Palestinians carry bodies of people they recovered from the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, on October 29, 2025 in Gaza City, Palestine.

 (Photo by Omar al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)

“We call on the world to send international teams to recover the bodies of the missing,” said the member of one civil society group. “We call on the world to provide the necessary equipment to recover the bodies.”

Brett Wilkins

Nov 06, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

A civil society group in Gaza on Thursday appealed for international assistance to help recover the bodies of more than 10,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces who remain buried beneath the rubble of the flattened strip.

Referring to Gaza as “the world’s largest mass grave,” Aladdin Al-Aklouk, a spokesperson for the National Committee for Missing Persons in the Genocide Against Gaza, said that “these martyrs were buried under the rubble of their homes, which have turned into mass graves, without their final dignity being preserved or their bodies being retrieved.”

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“We express our shock and strong condemnation of the absence of an effective role by international organizations and humanitarian bodies, especially those concerned with the issue of missing persons, in light of the ongoing escalating humanitarian disaster,” Al-Aklouk continued.

“The remnants are ticking time bombs and pose a danger to the population in the Gaza Strip. We need specialists alongside the teams working in the sector,” he added. “We call on the world to send international teams to recover the bodies of the missing. We call on the world to provide the necessary equipment to recover the bodies.”

“The remnants are ticking time bombs and pose a danger to the population in the Gaza Strip.”

According to the Gaza Health Ministry—whose casualty figures have been deemed accurate by Israeli military officials and a likely undercount by multiple peer-reviewed studies—at least 68,875 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023. Although a US-brokered ceasefire technically remains in effect, Gaza officials have documented over 200 Israeli violations in which more than 240 Palestinians have been killed and over 600 others injured.

More than 170,600 other Gazans have been wounded in a war which is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case and for which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder and forced starvation.

Palestinians are struggling to dig through more than 60 million tons of debris after over 80% of all structures in Gaza were destroyed or damaged by two years of Israeli bombardment. That’s more than 200,000 buildings and other structures.

United Nations experts estimate it will take seven years for 100 trucks to remove all debris across Gaza, where more than three-quarters of roads are damaged and unexploded ordnance and Israeli booby traps beneath the debris continue to pose deadly threats to recovery workers and survivors in general.

Israel’s destruction and denial of the heavy equipment needed for such a monumental recovery operation has left Palestinians reliant upon rudimentary tools such as shovels, pickaxes, wheelbarrows, rakes, hoes, and even their bare hands. They dig amid the stench of death and decomposition that lingers in the air.

The Abu Naser family lost more than 130 members in an October 29, 2024 strike on their five-story home in Beit Lahia, where over 200 people were sheltering when it was bombed. Mohammed Nabil Abu Naser, who survived the bombing, immediately started digging through the rubble, first in search of survivors and later, for bodies.

“It was all bodies and body parts,” he explained. More than a year later, many of the victims have yet to be recovered.

“About 50 of them are still under the rubble to this day, a full year later,” Abu Naser told The Guardian on Monday.

Often, Gazans survived initial bombings only to die slowly trapped beneath rubble. Two American volunteer surgeons, Drs. Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa, last year described how wounded survivors suffered “unimaginably cruel deaths from dehydration and sepsis while trapped alone in a pitch-black tomb that alternates as an oven during the day and a freezer at night.”

“One shudders to think how many children have died this way in Gaza,” they added.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Brett Wilkins

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Full Bio >

US Senators voted down a proposed war powers resolution blocking the Trump administration from waging war on Venezuela, on November 6, 2025 in Washington, DC. 

(Photo: US Senate screen grab)

“Shame on the Republicans who continue to shirk their duty and deny their constituents a voice,” said one retired US Army general.

Brett Wilkins

Nov 06, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected a bipartisan war powers resolution aimed at stopping the Trump administration from continuing its bombing of alleged drug boats or attacking Venezuela without lawmakers’ assent, as required by law.

