# data[].attributes.body
Not sure if it's a law but I think the way someone can gain citizenship should be reformed or updated.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Facts of the case

Ming Dai, a native and citizen of China, sought asylum in the United States. An immigration judge denied his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture, although it did not expressly state that Dai's testimony lacked credibility. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) upheld the immigration judge's decision. Dai appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which overturned the BIA and the immigration judge's ruling, holding that Dai was entitled to withholding of removal proceedings. The appellate court specifically noted that absent a finding that Dai was not credible, he was entitled to a presumption of credibility.

This case was consolidated with Barr v. Alcaraz-Enriquez, No. 19-1156.

Question

Can a court of appeals presume that an immigrant's testimony is credible and true if an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals did not specifically find that he was not credible?

Cite this page

"Barr v. Dai." Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-1155. Accessed 2 Dec. 2020.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A case in which the Court will decide whether a court of appeals can presume that an immigrant's testimony is credible and true if an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals did not specifically find that he was not credible.

# data[].attributes.headline
Wrote an essay once involving the Roe v. Wade case.

# data[].attributes.subject
Wrote an essay once involving the Roe v. Wade case.

# data[].attributes.headline
Our impact on habitat and wildlife needs more attention.

# data[].attributes.subject
Our impact on habitat and wildlife needs more attention.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
23% of Earth's natural habitats could be gone by 2100, study finds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
According to new findings published in Nature Communications, climate change and global food demand could destroy up to 23% of all natural habitat ranges in the next 80 years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Netanyahu says he intends to be first person vaccinated in Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the arrival of the first doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine in Israel Wednesday and said he intended to be the first person in the country to be vaccinated.

"I want the citizens of Israel to be vaccinated, and to do so I want to set an example for them," he said at a ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport.

Netanyahu said he believed in the vaccine and that he expected to receive approval for it in coming days.

"This is a holiday for Israel," he added.

Haley says sister-in-law died of Covid

COLUMBIA S.C. - Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley says her sister-in-law has died after contracting the coronavirus.

Haley tweeted Tuesday evening that Rhonda Lee Nelson, sister of her husband Michael, "passed the day before Thanksgiving of Covid."

Haley said her sister-in-law "loved God, her family & all who knew her. She will be missed."

According to an online obituary, Nelson, 53, lived in West Milton, Ohio, and died November 25.

Haley provided no further details on Nelson's death, which came as coronavirus numbers rise across the country and in states including Ohio.

Miami residents wait hours in line for grocery gift cards

Colorado's first gentleman released from hospital

DENVER - Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' longtime partner was discharged from a hospital Tuesday after undergoing treatment for the new coronavirus.

First gentleman Marlon Reis was hospitalized over the weekend as a precaution after experiencing shortness of breath and a worsening cough after he was diagnosed on Nov. 28.

The Democratic governor also was diagnosed with Covid-19 but has not experienced severe symptoms. He has been working from home in quarantine.

Polis' office said in a statement that Reis' doctors at UCHealth at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have advised him to take steroids for two days as he recovers. Reis did not require supplemental oxygen during his hospital stay.

Judge sides with LA restaurants over closures

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County's health director acted "arbitrarily" and didn't prove the danger to the public when she banned outdoor dining at restaurants as coronavirus cases surged last month, a judge ruled Tuesday in a case other businesses may use to try to overturn closures and restrictions.

The county failed to show that health benefits outweigh the negative economic effects before issuing the ban, Superior Court Judge James Chalfant wrote. He also said the county did not offer evidence that outdoor dining presented a greater risk of spreading the virus.

"By failing to weigh the benefits of an outdoor dining restriction against its costs, the county acted arbitrarily and its decision lacks a rational relationship to a legitimate end,″ the judge wrote.

Chalfant limited the outdoor dining ban to three weeks and said once it expires Dec. 16 the Department of Public Health must conduct a risk-benefit analysis before trying to extend it.

It was the first victory for California restaurants challenging health orders that have crippled their industry. But there was no immediate relief for LA county restaurant owners because a more sweeping shutdown ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom now is in effect.

Ravens' Dez Bryant says he tested positive, scratched from Cowboys game

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Dez Bryant announced Tuesday that he tested positive for Covid-19 and was scratched by the team from that night's game against his former team, the Dallas Cowboys.

Bryant, a three-time Pro Bowler and former star receiver for the Cowboys, tweeted the news with some apparent surprise, writing "I tested positive for Covid WTF" and that his routine had not changed.

A number of Ravens players had tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks, and the situation disrupted the schedule. The Ravens-Steelers game, originally scheduled for Thanksgiving, was rescheduled three times before being played last Wednesday. Ravens President Dick Cass on Saturday said the team experienced an outbreak with multiple players, staff and families.

Bryant was released by the Cowboys in 2018. The Ravens signed him to its practice squad in October, and his first game with them was against the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 8.

North Carolina issues overnight stay-at-home order

North Carolina officials on Tuesday issued a modified stay-at-home order from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., citing record-breaking Covid-19 cases in the state over the past week.

Gov. Roy Cooper's executive order takes effect Friday and runs through at least Jan. 8. It also orders that bars and some other businesses close during those time periods. The sale of alcohol for on-site consumption must end at 9 p.m.

The state has broken single-day case records three times in the past week, Cooper said.

There have been more than 404,000 Covid-19 cases in the state, with 5,605 deaths, according to the state health department. "We have to act now to save lives," Cooper said.
"The virus is upon us with a rapid viciousness like we haven't seen before," Cooper said, adding "it's more important than ever to take this virus seriously."
Wearing masks could save 66,000 Americans lives by April, expert says

President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday that "masking, vaccinations, opening schools" are the top three goals of the first 100 days of his administration.

One researcher called Biden's mask commitment a "very wise and smart decision," but urged Americans to not wait until the Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.

If, starting now, 95 percent of Americans wore masks in public, at least 66,000 lives could be saved by April, said Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Mokdad has been tracking the impact of the virus based on mask mandates around the country.

Biden said he planned to sign an executive order to mandate mask use in places such as federal buildings and during interstate travel on planes, trains and buses.

Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. School of Public Health, is skeptical how well Biden's plea for Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days he's in office - until April 30 - will land in parts of the country that have resisted them.

But, "if there's very consistent messaging, if Biden can work very closely with the governors of all 50 states and if we can get people on board, then I think it can be an extraordinarily powerful way to help limit spread," Mina said.

McConnell urges Congress to 'pass the things that we agree on' for Covid relief

Maine teen dies by suicide after struggling to cope with pandemic, father says

A father in Maine wants to shed some light on how the coronavirus pandemic may be affecting the mental health of young people after his 16-year-old son died by suicide on Friday.

Jay Smith, of Brunswick, said his son, Spencer Smith, was having trouble coping with how much life has changed over the past several months.

"We knew he was upset because he was no longer able to participate in his school activities, football. We never guessed it was this bad," Smith said in a phone interview on Tuesday. "Looking back now we could see little things that we should have caught but we didn't realize his mental health was deteriorating as bad."

Florida health care worker discharged after nine months in hospital battling Covid-19

A health care worker was released from a South Florida hospital on Tuesday after battling Covid-19 for nine months.

Rosa Felipe, 41, contracted the coronavirus in March, Jackson Health System told NBC News. Due to underlying health conditions such as asthma and diabetes, Felipe was hospitalized at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where she has been an electroencephalograph technician for 15 years.

She became very sick and was intubated, spending two months in the intensive care unit. Felipe also underwent dialysis and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a treatment that replaces the function of the heart and lungs. Her fingertips on her right hand turned black due to lack of oxygenation and she will likely lose those them, the hospital said.

Felipe was briefly discharged in June to a rehabilitation facility, but was rushed back to the emergency room after becoming septic from a bleeding ulcer. After recovering from this setback, the mother of two boys spent six difficult months undergoing various therapies to relearn everyday tasks like dressing herself and walking.

In a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Felipe thanked her caregivers and reminded the public of the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The only thing I can tell you is that this is real. Coronavirus is real. The effects are real. But what's more real is the love that I have received here," Felipe said. "I don't think I would have gotten this far if it wasn't for this rehabilitation center."

As of Tuesday, Florida has reported more than 1 million cases and more than 19,000 deaths from Covid-19. It is just one of three U.S. states that has reported more than 1 million cases, according to the CDC.

