The Commentariat -- June 30, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: The Girl Scouts of Western Washington (state) received a $100,000 donation -- which would cover about a third of their operating budget -- but it came with the stipulation that the donation not support transgender girls. So the Scouts sent the money back. This week, they get up an Indiegogo page, & they've already recouped the $100K. ...

Illustration by DonkeyHotey.

This Can't Be Good. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will consider next term whether the rights of government workers are violated when they are compelled to pay fees to unions they do not want to join."

Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court barred Texas on Monday from implementing a law that would have forced more than half the state's 19 abortion clinics to close their doors later this week. The law, which was to take effect Wednesday, would require clinics to adhere to strict new physical standards and the doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The court granted the reprieve after abortion rights groups requested an emergency stay, having unsuccessfully sought to have the law overturned."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to take a second look at the use of race in admissions decisions by the University of Texas at Austin, reviving a potent challenge to affirmative action in higher education. The move, which supporters of race-conscious admissions programs called baffling and ominous, signaled that the court may limit or even end such affirmative action." CW: Yeah, the boys in black are liberal, all right.

Pick Your Poison. Forget the Eighth Amendment. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: Justice Samuel Alito's "Glossip v. Gross is a crushing blow to opponents of the death penalty.... It effectively enlists death row inmates' attorneys to become agents of their clients' demise. And it elevates the death penalty to a kind of super-legal status that renders it impervious to many constitutional challenges.... [The] key paragraph in Alito's opinion is a declaration that, no matter what happens, there must always be a way to execute inmates." ...

... "So Sick." digby: "I'm going to guess that the only hope for this lies in some application of 'religious liberty' in the future in which anyone who isn't a total cretin, from the corporate reps to the lawyers to the public officials, will claim that it violates their religious beliefs to participate in the premeditated killing of a human being who is in custody and presents no threat to them." ...

... CW: It's pretty remarkable that the four other confederate justices, including the Chief, signed onto this sick opinion. ...

... Arit John of Bloomberg: "While Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote the dissent to Samuel Alito's majority opinion [in the case re: Oklahoma's use of midazolan in executions], [Stephen] Breyer used his dissent to consider a different question...: 'whether the death penalty violates the Constitution.'... He argued that it's 'highly likely that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment.'" ...

... Adam Lerner of Politico: "... Breyer, in his dissent in Glossip v. Gross, recognized that while the issue of the death penalty, in and of itself, perhaps could be viewed as a legislative matter, 'the matters I have discussed, such as lack of reliability, the arbitrary application of a serious and irreversible punishment, individual suffering caused by long delays, and lack of penological purpose are quintessentially judicial matters.' He concluded, 'At the very least, the Court should call for full briefing on the basic question' of the death penalty." You can read Alito's opinion, Scalia's & Thomas's concurrences, Breyer's (Ginsburg joining) & Sotomayor's (Breyer, Ginsburg, & Kagan joining) dissents here. Breyer's dissent begins on page 51 of the pdf, Sotomayor's on page 97.

Erik Eckholm & Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "The country's last major pockets of resistance to same-sex marriage were rapidly shrinking on Monday as officials in states across the South, citing the rule of law, softened their defiance and began offering marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.... Louisiana was the last holdout.... By the end of the day, a majority of the state's parishes ... had ... begun issuing licenses to same-sex couples, according to Forum for Equality.... Marriages in Mississippi, which had been temporarily halted on Friday by an order from Attorney General Jim Hood, resumed in some cities on Monday after Mr. Hood clarified his statement and gave county clerks the right to make their own decisions.... In Alabama ... marriage licenses were being issued in most of the major population centers, although a few county probate judges stopped issuing any kind of marriage licenses, saying they did not want to violate their religious beliefs.... Still..., Roy Moore, chief justice of the Alabama court, said ... county officials should not be required to issue same-sex marriage licenses for 25 days." Then there's Texas. ...

... Juan Cole schools wingers on the Biblical prescriptions for marriage. It's rather difficult to understand how Preacher Huckabee & Altar Boy Santorum missed all the passages Cole cites.

CW: The other day, I suggested that maybe Chief Justice Roberts was just getting sick of frivolous lawsuits & that's why he agreed to take the King case, then wrote the opinion against it. Ian Millhiser, who doesn't mention this possibility, does however demonstrate (he gets into the weeds) how both Roberts' majority opinion on King and his dissent in Obergefell convey his disgust with the growing ultra-conservative trend to make stuff up that they have decided is implied by the Constitution. This doesn't make Roberts a liberal; it just means that he's not a rabid flamethrower. Unlike me, Millhiser knows what's he's writing about, so despite his deep dive into the details, his post is worth a read. ...

... Shorter Millhiser: Charles Pierce pegs Roberts. CW: Other than his failure to wish Sadistic Sam a happy, carefree summer vacation on the Jersey Shore, I can't find any fault with Pierce's post. ...

