Scientists Find Coronavirus Can Linger In The Air Of Crowded Spaces Longer Than We Thought

Scientists Find Coronavirus Can Linger In The Air Of Crowded Spaces Longer Than We Thought

As the novel coronavirus pandemic draws inexorably closer to the 3 million mark, scientists are scrambling to understand the mechanics that drive viral transmission from person to person. Unfortunately, studies have produced sometimes conflicting results.

Yesterday, we noted a study by an Italian researcher who found evidence of coronavirus genetic material on tiny air pollution particles, raising questions about how far the virus can travel through the air, and whether higher air pollution levels might be correlated with deeper viral penetration in a given community.

Previously, scientists suspected that only relatively large globules of saliva – like those produced by a spit-talker – could easily infect another individual since they’re too large to get caught up in natural air flow and will likely land on a person’s clothes, or the floor. Smaller particles, known as ‘aerosols’, were likely too small to successfully transmit the virus to another person, according to a NYT rundown of possible means of infection.

As confusion about the virus and its behavior reigns, Bloomberg reported on a new study by a pair of Chinese scientists showing that the virus appears to linger in the air longer than previously thought. If these findings are eventually confirmed, they would directly contradict a WHO ‘recommendation’ that only health-care workers need to wear facemasks – guidance that has already been dismissed by the US and other member states.

Studies carried out at two hospitals in Wuhan found the largest concentrations of the virus in the hospital toilets and in rooms where nurses and doctors change out of their medical scrubs. But scientists detected at least some ambient levels of the virus in most of the hospital rooms it examined. The study was published Monday in the journal Nature Research. Like with other ‘aerosol’ studies involving SARS-CoV-2, researchers didn’t seek to establish whether the airborne particles could cause infections.

The study was published in the Journal of Natural Research.

At two hospitals in Wuhan, China, researchers found bits of the virus’s genetic material floating in the air of hospital toilets, an indoor space housing large crowds, and rooms where medical staff take off protective gear. The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Research, didn’t seek to establish whether the airborne particles could cause infections.

The question of how readily the new virus can spread through the air has been a matter of debate. The World Health Organization has said the risk is limited to specific circumstances, pointing to an analysis of more than 75,000 cases in China in which no airborne transmission was reported.

To create a point of reference for the hospital studies, researchers also measured ambient aerosol virus levels in places like supermarkets or Chinese apartment buildings. Here, they found, concentrations of the virus were much lower.

If there’s anything that can be extrapolated in terms of recommendations for public behavior, it’s that next time you use a public restroom, be absolutely sure to wash your hands thoroughly and avoid touching your face after.

Amercans’ No. 1 complaint about the government’s response to the outbreak has been confusion as experts and officials make different – sometimes contradictory – recommendations. One of the most controversial pieces of advice is the recommendation that people wear masks out in public, as people struggle to grasp that the initial recommendation not to wear masks was made to preserve dwindling stocks for health-care workers.

While there’s no direct evidence from this study about whether these particles are infectious, we suspect most people would rather not be exposed to potentially dense quantities of virus-carrying aerosols without wearing an N95.


Tyler Durden

Thu, 04/30/2020 – 04:55

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The Largest Ozone Hole Ever Recorded Over North Pole Has Finally “Healed Itself” & Closed

The Largest Ozone Hole Ever Recorded Over North Pole Has Finally “Healed Itself” & Closed

Authored by Elias Marat via TheMindUnleashed.com,

The massive ozone hole that formed over the North Pole has finally closed, scientists have announced.

Researchers from the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) who were tracking the record-breaking ozone hole over the Arctic tweeted last Thursday:

“The unprecedented 2020 Northern Hemisphere ozone hole has come to an end.”

The hole, which was the single largest such ozone hole ever detected in the arctic, first opened in late March as unusual wind conditions trapped frigid air over the North Pole for several consecutive weeks.

However, scientists took pains to point out that the closing of the hole has nothing to do with drop in emissions recorded across the world as a result of lockdown measures meant to curb the coronavirus.

On Twitter, the group wrote:

“COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns probably had nothing to do with this.

“It’s been driven by an unusually strong and long-lived polar vortex, and isn’t related to air quality changes.”

