memeorandum: Red, Purple Marks On Child's Face Prompts Daycare Investigation (Annie Potasznik/CBS Dallas)

1:35 PM ET, February 18, 2016

Top Items:

CBS News poll: Trump maintains commanding lead over GOP field — Donald Trump (35 percent) continues to hold a commanding lead over the rest of the field, with a 17 point lead over his closest rival, Texas Senator Ted Cruz (18 percent). John Kasich (11 percent) has now risen to a virtual third-place tie with Marco Rubio (12 percent).

Discussion: Washington Post, NBC News, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, Politico and USA Today

CBS News:

CBS News poll: The next Supreme Court justice, Obama, and the economy — The U.S. Supreme Court — With an unexpected vacancy on the Supreme Court as a result of Justice Antonin Scalia's death, it's unclear if he will be replaced before the November election.

Discussion: ABC News, Politico, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, mprnews.org, BizPac Review, Hot Air, abc11.com, Outside the Beltway, The Week and Washington Post

Garrett Epps / The Atlantic:

The Republicans' Scalia Hysteria — A half-century ago, the brilliant British comedy troupe Beyond the Fringe produced “The End of the World,” a skit in which a group of cultists gather atop a mountain to greet the Apocalypse, prophesied for that very day. “Now is the end!” they chant.

Discussion: New York Times, BloombergView.com, SCOTUSblog, Fusion, Prairie Weather and PrawfsBlawg

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
White House: Obama ‘regrets’ his filibuster of Supreme Court nominee

Discussion: American Spectator, ABC News, Politico, CNBC, The Daily Signal, Power Line and The Week

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:
Outside Groups Warn GOP: Don't Even Think About Holding A SCOTUS Hearing

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Daily Kos

David Lat / Above the Law:
Controversy Erupts At A T14 Law School Over How (Or Even Whether) To Mourn Justice Scalia

Discussion: Independent Journal Review, Althouse, Instapundit, Campus Reform, The Daily Caller and The College Fix

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Scalia's death has landed Republicans in a nasty trap

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico, Daily Kos, CBS News, Politicus USA and Political Insider blog

Scott Lemieux / Lawyers, Guns & Money:
Summing Up Scalia — Getting right to the point:

Discussion: Balkinization

CNN:
Republicans weigh denying Supreme Court nominee a hearing

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politicus USA, Daily Kos and Washington Post

New York Times:
The Potential for the Most Liberal Supreme Court in Decades

Discussion: Prairie Weather, ACS Blog and BloombergView.com

JCN / Judicial Crisis Network:
JCN Launches “Let the People Decide” Campaign

Discussion: Politico and Talking Points Memo

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Sandra Day O'Connor: Obama should name Scalia's replacement

Discussion: Vox, The Huffington Post, addictinginfo.org and The Week

Jim Yardley / New York Times:

Pope Francis Suggests Donald Trump Is ‘Not Christian’ — ABOARD THE PAPAL AIRLINER — Inserting himself into the Republican presidential race, Pope Francis on Wednesday suggested that Donald J. Trump “is not Christian” because of the harshness of his campaign promises to deport more immigrants …

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post, Business Insider, Political Insider blog, NO QUARTER USA NET, Friendly Atheist, Political Wire, Jezebel, Roll Call, Hollywood Life, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos and New York Magazine

Donald J Trump for President:

DONALD J. TRUMP RESPONSE TO THE POPE — If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened.

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, CNN, Mother Jones, The Atlantic, Hit & Run, Hot Air, Right Wing Watch, AMERICAblog NewsAMERICAblog …, Refinery29, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times, New York's PIX11 and Vatican Radio English

Meghan Keneally / ABC News:

Pope Francis Says Donald Trump Is ‘Not Christian’

Discussion: Vox, addictinginfo.org, abc11.com and Associated Press

Ben Shapiro / Breitbart:

Pope Francis Rips Capitalism, American Immigration Policy at Mexican Border — Pope Francis, apparently desperate to reach out to the Catholic Church's growing base in Latin America, spent the day slapping Americans in the face from across the US-Mexico border.

Discussion: Daily Wire and Reuters

Yahoo Politics:

Pope says Trump ‘not Christian’ in views, plans over immigration — By Philip Pullella ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is “not Christian” because of his views on immigration, Pope Francis said on his way back to Rome from Mexico.

