The Full Belmonte, 3/25/2024
Abortion-Pill Case Puts Supreme Court Back in the Hot Seat
The justices are considering whether to roll back access to mifepristone, whose demand has swelled since the high court eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday will consider whether to roll back the availability of the abortion pill known as mifepristone as women increasingly rely on medication to end unwanted pregnancies.
The case has quickly forced the court back into the abortion thicket after its decision two years ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eliminated federal protections for the procedure. Since then, roughly one-third of states have banned many or most abortions, but mifepristone is more readily available than ever, especially by mail, and overall abortions haven’t declined.
This has bedeviled Republican politicians and disappointed antiabortion groups who hoped the demise of Roe v. Wade would substantially reduce the number of pregnancy terminations. Medication abortions now make up nearly two-thirds of abortions. There were some 150,000 more of them in 2023 than there were before the decision, in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
‘That model really poses a threat to the antiabortion movement because once pills are in the mail it’s pretty hard to track where they go and where they end up,’ said Rachel Rebouché, the dean of Temple University’s law school.
At issue in Tuesday’s case is whether the Food and Drug Administration acted reasonably in adopting rules that have made it easier to obtain mifepristone since 2016. As a legal matter, that is fundamentally different from the Dobbs case, which discarded the 1973 court’s view in Roe that a woman’s control over pregnancy before fetal viability could be inferred from broad constitutional guarantees protecting individual liberty. By withdrawing the right to an abortion, the court left states to restrict the procedure or not as they see fit.
Antiabortion groups have spent years fighting the pill’s approval, which came in 2000, and later decisions lifting dispensing restrictions. But the current litigation, which began in November 2022, caught fire last year when a conservative federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, suspended the pill entirely. The judge found the FDA’s approval process was flawed from the get-go and said the agency didn’t sufficiently study the pill’s safety.
Months later, a U.S. appeals court scaled back that ruling considerably, but concluded the FDA overstepped with recent moves in 2016 and 2021 to make the pill easier to obtain. The ruling blocked regulations that extended the pill’s use for pregnancies up to about 10 weeks and allowed the drug to be administered without an in-person visit with a medical provider.
Under an April 2023 Supreme Court order, the decisions rolling back access to mifepristone are on hold while a final ruling is pending. Justices Samuel Alito, who wrote the Dobbs opinion, and Clarence Thomas, said they would have let the rollback take place.
Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at the University of Texas, said Tuesday’s case could show how far the court’s conservative majority, already critical of regulatory agencies, is willing to let litigation rather than rule making shape policy decisions….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Former RNC chair McDaniel calls January 6 Capitol attack ‘unacceptable’ after years of deflection
“Former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Sunday called the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol ‘unacceptable’ after years of deflecting on the issue.
McDaniel, who is joining NBC News as a political analyst after exiting the RNC earlier this month, told the outlet that the Capitol riot ‘doesn’t represent our country. It certainly does not represent my party.’
‘We should not be attacking the Capitol; we should not be having violence,’ she added. Asked why she didn’t offer such condemnation as RNC chairwoman, McDaniel responded, ‘When you’re the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team. Right now, I get to be a little bit more myself.’
McDaniel’s RNC exit comes amid a period of rising tensions between Donald Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner, and the RNC. Trump and his team had been disappointed with the RNC’s finances, with the committee experiencing one of its most anemic years of fundraising in the last decade.
The former president also believed that the RNC under McDaniel’s leadership should have done more to fight for his candidacy in the 2020 election, including retaining better lawyers to push the former president’s false claims of rampant voter fraud.
Trump, McDaniel said Sunday, ‘absolutely wanted me to move aside and wanted Michael Whatley and Lara Trump to come in.’
McDaniel said that while her role required her to remain neutral regarding GOP candidates, tensions rose with the Trump campaign when the former president decided to forgo this cycle’s primary debates.
‘We had debates, and there was tension and a little friction that started during that process. It was well played out in the media,’ McDaniel said. ‘And I knew at that point, when I was doing that role, and we were going to have debates, that when the nominee came forward, and it was likely to be President Trump, that they were going to switch and that’s his right as nominee.’
News of McDaniel’s hiring at NBC has drawn sharp backlash. She has a long history of assailing the news media as ‘fake’ and her promotion of false claims around the 2020 elections.
As RNC chair, she was involved in a phone call in 2020 to pressure Michigan county officials not to certify the vote from the Detroit area, where Joe Biden had a commanding lead. McDaniel told the officials, regarding the certification: ‘Do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.’