Live Science reports that a polar vortex is comprised of powerful winds that create a circular cage of cold air that leads to the formation of high-altitude clouds in the region. The clouds mixed with harmful human-made chemicals such as chlorine and bromine, which migrated into the stratosphere and accumulated inside the vortex.

The chemicals then ate away at surrounding gases, thinning the ozone layer and forming a huge hole approximately three times the size of Greenland in the atmosphere, according to a European Space Agency (ESA) statement.

The ozone layer is the layer in the Earth’s stratosphere that is responsible for absorbing the ultraviolet (UV) rays of the Sun, effectively filtering out radiation that causes skin cancer among humans, destroys crops, and disrupts marine ecosystems among other devastating effects on the planet.

The ozone layer has faced decades of degradation thanks to the use of harmful chemical compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons, halons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and other organic and synthetic (human-made) ozone-depleting compounds that are commonly used in refrigerators, aerosols, and a range of industrial processes.

The startling decline of the ozone layer became such a dire matter of concern that in 1987, governments agreed to the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty meant to phase out the production and use of ozone-depleting chemicals.

However, ozone holes have continued to form annually in the Antarctic due to a failure to sufficiently check the amount of human-made chemicals that continue to make their way into the stratosphere. Scientists believe that this will remain a seasonal phenomenon in the future.

In October, the ozone hole shrank to its smallest size ever recorded, mainly due to the unusually hot climate conditions above Antarctica caused by global warming.

In the Arctic, polar vortexes tend to be far weaker, which means that the conditions which eat away at ozone gases aren’t typically found—hence the “unprecedented” nature of this ozone hole.

According to a 2018 study by the World Meteorological Organization, the southern ozone hole has been shrinking at a rate of 1 percent to 3 percent per decade since 2000, meaning that it won’t heal entirely until about 2050. Credit is also due to the Montreal Protocol for the apparent healing of the ozone layer.


Tyler Durden

Thu, 04/30/2020 – 04:20

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Brickbat: Meet My Little Friend

A member of the Vallejo, California, planning commission has resigned after tossing his cat during a Zoom meeting of the commission. The cat can be heard meowing in the background when Chris Platzer says, “I’d like to introduce my cat,” picks it up and tosses it off-screen. Platzer can be seen drinking from a green bottle during the meeting. After the meeting concluded, he can be heard cursing someone out.

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Brickbat: Meet My Little Friend

A member of the Vallejo, California, planning commission has resigned after tossing his cat during a Zoom meeting of the commission. The cat can be heard meowing in the background when Chris Platzer says, “I’d like to introduce my cat,” picks it up and tosses it off-screen. Platzer can be seen drinking from a green bottle during the meeting. After the meeting concluded, he can be heard cursing someone out.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/2WbrvcX
via IFTTT

As Mortality Rate Spikes, Bankers In UK Won’t Return To ‘The City’ Any Time Soon

As Mortality Rate Spikes, Bankers In UK Won’t Return To ‘The City’ Any Time Soon

From the very beginning, Wall Street banks were reluctant to let their most-critical front office employees – especially traders – work from home despite the obvious risks presented by the coronavirus. Even after a whole floor of JPM traders in New York were infected by a couple of coworkers, Goldman and JPM were rumored to still be pressuring employees to make sometimes illicit appearances in the flesh, and when working from home has been the only option, bankers have reportedly been putting in more additional hours as managers assume they’re available at all hours.

While the Wall Street culture that revolves around ‘the floor’ will likely endure once the lockdowns are lifted in the US, some of the largest banks in the UK are insisting that they won’t recall employees to the office until things are 100% safe. And some may never return, having proved that they’re equally efficient working from home. As Bloomberg put it in its headline: “Bankers Aren’t Returning To Skyscrapers Any Time Soon, If Ever.”

The reason for this? During Barclays post-earnings call earlier, CEO Jes Staley said warehousing thousands of workers in office buildings and skyscrapers might be a “thing of the past” – especially if social distancing means only two people can ride an elevator at a time for the next 2 years.

Staley’s concerns echoed those of several rivals, Bloomberg said.

“There will be a long-term adjustment about how we think about our locations,” Staley said on a conference call after the bank reported earnings on Wednesday. Branches might work as alternative sites for investment bankers once staff are cleared to stop working from home, he said.

