memeorandum: Student-loan ruling may be windfall for US deficit reduction (David Lawder/Reuters)

2:45 PM ET, June 30, 2023

Top Items:

The Supreme Court rules for a designer who doesn't want to make wedding websites for gay couples — In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled Friday that a Christian graphic artist who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples.

Ivana Saric / Axios:

Supreme Court rules businesses can refuse service to LGBTQ+ customers … - Colorado's civil rights law prohibited her, or any business that serves the general public, from turning away customers because of their sexual orientation. … - “The artwork that I create is speech,” …

Discussion: The Guardian, Insider, NBC News, The Daily Caller, Slate, Semafor and Financial Times

Melissa Quinn / CBS News:

Supreme Court sides with designer who declines to make same-sex wedding websites — Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of a Colorado graphic artist who does not want to design wedding websites for same-sex couples, finding the First Amendment prohibits the state …

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Colorado Newsline, The Hill, Truthout, The European Conservative, Newsbusters, The Verge, New Jersey Monitor, National Review, TheBlaze and New York Daily News

The White House:
Statement from President Joe Biden on Supreme Court Decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis

Discussion: Fox News, The Hill, HuffPost, The Messenger and Raw Story

HuffPost:
Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Discrimination Of Same-Sex Couples

Discussion: ACLU, New York Times, NBC News, Talking Points Memo, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Sacramento Bee and Plain Dealer

NBC News:
Live updates: Supreme Court rules for web designer in LGBTQ protections case

Discussion: NPR, The Daily Beast, ABC News, American Greatness, Washington Examiner, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, Raw Story and Mediaite

ABC News:
Supreme Court rules for website designer in case involving free speech, LGBTQ+ protections

Discussion: Fox News, CNN, HotAir, UPI, PJ Media, New York Post, The Daily Caller, Concerned Women for America, Raw Story, The Hill, The Federalist, American Greatness, CBS News, Crooks and Liars, Althouse and Press Herald

Washington Post:

Supreme Court rejects Biden student loan forgiveness plan — The Supreme Court on Friday said President Biden does not have the authority for his nearly half-trillion dollar plan to forgive student loan debt, the latest blow from a Supreme Court that has been dismissive of this administration's bold claims of power.

David Lawder / Reuters:

Student-loan ruling may be windfall for US deficit reduction — The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down President Joe Biden's student debt relief would claw back more than $300 billion in costs associated with the program that were recognized last year, marking a major reduction in this year's deficit - at least on paper.

Discussion: CNBC, New York Times, NPR, CNN, Associated Press, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, CBS News, Mercury News, inews.co.uk and The Colorado Sun

ABC News:
Supreme Court strikes down Biden student loan debt forgiveness program

Politico:
Supreme Court strikes down Biden's student debt relief plan

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Supreme Court to Hear Major Guns Case Involving Domestic Violence — The court, which has decided very few Second Amendment cases, will consider whether the government may disarm people subject to restraining orders for domestic abuse. — Reporting from Washington

Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:

Supreme Court to weigh right of accused domestic abusers to own guns — A major new case tests the scope of the Supreme Court's ruling a year ago that expanded gun rights outside the home. — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to weigh whether people accused of domestic violence …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Fox News, NPR, Bloomberg, HuffPost, The Daily Caller, CBS News and Associated Press

Ian Millhiser / Vox:
The Supreme Court will decide if abusive spouses have a right to own guns

Discussion: Politico and USA Today

Ariane de Vogue / CNN:
Supreme Court to decide whether Second Amendment protects gun owners subject to domestic violence restraining orders

Discussion: The Hill and SCOTUSblog

Variety:

Alan Arkin, Oscar Winner for ‘Little Miss Sunshine,’ Dies at 89 — Alan Arkin, an Oscar-winning actor for “Little Miss Sunshine” with a body of work that spans seven decades of stage and screen acting, died June 29 at his home in Carlsbad, Calif, Variety has confirmed. He was 89.

Discussion: People, Reuters, The Forward, Raw Story, Global News, Associated Press, USA Today, The Daily Beast, NPR, World of Reel, CNN, IGN, New York Post, FOX8 WGHP, TMZ.com, Hollywood Life, Los Angeles Times and The Messenger

Jack Nicas / New York Times:

Brazil Set to Bar Bolsonaro From Office for Election-Fraud Claims — Brazil's electoral court had enough votes to block former President Jair Bolsonaro from office until 2030 for spreading false claims about voting. — Jack Nicas, The Times's correspondent in Brazil …

Discussion: CNN, Reuters, UPI, Mediaite and NPR

Tom Phillips / The Guardian:

Judges ban Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years over ‘appalling lies’ — Former far-right leader will only be able to seek elected office again in 2030, when he will be 75 — The political future of Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro has been cast into doubt …

Marina Dias / Washington Post:
Court votes to bar Bolsonaro from running for office

Discussion: Reuters, Bloomberg, The Hill, Raw Story, Financial Times, Associated Press, Fox News, The Messenger and Semafor

Anemona Hartocollis / New York Times:

With Supreme Court Decision, College Admissions Could Become More Subjective — Colleges have a game plan, like emphasizing the personal essay, but so do conservative groups that promise to monitor and, if necessary, go back to court. — 阅读.体中文.閱讀.體中文.

