Big Victory in Federal Court Over Biden-Pelosi Overreach and International Adversaries Take Advantage of Biden’s Weakness

We told you how the tax mandate in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 prevented states which utilized COVID-19 relief funding from lowering taxes between now and 2024. Today we’re happy to report a major victory in the lawsuit that was brought by 13 states in federal district court in Alabama. We filed a critical amicus brief with the court in that case on behalf of 78 Members of Congress who were pushing back on this tax cut ban.

Last night the federal district court in Alabama ruled that the federal government cannot do that and permanently enjoined this provision from going into effect. In this case, the Constitution and federalism has prevailed.

ACLJ Director of Government Affairs Thann Bennett explained the significance of this win:

It’s a very significant win on a number of levels. First of all, for federalism, on state authority to set its own taxation policy on the limits of the federal government not being able to intrude into states to set policy that is reserved for the states. . . . With this great win out of the Alabama court, that joins the other case that we had filed on behalf of the Members in Ohio. So now, two states . . . two main challenges to this provision have gone our way as we have represented Members of Congress [in both].

While defeating this Biden overreach in court is a good thing, our adversaries internationally are noticing the Biden Administration’s weakness and taking advantage of it. ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security, and former Acting Director of National Intelligence and Ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell explained in his new article Vladimir Putin’s recent aggression and how this happened:

Look, we all can see this – Russia has been unleashed. They feel like the Biden Administration has just rolled over. . . . It’s always important to tell people that Nord Stream 1, the U.S. was okay with, but Nord Stream 2 went too far. The reason we say that is because Europe needs to be careful that they are not getting an overreliance on Russia. And Nord Stream 2 does that. . . . But the Germans have put themselves in a position where they need it. . . . I have to say this, it’s a controversial statement, but when you look around the world, the biggest mess of the world, all of the crises, all of the problems, seem to be in Europe these days. So, I would put 100 percent of the blame on the Germans who are the leaders of the largest economy but have really had the “Germany first” model and not a “Europe first” model. And the rest of Europe is experiencing lots of problems because of Russia and Germany’s weakness and the Biden team is not even noticing. 

Russia is not the only international player who is noticing the Biden Administration’s weakness. China has joined them. Yesterday, President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in a virtual summit where they accomplished virtually nothing. Chinese President Xi Jinping began the meeting by saying:

China and the United States should respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue . . . cooperation. I stand ready to work with you Mr. President, to build consensus, take active steps and move China-U.S. relations forward in a positive direction. Doing so would advance the interests of our two peoples and meet the expectation of the international community.

Ric gave his take on the outcome of the meeting between the two leaders:

China gets to spin things like they want to help on the global pandemic of COVID-19. I mean, the whole COVID-19 as our U.S. intelligence agencies told us COVID-19 started in Wuhan and then the coverup from the Chinese happened. . . . Then let’s talk about climate change. The reality is that China is the real problem, they aren’t doing anything. . . . They aren’t understanding that if we’re going to have a global agreement on climate change then the first step is India and China are going to have to start doing something first. I just think that this rhetoric from China is all baloney, and yet it seems to be landing with the Biden Administration, and they’re accepting the Chinese rhetoric as reality. The Chinese rhetoric is not reality, and . . . they need to shake the Biden team and say wake up you’ve been outsmarted by China and Russia and this has got to stop.

ACLJ Senior Military Analyst Wes Smith summed up how U.S. leadership is being perceived right now:

This meeting by all indications was pretty weak and inconsequential. The White House had indicated that President Biden was not going to using their words “hold back,” that he was going to be candid and firm with President Xi. It seems the opposite happened. President Biden did not really force the issue on the origination of the COVID-19 pandemic or China’s refusal to let scientists really investigate the pandemic in China. . . . On the other hand, President Xi made it very clear concerning Taiwan, using again their words, that if we interfere with that, the U.S. will be playing with fire and that we will get burned. Meanwhile . . . China continues its abuse of human rights . . . they continue to dominate world commerce by using slave labor to produce their products. . . . The list goes on and on and yet the Biden Administration is not willing to take a stand and confront an adversary of the U.S. I think anytime that U.S. leadership is perceived as vacillating and weak, our adversaries pick up on that.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of our win in federal court, Russia’s recent aggression, and the outcome of President Biden meeting with China’s President.

Watch the full broadcast below.

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