Folks, thank you for your patience while I navigated Report Season–until I get my hands on that cloning technology, some weeks do be like this. In the meantime, we’ve had a truly impressive run of bad, weird news over the past couple of weeks. Some, like the OceanGate submersible implosion, whatever it is Elon Musk is currently doing with twitter, and the Wagner company abortive uprising in Russia, are juuust outside the current purview of the NNR. Others, like the past week’s constitution-breaking SCOTUS session, will definitely be covered below.
Standard standing reminders still apply: I may be well into my seventh year of journalism, but I summarize news within my areas of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not an opinion!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!
Cleanup in Aisle 45:
We’re still stuck on 45 for the original flavor Election Rejection this week. Here’s what has happened:
- Impeachment and Indictment Season. There was a smattering of news over the past couple of weeks about Trump’s latest criminal charges, which incidentally are likely to begin trial in December. But there was also a lot of developing news about his 2020 election illegalities, such as the fake elector plot, his pressure of state officials to overturn election results, and his administration’s rather pointed inaction in the days leading up to January 6. (He’s also suing E. Jean Carroll for defamation, by the way, and as far as I can tell the entire basis of the suit is that she sued him and won.) Meanwhile, House Republicans have begun a probe to impeach Biden because… vibes, I guess? And they publicly censured former intel committee head Adam Schiff for doing his job, which would probably bother him way more if he weren’t successfully fundraising for re-election from it.
For yet another week, the main news story on the Biden Rebuilding front is financial. Here’s what I have for you:
- Student Loan Plan Scramble. As we’ll discuss more below, SCOTUS opted to completely negate Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan on Friday. Needless to say, with loan forbearance ending this fall, that puts a lot of people in a bad place. To his credit, Biden wasted no time in announcing an adapted plan when the decision came down. The new proposal isn’t as comprehensive or supportive, but I suppose it’s better than nothing.
Your New Normal:
- Health Horrorshows. Boy howdy, was there a lot going on over the past couple of weeks health-wise. In “I work on this at my day job” news, the Biden administration is horrified by how many people are getting kicked off of Medicaid for things like missing paperwork, so they are politely asking states to Do Better. Meanwhile, June 24 marks one year since the Dobbs decision, which has curtailed abortion access and worsened health outcomes in about half the states in the country. (Needless to say, the decision has remained unpopular a year later, given those outcomes.) Finally, much of the country continues to experience poor air quality and/or extreme heat due to climate change, which is causing health problems for many people as well.
The Bad:
- SCOTUS Scandals and Screeds. Speaking of Dobbs and horrors, this past week’s SCOTUS cases were easily as destructive–so it’s extra fun that they were kicked off by yet another corruption scandal about a sitting justice. (This time, it was Justice Alito, who failed to disclose his fishing trip with a billionaire who had 10 cases before SCOTUS in the recent past.) In addition to the crappy Navajo water rights decision leading into the week, we had several new nadirs of jurisprudence: 1) The effective end of affirmative action for college admissions, which overturns 45 years of precedent; 2) Expansion of Christian religious accommodations for state employees, which overturns 46 years of precedent; 3) Erosion of LGBT equal rights protections based on a case that lacked ripeness and standing, because no one was requesting the services in question and the plaintiff didn’t even offer them; and 4) Negation of Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan based on a case where Missouri didn’t have standing. I am stressing the aberrations in each of these cases because, as Biden has publicly noted, none of this is normal for SCOTUS, and I really want people to understand that the decisions are damaging to the institution itself. These decisions are the legal equivalent of taking a check to the bank that isn’t signed and is made out to a guy named Steve you’ve never met, and the teller going “well I like Steve so here you go” and depositing it in your account anyway. In addition to being bad news for whoever’s checkbook that was, it just doesn’t follow the bank’s rules or make any sense.
The Good:
- Recent Judicial Resilience (again). We did have a handful of promising court opinions as well, though of course they do not offset the above. In Tennessee and Kentucky, federal judges paused hormone blocker bans for adolescents; a similar ban for Medicaid recipients was struck down in Florida. There were also a few silver linings and decent decisions out of SCOTUS; they tossed out an unhinged lawsuit that demanded Biden order more deportations and re-affirmed the role of courts in keeping election districts at least somewhat constitutional. Some advocates are also saying that there is room for holistic review within the Students for Fair Admission case, and it has already sparked another lawsuit regarding legacy enrollment that may broaden existing positive change in admission practices.
So that’s what I have for you, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this Papa Roach filk and a more functional government. I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours in the day!
National News Roundup 