December 11, 2024: TikTok Ban UPHELD, Daniel Penny Found NOT GUILTY, United Healthcare CEO Suspect ARRESTED, and More.
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Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Wednesday, December 11th, and this is your daily news rundown. We do have a lot to catch up on today because it has been almost a week since we last caught up. And yesterday I released a unique episode in that I answered 21 questions about me. So definitely a little bit more personal than my usual content, but I got really, really great responses from all of you. So many of you loved getting to know me a little bit more. So if you haven't yet listened and you're

And you're wondering who I am outside of the news. That is a great episode to tune into. In today's episode, like I said, we are covering a lot. We're going to talk about the TikTok ruling out of the Federal Appeals Court and what that means. We're talking about the suspected shooter of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Daniel Penny, being found not guilty and much, much more. So without further ado, let's get into today's stories.

On Friday, a federal appeals court upheld the TikTok ban. Let's talk about it. We've talked about the TikTok ban before, but I know a lot of listeners stumbled across this podcast around the election, and we have not talked about it since then. So I want to do a quick recap just so that we're all on the same page.

The TikTok ban is actually called the Protecting Americans from Adversary-Controlled Foreign Applications Act. It is a mouthful, but essentially what the law says is that app stores cannot offer U.S. customers apps that are controlled by or at least 20% owned by an entity that is subject to the laws of a foreign adversary. Our foreign adversaries include China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

The law further states that if a company executes a qualified divestiture before the ban takes effect in January, then the app can remain available to U.S. customers. Also worth noting, if an entity subject to this law, i.e. TikTok and ByteDance, take sufficient steps towards a qualified divestiture before the deadline, the president can actually extend the deadline by 90 days.

But naturally, once this ban was enacted, ByteDance and TikTok challenged the law by way of a lawsuit. And they set forth many arguments, but their main argument was that this law is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment free speech rights of every TikTok user. Because in effect, the law is stripping users' ability to express themselves on this app by taking the app away. Now, the judge rejected that argument along with multiple other arguments on Friday. And here's why.

When it comes to constitutional challenges, courts will apply different standards of review based on the issue at hand. We talked about this a little bit last week when we discussed the Supreme Court case dealing with minors' access to certain gender transition treatments.

But to keep it simple, you have rational basis review, you have intermediate scrutiny, and you have strict scrutiny. Rational basis gives the most deference to a legislature, intermediate scrutiny gives a little less deference to a legislature, and strict scrutiny gives the least amount of deference to a legislature. The rationale there is the more of an impact a law will have on citizens, the least amount of deference the legislature gets.

So in this case, given that this is a First Amendment issue, the court applied strict scrutiny to the law and gave Congress the least amount of deference. When strict scrutiny applies, the court essentially has to find that the law serves a compelling government interest and is narrowly tailored to further that interest. Now, you're probably asking, what does narrowly tailored even mean? So

So a law is narrowly tailored if less restrictive alternatives would not accomplish the government's goals equally or almost equally effectively. So when taking everything into account, including, and I'm quoting directly from the ruling here, the multi-year efforts of both political branches to investigate the national security risks posed by TikTok,

The consideration of potential remedies proposed by TikTok, the bipartisan action by Congress and successive presidents to get this law passed, the law being crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary, and the fact that the law was part of a broader effort to counter a well-substantiated national security threat posed by the People's Republic of China, the law passed strict scrutiny and could therefore stand.

So the three-judge panel agreed that one, the interest in countering China's efforts to collect data on U.S. people and the risk of China covertly manipulating content on TikTok were compelling government interests, and two, that the law was narrowly tailored to serve those interests because less restrictive alternatives would not accomplish the government's goals as effectively as this law does.

So despite the law implicating the First Amendment, it can still stand for those reasons.

From here, ByteDance and TikTok will appeal. In fact, they already filed a motion with the appellate court, the same court that issued this ruling, to put an emergency pause on their ruling so that they can take this case to the Supreme Court. There are a few routes from here. If the appellate court grants that emergency request for a pause, their ruling would be paused and ByteDance and TikTok can go to the Supreme Court. If the appellate court rejects the request for a pause, ByteDance and TikTok can then go to the Supreme Court and ask the Supreme

Court to pause the appellate court's ruling while they file a petition with the Supreme Court. Either way, ByteDance and TikTok are definitely going to file an appeal with the Supreme Court and ask that the justices review the case. The justices would then have to decide whether they will review it because they don't have to. If they do decide to take up the case, they'll have the final say in the matter. If they don't take up the case, then the ruling out of the appellate court would stand and the ban would remain.

