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Jun 27, 2025

Have a great summer, SCOTUS, please change xoxo

It’s the last day of the Supreme Court school year. If only it were normal to sign yearbooks telling some students [Brett Kavanaugh] they should retire from public life and also get a new personality. Yesterday, as the heat broke, I thought for a minute that the news might simmer down for a second, too. However, I completely forgot that SCOTUS still had a number of decisions to release. Today, we’ll go deep on their ugly last few decisions. Also in today’s newsletter: RFK Jr’s new vax rules, the Trump Admin freaks out about Iran, Anna Wintour is stepping down, Creepy Cuomo won’t let us send him packing, and someone broke into Brad Pitt’s house? Summer makes us all crazyyy.

Has anyone ever deserved a summer vacation less

Am I insane, or were we just talking about how states have continued to attack reproductive rights even three years after Roe was overturned? And yesterday, the Supreme Court gave them a big assist. In a 6-3 decision, they blocked Planned Parenthood from suing South Carolina for pulling their Medicaid funding. South Carolina’s argument is that they’re allowed to pull funding because Planned Parenthood does abortions, which they literally don’t in South Carolina (at least, not after six weeks). No, the South Carolina Planned Parenthoods – all two of them – just do dumb little things like insert IUDs and test women for cervical and breast cancer. But unfortunately, this decision could reverberate to other red states looking for backdoor ways to cut Planned Parenthood’s funding and prevent women from getting medical care.

And then, it got worse. Quick recap: At the start of his administration, Trump issued an executive order banning birthright citizenship. This itself would have been difficult for even Clarence Thomas to defend, since the 14th Amendment states pretty plainly: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” My least literate exes could tell you what that means, tbh. But the justices weren’t asked to weigh in on the merits of the executive order – they were asked to weigh in on whether or not federal judges could issue nationwide injunctions. And this is important because the reason we still have birthright citizenship is that the judiciary put a nationwide injunction on Trump’s original executive order, so it was paused. Until now, a 6-3 decision has ruled against nationwide injunctions, which means that Trump might be able to proceed with his plan to end birthright citizenship (although this is up for debate, as there may be other ways to stop it). As Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority: “When a court concludes that the executive branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.” Sorry, but this isn’t teaching children how to play nicely on the playground…if the executive branch acts unlawfully, WHO is supposed to stop them??

Anyway, huge bummer. And now, the Supreme Court heads out for its summer break. Sort of. While Clarence Thomas enjoys his private jet rides, our justices may be asked to weigh in on emergency cases related to the Trump Administration. They do break an enormous number of laws, after all. Read more.

Trumpdates

Trump and his pack of idiots largely spent the day disputing a leaked report that their strikes over the weekend only set Iran’s nuclear program back a few months. At a news conference yesterday, Pete Hegseth highlighted a line from the UN nuclear watchdog that the uranium enrichment facilities are “no longer operational.” I obviously have no special insight, but both could be true – the facility could be out of commission right now, but it could be back in business within a few months. I don’t know if our Secretary of Defense has spent as much time thinking it through as I have, though (I spent 75 seconds on it). And no, Hegseth’s conference didn’t give any evidence of their claim that the strike “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities.

In other Trump news:

RFK Jr’s health advisers have voted to stop recommending flu vaccines that include thimerosal, an ingredient known to be safe. Well, ivermectin should do the trick.
Trump’s budget bill suffered a significant setback yesterday when the Senate parliamentarian rejected several of its proposed budget cuts. TL;DR: The GOP is passing this bill through a process known as “reconciliation,” which allows them to circumvent the filibuster, meaning they only need 50 votes (instead of 60, if the legislation were subject to a filibuster). However, reconciliation is only permitted for legislation that meets specific criteria. Technically, it’s only supposed to be used for budgets, but Congress often finds a way around that. Anyway, the parliamentarian – a nonpartisan advisor, currently Elizabeth MacDonough – is the one who assesses whether or not the bill meets the standards to pass via reconciliation. And MacDonough says major parts of the bill don’t, including a number of their Medicaid cuts. The Senate has overruled the Parliamentarian in the past, but Majority Leader John Thune (who I’m sorry to say is also kinda hot) has said they don’t plan to this time. Oh no! We’re at risk of letting people have healthcare! Read more.

"The Chinese government is banning a service that woke hotel guests up via sending a red panda into their room. So cute! I can lend out my cat for the same service, as long as you’re down to wake up at 1 am, 3 am, and 4 am”

ON OUR RADAR

Anna Wintour is leaving her job as Editor-in-Chief of Vogue. She’s only 75, so maybe now she’ll run for Senate?
SF bookstore Booksmith will no longer sell the Harry Potter books because of JK Rowling’s transphobic views. Here for this!!
Love Island USA contestant Cashel Barnett has been charged with sexual assault. Imagine your first name is “Cashel” and that’s still not the worst thing about you.
Thieves broke into Brad Pitt’s home and took an undisclosed amount of property. Wild. I can’t think of anyone who would have a grudge against Brad Pitt.
Ugh, Andrew Cuomo is staying in the NYC mayoral race in November on the “Fight and Deliver” ballot line. Well, this gives Zohran the chance to beat him twice.

Congrats @kylietcheung! Thank you for your service.

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