How Far Did SCOTUS Go This Term?
How Far Did SCOTUS Go This Term?
Plus: The GOP Presidential Field’s Brightest Ideas
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THE NEXT LEVEL🎥: SCOTUS Breakdown (Live at 7pm ET)
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KIMBERLY WEHLE: How Far Did SCOTUS Go This Term?
Just in time to celebrate two-hundred and forty-seven years of American independence, the Supreme Court wrapped up another term last week. To some, as Adam Liptak wrote for the New York Times, the term “produced a fair number of liberal victories,” a conclusion that can be quantified, however imperfectly, by statistical breakdowns of how often progressive justices voted with the conservatives this term.
While some decisions announced this term avoided major regressions of established law and revealed unexpected majorities, to a large degree those “wins” merely produced sighs of relief that the Court’s conservative majority restrained itself when handed opportunities to substantially reshape established law.
TIMOTHY C. HEMMIS AND DAVID HEAD: This July Fourth, Remember the ‘Founding Scoundrels.’
As Americans celebrating Independence Day, we tend to want to remember the ideal promised by the new nation: that the United States would be a place where high-minded people led virtuous citizens in a spirit of well-ordered liberty. That’s what Thomas Paine meant in 1776 when he wrote that “we have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest, purest constitution on the face of the earth.” And it’s certainly how the Founding Fathers themselves wanted to be remembered.
But some of their contemporaries interpreted “every opportunity” differently.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
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BILL LUEDERS: The GOP Presidential Field’s Brightest Ideas.
THE FIELD OF CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR the Republican nomination for president is, if not set, then at least coming together. More than a dozen candidates have announced, all brimming with bright ideas. What ideas are they brimming with? What would they like to see happen? Here’s a look at some of the goals being advanced by the men and woman who would be president.
CATHY YOUNG: Putin in London.
APPLAUSE FOR VLADIMIR PUTIN is an unlikely thing to find in a Western European capital right now, yet eight times a week he receives an ovation at the conclusion of Patriots, a play by veteran British playwright and screenwriter Peter Morgan (best known for The Crown, The Queen, and Frost/Nixon). Patriots—playing through August 19 in the Noël Coward Theatre in London’s West End—is mainly focused on the life and career of the late Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who spent his final years in the United Kingdom and who died, apparently by suicide, in his home near Windsor ten years ago.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Wednesday! Hope you had a fun and safe Fourth of July. We watched the fireworks on the mall from a safe distance, but some neighborhood fireworks were a little close for comfort!
🎵On the Jukebox🎵 Bring on the Lucie, cover by Richard Ashcroft.
JVL breaks down some GOP Ads 🔥… Over at Pod Save America.
A GOP Presidential candidate goes on Newsmax… And tells his fellow panelists that Trump is going to prison for a long time. Their reaction is priceless. Can you guess who said it?
Trump’s lawyers must love him… After he “Truth’d” an allegation that Special Counsel Jack Smith might be responsible for the cocaine discovered at the White House.
The new GOP litmus test… Is dangerous, writes David Frum in The Atlantic.
Reclaiming Real American Patriotism… Also at The Atlantic, Tom Nichols says: “This Fourth of July, let’s rescue our love of country from those who have hijacked it.”
L. Lin Wood throws in the towel… Retiring rather than face certain disbarment.
Toyota announces EV breakthrough… 745 mile range and 10 minute charging time?
Meanwhile, at the Moms for “Liberty” conference… Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC) encouraged the audience to keep reading and quoting Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.
No context American politics… How many references do you recall? (I stopped counting.)
What was found in Yevgeny Prigozhin’s houses? Here are some pictures. (Whether anything was planted is another thing. It is Russia after all.)
Back in Ohio… The perpetrator in the 10 year old rape case was sentenced to life in prison.
…and in Wisconsin… Gov. Tony Evers used his “veto powers to extend annual increases for public schools for the next four centuries.” In plain English, Evers is allowing school districts to raise taxes on a per pupil basis up to $325 per student per year until the year 2425. Wisconsin, it seems, has a pretty expansive veto power!
…and in Georgia… “Badly drafted laws are creating a reactionary frenzy” writes Greg Sargent, who tells the story of a teacher who was fired for reading “My Shadow is Purple” to fifth graders.
Alright, alright, alright… Nicholas Russell of Defector sat through the five hour Matthew McConaughey seminar so you didn’t have to.
The Long Lines… Not far from where I live is one a hundred or so hulking towers with microwave communications dishes that were once part of AT&T’s long lines system. There’s one in Ohio near where my parents live you can spot off the Turnpike. They’re dystopian looking, have a cool history, and they’re slowly disappearing. Enjoy these pictures from Wired.
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