Michigan governor lowers flags to honor 10,000 lives lost to coronavirus

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered Tuesday that U.S. and Michigan flags within the State Capitol Complex and all public buildings and grounds be lowered to half-staff for 10 days to honor the 10,000 lives in the state claimed by the coronavirus pandemic.

"Our nation is grieving alongside each of the families who have an empty seat at the dinner table each night or who will be missing family members during the holiday season," Whitmer said in a statement. "Right now, we need to listen to our scientists and medical professionals who are asking us to double down on wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing to prevent an unnecessarily greater loss of life."

"With a vaccine on the horizon, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but we each need to do our part until then. We will get through this together," she added.

The statement said more than one out of every 1,000 Michiganders have lost their lives to the virus, which has infected more than 410,000 people in the state and killed 10,138.

Four lions at Spanish zoo test positive for Covid-19

BARCELONA - Four lions at Barcelona Zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, veterinary authorities said on Tuesday, in only the second known case in which large felines have contracted coronavirus.

Three females named Zala, Nima and Run Run and Kiumbe, a male, were tested after keepers noticed they showed slight symptoms of coronavirus.

Two staff at the zoo also tested positive for coronavirus, the authorities said, after the outbreak was first detected last month.

Washington state announces three-week extension of coronavirus restrictions

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday that the state's broad coronavirus restrictions around restaurants, gyms and indoor gatherings will be extended another three weeks through the new year.

Inslee said during a news conference Tuesday that state restrictions put in place in mid-November will be extended to Jan. 4. They were set to expire Dec. 14.

"We are seeing some signs the current restrictions are working. But our hospitals are still on the brink. Therefore, I am extending existing restrictions for three weeks - ending January 4th," Inslee said in a post on Twitter. "It is a dangerous time in Washington. We need to buckle down through the holidays."

Inslee added he was also making an additional $50 million in business grants available for businesses impacted by the restrictions.

In November, Inslee announced the sweeping restrictions, including shutting down indoor dining at restaurants and bars and limiting outdoor service to parties of five, closing gyms, fitness centers and movie theaters, and prohibiting indoor gatherings with people outside your household unless the participants have quarantined and tested negative.

100M shots in the first 100 days: Biden unveils Covid priorities, introduces health team

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday promised that his administration would oversee the injection of 100 million shots into the arms of Americans within his first 100 days as president and vowed to reopen a "majority" of schools across the nation in the same timeframe.

Biden, who spoke from Wilmington, Del., at an event in which he also announced the top members of his health care team, promised that educators, along with health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, would be among the targets for the first round of Covid-19 vaccinations.

Biden again said he would call on Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his administration.

"Masking, vaccinations, opening schools," Biden said. "These are the three key goals of my first 100 days."

Wyoming governor signs statewide mask mandate

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed an executive order Monday mandating mask use in certain situations statewide. The order requires residents to wear a face covering while inside businesses or government buildings, when visiting health care facilities and when using public transportation.

The mandate goes into effect Wednesday until Jan. 8th, 2021, unless extended.

Read NBC News' article about mask mandates across the country.

Michigan-Ohio State football game canceled

The weekend's football game between longtime rivals, the University of Michigan and Ohio State University, was canceled after the visiting Wolverines said Tuesday they've been hit by a spike of coronavirus cases.

The game had been slated for a noon kickoff Saturday in Columbus.

"This decision is disappointing for our team and coaches but their health and safety is paramount, and it will always come first in our decision-making," according to a statement by Michigan.

Blair House employee tests positive ahead of State Dept. parties

An individual working in Blair House has tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of several State Department holiday parties set to occur in the presidential guest house in the coming days.

An email sent to State Department employees on Monday and obtained by NBC News says that the individual had been working on the first, second and fourth floors of Blair House, and also in a State Department annex facility. The individual who tested positive was last in the space last Thursday. The email said that "the spaces have been cleaned in accordance with CDC guidelines." The email was sent by Dr. Deborah Schneider, managing director for the Bureau of Administration's Office of Operations, and was marked "Sensitive but unclassified."

A separate email obtained by NBC News and sent to staffers by Chief of Protocol Cam Henderson shows photographs of Blair House being "decorated for Christmas," including staffers and chefs preparing "edible decorations," multiple Christmas trees and other adornments. It's unclear if the individual who tested positive was involved in those preparations.

Blair House will be used both on Tuesday and Wednesday for State Department-sponsored "Holiday Cheer" events for the Diplomatic Corps, as NBC News has reported. Additional Holiday Open Houses are planned at Blair House for Thursday and Friday, according to emails obtained by NBC News.

Los Angeles County public health director tells people to stay home as much as possible

The director of Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said Tuesday as coronavirus cases surge in California, the focus is on getting community transmission rates to go down in order to not overwhelm hospitals.

Dr. Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday on MSNBC that there is a health order for Southern California, telling people to stay home as much as possible.

"You should really be only out and about if you're an essential worker or you need to go and get essential services," she said, adding they are also telling people it is very important for the next three weeks not to mingle with people outside of their household.

"Again, you may need to go to work, you may need to do some essential grocery shopping, but all other activities really need, should be on pause right now," she said. "That's the way we protect our health care workers and our health care system."

Ferrer said last week they had 1,700 new cases among health care workers.

"That's the highest number of positive cases we've ever reported, ever, in a week among our health care workers, and that too threatens to overwhelm the health care system," she said. "You can have beds, but they need to be staffed."

Pennsylvania governor says hospitalizations are reaching critical level

Oxford-AstraZeneca announces first peer review Covid vaccine study - but questions remain

LONDON - After one historic Covid-19 first, a second more subtle pandemic milestone was reached in Britain on Tuesday.

A vaccine front-runner developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca became the first to have its Phase 3 trial published in a peer-reviewed paper, the Lancet medical journal, which confirmed its shots have an average efficacy of 70.4 percent.

There were no hospitalizations or cases of severe Covid-19 three weeks after the first dose taken by around 11,600 volunteers in the U.K. and Brazil, it said.

Peer-reviewed data is something that experts have been desperate to see, given most of the positive Covid-19 vaccine news has been communicated in press releases.

Trump administration passed up chance to lock in more Pfizer vaccine doses

A former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and a member of Pfizer's board of directors said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's administration declined to secure millions of additional doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine when it had the chance.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that the White House declined "multiple" offers from Pfizer to strike a deal on more vaccines for the second quarter of 2021. Gottlieb's statements came after The New York Times and The Associated Press reported that the Trump administration months ago did not lock in the chance to purchase millions of additional doses of Pfizer's vaccine, which has shown to be highly effective against Covid-19.

That decision could delay the delivery of a second batch of doses until Pfizer fulfills other international contracts.

"Pfizer has gone ahead and entered into agreement with other countries to sell them some of that vaccine in the second quarter of 2021," Gottlieb told CNBC.

Oklahoma school district apologizes for controversial football picture

An apologetic Oklahoma school district said it "acknowledges and accepts" harsh criticism sparked by a viral photo showing mask-less, shoulder-to-shoulder students celebrating a big football win.

Jenks High School, from an affluent suburb of Tulsa, won the state football title over the weekend and a widely circulated picture showed players, cheerleaders, students and fans celebrating in the stands with hardly anyone wearing a mask.

"The photo of the Jenks High School student section included in a post on Saturday from the state championship football game has been widely criticized. Jenks Public Schools acknowledges and accepts this criticism," Jenks Public Schools said in a lengthy apology. "There were too many high school students without masks and too many high school students in close contact with one another. This is not the kind of safe environment JPS seeks to create for students and staff members. JPS understands the importance of social distancing."

The district added: "At future secondary events, Jenks Public Schools pledges to do more to maintain stricter safety protocols. This was not up to the standard that is expected. Jenks Public Schools and Jenks High School sincerely apologizes for this mistake."

Like much of America, Tulsa County, Oklahoma, has been struggling to contain coronavirus. There were 4,994 active cases there as of Tuesday morning with 289 deaths during this pandemic, according to county records.

FDA: Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine safe and effective after one dose

Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine candidate offers protection after the first dose, according to documents released by the Food and Drug Administration Tuesday morning.

The information was made public ahead of a Thursday meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC - an advisory group to the FDA, which will vote on whether to advise the agency to grant emergency use authorization of the vaccine in the U.S.

The 53-page document contains analysis from both federal regulators and Pfizer on the latest data from the company's Phase 3 clinical trial on its Covid-19 vaccine. It will be used to help guide the advisory group in its decision making.

