memeorandum: Arkansas Legislature Copies Indiana, Passes Controversial Religious Freedom Bill (Dana Liebelson/The Huffington Post)

9:50 AM ET, April 1, 2015

Top Items:

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:

The Left wages total war; and then plays victim — On one side is the CEO of the world's largest company, the president of the United States and a growing chunk of the Fortune 500. On the other side is a solo wedding photographer in New Mexico, a 70-year-old grandma florist in Washington and a few bakers.

Discussion: alicublog and The Anchoress

Mark Berman / Washington Post:

Arkansas lawmakers approve religious liberty bill despite firestorm over Indiana law — Amid intense criticism of Indiana's religious liberties law, which has prompted lawmakers in that state to vow to fix the legislation, another state charged ahead with a similar measure.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hot Air, The Daily Banter, Slate, Alliance Defending …, Daily Mail, The Daily Caller, Cruz for President, Arkansas Online and New York Magazine

Politico:

Indiana law backs GOP hopefuls into a corner — Mike Pence just lobbed a grenade into the Republican presidential field. — The Indiana governor's religious freedom law has ignited yet another controversial culture war debate that has Republican contenders juggling awkward questions about issues they would just as soon not touch.

Discussion: Washington Post, Betsy's Page, Political Wire, Balloon Juice, The Huffington Post and National Review

New York Times:

Defying Criticism, Arkansas Legislature Passes Bill on Religious Freedom — LITTLE ROCK, Ark., — Despite intensifying criticism from business leaders both within and outside of Arkansas, the state legislature on Tuesday passed its version of a measure billed as a religious freedom law …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Slate, National Review, Mediaite, Towleroad News #gay, The Week and Hit & Run

David Brooks / New York Times:

Religious Liberty and Equality — Over the past few decades the United States has engaged in a great struggle to balance civil rights and religious liberty. — On the one hand, there is a growing consensus that straight, gay and lesbian people deserve full equality with each other.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Hot Air, RedState, Forbes, The American Conservative, The Federalist, Equality Matters, Balloon Juice, Weekly Standard and Wall Street Journal

Jill Lawrence / US News:
A Glimpse Into the GOP's Backward Bubble

Discussion: TIME, CNNMoney, National Review, Mashable, The Big Picture, Towleroad News #gay, Talking Points Memo and The Reaction

Dana Liebelson / The Huffington Post:
Arkansas Legislature Copies Indiana, Passes Controversial Religious Freedom Bill

Discussion: USA Today, RedState, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Common Dreams, Reuters, New York Times, Business Insider, Daily Kos, UPI, Hit & Run, BuzzFeed, Religion Clause, ThinkProgress and Southwest Times Record

New York Times:
Bills on ‘Religious Freedom’ Upset Capitols in Arkansas and Indiana

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Vox, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Political Wire, Advocate, San Diego Gay and Lesbian, Liberaland, The Moderate Voice and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Matthew J. Belvedere / CNBC:
NCAA president: Indiana law against our core values

Discussion: AMERICAblog News, Talking Points Memo, National Review, myfox8.com, Mediaite, WALV-TV, Chicago and Outside the Beltway

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed: “Smoking Doesn't Kill” And Other Great Old Op-Eds From Mike Pence

Brian Beutler / The New Republic:
The Real Consequences of Indiana's “Religious Freedom” Law

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, US News, Yahoo! Finance, FiveThirtyEight and Washington Post

Frédéric Helbert / Le fil info Royal Blog de …:

EXCLUSIVE: THE FINAL MOMENTS BEFORE THE CRASH — A short video found on the site of the crash appears to confirm the data recovered from one of the two black boxes of the A320. — Paris Match and Bild obtained a video taken during the final seconds of the fated Germanwings flight 4U9525 …

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, Telegraph, Mashable, RT, Fox News Insider, Mediaite, The Week and CBS DC

Eun Kyung Kim / Today:

Elizabeth Warren on 2016: 'I'm not going to run' — and Hillary Clinton deserves ‘a chance to decide’ — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a populist figure among the Democratic faithful after taking on Wall Street and the banking industry, reaffirmed to Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Tuesday that she has no plans to run for president in 2016.

