Biden honors Roe v Wade’s 50th anniversary as anti-abortionists rally in Washington – as it happeend | US politics

Today was the 50th anniversary of the supreme court handing down Roe v Wade, and the first since its conservative justices reversed that ruling last year and allowed states to ban the procedure. Joe Biden marked the day with a proclamation restating his administration’s commitment to protecting reproductive rights, while blocks from the White House, anti-abortion activists gathered for the annual March for Life – the first since Roe was overturned. The route for their march this year finished near the US Capitol, a signal that swaying legislatures nationwide is the next task for their movement.

Here’s what else happened today:

• The supreme court will next week issue the first opinion of its current term after an unusually long period of silence.

• Donald Trump has warned Republicans not to cut the popular Social Security or Medicare programs after the party’s leaders vowed to reduce government spending in exchange for raising the debt limit.

• Today marked the halfway point of Biden’s first term in office, and reports indicate he still intends to seek a second term, with an announcement planned for after the 7 February State of the Union address.

• Democrats breathed a big sigh of relief when Virginia senator Tim Kaine said he would seek re-election. Had he opted to retire, the party’s quest to hold on to the Senate in the 2024 election could have become more complicated.

• Arizona’s new Democratic administration has paused executions and announced a review of the state’s use of capital punishment.

Joanna Walters

US vice president Kamala Harris is due to give a speech on Sunday in the Florida state capital of Tallahassee, to mark the 50th anniversary of the US Supreme Court making abortion in the US a constitutional right, with its 1973 decision in the case Roe v Wade.

It would have been a celebration for those in favor of reproductive rights in America, including personal choice in the matter of abortion.

Instead, the anti-abortion movement is holding its annual rally and march in Washington in an atmosphere of triumph for the anti-choice school because of last June’s decision by the now-conservative-dominated supreme court overturning Roe.

That decision in the so-called Dobbs case out of Mississippi ripped up Roe and threw away federal abortion rights, returning the power to make law on abortion back to individual states.

On Sunday, Harris will make a pro-choice speech and moments ago, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the veep chose Florida partly because it has tough restrictions on abortion – though less so than its neighboring states.

“Florida’s restrictions are not as tough as neighbors,” said Jean-Pierre, but noted that Florida “is considering an even more extreme ban which would be devastating for women.”

Harris and Joe Biden have been in office for exactly two years today.

Trump withdraws lawsuit against New York attorney general

Joanna Walters

In the wake of a federal judge ordering Donald Trump and one of his attorneys to jointly pay nearly $1m in penalties for pursuing a frivolous lawsuit that accused Hillary Clinton and others, the former president today also withdrew his lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The case against James, in federal court in Florida, had also been before US district court judge Donald Middlebrooks, the Associated Press reports.

Trump sued James in November in response to her lawsuit alleging he and his company mislead banks and others about the value of assets in a practice she dubbed “The art of the steal” [a parody on Trump’s best-selling book about getting rich as a New York real estate mogul, The Art of the Deal.]

Trump, a Republican, also sought to prevent James, a Democrat, from having any oversight over the family trust that controls his company.

His 35-page complaint rehashed some claims from his previously dismissed lawsuit against James in federal court in New York, irritating Middlebrooks.

Middlebrooks wrote in an order in December:

This litigation has all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous.”

Today is the 50th anniversary of the supreme court handing down Roe v Wade, and the first since its conservative justices reversed that ruling last year and allowed states to ban the procedure. Joe Biden marked the day with a proclamation restating his administration’s commitment to protecting reproductive rights, while blocks from the White House, anti-abortion activists have gathered for the annual March for Life – the first since Roe was overturned. In a sign of the struggle ahead, the route for their march this year will finish near the US Capitol, a signal that legislatures nationwide are now the main battlefields for their movement.

Here’s what else has happened today:

• Donald Trump has warned Republicans not to go after the popular Social Security or Medicare programs after the party’s leaders promised to cut government spending in exchange for raising the debt limit.

• Today marks the halfway point of Biden’s first term in office, and reports indicate he still plans to seek a second term, with an announcement planned for after the 7 February State of the Union address.

• Democrats breathed a big sigh of relief when Virginia senator Tim Kaine said he would seek a third term. Had he opted to retire, the party’s quest to hold on to the Senate in the 2024 election could have become more complicated.

Ron DeSantis violated the law when he suspended a Florida state attorney for saying he wouldn’t enforce the state’s restrictive new 15-week abortion ban, a judge has ruled.

But district court judge Robert Hinkle says he doesn’t have the authority to overturn the Republican governor’s decision and reinstate Hillsborough county state attorney Andrew Warren to office.

DeSantis removed Warren in August after the Democrat said he wouldn’t enforce the abortion law, or prosecute providers of gender transition treatment for young people. Accusing Warren of following a “woke” agenda, the governor said he had put himself “above the law”.

But in a scathing 59-page ruling released Friday, Hinkle said it was DeSantis, a likely candidate for the Republican party’s 2024 presidential nomination, who had broken the law.

He rejected DeSantis’s assertion that Warren had a blanket policy of not prosecuting certain cases, and that Warren had every right as a state attorney to “exercise prosecutorial discretion at every stage of every case”:

The governor violated the first amendment by considering Mr Warren’s speech on matters of public concern as motivating factors in the decision to suspend him.

The governor [also] violated the first amendment by considering Mr Warren’s association with the Democratic party.

Hinkle conceded that DeSantis would still have removed Warren without the violations, and because they didn’t affect the outcome, he couldn’t provide injunctive relief.

DeSantis’s violation of the Florida state constitution did affect the outcome, Hinkle said. But he noted the 11th amendment prohibited a federal court awarding relief against a state official based only on a violation of state law, and that he had no alternative to dismiss Warren’s request for reinstatement.

In an earlier stage of the legal case, Hinkle ordered DeSantis to testify in defense of his decision, but backed down in November.

With his legal path to reinstatement now apparently blocked, Warren is expected to lay out his next steps to reporters later today.