Washington Monthly

Judge Luttig identifies January 3rd as the moment we might witness that final battle if the still Republican-controlled House of Representatives under Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to seat newly elected Democrats to the House of Representatives in an attempt to illegitimately maintain control of the House of Representatives for Republicans, no matter how many seats the Republicans lose in November.

Legal scholar and journalist Garrett Epps followed Judge Luttig's article with a piece in the Washington Monthly saying it already has happened, not once, but twice, in 1863 and 1865, and both times it brought American democracy to the brink of collapse, and indeed, on one occasion, brought federal troops into the capital itself on a mission to block a conservative coup, a genuine plot for a coup d'état engineered by none other than the clerk of the House, a Democrat named Emerson Etheridge, a holdover from the days when pro-slavery forces ruled the House, who made it known that he had a plan.

On the first day of the House, he would skip a few names, just enough to produce a membership with a Democratic majority.

Emerson called his truncated roll omitting 16 Republicans who he claimed had not presented valid credentials.

Uh, and it really culminated in that, those remarks by Speaker Mike Johnson at the Dallas convention, uh, last week when the Speaker of the, the House himself said that he and the Republican House and Donald Trump will never allow the Democrats to take over the House of Representatives.

Joining us now is legal scholar and journalist Garrett Epps.

He is the legal affairs editor at the Washington Monthly.

Uh, and Garrett, let's begin with January 3rd and the possibility that Mike Johnson actually tries this.

She is the deputy research director on climate and governance issues at the Revolving Door Project, which we've had a number of people on from the Revolving Door Project.

Her writing has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, Lever, Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo.

She holds a degree in English from Columbia University.

The title of her piece, which was so shocking to me, was The EPA's Dark Embrace of the AI Industry.

who have committed violent crimes, including one story about Rachel Abraham, her common law husband.

I wrote about this for, I believe, Washington Monthly.

He had threatened to kill her multiple times and been arrested for beating her, and they let him go every time.

This was in Portland, Oregon, where the progressive laws and we have to redo the justice system.

of the 2026 book, Betrayed, America Didn't Vote for This.

She is also the senior editor at the Washington Monthly, where her latest piece is, Will a Wave of Trump Regret Lift Democratic Votes This Fall? We're going to talk about that with her in a little bit in the 6.30 hour.

Joseph Margulies is a civil rights lawyer, professor of practice of government at Cornell University, and author of the 2026 book, Cast Out, A Call for Forgiving Society in an Age of Incarceration.

And then in the 730 hour, Skye Perryman, who's been with us before, is a president and CEO of Democracy Forward.

And, of course, with Sky's organization, that's what they do.

That's their name.

And then with Anne over at Washington Monthly, you know, she's just been phenomenal.

Looking forward to talking with Joseph for the first time, but he's also going to bring us some information about how we really, how our society really should be looking at itself when it comes to incarceration.

I worked for Congressman Barney Frank in Boston.

And then I got hired as an editor at this magazine called The Washington Monthly because they were looking for ambitious people who wanted to try things and work all the time.

And I liked it because it's a meritocratic profession and you can get an interesting job and interesting work with little experience if you are willing to grind.

And so I did that and that was the start.

It's time for our local and state news.

MSU Northern has been named one of the best colleges for rural America, ranking number 36 in the nation in Washington Monthly magazine's first ever ranking of colleges serving rural students and communities.

Washington Monthly says its ranking focuses on what colleges do for the country rather than prestige.

The magazine started with more than 1,000 rurally located institutions nationwide before narrowing the field to 225 four-year nonprofit colleges and universities.

The ranking considers affordability, student debt, alumni earnings, access for lower-income students, the number of students who come from within their home state, and the number of graduates who stay there.

She was a senior writer and justice editor at Newsweek and before that the deputy editor of the New York Times op-ed page.

She's the author of The Ukrainian Refugee Experience and she has an article at the Washington Monthly we will discuss, The New Normal in Kyiv, Ukraine.

non-stop attacks by Russian jet-powered drones, empty supermarket shelves and terrorized civilians, as well as the shootout between rival Ukrainian intelligence agents and the Russian strike on Ukraine's intelligence headquarters in Kyiv.

Then finally with the whistleblower, a 17-year veteran of ICE, claiming that DHS has been engaged in, quote, an unprecedented lowering of standards for hiring ICE recruits.

She was a senior writer and justice editor at Newsweek, and before that, the deputy editor of the New York Times' op-ed page.

She's the author of Displaced, the Ukrainian Refugee Experience.

and has an article at the Washington Monthly, The New Normal in Kyiv, Ukraine, Non-Stop Attacks by Russian Jet-Powered Drones Empty Supermarket Shelves and Terrorize Civilians.

Welcome to Background Briefing, Tamar Jacobi.

Yes

... a story with Paul Glastris from, um, uh, the Washington Monthly, 'cause they put out that report about, about colleges and universities, and they evaluate them.

They have a whole section on how successful these rural colleges are, and rural universities, and what they mean not only for what they produce with their investment in students, but what they mean to the community.

We have to start thinking differently.