memeorandum: The mocker-in-chief — The sarcastic bear is loose, and he's loving every minute of it. (Politico)

2:10 PM ET, June 26, 2014

Top Items:

Supreme Court strikes down Obama recess appointments — In a rebuke to President Barack Obama, the Supreme Court struck down three of his recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board as unconstitutional. — The decision Thursday gives the Senate broad power …

Discussion: The Political Insider and BizPac Review

New York Times:

A More Nuanced Breakdown of the Supreme Court — This is the time of year that the news media roll out a familiar graphic: Nine head shots of Supreme Court justices, arrayed from most liberal to most conservative. — In spacing the head shots at equal intervals, the graphics suggest a steady procession from left to right.

Associated Press:

High court limits president's appointments power — The Supreme Court on Wednesday limited the president's power to fill high-level vacancies with temporary appointments, ruling in favor of Senate Republicans in their partisan clash with President Barack Obama.

Discussion: Weekly Standard and The Seattle Times

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:
President's Recess-Appointment Power Cut by High Court

Discussion: Bloomberg View and The Gateway Pundit

ThinkProgress:

The Supreme Court Just Made It Harder For Women To Exercise Their Right To Choose — The Supreme Court unanimously struck down Massachusetts' abortion buffer zone law on Thursday, ruling in favor of anti-choice protesters who argued that being required to stay 35 feet away from clinic entrances …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Guardian, Taylor Marsh, Hullabaloo, Booman Tribune and Shakesville

Richard Wolf / Associated Press:
Supreme Court strikes down abortion clinic buffer zone

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Richard Wolf / USA Today:
High court rules against Obama on recess appointments

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Liberaland, BillMoyers.com and Salt Lake Tribune

Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
The Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Cellphone Privacy

Discussion: ACS Blog, SCOTUSblog, Washington Post, CNN, Democracy in America, Forbes and NBC News

Numbers / Pew Research Center:

Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology — Even in an increasingly Red vs. Blue nation, the public's political attitudes and values come in many shades and hues. — Partisan polarization - the vast and growing gap between Republicans and Democrats - is a defining feature of politics today.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post and Bloomberg View

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Proud to be an American? You're probably not a true liberal.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Washington Free Beacon

The Hill:

Odds tilt toward GOP Senate — Republicans are in the strongest position to win back the Senate since losing it eight years ago. — Over several months, the party has expanded its range of targeted seats, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has helped defeat insurgents …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh and Politico

Alexander Burns / Politico:

The staggering price of crushing the tea party — National Republican leaders are toasting primary season as a smashing success over activist conservatives that has put the hard right on the ropes and given the Washington GOP the slate of candidates it wanted for 2014.

Discussion: WJLA-TV and Hot Air

Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:
The Tea Party Blew It

Discussion: American Spectator, The Other McCain, The Dish, Hot Air, NBC News, The Hill, Washington Post, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and The Moderate Voice

The Right Scoop:

Chris McDaniel: “We're not going to concede right now, we're going to investigate” — Chris McDaniel was on the Mark Levin Show tonight and said that he is not going to concede the election right now. Rather, there are a couple of things he intends to investigate:

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Quinton Report, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Doug Ross, Washington Times and No More Mister Nice Blog

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

McDaniel Goes Over the Brink — A lot of us spent a good part of yesterday wondering what the basis might be of some Chris McDaniel challenge to the results in Mississippi on Tuesday night. Would Team McDaniel stick to investigating clear and provable violations of state law (e.g. …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Slate, Daily Kos, The Mahablog and Mediaite

Sam Levine / The Huffington Post:
NAACP Wants Thad Cochran To ‘Show Some Reciprocity’

Discussion: New York Times, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite and The New Republic

Amy Chozick / New York Times:

Sales of Hillary Clinton's New Memoir Drop Sharply in 2nd Week — Sales of Hillary Rodham Clinton's new memoir, “Hard Choices,” declined 43.5 percent to 48,000 copies in its second week on the shelves, according to Nielsen BookScan. — The sales figures put pressure on the publisher …

Discussion: Power Line, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, TheBlaze.com, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, The PJ Tatler and Weekly Standard

Dan Merica / CNN:
Sales of Clinton's ‘Hard Choices’ drop by over 40% in second week

Discussion: Hot Air, Mediaite and Washington Post

Politico:

The mocker-in-chief — The sarcastic bear is loose, and he's loving every minute of it. — President Barack Obama is letting his inner Don Rickles run free, mocking climate deniers as the crowd who used to think the moon was made out of cheese or spineless dopes who can't or won't listen …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, RedState, Booman Tribune, Mediaite and Weasel Zippers

Washington Post:

Immigration reform effectively dead until after Obama leaves office, both sides say — The two-year attempt to push immigration reform through Congress is effectively dead and unlikely to be revived until after President Obama leaves office, numerous lawmakers and advocates on both sides of the issue said this week.

Discussion: Hot Air, Prairie Weather, Politico, The Hill, Weasel Zippers and National Review

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
John Boehner wants to sue President Obama

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, susiemadrak.com, Prairie Weather, The Colorado Independent, ThinkProgress, ABC News and Outside the Beltway

clickorlando.com:

Cops: Vegan mom refused to help baby — Sarah Anne Markham arrested on charge of child neglect — Author: Daniel Dahm, Managing Editor of ClickOrlando.com, ddahm@clickorlando.com — CASSELBERRY, Fla. - — A Casselberry mother was arrested on allegations of refusing to take her newborn …

Discussion: LifeNews.com, The Raw Story and Gawker

David Martosko / Daily Mail:

EXCLUSIVE: Former GOP senate candidate Todd Akin doubles down on ‘legitimate rape’ comment and says ‘hypocrite’ Hillary Clinton ‘de-legitimized’ a 12-year-old rape victim — Akin said in 2012 that abortion bans didn't need to include exceptions for rape victims because ‘legitimate rape’ rarely leads to conception

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, Gawker, Mediaite and Washington Post

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / The Week:

Vox, derp, and the intellectual stagnation of the Left — Talk about an epistemic closure problem — This wunderkind is now presiding over an empire of derp. — S — everal long winters ago, when President Obama was thunderously elected amid Messianic fervor, and much of the Right …

Discussion: Hot Air

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

City Loses Final Appeal on Limiting Sales of Large Sodas — The Bloomberg big-soda ban is officially dead. — The state's highest court on Thursday refused to reinstate New York City's controversial limits on sales of jumbo sugary drinks, exhausting the city's final appeal and handing …