It’s possible this is a function of the UK’s significantly-higher mortality rate, which just took another tick upward on Wednesday after thousands of new home deaths were reported, as well as the political backlash over Boris Johnson’s initial response (based on recommendations from government scientists that were later determined to be flawed) which has made the PM reluctant to release concrete guidelines about his plans to reopen the economy.

Because in New York City and most places, financial services employees – from analysts, to traders to bank tellers – are considered essential. And while many of the white collar workers in the industry have been working from home with little issue, traders in NYC have discussed being pressured to take the subway to the office and take other steps that the employees said would leave them at risk of being infected.

JP Morgan said earlier this month that it had developed a plan to start returning some staff to its offices. The bank has said it’s exploring the idea of hiring “door attendants” to push elevator buttons and open doors for employees.

Meanwhile, Goldman is reportedly trying to develop a system for employees to open doors without actually touching them, perhaps by stocking towelettes.

Regardless of what happens in Europe and the US, right now, the first global financial hub to reopen will probably be Hong Kong, where most shops and bank branches have reopened, and life is rapidly settling back into its normal rhythms.

It’s also one reason to suspect that the slump in London’s commercial property market might be even more disastrous than in the US, although granted financial services is just one industry.


Tyler Durden

Thu, 04/30/2020 – 03:45

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UK Study Shows 18,000 Extra Cancer Deaths Possible Within A Year Due To COVID-19 Focus

UK Study Shows 18,000 Extra Cancer Deaths Possible Within A Year Due To COVID-19 Focus

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A new study concludes that there could be 18,000 extra cancer deaths in the UK within a year because victims are not able to get screenings and treatment due to the focus on COVID-19.

“Delays in diagnosing and treating cancer could hurt the survival chances of thousands of people across England, joint research by University College London (UCL) and the Health Data Research Hub for Cancer (DATA-CAN) suggests,” reports RT.

“Scientists analyzed data from more than 3.5 million patients and discovered that the Covid-19 outbreak could indirectly lead to more than 17,900 extra cancer deaths within a year, including 6,270 fatal cases in newly diagnosed cancer patients.”

The study discovered an 76 per cent average drop in early cancer diagnosis referrals and a chemotherapy attendance reduction of 60 per cent in England.

Cancer patients are avoiding hospitals partly due to fears over catching COVID-19 and partly because they were told health workers would be “overwhelmed” by coronavirus, something that never happened.

Indeed, acute hospital beds in the UK are four times emptier than normal and overspill hospitals are being being used.

Many stroke and heart attack victims are also routinely waiting 2 hours for an ambulance to arrive while 2,300 cancer diagnoses are being missed each week because they are not being referred for urgent scans and tests.

As we previously highlighted, Richard Sullivan, professor of cancer at Kings College, London, also warned that excess cancer deaths could eventually outstrip COVID-19 deaths.

The number of deaths due to the disruption of cancer services is likely to outweigh the number of deaths from the coronavirus itself over the next five years,” he said.

“The cessation and delay of cancer care will cause considerable avoidable suffering,” said Sullivan. “Cancer screening services have stopped, which means we will miss our chance to catch many cancers when they are treatable and curable, such as cervical, bowel and breast.”

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Tyler Durden

Thu, 04/30/2020 – 03:10

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As Italian Crime Drops By 66.6% During Lockdown, Loan Sharks Focus Lasers

As Italian Crime Drops By 66.6% During Lockdown, Loan Sharks Focus Lasers

After the Italian government placed the entire country under a coronavirus lockdown, the crime rate dropped by 2/3 (or 66.6%, as Reuters reports) vs. the same month last year, according to a Wednesday statement by the interior ministry.

There were 68,069 crimes registered across the country in March vs. 203,723 the previous year.

The ministry did not provide details, noting only that domestic violence fell 37.4%, a smaller drop than the overall crime rate, while robberies at pharmacies, one of the few businesses allowed to stay open, dropped 28.2%. –Reuters

That said, the ministry also warned that once restrictions are lifted – which could be as soon as Monday – organized gangs could try to take advantage of struggling Italians.

To that end, reports of criminal loan-sharking jumped 9.1% according to the report, indicating that those who cannot obtain traditional financing are turning to illegal lending networks to make ends meet.

Earlier this month, prosecutors told Reuters that Italian mafia clans were taking advantage of the coronavirus outbreak to ingratiate themselves with low income families, while The Guardian reported nearly three weeks ago that videos have surfaced of known Mafia gangs distributing free food to quarantined families who have run out of cash.