Now, many people have asked whether Trump can overturn this law once he takes office. The short answer is no. Once a law is signed, a president cannot then unilaterally repeal it, nor can a president undo a Supreme Court decision. This is checks and balances at work, right? What Trump could do is to repeal it.

do is try to persuade members of Congress to pass a new law that would repeal this ban, but he would have to get a simple majority in both the House and Senate, and that would not be easy given the fact that both parties were on board with this ban in the first place.

So that is what you need to know about the appellate ruling, and I'll keep you updated as we learn more about what the Supreme Court decides to do with this case. In some other news, a Manhattan jury found Daniel Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely.

This verdict came after the jury was at a standstill on the manslaughter charge, so let's talk about it. As we have discussed, in May of 2023, a man named Jordan Neely entered a New York subway car and began acting out and yelling at passengers that he was hungry and thirsty and he didn't care whether he died. That's when Daniel Penny, another passenger, grabbed Neely from behind, put him in a chokehold, forced him to the floor, and restrained him there for several minutes.

When Penny let go of the hold, Neely was unresponsive and he was later declared dead. So three days later, toxicology reports came back and the cause of death was announced. Medical examiners found synthetic marijuana in Neely's system and ruled Neely's death a homicide with the cause of death as compression of the neck.

Following this, a second-degree manslaughter charge was brought against Penny, and from the beginning, Penny has maintained his innocence. The day of the incident, just minutes after everything happened, Penny told NYPD officers that he wasn't trying to hurt Neely, but was just trying to keep Neely from hurting anyone else.

Now, the fact is this case was immediately controversial for a few reasons. Penny is a former Marine and a white man. Neely was a homeless black man. Neely was also a street performer and Michael Jackson impersonator and had a history of mental illness. So on one hand, the issue of homelessness in New York City was highlighted. And on the other hand, this case became a race issue.

ultimately turned himself in on May 12th, 2023, but he was thereafter released on a $100,000 bail. He was arraigned in June and he pled not guilty to two charges. So second degree manslaughter, which was the charge brought initially, and then criminally negligent homicide. Here's the difference.

Second-degree manslaughter requires a disregard of a risk of death, whereas criminally negligent homicide instead just requires a degree of negligence, but not a disregard of a risk.

Criminally negligent homicide is less serious than second-degree manslaughter. So during the trial, the prosecution argued that Penny, although he had good intentions, he didn't intend to kill, he acted recklessly enough where he used excessive force without trying any other means of de-escalating the situation. The defense, on the other hand, argued that Penny was just protecting other passengers and there was no other way to de-escalate due to Neely's behavior.

Keep in mind, Penny's guilt or innocence would come down to whether he disregarded a risk that putting Neely in a chokehold would result in death or whether he acted so negligently in causing Neely's death.

So trial ends, the jury goes into deliberations. Four days into deliberations on Friday morning, the jury sends a note to the judge indicating that they were deadlocked. They could not reach a unanimous verdict on the second degree manslaughter charge. The judge tells them to keep trying, but again, the jury says they can't come to this unanimous decision that's required. So this leads prosecutors to dismiss the second degree manslaughter charge, but maintain the criminally negligent homicide charge.

So the judge sends the jury back into deliberations with new instructions to only deliberate on the criminally negligent homicide charge. And later that day, the jury returned a not guilty verdict. What this means is that Penny is free of all criminal charges. However, Neely's dad filed a civil lawsuit against Penny last week, alleging assault battery and wrongful death.

Remember that a civil case is different than a criminal case in a few ways, but most notably, the burden of proof in a civil case is much lower than in a criminal case. So in a criminal case, the prosecution has to prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt, whereas in a civil case, the plaintiff only has to prove their claims by a preponderance of the evidence, which just means that it's more likely than not that the defendant is liable of the claims.

If Penny is found liable for the claims asserted in the civil lawsuit, he could be on the hook for monetary fines, which would be paid to Neely's dad. But in no situation will he face criminal charges now that he's been found not guilty. So let's take our break here. When we come back, we'll go over what we know about the UnitedHealthcare CEO suspect and cover a bunch of quick hitters.

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On Monday, after an intense five-day search, Luigi Mangione was arrested for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. This arrest happened at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania after a customer who had recognized Mangione from surveillance photos alerted a McDonald's employee who then called 911. Pennsylvania police officers confronted Mangione, who was wearing a mask and sitting alone at the back of the McDonald's looking at a laptop. According

According to the police report, when they asked Mangione whether he had recently been in New York City, he, quote, became quiet and started to shake, end quote. Pennsylvania police say that Mangione was found with a U.S. passport that identified him as Luigi Mangione, multiple pieces of false identification, one of which was a fake New Jersey driver's license, which matched the ID used before.

to check into a Manhattan hostel before the shooting. They also found a ghost gun, which authorities say appears to have been 3D printed and matches the shell casings from the crime scene, as well as a notebook, which law enforcement officials say details plans for the shooting. Also, one of the most recent developments is that police say Mangione's fingerprints match those at the crime scene.

