memeorandum: US begins to dismantle Iran nuclear deal sanctions relief (Matthew Lee/Star Tribune)

8:10 AM ET, June 28, 2018

Top Items:

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:

Why Anthony Kennedy Gave Up — In his last year on the bench, the lifelong devotee of dignity and the rule of law joined Team Trump. What happened? — It was always more fan fiction than reality that Justice Anthony Kennedy was a moderate centrist. Democrats liked to soothe themselves …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Taylor Marsh, NY State of Politics, BloombergQuint and Above the Law

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Republican Court and the Era of Minority Rule — Democrats have won the national vote in six of the last seven presidential elections, which, with the retirement of Anthony Kennedy, will have resulted in the appointment of eight of its nine justices. And yet four of those justices …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Daily Kos

Yascha Mounk / Slate:

So Much For the Institutions — Kennedy's retirement proves we can't count on elites to constrain Trump's worst excesses — When he heard that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was retiring on Wednesday, a friend in his twenties told me: “Today is the darkest political moment my generation has experienced.”

Politico:

GOP plans to steamroll Dems on Supreme Court pick — Senate Republicans will move quickly to replace Anthony Kennedy before the midterm elections. — Senate Republicans plan to confirm a new Supreme Court justice to replace retiring Anthony Kennedy before the midterm elections …

Discussion: Axios, Daily Kos, ABC News, Shareblue Media, Politico, New York Magazine and Breitbart

Weekly Standard:

Exit Kennedy — Yes, elections have consequences. — Justice Anthony Kennedy's announcement on June 27 that he will retire from the Supreme Court came as a bracing relief for conservatives and a prophecy of woe for liberals. — Kennedy, though nominated in 1988 by Ronald Reagan …

Mike Allen / Axios:

Trump takes over America — President Trump, with his refusal to take advice or yield to experts, is the West Wing. Republicans who control both halves of Congress won't lift a finger against him and fully support his every move. — The big picture: With his chance to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy …

Discussion: Mediaite, Chuck Grassley and Talking Points Memo

Matt Wilstein / The Daily Beast:

Chris Matthews: ‘Hell to Pay’ If Democrats Don't Block Anthony Kennedy Replacement … MSNBC's Chris Matthews did not mince words in reacting to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's surprise retirement announcement on Wednesday. — “I don't think the Democrats should allow meetings …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Washington Post, RedState and Breitbart

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

Justice Kennedy deserves this nasty, unflinching sendoff — One of my favorite genres of writing is the charitable obituary written about a political opponent. My remembrance of Judge Robert Bork, the conservative icon President Ronald Reagan tried and failed to put on the Supreme Court …

CNBC:
Anthony Kennedy retiring from Supreme Court

Discussion: NBC News, Fox News, USA Today, American Greatness, Deadline, TheBlaze, Sean Hannity, Instapundit, Daily Caller News Foundation, The Daily Caller, Shot in the Dark and What The Fuck …

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Conservative group launches SCOTUS ad to pressure Dems

Discussion: New York Times, The Week, NPR and YouTube

BostonGlobe.com: Kennedy's retirement gives Trump another chance to make long-term impact

Jeffrey Rosen / The Atlantic:
The Justice Who Believed in America

Discussion: Refinery29, CNN and KTLA

New York Times:
With Kennedy Gone, Justice Must Be Won at the Ballot Box

Discussion: Constitution Daily, HuffPost, Law & Liberty and FiveThirtyEight

Jack Goldsmith / Washington Post:
Justice Kennedy's retirement leaves the future of U.S. constitutional law entirely up for grabs

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, BloombergQuint, Politico, The Daily Beast, Breitbart and The Guardian

Richard L. Hasen / Slate:
The Only Thing That Might Stop Trump From Replacing Kennedy With a Scalia Clone

Discussion: Modern Democracy, National Review, Vox, BloombergQuint, No More Mister Nice Blog and Law & Crime

Stephanie Ebbs / ABC News:
Here are 25 names Trump could nominate to replace Justice Kennedy

Discussion: USA Today, New York Times, Slate, Axios, HuffPost, The Strident Conservative, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Federalist

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
Mitch McConnell's politics of shamelessness have won

Discussion: Slate, Washington Monthly, Washington Post and Talking Points Memo

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:
Anthony Kennedy Just Destroyed His Legacy as a Gay Rights Hero

Discussion: Big Think, Rewire.News, Shareblue Media, twitchy.com, Washington Free Beacon, Talking Points Memo, Constitution Daily and Feeds

