The Full Belmonte, 6/22/22
Dismantling the separation of church and state
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a Maine tuition assistance program must provide students with state funding to attend religious schools.” [Vox] Read more at Washington Post / Robert Barnes
“Previously, families living in parts of rural Maine that didn’t have a high school could receive state funds to send their kids to a public or private school as long as the school was ‘nonsectarian.’” [Vox] Read more at New York Times / Adam Liptak
“In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that paying tuition for private schools but excluding schools with faith-based instruction is ‘discrimination against religion.’” [Vox] Read more at NBC News / Pete Williams
“The case began in 2018, when two families sued Maine for the right to use taxpayer money to send their children to religious institutions. The schools do not hire gay staff or accept gay or trans students, and teach through a Biblical lens.” [Vox] Read more at Reuters / Andrew Chung
“In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that the Court’s decision further erodes the separation of church and state. In 2020, the Court ruled states cannot exclude students from scholarships because they want to attend religious schools.” [Vox] Read more at Politico / Josh Gerstein
“As a result of the ruling, states with similar programs may have to choose between using public money for religious schools — or not providing assistance at all.” [Vox] Read more at CNN / Ariane de Vogue, Tierney Sneed, and Chandelis Duster
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Georgia Secretary of State COO Gabriel Sterling are sworn in today. Photo: Michael Reynolds/Pool via Getty Images
“Multiple election officials spoke today about the intense harassment and protests targeting them in the aftermath of the election, Axios' Shawna Chen reports.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) testified that he and his family faced a barrage of violent threats and a home break-in.
Arizona's Republican House Speaker Russell ‘Rusty’ Bowers fought back tears as he testified that it is now a ‘pattern in our lives’ to worry about what will happen because so many different groups have set up shop outside his home.
Former President Trump singled out Bowers prior to his testimony today, saying Bowers had once told him ‘the election was rigged.’
Bowers, who denied ever calling the election rigged, said that after asking ‘multiple times’ for Rudy Giuliani to substantiate claims of voter fraud, Trump interrupted and said, ‘Give the man what he needs, Rudy!’
Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
“The Jan. 6 committee presented evidence that Donald Trump had been closely involved in the effort to overturn the 2020 election using fake electors.
Republican lawmakers were also linked: Representative Andy Biggs asked Arizona’s House speaker to overturn results, and an aide to Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin sought to deliver a list of fake electors to Mike Pence.
The Arizona speaker, Rusty Bowers, said that Trump’s allies had produced no evidence of a stolen election but urged him to go along with the claims anyway.
Officials testified about the harassment they had received from Trump’s supporters. One Georgia election worker said that she was still afraid to visit the grocery store.” Read more at New York Times
Wandrea "Shay" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, becomes emotional as she testifies before the committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol. Left is Ruby Freeman, Moss' mother.Jack Gruber, Jack Gruber-USA TODAY
Afghanistan earthquake kills at least 920 people, authorities say
“A powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border early Wednesday, killing at least 920 people and injuring 600 others, authorities said. Officials warned the death toll would likely rise. Information remained scarce on the magnitude 6.1 temblor that damaged buildings in Khost and Paktika provinces. Rescue efforts are likely to be complicated since many international aid agencies left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover of the country last year and the chaotic withdrawal of the U.S. military from the longest war in its history. Neighboring Pakistan’s Meteorological Department said the quake's epicenter was in Afghanistan's Paktika province, just near the border and 31 miles southwest of the city of Khost. The European seismological agency, EMSC, said the earthquake’s tremors were felt over 310 miles by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Read more at USA Today
In this photo released by a set-run news agency Bakhtar, Afghans look at destruction caused by an earthquake in the province of Paktika, eastern Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 22, 2022.AP
“The Senate on Tuesday cast a key vote to advance newly released bipartisan gun safety legislation, a major step moving the bill forward as lawmakers face pressure to respond to the the recent string of mass shootings. The bill still has a number of hurdles to clear, however. In the Senate, it will face two more major votes -- first to break a filibuster and then on final passage. The vote to break a filibuster will be a critical, high-stakes moment for the legislation since it will require 60 votes to advance, which means at least 10 Republicans will need to join Democrats in support. This latest move to advance the bill is the clearest sign yet that it will likely overcome that filibuster. If so, the bill will go on to a final passage vote. The House would then need to take up the measure.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday will call on Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months — a move meant to ease financial pressures at the pump that also reveals the political toxicity of high gas prices in an election year.
The Democratic president will also call on states to suspend their own gas taxes or provide similar relief, the White House said.
