ENVI

The effort to fill the top Agriculture Department civil rights post got a setback this week with the resignation of Naomi C. Earp, the nominee for the position who has been serving as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights.

Earp, chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under President George W. Bush, has been under fire from Rep. Marcia L. Fudge, D-Ohio, chairwoman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight and Department Operations.

A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court said Friday that young climate activists established that government policies worsened climate change but dismissed the activists’ case seeking to force policy changes, ruling it was beyond the court’s power.

In a 2-1 decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel accepted the argument that climate change had accelerated in recent years and that government policies encouraged fossil fuel use even as authorities knew it could have disastrous consequences. But the Constitution doesn’t empower courts to force such sweeping changes to policies at several federal agencies, the majority ruled.

Impeachment might be the hottest topic on the Hill, but Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is preparing for another epic clash on the horizon — the NFC Championship matchup between the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers. 

Last year, he served up fast food from McDonald’s. This year, he served up “big strong” compliments.

As the shadow of an impeachment trial looms, Louisiana State University’s newly minted national champion football team provided President Donald Trump a welcome distraction Friday morning at the White House.

Millions in legal expenses for Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption scandal

The New Jersey Democrat spent $5.16 million on his defense, according to his legal expense fund filing with the Senate Office of Public Records. The trust was formed in 2014 at the beginning of Menendez’s legal woes. It allows people to make contributions to Menendez so he can fight his legal battles associated with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics inquiries and allegations of federal law violations associated with his role as a senator.

Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser on Friday stopped short of endorsing the president’s repeated claim that the U.S. economy is at its strongest point in the country’s history.

“In history? I think it’ll rank up there, yes,” Lawrence Kudlow told CQ Roll Call on Friday. But he notably did not say the U.S. economy is the strongest it’s ever been as his boss heads into what pollsters and strategists in both parties say could be a photo-finish election.

President Donald Trump’s legal team will include former Bill Clinton prosecutors Kenneth Starr and Richard Ray and retired Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, multiple media outlets reported Friday.

Starr investigated the sexual misconduct allegations that led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment before resigning as special counsel saying "intense politicization of the independent counsel process" had diminished public confidence in the justice system. Ray, who was a prosecutor in Starr’s office, wrote the final report on the investigation after succeeding his boss.

It was an historic week in Congress. The House selected its trial managers before sending the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over to the other side of the Capitol.