US senators voted 51-49 against the measure introduced last month by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Two Republicans—Paul and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—joined Democrats and Independents in voting for the resolution.

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“It’s sad that only two Republicans voted in favor,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink, said on X following the vote. “So much for ‘America First’ and for upholding their constitutional authority by stopping the executive branch from taking illegal military actions.”

https://x.com/CraigCaplan/status/1986572115718644163?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1986572115718644163%7Ctwgr%5Eea3e4104c5095a63622a8e574e3a278b9ed136f8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fsenate-gop-kills-bill-that-would-block-trump-boat-bombings-and-war-on-venezuela

Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a senior adviser to the group VoteVets, said in a statement that President Donald Trump “is waging a war that he unilaterally declared and refuses to get approved by the American people via their representation in Congress.”

“It isn’t just criminal and unconstitutional, it betrays those who did fight on battlefields and spilled blood to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Eaton added. “Shame on the Republicans who continue to shirk their duty and deny their constituents a voice.”

@votevets.org

VoteVets’ MG Paul Eaton (Ret) blasts GOP Senators for rejecting Senator Tim Kaine’s War Powers Resolution. He says Trump is waging a “criminal and unconstitutional” war and betraying the principle that Americans shouldn’t die without having a say in the matter, through their elected representatives.

The War Powers Resolution was passed over then-President Richard Nixon’s veto in 1973 to affirm and empower Congress to check the president’s war-making authority. The law requires the president to report any military action to Congress within 48 hours and requires congressional approval of troop deployments exceeding 60 days.

It’s been 63 days since the first-known Trump-ordered the first strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. At least 67 people have been killed in 16 such reported strikes since September 2, according to the Trump administration, which argues that it does not need congressional approval for the attacks.

https://x.com/KatrinaNation/status/1986583712616882266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1986583712616882266%7Ctwgr%5Eea3e4104c5095a63622a8e574e3a278b9ed136f8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fsenate-gop-kills-bill-that-would-block-trump-boat-bombings-and-war-on-venezuela

Speaking on the Senate floor ahead of Thursday’s vote, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said:

As we speak, America’s largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford, is on its way to the Caribbean. It is part of the largest military buildup in our hemisphere that we’ve seen in decades. According to press reports, Donald Trump is considering military action on Venezuelan territory. But it also sounds like nobody really knows what the plan is, because like so many other things with Donald Trump, he keeps changing his mind. Who knows what he will do tomorrow?

Trump has also approved covert CIA action in Venezuela and has threatened to attack targets inside the oil-rich country. The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro recently claimed that his country’s security forces had captured a group of CIA-aligned mercenaries engaged in a “false-flag attack” against the nation.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said after Thursday’s vote: “Today, I was proud to once again cast my vote for Senator Kaine’s war powers resolution. President Trump is acting against the Constitution by moving toward imminent attacks against Venezuela without congressional authorization. In doing so, he is risking endless military conflict with Venezuela and steamrolling over the right of every American to have a say in the use of US military force.”

“Asserting Congress’s constitutional role in war is not some procedural detail; it is fundamental. Our government is based on checks and balances, and Congress’s authority to declare war is a core principle of what makes America a democracy,” Markey added. “Going to war without consulting the people is what monarchies and dictatorships do. Strong democracies must be willing to debate these issues in the light of day.”

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Brett Wilkins

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Full Bio >

Nancy Pelosi’s retirement announcement and the gerontocracy’s quiet war on little old me

Ken Klippenstein Nov 7, 2025 (kenklippenstein@substack.com)

Pelosi announcing her retirement

Nancy Pelosi’s formal announcement today that she will not seek reelection shows the era of political dinosaurs is coming to a close.

If you think I’m overstating how much things have changed, consider the hysterical reaction in 2023 to a social media post in which I put Senator Dianne Feinstein’s staffers on blast for covering for their ailing 89 year old boss. I posted their names, roles, photos, and bloated salaries, calling for them to be “named and shamed.”

