Top Items:
Sandy Levinson / Balkinization:
Some preliminary reflections on Heller — There are many things that one can say about today's today's decision in the Heller case from both “external” political perspectives or from a more “internal” legal one. No doubt I (and others) will have more to say about Heller in coming days.
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Randy E. Barnett / Wall Street Journal:
News Flash: The Constitution Means What It Says — Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in yesterday's Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller is historic in its implications and exemplary in its reasoning. — A federal ban on an entire class of guns in ordinary use …
New York Times:
Lock and Load — Thirty-thousand Americans are killed by guns every year — on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall. The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that even more Americans will die senselessly with its wrongheaded and dangerous ruling striking down key parts of the District of Columbia's gun-control law.
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Supreme Court Strikes Down 'Millionaire's Amendment'
Supreme Court Strikes Down 'Millionaire's Amendment'
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway, BitsBlog, QandO, Althouse, Jonathan Martin's Blogs and Wake up America
Jay Newton-Small / Time:
Obama Lead Tight Over McCain — Illinois Senator Barack Obama enters the General Election with a tight lead, 43% to 38%, over Arizona Senator John McCain, according to a new TIME Magazine poll of registered voters. The poll shows Obama gaining only a slight bounce from Hillary Clinton's departure from the campaign early this month.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
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Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal:
Let McCain Be McCain — The big political headline this week, of course, involves John McCain's endless and humiliating attempts to placate Mitt Romney by bowing to demands he hire his operatives and pay his campaign debt. So far all he's got is a grudging one-sentence endorsement from that rampaging rage-aholic Ann Romney.
Nate / FiveThirtyEight.com:
Which Candidate has a Base Problem? — That title is not meant to be read rhetorically or sarcastically. But the correct answer is “both of them”. The thing, however, is that they are somewhat opposite problems. — The below is data compiled from Rasmussen Reports …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
When Anonymity Fails, Be Nasty, Brutish and Short — Throughout the Bush presidency, he toiled in secrecy deep within the White House, a mysterious and feared presence who never stepped into the sunlight of public disclosure. — Until yesterday. — There he sat, hunched and scowling …
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Steven Lee Myers / New York Times:
A Diplomatic Success That Defies the Critics — WASHINGTON — North Korea's declaration of its nuclear activities is a triumph of the sort of diplomacy — complicated, plodding, often frustrating — that President Bush and his aides once eschewed as American weakness.
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Alissa J. Rubin / New York Times:
Iraq Bombings Kill at Least 30; Three Marines Dead — BAGHDAD — Two insurgent bomb blasts struck at pro-American Iraqi targets in Anbar province just west of Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday, and the police said at least 30 people were killed and 80 wounded.
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Gerard Baker / Times of London:
Cheer up. We're winning this War on Terror — Al-Qaeda and the Taleban are in retreat, the surge has worked in Iraq and Islamism is discredited. Not a bad haul — “My centre is giving way. My right is in retreat. Situation excellent. I shall attack!”
Discussion:
Samizdata.net
Dan Frosch / New York Times:
Citing Need for Assessments, U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects — DENVER — Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.
Discussion:
Gristmill
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Fuels on the Hill — Congress has always had a soft spot for “experts” who tell members what they want to hear, whether it's supply-side economists declaring that tax cuts increase revenue or climate-change skeptics insisting that global warming is a myth. — Right now, the welcome mat …
Jennifer Rubin / Commentary:
The Anti-Defamation League and Joe Klein — Fulfilling its historic role as a nonpartisan watchdog against anti-Semitism, the Anti-Defamation League has acted quickly in the case of Joe Klein and his jaw-dropping use, on the Time Magazine blog Swampland, of the anti-Semitic argument of …
Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
Obama Gives $2,300 for Clinton Debt — WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama said on Thursday that he had written a personal check of $2,300 to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a good-will gesture intended to nudge his top donors to help ease Mrs. Clinton's campaign debt and help …
The Hill:
Housing bill, FISA delayed until after July recess — The Senate hit impasses over legislation aimed at helping struggling homeowners and a rewrite of spying laws, forcing Democratic leaders to push back consideration of those measures until next month. — Leaders had hoped to finish …
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Steve Connor / The Independent:
Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole — Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change — It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. — The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice …
Patrick Poole / Pajamas Media:
Virginia's Islamic Academy on Shaky Legal Ground — The controversial school funded by the Saudi Embassy had its corporate charter revoked in 2004 and has never filed required tax forms with the IRS. — An investigation by Pajamas Media has found that more trouble may be on the horizon …