... Lincoln Caplan of the New Yorker makes the case that CJ Roberts is working on the "rebuilding of the Supreme Court's reputation." CW: Frankly, Roberts can't do that as long as Scalia, Thomas & Alito are on the Court, & in the case of Alito, that is likely to be a long time. Besides their abhorrent philosophies, one cannot ignore Scalia's offensive mockery, which he inserts in every dissent. On Breyer's dissent, which Caplan cites, Scalia writes, "A vocal minority of the Court, waving over their heads a ream of the most recent abolitionist studies (a superabundant genre) as though they have discovered the lost folios of Shakespeare, insist that now, at long last, the death penalty must be abolished for good." If Roberts has tried to restrain Scalia, it hasn't worked. And it won't: Scalia loves the public attention. He loves to belittle his colleagues. He's a bully. When he can't win -- and even when he does -- he exits right, scorning.

Mark Dorning of Bloomberg: "The Obama administration plans to raise the wages of millions of Americans who work more than 40 hours a week by requiring their employers to pay them overtime. Workers who earn as much as $970 a week would have to be paid overtime even if they're classified as a manager or professional, based on draft rules to be announced as soon as Tuesday, said an administration official." ...

... Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "The administration has the power to issue the regulation, which would restore the overtime salary threshold to roughly where it stood in 1975 in terms of purchasing power, without congressional approval.... 'The president said he wanted to go big here and he did,' said Jared Bernstein, a former White House economist who co-wrote an influential report on the benefits of expanding overtime pay after leaving the administration in 2011. 'I can't think of any other rule change or executive order that would lift more middle-class workers.'" CW: If I were Obama, I would have followed Bernstein's advice the Friday before the 2012 election. He's a better person than I. ...

... President Obama, in a Huffington Post opinion essay: "Right now, too many Americans are working long days for less pay than they deserve. That's partly because we've failed to update overtime regulations for years -- and an exemption meant for highly paid, white collar employees now leaves out workers making as little as $23,660 a year -- no matter how many hours they work.... In this country, a hard day's work deserves a fair day's pay. That's at the heart of what it means to be middle class in America."

Elections Matter. Jonathan Chait: If Republicans win control of the House, Senate & presidency in 2016, Senate Republicans plan to eliminate the filibuster in order to end the ACA, among other GOP priorities, like deregulating the financial industry.

The Blue Nation Review publishes activist Bree Newsome's statement about her reasons for taking down the confederate flag flying on the South Carolina state capitol grounds: "I removed the flag not only in defiance of those who enslaved my ancestors in the southern United States, but also in defiance of the oppression that continues against black people globally in 2015...." CW: So, Newsome is part of the international anti-white supremacy movement. The kind of "lone wolf" & civil disobedience the world needs. Read her essay. ...

... Caroline Bankoff of New York has more on Newsome. ...

... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post profiles South Carolina state Sen. Paul Thurmond, son of rabid segregationist U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. ...

... NEW. Adam Lerner: "The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan's Pelham, North Carolina, chapter have reserved the Statehouse Grounds in South Carolina for a rally next month. James Spears, the Great Titan of the chapter, said the group would be rallying to protest 'the Confederate flag being took down for all the wrong reasons. It's part of white people's culture,'..."

Paul Krugman: "... yes, Greece was overspending [in the 2000s], but not by all that much. It was over indebted, but again not by all that much. How did this turn into a catastrophe that among other things saw debt soar to 170 percent of GDP despite savage austerity? The euro straitjacket, plus inadequately expansionary monetary policy within the eurozone, are the obvious culprits.... If Europe as currently organized can turn medium-sized fiscal failings into this kind of nightmare, the system is fundamentally unworkable."

Presidential Race

The Platitudes Race. Jeffrey Frank of the New Yorker: "... seventeen months before the general election, and despite the welcome offstage diversions of those Supreme Court decisions..., the language of the 2016 race has been unnervingly free of thought.... What is so dispiriting this year is listening to candidates ... who sound less like people eager to understand the world and lead a diverse nation and more like human-resource counselors, offering sympathy and help they can't deliver to a fretful, underpaid workforce."

** Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "Over the last two weeks, Republican presidential candidates have repeatedly missed opportunities to demonstrate that they care about communities outside of their traditional base."

Robert Costa & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Chris Christie ... told supporters Tuesday that he is running for president. Christie -- who broke the news in a morning conference call -- enters a crowded field as an underdog, wagering his retail political skills and brash style will propel him into serious competition for his party's nod." ...

... You can watch live on the WashPo front page (at 11:20 am ET). ...

... Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, whose meteoric rise as a national Republican in his first term was matched only by his spectacular loss of stature at home in his second, is set to enter the 2016 presidential race on Tuesday morning bearing little resemblance to the candidate he once expected to be.... With two pillars of his presidential run -- his record and his judgment -- looking wobblier than ever, Mr. Christie must build a campaign around his most raw and prodigious asset: his personality."

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Nearly two weeks after canceling a campaign event scheduled the morning after the deadly attack on a South Carolina church, Jeb Bush on Monday called the Confederate battle flag a 'racist' symbol, reflecting the new Republican normal in a Southern primary state vastly altered by the racially motivated killings. The flag was one of 'the symbols that have divided the South in many ways, the symbols that were used in most recent modern history, perhaps not at the beginning of the time, but the symbols were racist,' Mr. Bush told an interracial crowd" in South Carolina. ...

