rating than previous years, at 45 percent. Meanwhile, Obama's continued popularity with Americans appears to be an outlier, with only former President Dwight D. Eisenhower having been considered the most admired man by a double-digit amount of respondents after he left office. In the past two years, 19 percent and 17 percent of respondents cited Obama as the most admired man in the poll.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-tied-barack-obama-most-admired-man-year-poll-finds-1479637

Source: Axios

A federal judge on Friday denied an effort led by the voting rights group Fair Fight Action to return roughly 98,000 Georgia voters to the state's voter rolls.

What's happening: This ruling is part of a larger initiative for the state to cancel approximately 300,000 inactive voter registrations, due to those voters moving away or not participating in elections.

The big picture: Voter suppression has been a hot-button issue in Georgia in the wake of the 2018 gubernatorial race between Stacey Abrams (D) and now-Gov. Brian Kemp (R). Abrams has called Kemp an "architect of voter suppression" for attempting to purge voter rolls while serving as Georgia's secretary of state, Axios' Ursula Perano writes.

Go deeper: New Georgia voting machines fail to ease worries over election security

Read more: https://www.axios.com/georgia-voters-purge-judge-41270b24-a367-4747-b7be-cd991bcfbff4.html

---

Edited to add: The judge in this case is Steve Jones, appointed by Obama, confirmed in 2011.

Source: Law & Crime

A New York judge on Wednesday morning “hastily dismissed” state mortgage fraud charges against onetime Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort–paving the way for a presidential pardon.

Manhattan Supreme Justice Maxwell Wiley tossed the 16-count indictment against Manafort without discussion or explanation during a hearing which reportedly lasted all of 90 seconds.

The dismissal comes as an implicit rebuke of Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Cyrus Vance, Jr., who had prosecuted Manafort in an effort to ensure that President Donald Trump would not be able to pardon the disgraced Republican lobbyist.

Manafort was previously convicted of multiple federal crimes related to essentially the same set of facts that led to his New York State charges. A president, however, can only pardon federal crimes. State crimes are outside the purview of the president’s pardon power.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/judge-dismisses-state-charges-against-paul-manafort-clearing-the-way-for-pardon/

Source: Axios

Half a dozen House Democrats attended the White House Congressional Ball last night while their colleagues on the Judiciary Committee worked late into the night on articles of impeachment, according to two sources familiar with the event.

Why it matters: If you're looking for clues about which House Democrats might vote against impeaching President Trump next week, one tempting place to start is with those who chose to be Trump's guests at the annual ball — but that doesn't mean the two lists will totally overlap.

Democrats attending the party included:
Antonio Delgado (NY-19)
Susie Lee (NV-3)
Elaine Luria (VA-2)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Josh Harder (CA-10)
Gil Cisneros (CA-39)

Read more: https://www.axios.com/house-dems-trump-ball-impeachment-c3c3006b-59fc-47d0-92fb-b260bffaed19.html

Source: Fox 13

A reported “nuclear device” prompted authorities to evacuate a northwestern Columbus, Ohio neighborhood.

Hazmat and bomb squad crews responded around 6 p.m. Thursday to a home in the Cranston and Riverside drives area, Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Steve Martin told our media partner 10TV.com in Columbus.

In a 911 call, a man said he was working on a quantum physics generator in his garage and that he suffered burns, the television station reported. Crews found no signs of radiation on the man who called 911, first responders said.

Hazmat crews were checking the garage, and then bomb squad and an arson team will investigate.

Read more: https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/trending/nuclear-device-report-evacuates-columbus-neighborhood-hazmat-bomb-squad-respond/XGRDANUTQZEG5EXVDRFON4WNHQ/

Source: ABC News

Animal cruelty has officially become a federal felony after President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on Monday afternoon.

The bipartisan bill, Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, criminalizes certain acts of animal cruelty. The bill was passed in the Senate by unanimous decision on Nov. 5 after being approved in the House in late October.

"Passing this legislation is a major victory in the effort to stop animal cruelty and make our communities safer," Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said earlier this month when the bill, which Toomey sponsored along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., passed in the Senate. "Evidence shows that the deranged individuals who harm animals often move on to committing acts of violence against people. It is appropriate that the federal government have strong animal cruelty laws and penalties."

