Daily Clips: June 27, 2016
SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN TEXAS ABORTION RESTRICTIONS: This is a huge deal. From NPR:
The Supreme Court has overturned a Texas law requiring clinics that provide abortions to have surgical facilities and doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The law was predicted to close many clinics and further reduce availability of abortion in Texas; the court has ruled the law violated the Constitution.
The ruling could be the strongest defense of a woman’s right to choose since Roe V Wade. The New York Times published a compelling infographic demonstrating what this means for access to legal, safe abortions across the United States. They conclude that today’s “sweeping ruling means similar [obstructionist] laws in dozens of other states now are likely unconstitutional.”
SUPREME COURT HAS A VERY GOOD DAY INDEED: Also today in the Supreme Court upholding commonsense laws: they also determined that it is perfectly legal to ban people with records of domestic violence from owning guns. Brendan O’Connor at Gawker explains the amazing story behind this suit (emphasis mine):
The case, Voisine v. United States, involved two men from Maine who had both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic assault. A few years after Stephen Voisine entered his guilty plea in 2004, he got in trouble again, this time for killing a bald eagle. While investigating that crime, law enforcement officers determined that Voisine illegally owned a gun.
Citing decades-old common law, Voisine and the other petitioner argued that because their assault conduct had been “reckless,” rather than “knowing or intentional,” it should not qualify as misdemeanor domestic violence—the kind of crime that would disqualify them from owning guns. The court rejected this argument.
HOW BREXIT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD: Politico asked 17 experts what they think Brexit will mean for Great Britian, the US elections, and the global economy. Basically, none of them have any idea. Meanwhile, Brexit supporter/former London Mayor Boris Johnson wrote a ridiculous editorial for the Telegraph in which he basically promised that nothing will change, except Britain will stop paying dues to the EU:
I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe, and always will be. There will still be intense and intensifying European cooperation and partnership in a huge number of fields: the arts, the sciences, the universities, and on improving the environment. EU citizens living in this country will have their rights fully protected, and the same goes for British citizens living in the EU.
British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; to buy homes and to settle down.
That’s a lot of promises that Johnson might not be able to keep.
TWEET OF THE DAY:
Donald Trump has no idea what the unemployment rate is. https://t.co/pPe0AVEhwI
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) June 27, 2016
