Two…good(???) Supreme Court decisions??? From the once and future John Roberts Cauldron of Horrors???

• SCOTUS shocked, uh, most of us, on Thursday when it issued a ruling preserving the (deeply disfigured) status quo in the Court’s interpretation of the Voting Rights Act. In a 5-4 ruling, the court decided in Allen vs. Milligan that the Alabama state legislature illegally “packed” the state’s Black voters into a single congressional district, even though Black residents make up more than one-quarter of the state’s population. 

• The decision was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who was joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanuagh and the court’s three liberal justices. The majority agreed with a lower court’s decision to throw out the racially-gerrymandered map, and dismissed the state of Alabama’s argument that the Voting Rights Act requires legislatures to “prioritize race” over traditional redistricting techniques. It’s a good rule of thumb that whenever Republicans or nefarious special-interest groups accuse a racial minority of having an “unfair advantage,” they’re trying to get away with discrimination.
   

• The decision was immediately celebrated by civil-rights organizations, and is a crucial win for voting rights, especially against the backdrop of years of corrosion. This decision could have major implications for other states across the Deep South, and in its immediate aftermath the Cook Political Report changed several of its 2024 House district ratings in Alabama and Louisiana from “Solid Republican” to “Toss Up” and one district in North Carolina from “Toss up” to “Lean Democratic.” Of course, the flipside of that analysis suggests the GOP-controlled Supreme Court preserved enough racial gerrymanders through 2022 to allow their fellow Republicans to take control of the House of Representatives.

We don’t want to get too carried away, but yes, there was a second good decision today.
 

• In a case widely believed to be as big a threat to Medicaid as the Dobbs case was to abortion, the Supreme Court (again, unexpectedly) ruled in favor of the family of a Medicaid recipient who filed a civil-rights lawsuit against his state-owned nursing home. Health and Hospital Corp vs. Talevski took up the issue of whether people enrolled in social safety-net programs can sue if providers deny them guaranteed benefits. 
   

• The petitioners claimed that an Indiana man with dementia was transferred out of his facility against his will and without proper notice, and made treatment decisions, like use of unnecessary psychotropic drugs, which led to his precipitous decline and eventual death. The nursing home argued that a legal challenge tied to Medicare or Medicaid coverage could not come before the court because program rules are equivalent to government-provider contracts. A district court ruled in the nursing home’s favor, then the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, and the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court’s decision in a 7-2(!) ruling. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas—the twin towers of terrible jurisprudence—dissented. 

Exciting news! Crooked’s go-to legal podcast, Strict Scrutiny, will be recording live at Howard University and you can now join via LIVESTREAM on June 9 at 1 PM Eastern. Join hosts Leah Litman, Kate Shaw, and Melissa Murray with President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Janai Nelson, and Crooked’s own Shaniqua McClendon as they provide in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities. Get your livestream tickets today at the link below—And get a 25 percent discount if you’re a Friend of The Pod subscriber!

Secretary of State Antony Blinken embarked on a thorny trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this week, hoping to “normalize” diplomacy between the U.S.’s two main allies in the region: Saudi Arabia and Israel. Sounds fun! Blinken participated in a joint news conference with his Saudi counterpart, where Prince Faisal bin Farhan said he hoped an agreement could be reached in which the United States would help Saudi Arabia develop a nuclear program. What could go wrong?! Saudi Arabia is home to Islam’s two holiest shrines, and like other Arab nations has for generations not recognized Israel. Prince Faisal said he agreed that normalization of relations would benefit both countries, but the benefits would be limited unless Israel made meaningful inroads towards a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. Discussions around Saudi Arabia’s development of civilian-nuclear cooperation have stalled because Riyadh has thus far refused to agree to limits on nuclear enrichment and reprocessing designed to prevent the country from developing nuclear weapons. (See above question…)

Federal prosecutors have officially informed disgraced former president Donald Trump’s legal team that he is a target of their investigation into “mishandling” (wink) of classified documents after he left the White House. 

Wildfires in Canada continue to decimate air quality as far away as North Carolina, and have forced cancellation or postponement of many outdoor events like horse racing in Belmont Park, NY, and several Major League Baseball games in the northeast.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asked for more time to file his annual financial disclosure forms this year. We can’t imagine why. 

Fox News will air a sit-down interview between Sean Hannity and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on June 12, Newsom’s first Fox News interview in almost 13 years. 

Four toddlers and two elderly people were stabbed in a knife attack in Annecy, France. Two of the children and one adult are in critical condition. 

The European Union’s tentative agreement to evenly share responsibility for taking in migrants and refugees is in flux now that right-wing Italy has sought last-minute changes that would cut each country’s quota.

After months of anticipation, the Ukrainian military’s counteroffensive against Russian forces has officially begun, kicking off a phase of the war Kyiv hopes will restore its territorial sovereignty while maintaining Western support. Ukrainian troops intensified their attacks on the front lines of the nation’s southeast, particularly the Zaporizhzhia region, long assumed to be the most strategic and likely location of the counteroffensive. Neither Russia nor Ukraine have made significant territorial progress since an initial Ukrainian counteroffensive last fall around Kherson and Kupiansk. The head of Kherson, Oleksandr Prokudin, described four unique instances of shelling in the region on Thursday evening, in which one woman died and 17 more were injured. Hundreds of Ukrainians in the region had to be rescued from their rooftops on Thursday, after a breached dam flooded villages, fields, and roads. Ukrainian authorities and volunteers evacuated residents of the Kherson region on Thursday amid shelling from Russian forces. Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited inundated areas of the region, where he spoke to evacuees and local officials, and pleaded with international humanitarian agencies to accelerate their aid response.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is seeking a new amendment to the U.S. constitution that would put in place nationally popular gun-control restrictions like universal background checks and an assault-weapons ban without repealing the Second Amendment outright.