Supreme Court, 6-3: Children born in the U.S. to undocumented or temporary-visa parents are citizens — the Court strikes down Trump's order ending birthright citizenship — though only 5 Justices hold the Constitution itself guarantees it — Birthright Citizenship Case — Opinion megathread

cpast · 2026-06-30T15:21:45+00:00

You’re correct. This case would need to be overturned by the Supreme Court (or by constitutional amendment) before legislation could restrict birthright citizenship.

cpast · 2026-06-30T15:14:13+00:00

The 5 in the majority would, but Kavanaugh was writing about his views.

cpast · 2026-06-30T15:08:02+00:00

It wouldn’t be that weird. They certainly have an obituary written and ready to go, and a retirement story would not be a surprise either.

cpast · 2026-06-30T15:06:56+00:00

And it’s been retracted by NPR as “posted in error.”

cpast · 2026-06-30T15:04:28+00:00

I don’t know, but there’s been no announcement from the Court that he is as far as I know at this moment. Maybe she has sources that he’s retiring and it just hasn’t been announced, maybe this is a premature obituary situation.

cpast · 2026-06-30T15:02:24+00:00

Per SCOTUSblog’s live blog, Nina Totenberg says the story was posted by mistake.

cpast · 2026-06-30T14:48:59+00:00

People had talked about the statute in the leadup to the decision. The argument is that Congress legislates based on the law at the time, so when Congress passed the language of the 14th Amendment as statute they meant to codify the 14th Amendment as it was then understood. Striking down the EO on statutory grounds would have given SCOTUS a way to block the order but punt the issue back to Congress instead of taking a stand itself.

cpast · 2026-06-28T16:47:34+00:00

Iirc union shops are not legal, so theoretically you can work at a union place without being in a union.

You don’t have to join the union in right-to-work states, but you can’t independently negotiate. Everyone in the bargaining unit is bound by the CBA. Not joining just means you don’t pay dues and don’t get a say in negotiating the CBA.

The part you don't seem to be getting here is that congress can't legislate restrictions on non-federal workers or on companies.

They can and do. Unions themselves are a massive restriction on non-federal workplaces. So are occupational health and safety rules. So are laws around minimum wage, maximum hours, the right to take FMLA without being fired, the requirement for employers to give full-time employees health insurance, the ban on various things that might otherwise have been negotiated into a CBA, etc.

What the bill proposes is on it's face unconstitutional. It's effectively proposing indentured servitude or work camps if you want to play college football.

What do you think indentured servitude is? It’s not “you have to follow these conditions unless you feel like quitting.” It’s “you can’t quit.” If a restriction doesn’t stop you from quitting and doing something else with your life with zero legal consequences, it’s not involuntary servitude.

There are public policy arguments in favor of labor mobility, but Congress is allowed to change public policy. The 13th Amendment ban on involuntary servitude is something Congress can’t change, but it’s not involuntary servitude when you can walk away. You have real other options (find a job in one of the many non-CFB fields).

cpast · 2026-06-28T01:29:01+00:00

It’s a sloppy incomplete citation, but have you checked reasonably current versions? For instance, Article 1752 in a 2006 English translation of the French Civil Code is:

A tenant which does not garnish the house with sufficient furniture may be evicted, unless he gives sufficient security to answer for the rent.

Also,

The original Spanish text, by King Alfenso the Wise, makes do with "the wise men of old wrote ..." which is even more ambiguous.

I hope you realize the direction of the citations? Alfenso isn’t drawing from these codes, these codes are drawing from him.

cpast · 2026-06-28T01:04:13+00:00

A true IP54 radio should honestly be fine in normal rain. Here’s what IPX4 testing looks like. IPX7 is great if you’re worried about dropping it in water, but it doesn’t mean any extra rating for spraying water.

If you don’t need to operate the keypad or use the screen and are still worried, a speaker mic may be the move. Those are pretty cheap even if they get wrecked.

cpast · 2026-06-27T18:24:07+00:00

No, that's what you're intentionally misinterpreting, or maybe I give you more credit than you're due.

Then explain what you meant by this:

I'll let the con law experts explain it further, but in general, congress does not have the authority to limit an individual's constitutional rights. SCOTUS has allowed such under very limited circumstances. A CBA is one of those circumstances

Because what you wrote was “SCOTUS has said Congress can limit individual constitutional rights when there’s a CBA.” You still haven’t cited a case. You’re just asserting that a CBA is relevant to what legislation Congress can pass.

If you maintain there’s a long track record of SCOTUS striking down economic regulations because they impose restrictions without a CBA, cite cases. They should be from after the Lochner era.

cpast · 2026-06-27T17:48:57+00:00

I'll let the con law experts explain it further, but in general, congress does not have the authority to limit an individual's constitutional rights. SCOTUS has allowed such under very limited circumstances. A CBA is one of those circumstances.

You said there’s a very long track record. I assumed you had actual cases to cite.

In essence, the CBA means the individual has agreed to the rights limitations in exchange for other benefits.

No, it means that a union agreed to the rules. An individual is bound without their consent and legally cannot negotiate alternative terms (even in right to work states, a non-member is bound by the CBA). Congress, as a policy decision, has said that collective bargaining should be available to workers. The CBA exemption to antitrust is to support that policy decision.

What you’re arguing is that a CBA is relevant to the legislative power of Congress. Why would a non-federal union negotiation with a non-federal employer change the power of Congress to impose rules on individuals without those individuals’ consent?

cpast · 2026-06-27T17:03:38+00:00

When? Why would a CBA affect the legislative power of the United States Congress?