The Michigan Department of State’s office condemned her claims of supposed voter fraud in the wake of the election, stating they had ‘no merit.’ The state’s ‘elections were conducted fairly, effectively and transparently and are an accurate reflection of the will of Michigan voters,’ it said in a detailed fact check posted online.
McDaniel acknowledged Sunday that Biden won the 2020 election ‘fair and square’ even as she voiced concern over ‘issues’ with the vote. ‘I believe that both can be true,’ she said.
Asked about the criticism of her RNC tenure, and the blame some have placed on her for a slate of Republican losses, McDaniel said, ‘I push back on that very hard.’
‘Under my time as chair, we’ve had more women in Congress ever than in the history of our party … we’ve had more minority growth in our party, and that didn’t just happen.’” [CNN]
Fatal mountain lion attack in California is first in decades
“A teenager called 911 from a remote area in California on Saturday to report a rare incident: He and his brother had been attacked by a mountain lion.
The 18-year-old and his 21-year-old brother were separated during the attack. When officials arrived to the scene in Georgetown, Calif., an area about 50 miles east of Sacramento, they said they found the 21-year-old lying on the ground, the mountain lion crouched beside him.
The older brother was killed in Saturday’s attack, authorities said — the first recorded fatal human-mountain lion incident in California in 20 years.
According to the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, the mountain lion was euthanized near the scene within a few hours….” Read more at Washington Post
Tammy Murphy drops out of New Jersey Senate race
New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy announced Sunday she is dropping out of her state's U.S. Senate race following a string of poor showings at local party conventions.
“Why it matters: It clears a path for Rep. Andy Kim, whose grassroots support had been frustrating the establishment-backed Murphy, to win the Democratic nomination.
What she's saying: ‘After many busy, invigorating and, yes, challenging months, I am suspending my Senate campaign today,’ Murphy said in a video posted to X.
Murphy said continuing her campaign would ‘involve waging a very divisive and negative campaign, which I am not willing to do.’
"With Donald Trump on the ballot and so much at stake for our nation, I will not, in good conscience, waste resources tearing down a fellow Democrat," she added.
The other side: Kim in a statement said Murphy ‘has been a voice for progress and public service,’ adding: ‘Tammy and I both agree that it is critical that we keep this seat, and the Senate, in Democratic control. Unity is vital.’
The backdrop: Murphy and Kim jumped into the race for the seat after incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was hit with explosive federal bribery charges last fall.
Murphy, the wife of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, quickly racked up support from key state and county party leaders, as well as Kim's fellow House Democrats from New Jersey.” [Axios]
Four suspects in Moscow concert hall terror attack appear in court
Footage of gunmen reinforces Islamic State’s claim to have masterminded worst terror attack on Russia in two decades
“Four suspects have appeared in court in Moscow charged over the terrorist attack on the Crocus City concert hall on Friday that left 137 people dead.
The men were officially identified as citizens of Tajikistan, the Tass state news agency said, and were remanded in custody for two months at Sunday’s hearing.
The court released a video showing police officers bringing one of the suspects into the courtroom in handcuffs, as well as photographs of the same man sitting in a glass cage for defendants. One of the suspects was led blindfolded into the courtroom. When his blindfold was removed, a black eye was visible. Another suspect was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair.
The men, identified as Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev, Shamsidin Fariduni and Muhammadsobir Fayzov, face charges of a ‘terror attack committed by a group of individuals resulting in a person’s death’, according to the Tass news agency. All four pleaded guilty.
Earlier on Sunday, Islamic State had released new footage of the attack, corroborating the terror group’s claim to have masterminded the slaughter even as Russia has sought to place the blame on Ukraine, which Kyiv denies.
The incident near Moscow is the deadliest IS-claimed assault on European soil and the deadliest attack by any group in Russia since the 2004 Beslan siege….” Read more at The Guardian
Simon Harris on course to be Irish leader after party election
DAMIEN EAGERS/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
“Simon Harris is on course to replace Leo Varadkar as Ireland's taoiseach (prime minister)
Simon Harris has been confirmed as the new leader of Irish political party Fine Gael, paving the way for the 37-year-old to become Ireland's youngest taoiseach (prime minister).
Mr Harris, an Irish government minister, was the only candidate to seek the party leadership.
He is replacing Leo Varadkar, who announced on Wednesday he was stepping down as party leader and taoiseach.
Mr Harris said becoming Fine Gael leader was ‘the honour of my life’.