Discussion: Washington Post and Politico

Nick Gass / Politico:
Trump goes to war with the pope

Discussion: Yahoo Politics and Washington Post

Los Angeles Times:
Pope Francis decries ‘human tragedy’ that forces migration in landmark Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border

Discussion: ThinkProgress, New York Times, ImmigrationProf Blog and KTLA

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Mainstream G.O.P. Field of Three Faces Brutal Delegate Math — If the Republican Party remains divided for much longer, it will start getting more difficult for a mainstream candidate to win the nomination. — Yet Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and John Kasich all have incentives to stay in the race …

Discussion: Shakesville

Dana Blanton / Fox News:
Fox News Poll: Trump leads in South Carolina

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Political Wire, Politico and Hot Air

Mark Murray / NBC News:
Donald Trump Falls Behind Ted Cruz in National NBC/WSJ Poll

Michael Falcone / ABC News:
The Note: Palmetto Pummel

Discussion: Associated Press and abc11.com

Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:
Jeb Bush confronted like never before by worried supporters

Discussion: addictinginfo.org, FiveThirtyEight, Marco Rubio, Florida Politics, Yahoo Politics, BostonGlobe.com and Politico

Chris Kahn / Reuters:
Trump leads Republican field nationally by more than 20 points: poll

Discussion: Power Line

Dan McLaughlin / National Review:
Is Jeb Bush Preparing Himself to Drop Out?

Discussion: Power Line, RedState, The Resurgent, Guardian and Hot Air

Isaac Chotiner / Slate:

MSNBC's Town Hall With Donald Trump Was Disgraceful — The media's coverage of Trump has been soft, insufficient, and without substance. — Is Donald Trump in trouble? After facing hostile questions from Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Wednesday night—they comprehensively laid out his flip-flops …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Politicus USA, Washington Post and Mother Jones

Mark Hensch / The Hill:

Trump: I'll be ‘neutral’ on Israel and Palestine — GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to pick sides in the conflict between Israel and Palestine. — “You know, I don't want to get into it,” he told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski during a MSNBC town hall in Charleston, S.C.

Discussion: RedState, Yahoo Politics, Daily Wire, Betsy's Page, Hot Air, American Spectator and Mondoweiss

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Trump Mistakenly Thinks Description Of Sanders Is About Himself (VIDEO)

Discussion: MSNBC, Daily Wire and The Week

Bradford Richardson / The Hill:

Obama ‘Hope’ designer endorses Sanders — Artist and activist Shepard Fairey, who designed the iconic “Hope” poster during then-Sen. Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, is backing Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. — “I'm supporting Bernie Sanders …

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Caller and Outside the Beltway

Associated Press:
Jane Sanders Is Central in Her Husband's Surging Campaign

Discussion: Politico and ABC News

Amie Parnes / The Hill:
Tightening race rattles Clinton World's nerves

Discussion: CNN, Instapundit and Common Dreams

Ben Rhodes:

President Obama is going to Cuba. Here's why: — Cuba is only 90 miles from Florida, but for a long time the distance between our two countries seemed a lot greater. — For more than fifty years, the United States pursued a policy of isolating and pressuring Cuba.

Discussion: Yahoo Politics, KTLA, Independent Journal Review, Fort Smith/Fayetteville News, Business Insider and Politico

Jim Avila / ABC News:
President Obama to Visit Cuba in Historic Trip Next Month

Discussion: CNN, abc11.com, Guardian, The Right Scoop, Weasel Zippers, New York Magazine and The Week

Bill Chappell / NPR:

Oregon Occupier Countersues For $666 Billion, Citing ‘Works Of The Devil’ — Shawna Cox, one of the last militants to be arrested for occupying an Oregon wildlife refuge last month, has filed a counter-suit against the U.S. government and others in which she alleges “damages from the works of the devil in excess of 666,666,666,666.66.”

Discussion: Friendly Atheist

CNN:
Cliven Bundy indicted by federal grand jury

Discussion: New York Magazine, Politicus USA, Mashable and The Atlantic

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

How to Break a Party — Beginning with the Tea Party wave and continuing through the not-Romney musical chairs of the 2012 Republican primary and the battles over debt limits and fiscal cliffs, most coverage of the Republican Party's internal divisions during the Obama era fell into an easy groove …

Shane Harris / The Daily Beast:

Apple Unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 Times Before — A 2015 court case shows that the tech giant has been willing to play ball with the government before—and is only stopping now because it might “tarnish the Apple brand.” — Apple CEO Tim Cook declared on Wednesday that his company …

Spencer Hall / SBNation.com:

A note from the editorial director — Earlier today, SB Nation posted a story called “Who is Daniel Holtzclaw?” that attempted to find out the backstory of convicted serial rapist Daniel Holtzclaw. The story focused on his football background in particular.