Top Items:
ThinkProgress:
Scalia: Voting Rights Act Is ‘Perpetuation Of Racial Entitlement’ — WASHINGTON, DC — There were audible gasps in the Supreme Court's lawyer's lounge, where audio of the oral argument is pumped in for members of the Supreme Court bar, when Justice Antonin Scalia offered his assessment of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
RELATED:
Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Argument recap: Voting law in peril — maybe — Analysis — Sometimes, in a Supreme Court argument, a single phrase can speak volumes. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the one member of the Court who bore the most watching because the other eight seemed clearly to divide evenly, used the phrase …
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
The Morning Plum: How's that GOP “makeover” going? — How's that GOP “makeover” going? Not too well, according to the internals of the new NBC/WSJ poll. If these findings aren't enough to persuade Republican strategists that the party needs a rethink on the issues …
Discussion:
Angry Bear, Forbes, First Read, The Hill, Prairie Weather and National Review
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Conservative Justices Voice Skepticism on Voting Law — WASHINGTON — A central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 may be in peril, judging from tough questioning on Wednesday from the Supreme Court's more conservative members. — Justice Antonin Scalia called the provision …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, PERRspectives, The Fix, Washington Monthly, The BRAD BLOG, The Maddow Blog, SCOTUSblog, The Week, The Awl and Election Law Blog
Tom Goldstein / SCOTUSblog:
From the Shelby County argument — Following through on the deep constitutional concerns stated in its prior Northwest Austin decision, a majority of the Court seems committed to invalidating Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and requiring Congress to revisit the formula for requiring preclearance of voting changes.
Discussion:
msnbc.com, ACS Blog, Althouse and New York Times
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Conservative Justices Hammer The Voting Rights Act — The Voting Rights Act took a beating from conservative justices Wednesday during oral arguments at the Supreme Court. — At issue is the constitutionality of Section 5 of the 1965 law, which requires state and local governments …
Adam Serwer / Mother Jones:
Chief Justice Roberts' Long War Against the Voting Rights Act
Chief Justice Roberts' Long War Against the Voting Rights Act
Discussion:
Election Law Blog, The Atlantic Online, Law, Daily Kos, Booman Tribune, Mother Jones, New York Review of Books, The BRAD BLOG and ABCNEWS
Ryan J. Reilly / The Huffington Post:
Voting Rights Act Supreme Court Case: Scalia Condemns The ‘Perpetuation Of Racial Entitlement’ (UPDATE)
Voting Rights Act Supreme Court Case: Scalia Condemns The ‘Perpetuation Of Racial Entitlement’ (UPDATE)
Discussion:
CNN, The Moderate Voice and SCOTUSblog
Jess Bravin / Wall Street Journal:
Voting Act Under Scrutiny
Alicia A. Caldwell / bigstory.ap.org:
DHS official retires after immigrants are freed — You are here — Home » United States government » DHS official retires after immigrants are freed — WASHINGTON (AP) — The senior Homeland Security Department official in charge of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants announced …
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, Talking Points Memo, The PJ Tatler, Mediaite, NBC Latino and The Huffington Post
RELATED:
Jennifer Epstein / Politico:
W.H. says no part in ICE decision — The White House and the Department of Homeland Security were unaware of Immigration Customs and Enforcement's decision to release detainees until the agency announced it, administration officials said Wednesday. — “This was a decision made by career officials …
Discussion:
The Caucus, CNN, The PJ Tatler, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, The Hinterland Gazette, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers and TheBlaze.com
Lindsey Boerma / CBS News:
Reason for mass release of illegal immigrants “hard to believe,” Boehner says
Reason for mass release of illegal immigrants “hard to believe,” Boehner says
Discussion:
Washington Post, protein wisdom, The Week, Politico and Booman Tribune
Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
White House Counts on G.O.P. to Bend as Cuts' Effects Are Felt
White House Counts on G.O.P. to Bend as Cuts' Effects Are Felt
Discussion:
Right Turn
Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider:
BOB WOODWARD: Obama Is Showing 'A Kind Of Madness I Haven't Seen In A Long Time' — The Washington Post's Bob Woodward ripped into President Barack Obama on “Morning Joe” today, saying he's exhibiting a “kind of madness I haven't seen in a long time” for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier …
Discussion:
Liberal Values, Atlas Shrugs, AL.com, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller and Alan Colmes' Liberaland
RELATED:
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
A political DUI — Some of us can recall the helpless feeling of being in a vehicle driven by someone who is intoxicated. If you're like me, you don't want to cause a scene unless the driving is really erratic. But there comes a moment when you need to say: Stop the car. You're going to hurt someone.