... CW: Actually racist since the beginning of its time, Jeb!

Stardust. Tom Hamburger & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "How Marco Rubio turned political star power into a soaring personal income.... During nine years in Tallahassee, as Rubio rose in prominence and ascended to the state House speakership, he became increasingly well compensated as he walked a narrow line between his work as a lawmaker and an employee of outside firms with interests before the state government.... Rubio's annual income grew from about $72,000 when he was elected to the state House in 2000 to $414,000 in 2008, when his two-year speakership ended."

NEW. The Distinguished Gentleman from Texas. Manu Raju of Politico: "Ted Cruz's campaign against his Republican colleagues -- especially Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- is getting increasingly personal.... [In a new book,] Cruz accuses McConnell and GOP leadership of maneuvering to dry up his fundraising and plant hit pieces in the press aimed at hurting him politically. He says GOP leaders cowered from joining him in big fights over the debt ceiling, Obamacare and gun control, accusing his colleagues of 'mendacity' and capitulating to Democrats to avoid bad headlines.... And he accuses a GOP rival, Rand Paul of Kentucky, of parroting McConnell's talking points by seeking to 'undermine' his efforts to defund Obamacare during the 2013 fight that led to the government shutdown." ...

... CrazyCruz Urges States to Ignore Marriage Equality Ruling. Adam Lerner of Politico: "'Those who are not parties to the suit are not bound by it,' [Sen. Ted Cruz] told NPR News' Steve Inskeep in an interview published on Monday. Since only suits against the states of Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky were specifically considered in the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which was handed down last Friday, Cruz ... believes that other states with gay marriage bans need not comply, absent a judicial order." ...

... CW: By Cruz's logic, school boards can provide "separate but equal" education every place but Topeka, Kansas. In fact, what Cruz is suggesting is among the many tactics Southern officials used to avoid racially integrating public schools. Remember that Ted is a former law clerk to the U.S. Chief Justice, a deputy U.S. attorney general, Texas solicitor general, a "constitutional scholar" & of course a U.S. senator; that is, one of the country's most prominent Constitutional experts. This "suggestion" of Cruz's puts him right up there with George Wallace & Orval Faubus -- oh, & with William Renquist, the CJ for whom Cruz clerked & who once wrote that the Supremes should have upheld the "separate but equal" ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. ...

... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Monday bashed 'elites' on the Supreme Court for imposing their will on America's heartland in its decision to legalize same-sex marriage. 'You've got nine lawyers, they are all from Harvard or Yale -- there are no Protestants on the court, there are no evangelicals on the court,' the 2016 GOP presidential candidate said on NBC's 'Today,' echoing criticism from Justice Antonin Scalia's dissenting opinion. 'The elites on the court look at much of this country as flyover country; they think that our views are simply parochial and don’t deserve to be respected.'" CW: Maybe we should mention here that Cruz was graduated from Princeton & Harvard Law School.

NBC to Trump: "You're Fired." Maria Puente of USA Today: "NBC dumped [Donald Trump's] beauty pageants and reiterated he will not be in The Apprentice anymore. The network, which has been under pressure to fire Trump since last week when Univision announced it would not air Trump's Miss USA pageant in Spanish, said in a statement..., 'Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump.'... 'To that end, the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, which are part of a joint venture between NBC and Trump, will no longer air on NBC. In addition, as Mr. Trump has already indicated, he will not be participating in The Apprentice on NBC,' because he is an announced Republican candidate for president." ...

... Charles Arbogast of Entertainment Weekly: "Donald Trump slammed his longtime partner NBC on Monday after the broadcaster announced it was cutting ties with him. 'Mr. Trump stands by his statements on illegal immigration, which are accurate,' read a statement from his office.... 'NBC is weak, and like everybody else is trying to be politically correct -- that is why our country is in serious trouble....' Moreover, Trump is threatening to sue NBC for announcing they would no longer air his beauty pageants.... 'Furthermore, they will stand behind lying Brian Williams, but won't stand behind people that tell it like it is, as unpleasant as that may be.'" Trump said.

Beyond the Beltway

Justin Carissimo of the (U.K.) Independent: "The Missouri franchise owner of Dixie Outfitters, a store specialising in 'Southern Heritage' clothing, was revealed to have family ties to the Ku Klux Klan. 'It has nothing to do with slavery, which the media always want to bring in,' Anna Robb said, defending the sales of Confederate flags during an interview with the Springfield Missouri News-Leader. Just days following the News-Leader's initial interview with Ms Robb, readers alerted the news outlet and it was discovered that her husband Nathan, co-owner of Dixie Outfitters, was the 'den-commander' of the KKK's Arkansas chapter."

The Emigrants. Andy Newman of the New York Times: "The escaped killers David Sweat and Richard W. Matt had intended to go to Mexico before their plan unraveled when a prison worker accused of helping them did not show up with her car, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday. Mr. Cuomo said that Mr. Sweat, who is hospitalized for gunshot wounds sustained during his capture on Sunday, had 'relayed some information' to investigators."

