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The Supreme Court has given an answer to one of President Trump's appeals in a case related to, in the words of his legal team, the E. Jean "Carroll hoaxes."On Monday, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Trump's appeal in the case Trump v. Carroll. 'The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes.'There were no noted dissents in the message declining to take up the case. Trump appealed an earlier decision in which a jury in a civil case found that "Carroll was sexually abused by ... Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1996" and that he "defamed her in statements he made in 2022," according to the Second Circuit.RELATED: Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll faces criminal perjury probe involving Democrat mega-donor: Reports SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty ImagesPresident Trump has denied the allegations related to the case.At the end of 2024, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the jury's decision to award E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages. In a statement provided to the Associated Press, Trump's legal team said, “The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes. President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he continues to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again.”The Supreme Court's denial on Monday applies to only one of Trump's appeals in cases concerning Carroll. Trump is appealing a second decision to award Carroll $83.3 million in a second defamation trial, though this case has not yet made it before the Supreme Court. At the beginning of the month, President Trump's counsel informed a clerk at the Supreme Court that the present case would be appealed and requested that the two cases be considered together given that they are closely related. The two cases were not considered together. Carroll herself, however, is not out of the woods yet.Blaze News previously reported that Carroll is facing a criminal perjury probe after stating under oath that she received no outside funding for her legal fees. This claim, however, has been called into question after links to billionaire Democrat mega-donor Reid Hoffman were exposed. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Three-time NFL Pro Bowl running back Chris Johnson revealed some horrific news in a TV segment that aired Monday morning.The 40-year-old explained that what began as weakness in his right hand turned out to be a life-threatening illness.'I still think the same. I still dream. I still love my family.'Johnson and his wife, Brittany, figured he had some sort of lingering ailments from his NFL career that were popping up, so the former Tennessee Titans star went in for tests."I first noticed weakness in my right hand," Johnson said. "At first, it was little things like my grip didn't feel right, and I wasn't as strong as I've always been."Johnson told "Good Morning America" that after thorough testing, "They finally came down with a diagnosis of ALS," or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease.The Orlando, Florida, native said he was told about a medication that might extend life by a few months, but that it was time to prepare for the worst."Then they told us to get our affairs in order. It was hard hearing that," Johnson told host Michael Strahan, who is an NFL Hall of Fame player.In fact, Johnson's words to Strahan came through a voice program that he controls with his eyes. Johnson recorded his voice shortly after his diagnosis, and therefore the text-to-speech audio sounds like him. However, losing his voice is just one of the physical results of his illness.RELATED: Christian fan says she was ejected from Detroit Tigers game over pro-Jesus shirt: 'I have the right to wear that' - YouTube "I can't even hold a cup if I try, and that's despite being diagnosed relatively early and doing everything we can, including participating in multiple experimental treatments," Johnson said. The former East Carolina athlete urged early detection, more research, and enhanced treatments to give people a better chance than what he has available to him.As for his wife, she told the ABC program that she thought what Johnson was going through was the result of years of clashes on the football field. Johnson retired in 2017."I thought because of football and, you know, his career, that it had to be something with that," she told Strahan. "Maybe a pinched nerve or something along those lines, but never ALS."RELATED: Caitlin Clark gets fist to the throat as WNBA primed to explode: 'She's a straight white basketball player' Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Strahan asked several questions pertaining to how much their life has changed, and Johnson explained that he wants to continue his fight simply to "make more memories" with his kids and "just be their dad.""At first, you're in shock. Then you realize you have two choices: You can give up, or you can fight. I chose to fight," the father stated.Despite losing his voice, Johnson said he wanted viewers to know that the illness hasn't changed how his mind works."People sometimes look at the physical disability and assume you're not still the same person inside. I still think the same. I still dream. I still love my family. My body just doesn't cooperate."Johnson had a total of 9,651 rushing yards and 55 rushing touchdowns in 10 years in the NFL. He still holds one of the fastest 40-yard dash times in NFL Combine history.