NEW: The Supreme Court won't block a civil contempt order against the journalist Catherine Herridge for refusing to identify the source of a leak. Only Kavanaugh notes his dissent. Herridge will be fined $800 a day until she complies.

I wish this was an isolated example this week but it’s not. The vitriol that Barrett is receiving from the right is insane even by their standards.

UN Ambassador Matt Whitaker: "People are enjoying the United States of America because it's an awesome place. We have extraordinary things like Buc-ee's and Chick-fil-A, very convenient to eat in your car while you're having a phone call. It's an amazing country."

Leo XIV cracks down on SSPX:

Just remembered that my elementary school had a group of Bosniak, Croatian, and Serbian officials visit and talk to us about the importance of peacebuilding. Good message, but maybe one that went over our heads as fourth graders.

The Celtics did what

Taking a closer look at the birthright dissents, it seems like (on the constitutional q at least) it would be Kavanaugh who'd give Trump most leeway to limit citizenship Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch all suggest there could be as-applied challenges to the EO that could sweep up a lot of its applications

This idea was so absurd that even DOJ acknowledged you’d have to read the Citizenship Clause and Section 1401(a) the same way. Sauer confirmed it to Gorsuch at oral arguments.

Iconic line from @stevevladeck.bsky.social here in response to Will Baude’s SCOTUS boosterism www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/o...

Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja was walking to Sunday Mass in Texas when federal immigration officers stopped her, confiscated her rosary and put her in handcuffs. She was released hours later after lawmakers intervened.

Happy 1,000th manager win to Dave Roberts!

I was surprised to see so many people dooming about today’s birthright citizenship ruling. It’s a huge defeat for the nativists, and it only gets worse for them once you pop the hood on the dissents:

Interesting footnote in Thomas’s dissent where he suggests that some long-term undocumented immigrants are domiciled and might be covered by his view of the Citizenship Clause.

Earlier this year I wrote that I feared SCOTUS might weaken or narrow birthright citizenship even if it struck down the Trump EO. Those fears went unrealized today: Roberts’ opinion is an uncompromising defense of the rule, with no gaps or caveats.

This is why I never keep my prewrites in the CMS.

Kavanaugh doesn't decide whether rational basis review or heightened scrutiny applies, because (he says) the state laws satisfy both. This gives him an opportunity to gut heightened scrutiny for anti-trans laws by applying it in a weirdly deferential way. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

The Supreme Court will hand down rulings for the last three cases of the term in 30 minutes. We’re expecting decisions on campaign finance, transgender student-athletes, and birthright citizenship.

Good morning, folks, and welcome to the last day of the 2025-2026 term.

One of the most incredible things I have ever worked on: Recently discovered documents, written by John Dickinson in 1775, that reveal his secret and previously unknown efforts to prevent the American Revolution. Now featured in the New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/u...

Look, it was either this or a twelfth shot at overturning Employment Division v. Smith

They should do this penalty kick thing for every tied game

The Supreme Court really doesn’t like Congress. newrepublic.com/article/2125...

having a son is changing the youtube recs game

Just as a top-line matter: It would have been nothing short of cataclysmic if SCOTUS had let Trump fire Fed governors at will. In purely human terms, a lot of hardship and suffering was avoided today.

First opinion from SCOTUS today is Watson v. RNC. The court rules that federal law does *not* require states to receive mail-in ballots by Election Day. 5-4 by Barrett with Roberts and the three liberals: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

#BREAKING: #SCOTUS *denies* certiorari in one of the two E. Jean Carroll cases ("Carroll II," to the folks who follow closely). That presumably clears the way for Carroll to collect the $5 million judgment (the $83.3 million judgment in Carroll I remains under appeal):

SCOTUS took up five new cases for the next term in this morning’s orders, including one on whether Arizona can require proof of citizenship on voter registration forms: www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

Ruling against TPS for Haitians, the Trump justices on the Supreme Court have set a new impossible standard for proving discrimination against non-whites: if there is any other reason *in addition* to the racism, the racism doesn’t count www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Britain’s Labour government will repeal the Vagrancy Act today, “ending nearly two centuries of legislation that has criminalised rough sleeping and begging.”

The contrast here with Masterpiece Cakeshop, which also applied the Arlington Heights factors (via Lukumi), is devastating and inexplicable — and so invites explanations like this one.

The new racist double standard set up by Alito in the TPS ruling: if there’s any other motive in addition to the racism, the racism doesn’t count, but if the state wants to *prevent* discrimination against black people, that is racist and unconstitutional www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

“Fleeing gang violence and what has become a civil war, thousands of Haitians have helped reverse decades of decline in Springfield.They filled factory jobs, opened businesses, started churches, and helped stabilize the city’s population after years of shrinkage.” www.thebulwark.com/p/after-supr...

PACER fees up 20% from 10¢/page to 12¢/page "temporarily" for five years to fund the federal Judiciary's CMM replacement system for CM/ECF effective Jan. 1, 2027. Huh. www.uscourts.gov/data-news/ju...

The Supreme Court thought Trump wasn’t being racist towards Haitians because they agree with him.

These are evil people, man.

also this is basically republican orthodoxy, they just don’t say it out loud. the main intellectual project of the conservative judicial movement for example is to make watergate legal bsky.app/profile/theb...

That’s not a problem, he can easily get back in.

Lunacy. Here's Emmer 10 years ago.

She won.

This might be a first:

If you're wondering why there's a delay in #SCOTUS rulings, it's because Justice Sotomayor is reading her dissent in the asylum case (Al Otro Lado) from the bench.

First up from SCOTUS today is Monsanto v. Durnell. The justices rule that FIFRA preempts a state-level failure-to-warn lawsuit over pesticide harms. 7-2 by Kavanaugh. Jackson and Gorsuch dissent: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

I'm a few weeks late to this but I endorse @stevevladeck.bsky.social's assessment of the lazy and seemingly agenda-driven criticism of how the media labels Supreme Court cases as "big" If birthright citizenship is 9-0, it's still a big case. www.stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-226-...

On Love Island this season there’s a bunch of quasi-redpilled Gen Z guys who spend every episode talking themselves out of liking women. Meanwhile the millennial Tumblr model is cakewalking to victory by openly yearning for the woman he loves while they’re stuck in separate villas.

Harry Truman during the Korean War:

a legitimately fascinating finding tbh

Major League Baseball has cleared Dr. Neal ElAttrache of any wrongdoing after speaking to him this month, as reported by the NYT, saying, "We consider this matter closed." Unlocked story, including the following statement to The Athletic from ElAttrache: www.nytimes.com/athletic/738...

This might actually be a good idea after they filled it with a bunch of random chemicals.

Chef's kiss, salute, tears, all of it