“For over a month, shops, cafés, restaurants and pubs have been closed,” said Nicola Gratteri – head of the Catanzaro prosecutor’s office and antimafia investigator according to The Guardian. “Millions of people work in the grey economy, which means that they haven’t received any income in more than a month and have no idea when they might return to work. The government is issuing so-called shopping vouchers to support people. If the state doesn’t step in soon to help these families, the mafia will provide its services, imposing their control over people’s lives.

To date, Italy has suffered more than 27,000 deaths and over 200,000 infections.

The Interior Ministry also warned that the mafia would try to tap into recovery funds offered by the EU to revive the death-spiraling economy, which Reuters notes is expected to be the worst recession wince WWII.

This may favor corruption and illicit relations between entrepreneurs, public officials and criminal organizations,” the Ministry said, adding that it had beefed up police monitoring to try and prevent the mafia from taking advantage of the situation. In particular, ” the agro-food chain, health infrastructure, the supply of medical equipment, the hotel tourism sector, catering and the retail distribution sectors of small and medium-sized companies” will be kept under close watch.


Tyler Durden

Thu, 04/30/2020 – 02:35

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77th Brigade: Is British Military Waging An Information War On Its Own Population?

77th Brigade: Is British Military Waging An Information War On Its Own Population?

Authored by Mike Robinson via 21stCenturyWire.com,

Last Wednesday, during the daily UK Government Coronavirus livestream, the head of the British Army, General Sir Nick Carter, bragged:

We’ve been involved with the Cabinet Office Rapid Response Unit, with our 77th Brigade helping to quash rumours from misinformation, but also to counter disinformation. Between three and four thousand of our people have been involved, with around twenty thousand available the whole time at high readiness.

To understand the implications of this statement, we have to go back to 2018, when Carter gave a speech to the Royal United Services Institute.

“In our 77th Brigade,” he said, “… we have got some remarkable talent when it comes to social media, production design, and indeed Arabic poetry. Those sorts of skills we can’t afford to retain in the Regular component but they are the means of us delivering capability in a much more imaginative way than we might have been able to do in the past.”

77th Brigade

Previously known as the ‘Security Assistance Group’, 77th Brigade was stood up in 2015 as part of ‘Army 2020’. The Security Assistance Group had been established following the amalgamation of the Media Operations Group, 15 Psychological Operations Group, Security Capacity Building Team, and the Military Stabilisation and Support Group.

77th Brigade is described on their website as being about ‘information and outreach’. But what does that mean? General Carter again:

We also, though, need to continue to improve our ability to fight on this new battlefield, and I think it’s important that we build on the excellent foundation we’ve created for Information Warfare through our 77th Brigade, which is now giving us the capability to compete in the war of narratives at the tactical level. [Emphasis mine]

It is in this context, then, that Carter’s words from last week’s livestream should be viewed. Carter has acknowledged that the British military is waging war on a section of its own population.

‘Rapid Response Unit’

Carter mentioned working with the Cabinet Office’s ‘Rapid Response Unit’. Established in April 2018 and also known as the ‘fake news unit’, the Rapid Response Unit was given an initial six months’ funding. It brought together a “team of analysts, data scientists and media and digital experts,” armed with cutting-edge software, to “work round the clock to monitor online breaking news stories and social media discussion.”

According to the RRU’s head, Alex Aiken:

The unit’s round the clock monitoring service has identified several stories of concern during the pilot, ranging from the chemical weapons attack in Syria to domestic stories relating to the NHS and crime.

For example, following the Syria airstrikes, the unit identified that a number of false narratives from alternative news sources were gaining traction online. These “alt-news” sources are biased and rely on sensationalism rather than facts to pique readers’ interest.

Due to the way that search engine algorithms work, when people searched for information on the strikes, these unreliable sources were appearing above official UK government information. In fact, no government information was appearing on the first 15 pages of Google results. We know that search is an excellent indicator of intention. It can reflect bias in information received from elsewhere.

The unit therefore ensured those using search terms that indicated bias – such as ‘false flag’ – were presented with factual information on the UK’s response. The RRU improved the ranking from below 200 to number 1 within a matter of hours.

The Rapid Response Unit was given permanent funding in February 2019.