When the U.S. sends its people to Mexico, they're not sending the best. They're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're bringing murderers who dismember their victims. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people. -- Constant Weader, with a hat-tip to the Donald

... Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "... on Monday, a day after Mr. Sweat was shot and taken into custody by a state trooper in a freshly cut hayfield and three days after Mr. Matt was killed by a federal agent, new details surfaced about the three-week manhunt.... It was a history of hesitation and interagency conflict, and also of lucky breaks for law enforcement officers...." CW: Remember, people, cops are selected for dumb. ...

... William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Albany has opened a corruption inquiry focusing on employees and inmates at the maximum-security prison in northern New York State where two convicted killers escaped this month, one official with knowledge of the matter said on Monday.... News of the federal inquiry also came one day after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, reiterated that the state's inspector general, Catherine Leahy Scott, was conducting a full investigation into the policies and procedures at the prison and the circumstances that led to the escape."

News Ledes

New York Times: "With just hours to go before Greece hits a deadline for a debt payment it cannot afford, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday asked the other nations that use the euro to extend another bailout and buy Athens time to renegotiate its crippling debt load." ...

     ... New Lede: "The International Monetary Fund said shortly after midnight Wednesday that Greece had missed a crucial debt payment to the fund."

New York Times: "The Iranian foreign minister rejoined the nuclear talks [in Vienna, Austria,] Tuesday morning as the United States looked for signs that he had arrived with more flexible negotiating instructions."

The Commentariat -- June 29, 2015

Internal links removed.

ScotusBlog is liveblogging today's Supreme Court opinions. Amy Howe: "We expect decisions in Glossip v. Gross (the challenge to Oklahoma's lethal injection procedure and in particular its use of midazolam, a sedative); Utility Air Group v. EPA (Clean Air Act and when EPA must consider costs); and Arizona Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (whether Arizona voters can transfer power over federal congressional districting to an independent commission)." ...

... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Monday against three death row inmates who had sought to bar the use of an execution drug they said risked causing excruciating pain. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote the majority opinion in the 5-to-4 decision. He was joined by the court's four more conservative justices." CW: Nonetheless, my friends, Alito abhors infliction of excruciating pain on puppies.

5-4 decision in Arizona elections case; Kennedy joins "liberals" in majority opinion. Amy Howe: "The Court has several times refused to address the question whether partisan gerrymandering violates the Constitution. This decision gives the states an opportunity to deal with partisan gerrymandering by giving an independent commission power to draw federal congressional districts." ...

... Adam Liptak: "The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Arizona's voters were entitled to try to make the process of drawing congressional district lines less partisan. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion in the 5-to-4 decision. She was joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan."

... Amy Howe: Utility Air case, 5-4 in favor of plaintiff, opinion by Scalia. Amy Howe: "The EPA must consider costs before deciding whether regulation is appropriate and necessary; it will up to the agency to decide, within limits of reasonable interpretation, how to account for costs.... Kagan dissents, joined by RBG, Breyer, and Sotomayor." ...

... Adam Liptak: "The Supreme Court on Monday blocked one of the Obama administration's most ambitious environmental initiatives, one meant to limit emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants. Industry groups and some 20 states challenged the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to regulate the emissions, saying the agency had failed to take into account the punishing costs its regulations would impose."

The Guardian.

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? -- Bree Newsome, as she descended the flagpole in front of the South Carolina statehouse, confederate flag in hand

... Karen Attiah of the Washington Post: "By her words, [Bree Newsome] is refusing to fear the hatred behind the symbol, the longstanding system in America of the forced labor of blacks under the threat of the most unspeakable forms of torture, terror, violence and death.... Her words stand as powerful example of defiance in the faces of agents of the state in America, who historically have taken black lives with impunity for generations.... For all of us, Bree Newsome moves beyond the trope of the knee-jerk, saintly forgiveness expected of black Americans subjected to violence. Importantly, she stands for us all as an example of the Bible as blueprint for nonviolent resistance in the face of blatant social injustice around the world."

Supreme Court plaintiff Jim Obergefell rides in San Francisco's gay pride parade.Matt Flegenheimer & Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "Two days after the United States Supreme Court affirmed same-sex marriage as a right, well-timed pride parades on Sunday in the country's twin hubs of gay activism, New York City and San Francisco, promised a sort of social catharsis -- a bicoastal toast to the nation's rapid shift on gay rights and an extended curtain call for the movement that coaxed it." ...

E. J. Dionne: "... the core liberal conviction about jurisprudence, developed during and after the New Deal years, still rings true: that the Supreme Court plays its most constructive role in our national life when it uses its power to vindicate the rights of beleaguered and disadvantaged minorities."

... the Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs. Just who do we think we are? -- Chief Justice John Roberts, dissent in Obergefell

It's not quite clear to WorldViews why Roberts decided to implicate these four particular cultures in his opposition to the legalizing of gay marriage. But we can suggest reasons why they are hardly exemplars of 'traditional' unions between men and women. -- Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post, who goes on to decimate Roberts' supposed "traditional marriage" enthusiasts." An excellent read.