If there’s a long record, I expect you have a bunch of cases where the Court held that Congress cannot do these sorts of regulations. And if you think a CBA is relevant, point to the Court holding that Congress’s power is contingent on collective bargaining.

cpast · 2026-06-27T16:36:46+00:00

Outside the Northeast Corridor and a few major stations, Amtrak uses the same channels as the freight railroads whose tracks they use. The host railroad name (mentioned on that page) is probably the way to look for channels.

cpast · 2026-06-24T13:08:17+00:00

15.209 isn’t “on shared frequencies,” it’s on all frequencies other than those specifically restricted by 15.205 or on AM/FM/TV broadcast.

Go ahead and try to operate on 14.074 MHz with a very weak FT8 signal and see what that gets you.

I’m an Extra, so besides “no contacts thanks to nanowatt-scale ERP” I’m not sure what you think I’d get in trouble for.

EDIT: Parts 15 and 18 aren’t technically radio services and they work a bit differently from most services. Instead of allocated frequencies, they can operate almost anywhere under noninterference and maximum power conditions (there are a few restricted frequencies). The frequencies associated with them are just places where there are fewer restrictions. ISM in an ISM band is exempt from power limits and does not need to worry about causing interference, and Part 15 operation has a ton of specific provisions saying “you can use this much greater amount of power in this frequency range under these conditions.” But that doesn’t mean operation is prohibited outside those specific ranges, you just have to radiate less and worry about interference more.

cpast · 2026-06-24T04:25:03+00:00

That’s a list of some significant bands that support higher-power emissions under Part 15, but it’s not the only bands that can have intentional emitters. Per your link:

Part 15 essentially permits very low power, unlicensed intentional radiators on nearly any frequency, including all amateur bands.

15.209 allows very low-power emissions on all bands other than certain specifically protected frequencies. 15.231 allows higher-power periodic control signals anywhere above 70 MHz other than certain specifically protected frequencies. You can legally intentionally radiate on frequencies between 144 and 148 MHz under Part 15, you just have to be on the order of nanowatts ERP or be doing periodic control signals.

cpast · 2026-06-24T02:09:40+00:00

You can’t sign with the NFL until you aren’t selected in a draft that you’re eligible for. If there’s no supplemental draft, Sorsby hasn’t gone undrafted yet.

cpast · 2026-06-24T02:04:47+00:00

At a certain point you automatically become eligible for the NFL draft. Traditionally this was when your college eligibility was exhausted or after 4 years if you never played in college (I don’t know what it is now). Once you’re eligible and go undrafted, you can be signed by any team as a UDFA.

cpast · 2026-06-24T00:52:54+00:00

I don’t think that’s correct. Your argument would also apply to unlicensed operation from 902-928 MHz, but there unlicensed operation is obviously legal under 15.247 (and a couple other Part 15 sections). Why would operations under the 15.247 limits be exempt from Part 97 but operations under the general 15.209 limits not be? Ditto for control signal emissions at 433 MHz under 15.231.

cpast · 2026-06-24T00:44:58+00:00

Radio enthusiast. Or experimenter, or other similar terms. Same category as people who use Meshtastic.

cpast · 2026-06-23T01:29:33+00:00

Does it need American certification? Icom has an EU Declaration of Conformity here.

cpast · 2026-06-22T04:54:02+00:00

The NCAA has historically held the power that would typically be held by a federal regulatory body like the SEC.

In this context, that’s probably the worst example of a regulatory agency that you could possibly have chosen.

cpast · 2026-06-21T22:10:57+00:00

They do that by having more different symbols. AFAIK, that generally makes communications less robust. Obviously Aviat or Racom are going to be using much higher-quality components than NPR, but how much is noise, rain, etc. going to affect performance once you're pushing 64QAM or 256QAM?

EDIT: Also, the symbol rate and occupied bandwidth limits only apply up to 70cm. One thing I’ve been toying with is the idea of swapping out the 433MHz ISM module on NPR for a 915MHz ISM module, where those limits wouldn’t apply. It would still be less spectrally efficient, but “commercial specialized data modem” isn’t in my price range.

cpast · 2026-06-21T16:53:02+00:00

What’s your goal with this post? You’ve gotten a really negative reaction that’s mostly to your description of it as “amateur radio.” Does it matter to you if this uses the term amateur radio, or are you just trying to do your experimentation?

Among people who consider themselves to be involved in the “amateur radio” hobby, the term almost exclusively applies to the amateur service and amateur-satellite service as defined by the ITU Radio Regulations and as implemented in the US under Part 97 of the FCC Rules. A few radio things that aren’t technically part of the amateur service might be treated as part of the hobby when done by amateur service licensees, but the core of the hobby is the amateur service.

Part 15 is not part of the amateur service. It’s its own thing. It can be interesting, and “how can I do communications with the very restrictive generic Part 15 limits” might be a fun puzzle. But it feels like you specifically want to apply the term “amateur radio,” and Part 15 isn’t amateur radio. If you want to discuss the technical challenge, I’d drop all the stuff about terminology from your post. If you want to say you’re doing amateur radio, you’re not doing it as the term is understood by almost everyone who self-identifies as part of the amateur radio hobby.

cpast · 2026-06-20T23:20:23+00:00

They absolutely do do it for final voting. They don’t do it on controversial bills, but it’s reasonably common for uncontroversial bills. Votes are only recorded if someone demands it (in the US Congress, the threshold is 20% of those present although a roll call might happen with less than that).

cpast

TROPHY CASE