So here is what we know about Luigi Mangione. And let me just say that his arrest has been quite polarizing in the sense that many people are convinced he is the shooter. Others say that he was set up. Others say that it doesn't add up. So some are convinced that it's him. Others have their doubts. But here is what we know about the suspect so far.

Mangione is a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's and a master's degree in software engineering. And according to his LinkedIn account, he worked as a data engineer at the car buying website, Truecar. But a Truecar spokesperson told a news outlet that Mangione has not worked there since 2023.

His family has been described as wealthy and prominent in the real estate business. They own country clubs and nursing home facilities around the state of Maryland, where Mangione is from. Following his arrest, Mangione's cousin, who is

also a Maryland Republican delegate, released a statement on behalf of the family. That statement reads, quote,

Mangione is currently being held at a Pennsylvania state prison, but New York prosecutors have begun the extradition process, which Mangione is fighting. So extradition is the process of removing a person from one jurisdiction and then bringing them to another jurisdiction for prosecution. Because as is the case here, Mangione can't be prosecuted for murder in Pennsylvania because the murder was committed in New York. Two different states, each state has their own state crimes.

His New York charges include murder, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument, that fake New Jersey driver's license, and criminal possession of a weapon. And he does also face five state charges in Pennsylvania. So those charges include carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to authorities, possessing instruments of a crime, and tampering with records or identification.

At his first court appearance on Monday, he was pretty quiet, though he did say at one point, quote, I'd like to correct two things. First, I don't know where any of that money came from. I'm not sure if it was planted. And also that bag was waterproof. So I don't know about criminal sophistication, end quote. Mangione was ultimately denied bail after prosecutors argued that he was too dangerous to be released.

And Mangione's attorney has said that Mangione will plead not guilty to all charges in both states. As far as motive, here's what we know so far. People have their theories and speculations, but I do just want to be clear before we get into this that nothing is for certain.

We know that he has dealt with chronic back pain for his entire life and recently underwent surgery. The owner of a co-living community in Hawaii called Surf Break said that Mangione lived there for a short time but left in April 2022 because of a lifelong back injury. We also know he added five books to his Goodreads account in 2022 and 2023, which speak to his issues with chronic back

pain. And there are also reports that he posted on Reddit about this persistent back pain and a back condition. His family said that he had back surgery earlier this year, but sort of disappeared after that surgery. In fact, his mom reported him missing on November 18th after not hearing from him for an unspecified amount of time.

In July, a friend wrote to him on social media, quote, I don't know if you are okay or just in a super isolated place, but I haven't heard from you in months, end quote. Another post in October from a friend reads, quote, nobody has heard from you in months and apparently your family is looking for you, end quote. So those are sort of the puzzle pieces that we're working with, but I'm sure more will come to light as time goes on. And I will, of course, keep you updated.

Now let's move on to some quick hitters. I have a ton of them today. So starting with the first one, the Supreme Court unanimously held this week that it is not up to the courts to resolve disputes over whether the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services properly revokes a previously approved visa petition based on a sham marriage determination. In other words, if the

the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services determines that two people are entering into a sham marriage and therefore denies a visa application, that is the end of the story. The decision cannot be appealed to the courts.

And speaking of the Supreme Court, two senators, Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Peter Welch, introduced a joint resolution proposing a new constitutional amendment that would limit Supreme Court justices to 18-year terms, with a new term beginning every two years. However, these proposed term limits would only impact justices appointed annually.

after ratification, meaning all current justices would be able to stay on the bench for as long as they want and would continue to serve their life appointments. For the amendment to pass, both chambers of Congress would have to approve it with a two-thirds majority and three-fourths of the states would have to ratify it. Consequently, constitutional amendments are historically very, very difficult to pass.

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul behind News Corp., will not be able to change his trust, according to a Nevada commissioner. Per the existing terms of the trust, which was written in 1999, all four of Murdoch's children are equal beneficiaries, but more recently Murdoch wanted to change the terms of the trust to ensure that his oldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, would be the sole heir of News Corp.,

The other three children fought the change, and in yesterday's ruling, the judge held the plan to change the terms was done in quote-unquote bad faith.

