memeorandum: Former Pakistani dancing girl commits suicide 12 years after horrific acid attack which left her looking ‘not human’ (Chris Parsons/Daily Mail)

1:30 AM ET, March 29, 2012

Top Items:

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Argument recap: A lift for the mandate? (FINAL UPDATE 5:12 pm) — Analysis — The Supreme Court spent 91 minutes Wednesday operating on the assumption that it would strike down the key feature of the new health care law, but may have convinced itself in the end not to do that because of just how hard …

Discussion: Don Surber, Business Insider, Washington Free Beacon, ThinkProgress, Campaign 2012, Daily Kos, The Maddow Blog, Washington Wire, Blue Mass Group, Outside the Beltway, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Pirate's Cove, The Reality-Based Community, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, Shakesville, Politico and Taylor Marsh

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Argument recap: Will Medicaid be sacrificed? (FINAL UPDATE 7:08 pm) — Analysis — Unless a closing oration by a top government lawyer stirs some real sympathy for the poor, the new health care law's broad expansion of the Medicaid program that serves the needy may be sacrificed …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Crooks and Liars and The Huffington Post

Reid Cherlin / GQ:

Take It From Me: Defending Obamacare is Super-Hard — It so happens that I'm packing up my apartment and moving out of Washington today after eight years of residence, most of which were spent in politics and government. One of the items I just bubble-wrapped is a framed copy of The L …

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Mother Jones and News Desk

Sahil Kapur / tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPMDC — Dems Warn Of ‘Grave Damage’ To SCOTUS If ‘Obamacare’ Is Struck Down — A handful of Senate Democrats sought to assure doubtful liberals that the Supreme Court justices aren't ready to strike down their crowning achievement Wednesday, standing before cameras and mics Wednesday in front of the court.

Discussion: Swampland, Mediaite, Salon, Politico, HotAirPundit and American Spectator

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:

The Supreme Court's Dark Vision of Freedom — The court's conservatives apparently believe in the land of the free. Circa 1804. — The fight over Obamacare is about freedom. That's what we've been told since these lawsuits were filed two years ago and that's what we heard both inside and outside the Supreme Court this morning.

Discussion: Politico, Bloomberg, The Caucus, News Desk, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Post, National Review, Ezra Klein, CNN, The Volokh Conspiracy and Business Insider

David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:

Justices poised to strike down entire healthcare law — Demonstrators pray outside the U.S. Supreme Court on the third day of oral arguments over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / March 28, 2012)

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, The Hill, The New Republic, Conservatives4Palin, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air, protein wisdom, National Review, Wake up America, Ricochet Conversations Feed, White House Dossier, Michelle Malkin, PoliPundit.com, Guardian, New York Times and Mail Online

Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Supreme Court Debates Striking Down Whole Health Law

Discussion: Politico, Roll Call, Power Line, Associated Press, CNN, Opinionator, The Daily Beast, msnbc.com, Above the Law, ACS Blog and Truthdig

Los Angeles Times:
Justices suggest Medicaid expansion is unconstitutional

Discussion: Ricochet Conversations Feed

New York Times:
The Supreme Court's Momentous Test

Discussion: Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Hit & Run, ACS Blog, The Caucus, The BLT, Economix, The Loyal Opposition, American Prospect, SCOTUSblog, Ricochet Conversations Feed and Althouse

Peter Landers / Washington Wire:
A Medicaid Twist in Health-Law Arguments

Discussion: Law Blog, Washington Monthly and Associated Press

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
The Morning Plum: What will happen to the uninsured?

Discussion: New York Times, Liberal Values, david-frum, PERRspectives, The Stranger …, The Maddow Blog, The Raw Story and American Prospect

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Place Your Bets on Obamacare

Discussion: Democracy in America, Capital New York, The Mahablog, SCOTUSblog, Mother Jones, The Huffington Post, Ezra Klein and Politico

Jeff Weiner / Orlando Sentinel:

Trayvon Martin: Couple who fled home after Spike Lee tweet hires Morgan firm — A couple who say they were forced to leave their home after director Spike Lee re-tweeted their address to his Twitter followers has hired the Morgan & Morgan law firm to represent them.

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, Riehl World View, Scared Monkeys and National Review

Frances Martel / Mediaite:

New Police Video Shows George Zimmerman Unscathed On Night Of Trayvon Martin Shooting — ABC News has obtained exclusive video of Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman on the night he shot the Florida teenager, speaking to police. While there is no audio, the video is key evidence …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, American Power and National Review

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

Trayvon Martin: The 5 Key Unanswered Questions — Trayvon Martin, as he appeared on his actual Facebook page — It's been more than a month since Trayvon Martin was shot dead by George Zimmerman. (Get a full rundown of the facts of the case here.) — Tonight, ABC News release video footage …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, WWBT-TV and Hullabaloo

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

Dem kicked off House floor for ‘hoodie’ in Trayvon Martin protest — Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) on Wednesday morning was asked to leave the House floor after removing his suit jacket to reveal a “hoodie,” then putting the hood of his sweatshirt on his head to protest the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida.