Three months following the establishment of the Rapid Response Unit, Theresa May attended the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada.

There she announced the establishment of “a new Rapid Response Mechanism“, following Britain’s proposal for “a new, more formalised approach to tackling foreign interference across the G7” at the G7 Foreign Minister’s meeting the previous month.

The agreement sends “a strong message that interference by Russia and other foreign states would not be tolerated,” she said.

“The Rapid Response Mechanism,” she continued, “will support preventative and protective cooperation between G7 countries, as well as post-incident responses”, including:

  • Co-ordinated attribution of hostile activity

  • Joint work to assert a common narrative and response

The UK government’s Rapid Response, then, is to create international agreement on a common narrative (via the ‘mechanism’), and then wage an information war on its own people to make sure that narrative is protected in the media (via the ‘unit’).

Fusion

During Carter’s 2018 RUSI speech, he explained the role of the mainstream press in “setting up a well-informed public debate”. He spoke about “political warfare” being war by other means, and he said that winning that war would require a “fusion” approach.

Here, he is referring to the Fusion Doctrine, which was launched during the Theresa May regime, as part of the 2015 National Security Capability Review.

“Many capabilities,” it said, “that can contribute to national security lie outside traditional national security departments and so we need stronger partnerships across government and with the private and third sectors.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that the Cabinet Office’s Rapid Response Unit is not only working with the military’s 77th Brigade, but is “leading on the ‘rebuttal of false narratives’ as part of the unit … [that also] involves the Home Office, DCMS, Number 10 and other agencies.”

The Corona-Narrative

General Carter said his 77th Brigade is “helping to quash rumours from misinformation, but also to counter disinformation.”

What misinformation and disinformation is 77th Brigade helping to quash? How much of the ‘disinformation’ originates from 77th Brigade in the first place?

Part of 77th Brigade’s role is:

‘Monitoring and evaluating the information environment within boundaries or operational area’

They not only ‘counter’ disinformation, but also watch social media, analysing how disinformation, including their own, spreads; mapping the internet and the networks of people sharing content between each other.

And for that, they have thousands deployed, and tens of thousands in reserve, not only in 77th Brigade directly, but right across government and the third sector.


Tyler Durden

Thu, 04/30/2020 – 02:00

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2yZKpLS Tyler Durden

The latest on the national injunction at the Supreme Court

Among the cases that are at the Supreme Court this term is Trump v. Pennsylvania, consolidated with Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. One of the questions presented is about the scope of the injunction. Nick Bagley and I submitted an amicus brief almost two months ago, and when posting about it here at the Volokh Conspiracy I mentioned that I would call attention to any opposing briefs on this question. My apologies for not being able to do that sooner. In this post I’ll also mention an important new contribution to the debate by John Harrison: “Section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act Does Not Call for Universal Injunctions or Other Universal Remedies.”

Here, then, are the amicus briefs on the other side that devote substantial space to the injunction question:

  1. Twenty states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief that argued, among other things, that the scope of the injunction was consistent with equitable principles and the APA.
  2. Zach Clopton, Amanda Frost, Suzette Malveaux, and Alan Trammell filed an amicus brief that defends nationwide injunctions with arguments from the history of equity (including the bill of peace and privity), the history of writs at common law (e.g., mandamus), and preclusion doctrine. Two notes. First, in my view mandamus has a different logic than the injunction, not focused on protection of the plaintiff and those represented by the plaintiff, but rather focused on the officer’s duty, and it has its own distinctive limiting principles (e.g., only ministerial duties). Second, the brief relies on an amicus brief filed in 2018 in the Seventh Circuit sanctuary city case by some extraordinarily able legal historians. That brief is available here, and I responded in this post and this post.
  3. Mila Sohoni’s amicus brief focuses primarily (but not exclusively) on the APA, concluding that it authorizes “courts to issue nationwide injunctions” and that this authorization “not only is constitutional but squares entirely with the traditional equity practice.” On the 1937 statute, compare Professor Sohoni’s discussion with Professor Harrison’s.
  4. Public Citizen’s amicus brief argues for “nationwide relief [as] the ordinary remedy” under the APA.
  5. The Public Interest Law Center and affiliated lawyers’ committees filed an amicus brief arguing that nationwide injunctions are consistent with historic equity, both English and American, even before 1789.
  6. An amicus brief for several state and local government associations, including National League of Cities and the United States Conference of Mayors, argues, among other things, that nationwide injunctions have become accepted in current doctrine.

