memeorandum: Va. Judge Finds Probable Clause That “Court of Mist and Fury” and “Gender Queer” Are “Obscene for ... Minors” (Eugene Volokh/Reason)

5:35 PM ET, May 26, 2022

Top Items:

Uvalde Residents Voice Frustration Over Shooting Response — Videos circulating on social media show parents confronting police outside the school; ‘The police were doing nothing’ — UVALDE, Texas—Residents here expressed anger and frustration Thursday about the time it took for law enforcement …

Discussion: BuzzFeed News, The Daily Beast, Human Events, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite, Associated Press, Twitchy and Clayton Cramer

New York Times:

Uvalde Live Updates: 2 Police Officers Were Reportedly Shot Early in Gunman's Rampage — Some parents who lost children are angry about the police response as new details emerge about the hour of terror in the classrooms where a gunman took 21 lives. “This could have been over in a couple of minutes,” one anguished father said.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Common Dreams, The Texas Tribune, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Insider and Twitchy

Washington Post:

A grisly checklist and a sickening rampage: Inside the Uvalde massacre — UVALDE, Tex. — The gray Ford pickup truck veered into a ditch with such force that people who live on the block assumed it was an accident and rushed over to help the driver. — Instead, according to witness and police accounts …

Henry Ramos / kens5.com:

'It's time to die' | Fourth-grader who survived Uvalde school shooting gives heartbreaking account of what gunman told students — The Robb Elementary student said he and several of his friends survived after hiding under a table with a tablecloth covering them.

Discussion: The Editorial Board, Townhall, Fox News, CBS News, Jezebel, HotAir, RedState, Washington Post, The Root, The Daily Beast, Metro.co.uk, The Daily Caller, Daily Mail, NBC News, The Daily Wire, NBC News, BizPac Review, New York Post, Eschaton, New York Post and VICE

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:

WATCH: Texas Police Spox on Live TV Confirmed Cops Went In for Their Own Kids During Uvalde Shooting — Texas Department Public Safety spokesman Lt. Christopher Olivarez confirmed to a reporter during a live shot that police officers went into Robb Elementary School to get their own children during the massacre.

Discussion: HotAir, Louder With Crowder and BizPac Review

Associated Press:

Police face questions over response to Texas school shooting — UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Law enforcement authorities faced mounting questions and criticism Thursday over how much time elapsed before they stormed a Texas elementary school classroom and put a stop to the rampage by a gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers.

Discussion: Fox News, Reuters, Common Dreams, ARLnow.com, New York Post, WPRI-TV, Washington Examiner, Insider, Shore News Network, Raw Story and American Greatness

NBC News:
‘More could have been done’: Witnesses question law enforcement response to Texas school shooting

Discussion: Axios, The Hill, East Bay Times, BizPac Review, Rolling Stone and The Daily Caller

New York Times:

Where Senate Republicans Stand on Gun Legislation — The New York Times reached out on Wednesday to all 50 Republicans in the Senate to see whether they would support a pair of House-passed measures to strengthen background checks for gun buyers. Within hours of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Daily Beast, Politico, Common Dreams, Politico, Washington Post, HotAir, Erick Erickson's Confessions …, The Hill, NBC News, CNSNews and New York Times

NBC News:
Bipartisan group of senators holds first talks on gun safety

Discussion: CNBC

Associated Press:
Senate GOP blocks domestic terrorism bill, gun policy debate

Discussion: Axios, HuffPost, The Hill, The American Independent, Raw Story, Insider, POLITICUSUSA, Washington Times, CNN, Arizona Mirror, CBS News and Washington Post

CNN:
Exclusive: McConnell says he has directed Cornyn to engage with Democrats on a ‘bipartisan solution’ on gun violence

Discussion: NBC News, The Hill, Bloomberg, Insider, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times and The Daily Caller

Ryan Cooper / American Prospect:
The Senate Has Forfeited Its Right to Exist

Discussion: Politico, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Rolling Stone, Townhall, New York Times, The Atlantic, PinkNews, DemocracySOS, Outside the Beltway, Metro and The Hill

Kevin T. Dugan / New York Magazine:
The NRA won after Sandy Hook, but today the gun lobby is in disarray and gun safety is slowly making gains in states.

Discussion: New York Times, Pom Pom's Mixtape and Vox

Roxane Gay / New York Times:
The Uvalde Shooting Shows America's Deep Incivility

Discussion: Media Matters for America, FiveThirtyEight, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Arizona Mirror, Iridescent Ordinary, Talking Points Memo and Althouse

Mark Stone / Sky News:

Texas school shooting: Senator Ted Cruz storms off over questions about gun reform — Among the mourners at a vigil for the 21 people killed at Tuesday's mass shooting are Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, and his ally in the senate, Ted Cruz; Republican politicians who block all Democratic Party attempts to change gun laws.