At issue is the 18.4 cents-a-gallon federal tax on gas and the 24.4 cents-a-gallon federal tax on diesel fuel. If the gas savings were fully passed along to consumers, people would save roughly 3.6% at the pump when prices are averaging about $5 a gallon nationwide.
But many economists and lawmakers from both parties view the idea of a gas tax holiday with skepticism.
Barack Obama, during the 2008 presidential campaign, called the idea a ‘gimmick’ that allowed politicians to ‘say that they did something.’ He also warned that oil companies could offset the tax relief by increasing their prices.” Read more at AP News
The Biden administration is moving forward on a plan to mandate the elimination of nearly all nicotine in cigarettes.
“The policy would upend the $95 billion U.S. cigarette industry and, health officials say, prompt millions of people to quit smoking. It draws on research suggesting very low-nicotine cigarettes are less addictive, but tobacco companies say the science isn’t conclusive. The plan, which likely wouldn’t take effect for several years, would be the biggest step by the U.S. government to curb smoking since 1998.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Quoted
“The law-enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre.”
—Steven McCraw, chief of the Texas Department of Public Safety, testifying before a state senate committee on the school shooting in Uvalde. Armed police officers in body armor were on the scene within three minutes, yet waited an hour and 14 minutes to go inside, and a classroom door where the shooter was gunning down students and teachers wasn’t locked, he said. - Read more at Wall Street Journal
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw shows how an interior door in Robb Elementary School failed to lock securely to the Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans during the hearing at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Tuesday, June 21, 2022.Sara Diggins/American-Statesman, AP
“Uvalde police had enough armed cops inside the school to stop the shooting three minutes after it began — and waited 74 minutes before breaching an unlocked door.
Why it matters: This was ‘an abject failure, and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre,’ said Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
‘The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,’ McCraw said today at a state Senate hearing investigating the shooting.
A review of security footage doesn't show any officers testing to see if the door was locked, The Texas Tribune reports.
Instead, police waited around for a key.
It turns out that the door couldn't be locked from the inside, McCraw said. A teacher reported before the shooting that the lock was broken.
The dizzying chronicle of failures, via Axios' Ivana Saric:
8 minutes after the gunman entered: An officer onsite said he had a ‘hooligan’ crowbar that could breach a door. Officers opted to wait for keys.
19 minutes after the gunman entered: Police had a ballistic shield onsite.
19 officers were in the hallway outside when the first 911 call was made from inside one of the classrooms.
Texas lawmakers hearing the latest details reacted with fury.” Read more at Axios
The stock market jumped after the S&P 500’s worst week in two years.
“The S&P 500 gained 89.95 points, or 2.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 641.47, or 2.1%, to 30530.25. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 270.95 points, or 2.5%, to 11069.30. The bullish mood spread to bitcoin and growth stocks. The U.S. stock market was closed Monday for the Juneteenth federal holiday.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Republican Senate candidate Katie Britt talks to supporters during her watch party, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Montgomery, Ala. | Butch Dill/AP Photo
“Republican voters in Alabama resolved a high-profile feud in MAGA world Tuesday, casting votes in the GOP Senate primary runoff between one of former President Donald Trump’s most loyal acolytes, and the candidate who ultimately earned his final endorsement.
Katie Britt won the runoff after Trump turned on Rep. Mo Brooks, a top election-denying ally, to instead support the establishment-backed candidate. Britt had 66 percent to Brooks’ 34 percent when the Associated Press called the primary.” Read more at POLITICO
“The primary season continued Tuesday with more elections in Alabama, Georgia, Virginia and Washington, DC. In Alabama, Katie Britt, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, became the state’s Republican candidate for Senate, CNN projected. Trump had initially endorsed Rep. Mo Brooks but withdrew that support in March after Brooks made comments urging Trump supporters to move past the 2020 election. In Georgia, though, two Trump-endorsed GOP House candidates lost their respective primary runoffs. Tuesday's elections also set the matchups for several key House races in Virginia and Georgia. And in Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowserwon her Democratic primary and is now poised to win a third term.” Read more at CNN
“Vernon Jones and Jake Evans, two Trump-backed House candidates in Georgia, lost their runoffs.
Bee Nguyen won the Democratic nomination for Georgia’s secretary of state. She will face the incumbent, Brad Raffensperger, who yesterday debunked Trump’s voter-fraud claims to the Jan. 6 committee.
