Midterm Fallout: What the Election Means for the Supreme Court, Alito, and Thomas

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for November 5, 2026.

We open the week after the midterms by asking whether the left is turning on its own. Democrats have barely finished celebrating, and activists in Minnesota are already threatening moderates. A protest group promoting an event in St. Paul has told invited Democratic politicians “we will eat you if you do nothing,” and the flyer demands impeachments, an end to funding for all Department of Homeland Security operations (yes, the Coast Guard and FEMA too), and new leaders to replace Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. We talk about what it means for the party, with a little disagreement between us on how literally to take the rhetoric, and ask who ends up suffering when essential government services get caught in the crossfire.

Then it’s the Top 3 Things You Need to Know. Weekly unemployment claims fell to 189,000, the lowest since mid-July and a stretch of historic lows. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon is resigning from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. And Governor Gavin Newsom has commuted the sentences of all 548 people on California’s death row, which gets us debating the morality of the decision.

After the break, we look at Florida’s historic election of Byron Donalds as its first black governor. We react to the MS NOW commentary that followed and ask why celebrating a milestone seems to depend on the letter next to a candidate’s name. In American Mamas, Teri Netterville joins us to talk about the Russell Brand verdict and the documentary that preceded it.

Next we unpack how Democrats won by steering clear of immigration in the general election and talking about affordability instead. We argue that winning without taking on the issues doesn’t mean you’ve resolved them, and that governing means making decisions. In Digging Deep, we look at what the results mean for the Supreme Court. We walk through the ages of Justices Alito and Thomas, the 2028 Senate map, and why Republicans face a steep climb to confirm a conservative justice. We also cover the Kremlin’s reaction to the election. Dmitry Peskov made it clear that Moscow knows who is still commander-in-chief.

In our Bright Spot, voters in Perry, Ohio passed Issue 16, which requires data centers that take tax breaks to post a performance bond. We look at how it could protect taxpayers, and at what Meta’s data center is doing for teacher pay in Richland Parish. Finally, we react to the Congressional Equality Caucus calling the incoming Congress “the gayest in history” and ask whether anyone would settle for the most competent. We close with a Moment of Whoa about two Florida schoolteachers, Maren and David Douglas, who put a bench and a little free library at the end of their driveway for a girl who was waiting for the school bus in the dirt..

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

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