Feinstein’s staffers had devised an elaborate system to prevent her from walking the halls of Congress alone, I knew, an open secret on the Hill that was later reported. I found this grotesque not just for the country but for Feinstein herself, who clearly wasn’t all there. The idea that even her elite-educated staffers who surely had other job prospects were “serving” their country with this charade was obscene to me.

The backlash against me was swift. In my decade or so of being a reporter, it was the first time I ever thought I might lose my job. Democratic as well as Republican congressional staffers closed ranks to condemn me, with several contacting my employer in attempts to extract a public apology or get me fired. Some were even brazen enough to make their threats public, like that they would cut off access to the news website at which I worked.

In another show of bipartisan unity, major media outlets across the political spectrum circled the wagons around me. Fox News called my post “deranged” while The New York Times assured readers that I had been widely condemned by both sides of the aisle. Privately, of course, it was a very different story, with lots of people thanking me for being willing to stick my neck out, including other congressional staffers and Washington types who said they couldn’t do so themselves.

The pressure campaign continued.

“I am writing to ask you to please take down your posts that has [sic] jeopardized the safety of Senator Feinstein’s junior staff members,” Peter True, then the Democratic communications director for the House Transportation committee, said in an email sent to me thereafter my boss, The Intercept’s then-Bureau Chief, Ryan Grim. “There’s no place for targeted harassment in politics, and normalizing asking 500k people to ‘name and shame’ the entry-level aides who are doing their best in an extraordinarily difficult situation that they are in ZERO position to control sets a dangerous precedent.”

A dangerous, precedent-setting tweet! Lol. Ridiculous as it was, the major media Wurlitzer was blasting the same message, lending it an air of seriousness.

A Kafkaesque back-and-forth email chain ensued where True kept asking my boss to act. To The Intercept’s credit, I was never formally reprimanded; though Annie Chabel, its CEO, later griped to me about having “doxxed” Feinstein’s staffers. How one doxes public servants with publicly available information is beyond me. In fairness to her, I imagine she had gotten an earful from party commissars like Peter True.

Congressional staffer Sharon Eliza Nichols tweeted at Grim that “we have the right to work with our bosses to find professional reporters with solid judgment to give stories and interviews to.” This is DC-speak for: fire him or good luck getting us to answer your calls. Heavy handed as it might seem, this practice is common in Washington and a huge part of the reason the news you get is such toothless slop. Officials threaten to withhold access and the edges of reporting get rounded off — sometimes down to nothing.

Grim heard the threat loud and clear, replying that “threatening to take away something we don’t want or need for our reporting isn’t going to work.”

Then and now, Nichols serves as director of communications for DC’s 88-year-old congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, once an impassioned civil rights leader and now the face of the gerontocracy. Holmes Norton can hardly put two words together and is a doddering shell of her former self. After having been scammed out of a few thousand dollars by conmen allegedly posing as housecleaners, the police report said she was suffering from dementia.

Then there was that bizarre period during the Joe Biden presidency when his own staffers, along with a pliant media that relied on them for scoops, covered up or ignored his obvious decline. I posted time and again, facing the wrath of the usual party commissars who smeared me, accusing me of being ageist, MAGA or both. (I would do the same about Republican gerontocrats like Sen. Mitch McConnell, but they never seemed to mind that.)

It’s a very different political environment today, barely a year-and-a-half later. After Kamala Harris lost the run against Donald Trump, and with eight members of Congress having died in office since 2022 — all Democrats — people are fed up.

Pelosi’s announcement is a high-profile one, but far from the only example. This year, the second-highest ranking Senator, Dick Durbin (80), announced that he won’t be seeking reelection, along with Senators Gary Peters (66), Jeanne Shaheen (78) and Tina Smith (66) On the House side, there’s Representatives Jerry Nadler (77), Jan Schakowsky (81), Lloyd Doggett (78) Chuy Garcia (69), Maxine Waters (87), and Danny Davis (83).

