Montana's love language is public lands.

By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

Most of the time, The Daily Montanan uses this space to showcase an interesting, provocative or even profound quotation. If you’re a quote junky, fear not. We call your attention to the writings of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative, appointed by President Donald Trump. Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon, a Republican, has been taking excerpts of Gorsuch’s writings on the IEEE tariffs that were struck down, and posting them (on Facebook and other social media … please see below), cheering them as a victory for truly conservative ideas. Gorsuch sided with the majority of the court, but his words are indeed profound and worthy of consideration. —Darrell Ehrlick, editor-in-chief.

Columnist and attorney Doug James writes that Montana’s junior U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy has done something worse than just creating confusing, impossible legislation through the JAIL Act, which would allow citizens to sue judges; he’s playing into people’s misunderstanding of the system and their outrage to score political points.

A group of veterans who are part of No Montana Veteran Left Behind have questions and concerns about the recent changes to the VA Healthcare programs and cuts to the department. Now they want to know: Why won’t Montana’s Congressional delegation meet in person?

Well, the theme of late last week, kind readers, was tariffs. Almost as soon as the United States Supreme Court had ruled that President Donald Trump had exceeded his authority by slapping all kinds of tariffs on various countries (please see other stories below), he vowed that he would be solving the tariff problem with … more tariffs.

Our fantastic Washington, D.C., bureau covered the 6-to-3 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that Congress, not the president, has the authority to impose the types of tariffs that Donald Trump did, causing an angry rebuke by the commander-in-chief. Three of the court’s conservative justices joined with the three liberals to halt the tariffs.

After “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis, lawsuits at the federal court there have spiked. Attorneys have filed more than 1,000 lawsuits challenging the arrests made by Immigration and Customs agents there.

As of Friday, the Florida Legislature had provided the authorization and more than $5 million to rename the Palm Beach County airport after Donald Trump, a Republican who lives in the area and who, when he moved from New York, became the first sitting president to technically call Florida home.

In a closed-door meeting, President Donald Trump told the nation’s governors that his administration will no longer be sending Department of Homeland Security forces into states for immigration operations where they are not wanted. He told the governors that it was a lesson learned in Minnesota.

In an attempt to reset the nation’s policies on immigration and deportation, Democrats in Congress are proposing to revert to the policies before the second Trump administration. That proposal could face stiff resistance from members of Trump’s party but the White House says that it remains open to discussing ideas with the Democrats in order to fully reopen government (because we are in a partial shutdown).

Note: some links may lead to stories behind a news organization's paywall

On Saturday morning, thanks to social media posting, The Washington Post learned that President Trump not only was planning on carrying out a new round of “global tariffs” of 10%, but by the morning, he had raised the bar to 15%, saying the new tariffs that would cover a much broader swath of items would start on Tuesday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the new tariffs are calculated to replace the revenue created by tariffs struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The next two selections, both from the Smithsonian magazine, are not related to tariffs. Yay! The first story is a sort of celebration of the return of Major League Baseball. Also, yay! As some may know, spring training games started on Friday, and even though the temperatures were chilly in Montana, surely that means Spring is near. Another thing that is near is the auctioning of a previously unknown super-rare Honus Wagner baseball card from 1909 (he did not want his likeness to be used with tobacco, and requested the company stop; and it did). Just about 50 of the cards survive. This one has been in the same family since it was purchased in a pouch of tobacco. And for several million dollars, it could be yours.

Montana has been pretty clear about privacy: Lawmakers from both political parties have outlawed or restricted most facial recognition technology, but researchers are beginning to use the technology to better understand other species, including grizzly bears.

As mentioned above, there’s a lot to unpack from the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday. The decision was called a “blockbuster” by The Washington Post. But, it also showcased a deep ideological dedication to the original meaning of the U.S. Constitution, as witnessed by Justice Neil Gorsuch’s writings, which we share here, with a hat-tip to Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska:

Today’s “The Hook” comes to us courtesy of one of our good friends and eDJs, Robyn Schanzenbach. Thanks, Robyn. She points out a Substack post by Joyce Vance, who writes a popular blog, “Civil Discourse,” and she asks questions that are probing and interesting of famous people. A recent post interviews Nils Lofgren, a legendary guitarist known both for his solo work as well as his work in the E-Street Band and Bruce Springsteen. You can read the full interview here.

However, like several others whom we’ve featured, and continuing our conversation of newly inspired protest songs, largely driven by the action of the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security, Lofgren has been gaining traction with this brief song (it doesn’t even come close to 2 minutes), “No Kings, No Hate, No Fear.”

If you have a song that you’d like to share, or would like to get in touch with us, please send us a note at [email protected]

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