And in the latest twist to the Albertsons Kroger merger saga, Albertsons has called off its merger with Kroger following a judge's ruling on Monday blocking the merger. But not only that, Albertsons is now suing Kroger. This merger was supposed to be the largest US supermarket merger in history. But earlier this week, a judge blocked the deal, ruling that the merger would hurt competition in the market.

Following that decision, Albertson's CEO released a statement saying that it had made the decision to terminate the merger agreement and then proceeded to sue Kroger for breach of its contract, alleging Kroger caused the merger to be blocked.

by failing to exercise its best efforts and failing to take any and all actions to secure regulatory approval of the merger. Albertsons accuses Kroger specifically of repeatedly refusing to divest assets necessary for antitrust approval, ignoring regulators' feedback, and failing to cooperate with Albertsons.

According to the lawsuit, Albertsons is seeking a $600 million termination fee plus monetary relief for the years and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in attempting to obtain approval for the merger.

In some congressional news, Senate Republicans voted yesterday to block a bipartisan bill that would have codified journalists' protections into federal law. So this law, known as the PRESS Act, which stands for Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act, would have prevented the government from forcing journalists to reveal their sources and would have limited the seizure of their data without their knowledge.

The House passed the bill earlier this year, but it did fail in the Senate yesterday. Republican senators argued that the bill poses a threat to U.S. national security, with Senator Tom Cotton arguing that it would turn the Senate into, quote, "...the active accomplice of deep state leakers, traitors, and criminals, along with the America-hating and fame-hungry journalists who help them out."

And

And speaking of the Senate, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell fell during a Senate Republican lunch yesterday, resulting in a sprained wrist and a minor cut to the face. Though it's not clear what caused McConnell to fall, his office said that he is okay and has been cleared to resume his schedule. McConnell will leave his post as Senate Republican Leader in January when newly elected Senator Thune takes over.

Switching over to the other chamber of Congress, U.S. Capitol Police arrested a suspect who Representative Nancy Mace said, quote unquote, physically accosted her on Capitol Hill, leaving her with a brace on her wrist. Police say they received a report just after 6 p.m. Tuesday night from a member of Congress's office of an incident thereafter they tracked down and arrested the suspect and charged them with assaulting a government official.

And in some economic news, the Consumer Price Index rose 2.7% from November of last year. Basically, the Consumer Price Index measures the change over time in the prices paid by consumers for a representative basket of goods and services. So in this case, what this new number means is that a consumer's representative basket of goods and services this November costs 2.7% more than it did in November of last year.

And a U.S. bankruptcy judge has stopped a parody news site called The Onion from purchasing Alex Jones's Infowars site, finding that the bankruptcy auction did not result in the best possible bids. Jones is having his assets auctioned off in order to pay an outstanding judgment to the families of victims in the Sandy Hook shooting. And one of those assets was Jones's site Infowars.

The Onion won the site at auction, but Jones challenged it, and the bankruptcy judge agreed with Jones in part. The judge wrote that the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee who ran the auction made a good-faith error by quickly asking for final offers for InfoWars instead of encouraging more back-and-forth bidding between The Onion and the runner-up bidder.

The FTC is sending $72 million in refunds to players of the game Fortnite after settling with the maker of the game in December 2022. The FTC said Epic Games tricked customers into making millions of dollars of unwanted purchasers while playing the game.

Per the settlement, Epic Games must pay the FTC $245 million to resolve the allegations against it, and roughly $72 million of that will be refunded to customers. If you think you might be entitled to a refund and you'd like to file a claim, fill out the official form on the FTC's website before January 10th.

Today, FBI Director Chris Wray announced his plans to resign from the position. As we know, Donald Trump nominated Kash Patel to the position of FBI Director, which meant that Chris Wray, the current FBI Director, would either have to resign or Trump would have to fire him. This is because Wray is currently in the middle of serving a 10-year term.

Ray's announcement means that he will resign at the end of the Biden administration, and the Senate will then have to vote to confirm Patel to take over that position. And finally, the Biden administration extended a 120-day sanctions waiver that will grant Iran access to roughly $10 billion from Iraq. The extension was signed just two days after the election, but is being reported on now.

The waiver allows Iran access to these Iraqi funds in exchange for electricity purchases. And under the conditions of the waiver, Iran will receive roughly $10 billion being held in escrow accounts in Iraq that U.S. officials say can only be used for humanitarian aid. However, it is also worth noting that the extension allows Iran to transfer the electricity payments to other accounts, which can then be converted to other currencies for the country to purchase non-sanctioned products.

That is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. As always, have a fantastic night and I will talk to you tomorrow. Ah, the sizzle of McDonald's sausage. It's enough to make you crave your favorite breakfast. Enough to head over to McDonald's. Enough to make you really wish this commercial were scratch and sniff.

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