What a Horrible 24 Hours

Welcome back to Barf Bag.  Well, I need a cigarette and I don’t even smoke. That’s how awful the last 24 hours have been, starting with a disastrous Thursday night debate performance from President Joe Biden in which he seemed half asleep and totally fumbled on an abortion question by referencing a woman’s brutal murder?? So, my stress level was already pretty high after having to watch one old white man lie about immigrants, and then the second old white man fail to finish his sentences, and then both old white men argue about golf. Then on Friday morning, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a six-week abortion ban, an outcome only made possible by Donald Trump’s three Justices overturning Roe v. Wade. It’s a catastrophe for people who live in the Midwest, and others who have been traveling there from across the country. The U.S. Supreme Court also joined the chat on Friday morning with three horrific rulings, opinions that said local governments can effectively criminalize homelessness, that prosecutors improperly charged a slew of January 6th defendants, and finally, one that overturned a 40-year-old precedent that said government agencies had the power to interpret federal laws. On Thursday, SCOTUS also released the ruling in its second abortion rights case this term–they ultimately punted it back to the lower court, meaning women in Idaho can get emergency abortions for now but, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in her concurrence, “storm clouds loom ahead.” Conservatives have now completed their generational goals of overturning Abortion, Affirmative Action, and Chevron. If y'all don't think Obergefell and gay marriage is next on the chopping block, you must read the New York Times. — Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) June 28, 2024 And the court announced that Monday will be the last day of the term, meaning it will shit out its opinion on whether Trump has immunity for his actions related to the January 6 insurrection. The Justices are likely to say he doesn’t, but by leaving it until the last fucking day, and pushing the term into July, it means Trump won’t stand trial before the election. It’s a transparently cynical delay tactic, one not dissimilar from the punts on the two abortion cases this term. The Justices’ actions should put to rest any suggestion that this court—with its 6-3 conservative supermajority—is an apolitical body. The next president could appoint at least two Supreme Court justices and I’m telling you right now, if you think a 6-3 court is bad, you can’t imagine the destruction of a 7-2 body. Yes, there are still four months until the election, but Trump keeps leading in swing-state polls, and holy fuck I’m nervous. Speaking of the courts! Judges in Kansas and Missouri blocked Biden’s student loan repayment plan. [ABC News] Oklahoma’s unhinged state superintendent said all schools have to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments into their curriculums. This is no doubt part of an effort to tee up a Supreme Court case over the separation of church and state. [CNN] Former Washington Commanders owner and Trump supporter Dan Snyder helped finance a Trump biopic that turned out to be unflattering. The movie, starring Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as evil lawyer Roy Cohn, premiered at Cannes and Snyder is reportedly trying to block its distribution in the U.S. [Washington Post]  The top GOP Wisconsin Senate candidate Eric Hovde said during a radio interview on Juneteenth that he’s familiar with “Black culture” because he’s visited Africa and runs homeless shelters. [Heartland Signal]  Another Minnesota Republican, this one running for Hennepin County commissioner, reportedly threw a…