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a big defeat on Monday to conservatives seeking to prevent Election Day from becoming little more than an "abstraction."The high court ruled 5-4 that the "federal election-day statutes do not prevent Mississippi from counting absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days thereafter," adding that "nothing in the federal election-day statutes requires ballots received by election day."'Today’s decision compounds these vulnerabilities.'The case in question, Watson v. Republican National Committee, was the result of a years-long battle over a COVID-era Mississippi law passed by the Magnolia State's Republican trifecta that permits the counting of mail-in absentee ballots postmarked by the date of the election but received up to five business days after Election Day.Republicans were wary, in part, because mail-in voting is starkly polarized by party and "the late-arriving mail-in ballots that are counted for five additional days disproportionately break for Democrats."While it has narrowed since 2020, the partisan divide in mail-in voting remained substantial in the 2024 election — which helps explain why so many Democrat-aligned groups have defended the practice and the Mississippi law.In 2024, the RNC, the Mississippi GOP, and several individuals sued Mississippi's secretary of state and other state election officials, arguing that federal law bars Mississippi from counting absentee ballots received after Election Day.RELATED: Stopping the steal: Sen. Lee, Republicans demand Election Day integrity ahead of SCOTUS fight over 'rolling' ballot counts Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesIn October 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the plaintiffs' favor. Last year, however, the state asked SCOTUS to get involved and reinstate its post-Election Day grace period.Mississippi maintained that late counts are acceptable as "federal election-day statutes require only that the voters cast their ballots by election day" — that "an election requires ballot casting — not ballot receipt."Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who delivered the majority opinion, wrote that "this is not a case about the Constitution. We do not consider the scope of Congress' authority to regulate federal elections. The sole question before us is whether counting ballots postmarked by election day, but received up to five days later, violates the federal election-day statutes."Barrett answered that the existing statutes "do not preempt Mississippi's law.""As we have said before, the federal election-day statutes 'simply regulate the time of the election,'" wrote Barrett.While the relevant federal statutes determine when the electorate must make its choice, Barrett noted that "choice is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received.""The framers recognized the difficulty of crafting election laws 'applicable to every probable change in the situation of the country,'" Barrett wrote in her conclusion, citing the Federalist No. 59. "So instead of constitutionalizing election law, they decided that 'a discretionary power over elections' needed to be lodged 'somewhere.' ... Suffice it to say, that power was not lodged in this court. The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose."Justice Samuel Alito — who dissented along with Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh — torched his liberal and nominally conservative colleagues' arguments in a lengthy takedown, emphasizing at the outset that "if ballots received after election day are added to the set of ballots that dictate the election’s outcome, the electorate’s choice does not occur on election day, and the federal election-day statutes are violated.""The acceptance of these late-arriving ballots effectively postpones the date on which the electorate's choice is made, and federal law precludes that postponement," added Alito.He further emphasized that for most of America's history, the expectation was that votes were received and American elections were decided on Election Day."Two centuries of historical practice reinforce the proposition that holding an 'election' on a particular day means that poll workers had to receive the ballots by that date," wrote the conservative justice. "From this country’s founding until the late 20th century, election-day ballot collection was the near-uniform practice, with only a few, late-arriving exceptions."Alito noted this was the case "even when the Civil War took soldiers hundreds of miles from their usual polling places."In his scathing critique of the majority's opinion, Alito also accused his colleagues of attempting "to fend off two centuries of American election practice" and noted that "when Congress enacted the three election-day statutes, having the 'election' on a particular date meant that ballots would be collected by that date."Alito stressed that the ruling not only "threatens to produce