Attribution: Vance Claims Consistent Shape Shifting by Steve Sack
For 41 years, Steve Sack was the cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune where he won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 2013. Steve is a shining star in our profession.
Nine members of the Kennedy family have asked a federal judge to let them join the legal battle against Donald Trump’s proposed 250-foot “triumphal” arch near Arlington National Cemetery. Their complaint: Trump’s monument would cast shadows across Kennedy family graves and disrupt historic views of President John F. Kennedy’s Eternal Flame.
The family includes Kerry Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III and Edward M. Kennedy Jr. (Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s health secretary, did not join the action).
The relatives argue that the arch would permanently diminish the gravesites of JFK, Robert Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, along with the solemn setting of Arlington National Cemetery. Their lawyers, Norman Eisen and Steve Jonas of Democracy Defenders Fund, contend that the administration lacks congressional authorization for the project.
WHY THIS MATTERS IN COURT
The Kennedy family brings a powerful new argument: personal harm to family graves and memorials.
That could matter at the Supreme Court, which previously allowed Trump’s White House ballroom construction to resume after questioning whether preservation advocates had standing to sue.
Virginia and D.C. already claim direct financial and operational harm from the arch. Now the Kennedys cite threatened shadows and obstructed views at gravesites they regularly visit.
Their filing calls the arch a “permanent denigration” of the gravesites, warning that relatives “would never again be able to appreciate both sites as they always have before.”
On November 5, the National Capital Planning Commission approved Trump’s arch 8–4. Less than two hours later, Judge Tanya Chutkan blocked construction for 14 days.
Chutkan questioned the administration’s legal authority to build the monument and recognized potential harm to D.C. and Virginia.
The Kennedys must win permission to join the lawsuit. Meanwhile, Chutkan’s temporary construction ban remains in effect.
Three questions now loom: Did Congress authorize the arch? Will Chutkan extend her construction ban? And could the Supreme Court overturn it, as it did with Trump’s ballroom?
The Kennedys add a fourth: Can a president erect a monument that permanently alters the gravesites of another president and his family?
Attribution: Churchill Quote on American Resolve by Bob Englehart
Bob Englehart was the editorial cartoonist for the Hartford Courant for 35 years when his job was eliminated by the hedge fund that bought the newspaper. Before that, he worked for Chicago Today, the Journal-Gazette in Ft. Wayne, IN and the Journal Herald in Dayton, OH. He studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago on scholarship. His progressive editorial cartoons have been distributed all over the world by CagleCartoons.com for nearly 20 years.
Cartoon Attribution: Mike Konopacki
Mike Konopacki (born c. 1951) is an American political cartoonist from Wisconsin, best known for his labor-focused editorial cartoons and co‑founding the Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons syndicate
Cello Concerto in B♭ major (G 482) by Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini
Cello solo performed by Xavier Phillips
Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini[; 19 February 1743 – 28 May 1805) was an Italian composer and cellist of the Classical era whose music retained a courtly and galante style even while he matured somewhat apart from the major classical musical centers.
He is best known for the minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5 (G 275), and the Cello Concerto in B♭ major (G 482).
Enjoy, Jack
Attribution: REACTION TO 2026 MIDTERM RESULTS by Dave Granlund
Dave Granlund’s cartoons have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek.
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