memeorandum: White flags planted on Brooklyn Bridge, American flags missing as mystery deepens (Thomas Tracy/NY Daily News)

4:00 PM ET, July 22, 2014

Top Items:

Courts Issue Conflicting Rulings on Health Care Law — WASHINGTON — Two federal appeals court panels issued conflicting rulings Tuesday on whether the government could subsidize health insurance premiums for people in three dozen states that use the federal insurance exchange.

Discussion: Politico, Outside the Beltway, SCOTUSblog, Daily Kos, JustOneMinute, AEIdeas, Washington Post, The PJ Tatler, Wall Street Journal, The Moderate Voice, Prairie Weather and Forbes

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

Appeals Court Deals Major Blow To Obamacare — A federal appeals court dealt a huge blow to Obamacare on Tuesday, banning — the federal exchange from providing subsidies to residents of the 36 states it serves. — A divided three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, National Review, The Mahablog and Balloon Juice

Peter Suderman / Hit & Run:

Court Rules That Subsidies in Obamacare's Federal Exchange are Illegal, Dealing Huge Legal Blow to Health Law — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit delivered a huge blow to Obamacare this morning, ruling that the insurance subsidies granted through the federally run health exchange …

Discussion: Bloomberg View, Hot Air, Associated Press, Sister Toldjah, Questions and Observations, neo-neocon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Strata-Sphere, alicublog and Viking Pundit

ThinkProgress:

BREAKING: Two Republican Judges Order Obamacare Defunded — Near the end of 2013, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) led a final crusade to defund the Affordable Care Act, eventually announcing on the Senate floor that “I intend to speak in opposition to Obamacare, I intend to speak in support of defunding Obamacare …

Discussion: Guardian, Daily Kos and Washington Post

Brian Beutler / The New Republic:

This Shamefully Dishonest Obamacare Ruling Could Blow Up in the GOP's Face — The case of Halbig v. Burwell (formerly Halbig v. Sebelius), in which plaintiffs are attempting to void Affordable Care Act subsidies in states that didn't set up their own healthcare exchanges …

Discussion: New York Times and Daily Kos

Jonathan H. Adler / Washington Post:

BREAKING — D.C. Circuit strikes down tax credits in federal exchanges — This morning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released its much awaited opinion in Halbig v. Burwell. In a 2-1 opinion, the Court held that the Internal Revenue Service regulation authorizing tax credits in federal exchanges was invalid.

Discussion: Power Line, Forbes, LifeNews.com, neo-neocon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The PJ Tatler

Adrianna McIntyre / Vox:

Why a federal court just ruled Obamacare subsidies are illegal in 36 states — Halbig v. Burwell is arguably the Affordable Care Act's greatest existential threat since the Supreme Court case decided in 2012. — On July 22, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling …

Discussion: Washington Post, Eclectablog, Alas, a Blog, Mediaite, Balkinization and ACS Blog

Elise Viebeck / The Hill:
Appeals courts split on whether ObamaCare subsidies are legal

Discussion: The Federalist, Business Insider and Weasel Zippers

Michael F. Cannon / Forbes:
Halbig v. Burwell Would Free More Than 57 Million Americans From The ACA's Individual & Employer Mandates

Discussion: ThinkProgress, National Review, Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon, AMERICAN DIGEST, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers and Washington Post

Washington Post:
Federal appeals courts issue contradictory rulings on health-law subsidies

Discussion: Watchdog.org, Hot Air, Hullabaloo, Politico and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Nicholas Bagley / The Incidental Economist:
A stinging defeat for the government

Discussion: Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

Patrick Marley / JSOnline:
Federal judge throws out Ron Johnson's Obamacare lawsuit

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Althouse

William Deresiewicz / The New Republic:

Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League — The nation's top colleges are turning our kids into zombies — In the spring of 2008, I did a daylong stint on the Yale admissions committee. We that is, three admissions staff, a member of the college dean's office, and me, the faculty representative …

Discussion: The Other McCain

Dean Obeidallah / The Daily Beast:

How Jon Stewart Made It Okay to Care About Palestinian Suffering — This Gaza war has brought a new level of American awareness of the pain of Palestinian civilians. And we have Jon Stewart to thank. — When I interviewed The Daily Show's Jon Stewart two years ago for a documentary I co-directed …

Discussion: Hot Air

Reuters:

Israel pounds Gaza despite international peace efforts — (Reuters) - Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, saying no ceasefire was near as top U.S. and U.N. diplomats pursued talks on halting fighting that has claimed more than 500 lives.

Discussion: Israel Matzav, VodkaPundit, Firedoglake, nepr.net and ABC

BBC:
Gaza conflict: France criticises ‘anti-Semitic’ riot

Discussion: National Review and Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

New Surveillance Whistleblower: The NSA Violates the Constitution — John Napier Tye is speaking out to warn Americans about illegal spying. The former State Department official, who served in the Obama administration from 2011 to 2014, declared Friday that ongoing NSA surveillance abuses …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and BillMoyers.com

Thomas Tracy / NY Daily News:

White flags planted on Brooklyn Bridge, American flags missing as mystery deepens — The NYPD started removing the white banners at 11 a.m. Tuesday — but it remained unclear what happened to the missing Stars and Stripes or how the thieves scaled the towers, which are under constant surveillance.

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, Talking Points Memo and The Huffington Post

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

News Outlets Fall For Parody That Took Credit For Brooklyn Bridge White Flags — Two prominent news outlets were fooled Tuesday by a Twitter parody account that claimed responsibility for replacing two American flags atop the Brooklyn Bridge with white flags.

Discussion: CBS New York and DNAinfo.com New York

CNN:

Ukraine says Russian officer pushed the button to shoot down MH17 — Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) — As bodies from Thursday's air disaster reached a facility Tuesday in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the Ukrainian government ratcheted up its accusations against Moscow, saying a Russian officer shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Hot Air and kyivpost.com

C. J. Chivers / New York Times:
Jet Wreckage Bears Signs of Impact by Supersonic Missile, Analysis Shows

Discussion: Business Insider and The Dish

New York Times:
Bodies and Black Boxes From Malaysia Flight Arrive in Ukraine City

Discussion: nepr.net, ThinkProgress, The Dish and Daily Kos

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

While Hillary Clinton offers a resume, Elizabeth Warren offers a plan — DEMOCRATIC PARTY HILLARY CLINTON 2016 ELECTIONS CAMPAIGNS ELIZABETH WARREN — It seems almost too obvious to mention, but presidential candidates need a clear idea of why they want to be president.

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Hot Air

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
It's virtually impossible to be a successful modern president

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, Power Line, The Daily Caller and NewsBusters

Bernie Becker / The Hill:

IRS: Lerner emails may exist after all — The IRS might not have lost the backups of former agency administrator Lois Lerner's emails after all, according to a top IRS official. — In testimony released Monday, Thomas Kane, the IRS's deputy associate chief counsel, told House Oversight investigators …

Discussion: Hot Air and Washington Post

Susan Ferrechio / Washington Examiner:
Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings calls for end to ‘public harassment’ of IRS chief John Koskinen

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Hadas Gold / Politico:

WHCA lodges press access complaint over Apollo 11 meeting — The ongoing battle for press access at the White House continued on Tuesday as the White House Correspondents' Association lodged a formal complaint with Press Secretary Josh Earnest for limiting coverage of President Barack Obama's meeting …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Twitchy