Oh, and remember the New York Times story that said I had been condemned by both sides? Its author, Annie Karn (who never gave me an opportunity to comment by the way — interesting how fungible media “standards” are!) has since shifted to the gerontocracy beat, including dispatches on the decline of none other than Eleanor Holmes Norton.

“Ms. Norton’s story is a familiar one in Congress, an institution littered with towering figures who have stayed around well past the prime of their lives,” Karn reported for the Times in June A sentence like that used to be almost unthinkable; but nowadays, it’s commonplace.

On the night of Mamdani’s victory, CNN’s Jake Tapper observed the shift. “I can’t help but notice that Governor-Elect Sherill is 53, and Governor-Elect Spanberger is 46, and Mayor-Elect Mamdani is 34,” he said.

That night, Mamdani posted a campaign video with the Bob Dylan song, The Times Are A-Changin’. They sure are. Finally!

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Economic populism seems to be working. Siding with Trump doesn’t. Where does the Democratic Party go now?

By Tim Redmond

November 5, 2025 (48hills.org)

I will start off my discussion of the Nov. 4 election with a quote from my daughter: “It’s unfair. Why does New York get to have Zohran Mamdani and AOC and we have Daniel Lurie and Nancy Pelosi?”

Good question, although the Nancy Pelosi part just sorted itself out. Why has New York, which is generally considered a less progressive city, moved in the direction of economic democracy, while the supposedly liberal San Francisco is under the control of billionaires?

Adam Lashinsky, who writes for the SF Standard, has a piece in The Washington Post that I can only call bizarre. It’s almost obscene. He writes:

Mamdani and Lurie have a tremendous amount in common. Both are scions of privilege who bring little political experience to their jobs. The 34-year-old Mamdani, the progeny of a noted academic and an accomplished filmmaker, has been a state lawmaker for all of four years. Lurie, 48, grew up wealthy after his mother married Peter Haas, an heir to the Levi Strauss blue jeans dynasty. Before becoming mayor in January, Lurie had founded an anti-poverty nonprofit but had never held elected office.

Um … Mamdami is an immigrant who grew up middle class. Lurie is a white guy whose mother inherited more than $1 billion from an old-money fortune. Mamdani was elected to the New York State Assembly; Lurie was elected to nothing.

Mamdani realized that the middle class, even the upper-middle-class, has very little in common with the billionaire class. Even New Yorkers with decent jobs and incomes have a hard time paying the rent. He lives in a modest rent-controlled apartment. Lurie has never had to worry about paying rent in his life, and lives in a mansion.

In fact, the entire reason Mamdani won is that he pushed that economic point: People like Daniel Lurie have very little in common with people like Zohran Mamdani. That’s why so many New Yorkers voted for him.

Lashinsky goes on to say that these two mayors can define the future of the Democratic Party: If New York prospers, then the party can move to the left. If San Francisco prospers, then it’s all about fighting crime and helping developers and big business.

He misses a crucial point: Daniel Lurie can operate with the support of a very big-money political operation, and can depend on Gov. Gavin Newson, who mostly shares his agenda. Mamdani will be fighting the New York big money from Day One, and can’t raise taxes on the rich without the permission of the governor, who so far is siding with the big money and won’t go along.

There’s a much more important lesson here: The message that the economic crisis in the US is not the fault of immigrants, not the fault of neighborhoods, not the fault of whatever “Other” Donald Trump comes up with today, but the fault of the very rich taking all the resources of society—that seems to work.

Telling New Yorkers that they can have free and fast buses, free child care, rents that are frozen, and a lot more sounds like a promise no politician can fulfill in an era when the federal government is cutting off funds to Democratic cities. But Mamdani has said from the start: New York has plenty of money. We just to a modest tax on the rich to get it.

The late Huey Long, governor of Luisiana and the a US Senator, was corrupt as hell and a machine politician, but in 1934, in the depth of the Depression, he made the point pretty well:

How many men ever went to a barbecue and would let one man take off the table what’s intended for 9/10ths of the people to eat? The only way you’ll ever be able to feed the balance of the people is to make that man come back and bring back some of that grub he ain’t got no business with. 