Andrew Koppelman of the New Republic: "John Roberts's claims of judicial restraint should be taken with a grain of salt.... Dartmouth professor Brendan Nyhan writes that what may look like a leftward tendency on the Supreme Court is actually the consequence of conservatives' willingness to try out increasingly extreme legal theories in the Court.... Claims that would have been summarily rejected a few years ago are now taken seriously by constitutional lawyers.... The essence of Roberts's restraint is this: He is less of a zealot than his colleagues on his right. That isn't saying much."

Esther Breger of the New Republic: "... Kennedy's florid language, some of which might be more at home at a vow-renewal ceremony, presented a vision of marriage's role in society that's archaic and all too common.... It was hard to shake the suspicion that parts of Justice Kennedy's opinions, like the part where he suggests unmarried people are 'condemned to live in loneliness,' were written with the consultation of my Jewish mother."

     ... Via Driftglass.

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Louisiana will comply with the Supreme Court's order legalizing same-sex marriage, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Sunday. 'We don't have a choice. Our agencies will comply with the court order,' the Republican presidential contender said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' after being asked why his state is the only one that has not yet issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Appearing from the state capital, Baton Rouge, the governor explained his state is waiting on a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to reverse a previous ruling upholding traditional marriage and implement the high court's ruling. On Friday, the state's attorney general's office issued a statement saying it found nothing in the Supreme Court's decision that made it a legal requirement for officials to comply immediately." CW: Following his interview of Jindal, "MTP" host Chuck Todd introduced a video celebrating June weddings. All of the featured couples were opposite-sex. Todd said the video had been prepared prior to Friday's Supreme Court decision & added that he hoped viewers would see the video as "gender-neutral." ...

... Nullification, Texas-Style. Austin American-Statesman: "County clerks can refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples based on religious objections to gay marriage, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Sunday. Paxton noted that clerks who refuse to issue licenses can expect to be sued, but added that 'numerous lawyers stand ready to assist clerks defending their religious beliefs,' in many cases without charge.... Paxton's opinion also noted that judges and justices of the peace can refuse to perform same-sex marriages.... Paxton said Friday's 'flawed' opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned bans against same-sex marriage in Texas and other states, placed religious people in conflict between following their faith and the U.S. Constitution." ...

... Mark Oppenheimer in a Time opinion essay: "Rather than try to rescue tax-exempt status for organizations that dissent from settled public policy on matters of race or sexuality, we need to take a more radical step. It's time to abolish, or greatly diminish, their tax-exempt statuses." CW: Too bad that's not going to happen.

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "On Sunday afternoon, hours after the weekly worship service, the pews of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church filled again, and [Charleston, S.C.,] turned anew to the rite, now sadly familiar, of mourning another victim of a massacre. This time ... the congregation memorialized the Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, a mother of four who was an admissions coordinator at Southern Wesleyan University, one of her alma maters. Earlier on Sunday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. visited the church and, less than a month after the death of one of his sons, invoked his own battles with grief during a stirring and brief speech to the congregation." ...

... Dan Morse of the Washington Post: "Vice President Biden paid a surprise visit to Sunday morning services at Emanuel AME Church [in Charleston], telling congregants that he came to support them and to help get through his own mourning. 'My family and I wanted to show our solidarity,' Biden said during five minutes of remarks.... The vice president arrived with his son Hunter and his daughter-in-law Kathleen. He spoke about his anguish since the death of his son Beau from brain cancer last month." ...

... Bryce Covert of Think Progress: "According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, at least six predominantly black churches in four Southern states have been damaged or destroyed by fire in the past week. While some may have been accidental, at least three have been determined to be the result of arson." ...

... Timothy Cama of the Hill: "Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said he totally 'disregarded' a New York Times report, based on findings from the New America Foundation, that white supremacists, anti-government extremists and others have killed nearly twice as many people as radical Muslims since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.... 'Everything should be investigated, everything should be stopped,' King said. 'But to compare these deranged white supremacists with an organized international terrorist movement, that's The New York Times at its worst.'" ...

... CW: If Peter King were not such an ideological ignoramus, he would know that Charleston assassin Dylann Roof, among many other American white supremacists, have been heavily influenced by the international white supremacy movement which encourages such so-called "lone wolf" attacks. BTW, Petey, wouldn't the Irish Republican Army -- whose violent actions you reportedly aided & abetted -- be a white international terrorist organization? Look in the mirror, you jerk. You used to be a card-carrying white member of the international terrorist movement. And shame on George Stephanopoulos for not calling you out on your hypocrisy. ...

... Jim Fallows analyzes President Obama's eulogy to the Rev. Clementa Pinckney.