Trump admin has yet to launch promised effort to get Americans to trust Covid-19 vaccines

WASHINGTON - In late July, officials with the administration's Operation Warp Speed said when Covid-19 vaccines were imminent there would be a tightly targeted four to six week national campaign to encourage Americans to get the shots. Now, with multiple vaccines finally on the horizon, state health officials tell NBC News they have not yet seen materials from the federal government.

Data shows there's reason to be concerned about the American public's willingness to sign up for shots. While recent polls indicate an increasing number of Americans willing to take the vaccine, the latest STAT/Harris poll shows at least 42 percent are still reluctant.

The federal government recently shifted its public health education strategy, amid media and congressional scrutiny related to alleged politicization of the message. Following a review ordered by the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the department canceled a $15.1 million contract that included work with members of the entertainment industry.

California reports its 20,000th Covid death

California reported its 20,000th Covid-19 death Tuesday morning, part of a surge across the state that has set record case numbers and seen an uptick in deaths.

While California's 20,057 deaths is the third-highest among any state, its per-capita deaths are among the lowest in the country. More than 1.4 million cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the state. In the U.S., more than 15 million have had the disease.

Monday, Tennessee reported its 5,000th Covid-19 death. More than 400,000 have been diagnosed there.

Several states reported Covid-19 records Monday:

Connecticut, 8,129 cases. The state had reported zero the previous two days.

Iowa, 215 deaths

Nevada, 4,959 cases

New Hampshire, 1,045 cases

New Jersey, 6,944 cases

Rhode Island, 3,681 cases. The state had reported zero the previous two days.

Tennessee, 8,136 cases

Operation Warp Speed chief says he doesn't know what Trump's order on vaccines is about

The Trump administration's adviser overseeing Operation Warp Speed, which is tasked with developing and distributing a Covid-19 vaccine, said Tuesday that he doesn't know the purpose of President Donald Trump's expected executive order on the vaccines.

"Frankly, I don't know, and frankly, I'm staying out of this. I can't comment," said chief science adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Pressed further, Slaoui said, "Our work is rolling. We have plans. We feel that we can deliver the vaccines as needed, so I don't know exactly what this order is about."

A senior administration official told reporters Monday that Trump is "going to be signing an executive order on ensuring access to U.S. government Covid-19 vaccines. This is a reaffirmation of the president's commitment to America first, to ensure the health and safety of our citizens, the viability of our economy, the security of our nation, and ensure that Americans are able to resume normal life. That's the first and most directive thing the executive order does."

William Shakespeare becomes second person to receive approved Covid-19 vaccine

In a turn of events that's already spawned a thousand Twitter puns, the second person to receive the clinically approved Covid-19 vaccine Tuesday was a man named William Shakespeare.

Bill, 81, as he's known to friends, got the shot at a hospital in the English city of Coventry, as the United Kingdom kicks off its largest public vaccination campaign in its history.

For a country recently accused of turning its world-first vaccinations into nationalistic point-scoring opportunities, it was a detail that might have been tossed from a writers' room for being too on-the-nose.

"William Shakespeare" quickly became the number one trending topic on British Twitter, where people responded with wordplays such as "The Taming of the Flu," "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" and "a plague on none of your houses."

The U.S. tops 15 million Covid cases, its second million-milestone in December

The United States surpassed 15 million Covid-19 cases Monday only a few days after setting its first million-milestone this month, according to an NBC News tally.

The U.S. recorded 1,789 deaths related to coronavirus on Monday, bringing the total death count close to 285,000 people, according to the tally. The country logged nearly 187,000 new cases of Covid-19 on the same day.

The country also registered more hospitalizations on Monday since the pandemic began, with almost 102,000 people who were hospitalized across the country, according to The Covid Tracking Project.

British woman becomes world's first to receive approved Covid-19 vaccine

A woman in the English city of Coventry has become the first person to get a clinically approved Covid-19 vaccine. Margaret Keenan, 90, received the Pfizer-BioNTech shot Tuesday after the British government became the first to give it regulatory approval last week.

"I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19," the grandmother of four, who turns 91 next week, told reporters. "It's the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year."

Keenan's inoculation kicks off what's been described as the largest vaccination campaign ever attempted by Britain's publicly funded National Health Service. The United States Food and Drug Administration is expected to discuss regulatory approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week.
Click here to read the full article.
Western Australia opens up to air travel after easing of coronavirus restrictions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dec. 8 Coronavirus updates: British woman first to receive approved vaccine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
December 8 news about the coronavirus pandemic. A 90-year-old British grandmother became the world's first person to receive the approved coronavirus vaccine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Trump Tests Positive for the Coronavirus (Published 2020)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The president’s result came after he spent months playing down the severity of the outbreak that has killed more than 207,000 in the United States and hours after insisting that “the end of the pandemic is in sight.”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We don't know a second stimulus payment will be approved by Congress -- the current negotiations for economic relief legislation could be leaning toward one this month. We also don't know how much stimulus aid would be allotted for eligible people, but we can surmise that some people (and their dependents) would get than they did in the first stimulus check. Others would get less or no money at all. And, like the first payment, a second round would have special priority groups.

Congress is currently balancing a bipartisan proposal that would replenish a few benefits set to expire but doesn't include another direct stimulus payment with calls to include a check, including from President Donald Trump. Omitting the popular direct payment would shed billions from the total cost of the bill and also a layer of complication, which may make the package more likely to get a vote in the coming days.

We'll explain more below. The information in this story was recently updated.

How much bigger your second payment could be in $$$

Again, we won't know the rules for sure until a bill is signed into law. But we do know some possibilities, based on previous proposals and possibly even the most recent Republican offerings. For most people, the total amount you're likely to receive is based on your adjusted gross income, or AGI, and other eligibility requirements.

Here's how much more stimulus money you could potentially see if...

More people qualify as a dependent: The Democratic proposal for the next bill expands the definition of "" to include anyone you can claim on your tax returns -- such as children over 16 and adults under your care. By today's sums, that's $500 more per person you support, with potentially no cap. If you had one dependent who qualified in the first round and three that qualify in the second, that would get your family $1,000 more if you had no other changes.

Child dependents get more money: The most recent White House proposal would keep the same age restriction for children, but double the payout to $1,000. So if you have one dependent, your second check could be $500 larger.

You gain another dependent: If you had or adopted a child, you may see $500 to $1,000 more, depending on the final bill.

Your employment status changed: If you became unemployed this year or your wages dropped, that could lower your AGI, which is used to determine the payment. For example, if you got a partial payment with the first check, you may receive a full payment if you are no longer employed.

You got married: Depending on several variables that include your spouse's filing status and any new dependents, a change in marital status could result in a larger check. For example, if you were single and filing alone, you got $1,200 max. Married, you could be eligible for $2,400 maximum, since the IRS formula used to determine your total stimulus money is based on your combined household income.

You now share custody of a child: If you meet specific qualifications, you and the child's other parent may both be entitled to claim extra stimulus money. That means you could get $500 more in the second check, especially if anything in your situation changes from the time you filed your 2018 tax return to 2019. The second check allowance will be based on your most recent tax filing.

A rule change concerning incarcerated people becomes permanent: A federal judge has ruled that the IRS owes stimulus checks to inmates in prison who qualify. If the ruling stands, these people may be entitled to a second stimulus check of up to $1,200, as well as the first. That's a potential $2,400 total for individuals, with more potential money for dependents.

You're an "undocumented immigrant": Democrats propose that undocumented US residents should be eligible for stimulus relief funds if they pay taxes, as part of the Heroes Act that passed the House of Representatives in two forms, but which is not law. If that qualification goes through, it could mean that some people who did not get a check as part of the CARES Act could get a second check. If it works retroactively, individuals may be eligible for both payments. This is contingent, along with the rest of the stimulus check qualifications, on the details of a new law.

There's a potential for $1,200-$2,400 for this group, with more for dependents. For a married couple with two young children who didn't receive the first check, the second round could possibly yield as much as $3,400.

Keep reading below for how you could get less money than before.

With a rule change, your family could get more money

Here are some potential scenarios for how the two different approaches could play out for families. You can use our stimulus check calculator to get a more specific estimate for your particular situation.