Here are more takeaways and results.” Read more at New York Times
“As Russia's war in Ukraine grinds on, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said a new accountability team will be formed to identify and prosecute anyone who committed war crimes in Ukraine. The team, according to Garland, will be led by the Justice Department's best-known Nazi hunter Eli Rosenbaum -- who helped the department to strip citizenship from or deport accused Nazis in more than 100 cases. The announcement is a strong signal from the department that it is interested in investigating war crimes in Ukraine and follows a previous effort to lock down the assets of Russian oligarchs. Meanwhile, heavy fighting is taking place in southern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials. And in Kherson, which has been under Russian control since March, more activists, politicians and journalists are reported to have been abducted.” Read more at CNN”
“China and India are buying discounted Russian oil, making up for the decrease in barrels sold to Europe and keeping revenue flowing to the Kremlin.” Read more at New York Times
“COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s debt-laden economy has ‘collapsed’ after months of shortages of food, fuel and electricity, its prime minister told lawmakers Wednesday, in comments underscoring the country’s dire situation as it seeks help from international lenders.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament the South Asian country is ‘facing a far more serious situation beyond the mere shortages of fuel, gas, electricity and food. Our economy has completely collapsed.’
While Sri Lanka’s crisis is considered its worst in recent memory, Wickremesinghe’s assertion that the economy has collapsed appeared intended to emphasize to his critics and opposition lawmakers that he has inherited a difficult task that can’t be fixed quickly, as the economy founders under the weight of heavy debts, lost tourism revenue and other impacts from the pandemic, as well as surging costs for commodities.” Read more at AP News
Attorney Gloria Allred speaks at a news conference after a jury in Santa Monica, Calif., found that Bill Cosby had sexually assaulted Judy Huth, background, at the Playboy Mansion in 1975. (Richard Taber/AP)
“A California jury on Tuesday found that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion in 1975, when she was 16 years old.
The decision in the civil case is another legal defeat for the 84-year-old comedian, who was freed from prison after his sexual assault conviction was overturned. Cosby’s spokesperson said Tuesday that he plans to appeal the latest decision.” Read more at Washington Post
“A jury in Los Angeles found embattled comedian Bill Cosby liable in a civil case brought by Judy Huth, a woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her as a teenager in the 1970s. The jury, comprised of eight women and four men, awarded Huth $500,000 in damages. "It has been so many years, so many tears," Huth said, reacting to the verdict. Through his lawyers, Cosby, 84, has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct. Since 2005, more than 50 women have come forward to accuse Cosby of sexual assault. After being convicted of assault, Cosby served just under three years in a Pennsylvania state prison before his conviction was overturned on appeal. He was released from prisonin September 2021.” Read more at CNN
Kellogg plans to split into three companies (not named Snap, Crackle and Pop) by the end of 2023.
“Snacks such as Pringles, Cheez-Its and Pop-Tarts will be separate from cereals like Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops and from plant-based foods. The company is aiming to jump-start its faster-growing snacks business.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Floods affect millions in India, China, and Bangladesh
“This week, unusually heavy monsoon rains in India and Bangladesh caused floods, landslides, and lightning strikes, killing dozens and displacing hundreds of thousands.” [Vox] Read more at NYT / Karan Deep Singh and Saif Hasnat
“Although monsoons are typical in South Asia, the record-setting rainfall, likely exacerbated by climate change, has been more intense and unpredictable than average.” [Vox] Read more at Washington Post / Karina Tsui
“Indian authorities have evacuated thousands. The UN said Monday that flooded roads have cut off 4 million people in Bangladesh who still need help. [Vox] Read more at Associated Press / Al-Emrun Garjon and Aniruddha Ghosal
“Meanwhile, in southern China, the heaviest rainfall in 60 years caused flooding and landslides that have impacted 500,000 people.” [Vox] Read more at CNN / Kathleen Magramo
The Supreme Court rejected a ban on aid for religious schools in Maine.Samuel Corum for The New York Times
Religious rights
“The Supreme Court has become the most pro-religion it’s been since at least the 1950s, and it appears to include the six most pro-religion justices since at least World War II.
Yesterday’s ruling striking down a Maine law that blocked taxpayer dollars from funding religious school tuition furthered a transformation decades in the making. Since John Roberts became chief justice in 2005, the court has ruled in favor of religious organizations in orally argued cases 83 percent of the time. That is far more than any court in the past seven decades — all of which were led by chief justices who, like Roberts, were appointed by Republican presidents.
Sources: Lee Epstein, Washington University in St. Louis; Eric Posner, University of Chicago
Yesterday’s ruling pushed the win rate for religious groups even higher, to 85 percent, said Lee Epstein, a law professor and political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis who uncovered the trend for a forthcoming Supreme Court Review study she co-wrote with Eric Posner, a University of Chicago law professor.