Discussion: NPR, Slate, Semafor, Washington Post, Mississippi Today, Insider, Mediaite, The Colorado Sun, Financial Times, Politico, Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Guardian, WKRG-TV, TIME and USA Today

Tyler Austin Harper / New York Times:
I Teach at an Elite College. Here's a Look Inside the Racial Gaming of Admissions.

Discussion: Joanne Jacobs, Truthout, Marketplace, NewsNation, CNN, Outside the Beltway, spiked, Noahpinion, Why Evolution Is True, New Republic, Mother Jones, HuffPost, Daily News and HotAir

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

Fox News Agrees to Pay $12 Million to Settle Hostile Workplace Suit — The settlement with a former producer, Abby Grossberg, is the latest development in a series of legal battles involving Fox. — Fox News has agreed to pay $12 million to Abby Grossberg, a former Fox News producer …

Discussion: NBC News and NPR, more at Mediagazer »

Jake Lahut / The Daily Beast:

The Stunning Place Where Trump Is Beating DeSantis the Worst — There was supposed to be a deluge of support for the Florida governor in Congress. It hasn't worked out that way. … Not Quite Ron Demand — Before Ron DeSantis officially announced his 2024 run, one of the first members …

Discussion: Raw Story

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
DeSantis's ugly descent into ‘invasion’ hysteria can't go unanswered

Discussion: America's Voice and Washington Examiner

Miami Herald: Ron DeSantis faces one setback after another in battle against LGBTQ rights

Edward Luce / Financial Times:

Republican candidate Chris Christie: ‘Trump wants to be Putin in America’ — The former New Jersey governor on his mission to stop the ex-president returning to power — I arrive a quarter of an hour early at the Tick Tock Diner to discover that Chris Christie is already there.

Discussion: Forbes, The Daily Beast, The Hill, Reuters, Raw Story and The Free Press

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Coalition of the Distrustful — Before Covid, Gabe Whitney, a 41-year-old from West Bath, Maine, didn't think much about vaccines. He wasn't very political — he didn't vote in 2020, he said, because he thought Donald Trump was a “psycho” and Joe Biden was “corrupt.”

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Reason

Rebecca Traister / New York Magazine: RFK Jr.'s Inside Job

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:

Trump Jan. 6 Mob Member Arrested Near Obama Home With Weapons — Bomb Materials — Taylor Taranto — a Trump supporter with a Jan. 6 warrant — was arrested near former President Barack Obama's home with guns and bomb materials. — Taranto was arrested Thursday on charges related …

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, New York Times, Conservative Brief, Associated Press, al.com, USA Today, Crooks and Liars, Bloomberg, CBS News and Insider

Julio Rivera / The Western Journal:

Op-Ed: Biden Just Failed America - It Could Be Years Before We Know the Extent of the Damage — Prior to new developments regarding a possible implosion in Russia amid the war with Ukraine, the news cycle had been dominated by the classified docs indictment of former President Donald Trump …

Washington Post:

Biden administration failed to foresee Afghanistan mayhem, review finds — A State Department report released Friday finds fault with the Biden administration's crisis management and awareness before and during the fall of Afghanistan, an affirmation of critics who have said that bureaucratic lethargy …

Discussion: New York Times

Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:

Supreme Court rejects challenge to Jim Crow-era Mississippi voting law — The 1890 state constitutional amendment was intended to disproportionately remove voting rights from Black people convicted of certain crimes. — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a challenge …

Discussion: CNN, USA Today, The Hill, WRIC-TV, Mississippi Today and Raw Story

Ben Smith / Semafor:

Eliot Spitzer: RFK Jr. asked about giving paid speeches in office — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn't run for office before in part because he couldn't afford it. — That's what Kennedy told then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, when Kennedy was considering running to replace him in 2006 …

The Hill:

Supreme Court lets stand gender dysphoria case in liberal win — The Supreme Court on Friday let a lower court ruling stand that sided with a transgender woman who contested that her rights were violated in jail when she was deprived of her hormone treatment.

Discussion: CNN, USA Today and Fox News

Caroline Vakil / The Hill:

Supreme Court sends back Ohio redistricting case — The Supreme Court on Friday sent an Ohio redistricting case back to the state's top court, in light of a decision it delivered earlier this week on a similar case in North Carolina. — Ohio Republicans had appealed to the nation's highest court …

Discussion: CNN

Gary Fineout / Politico:

DeSantis scores big legal win upholding $2.5B gambling deal with Florida tribe — The three-judge panel concluded that a lower court judge had wrongly stopped the deal and said that any dispute over the compact between Florida and the tribe should be fought in state court.

Timothy Nerozzi / Fox News:

Michigan House passes bill making wrong pronouns a felony, fineable up to $10,000 — Under the new bill, ‘intimidating’ an individual with the wrong pronouns can result in prison time or a $10,000 fine — A recently passed bill in Michigan would make it a felony to intimidate someone by using the wrong gender pronouns.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Daily Mail, National Review and The Gateway Pundit

Isabelle Khurshudyan / Washington Post:

Ukraine's top general, Valery Zaluzhny, wants shells, planes and patience — KYIV, Ukraine — For Ukraine's counteroffensive to progress faster, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the top officer in Ukraine's armed forces, says he needs more — of every weapon. And he is telling anyone who will listen …