Robert Reich: "Almost lost by the wave of responses to the Supreme Court's decisions last week upholding the Affordable Care Act and allowing gays and lesbians to marry was the significance of the Court's third decision -- on housing discrimination. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court found that the Fair Housing Act of 1968 requires plaintiffs to show only that the effect of a policy is discriminatory, not that defendants intended to discriminate. The decision is important in the fight against economic apartheid in America -- racial segregation on a much larger geographic scale than ever before."

Paul Krugman: "... next week [the Greek government] will hold a referendum on whether to accept the demands of the 'troika' -- the institutions representing creditor interests -- for yet more austerity. Greece should vote 'no,' and the Greek government should be ready, if necessary, to leave the euro.... These supposed technocrats [of the troika] are in fact fantasists who have disregarded everything we know about macroeconomics, and have been wrong every step of the way. This isn't about analysis, it's about power -- the power of the creditors to pull the plug on the Greek economy...." ...

... The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Greek crisis.

Michael Corkery & Mary Walsh of the New York Times: "Puerto Rico's governor, saying he needs to pull the island out of a 'death spiral,' has concluded that the commonwealth cannot pay its roughly $72 billion in debts, an admission that will probably have wide-reaching financial repercussions."

Presidential Race

John Wagner & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: Sen. Bernie "Sanders -- a self-described democratic socialist -- has seen his crowds swell and is gaining ground in the polls on the formidable Democratic front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton. In New Hampshire, where Sanders was on yet another weekend swing, one survey last week showed him within 8 percentage points of Clinton. Sanders's emerging strength has exposed continued misgivings among the party's progressive base about Clinton, whose team is treading carefully in its public statements. Supporters have acknowledged privately the potential for Sanders to damage her -- perhaps winning an early state or two -- even if he can't win the nomination." ...

... Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Saturday he has been waiting for the nation to catch up to his support for same-sex marriage.... He argued he was well ahead of the historic decision, unlike Hillary Clinton.... 'Back in 1996, that was a tough vote, Sanders said of his opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)....Sanders at the time served in the House of Representatives, which voted 342-67 in favor of DOMA. The Senate voted 85-14 in favor, before former President Bill Clinton signed it into law. 'That was an anti-gay marriage piece of legislation,' he added of the law that defined marriage at the federal level as the coupling of one man and one woman."

I believe marriage is not just a bond but a sacred bond between a man and a woman.... The fundamental bedrock principle that [marriage] exists between a man and a woman, going back into the midst of history as one of the founding, foundational institutions of history and humanity and civilization, and that its primary, principal role during those millennia has been the raising and socializing of children for the society into which they are to become adults. -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, in a 2004 Senate speech ...

... Sam Biddle of Gawker: "A decade prior, she stood by her husband as he signed the Defense of Marriage Act, a piece of legislation that codified gay America's second-class status.... Only in 2013, as a presumptive 2016 presidential contender, did Clinton reverse her stance."

Tales of a Sleazy Scion. Robert O'Harrow & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post on Jeb Bush: "... records, lawsuits, interviews and newspaper accounts stretching back more than three decades present a picture of a man who, before he was elected Florida governor in 1998, often benefited from his family connections and repeatedly put himself in situations that raised questions about his judgment and exposed him to reputational risk."

Class president and an athlete who did not hang out with nerds.James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Chris Christie will use his Tuesday announcement, at the high school where he graduated, to present himself as the candidate in the 2016 field with the biggest and boldest ideas. The New Jersey governor plans to continue unveiling a steady stream of provocative policy plans in the coming months aimed at generating free media coverage and forcing Republican rivals to say whether or note they agree." As the Wall Street Journal also noted, Christie's venue of choice is "risky," since it will bring to mind Christie's old schoolmate David Wildstein, who pled guilty to charges related to the closing of the George Washington Bridge. Christie attempted to distance himself from Wildstein by boasting, "We were not even acquaintances in high school ... We didn't travel in the same circles in high school. I was class president and an athlete, I don't know what David was doing."

Relying in part on Justice Clarence Thomas's dissent in Obergefell, Rand Paul, in a Time opinion piece, makes the libertarian argument for governments' getting out of the marriage business. CW: Perhaps the right conclusion; definitely for many of the wrong reasons. ...

... Elizabeth Bruenig of the New Republic: "Senator Rand Paul ... remained conspicuously silent until yesterday, when he published a rambling op-ed in Time that's insightful in only one unintended way: It demonstrates how he plans to capitalize on conservatives' concerns about the future of marriage by pushing calamitous economic projects."

Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Republican presidential hopeful Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) warned in an interview broadcast Sunday that if his party embraces the idea of pursuing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, it will damage the Republican Party's chances of winning the 2016 election. 'I don't believe there is any chance for a constitutional amendment defining marriage between one man and one woman to get a two-thirds vote in the House or the Senate and be ratified by three-fourths of the states,' he said on NBC's 'Meet The Press.'"

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Although [Donald Trump] has said his views are 'evolving,' his campaign position is that only 'traditional marriage' between 'a man and a woman' should be legal.... After the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized same-sex marriage on Friday, Trump accused Chief Justice John Roberts of letting the country down.... [Um, Donald, Roberts dissented in the Obergefell case.] CNN host Jake Tapper [asked] ... Trump about how his three marriages were morally justified if he only believed in so-called 'traditional marriage' values.... 'Well, they have a very good point,' Trump admitted."