Looking for more stimulus check information? Here's the status with negotiations today, and here's what you need to know about stimulus checks and older adults, and if you're in a child support situation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A second stimulus check may bring some people more money. Would you be one of them?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We don't know a second stimulus payment will be approved by Congress -- the current negotiations for economic relief legislation could be leaning toward one this month. We also don't know how much stimulus aid would be allotted for eligible people, but we can surmise that some people (and their dependents) would get than they did in the first stimulus check.

# data[].attributes.body
Is this a big deal?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
subscribe to Short Wave podcast

The United States will formally leave the Paris Agreement on Wednesday, no matter who wins the election. Of the nearly 200 nations that signed the agreement, the U.S. is the only one to walk away from its promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

President Trump originally announced his intention to withdraw from the landmark agreement in 2017 and formally notified the United Nations last year. A mandatory yearlong waiting period ends on Wednesday, a coincidence that nonetheless highlights the Trump administration's commitment to derailing efforts that address climate change.

The U.S. has emitted more cumulative carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other country since the industrial era began in the mid-1800s. Current U.S. emissions are falling but far too slowly to avoid catastrophic warming. That's in part because the Trump administration rolled back carbon pollution limits from power plants, cars, trucks and fossil fuel operations. American emissions rose slightly in the first two years of his administration. In 2020, the pandemic throttled the economy and led to a short-term dip.

"The lack of action at the federal level is a serious problem," says Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group. The costs of climate-driven disasters such as hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires are rising, she says. In 2020, there have already been 16 climate-driven disasters that cost at least $1 billion each, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"Climate change is clearly not just an environmental issue," Cleetus says. "It is threatening our economy. It's threatening our future prosperity, the well-being of future generations."

But U.S. involvement in the Paris Agreement isn't definitively over. The U.S. could choose to return, and Democratic nominee Joe Biden has promised to rejoin the agreement "on day one" if he wins the election. If he were to do so, the U.S. could officially resume its role under the Paris Agreement in mid-February.

If that happens, the U.S. will have a lot of ground to make up. Under the Paris Agreement, the U.S. promised to reduce its emissions by about 25% by 2025 compared with 2005 levels, but the country is only on track to achieve about a 17% reduction, according to analysts.

Meanwhile, China, Japan and the European Union have made long-term promises to get all the way to net zero emissions in the coming decades.

Many American cities, states and companies have also vowed to reduce drastically their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the coming years. Twelve states and at least 165 U.S. cities have plans to get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources, according to the climate tracking group America's Pledge.

While adapting to climate change is expensive, there's also evidence it can be good for the economy. Between 2005 and 2017, 41 states increased their gross domestic product while reducing carbon dioxide emissions, according to a recent analysis by the World Resources Institute think tank, and investment in clean energy now generates more jobs than investing in fossil fuels.

Corporations also made a deluge of commitments this year to address the root causes of climate change. They include promises to cut carbon emissions throughout their supply chains, by reducing or eliminating electricity and transportation that burn fossil fuels, or by protecting forests that absorb carbon. It is still unclear exactly how companies will achieve their promises.

The Paris Agreement was central to many corporate pledges, including those by Amazon and Cargill. The historically right-leaning business group the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the president's decision to withdraw from the agreement.

"We believe we should be part of the Paris Agreement," Sabrina Fang, the group's senior director of media relations, wrote in an email to NPR. "Greater collaboration between governments and businesses is essential to build the best models to tackle climate challenges."

The American departure from the Paris Agreement also means the end of U.S. contributions to a global fund to help smaller and poorer countries that bear disproportionate costs of climate change. The United States originally pledged $3 billion to help such nations transition from fossil fuels and adapt to a hotter Earth - the largest amount of any country, but still far less than America's fair share, given its cumulative carbon emissions.

The Trump administration withdrew two-thirds of that money. At a meeting last year, 13 other rich nations, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany, doubled their original pledges, while the U.S. declined to contribute any additional money to the fund.

It leaves a giant funding shortfall for countries struggling with sea level rise and heat waves and that lack money to move people out of harm's way or to upgrade power plants that burn fossil fuels.

"The U.S. was a major pledger to that first funding. When they never delivered, that certainly was an impact to us," says Carlos Fuller, the lead climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, which represents 44 island and low-lying coastal countries at international climate talks.

For example, Fuller says, the U.S. was expected to help fund a major climate project in the Caribbean that would install weather stations, map the topography of the seafloor to predict storm surge better and help Caribbean nations use that data to become more resilient to the impact of climate change. But the Trump administration reduced the funding.

Now, Fuller says, the project is on hold pending contributions from other nations. He says if the U.S. stays out of the Paris Agreement, it could have dire consequences for low-lying and poor countries.

"These next 10 years are extremely important" for protecting vulnerable people, he says, and the U.S. is currently the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. "We really need the U.S. on board."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
U.S. Officially Leaving Paris Climate Agreement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
subscribe to Short Wave podcast The United States will formally leave the Paris Agreement on Wednesday, no matter who wins the election. Of the nearly 200 nations that signed the agreement, the U.S. is the only one to walk away from its promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Presidential Transition

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr's aggressive approach to climate change includes undoing years of President Trump's regulatory rollbacks at agencies like the E.P.A. Credit... Christie Hemm Klok for The New York Times

WASHINGTON - President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., eager to elevate climate change issues throughout his administration, is already drafting orders to reduce planet-warming pollution and seeking nominees who will embed climate policy not only in environmental agencies but in departments from Defense to Treasury to Transportation.

Top candidates for senior cabinet posts, such as Michèle Flournoy for defense secretary and Lael Brainard for Treasury, have long supported aggressive policies to curb climate change. Mr. Biden's inner circle routinely asks "is the person climate-ambitious?" of candidates even for lower profile positions like the White House budget and regulatory offices, according to a person advising the transition.

Transition team members have been instructed to identify policies that can improve pollution levels in Black and Latino communities. And one of Mr. Biden's early executive orders is expected to require that every federal agency, department and program prepare to address climate change.

"We have to re-establish American leadership globally on climate change, and re-establishing global leadership is going to require getting our house in order domestically," said Ernest Moniz, a former energy secretary and adviser to Mr. Biden's campaign.

Interviews with more than two dozen advisers and members of Mr. Biden's transition team reveal an incoming administration acutely aware of the challenges ahead, with a narrowly divided Congress and the outsized expectations that some voters have for action on climate change after four years of regulatory rollbacks and presidential hostility.

"There's no doubt that Covid is the issue of the moment which has to be addressed right out of the box," Mr. Moniz said. "But we're going to see climate addressed right out of the box as well."

Republicans insist they want bipartisan climate legislation, not a return to executive action, but their visions of capturing carbon from coal-fired power plants and expanding nuclear energy do not align with Mr. Biden's promise to phase out fossil fuel-powered electricity and move to solar, wind and other renewable fuel sources.

"There are ways we can protect our environment without punishing our economy. Free market innovation, not government taxation or heavy-handed regulations, is the best way to deal with climate change," said Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, who is expected to take the helm of the Senate Energy Committee.

Transition team members named to coordinate the handover of power from the Trump administration include dozens of climate change experts - including at agencies that are not at the forefront of environmental policy, such as the departments of Justice, Agriculture and Defense.

The president-elect has raised climate change in all of the congratulatory calls he has taken with foreign leaders, as well as with Pope Francis. Advisers said he planned to make climate change an explicit focus of every regional bureau at the State Department. He also is considering Mr. Moniz; John Kerry, the former secretary of state; or Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate activist; for a new international climate envoy post.

"It won't happen in just one or two agencies," said Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, who is on Mr. Biden's list to head up the Interior Department. "It's going to be a whole government approach."

Tim Profeta, a Duke University professor and former Senate climate policy aide, said in past transitions, such planning has been effective. George W. Bush's transition created a fossil fuel- focused Energy Task Force. The Obama transition's focus on economic stimulus helped lead to passage of a $787 billion relief measure in the first month of the administration.

"That's the opportunity that's here," said Mr. Profeta, who was a co-author of a recent blueprint for how a Biden White House could beef up climate expertise across cabinet agencies.

The Biden team is considering either the creation of a separate new White House office devoted to climate change or a coordinating council modeled after the national security and economic councils. Three people close to the incoming administration said the Biden team was expected to tap Ali Zaidi, a former climate adviser in the Obama White House who now serves as deputy secretary of energy in New York state, to a top position advising the president and coordinating work among agencies.

