Politics and views in the United States.

Trump considers invoking Insurrection Act, as blue states mount legal challenge to Guard deployments; SCOTUS considers a CO ban on conversion therapy.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

If people were being killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I'd do that.

I mean, I wanna make sure that people aren't killed.

We have to make sure that our cities are safe.

President Donald Trump says he might use the Insurrection Act to send troops to American cities as state leaders in Illinois and Oregon sued to stop deployments in Chicago and Portland.

The governor of Illinois calls sending Texas National Guardsmen to Chicago an invasion and along with the city, cites a "threat of occupation" in their suit.

A federal judge has already blocked troops from going to Portland.

Trump threatened to use the 200-year-old law during anti-ice protests in Los Angeles this summer.

Anti-ice protesters in Chicago have clashed with federal agents during an immigration crackdown called Operation Midway Blitz.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is refusing to debate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries over the government shutdown.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says the president is not telling the truth when he says negotiations on health care subsidies are underway.

The Senate yesterday again rejected dueling stopgap funding bills.

New Jersey Democratic Senator Andy Kim says Republicans are not even trying to stop the health insurance crisis coming for millions of Americans.

The Trump administration is not focused on lowering your costs.

If they were, they'd be here at the Capitol today working to find a way to lower health care costs as we're about to see them spike for millions of Americans.

The shutdown is starting to impact air travelers.

Airports in Denver and Newark have started to see delays from air traffic staffing shortages with more likely.

Democrats are slamming Johnson for refusing to swear in Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva after her special election victory in Arizona.

Winners of special elections are typically sworn in immediately, but Grijalva looks likely to be the deciding vote on a move to force the release of files on multimillionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The Supreme Court is turning away an appeal from Epstein's longtime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

That means Maxwell's sex trafficking conviction stands.

But the court is set to hear oral arguments today in a case challenging a Colorado ban on conversion therapy for minors.

The plaintiff is a therapist who says the law violates her First Amendment rights to free speech and religious liberty because sessions only involve talk.

Casey Pick with the Trevor Project says peer-reviewed research shows the bans in two dozen states prevent harm to children and their families.

Youth who are subjected to conversion therapy are twice as likely to report a suicide attempt in the previous year, two and a half times as likely to report multiple suicide attempts in the previous year.

That is what is at stake in this case.

Proponents of conversion therapy claimed homosexuality is a choice resulting from an emotional disorder.

The American Psychiatric Association condemns it as a violation of a therapist's oath to do no harm.

The acting head of the CDC supports a call from Trump to break up an important childhood vaccine.

In a significant change, the measles, mumps, and Rubella shots could end up being given separately.

I'm Zimone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.