The Lord has answered the prayer. He has called the barbecue: “Come to my feast,” He said to 125 million American people. But Morgan and Rockefeller and Mellon and Baruch have walked up and took 85 percent of the vittles off the table. 

The idea is simple: We can have nice things. We can have affordable housing and child care and transit and cities that work for people. But we have to tell the billionaires they need to bring a little of those vittles back to the table.

A group called the Patriotic Millionaires, rich people who say rich people should pay more taxes, put it this way:

We’ve been saying this for years, but Zohran Mamdani’s victory last night in the New York City mayoral election made it abundantly clear: economic populism is the way forward for Democrats to win back the affections of working people.

This is not a message we are hearing from Mayor Lurie or any of his allies. It is not a message we are hearing from Gavin Newsom. It is not a message we are hearing from Rep. Nancy Pelosi or from state Sen. Scott Wiener, who wants her job.

But it got a 34-year-old immigrant elected mayor of the biggest city in the US. Something for the Democrats to think about.

The other clear message we got from the election is that Trump is, even in some swing states, a net negative.

In New Jersey and Virginia, Democratic candidates for governor ran directly against Trump, and won.

So as we approach the 2026 midterms, Democrats in swing districts have a roadmap. Again, from the Patriotic Millionaires:

Given his performance last night, it’s safe to say that Zohran’s strategy paid off. He didn’t capitulate to voters on social issues like some pundits seem to think Democrats should. For example, he didn’t pretend to be anti-choice or against expanding protections for LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers to appeal to more conservative voters. He didn’t make social issues the focal point of his campaign because he rightly understood that the sky-high cost of living was what mattered most to city residents and kept the spotlight there. He did manage to “broaden the tent” and attract a diverse coalition of support from voters of different races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The trick to doing that, though, was putting a big economic populist sign in front of his tent to entice as many people as possible to get under it.
 
Zohran’s victory also reaffirms our belief in the popularity and viability of two of his policy proposals: instituting a 2% tax on the top 1% of New Yorkers and raising the city’s minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030.

Every district is different, and not every Democrat will be Mamdani. That’s fine. But the record shows that if the party wants to win, it needs to move not to the “left” or the “center” as those terms are badly defined but toward an economic agenda that puts the working class back as a real constituency—and tells the very rich they have to bring some of those vittles back to the table.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Tim Redmond

Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.

Mamdani’s victory means so much — including the repudiation of Islamophobic attacks and weaponization of antisemitism.

Natasha Lennard

November 4 2025 (TheIntercept.com)

On Friday night, early votes had already been cast in their many thousands for Mayor-elect of New York City Zohran Mamdani. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, who leads the prominent Central Synagogue in Manhattan, took the occasion to slander the democratic socialist candidate, purportedly in the name of Jewish New Yorkers.

“Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has contributed to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism,” Buchdahl said.

Buchdahl didn’t cite any actual antisemitism. Her problem with Mamdani was his criticism of Israel.

Mamdani’s alleged antisemitism? Pointing out, in 2023, the established fact that the Israeli military has trained hundreds of members of the New York Police Department, and that the NYPD and Israeli forces have intelligence sharing agreements. The rabbi also decried Mamdani’s “false claims of genocide” in Gaza — claims shared by leading genocide scholars, and every major international human rights organization.

That is, Buchdahl didn’t — and couldn’t — cite any actual antisemitism on the newly elected mayor’s part. Her problem, as was the case for the array of establishment Jewish voices who spoke out against Mamdani, was his criticism of Israel.

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Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City is a victory — or at least offers promise — for so many of the city’s working-class constituents. For our immigrant neighbors, trans siblings, and every New Yorker struggling to pay rent, eat, and access care in this punishingly expensive, brutally unequal place.

It is a particular bright relief that base Islamophobia — entrenched since the September 11 attacks, supercharged during the Gaza genocide, and drenching every campaign against Mamdani — did not prevail.