lamentable consequences" and a "slurry of troubling election-law questions," but "leaves open opportunities for voter fraud that may further undermine Americans’ faith in the integrity of this country’s elections.""When someone votes by mail, it is harder for officials to verify the identity of the person requesting and completing the ballot. Mail voting also presents a greater opportunity for voter manipulation, a more vulnerable chain of ballot custody, and a diminished ability to detect improprieties in real time," wrote Alito. "Today’s decision compounds these vulnerabilities. Allowing absentee ballots to pour in over the days and weeks after election day, by which point preliminary election returns are being publicly reported, creates greater opportunity for fraud and risks further undermining the public’s confidence in election integrity."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

“Drill, baby, drill” are the words Donald Trump chanted to a cheering crowd in Pennsylvania just two years ago. For many people in the Keystone State, that was music to their ears as the state is second largest in America for fracking.Fast-forward two years, and the issue has become a focal point of the 2026 gubernatorial race, and it absolutely should be, because what is happening in Pennsylvania right now is nothing short of a policy abomination.‘Drill, baby, drill’ isn’t just a slogan. For Pennsylvania, it’s a lifeline, and Harrisburg keeps cutting it.I’m a Pennsylvania girl. I know this is what's going on in my community, I’ve seen decisions in Harrisburg impact people throughout the commonwealth in real time, and right now, working families are hurting. For one, electricity bills have surged across Pennsylvanian homes in recent years, with the average household getting double-digit rate hikes and higher summer costs impacting family budgets. Utility shut-offs climbed toward four million households nationwide in 2025. Pennsylvanians alone are being squeezed dry every time they flip a light switch. Here’s the kicker: Pennsylvania is sitting on a gold mine. The Marcellus Shale formation underlies roughly two-thirds of the state and holds an estimated 250 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. We are an energy exporter. We produce more natural gas than almost any state in the nation. We should be flush with affordable, reliable power.RELATED: Drill, baby, drill: Oil tech expert reveals why Trump's toughness on the industry is actually good Mario Tama/Getty ImagesInstead, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is writing strongly worded letters. The crisis in Pennsylvania isn’t a political messaging problem that a few stern letters to utility executives can fix; it’s a supply crisis. Demand is exploding, with PJM, the operator managing the grid for 65 million people across 13 states, is projecting a razor-thin energy surplus of just .2 gigawatts for the coming delivery year. This is despite a recommended safety buffer of nearly 20%. And what has Shapiro done to actually address supply? He’s strangled it. His so-called “Lightning Plan,” which was touted as a bold, all-of-the-above energy strategy, is anything but. Critics have correctly identified it as a disguised carbon tax through his Pennsylvania Climate Emissions Reduction Act. His administration has maintained a moratorium on new drilling in state parks and state forests. His regulatory environment has made permitting a slow, grinding nightmare for the very energy producers who could relieve the pressure Pennsylvanians are feeling every time they open their utility bill. The situation regarding the natural gas sector also paints a clear picture of the situation. The industry employs roughly 120,000 workers in Pennsylvania today, less than half of what it employed a decade ago. The important thing to note is that we still have the resources and the workforce, yet we don’t have a governor willing to get out of the way and let Pennsylvania be the energy powerhouse it’s supposed to be. While Shapiro holds press conferences and plays whack-a-mole with rate hike requests, the fundamental problem compounds. Threatening grid operators and appointing “watchdogs” doesn’t put one dollar back in Pennsylvanian families' pockets. It’s a press release masquerading as a plan, engineered for headlines not results. That’s because we have a governor with one eye on Harrisburg and the other on a future presidential run. Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity gets it. On day one, she pledges to lift the moratorium on new drilling sites, call a special session to fast-track energy permits, and in her words, “drill and frack our way out” of Pennsylvania’s fiscal hole. That’s not recklessness. That’s leadership. It’s the kind of no-nonsense energy policy that built this state and can ultimately save it. Pennsylvania doesn’t have an energy crisis because it lacks resources. We have an energy crisis because we’ve had leadership that talks affordability while making production harder, slower, and more expensive at every turn. Sounds counterintuitive right? “Drill, baby, drill” isn’t just a slogan. For Pennsylvania, it’s a lifeline, and Harrisburg keeps cutting it. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!