Discussion:
Booman Tribune, Washington Monthly, Angry Bear and Mother Jones
RELATED:
Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:
The Establishment's Obama Derangement Syndrome
The Establishment's Obama Derangement Syndrome
Discussion:
Daily Download, The Impolitic and Balloon Juice
CNN:
Christie dismisses lack of CPAC invite — (CNN) - Gov. Chris Christie, the outspoken Republican from New Jersey, says he isn't offended that an invite to the Conservative Political Action Conference was not offered to him this year. — “Listen, I wish then all the best.
Discussion:
Politico
RELATED:
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Conservatives' Love Affair With Christie Is Over
Conservatives' Love Affair With Christie Is Over
Discussion:
The Week, Hot Air, Hit & Run, National Review, The Dish and NationalJournal.com
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Brief Supporting Same-Sex Marriage Gets More Republican Support — More than two dozen Republicans — including a top adviser to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, and a former congresswoman who made banning same-sex marriage her signature issue — have added their names …
Kevin Cirilli / Politico:
Sarah Palin: Feds ‘stockpiling bullets’ to use against us — Sarah Palin says America will eventually default on its debt and claims that the federal government is “stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest” to prepare. — “If we are going to wet our proverbial pants over .3% …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Wire, Taylor Marsh and Connecting.the.Dots
Politico:
Senate GOP ponders shifting power to Obama — Days before the March 1 deadline, Senate Republicans are circulating a draft bill that would cancel $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts and instead turn over authority to President Barack Obama to achieve the same level of savings under a plan to be filed by March 8.
Discussion:
Roll Call, Yahoo! News, Business Insider, Hot Air, msnbc.com, Atlas Shrugs and The Caucus
Washington Post:
Teacher pink slips claim by Duncan not backed by evidence — The descriptions of the post-sequester landscape that have been coming out of the Obama Administration have been alarming, specific—and, in at least some cases, hyped. — “There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller, National Review, Hot Air, American Spectator, TheBlaze.com, The Spectacle Blog and The PJ Tatler
Ben Leubsdorf / Concord Monitor:
N.H. state representative says some people may ‘like being in abusive relationships’ — Some people may like being in abusive relationships, and they're free to leave them at any time, a state representative said yesterday during a debate on a bill to reduce the penalty for simple assault in some cases.
Discussion:
The Hinterland Gazette, Addicting Info, msnbc.com, The Raw Story and Wonkette
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Republicans are losing the spending argument — For the past several years, congressional Republicans have focused relentlessly on a single message: Washington — led by President Obama — is spending too much money, and it needs to stop. — But according to new Washington Post-ABC News polling …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, NBCNews.com, CNN, Daily Kos, Post Politics, Taylor Marsh, The Week and The Moderate Voice
RELATED:
Michael Kinsley / New Republic:
Annihilate! — Whoever could have imagined that Republicans could be such wussies?
Annihilate! — Whoever could have imagined that Republicans could be such wussies?
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog and The Moderate Voice
Erick Erickson / RedState:
W5 + H = A Baseline for Integrity — UPDATE: Let me add up top an update out of the gate. The issue here is not RedState, but a larger issue among conservatives as we keep growing new and expanding existing outlets for reporting the news. With our jobs board up (if you haven't noticed) …
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Crooks and Liars, Balloon Juice, Washington Monthly, Business Insider, FishbowlDC, Rumproast, Mediaite and Politico, more at Mediagazer »
Binyamin Appelbaum / New York Times:
As Budgets Face Cuts, Austerity Kills Government Jobs — WASHINGTON — The federal government, the nation's largest consumer and investor, is cutting back at a pace exceeded in the last half-century only by the military demobilizations after the Vietnam War and the cold war.
Caitlin Dewey / Washington Post:
The story of Pope Benedict's controversial red shoes, which he will give up — Shoemaker Antonio Arellano poses with a red shoe he made for Pope Benedict XVI. (Tony Gentile/Reuters) — Pope Benedict XVI will give up his Swiss Guard protection, his Twitter account and even the name “Benedict” when he officially abdicates Wednesday.
Discussion:
Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks and Liars
Josh Rogin / Foreign Policy:
Kerry: Iran has an ‘elected’ government — Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Iran has an “elected” government, echoing a comment for which Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was pilloried in his confirmation hearing last month. … “Iran is a country with a government …
Discussion:
Hot Air and Washington Examiner
Anthony Tommasini / New York Times:
Van Cliburn, Cold War Musical Envoy, Dies at 78 — Van Cliburn, the American pianist whose first-place award at the 1958 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow made him an overnight sensation and propelled him to a phenomenally successful and lucrative career, though a short-lived one, died Wednesday morning in Fort Worth.
Discussion:
Joe. My. God. and City Room