Discussion: msnbc.com, Politico, Sister Toldjah, ThinkProgress, The Democratic Daily, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit and Taylor Marsh

Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Rasmussen does a poll on whether Zimmerman is guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin.

Discussion: Rasmussen Reports and Outside the Beltway

William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:
Sourcing narrative “facts” in the Martin case

Discussion: The Right Scoop

Susan Jacobson / Orlando Sentinel:
Elderly couple abandons their home after address is posted on Twitter as that of George Zimmerman

Discussion: nation.foxnews.com, msnbc.com, ABCNEWS, The Hinterland Gazette, Mediaite, RedState, The Raw Story, American Power, Clayton Cramer's Blog, ECHIDNE of the snakes, THE WESTERN EXPERIENCE and The Smoking Gun

Joel Gehrke / Campaign 2012:
Dem pulled from House floor for Trayvon hoodie

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Naked Politics, protein wisdom and Business Insider

JSOnline:

Romney gets flak over Wisconsin anecdote from long ago — Normal — false — false — false — EN-US — X-NONE — X-NONE — MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 — <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true" — DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Caucus, Wonkette, Shakesville, Mediaite, The Loyal Opposition, Stinque, The New Republic, Examiner, Ballot Box, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Stranger …

CNN:

CNN Poll: Obama leads Romney and Santorum in November showdowns — Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama holds a double-digit lead over GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum in hypothetical general election matchups, according to a new poll.

Discussion: Hot Air, Politico, ABCNEWS and Conservatives4Palin

Paul D. Shinkman / WTOP.com:
Gingrich: Like a struggling sports team, I'm not quitting

Discussion: Politico, FiveThirtyEight, News Desk, Los Angeles Times and The Hill

David A. Fahrenthold / Washington Post:
Mitt's ‘Romniacs’ united by an uncommon passion for the Republican hopeful

Discussion: Hot Air, American Prospect, BuzzFeed, Washington Monthly, Ricochet Conversations Feed and Ballot Box

Janet Reitman / Rolling Stone:

Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy: Inside Dartmouth's Hazing Abuses — A Dartmouth degree is a ticket to the top - but first you may have to get puked on by your drunken friends and wallow in human filth — Andrew Lohse visits the Dartmouth campus where he has come forward to report …

Discussion: Felix Salmon, The New Republic and Corrente

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Rubio: 'I'm not going to be the vice presidential nominee' — Popular freshman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) again denied interest in his party's vice presidential nomination Wednesday despite wide-spread speculation his political team was gearing up for a national campaign.

Discussion: M.JOSEPH SHEPPARD'S …, GOP 12 and Scared Monkeys

Michael O'Brien / msnbc.com:
Rubio endorses Romney for president

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers and Washington Post

Marco Rubio / CNN:
TRENDING: Rubio endorses Romney, argues GOP should ‘come together’

Discussion: Politico and The Hill

Bloomberg:

News Corp. Said to Plan U.S. Sports Network to Rival ESPN — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWSA) is taking steps to start a national U.S. sports network on cable television aimed at challenging Walt Disney Co. (DIS)'s ESPN, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: Deadline.com, Politico and msnbc.com, more at Mediagazer »

Los Angeles Times:
Magic Johnson-led group is picked as Dodgers' next owner

Discussion: DCist, Law Blog, The Informer, Hot Air, Newsy, EURweb, The Hinterland Gazette, Colorlines and L.A. NOW

Dylan Byers / Politico:

CNN's Toobin discusses the Toobin factor — CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin continued to set the tone on the media's coverage of the Supreme Court's health care arguments today. Following up on yesterday's analysis that this was a “train wreck” for the Obama administration …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and Washington Post

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

Stealing Christianity — TNR's Tim Noah wrote yesterday about one of my all-time biggest pet peeves: the constant appropriation of the word “Christian” by conservative evangelicals as exclusive to their distinctive and hardly uncontested point of view. What sent Noah off was an NPR story on …

Discussion: Mother Jones

Timothy Noah / The New Republic:
Language Cop: “Christian”

Discussion: Mother Jones

Chris Parsons / Daily Mail:

Former Pakistani dancing girl commits suicide 12 years after horrific acid attack which left her looking ‘not human’ — A Pakistani former dancing girl left fighting for life by a ‘horrific’ acid attack has committed suicide a decade after being heavily facially disfigured.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, ThinkProgress and The Right Scoop