He thanked the party and those that elected him for trusting him, adding that he will ‘repay that trust in hard work’….” Read more at BBC
NBC uproar over Ronna McDaniel
“NBC News and MSNBC are in an uproar over the hiring of former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a political analyst, which took top journalists at the network by surprise when it was announced Friday.
In a rare on-air protest, Chuck Todd — one of the most recognizable faces of NBC News — said on "Meet the Press" Sunday that McDaniel has ‘credibility issues that she still has to deal with.’
Why it matters: With former President Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee, networks are trying to reflect the MAGA perspective without giving a platform to election deniers.
Driving the news: ‘I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,’ Todd told moderator Kristen Welker as the roundtable began after she grilled McDaniel in the previous segment.
Todd said a lot of NBC journalists are ‘uncomfortable with this because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.’
State of play: Friday's announcement said McDaniel, who left her RNC post on March 8 under pressure from Trump, ‘will contribute her expert insight and analysis on American politics and the 2024 election across all NBC News platforms.’
‘It couldn't be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna's on the team,’ said Carrie Budoff Brown, NBC News SVP of Politics.
What we're hearing: The view of NBC News executives is that McDaniel is one voice among dozens of contributors, and that the network can't ignore the views of a significant part of the country.
Behind the scenes: MSNBC President Rashida Jones made the rounds of anchors and producers and reassured them that they have editorial independence to decide who they book, a network source says.
During the "Meet" interview, scheduled before McDaniel's hiring was announced, she said President Biden won ‘fair and square’ — a reversal of what she told CNN's Chris Wallace last year: ‘I don't think he won it fair.’” [Axios]
US prodigy Ilia Malinin drills six quads to win first world figure skating title
“Ilia Malinin, the Virginia teenager whose once-unimaginable array of quadruple jumps has enthralled the figure skating world over the past two years, completed his meteoric rise to the top of the sport on Saturday night by winning his first world championship.
The 19-year-old American prodigy, performing his free skate to a crowd-pleasing medley of music from the TV show Succession, became the second skater ever to land six quadruple jumps in a single program and the first to do it with a quad axel, the four-and-a-half-revolution jump that had never been landed in competition until Malinin pulled it off at the 2022 US Classic, when he was 17.
Malinin, who has won the past two US national championships and took bronze at last year’s worlds, calmly drilled a quad axel, quad lutz, quad loop, quad salchow, another quad lutz in combination with a triple flip, a quad toe loop in combo with a triple toe, then added a triple lutz-triple axel combo to finish with a free-skate score of 227.79 before a rollicking crowd at the home of the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens, surpassing the world record held by 2022 Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen.
Simply put, it was the greatest display of sheer athleticism in the sport’s centuries-spanning history.
‘I didn’t even realize what was going on,’ Malinin told a gallery of more than 100 reporters in Saturday’s aftermath. ‘I was just flying through the program.’
Malinin’s combined score of 333.76 points was more than 24 points clear of Yuma Kagiyama (309.65), the Olympic silver medalist from Japan who landed three quads of his own but clattered to the ice following a triple axel midway through his program.….” Read more at USA Today
Women’s March Madness Sunday recap: No. 2 Stanford survives ISU in OT; No. 1 South Carolina rolls
“The women's NCAA tournament continued Sunday with eight second-round games.
No. 1 overall seed and undefeated South Carolina defeated the No. 8 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels. And defending champion LSU, whose coach Kim Mulkey threatened a Washington Post reporter over what she called an upcoming "hit piece," rallied to beat No. 11 Middle Tennessee State.
In the first of the eight games, No. 2 Ohio State was upset by No. 7 Duke, but No. 1 Texas handled No. 8 Alabama in the evening game. No. 2 Stanford needed overtime to put away No. 7 Iowa State in the late game….” Read more at USA Today
Men’s March Madness Sunday recap: UConn, Duke, Houston, Purdue reach Sweet 16
”Upsets were hard to come by as the Round of 32 of the men's NCAA Tournament concluded with eight second-round games on Sunday.
No. 1 seeds UConn — the defending national champions — Houston and Purdue all prevailed. However, Houston needed overtime to dispatch Texas A&M.
Brand names such as Duke and Marquette also advanced to the Sweet 16.
After a first round that featured eight double-digit seeds advancing, there were only two upsets in the second round: No. 5 Gonzaga topping No. 4 Kansas on Saturday and No. 6 Clemson defeating No. 3 Baylor on Sunday.” [USA Today]