Ohio State Rep. Jean Schmidt (R) said during a radio interview this week that she would entertain a debate about outlawing birth control in the wake of the United States Supreme Court overturning constitutional protections for abortion, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
New York Moves to Enshrine Abortion Rights
“The New York State Senate on Friday passed a measure that, if fully enacted, would enshrine in the State Constitution the right to seek an abortion and access contraception,” the New York Times reports.
“The measure — the Equal Rights Amendment — places New York at the forefront of legal efforts to protect reproductive rights after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last week, ending long-established abortion protections.”
“But the amendment’s reach is far broader. It prohibits the government from discriminating against anyone based on a list of qualifications including race, ethnicity, national origin, disability or sex — specifically noting sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and pregnancy on the list of protected conditions.”
Trump’s Political Position Will Only Get Worse
David Rothkopf: “Mark it on your calendars. This was the week the meteoric political career of Donald Trump did what meteors often do and collided with planet Earth, leaving a large, ugly mark on the landscape.”
“The fact that Trump may soon announce his candidacy for the presidency in the days ahead is itself more of a sign of his political collapse than it is of any strength he may have. The first time he ran for president, he did it because he thought it would boost his brand. This time he is likely to do it because he thinks it may make him more difficult to prosecute. And because he can use it to mount one last big attempt to fleece his supporters.”
Sleeper ‘Wire Fraud’ Scheme Could Nail Trumpworld
Daily Beast: “While the Jan. 6 hearings have delivered explosive testimony and evidence suggesting that a number of former administration officials may face criminal liability related to the attack on the Capitol—possibly all the way up to Trump—there’s another potential criminal liability that has largely been lost in the news.”
“That would be the sprawling wire fraud conspiracy which the Jan. 6 special select committee alleged in its second hearing, on June 13, a scheme which legal experts say contains the ingredients for possible federal charges against officials with the campaign and the Republican National Committee—as well as Trump himself.”
DeSantis Closes Gap with Trump in Possible GOP Primary
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis now trails Donald Trump by just 9 percentage points in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll — the only single-digit gap between the two potential rivals in any major national survey to date.”
“In a striking sign of vulnerability for the former president — and a possible warning that his vice-like grip on the GOP base is slipping — less than half of registered voters who identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning independents say they would choose Trump (45%) over DeSantis. Another 36% say they would pick DeSantis, while 18% say they’re not sure yet.”
Trump’s Fundraising Nosedives
Associated Press: “Trump’s fundraising has fallen off dramatically over the last two months. He reported raising just over $19,000 in May and June combined after taking in nearly $9 million in March and April.”
Not an Easy Week for Vladimir Putin
Associated Press: “He took his first foreign trip since the invasion of Ukraine to shore up relations with troublesome Central Asian allies. He watched as NATO declared Moscow its main enemy and invited Russia’s neighbors Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. And he was forced to deny that his troops had yet again attacked a civilian target in Ukraine.”
“Countering a show of Western unity over Ukraine at a series of summits in Europe this week, Putin has sought to cast the moves by the U.S. and its allies as a proof of their hostile designs, and he vowed to press the offensive against Russia’s neighbor, now in its fifth month.”
The GOP Plan to Defeat Raphael Warnock and Mark Kelly
“Republican strategists have discovered a problem: Personal attacks on two of the most vulnerable Democratic senators are falling flat because of their likability,” Axios reports.
“In a broadly unfavorable national environment for Democrats, control of the Senate may rest on a pair of incumbents with two of the most compelling backstories in politics — Sens. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Mark Kelly of Arizona.”
“The National Republican Senatorial Committee is now spending most of its money trying to tie Warnock and Kelly to President Biden and his dismal approval rating.”
The End of the Federal Government as We Know It
Heather Cox Richardson: “In the past, the Supreme Court has operated on the basis of ‘stare decisis,’ which literally means ‘to stand by things decided.’ The purpose of that principle is to make changes incrementally so the law stays consistent and evenly applied, which promotes social stability. On occasion, the court does break precedent, notably in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, which overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that rubber stamped racial segregation. When that sort of a major change happens, both the court and elected officials work hard to explain that they are changing the law to make it more in line with our Constitution, and to move people along with that change.”
“With the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision of last Friday, the court simply tore up 49 years of law and history, ending federal recognition of a constitutional right Americans have enjoyed since 1973.”
“Today, the court’s decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency reversed almost 100 years of jurisprudence by arguing that Congress cannot delegate authority on ‘major questions’ to agencies in the executive branch.”
Quote of the Day
“When you try to overthrow the will of the people, and you try a coup in the United States government, you have to pay for that. Period.”
— Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), on Late Night.
Justice Department Blindsided by This Week’s Testimony
David Rhode: “Hutchinson’s testimony astonished Justice Department prosecutors as much as it did the viewing public, the Times reported. It also blindsided them. The committee gave no advance warning of Hutchinson’s statements to department prosecutors, who have spent months investigating the assault. The prosecutors don’t have access to videos and transcripts of hours of testimony that Hutchinson has provided to the committee behind closed doors.”
“A rift appears to be opening between Congress and the D.O.J. Earlier this month, four top Justice Department officials sent a letter to the committee criticizing it for not sharing transcripts from the thousand-plus interviews it has conducted.”
A Plastic Free July
Sara Goddard offers 7 ways to make it a plastic free July.
A Few Thoughts for the End of the Week
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Leahy Undergoes Surgery on Broken Hip
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) underwent surgery Thursday after he broke his hip in a fall at his home, the AP reports.
“Any prolonged absence by Leahy would complicate majority Democrats’ already precarious efforts to push controversial legislation and nominations through the 50-50 Senate over Republican opposition.”
“That might include a compromise with holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) — if they can reach one — on energy, health care and tax issues, a package that would be far smaller than the collection of social initiatives he killed in December.”
The Most Hopeless Day of the SCOTUS Term
Mark Joseph Stern: “No single day has better captured the current state of the Supreme Court than Thursday. At 10 a.m., the court issued a devastating assault on the Biden administration’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases in a 6–3 ruling joined by all of the court’s reactionary block. Ten minutes later, it issued a 5–4 opinion that just barely confirmed that the president, rather than a rogue judge in Texas, has authority over border policy, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh lending the lone votes preventing an absolutely insane outcome. Shortly thereafter, the court issued a bombshell orders list that tees up, for next term, one of the most important and dangerous democracy cases in American history, which asks whether state legislatures have near-unlimited authority over election laws.”
“The court’s most immediately lethal decision remains Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade. But do not let Dobbs distract from the onslaught that followed it.”
Merrick Garland to Undergo Surgery
Attorney General Merrick Garland will undergo a medical procedure next week to treat an enlarged prostate, NBC News reports.
He will will remain at the hospital for one to two days for observation and monitoring.
Abortion Rights Grow as Priorities
A new AP-NORC poll “finds a growing percentage of Americans calling out abortion or women’s rights as priorities for the government in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, especially among Democrats and those who support abortion access.”
“With midterm elections looming, President Joe Biden and Democrats will seek to capitalize on that shift.”
Trump to Hold Rally In Alaska
“Former President Donald Trump plans to attend a rally in Alaska next week for candidates he has endorsed in the state, including Sarah Palin, who is running for the Alaska’s only U.S. House seat,” the AP reports.