Mark Hensch: "Ben Carson won the 2015 Western Conservative Summit straw poll, organizers announced on Sunday. Colorado Christian University's Centennial Institute said in a statement that Carson took 224 of the 871 votes cast during the weekend event. The Centennial Institute said that Carson is its first back-to-back winner since the straw poll started in 2011. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) won in 2013, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) took the top spot in 2012 and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain was the winner in 2011.Former Hewlett Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina captured 201 votes for second place in the latest straw poll." CW: Apparently the poll is an excellent predictor of who will win the nomination.

Mike Allen of Politico: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich will jump into the crowded Republican presidential field on July 21 at the student union at his alma mater, The Ohio State University, in Columbus...." Apparently God sent the signal.

American "Justice," Ctd. Rachel Aviv of the New Yorker: "Caddo Parish[, Louisiana] issues more death sentences per capita than anywhere else in the nation, and three-quarters of the people on death row are black." The story of one young black man's death-sentence conviction for a "crime" he most likely did not commit.

Beyond the Beltway

"Party of One." Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "In the last few weeks, [Maine Gov. Paul] LePage's pugnaciousness has surprised even his critics, and prompted some to raise the specter of impeachment. In a standoff that began with differences over tax policy, Mr. LePage has alienated just about the entire Legislature, including his fellow Republicans and erstwhile allies. He has called them names and gone on a veto spree, canceling a record number of bills...; in turn, the Legislature has responded with an override spree, reviving many bills unanimously. On Monday, Mr. LePage is expected to veto the $6.7 billion, two-year state budget; the Legislature will return Tuesday, when it is expected to override the veto."

Michael Miller of the Washington Post: Dr. James Bradstreet, a prominent anti-vaccine doctor who claimed vaccinations caused autism, was found dead in a river in Chimney Rock, North Carolina, a bullet wound in his chest. Authorities have ruled his death a suicide, buth is family & supporters see a conspiracy to murder him."

The Commentariat -- June 28, 2015

Judge Richard Posner in Slate: "John Stuart Mill in On Liberty drew an important distinction between what he called 'self-regarding acts' and 'other-regarding acts.' The former involves doing things to yourself that don't harm other people, though they may be self-destructive. The latter involves doing things that do harm other people. He thought that government had no business with the former.... Unless it can be shown that same-sex marriage harms people who are not gay (or who are gay but don't want to marry), there is no compelling reason for state intervention, and specifically for banning same-sex marriage. The dissenters in Obergefell missed this rather obvious point." CW: As Akhilleus would tell us, Posner's thesis has a long history, beginning with the Greeks, & expressed more recently in Isaiah Berlin's positive & negative liberties. Viewed in this light, marriage equality is mighty conservative. See also freeeedom.

Sally Kohn of the Daily Beast: "... the fight over gay marriage is far from over. Now we enter the Republican temper tantrum phase.... Even before the Supreme Court's ruling, several prominent Republicans had pledged to disobey any high court ruling in favor of marriage equality -- and had called on their fellow Republican leaders to do the same. For instance, Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have both signed a pledge that reads, 'We will not honor any decision by the Supreme Court which will force us to violate a clear biblical understanding of marriage as solely the union of one man and one woman.'... Here we have Republicans ... actually pledging to violate their duties and break the law.... The modern Republican Party is operating less like a responsible partner in governance and more and more like an underground crime network -- continually abusing and threatening the otherwise democratic process if it doesn't get its way." ...

... Tim Egan: The Republican party is a "refuge for racists." ...

... Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: Some GOP strategists are urging candidates to get over that & other winger 'tudes; the candidates are struggling, at best. ...

... Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post write on the same theme. ...

... CW: I'm afraid stories like these may fool liberals into thinking that the majority of Americans are suddenly turning left. I don't believe it. Even out-and-out racists watch their tongues in public. That's what dog whistles are all about. From Lee Atwater to Rick Santorum to Paul Krugman, people who understand what Republican "small government" policies are about understand that they are based in, or at least sold as, economic & social racism. So-called conservatives may cite philosophical sources, but their appeal is to the baser instincts of human nature.

     I don't believe for a minute the polling that shows a majority of the country favors marriage equality. Why is ObamaCare less "popular" than marriage rights? Because racists can get away with pretending they're against ACA policy, when they're really against anything that disproportionately helps "those people" & was the product, at least in part, of the black guy in the White House. Sam Alito was onto something when he wrote in his dissent to the Obergefell opinion, "I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers and schools. By imposing its own views on the entire country, the majority facilitates the marginalization of the many Americans who have traditional ideas." He's not just talking about himself -- though that, too -- he's talking about how bigots are going to have to invent & adhere to a new set of dog whistles & keep their gay jokes & hatred in "quiet places." Officials & ordinary people have already learned to couch their bigotry against both women & gays in terms of "religious freedom," a safe, Constitutionally-protected advocacy with which liberals cannot disagree. Ditto Second Amendment freeeedom. The right to bear arms was born of racism -- a guarantee that Southerners could protect themselves against slave rebellions -- and it has once again been repurposed as a means of protecting whites against "lawless" blacks. Meanwhile, if the confederates must abandon their flag, they will wave the U.S. flag with even greater fervor. The symbol of our nation has been for a long time a dog whistle for the right; it's about to become an outright embarrassment. ...

