Mike and Jay open this midweek supporters’ episode with a look at the Supreme Court’s decision to not vacate a temporary restraining order (TRO) that requires the government to pay USAID contractors $2 billion for services provided. Jay focuses on the legal arguments and at least partially convinces Mike that the TRO was problematic, though on the larger issue of the government paying contractors, Mike and Jay agree that the US should pay up for services rendered.

Next is an in-depth discussion of the fate of Ukraine and US foreign policy, in the wake of a number of troubling signs for supporters of Ukraine.

They close by considering the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear a case concerning university bias response teams (BRTs). Jay thinks that BRTs are a horrible idea, and Mike is no big fan of them either, but thinks in some circumstances they could play a role. What surprises Mike is that the decision to not hear the case was 7-2, meaning that four of the Court’s six conservatives voted against granting cert. Jay suggests some reasons why this may have happened, but Mike is still a bit mystified.

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