A spokeswoman for the Mr. Biden's transition declined to comment on personnel.

"The single most important thing that they need to do is start making key appointments to all the relevant agencies," said John Holdren, a former Obama science adviser who worked closely with the Biden campaign.

Mr. Holdren said one of Mr. Biden's earliest executive orders would revive an Obama-era mandate that every agency in the government incorporate climate change into its policies.

The Environmental Protection Agency will still be the new president's most powerful weapon in his push to reinstate and strengthen climate change regulations.

The Presidential Transition

After four years in which Mr. Trump rolled back every major climate change rule and weakened the E.P.A., the agency under Mr. Biden is expected to grow in size and authority, with its new administrator taking the lead in writing rules to rein in greenhouse gases.

Mr. Biden's top candidate to lead the agency is Mary D. Nichols, California's climate and clean air regulator, according to at least four people familiar with the matter. She said in an interview that she would eagerly accept the job.

Ms. Nichols has become a celebrity in global warming politics as architect of her state's cap-and-trade climate change law and its tough regulations on climate-warming auto emissions. Those California rules served as a model for Mr. Obama's federal climate policies, only to be rolled back by Mr. Trump.

"It's going to be important to quickly reverse and stop a very large number of actions that were done by the Trump administration, and then to restore the agency's scientific basis for its work," Ms. Nichols said.

Advisers to Mr. Biden's transition also say they see a newly climate role for the Transportation Department, which would be expected to partner with the E.P.A. in drafting stringent new rules on auto pollution and fuel efficiency, while promoting electric and hybrid vehicles. Among the top candidates for the post is Los Angeles Mayor Eric M. Garcetti, who last year introduced a plan to transition his city to 100 percent electric vehicles by 2050.

Image

Traffic in Los Angeles. A Biden administration could put new, more stringent rules in place on auto pollution. Credit... Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times

The Pentagon is also likely to take on a much larger climate change portfolio.

Ms. Flournoy, the top candidate for defense secretary, was an under secretary of defense in the Obama administration and has often spoken of climate change as a national security threat. In an opinion article for CNN last month, Ms. Flournoy wrote that the Pentagon should be a key player on climate change, both because of the role planetary warming plays in driving conflict around the world and because the Defense Department could help accelerate the research and development of cleaner technologies, as it has done for jet engines and telecommunications.

Mr. Biden's Pentagon transition team includes Sharon A. Burke, who as assistant secretary of defense for operational energy, pushed to reduce the military's dependence on fossil fuels.

"We've lost a generation of leadership in the career ranks, and we never had the political leadership. Both of those have to be rebuilt across all parts of the Department of Defense," said Sherri Goodman, who served as the Pentagon's first deputy under secretary of defense for environmental security under President Bill Clinton and has been a national security adviser on climate to the Biden campaign.

As the Biden administration presses forward with regulations that will very likely end up before the Supreme Court, the Justice Department will have to defend and preserve the rules. To that end, the Justice Department transition team includes Richard J. Lazarus of Harvard Law School, a prominent expert in climate change litigation.

Among the candidates for attorney general is Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, who has spearheaded more than 50 lawsuits against Mr. Trump's environmental rollbacks. In an interview in September, Mr. Becerra predicted of Mr. Trump: "I don't think much of what he's done will stick, because much of what he's done hasn't taken hold legally. I believe his legacy will be very short and his tenure will be considered the nadir for environmental policy in the history of this country."

Already, legal experts on Mr. Biden's transition team have begun preparing the legal dismemberment of Mr. Trump's environmental policies and laying the groundwork for new rules.

"A Biden administration would come in and take a fresh look at all these environmental lawsuits," Mr. Becerra said. "In some cases you could drop the lawsuit. In some cases you may not be able to do that - you have to understand the rules."

The Biden administration may also use financial regulations to impose climate-related rules on Wall Street. Ms. Brainard, the candidate for Treasury secretary, who is currently a member of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, has gained notice for her speeches and statements about climate risks to the financial system. This month, the Fed assessed climate change risks in detail in a financial stability report, a first for the twice-yearly document. "Climate change poses important risks to financial stability," she wrote, and addressing such concerns "is vitally important."

Financial regulators in a Biden administration are likely to use a recent report commissioned by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission on the risks of climate change to the financial system as a road map. Among the report's top recommendations would be a new rule requiring companies to disclose to shareholders their financial risks from climate change.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Biden Plans to Move Fast With a 'Climate Administration.' Here's How.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Presidential Transition WASHINGTON - President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., eager to elevate climate change issues throughout his administration, is already drafting orders to reduce planet-warming pollution and seeking nominees who will embed climate policy not only in environmental agencies but in departments from Defense to Treasury to Transportation.

# data[].attributes.body
- I think nominating a Justice is mostly fair.
- Curious on why the president chooses a nominee.
- I like that both executive and legislative branches have a voice.
- Giving the Judicial branch a say sounds like a bad idea.

# data[].attributes.headline
Leaving Babies in a car Unattended should be Illegal.

# data[].attributes.subject
Leaving Babies in a car Unattended should be Illegal.

# data[].attributes.body
Leaving babies in cars unattended is only illegal in some states. All states should make this illegal.

# data[].attributes.body
First time Arizona goes blue in 70+ years!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
flipping a longtime republican stronghold - cnnpolitics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Biden carries Arizona, flipping a longtime Republican stronghold

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For just the second time in more than seven decades, a Democrat will carry Arizona in a presidential election, a monumental shift for a state that was once a Republican stronghold.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Georgia's nearly 5 million votes in the presidential race will be counted for a third time, as President Trump's campaign has formally asked for a recount because his loss is within the legal margin for that request.

Of the 4,998,482 ballots cast in the race between Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, the president lost by 12,670 votes, or about 0.26 percentage points. State law allows a losing candidate within 0.5 percentage points to ask for a recount within two business days of certification.

While thousands of workers spent most of the last week hand-counting every vote as part of a newly required statewide risk-limiting audit, this recount will be different.

The law calls for a recount to be conducted by retabulating every ballot through a scanner, the same way they were originally counted in the days following the Nov. 3 election.

Trump's campaign and his allies have launched a continuous stream of attacks against the election integrity in states that he lost, including Georgia, where the voting laws and procedures have been enacted and governed by fellow Republicans.

In a statement announcing the recount, the Trump campaign demanded that it include signature matching of absentee ballots, despite repeated explanations from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office that fulfilling such a request is illegal and impossible.

"Let's stop giving the People false results," the Trump campaign said without offering any evidence. "There must be a time when we stop counting illegal ballots."

There is no evidence that illegal ballots have been counted in Georgia.

The president, the chair of the Georgia Republican Party and every member of the state's 2021 Republican U.S. House delegation have contributed to the attacks on Raffensperger, Gov. Brian Kemp and how elections are run in Georgia. Both of Georgia's Republican U.S. senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, called on Raffensperger to resign last week in an evidence-free letter alleging massive failures. Loeffler and Perdue are both on the ballot for Jan. 5 runoffs that will determine control of the Senate.

Kemp, in a brief statement Friday, said that the law required him to certify results but also suggested Raffensperger conduct a random audit of absentee-ballot signatures, playing into a conspiracy pushed by Trump and other Republicans that widespread absentee-ballot fraud plagued Georgia and other states in which Trump lost.

A spokeswoman with the Biden campaign said the recount should show for a third time that the president-elect won the Peach State's 16 electoral votes.

"As the Secretary of State said, there is no reason to believe there are widespread errors or fraud and the Trump campaign has no evidence to back up their baseless claims," Jaclyn Rothenberg said in a statement. "With regards to signature matching, both parties were aware of the rules set forth months before the election and all signatures have already been matched."

In an interview with GPB News, Raffensperger, the state's top election official, said last week that the November election was one of the smoothest in recent history and that the historic audit conducted in less than a week should give extra confidence in the outcome, even if he personally wished Trump had won.

"I've been saying that half of America will be happy and half of America will be sad with these results," Raffensperger said. "And I would be disappointed when I put on my Republican hat, but these will be the results and it will be what it is because that is the will of the Georgia voter."

The recount process is expected to take several days, with officials in Atlanta's Fulton County estimating anywhere from five to nine days of eight-hour shifts, with multiple scanners to get through more than half a million votes.

