memeorandum: Surrender, Brooklyn: Mysterious White Flags Top Brooklyn Bridge (John Del Signore/Gothamist)

8:00 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: Washington Post, Politico, SCOTUSblog, PoliticusUSA, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, JustOneMinute, The PJ Tatler, AEIdeas, Wall Street Journal, Prairie Weather, The Lonely Conservative, The Moderate Voice and Forbes

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

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

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

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Appeals Court Deals Major Blow To Obamacare

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

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

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

Discussion: American Prospect, Slate, RH Reality Check, Watchdog.org, Hullabaloo, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Politico

ThinkProgress:
BREAKING: Two Republican Judges Order Obamacare Defunded

Discussion: Guardian, Daily Kos and Washington Post

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

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

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

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

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

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

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

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

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 and Booman Tribune

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

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

John Del Signore / Gothamist:
Surrender, Brooklyn: Mysterious White Flags Top Brooklyn Bridge

Discussion: ABC News and Business Insider

Raphael Ahren / The Times of Israel:

For second time, rockets found at UN school in Gaza — ‘How many more schools will have to be abused by Hamas missile squads before the international community will intervene?’ Foreign Ministry fumes — For the second time in less than a week, rockets have been found in a school …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs and Israellycool

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

Discussion: National Review and Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

TMZ.com:

Sarah Palin — Ticketed for Speeding ... 'I Wasn't Speeding, I Was Qualifying' — Ticketed for Speeding — 'I WASN'T SPEEDING I WAS QUALIFYING' — EXCLUSIVE … President Obama — MYSTERIOUSLY CANCELS — Hollywood Leg of L.A. Visit

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN and OnPolitics

Ted Cruz / Facebook:

Of all the places I never thought to be mentioned, HBO's True Blood vampire show would have to be near the top of the list. Sunday night, they aired a misogynist and profanity-ridden episode where Texas Republicans are murdered attending a “Ted Cruz fundraiser.”

Discussion: Pop Culture Blog, Politico, Mediaite, Business Insider, OnPolitics, Trail Blazers Blog and The Raw Story

Fred Schruers / Billboard:

Tom Petty Isn't ‘Playing Dumb’ About Church Sex Abuse Scandal on New Song

Discussion: Mediaite, The Raw Story and BizPac Review

Chad Merda / Chicago Sun Times:

Snoop Dogg talks about that time he got high at the White House — Security at the White House is apparently a bit looser than everyone thinks. — Snoop Dogg, while on his internet talk show “Double G News Network” with Jimmy Kimmel, told about the time he got high at the White House.

Discussion: Washington Post and National Review

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: Firedoglake, US News, The Moderate Voice and BillMoyers.com

Fox News:
Obama's LGBT Executive Order endangers religious liberty

Discussion: New York Times, BarbWire.com, The Moderate Voice, The PJ Tatler and Politico

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: ABC News, Bloomberg View, Firedoglake, OnPolitics, Washington Post, Politico and Eschaton

Colin Brazier / Guardian:

MH17: my error of judgment, by Sky News reporter — Colin Brazier on how he came to pick up crash victims' luggage live on air - and immediately realised he had crossed a line — Journalists spend most of their working days in familiar environments. For me, that mainly means the Sky News studio …

Discussion: Mediaite, Taylor Marsh and The Huffington Post

Jad Mouawad / New York Times:

F.A.A. Halts U.S. Flights to Israel — Major American airlines stopped flying to Israel on Tuesday after a rocket fell near Ben-Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv, and after the Federal Aviation Administration told the carriers not to fly to Tel Aviv for 24 hours.

Discussion: Associated Press, The Times of Israel, The Verge, Politico, Outside the Beltway and Mediaite

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

Senate Democrats to trim Obama border request by $1B — Senate Democrats are poised to push an emergency funding bill on the border crisis that slices President Barack Obama's request by $1 billion and ignores calls to overhaul a 2008 anti-trafficking law. — Obama had requested $3.7 billion …

Discussion: CNN and Washington Post

Tracy Van Slyke / Guardian:

Thomas the Tank Engine had to shut the hell up to save children everywhere — Classism, sexism, anti-environmentalism bordering on racism: any parent who discovered these hidden lessons will appreciate that the show's star just quit — There are many terrible children's programs through …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and National Review