After a long dry spell in issuing opinions, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the case against use of mifepristone, an abortion medication—for now—ruling that physicians challenging the drug’s availability did not prove they were harmed by the FDA’s expansion of its use in 2016 and 2021. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the plaintiffs should have gone “to the President and FDA in the regulatory process, or to Congress and the President in the legislative process” instead of federal courts. The complaining doctors can also use “the political and electoral process” to change the regulations, according to Kavanaugh.
The drug is considered very safe, and a bogus article has been withdrawn since the 5th Circuit Court ruled for the plaintiffs, forcing prescriptions only through a series of three in-person visits. Sage, the academic publishing company first making the article public, described the claims’ deception, scientific errors, and major ethical issues resulting in “unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions,” “material errors,” and “misleading presentations” of data that “demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor and invalidate the authors’ conclusions in whole or in part.” According to the conservative Gallup poll, 61 percent of people approves of mifepristone as a prescription drug.
Allies of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) said he could leverage through this requirement. In a concurring opinion Justice Clarence Thomas indicated all contraception might be on the chopping block by suggesting that the court review rulings affirming the right to use contraceptives, consensual sex between same-gender adults, and nationwide marriage equality.
In another high court ruling, a gift to union-busters, eight justices voted for the right of Starbucks to terminate seven employees for leading a unionization campaign at its Memphis location. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Thomas wrote that the National Labor Relations Board-supported standard made federal government prevailing in labor disputes too easy. At least three groups connected to anti-union billionaire Charles Koch and right-wing activist packing the courts Leonard Leo filed amicus briefs for Starbucks’ position. A federal judge had ordered Starbucks to reinstate the works in August 2022.
The Supreme Court also unanimously rejected a California man’s attempt to trademark “Trump too small” on T-shirts, a phrase used for DDT’s hands. The patent policy doesn’t allow trademarks of al living person’s name without that person’s permission, but the man can still use it on the T-shirts, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said during oral arguments. Twenty-six Supreme Court cases during this session still lack rulings.
The Senate investigation of Supreme Court justices’ ethics discovered three Clarence Thomas jet trips funded by Harlan Crow that were previously undisclosed: Thomas traveled for free to the region near Glacier National Park in Montana, from there to Dallas, and his hometown in Georgia. More revelations may be in a report from the Judiciary Committee that chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) said would be released later in the summer. Crow’s office stated he gave information for the past seven years so that the committee “agreed to end its probe with respect to Mr. Crow.” His jet costs over $10,000 per flight hour to charter.
ProPublica began the discovery of undisclosed gifts to both Thomas and Samuel Alito, and Alito raged against the publication in a secret recording. He told Lauren Windsor, a journalist posting as a conservative activist, that ProPublica “gets a lot of money” to dig up “any little thing they can find,” suggesting the reporting was politically motivated. One of ProPublica’s lead journalists, Justin Elliott, called the accusation “just wrong.” He pointed out that the Senate has greater discovery powers than the publication. Winning its seventh Pulitzer Prize for its Supreme Court coverage, ProPublica publicly posts a list of its large donors and issued this statement:
“ProPublica exposes abuses of power no matter which party is in charge, and our newsroom operates with fierce independence. No donors are made aware of stories before they are published, nor do they have a say as to which stories reporters pursue.”
Alito may have been upset about the publicity resulting from the reporting about an expensive trip to Alaska that hedge fund billionaire and large GOP donor Paul Singer gave him while Singer had several cases at Alito’s court. He did not recuse himself and ruled in favor of Singer.
Members of the self-identified “pro-family” and “small government” in the Senate have blocked a bill by 48-47 for the national right to in vitro fertilization (IVF). Overcoming the filibuster requires 60 votes. As in other “no” votes, Republicans decried the vote as a “political stunt.” GOP senators asked for unanimous vote for the alternative bill from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Katie Britt (R-AL), but Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) refused because of its permission for “states to enact restrictions and burdensome requirements that would force IVF clinics to close their doors.” Forty-nine GOP senators signed a letter supporting IVF, but only Susan Collins (ME) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) voted for the bill. Charles Schumer (D-NY) changed his vote to no so that he bring up the bill again. Tuesday the Southern Baptist Convention voted to oppose IVF. Eighty-six percent of survey respondents want IVF as a right.
Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) is preening after Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) met with his caucus on Thursday. “He said I’m doing a very good job,” Johnson reported, perhaps because Johnson is willing to lie for DDT, as the Bible may have told him to do. Presidential historian Michael Beschloss, author of nine books on the U.S. presidency stated:
“Speaker of the House is incumbent elected officer of coequal branch of American government— shouldn’t feel need to publicly pronounce himself ‘grateful’ to an ex-President for saying he and party colleagues are doing a ‘good job.’”
During his first visit near the Capitol since the January 6 insurrection, DDT asked Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) at the closed-door session to be nice to Johnson. She told him she would, but when interviewed about it, she didn’t look happy.
DDT also called Milwaukee (WI), the location of the summer’s RNC convention, “a horrible city.” Wisconsin’s GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden tried to cover for DDT by saying that he was only referring to the “crime.” Homicides are down 39 percent during the first 2024 quarter; property crime is also down 11 percent and auto thefts down 10 percent. These areas also saw a drop from 2022 to 2023. Memphis (TN) has a 60 percent higher rate of violent crime than Milwaukee, and Little Rock (AR) is over 20 percent higher. Johnson said he didn’t hear DDT call Milwaukee “horrible.”
Earlier in the week, Johnson claimed that all of them, including DDT, respects the transition of power between administrations after Johnson and DDT led the attempt to overthrow the election—and the government—after the 2020 election. He also claims that Hunter Biden’s conviction is justified but DDT’s guilty verdict is wrong. DDT also demanded that Johnson pass a law moving state cases into federal courts for him to control if he gets elected. Johnson is having trouble getting GOP support. Another DDT demand for the Speaker is for him to overturn DDT’s conviction.
Condé Nast legal affairs editor Luke Zaleski said, “Trump owns the House. Is America next?” Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer stated, “Trump’s supporters almost murdered these folks less than four years ago.”
On social media, the Lincoln Project stated:
“Republican senators just gave a standing ovation to the convicted felon who wants to pardon the violent mob that broke into and defecated all over our nation’s Capitol. He sent bloodthirsty mob after these people on January 6th.”
During his meeting with GOP senators, DDT heaped faint praise on Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), a potential vice-presidential candidate. Punchbowl News Andrew Desiderio said that DDT “joked that Scott ‘wasn’t a good presidential candidate’ but has been a ‘great surrogate for him.'”
GOP anger in the House is growing over Johnson’s pick for two spots on the prestigious Intelligence Committee. Following DDT’s wishes, Johnson appointed Scott Perry (PA) and Ronny Jackson (TX) instead of more senior and qualified members. An unnamed GOP House member said Johnson was “rewarding bad behavior,” and “there’s a lot of pissed people.” Dan Crenshaw (TX) said that the choice “upends the meritocracy that has long been the defining practice on Intel.” Crenshaw added:
“The speaker needs to remember that there isn’t only one group that can threaten them. Just do not teach the lesson that the only way for us to be effective here is threatening, because I’ll take the lesson and I’ll do it.”
Perry, who was a leader in trying to overturn the government, said that his “service to our Nation speaks for itself.
Royce White, potential GOP candidate for senator from Minnesota, recently released a map he thought represented crime in Minneapolis with color dots. They were actually water fountains—195 of them in public parks.
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