Discussion: HuffPost, HotAir, emptywheel, Metro.co.uk, Daily Kos, BizPac Review, POLITICUSUSA, Rolling Stone, New York Post, Variety, Jackal Action and Mediaite

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
Demands not to ‘politicize’ tragedy are themselves political demands

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo and New York Times

Fox News:
Texas school shooting: Senate Dems say 6 to 12 GOPers engaged in gun talks, plan tough votes if they back out

Discussion: ABC News and Washington Examiner

Timothy Bella / Washington Post:
Cruz storms off after being asked why mass shootings happen ‘only in America’

Discussion: USA Today, Fox News, New Republic, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Daily Beast, Summit News, The Hill and The Daily Wire

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:
Ted Cruz angrily quits interview after being confronted about gun control

Discussion: The Liberty Loft, Vanity Fair and Axios

Mike Fleming Jr / Deadline:

‘Goodfellas’ Star Ray Liotta Dies at 67 — A shocker. Ray Liotta, the terrific actor whose career breakout came in the Martin Scorsese crime classic Goodfellas, has died. Deadline hears he died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting the film Dangerous Waters.

Politico:

Meadows burned papers after meeting with Scott Perry, Jan. 6 panel told — Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows burned papers in his office after meeting with a House Republican who was working to challenge the 2020 election, according to testimony the Jan. 6 select committee has heard from one of his former aides.

Discussion: Insider, Mock Paper Scissors, Mediaite, Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo, Daily Kos and Yahoo News

Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
Jordan seeks Jan. 6 panel evidence as condition to comply with committee

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo, CNN, Daily Kos, Raw Story and Plain Dealer

Michael R. Sisak / Associated Press:

Trump loses appeal, must testify in New York civil probe — NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump must answer questions under oath in New York state's civil investigation into his business practices, a state appeals court ruled Thursday. — A four-judge panel in the appellate division …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, CNN, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and Rolling Stone

Kaelan Deese / Washington Examiner:
Trump required to testify over New York civil investigation after losing appeal

Discussion: The Daily Beast, CNBC, Common Dreams, ABC News, Politico, Bloomberg, Mercury News, CBS News and New York Post

Jake Lahut / Insider:

GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker proposes 'a department that can look at young men that's looking at women that's looking at social media' in response to Texas shooting — Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker once again had trouble talking about gun control.

Discussion: The Daily Dot, HuffPost and Insider

Shannon McCaffrey / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Herschel Walker fumbles gun control response - twice

Discussion: Raw Story, The Root, CNN and Daily Kos

Eugene Volokh / Reason:

Va. Judge Finds Probable Clause That “Court of Mist and Fury” and “Gender Queer” Are “Obscene for ... Minors” — This finding is now being used as a basis for seeking a restraining order banning Barnes & Noble from distributing the books to minors. Is that constitutional?

Lawrence Hurley / Reuters:

The next U.S. abortion battle is over pills, and it's already begun — The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet released its decision that looks set to dramatically scale back abortion rights, but one of the next legal battles has already begun in a Mississippi court.

US Census / Census.gov:

Fastest-Growing Cities Are Still in the West and South — NOTE: Data will be available around 10 a.m. EDT on release day. — Some Cities Experienced Slower Growth Since 2020 — MAY 26, 2022 — Populations of cities and towns in the South and West regions of the United States still experienced …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Breitbart and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:

Supreme Court allows Biden climate regulations while fight continues — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Biden administration, for now, to use a higher estimate for the societal cost of rising greenhouse gases when federal agencies draft regulations.

Discussion: Politico, Fox News, Associated Press, The Hill, NBC News, Articles Archive and SCOTUSblog

CNN:

Russia is depopulating parts of eastern Ukraine, forcibly removing thousands into remote parts of Russia — Washington (CNN)Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been processed through a series of Russian “filtration camps” in Eastern Ukraine and sent into Russia as part of a systemized program …

Discussion: The Hill, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, CBS News and Political Wire

James Finn / Los Angeles Blade:

Texas Trans girl assaulted over GOP lies about Uvalde shooting — Why was this teen girl assaulted by a grown man she'd never met, harassed by four strangers who could tell she was trans — In a phone interview today, Tracey told me the man grabbed her arm and forced her body around …

Discussion: The Present Age and NBC News

Marc Caputo / NBC News:

Florida IG report: ‘Insufficient evidence’ for DeSantis critic's claims of Covid coverup — A prominent critic of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' Covid response made “unsubstantiated” claims that state health officials fired her because she refused to present manipulated data online …

BBC:

Actor Kevin Spacey charged with sexual assault — Actor Kevin Spacey charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men, Crown Prosecution Service says … You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts.

Discussion: Los Angeles Blade

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Opinion Rubio's bizarre attack on the NBA shows folly of the GOP gun stance — In recent years, Republicans have spent a fair amount of time attacking athletes and sports leagues. They pilloried football players for kneeling during the national anthem. They hammered the National Football League for backing those athletes up.

Discussion: Breitbart, The Wrap and The Daily Caller

Henry Rosoff / PIX11:

PIX11 poll: Voters not sold on de Blasio comeback in congressional race; Maloney favored in NY-12 — NEW YORK (PIX11) — New York Democrats are not sold on former Mayor Bill de Blasio's comeback as he attempts to run for Congress in New York's newly restructured 10th Congressional District …