In addition to these amicus briefs, there is coverage of the scope of the injunction the party briefs (available at SCOTUSBlog).

Finally, there’s the explosive new argument by John Harrison in his bulletin in the Yale Journal on Regulation. Harrison argues that Section 706 of the APA doesn’t authorize universal remedies because it has nothing to do with remedies–that is the job of Section 703. Among other things, Harrison’s piece provides the most compelling reading of the 1937 statute that established three-judge district courts and gave them authority to “set[] aside” federal statutes that were repugnant to the Constitution. On Harrison’s reading, “set aside” in the 1937 statute and in the APA does not mean “strike out” or “vacate” or even “reverse” but rather “set to one side,” “put to the side,” “ignore for purposes of deciding the case.” If you want a taster course, Harrison posted a shorter version of the argument at the Yale Journal on Regulation’s Notice & Comment blog. Harrison’s argument is also cited by the Solicitor General.

If you’re interested in the national injunction or the APA or both, there’s plenty to read.

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The latest on the national injunction at the Supreme Court

Among the cases that are at the Supreme Court this term is Trump v. Pennsylvania, consolidated with Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. One of the questions presented is about the scope of the injunction. Nick Bagley and I submitted an amicus brief almost two months ago, and when posting about it here at the Volokh Conspiracy I mentioned that I would call attention to any opposing briefs on this question. My apologies for not being able to do that sooner. In this post I’ll also mention an important new contribution to the debate by John Harrison: “Section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act Does Not Call for Universal Injunctions or Other Universal Remedies.”

Here, then, are the amicus briefs on the other side that devote substantial space to the injunction question:

  1. Twenty states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief that argued, among other things, that the scope of the injunction was consistent with equitable principles and the APA.
  2. Zach Clopton, Amanda Frost, Suzette Malveaux, and Alan Trammell filed an amicus brief that defends nationwide injunctions with arguments from the history of equity (including the bill of peace and privity), the history of writs at common law (e.g., mandamus), and preclusion doctrine. Two notes. First, in my view mandamus has a different logic than the injunction, not focused on protection of the plaintiff and those represented by the plaintiff, but rather focused on the officer’s duty, and it has its own distinctive limiting principles (e.g., only ministerial duties). Second, the brief relies on an amicus brief filed in 2018 in the Seventh Circuit sanctuary city case by some extraordinarily able legal historians. That brief is available here, and I responded in this post and this post.
  3. Mila Sohoni’s amicus brief focuses primarily (but not exclusively) on the APA, concluding that it authorizes “courts to issue nationwide injunctions” and that this authorization “not only is constitutional but squares entirely with the traditional equity practice.” On the 1937 statute, compare Professor Sohoni’s discussion with Professor Harrison’s.
  4. Public Citizen’s amicus brief argues for “nationwide relief [as] the ordinary remedy” under the APA.
  5. The Public Interest Law Center and affiliated lawyers’ committees filed an amicus brief arguing that nationwide injunctions are consistent with historic equity, both English and American, even before 1789.
  6. An amicus brief for several state and local government associations, including National League of Cities and the United States Conference of Mayors, argues, among other things, that nationwide injunctions have become accepted in current doctrine.

In addition to these amicus briefs, there is coverage of the scope of the injunction the party briefs (available at SCOTUSBlog).

Finally, there’s the explosive new argument by John Harrison in his bulletin in the Yale Journal on Regulation. Harrison argues that Section 706 of the APA doesn’t authorize universal remedies because it has nothing to do with remedies–that is the job of Section 703. Among other things, Harrison’s piece provides the most compelling reading of the 1937 statute that established three-judge district courts and gave them authority to “set[] aside” federal statutes that were repugnant to the Constitution. On Harrison’s reading, “set aside” in the 1937 statute and in the APA does not mean “strike out” or “vacate” or even “reverse” but rather “set to one side,” “put to the side,” “ignore for purposes of deciding the case.” If you want a taster course, Harrison posted a shorter version of the argument at the Yale Journal on Regulation’s Notice & Comment blog. Harrison’s argument is also cited by the Solicitor General.

If you’re interested in the national injunction or the APA or both, there’s plenty to read.

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via IFTTT