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Antisemitism Smears

Mamdani’s win marks a rejection of the consistently Islamophobic weaponization of antisemitism. I hope it is a turning point, from which other New York institutions learn. Diehard support for the Zionist project is, finally, not a sine qua non of New York City leadership.

If Mamdani’s victory was a victory over Islamophobia and false antisemitism allegations, it was not quite a total one. The significant support for the attacks against the mayor-elect, and the purchase they found with converts to disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was jarring.

It was depressing for this Jewish writer to see significant numbers of particularly older Jewish voters back the slanders against Mamdani. The explanation, however, is simple enough: The very same Jewish figures and groups have been organizing their political lives around support for a genocidal ethnostate.

With the genocide in Gaza raging, weaponized claims of antisemitism, launched by pro-Israel forces have won the day in this city for over two years. Students, workers, and other protesters stood up to decry their institutions’ complicity in Israel’s onslaught.

At every turn, Democratic leaders bolstered and enforced calls for expressions of Palestinian solidarity to be censured and punished. Mayor Eric Adams sent police to raid Columbia University campus protests at the direct behest of pro-Israel business leaders. Baseless accusations of antisemitism went wholly unchecked.

It was a lesson in cowardice and complicity, which has only served President Donald Trump’s attacks on higher education and anti-Arab, anti-Muslim immigration crackdowns.

Setting an Example

The fact that the majority of young Jewish New Yorkers expressed support for Mamdani, as did some of the most powerful Jewish politicians in the city and the country, should have long ago served to mute the attacks against him. Yet there will be no reasoning with a worldview that treats support for Palestinian freedom, and criticism of Israel, as a threat to Jewish life.

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Mamdani, however, did not have to sacrifice Palestinian solidarity to win this election. He did not have to pander to the endless false claims of antisemitism directed at him at every debate and most every mainstream press interview.

Mamdani did not have to sacrifice Palestinian solidarity to win this election.

And, when he is the mayor, there is every reason to demand that he uphold commitments to Palestinian solidarity, including ending municipal partnerships with the state of Israel as it continues its campaign of mass slaughter, displacement, occupation, and apartheid.

I have no doubt that Mamdani will live up to his vows to support and protect New York’s Jewish communities; there were never any justified grounds to believe otherwise. His mayorship, among so many other things, should set an example of how supporting Jewish New Yorkers can be paired with a refusal to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

“No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election,” said Mamdani Tuesday night, addressing his supporters in Brooklyn, after being declared the next mayor of New York City.Share

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Natasha Lennard@natashalennardon X

Here is the full draft text of the proposed constitutional initiative in Montana (known informally as the Montana Plan or Transparent Election Initiative) that would redefine the powers of “artificial persons” (e.g., corporations) and prohibit their spending on elections or ballot issues. Daily Montanan+1

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Full Text of Initiative

BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:

NEW SECTION. Section 1. Article XIII of The Constitution of the State of Montana is amended by adding a new section 8 that reads:

Section 8. Powers of Artificial Persons.
(1) Artificial Persons exist only by grant of the state and shall have no powers or privileges except those this constitution expressly provides. Daily Montanan

(2) (a) The legislature may by statute create Artificial Persons consistent with subsection (1).

(b) The people never did, and do not, intend the powers of Artificial Persons to include Election Activity or Ballot-Issue Activity. This section retracts all Artificial Persons’ powers and re-grants only those powers that the people deem necessary or convenient to carry out an Artificial Person’s lawful business or charitable purposes, as described in (3)(e). Powers related to Election Activity or Ballot-Issue Activity shall not be deemed necessary or convenient to those purposes. Daily Montanan