The machine recount is unlikely to change the results. It is also more accurate than the hand-count audit, which confirmed Biden's victory over Trump and was within 0.10% of the original number of ballots counted.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Trump Requests Georgia Recount, Meaning 5 Million Votes Will Be Tabulated A 3rd Time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Georgia's nearly 5 million votes in the presidential race will be counted for a third time, as President Trump's campaign has formally asked for a recount because his loss is within the legal margin for that request. Of the 4,998,482 ballots cast in the race between Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, the president lost by 12,670 votes, or about 0.26 percentage points.

# data[].attributes.body
While I feel like in-person voting feels a lot more authentic, absentee voting is just fine because some people may not be able to vote in-person. Everyone should be able to vote whether it's absentee or in-person.

# data[].attributes.body
Amy Coney Barret

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The vote capped a brazen feat for Republicans, who pushed through a Supreme Court nominee in little more than five weeks with the election looming.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett will be the 115th justice of the Supreme Court and the fifth woman ever to sit on its bench. Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times

WASHINGTON - Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative appeals court judge and protégée of former Justice Antonin Scalia, was confirmed on Monday to the Supreme Court, capping a lightning-fast Senate approval that handed President Trump a victory ahead of the election and promised to tip the court to the right for years to come.

Inside a Capitol mostly emptied by the resurgent coronavirus pandemic and an election looming in eight days, Republicans overcame unanimous opposition by Democrats to make Judge Barrett the 115th justice of the Supreme Court and the fifth woman ever to sit on its bench. In a 52-to-48 vote, all but one Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, who herself is battling for re-election, supported her.

It was the first time in 151 years that a justice was confirmed without a single vote from the minority party, a sign of how bitter Washington's decades-old war over judicial nominations has become. The vote concluded a brazen drive by Republicans, who moved to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just six weeks before the election. They shredded their own past pronouncements and bypassed rules in the process, even as they stared down the potential loss of the White House and the Senate.

Democrats called it a hypocritical power grab by Republicans who should have waited for voters to have their say on Election Day. They warned of a disastrous precedent that would draw retaliation should they win power, and in a last-ditch act of protest, they unsuccessfully tried to force the Senate to adjourn.

Republicans said it was their right as the majority party and exulted in their win. With Judge Barrett's elevation in place of Justice Ginsburg, a liberal icon, the court is expected to tilt decisively to the right. It is gaining a conservative who could sway cases in every area of American life, including abortion rights, gay rights, business regulation and the environment.

Her impact could be felt right away. There are major election disputes awaiting immediate action by the Supreme Court from the battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Both concern the date by which absentee ballots may be accepted.

Soon after, Judge Barrett will quickly confront a docket studded with major cases on Mr. Trump's programs and policies, not to mention a potential challenge to the election results that the president had cited as a reason he needed a full complement of justices before Nov. 3. Coming up quickly are challenges related to the Affordable Care Act, signature Trump administration immigration plans, the rights of same-sex couples and the census.

The court is also slated to act soon on a last-ditch attempt from Mr. Trump's personal lawyers to block the release of his financial records to a grand jury in Manhattan.

Image

Signs at a Trump rally last month in Minnesota in support of Judge Barrett's confirmation. Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times

No Supreme Court justice is a certain vote, and Judge Barrett pledged during her confirmation hearings to be an independent mind. But she is widely viewed by both parties as a judge in the mold of Justice Scalia, her mentor, who would rule consistently in favor of conservative positions.

Neither her academic writing nor her relatively brief three-year stint on a federal appeals court provides strong evidence of how she would approach the wide array of cases that will come before her. She gave little hint during her hearings of how she regards any major issue, but she did earlier criticize Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. for voting to uphold the Affordable Care Act, and she once signed onto an ad calling for overturning Roe v. Wade and its "barbaric legacy." It is a good bet that she will be among the court's most conservative justices, probably to the right of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

A jubilant White House planned to hold a swearing-in event shortly after the vote on Monday night to try to bolster to the president's flagging re-election campaign. Justice Clarence Thomas was expected to administer the oath of office. To hold the event at all was a remarkable choice after a similar one announcing the nominee one month ago to the day turned into a coronavirus superspreader event.

It was a confirmation saga that might never have materialized had Justice Ginsburg, 87, who had been determined to stay on the court rather than be replaced with a justice of Mr. Trump's choosing, not died. Before she did, she had told her granddaughter she wanted a new president to install her successor - a deathbed wish that Republicans made clear they had no intention of honoring.

On Monday, Republicans had profound reasons to celebrate. Judge Barrett, 48, was Mr. Trump's third nominee to the Supreme Court, but arrayed beneath her were 162 new district court judges and 53 appeals court judges who have been installed by Republicans over the past four years, roughly a third of the entire federal appellate bench. Together, they could hold broad sway over American law and policy long after Mr. Trump leaves office.

"The reason this outcome came about is because we had a series of successful elections," said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, who was the architect of the strategy. "What this administration and this Republican Senate has done is exercise the power that was given to us by the American people in a manner that is entirely within the rules of the Senate and the Constitution of the United States."

Democrats sought to churn up a storm of outrage that they hoped would help sweep Republicans out of power and could set the stage for their own majority should it come to be.

Citing Judge Barrett's academic writings and decisions from the appeals court bench, they argued that she would pose an immediate threat to the Affordable Care Act in the middle of a national health crisis, and that she would upend abortion rights and other popular freedoms enjoyed by Americans.

Taking aim directly at Republican senators, they warned that the decision to rush ahead with the election-season confirmation four years after denying a vote to Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, under similar circumstances would come to haunt them.

"You may win this vote, and Amy Coney Barrett may become the next associate justice of the Supreme Court," said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader. "But you will never, never get your credibility back. And the next time the American people give Democrats a majority in this chamber, you will have forfeited the right to tell us how to run that majority."

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has made confirming federal judges a priority throughout the Trump administration. Credit... Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

Republicans claimed the circumstances were different this time because they control both the White House and the Senate. But if Democrats did reclaim power, the right-tilting courts could prove a powerful and frustrating check on their legislative agenda. That prospect, and Democrats' fury over Republicans' hardball tactics since 2016, were fueling a drive by the party's left flank to seriously consider eliminating the last remaining vestige of minority rights in the Senate, the legislative filibuster. They could then proceed to expand the size of the Supreme Court to install liberal justices.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential nominee, and leaders in the Senate have declined to discuss plans that could amount to a significant and potentially destabilizing escalation in the fight over the judicial branch. But on Monday, even some more moderate senators hinted that the path was open before them if they needed to take it.

"They expect that they're going to be able to break the rules with impunity, and when the shoe maybe is on the other foot, nothing's going to happen," Senator Angus King, independent of Maine, who votes with Democrats, said of the Republicans. "One of the things that's amazed me since I've come here is how people feel they can do things to one another and never have it have any consequences, never have it come back on them."

The battle to replace Justice Ginsburg, a champion of women's rights and an heroine of the progressive left, always promised to be combustible in a Senate worn raw by earlier fights. But the timing turned up the heat considerably: Never before in American history had a justice been confirmed so soon before a presidential election.

The contest loomed over - and at times eclipsed - the nomination, as both sides sought to eke out an advantage from the struggle over the court seat. A handful of Republicans, led by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, were hoping their roles in achieving a major conservative victory would be enough to pull them across the finish line of competitive races.

But for all of the partisan fighting, the confirmation process played out with remarkably little drama. Republicans quickly coalesced around filling the seat, regardless of whom Mr. Trump nominated, and that left Democrats with very little to do but turn to dilatory tactics and make their case to voters. So rich was the prize that Republicans quickly reversed statements from 2016 and 2020 pledging not to fill an election-year seat until the voters had a say.

Supporters of Judge Barrett and people protesting against her outside of the Supreme Court this month. Credit... Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Judge Barrett's qualifications were really never in question, though she had less experience than some of her recent predecessors. But in three days of confirmation hearings, she managed to reveal vanishingly little about how she might look at or rule on matters of public interest before the court.

"Judge Barrett may have established herself as the Babe Ruth of saying pretty much nothing," Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said on Monday.

Like five other justices, Judge Barrett is Catholic. She has said her faith is central to her identity, and before she joined the appeals court bench, she signed onto statements advocating the repeal of Roe v. Wade and its "barbaric legacy." But in other ways, she breaks the court's mold. A Notre Dame alumna, she will be the only justice who did not graduate from Harvard or Yale. She also has seven children, two of whom were adopted.