Jay Michaelson / The Daily Beast:
With Supreme Court Justice Kennedy Gone, Abortion and LGBT Rights Are Next

Discussion: twitchy.com, The Hill, Splinter and NewsBusters

Joshua Matz / Washington Post:
The Supreme Court will now fall to chaos

Discussion: Guns.com, AOL, ThinkProgress and SCOTUSblog

David Harsanyi / The Federalist:
Was Gorsuch Worth A Trump Presidency? It's Starting To Look That Way

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Shane Goldmacher / New York Times:

An Upset in the Making: Why Joe Crowley Never Saw Defeat Coming — It was less than three weeks until Primary Day and, on first blush, the poll that Representative Joseph Crowley had been shown by his team of advisers was encouraging: He led his upstart rival, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, by 36 percentage points.

Discussion: NY State of Politics and Greensburg Tribune-Review

Benny Johnson / The Daily Caller:

Socialist Darling Caught Celebrating, Campaigning With Known Anti-Semite And Racist — Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stunned the political world and rank-in-file Democrats by defeating incumbent Joe Crowley in Tuesday's New York primary. The Ocasio-Cortez win signaled …

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite and El Paso Times

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez / americamagazine.org: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her Catholic faith and the urgency of a criminal justice reform

Justin Wise / The Hill:
Bernie Sanders: Sarah Sanders has the right to ‘go into a restaurant and have dinner’

Discussion: Mediaite

The Texas Tribune:

Immigrant toddlers ordered to appear in court alone — As the White House faces court orders to reunite families separated at the border, immigrant children as young as three years old are being ordered into court for their own deportation proceedings, according to attorneys in Texas, California and Washington, D.C.

Discussion: The Week

VICE News: Listen to a distraught Guatemalan child call his mother from a U.S. immigration shelter

The Hill:
HHS watchdog launches probe into conditions at child detention centers

Discussion: HuffPost, Associated Press, CBS News, Splinter, The Daily Caller and Talking Points Memo

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Scoop: Trump's private NATO trashing rattles allies — You've already read a hundred stories about President Trump's clashes with some of America's closest allies at the G7 summit in Canada. But we've got new details from his private conversations with heads of state that have put …

Discussion: Raw Story

Aaron Lorenzo / Politico:

Trump's IRS nominee didn't disclose properties in Trump-branded hotel — The revelation about the hotel seems certain to come up when Chuck Rettig testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. — President Donald Trump's pick to run the IRS, tax lawyer Chuck Rettig …

Discussion: Raw Story

Bloomberg: Trump's IRS Nominee Has Stake in Units at Trump-Branded Resort

Reuters:

Manafort had $10 million loan from Russian oligarch: court filing — (Reuters) - A search warrant application unsealed on Wednesday revealed closer links than previously known between President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin.

Discussion: New Republic and The Week

Jason Schwartz / Politico:

New Fox chief cracks down on inflammatory statements — CEO Suzanne Scott summoned producers to a meeting to direct them to take more control over hosts and panelists. — Amid growing backlash against inflammatory statements by Fox News commentators, network CEO Suzanne Scott summoned top show producers …

Discussion: Mediaite and Media Matters for America

Heather Murphy / New York Times:

Genealogists Turn to Cousins' DNA and Family Trees to Crack Five More Cold Cases — Police arrested a D.J. in Pennsylvania and a nurse in Washington State this week, the latest examples of the use of an open-source ancestry site since the break in the Golden State killer case.

Rachael Bade / Politico:

‘I thought you were my friend’: Immigration meltdown exposes GOP hostilities — A seven-week effort to pass immigration reform ends in anger and distrust across the House Republican Conference. — Moderate House Republicans suspected they were being played.

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:

Goodlatte: FBI Lawyers Instructed Strzok Not To Answer ‘Many, Many’ Questions In Deposition — FBI lawyers instructed Peter Strzok during a congressional deposition on Wednesday not to answer “many, many questions” about his involvement in the Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations …

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Caller News Foundation and CNN

Associated Press:

North Carolina GOP ends nominee's support over racist posts — RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina Republican Party has withdrawn support from a legislative nominee after a website connected to him said God is a racist white supremacist and Jews are descended from Satan.

Discussion: Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Law & Crime

Rasmussen Reports:

31% Think U.S. Civil War Likely Soon — Most voters fear that political violence is coming from opponents of the president's policies, just as they did in the second year of Barack Obama's presidency, and nearly one-in-three think a civil war is next. — Thirty-one percent (31%) …