June 19

Black Texans preserve Juneteenth for 150 years despite suppression

As the United States marked the third federal Juneteenth holiday, historians and community organizers documented how Black Texans preserved the June 19 emancipation observance for 150 years despite Jim Crow suppression, lack of official recognition, and attempts to erase the holiday from public life. Churches, fraternal organizations, and families maintained the tradition when states refused to recognize it.

Biden signs the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law

President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on June 17, 2021, establishing June 19 as the twelfth federal public holiday, effective immediately. The Senate passed the bill unanimously and the House voted 415-14. The law commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of slavery — more than two months after the Confederacy surrendered. Black activists and community organizations had campaigned for federal recognition for more than four decades.

Trump claims that immigrants infest America, echoing Nazi dehumanization language

During the family separation crisis at the southern border, President Trump tweeted that Democrats "want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13." The word "infest" — used to describe vermin and insect invasions — drew immediate condemnation from historians and civil rights groups who noted the term mirrors language used to dehumanize Jewish people in Nazi propaganda. The Forward published an analysis tracing the ugly history of the verb. The tweet came as DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was separating more than 2,300 children from parents at the border. Trump continued using the word "infest" in immigration speeches through his first and second terms.

Supreme Court rules Congress cannot force states to administer federal radioactive waste program in New York v. United States

The Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act that required states to "take title" to radioactive waste if they failed to create disposal sites by a federal deadline. Justice O'Connor wrote for the 6-3 majority that the Constitution does not permit Congress to compel state legislatures or executives to enact or enforce a federal regulatory program. The ruling established what scholars now call the anti-commandeering doctrine.

Senate passes War Powers Resolution 75-18, overriding Nixon veto threat

The Senate approves the War Powers Resolution by a 75-18 veto-proof margin, sending it to a conference committee to reconcile with the House version. The bill responds to Nixon's secret 1970 bombing of Cambodia without congressional authorization. Nixon has privately signaled he will veto the measure as an unconstitutional infringement on executive commander-in-chief authority.

Barry Goldwater votes against the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater casts one of the Senate's decisive "no" votes on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on June 19, 1964, citing Titles II and VII as unconstitutional federal overreach. Six of the seven other Republicans who vote against the bill represent Deep South states; Goldwater represents Arizona. His opposition gives the segregationist South a credible vehicle inside the Republican Party for the first time. Goldwater wins his home state and five Deep South states in the November election — Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina — states LBJ carries nowhere else. Political analysts including Kevin Phillips later identify that vote and its electoral result as the founding moment of the Republican "Southern Strategy," a deliberate courtship of white voters alienated by civil rights legislation.

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FDR signs the Communications Act, creating the FCC

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Communications Act of 1934, consolidating federal regulation of broadcast, telephone, and telegraph under a new Federal Communications Commission. The law replaces the Federal Radio Commission and grants the FCC authority to issue, modify, and revoke broadcast licenses "in the public interest, convenience, and necessity." This public interest standard becomes the legal hook that allows future administrations to threaten broadcasters when their coverage proves politically inconvenient. FCC licensing jurisdiction over the public airwaves — established here — remains the structural foundation for government leverage over broadcast media for nearly 90 years.

Communications Act of 1934 creates Federal Communications Commission

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Communications Act of 1934, abolishing the Federal Radio Commission and creating the seven-member Federal Communications Commission with broad authority over interstate and foreign communications by wire and radio. The law codifies the "public interest, convenience, and necessity" standard and grants the FCC power to regulate broadcasting, telephone, and telegraph services. This becomes the foundational legal framework for U.S. communications regulation for the next 62 years.