(3) Definitions.
(a) “Artificial Person” means every entity whose existence or limited-liability shield is conferred by Montana law, including, without limitation: … Daily Montanan
(e) “Artificial Person Powers” means powers necessary or convenient to carry out lawful business or charitable purposes, excluding any power to directly or indirectly engage in Election Activity or Ballot-Issue Activity. Daily Montanan
(f) “Charter Privilege” means any benefit to Artificial Persons that exists only because the state of Montana confers it, such as, without limitation, limited liability, perpetual duration, succession in its corporate name, and tax credits and abatements. Daily Montanan
(g) “Foreign Entity” means an Artificial Person organized or existing under the laws of any jurisdiction other than the state of Montana. Daily Montanan

(4) Total Revocation of Previous Power Grants.
(a) The creation and continued existence of an Artificial Person is not a right but a conditional grant of legal status by the state and remains subject to complete withdrawal at any time. All powers previously granted to any Artificial Person under Montana law are revoked in their entirety. No Artificial Person operating under the jurisdiction of this state shall possess any power unless specifically granted by this constitution. No provision of this constitution grants or recognizes any power of an Artificial Person to engage in Election Activity or Ballot-Issue Activity, except as provided in (5)(c). Daily Montanan

(b) Transitional Safe Harbor. Nothing in (4)(a) shall be construed to invalidate, impair, or modify any existing contract, debt instrument, security, or other legal obligation validly entered into before the effective date of [this act]; provided, however, that nothing herein authorizes any Election Activity or Ballot Issue Activity after the effective date. Daily Montanan

(5) Selective Re-Grant of Artificial Person Powers.
(a) Each Artificial Person possesses the powers defined in (3)(e), unless its organizational documents limit the exercise of such powers, and no powers beyond those expressly granted. No provision of this constitution grants or recognizes any power of an Artificial Person to engage in Election Activity or Ballot-Issue Activity, except as provided in (5)(c). Daily Montanan

(b) Any language in articles of incorporation, organization, association, or other organizational documents purporting to directly or indirectly confer Election-Activity authority or Ballot-Issue-Activity authority to Artificial Persons is void. Daily Montanan

(c) Political committees registered under Montana or federal law are entities created for the purpose of engaging in Election Activity and Ballot-Issue Activity. Such committees may be granted the power to engage in those activities provided that they exist solely for that purpose and claim no Charter Privilege other than limited liability. This constitution does not grant any other Artificial Person the power to engage in Election Activity or Ballot-Issue Activity. Daily Montanan

(d) No Charter Privilege shall be construed to authorize Election Activity or Ballot-Issue Activity. An Artificial Person that exercises Election-Activity authority or Ballot-Issue-Activity authority, unless expressly permitted to do so under (5)(c), initially forfeits all Charter Privileges as a matter of law. The legislature shall, during its first regular session following the effective date of [this act], enact procedures that allow reinstatement upon full disgorgement, certification of compliance, and payment of civil penalties. Daily Montanan

(6) Ultra Vires Actions. Any Election Activity or Ballot-Issue Activity conducted by an Artificial Person is ultra vires and void. Such conduct results in the forfeiture of Charter Privileges as provided in (5)(d) and shall also be subject to civil action by a member, shareholder, or the attorney general for injunctive relief, disgorgement, and confirmation or enforcement of the forfeiture. The legislature shall, during its first regular session following the effective date of [this act], enact procedures for such civil actions. Daily Montanan

(7) Severability. If any provision of [this act], or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remaining provisions and applications that are severable shall remain in effect. In such event, no prior grant of corporate powers shall be revived or reinstated, nor shall any court construe [this act] to authorize broader powers than are expressly conferred in [this act]. Daily Montanan

NEW SECTION. Section 2. Effective date. [This act] is effective January 1, 2027. Daily Montanan

President Donald Trump departs at the White House to the Miami, Florida on November 5, 2025, in Washington DC.

 (Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

One critic warned a Trump win “will cement a precedent that expands his power as executive in a dangerous and unprecedented way.”

Brad Reed

Nov 05, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

As the US Supreme Court on Wednesday began hearing arguments on the sweeping powers claimed by President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on foreign goods, many critics warned that the court would create a “presidency without limits” if it ruled in his favor.