... Paul Rosenberg, in Salon, on the false equivalency South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley applied to feelings about the confederate flag. Rosenberg contrasts Haley's speech with the remarks of Paul Thurmond, son of Strom, who completely rejected the flag & the white supremacy it represents. Rosenberg delves into how supremacists rework their magic to fit time & circumstance.

Jenny Kutner of Salon sees a nugget of hope for reproductive rights in Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion on marriage equality. From the opinion:

A first premise of the Court's relevant precedents is that the right to personal choice regarding marriage is inherent in the concept of individual autonomy.... Like choices concerning contraception, family relationships, procreation, and childrearing, all of which are protected by the Constitution, decisions concerning marriage are among the most intimate that an individual can make.

     ... CW: Kutner doesn't say so, but it's useful to remember that Kennedy joined the plurality decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), a decision that upheld, but modified, Roe v. Wade. The decision acknowledged the state's interest in the life of the fetus & changed the definition of fetus viability, both of which have been the bases of anti-abortion legislation.

David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "Ted Cruz' solution to 'judicial tyranny'? Direct election of SCOTUS judges.... Making judges fearful of the public whim negates much of the entire purpose of having a judicial branch to check the legislative. But even from a purely conservative utilitarian standpoint, that strategy tends to work best in more conservative states and where judges are elected in non-presidential cycles. Also, much has changed in the last decade in terms of popular opinion.... There's no evidence that a serious public opinion backlash will arise against the Court over marriage equality and the Affordable Care Act.... Indeed, by far the most unpopular of the SCOTUS' recent decisions was its stand on Citizens United.... All of which is to say, Ted Cruz should probably be careful what he wishes for."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Willa Paskin of Slate: Fox "News" personalities could not figure out how to deal with the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision. "As if today hasn't already proved how far gay rights has come, know, also, that no one on Fox News wants to be seen as anti-gay anymore either."

Presidential Race

The Trouble with Being Bush (or Why One Candidate Calls Himself Jeb!) Eli Stokols of Policito: "With conservatives up in arms over [Chief Justice John] Roberts' role in preserving Obamacare, Jeb Bush suddenly finds himself called to answer for the chief justice appointed by his brother, George W. Bush. And not just Roberts -- Jeb is also taking flak for David Souter, the liberal justice appointed by his father, George H.W. Bush." CW: Yo, Eli, Souter is not a liberal. He's an old-fashioned New England Republican. If you'd ever read one of his opinions, you'd get that. P.S. Roberts' opinion on the ACA isn't even close to liberal; in fact, there's a good change he was one of the justices who agreed to hear the King case, albeit he may have decided from the get-go to use the case as a warning to ideological litigants on both sides: don't clutter up my courts with attempts to nix legislation on frivolous grounds.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Iran's top nuclear negotiator was heading back to Tehran on Sunday to consult with his nation's leadership, as negotiators remained divided over how to limit and monitor Tehran's nuclear program and even on how to interpret the preliminary agreement they reached two months ago. With all sides now acknowledging that the talks would need to continue beyond Tuesday, once considered the absolute deadline for a final deal, officials from several nations said some of the politically difficult questions ... are still just as vexing as they were when the 18-month negotiation odyssey began."

New York Times: "David Sweat, the remaining prison escapee on the run in northern New York for three weeks, was shot by a state trooper on Sunday, according to the authorities. Mr. Sweat, 35, was shot twice in the torso and was taken to Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Sunday night at a news conference here. Mr. Sweat was in stable condition. 'The nightmare is finally over,' Mr. Cuomo said. The shooting occurred about 3:20 p.m. after Sgt. Jay Cook saw a suspicious man walking down a roadway in the Town of Constable, according to the state police. The sergeant ordered Mr. Sweat to stop, but he broke into a run and the sergeant, a firearms instructor, opened fire...." ...

... AP: Sweat "has been transported to an Albany hospital, where he is listed in critical condition."

Washington Post: "An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded a couple of minutes after liftoff Sunday morning. It was the third cargo mission to the space station to be lost in recent months."

Guardian: "A solar plane took off for what could be the longest solo flight in history on Monday, with its Swiss pilot confronting the 'moment of truth' of a journey around the Pacific Ocean and around the world. The Solar Impulse 2 set off about 3am from Nagoya, Japan, en route to Hawaii, a trip expected to take five days and nights of continuous flight."

New York Times: "Greece will keep its banks closed on Monday and place restrictions on the withdrawal and transfer of money, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a televised address on Sunday night, as Athens tries to avert a financial collapse."

AP: Law enforcement officials are confident they are closing in on New York state prison escapee David Sweat.