memeorandum: Welfare Cash for Weed in Colorado (Jillian Kay Melchior/National Review)

5:10 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, Washington Post, SCOTUSblog, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, AEIdeas, JustOneMinute, The PJ Tatler, Wall Street Journal, Prairie Weather, The Moderate Voice, The Lonely Conservative and Forbes

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, Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, Balkinization, Eclectablog, Alas, a Blog and ACS Blog

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

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, 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, Questions and Observations, Sister Toldjah, neo-neocon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Strata-Sphere, alicublog and Viking Pundit

Tom Goldstein / Washington Post:

Why Obamacare probably isn't doomed — The Affordable Care Act took a potentially serious hit today when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a rule that extended the law's health-care subsidies to residents of the three-dozen states where the federal government runs a health insurance exchange.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and New York Times

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

Discussion: The Federalist, National Review, Business Insider and Weasel Zippers

ThinkProgress:
BREAKING: Two Republican Judges Order Obamacare Defunded

Discussion: Guardian, Washington Post and Daily Kos

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, Washington Free Beacon, AMERICAN DIGEST, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air and Weasel Zippers

Jonathan H. Adler / Washington Post:
BREAKING — D.C. Circuit strikes down tax credits in federal exchanges

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

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

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

Raphael Ahren / The Times of Israel:
For second time, rockets found at UN school in Gaza

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Jawa Report, Hot Air, Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs and Israellycool

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

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

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

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, The Daily Caller, Power Line 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: Sister Toldjah and The Gateway Pundit

Jillian Kay Melchior / National Review:

Welfare Cash for Weed in Colorado — For the past six months, welfare beneficiaries in Colorado have repeatedly withdrawn their cash benefits at marijuana retailers and dispensaries, according to a new analysis by National Review Online. Such apparent abuses have caught the eye …

Discussion: Clayton Cramer

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

Charles E. Schumer / New York Times:

Charles Schumer: Adopt the Open Primary — WASHINGTON — POLARIZATION and partisanship are a plague on American politics. — Political scientists have found that the two parties have each grown more ideologically homogeneous since the 1970s. The Senate hasn't been so polarized since Reconstruction …

Discussion: OnPolitics, Politico, Washington Post, Firedoglake and Eschaton