It's already been a busy week in state and national politics.

We talked earlier in the show about Congressman James Comer and the Biden impeachment effort.

A new Kentucky law affecting the homeless and the passage of a foreign aid bill backed by Senator Mitch McConnell.

Here's our nation with some perspective on all three.

Renee?

Time now for a midweek check in of some major political developments so far this week with our friend Roland Martin, who's a senior editor with NPR States.

Tim, good to see you.

You can see, too, Renee.

So let's start with some action on the SCOTUS front, the Supreme Court of the United States.

They are considering and listening to or have listened to arguments about a case involving homelessness and whether or not cities can punish people for sleeping outside.

And this has some implications for a new Kentucky law House Bill five that outlaws outdoor camping.

Tell us about this case and its possible consequences for Kentucky.

Right.

So Kentucky is one of many states and in cities that have passed laws like this, creating a criminal penalty for street camping in public places.

But this Supreme Court case involves a ban that that was put in place in Grants Pass, Oregon, a couple of years ago that was ultimately blocked by a federal appeals court out West and made its way all the way up to the Supreme Court.

And really, this case is going to determine how policies around homeless people are set in the nation one way or the other, whether or not that you can implement these kinds of bans or whether or not you can't and and and states and cities want a lot to figure out after that.

Either way that this case goes on a obviously Kentucky legislature passed this overwhelmingly this year.

A lot of the Republican led legislatures supported it.

It was vetoed by by Governor Beshear, but it was easily overridden.

You know, this bill also included several other elements here.

But, you know, this is something that Republican supporters of the bill say that this is, you know, there needs to be some sort of penalty for or street camping to prevent folks from from, you know, from putting their tents up and in places that are in public places.

And Democrats say this is going to cost this the process, the city and the state a lot of money, but it comes down to it.

But I think that this is either way, it's something that a lot of has to be figured out right now because there has been this increase in the number of homeless people that are out on the streets since since the coronavirus pandemic and cities have struggled to deal with this.

But I think a lot of people are worried that by creating criminal penalties for this, it's going to lead to a lot worse outcomes from people who are already in really dire situations.

And, you know, it takes a lot to wind up having to have to deal with criminal penalties like that.

Or there's been a lot of response just this week alone from community members and groups in Louisville and several cities across the state and members of Kentucky's federal delegation, Democrat and Republican, are also voicing their opinions about this particular issue.

You know, Rand Paul was in western Kentucky earlier this week voicing his support for this law.

And, you know, he says that this is something that the federal government ends up having to spend a lot of money on.

And even more in McGarvie was in Louisville.

Democratic Congressman Morgan Garvey was in Louisville earlier this week saying just the opposite.

The federal government ends up having to spend a you know, will will end up having to spend a lot more money on criminalizing homelessness.

So there's as we often see, there's a much different opinions on on how how exactly this law will be implemented.

But yeah, it's it's it's something that, you know, every every city and state in the country just about is dealing with right now.

And, you know, I think that no matter what there's there's got to be some step forward here, whether it's states or the federal government, to kind of deal with that, figure out what what a policy going forward with can look like.

Yeah, And we should remind our viewers that in the Kentucky law that was part of the sweeping anti-crime bill, House Bill five, the Safer Kentucky Act, as it was called, it was a $250 fine, I believe, for unlawful camping and possibly a misdemeanor offense.

So that's what's causing the consternation about that.

Shifting gears pretty drastically, talk about foreign aid.

So Tuesday night, the US Senate passed on a rather substantial vote, a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The House had already done this over the weekend.

Senator McConnell, of course, who's been a vocal supporter of more support for Ukraine, voted yes.

Tell us about this deal.

Yeah, it's another example of how Kentucky's two U.S. senators really show that the two different sides of the Republican Party in the United States right now, especially when it comes to to foreign aid and foreign policy.

This is something that Mitch McConnell has pushed for extensively and really in his speech earlier this year when he was announcing that he would resign from leadership at the end of the year.

He said that this show that, you know, he was stepping down at this time, that the Republican Party is really shifting, But he really wanted to stick to his stick to his guns on on this foreign aid package and assisting Ukraine against the Russian invasion and also assisting Israel.

And so this is this is a big deal for McConnell.

And it was really notable in that he gave a speech later in in the week blaming Tucker Carlson for his rhetoric around Russia and Ukraine and said that he had ended up in the in the right place, which was not on Fox News anymore, but also interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin and also blamed former President Donald Trump for muddying the waters around this issue and and leading a lot of people to to feel that this was an important thing for the United States to participate in, which is notable because, you know, McConnell has come out and endorsed Donald Trump.

Obviously, they've had a very fraught relationship over the last couple of years.

He blames the former president for the January six insurrection at the US Capitol.

And so he's still he's still willing to criticize the former president at least when it comes to this issue of foreign policy, because he really wants Republicans to end up, you know, still, you know, supporting the United States's position as a as a country that's going to intervene in situations like this.

Yeah.

And finally, in about 25 seconds, CNN reported just this morning that Kentucky's first congressional district Congressman James Comer, who heads the House Oversight Committee, is, quote, privately fed up and done with the Biden impeachment probe and desperate for an offramp.

Tell us more about this headline.

Yeah.

Important to mention that this is from an anonymous source in Congress.

But, you know, this is something that we've seen for the last several months as Congressman Conyers pursued this impeachment inquiry.

But that really hasn't gotten off the ground.

And this story really showing that the saying that he's he's ready to be done with this and also hinting that he's possibly considering a run for higher office or a run for, you know, possibly coming back and running for governor in Kentucky, which he's done before.

So he's at least according to this story, he's ready to be done with this particular chapter.

Yeah.

Well, thank you, Robin Barton, as always, for breaking it down for us.

We appreciate it.

Thanks, Renee.

Laura, back to you.

All right.

Thank you so much, Renee.

And now to more political news.

A federal judge is refusing to overturn a $360,000 judgment against Kim Davis, the former Rowan County clerk.

Davis refused to issue same sex marriage licenses in 2015.

She said it was against her religious beliefs.

She did jail time and was eventually voted out of office.

A gay couple sued her and won $100,000 plus $260,000 in fees and expenses.

The Lexington Herald-Leader says Judge David Bunning refused to set aside the verdict.

He says the couple provided ample evidence of how Davis harmed them.