In April, Trump unveiled unprecedented tariffs on nearly every nation in the world using powers granted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law passed in 1977 that allows the president to regulate international commerce during major emergencies such as wars.

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Many Trump critics believe that using this law as the legal foundation of a global tariff regime is a gross abuse of the law’s original intent, and are urging the Supreme Court to shut it down.

Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs at Stand Up America, warned that granting the president this level of authority over the taxation of imported goods would “open the door to broader abuses of power” by emboldening Trump to usurp even more authority from the US Congress.

“We’re already dangerously close to a presidency without limits,” he said. “It’s time for the right-wing majority on the court to stand up for our Constitution and serve as a check on Trump’s power, starting with this case.”

Josh Orton, president of progressive legal advocacy organization Demand Justice, also said that the tariff case before the Supreme Court “is about far more than an economic debate or a trade-law dispute,” given its implications for the separation of powers laid out in the US Constitution.

“Trump is demanding that the court hand him raw power over the economy,” said Orton. “If Trump wins here, he won’t just raise costs on American families. He will cement a precedent that expands his power as executive in a dangerous and unprecedented way—letting any president unilaterally rewrite trade law, punish certain industries, harm consumers, or leverage international allies for personal gain.”

Leor Tal, campaign director at the progressive advocacy coalition Unrig Our Economy, argued that the Supreme Court wouldn’t even need to hear the case on the Trump tariffs if Congress reasserted its authority given under the US Constitution to levy taxes.

“As the Supreme Court hears a case with implications for whether Americans can afford groceries, school supplies, and more, people will remember that Republicans in Congress could end these disastrous tariffs today and should have done so a long time ago,” she said. “These tariffs are nothing more than a tax on working Americans, and Republicans in Congress have voted time and again to keep them in place… Republicans in Congress must act immediately to repeal Trump’s tariffs and finally put working people first.”

During Wednesday’s hearing on the tariffs case, conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch raised concerns about allowing the president to usurp congressional powers in perpetuity by issuing emergency declarations that Congress must then vote to revoke before it can resume its duties outlined in Article I of the US Constitution.

“So Congress, as a practical matter, can’t get this power back once it’s handed it over to the president,” Gorsuch remarked. “It’s a one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people’s elected representatives.”

Sauer tried to counter this by pointing to former President Joe Biden agreeing in 2023 to sign bipartisan legislation ending the national health emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gorsuch, however, countered that this only occurred with the president’s consent, and that it would otherwise take a supermajority to end a declared emergency if the president elected to veto the congressional resolution.

Gorsuch: So congress as a practical matter, can't get this power back once it's handed it over to the president.. one way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people's elected representatives. pic.twitter.com/secLyWMX7H

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 5, 2025

Justice Sonia Sotomayor also grilled Sauer on concerns about separation of powers, and she noted that the Constitution explicitly delegates taxation powers to Congress.

“It’s a congressional power, not a presidential power, to tax,” she said. “You want to say tariffs are not taxes, but that’s exactly what they are. They’re generating money from American citizens, revenue.”

Justice Sotomayor asks about tariffs being a kind of tax on Americans and compares President Trump's emergency tariff Executive Orders to President Biden's student loan forgiveness policy and a hypothetical climate emergency. pic.twitter.com/nD0MYgVjv3

— CSPAN (@cspan) November 5, 2025

Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing this week, Trump posted a frantic message on his Truth Social platform warning justices that his power to unilaterally impose tariffs was a matter of “life or death” for the United States.

“”With a Victory, we have tremendous, but fair, financial and national security,“ he claimed. ”Without it, we are virtually defenseless against other countries who have, for years, taken advantage of us.“

Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said on social media Wednesday that “Trump’s tariffs are sending small businesses to an early grave.”

“Trade authority begins and ends with Congress,” the senator added. “I’ll keep battling to rein in Trump’s tariff madness and protect small businesses, farmers, and families.”

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Brad Reed

Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

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