Discussion: The Hill, Gawker, Taylor Marsh, Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, New York Magazine, The Reaction and Wall Street Journal

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Could Another Democrat Beat Hillary Clinton? Strategists Offer a Blueprint

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:
Hillary Clinton Makes It Hard to Follow the Money

Discussion: BREITBART.COM

Jessica Winter / Slate:

The Problem Isn't That Trevor Noah Is Offensive. The Problem Is That He's a Giant Dope. — Not since John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate have the vetting capacities of a powerful political force been cast into such doubt. When Trevor Noah was announced Monday as the next host …

Discussion: Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, Althouse, TIME, Hollywood Reporter, The Huffington Post, The Week, The Daily Banter, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Unfogged

David Weigel / Bloomberg Business:
Trevor Noah, From Progressive Icon to Villain in 24 Hours

Discussion: Steyn Online, BizPac Review, Raw Story, Mediaite, Salon, Ed Driscoll, Power Line, The Verge, Vox, WOOD-TV, Hot Air, Washington Free Beacon, Hit & Run and Patterico's Pontifications

Dave Itzkoff / New York Times:
Comedy Central Stands Behind Trevor Noah, New ‘Daily Show’ Host, Amid Scrutiny

Discussion: Mondoweiss, The Week, CBS New York, The Atlantic Online, The Daily Caller, The PJ Tatler, Christian Science Monitor, Obsidian Wings and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Bret Stephens / Wall Street Journal:

The Capitulationist — The Obama administration refuses to negotiate openly, lest the extent of its diplomatic surrender to Iran be prematurely and fatally exposed. — For a sense of the magnitude of the capitulation represented by Barack Obama's Iran diplomacy, it's worth recalling …

Discussion: Power Line and Washington Free Beacon

Bernie Becker / The Hill:

IRS chief to GOP: You can't abolish us — The IRS commissioner on Tuesday brushed aside GOP proposals to abolish his agency, insisting the U.S. would have to have a tax collector one way or another. — “You can call them something other than the IRS if that made you feel better,” …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Los Angeles Times:

Andrew Getty's death does not appear to involve foul play, authorities say — Authorities investigating the death of Andrew Getty, an heir to the Getty oil fortune, said a preliminary investigation suggests foul play was not involved. — The death appeared to be natural or an accident …

Discussion: The Week, BuzzFeed, Scared Monkeys, TMZ.com and FOX40

Washington Post:

How a Bush-allied nonprofit could inject more secret money into '16 race — Jeb Bush has given his tacit endorsement to a new group that can collect unlimited amounts of money in secret, part of a bold effort by his advisers to create a robust external political operation before he declares his expected White House bid.

Discussion: Reuters and Prairie Weather

Charles Pierce / Esquire:

David Brooks Would Like You To Lower Your Voice — In which David Brooks would like gay people to lower their voices. — GETTY BRYAN BEDDER FOR THE NEW YORKER — Before we deal with the well-mannered moral monster that is David Brooks, we should dispense with some of the WeaselSpeak …

Discussion: LiberalAmerica.org, driftglass, No More Mister Nice Blog, Little Green Footballs, BarbWire.com, The Huffington Post and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

TMZ.com:

Joni Mitchell — Legendary '60s Singer Hospitalized — LEGENDARY SINGER HOSPITALIZED — EXCLUSIVE — 3:00 AM PT: Joni is still in intensive care, but her people say she is “awake and in good spirits.” Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell — who's synonymous with the Woodstock generation …

Discussion: New York Times, BuzzFeed and Towleroad News #gay

Neil Eggleston / White House.gov Blog:

Upholding the Principle of Fairness in Our Criminal Justice System Through Clemency — Building on his commitment to address instances of unfairness in sentencing, President Obama granted 22 commutations today to individuals serving time in federal prison. Had they been sentenced under current laws …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Hit & Run, Wall Street Journal, Common Dreams, The Week and Horizons

Terry Andre Barnes / The Huffington Post:
Obama Commutes 22 Drug Sentences, Instantly Doubling The Number Of Commutations He's Issued

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Horizons, ThinkProgress and New York Magazine

Jason Horowitz / New York Times:

Scott Walker, Allergic to Dogs, May Run Against Political History — Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and his wife, Tonette, had planned to spend a recent Friday night at the Nashua home of Jennifer Horn, the New Hampshire Republican chairwoman. — Then he heard about Al, the Horns' beloved Dalmatian-Catahoula Leopard mix.

Discussion: New York Magazine and The Daily Beast

The White House:

FACT SHEET: U.S. Reports its 2025 Emissions Target to the UNFCCC — State Department Submits President Obama's Ambitious 2025 Target to Cut U.S. Climate Pollution by 26-28 Percent from 2005 Levels — To view the INDC submission, click HERE. — Building on the strong progress …

Discussion: Washington Post, RTCC, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, BarbWire.com, Hit & Run and Guardian