After playing down its implications during the hearings, some Republicans openly celebrated her anti-abortion rights stance on Monday.

"The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett is truly historic," said Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri. "This is the most openly pro-life judicial nominee to the Supreme Court in my lifetime. This is an individual who has been open in her criticism of that illegitimate decision, Roe v. Wade."

By the time senators gathered on Monday night for the final vote, many were exhausted from a debate that had lasted through Sunday night into Monday and from jetting back and forth between Washington and the campaign trail.

Vice President Mike Pence had planned to preside over the vote, but after five of his close aides tested positive for the coronavirus, senators pleaded with him to steer clear of the chamber, which he did.

Ms. Collins framed her decision this time as a matter of principle. Republicans set a standard in 2016 by not confirming a nominee in an election year and should do the same now, she argued. She is trailing in a race in a liberal-leaning state in part because of her constituents' fury at her vote for Justice Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump's last nominee.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, another Republican swing vote, made a similar argument, but ultimately voted to confirm Judge Barrett.

Adam Liptak contributed reporting.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Senate Confirms Barrett, Delivering for Trump and Reshaping the Court

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The vote capped a brazen feat for Republicans, who pushed through a Supreme Court nominee in little more than five weeks with the election looming.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Follow NPR's coverage of Ginsburg's death and the political aftermath here.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the demure firebrand who in her 80s became a legal, cultural and feminist icon, died Friday. The Supreme Court announced her death, saying the cause was complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas.

The court, in a statement, said Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, D.C., surrounded by family. She was 87.

"Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature," Chief Justice John Roberts said. "We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tireless and resolute champion of justice."

Architect of the legal fight for women's rights in the 1970s, Ginsburg subsequently served 27 years on the nation's highest court, becoming its most prominent member. Her death will inevitably set in motion what promises to be a nasty and tumultuous political battle over who will succeed her, and it thrusts the Supreme Court vacancy into the spotlight of the presidential campaign.

Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

She knew what was to come. Ginsburg's death will have profound consequences for the court and the country. Inside the court, not only is the leader of the liberal wing gone, but with the court about to open a new term, the chief justice no longer holds the controlling vote in closely contested cases.
Upcoming political battle
Though Roberts has a consistently conservative record in most cases, he has split from fellow conservatives in a few important ones this year, casting his vote with liberals, for instance, to protect at least temporarily the so-called DREAMers from deportation by the Trump administration, to uphold a major abortion precedent and to uphold bans on large church gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic. But with Ginsburg gone, there is no clear court majority for those outcomes.

Indeed, a week after the upcoming presidential election, the court is for the third time scheduled to hear a challenge brought by Republicans to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. In 2012, the high court upheld the law in a 5-4 ruling, with Roberts casting the deciding vote and writing the opinion for the majority. But this time the outcome may well be different.

That's because Ginsburg's death gives Republicans the chance to tighten their grip on the court with another appointment by President Trump so conservatives would have 6-3 majority. And that would mean that even a defection on the right would leave conservatives with enough votes to prevail in the Obamacare case and many others.

At the center of the battle to achieve that will be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In 2016, he took a step unprecedented in modern times: He refused for nearly a year to allow any consideration of President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee.

Back then, McConnell's justification was the upcoming presidential election, which he said would allow voters a chance to weigh in on what kind of justice they wanted. But now, with the tables turned, McConnell has made clear he will not follow the same course. Instead he will try immediately to push through a Trump nominee so as to ensure a conservative justice to fill Ginsburg's liberal shoes, even if Trump were to lose his reelection bid. Asked what he would do in circumstances such as these, McConnell said: "Oh, we'd fill it."

So what happens in the coming weeks will be bare-knuckle politics, writ large, on the stage of a presidential election. It will be a fight Ginsburg had hoped to avoid, telling Justice John Paul Stevens shortly before his death that she hoped to serve as long as he did - until age 90.
"Tough as nails"
"My dream is that I will stay on the court as long as he did," she said in an interview in 2019.

She didn't quite make it. But Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nonetheless a historic figure. She changed the way the world is for American women. For more than a decade, until her first judicial appointment in 1980, she led the fight in the courts for gender equality. When she began her legal crusade, women were treated, by law, differently from men. Hundreds of state and federal laws restricted what women could do, barring them from jobs, rights and even from jury service. By the time she donned judicial robes, however, Ginsburg had worked a revolution.

That was never more evident than in 1996 when, as a relatively new Supreme Court justice, Ginsburg wrote the court's 7-1 opinion declaring that the Virginia Military Institute could no longer remain an all-male institution. True, Ginsburg said, most women - indeed most men - would not want to meet the rigorous demands of VMI. But the state, she said, could not exclude women who could meet those demands.

"Reliance on overbroad generalizations ... estimates about the way most men or most women are, will not suffice to deny opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description," Ginsburg wrote.

She was an unlikely pioneer, a diminutive and shy woman, whose soft voice and large glasses hid an intellect and attitude that, as one colleague put it, was "tough as nails."

By the time she was in her 80s, she had become something of a rock star to women of all ages. She was the subject of a hit documentary, a biopic, an operetta, merchandise galore featuring her "Notorious RBG" moniker, a Time magazine cover and regular Saturday Night Live sketches.

On one occasion in 2016, Ginsburg got herself into trouble and later publicly apologized for disparaging remarks she made about then-presidential candidate Trump.

But for the most part Ginsburg enjoyed her fame and maintained a sense of humor about herself.
The road to law
Asked about the fact that she had apparently fallen asleep during the 2015 State of the Union address, Ginsburg did not take the Fifth, admitting that although she had vowed not to drink at dinner with the other justices before the speech, the wine had just been too good to resist. The result, she said, was that she was perhaps not an entirely "sober judge" and kept nodding off.

Born in Brooklyn, Ruth Bader went to public schools, where she excelled as a student - and as a baton twirler. By all accounts, it was her mother who was the driving force in her young life, but Celia Bader died of cancer the day before the future justice would graduate from high school.

Then 17, Ruth Bader went on to Cornell University on a full scholarship, where she met Martin (aka "Marty") Ginsburg. "What made Marty so overwhelmingly attractive to me was that he cared that I had a brain," she said.

After her graduation, they were married and went off to Fort Sill, Okla., for his military service. There Mrs. Ginsburg, despite scoring high on the civil service exam, could only get a job as a typist, and when she became pregnant, she lost even that job.

Two years later, the couple returned to the East Coast to attend Harvard Law School. She was one of only nine women in a class of more than 500 and found the dean asking her why she was taking up a place that "should go to a man."

At Harvard, she was the academic star, not her husband. The couple were busy juggling schedules and their toddler when Marty Ginsburg was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Surgeries and aggressive radiation followed.

"So that left Ruth with a 3-year-old child, a fairly sick husband, the law review, classes to attend and feeding me," Marty Ginsburg said in a 1993 interview with NPR.

The experience also taught the future justice that sleep was a luxury. During the year of her husband's illness, he was only able to eat late at night; after that he would dictate his senior class paper to her. At about 2 a.m., he would go back to sleep, Ruth Bader Ginsburg recalled in an NPR interview. "Then I'd take out the books and start reading what I needed to be prepared for classes the next day."

Marty Ginsburg survived, graduated and got a job in New York; his wife, a year behind him in school, transferred to Columbia, where she graduated at the top of her law school class. Despite her academic achievements, the doors to law firms were closed to women, and though recommended for a Supreme Court clerkship, she wasn't even interviewed.

It was bad enough that she was a woman, she recalled later, but she was also a mother, and male judges worried she would be diverted by her "familial obligations."

A mentor, law professor Gerald Gunther, finally got her a clerkship in New York by promising Judge Edmund Palmieri that if she couldn't do the work, he would provide someone who could. That was "the carrot," Ginsburg would say later. "The stick" was that Gunther, who regularly fed his best students to Palmieri, told the judge that if he didn't take Ginsburg, Gunther would never send him a clerk again. The Ginsburg clerkship apparently was a success; Palmieri kept her not for the usual one year, but two, from 1959-61.

Ginsburg's next path is rarely talked about, mainly because it doesn't fit the narrative. She learned Swedish so she could work with Anders Bruzelius, a Swedish civil procedure scholar. Through the Columbia University School of Law Project on International Procedure, Ginsburg and Bruzelius co-authored a book.