The bill, introduced in the House by Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., and Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., is an expansion on the 2010 Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act, which made the creation and distribution of "animal crushing" videos illegal

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-trump-sign-animal-cruelty-bill-law-making/story?id=67295654

---

At least something decent crossed this man’s desk.

Source: New York Times

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Friday night after experiencing chills and fever earlier in the day, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said on Saturday.

Justice Ginsburg was initially evaluated at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington before being transferred to Johns Hopkins for further evaluation and treatment of any possible infection, the spokeswoman, Kathleen Arberg, said in a statement.

Justice Ginsburg’s symptoms abated after treatment with intravenous antibiotics and fluids, Ms. Arberg said, adding the justice expected to be released from the hospital as early as Sunday morning.

Justice Ginsburg, 86, has had a series of health scares lately, including surgery for lung cancer and radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer in the last year. Over the years, Justice Ginsburg has also had surgery for early-stage pancreatic cancer in 2009 and treatment for colon cancer in 1999.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/23/us/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-hospitalized.html

Source: Law & Crime

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear oral arguments next week on an effort by House Democrats to obtain the full and unredacted report by former special counsel Robert Mueller–including still secret, closely-guarded grand jury materials.

Those discussions won’t take place in front of the entire D.C. Court of Appeals, but will instead be overseen by a three-judge panel.

The panel system operates by way of the chief judge’s discretion. Here, that means Merrick Garland chose Neomi Rao, Thomas Griffith and Judith Rogers to deliberate and decide the next stage of the lawsuit aimed at forcing the release of Mueller’s entire report.

...

Rao was appointed by President Donald Trump in order to replace now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh earlier this year. A decided member of the conservative movement, Rao enraged judicial reform and women’s rights advocates just by virtue of her nomination as Trump’s hand-picked Kavanaugh successor.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/these-are-the-judges-who-will-decide-whether-democrats-get-the-unredacted-mueller-report/

Source: Huffington Post

It’s not often that a federal judge pleads with the White House and senators to fill vacancies on his or her court. But in the case of U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill, his court’s workload has become so unmanageable that it’s come to begging for help.

“I write this letter out of concern for some 8.5 million people who live in the Eastern District of California, with my intention to prevent an impending, acute, and judicial catastrophe,” O’Neill wrote in a letter Friday to White House counsel Pat Cipollone and California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. “The statement sounds serious and ominous. It is both. It may also sound like an exaggeration. It is not.”

....

O’Neill is one of the two judges retiring in the coming months. He is taking senior status on Feb. 2, 2020, along with Judge Morrison England Jr., who is taking senior status on Dec. 17, 2019. Senior status is when a judge has worked long enough to take a reduced caseload or retire completely while still receiving a full salary. Neither O’Neill nor England plan to continue working. Both gave more than a year’s notice of their retirement.

The White House, which routinely announces its intent to nominate people to various federal court seats, has not indicated plans to nominate anyone to this court. Typically, the White House works with both of a state’s U.S. senators to pick judicial nominees. President Donald Trump has ignored that tradition with appeals court nominees but mostly stuck to it with district court picks.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/federal-court-vacancies-california-district-judge-lawrence-oneill_n_5daddccae4b0422422c9b149

Source: Law & Crime

A federal court in Florida has ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny individuals with prior felony convictions the right to vote based on their inability to pay fees and fines. Friday’s decision restores the right to vote for plaintiffs who otherwise would be eligible to vote in Florida but who simply cannot afford to pay off their outstanding fines, fees and restitution.

The 55-page opinion by U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle is a victory for voting rights advocates and Civil Rights advocates who argued that Florida Republicans had essentially re-instituted a poll tax on the right to vote in the Sunshine State.

The mood among pro-democracy advocates was jubilant just after the 2018 midterm elections when Florida’s electorate overwhelmingly chose to allow formerly incarcerated individuals their right to vote. Some 65 percent of Floridians voted in favor of re-extending the franchise. The passage of Amendment 4 would have allowed 1.5 million previously disenfranchised Floridians the right to vote.

In sum, the popular measure affected roughly seven percent of Florida’s entire population–but disproportionately impacted the state’s African-American community for the better. Under the prior, 150-year-old system of disenfranchisement, nearly 20 percent of Florida’s black population was denied the right to vote.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/civil-rights/federal-judge-declares-gop-poll-tax-unconstitutional-says-state-cant-restrict-right-to-vote-based-on-ability-to-pay/