June 13, 2024 | What A Day Newsletter

What A Day: Hard-right pill to swallow

FILE - Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022. The Supreme Court on Thursday, June 13, 2024, unanimously preserved access to the medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court’s first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed, File)

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A WIN… FOR NOW

The Supreme Court preserved access to abortion pills — for now. But the battle is far from over.

The Supreme Court unanimously rejected an attempt to limit access to mifepristone, a drug used in more than 60 percent of abortions nationwide, on Thursday. A group of antiabortion doctors has no legal standing to take on the Food and Drug Administration’s regulations of the drug, the court found, in its first major abortion decision since overturning Roe v. Wade two years ago.

Yet the decision was made on a technicality, and leaves the door wide open for future challenges. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote that the FDA’s regulations don’t harm the doctors who brought the case — meaning they failed to meet a key requirement to bring their lawsuit in the first place. We should expect another case, with stronger plaintiffs, soon, noted Melissa Murray, co-host of Crooked’s legal affairs podcast, Strict Scrutiny.

Progressives and Democrats warned the ruling only underscores that reproductive rights remain under threat. President Biden said the ruling “does not mean that mifepristone, or medication abortion, remains available and approved.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said: “No one should be celebrating this decision.”

Meanwhile, across the street from the Supreme Court, Senate Democrats picked a fight with the GOP over in vitro fertilization.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) forced a vote on a bill to protect IVF and other fertility treatments Thursday, as part of a continuing effort to put Republicans on the defensive over reproductive care before the election. Republicans blocked the measure, while releasing a letter saying they support IVF — as if that would distract everyone from the fact that they literally just voted against protecting it.

The rumble in the Senate came one day after The Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest denomination of Protestant Christians, voted to oppose IVF at an annual gathering Wednesday in Indianapolis. The resolution doesn’t ban member families from using IVF, but criticizes the destruction of unused embryos.

Abortion remains a top issue for voters — one that could tip the balance for either party in November’s election.

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NEWS NEWS NEWS

Trump toured Capitol Hill where he insulted Milwaukee, listened to fawning GOP lawmakers sing him “Happy Birthday,” and reportedly floated a radical new idea to eliminate income tax in favor of tariffs. In practice, such a scheme would shift the tax burden away from rich folks and make everyone else pay for it with much more expensive shopping. For the record: the ultra-wealthy have been trying to pitch an elimination of the income tax in favor of an increase in sales tax for a LONG time, and still seem to think we can’t see through their scheme.

Trump’s D.C. visit came as the newly minted felon tries to convince House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to find a way to help Trump overturn his felony conviction. Trump’s phone call to Johnson in the days after the May 31 verdict reportedly included “frequent F-bombs,” according to Politico. Trump ranted about law enforcement officials to his fellow Republicans on Thursday, as House Republicans vowed to fight harder to protect him from prosecutors. Again, this is the group that’s constantly complaining about “weaponization of the federal government” promising to weaponize the federal government on Trump’s behalf.

North Dakota voters passed a first-of-its-kind measure this week that would impose age restrictions on congressional candidates. The state constitutional amendment bans people from running for House or Senate seats in North Dakota “if that person could attain 81 years of age by December 31st of the year immediately preceding the end of the term.” Ninety percent of the Senate is SHAKING right now.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Starbucks on Thursday in a case centered around the firing of seven baristas amid a union organizing campaign in Memphis. The decision could make it harder for labor prosecutors to win court injunctions against employers accused of breaking the law. The ultra-conservative Supreme Court ruled with a mega-corporation and against workers? Well now we’ve seen it all.

Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) ex-husband pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment Wednesday after he was charged in separate altercations involving the congresswoman at a public restaurant in January, and his son at a residence a few days later.

U.S. and European officials agreed to lock up sanctioned Russian assets until Moscow pays reparations for invading Ukraine, clearing the way for a $50 billion loan package for Kyiv at the G7 summit.

American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will soon stand trial in Russia on espionage charges, Russian authorities announced Thursday. Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg, and accused of spying for the CIA – accusations that U.S. officials and the WSJ have repeatedly rejected as baseless.

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