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The Supreme Court's big decisions are coming. What that will mean remains to be seen
The Supreme Court's big decisions are coming. What that will mean remains to be seen, Chris Geidner, LawDork
Although we don’t know that the Supreme Court is going to finish releasing decisions this week, that is the normal expectation since Friday is the end of June and the 10 cases (and 8 topics) remaining, while including many high-profile cases, could fairly reasonably all be released this week.

That would mean that we will know the outcome in the Harvard and UNC race-conscious admissions cases, the state and individual borrowers’ challenges to the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program, the “independent state legislature” scheme case, the case asking whether religious adherents whose business involves speech are exempted from state nondiscrimination laws, and the case establishing the accommodations that religious adherents can get under Title VII all by noon Friday. [...]

Earlier in the year — certainly, at the beginning of the term last fall — it appeared that we were facing an out-of-control, reactionary court. And we’re still getting some of those decisions — I imagine we will this week as well.
Moves to expunge Trump impeachments would be laughable if not so dangerous
Moves to expunge Trump impeachments would be laughable if not so dangerous, Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post
Last week, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) introduced resolutions to “expunge” former president Donald Trump’s two impeachments, “as if such Articles of Impeachment had never passed the full House of Representatives.” Incredibly, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — whose job is to be the adult in the room — said Friday that he supports this initiative, which actual adults can see is ridiculous and obviously futile.

The aim appears to be to allow Trump, the likely GOP presidential nominee in next year’s election, to claim that despite the events we all witnessed, he was never impeached at all. That lie can then become part of the fake historical record he sells to his supporters.
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How Ukraine Viewed Russia’s Aborted Coup
How Ukraine Viewed Russia’s Aborted Coup, Natalyia Gumenyuk, Vanity Fair
Ukrainians, watching from the sidelines, tried to get a handle on the turn of events. Many of us in the media, as well as in the legal and the human rights communities, lacked truly trusted sources in Russia. Instead, we talked to émigré political analysts as well as reporters investigating the Russian military. And from what we gathered, it started to look like a page out of Shakespeare or Le Carré: The very person who was considered to be “the president’s man” had gotten out of control. And not from a position of strength. He seemed to realize, instead, that his own days might be numbered. So he went rogue.

Some contend that the Wagner Group—during the first phase of the war in eastern Ukraine—had been brought in to help Russian forces that had supposedly lost control of the center. Prigozhin’s men reportedly turned their firepower on local warlords, and Prigozhin, according to some experts who’ve followed this power play at close range, could have been reading the tea leaves—fearing not just for his eroding power in the region but also fearing for his life.

Whatever the motivations behind Prigozhin’s insurrection and his sudden redirection, Ukrainians on the street were not talking to military analysts. They were calling it as they saw it. And they were generally of two minds. First, many wished Prigozhin good luck. Their rationale was simple: “Let them eat each other.” Even so, it was morally impossible for most Ukrainians to root for the commander of the division that continued to call for more ammunition to kill more Ukrainians, and whose people were responsible for brutal murders of countless Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war. Likewise, the Ukrainian leadership found itself tweeting more about the weakness of Putin’s regime rather than cheering on Prigozhin.
Freedom Caucus takes key vote on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s future
Freedom Caucus takes key vote on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s future, Olivia Beavers, POLITICO
The right-flank group took up Greene’s status amid an internal push, first reported by POLITICO, to consider purging members who are inactive or at odds with the Freedom Caucus. Greene’s close alliance with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and her accompanying criticism of colleagues in the group, has put her on the opposite side of a bloc that made its name opposing GOP leadership.

While her formal status in the conservative group remains in limbo, the 8 a.m. Friday vote — which sources said ended with a consensus against her — points to, at least, continued strong anti-Greene sentiment. A spokesperson for Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) declined to comment on the group’s vote as well as the official status of Greene’s membership. Perry said in an interview last week that he had denied requests to remove members from the group of roughly 35 House Republicans. A spokesperson for Greene did not respond to a request for comment.
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Toxic positivity and the GOP primary's plight with mental health
Toxic positivity and the GOP primary's plight with mental health, Owen Racer, Salon
Speaking from the stage of the 2023 National Rifle Association (NRA) convention, the now broken-up White House hopefuls Donald Trump and Mike Pence made their point clear: Mass shootings are a mental health problem, not a gun problem. This display of stigmatization is most commonly seen following tragic events, like the unparalleled number of mass shootings we've endured. It is an unrelated tool of distraction. Experts have said that not only are most people with mental illness not violent, but they are also far more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators.[...]

So, what could this all mean for the landscape of mental health if a GOP candidate secures the White House next year? Well, there's a blueprint of sorts already on tap in Florida. Trump-contending Governor Ron DeSantis's wife, Casey DeSantis, recently announced a mental health campaign in Florida schools. Amidst the onslaught of other stigmatizing interventions Florida schools are enduring, First Lady DeSantis's campaign is "rejecting the term mental health and replacing it with resiliency," despite the widely accepted cultural abandonment of using the racially trope-heavy word "resilience." [...]

The targeting of mental health as a scapegoat at the highest levels of political power has a trickle-down effect on individuals. For someone with no pre-existing mental health conditions, public blaming can invoke the onset of a mental health condition, Dr. Torres-Mackie said. Furthermore, this public display not only furthers the stigma while acting as a barrier between individuals and treatment but it also simultaneously prevents further funding for structural mental health change.
Wow
Wow, Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo
It’s about as it was described in the indictment. But hearing it does make it come alive in a different way. He’s so guilty as sin it really does beggar belief. He says it’s highly classified; that it would be cool if he could declassify it now but he can’t because he’s no longer President; and he’s showing it to just random people. The recording makes clear that he’s entirely aware of every link in the chain of criminality. You can listen to it here.

I’m certainly not willing to exonerate Trump of eventual plans to share or sell or profit, literally or figuratively for disclosing the contents of these documents to others. I just resist those theories because they’re too literal, too limited. The conversation caught on tape here captures a lot of why he held on to this stuff.

It meant he still had juice, had secrets he could hold over people. He could reward people or punish them. [...]

Now, the factual premise here is silly. The US maintains war plans for wars with lots of countries. And not just the obvious ones. I remember hearing once that the US maintained plans on the shelves for invasions of Canada and the UK well into the 20th century. Whether that particular anecdote is accurate, the general point is: of course we have plans for a war with Iran. I bet we have several – one for a strike to destroy the nuclear research infrastructure, probably another to destroy the Iranian military and a big one for invading and occupying the country. If that’s what Trump is referring to that means nothing about what Milley wanted to do. But the point is that Trump thinks it does. And he thinks this is a big gotcha against Milley.

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