In 1963, Ginsburg finally landed a teaching job at Rutgers Law School, where she at one point hid her second pregnancy by wearing her mother-in-law's clothes. The ruse worked; her contract was renewed before her baby was born.
The "mother brief"
While at Rutgers, she began her work fighting gender discrimination.

Her first big case was a challenge to a law that barred a Colorado man named Charles Moritz from taking a tax deduction for the care of his 89-year-old mother. The IRS said the deduction, by statute, could only be claimed by women, or widowed or divorced men. But Moritz had never married.

The tax court concluded that the Internal Revenue Code was immune to constitutional challenge, a notion that tax lawyer Marty Ginsburg viewed as "preposterous." The two Ginsburgs took on the case - he from the tax perspective, she from the constitutional one.

According to Marty Ginsburg, for his wife, this was the "mother brief." She had to think through all the issues and how to fix the inequity. The solution was to ask the court not to invalidate the statute but to apply it equally to both sexes. She won in the lower courts.

"Amazingly," he recalled in a 1993 NPR interview, the government petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, stating that the decision "cast a cloud of unconstitutionality" over literally hundreds of federal statutes, and it attached a list of those statutes, which it compiled with Defense Department computers.

Those laws, Marty Ginsburg added, "were the statutes that my wife then litigated ... to overturn over the next decade."

In 1971, she would write her first Supreme Court brief in the case of Reed v. Reed. Ruth Bader Ginsburg represented Sally Reed, who thought she should be the executor of her son's estate instead of her ex-husband.

The constitutional issue was whether a state could automatically prefer men over women as executors of estates. The answer from the all-male Supreme Court: no.

It was the first time the court had struck down a state law because it discriminated based on gender.

And that was just the beginning.

By then Ginsburg was earning quite a reputation. She would become the first female tenured professor at Columbia Law School, and she would found the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.

As the chief architect of the battle for women's legal rights, Ginsburg devised a strategy that was characteristically cautious, precise and single-mindedly aimed at one goal: winning.

Knowing that she had to persuade male, establishment-oriented judges, she often picked male plaintiffs, and she liked Social Security cases because they illustrated how discrimination against women can harm men. For example, in Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, she represented a man whose wife, the principal breadwinner, died in childbirth. The husband sought survivor's benefits to care for his child, but under the then-existing Social Security law, only widows, not widowers, were entitled to such benefits.

"This absolute exclusion, based on gender per se, operates to the disadvantage of female workers, their surviving spouses, and their children," Ginsburg told the justices at oral argument. The Supreme Court would ultimately agree, as it did in five of the six cases she argued.

Over the years, Ginsburg would file dozens of briefs seeking to persuade the courts that the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection applies not just to racial and ethnic minorities but to women as well.

In an interview with NPR, she explained the legal theory that she eventually sold to the Supreme Court.

"The words of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause - 'nor shall any state deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.' Well that word, 'any person,' covers women as well as men. And the Supreme Court woke up to that reality in 1971," Ginsburg said.

During these pioneering years, Ginsburg would often work through the night as she had during law school. But by this time, she had two children, and she later liked to tell a story about the lesson she learned when her son, in grade school, seemed to have a proclivity for getting into trouble.

The scrapes were hardly major, and Ginsburg grew exasperated by demands from school administrators that she come in to discuss her son's alleged misbehavior. Finally, there came a day when she had had enough. "I had stayed up all night the night before, and I said to the principal, 'This child has two parents. Please alternate calls.' "
The Supreme Court's second woman
After that, she found, the calls were few and far between. It seemed, she said, that most infractions were not worth calling a busy husband about.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter named Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Over the next 13 years, she would amass a record as something of a centrist liberal, and in 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated her to the Supreme Court, the second woman appointed to the position.

She was not first on his list. For months, Clinton flirted with other potential nominees, and some women's rights activists withheld their active support because they were worried about Ginsburg's views on abortion. She had been publicly critical of the legal reasoning in Roe v. Wade.

But in the background, Marty Ginsburg was lobbying hard for his wife. And finally Ruth Ginsburg was invited for a meeting with the president. As one White House official put it afterward, Clinton "fell for her - hook, line and sinker." So did the Senate. She was confirmed by a 96-3 vote.

Once on the court, Ginsburg was an example of a woman who defied stereotypes. Though she looked tiny and frail, she rode horses well into her 70s and even went parasailing. At home, it was her husband who was the chef, indeed a master chef, while the justice cheerfully acknowledged she was an awful cook.

Though a liberal, she and the court's conservative icon, Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016, were the closest of friends. Indeed, an opera called Scalia/Ginsburg is based on their legal disagreements, and their affection for each other.

Over the years, as Ginsburg's place on the court grew in seniority, so did her role. In 2006, as the court veered right after the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Ginsburg dissented more often and more assertively, her most passionate dissents coming in women's rights cases.

Dissenting in Ledbetter v. Goodyear in 2007, she called on Congress to pass legislation that would override a court decision that drastically limited back pay available for victims of employment discrimination. The resulting legislation was the first bill passed in 2009 after Obama took office.

In 2014, she dissented fiercely in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, a decision that allowed some for-profit companies to refuse, on religious grounds, to comply with a federal mandate to cover birth control in health care plans. Such an exemption, she said, would "deny legions of women who do not hold their employers' beliefs, access to contraceptive coverage."

Where, she asked, "is the stopping point?" Suppose it offends an employer's religious belief "to pay the minimum wage" or "to accord women equal pay?"

And in 2013, when the court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, contending that times had changed and the law was no longer needed, Ginsburg dissented. She said that throwing out the provision "when it has worked and is continuing to work ... is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet."

She viewed her dissents as a chance to persuade a future court.

"Some of my favorite opinions are dissenting opinions," Ginsburg told NPR. "I will not live to see what becomes of them, but I remain hopeful."

And yet, Ginsburg still managed some unexpected victories by winning over one or two of the conservative justices in important cases. In 2015, for example, she authored the court's decision upholding independent redistricting commissions established by voter referenda as a way of removing some of the partisanship in drawing legislative district lines.

Ginsburg always kept a backbreaking schedule of public appearances both at home and abroad,even after five bouts with cancer: colon cancer in 1999, pancreatic cancer 10 years later, lung cancer in 2018, and then pancreatic cancer again in 2019 and liver lesions in 2020.During that time, she endured chemotherapy, radiation and, in the last years of her life, terrible pain from shingles that never went away completely. All who knew her admired her grit. In 2009, three weeks after major cancer surgery, she surprised everyone when she showed up for the State of the Union address.

Shortly after that, she was back on the bench; it was her husband, Marty, who told her she could do it, even when she thought she could not, she told NPR.

A year later her psychological toughness was on full display when her beloved husband of 56 years was mortally ill. As she packed up his things at the hospital before taking him home to die, she found a note he had written to her. "My Dearest Ruth," it began, "You are the only person I have ever loved," setting aside children and family. "I have admired and loved you almost since the day we first met at Cornell. ... The time has come for me to ... take leave of life because the loss of quality simply overwhelms. I hope you will support where I come out, but I understand you may not. I will not love you a jot less."

Shortly after that, Marty Ginsburg died at home. The next day, his wife, the justice, was on the bench, reading an important opinion she had authored for the court. She was there, she said, because "Marty would have wanted it."

Years later, she would read the letter aloud in an NPR interview, and at the end, choke down the tears.

In the years after Marty's death, she would persevere without him, maintaining a jam-packed schedule when she was not on the bench or working on opinions.

Some liberals criticized her for not retiring while Obama was president, but she was at the top of her game, enjoyed her work enormously and feared that Republicans might not confirm a successor. She was an avid consumer of opera, literature and modern art. But in the end, it was her work, she said, that sustained her.

"I do think that I was born under a very bright star," she said in an NPR interview. "Because if you think about my life, I get out of law school. I have top grades. No law firm in the city of New York will hire me. I end up teaching; it gave me time to devote to the movement for evening out the rights of women and men."

And it was that legal crusade for women's rights that ultimately led to her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

To the end of her tenure, she remained a special kind of feminist, both decorous and dogged.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Champion Of Gender Equality, Dies At 87

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, died from complications from cancer. Her death will set in motion what promises to be a tumultuous political battle over who will succeed her.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
US election results 2020: Joe Biden's defeat of Donald Trump

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Georgia recertifies election results, confirming Biden's victory, despite Trump's continued refusal to formally concede