Today’s newsletter explains how the court has come to prioritize religious liberty and what the Maine ruling suggests about the court’s future.
How we got here
How did the court end up with such a robust pro-religion majority? It’s a story of selection and succession.
Over the past few decades, the rise of the religious right has made religious freedom a political priority for Republicans. That shift has corresponded with nominations by Republican presidents of justices who favor religious groups even more frequently than previous conservative justices.
Republican-appointed justices also have a better track record of timing their retirements to ensure that a Republican president will name their successor, as David Leonhardt has written in this newsletter. The Roberts court includes justices who are more apt than their Republican-appointed predecessors to favor religious groups, according to Epstein and Posner: Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh — who benefited from well-timed departures — as well as Neil Gorsuch and Roberts himself.
Another pattern has contributed: Republican presidents choosing successors to justices appointed by Democrats. Clarence Thomas, one of the court’s staunchest advocates of religious liberty, replaced a liberal icon in Thurgood Marshall, as did Amy Coney Barrett, who took over Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat in 2020. If Barrett shares her conservative colleagues’ outlook on religious freedom — and yesterday’s ruling is the latest evidence that she does — it will further cement the Roberts court’s pro-religion turn.
‘The Roberts court was pretty pro-religion even before the Trump administration,’ Epstein told me. ‘The trend will continue, if not accelerate.’
The Maine case
When the interests of governments and religious groups clash, the Roberts court tends to side with the religious groups. Yesterday’s ruling fits that pattern.
The case, Carson v. Makin, concerned a Maine program that let rural residents who lived far from a public school attend a private school using taxpayer dollars, so long as that school was ‘nonsectarian.’ Families who wanted to send their children to Christian schools challenged the program, arguing that excluding religious schools violated their right to exercise their faith.
Olivia Carson, left, and her mother, Amy, were among the families that challenged Maine’s law.Gabor Degre/The Bangor Daily News, via Associated Press
The court sided with them, saying the Maine program amounted to unconstitutional ‘discrimination against religion.’ Roberts wrote for the majority, which included every Republican-appointed justice.
The court’s three Democratic appointees dissented. ‘This Court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build,’ Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote.
Other recent cases suggest that the Roberts court is growing bolder in defense of religious freedom — especially in benefiting Christian groups. Last year, it allowed a Catholic social services agency in Philadelphia to refuse to work with same-sex couples. And while the court has repeatedly rejected plaintiffs who challenged state Covid vaccination mandates on religious grounds, it sided with those who sought to lift virus restrictions on religious services after Barrett joined its ranks.
What’s next?
Broadly, these rulings have allowed for a much larger role for religion in public life, my colleague Adam Liptak, who covers the court, wrote yesterday.
The court is considering a second religion case that deals with a former high school football coach who lost his job for praying at the 50-yard line after games. A ruling is likely in the coming days.
‘The court led by Chief Justice Roberts has been and will continue to be exceptionally receptive to claims of religious freedom,’ Adam says.
For more
Federal judges’ partisan affiliations increasingly predict how they will decide religion cases, another recent study found.
Here’s a refresher on this term’s other major Supreme Court cases.” Read more at New York Times
PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan looks on during a pro-am prior to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April.
“PGA Tour players were informed of wholesale changes to the tour schedule and FedEx Cup that will begin in the fall of 2023, according to multiple players present at a mandatory meeting ahead of this week’s Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn.
Starting next year, the PGA Tour schedule will include eight limited-field no-cut events, with purses of $20 million or more each, for the top 50 finishers in the prior season’s FedEx Cup standings. Some of those events will be in the heart of the season, while others will be in the fall. Those outside the top 50 will compete in an alternate series of tournaments, where they will fight to keep their cards and earn better status for the following season. This change in structure would happen in conjunction with the tour returning to a season based on the calendar year, something Golf Digest has reported was being considered. The tour switched from a calendar-based schedule to a wraparound campaign in 2013-14.
That was one of few tangible takeaways from a meeting that lasted 90 minutes and, according to those in attendance, featured far more questions than answers. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan spoke for about 30 minutes and reiterated his belief that the PGA Tour is in a great position. He described the tour as ‘under attack’ but assured players that they are ‘strong when we are united,’ and that the tour has long-standing strong relationships with its corporate partners.” Read more at Golf Digest
“Lives Lived: Clela Rorex issued a marriage license to a same-sex Colorado couple in 1975, becoming a target for hate mail and a hero in the gay-rights movement. She died at 78.” Read more at New York Times
Photo: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
“For summer solstice, people gather for sunrise at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.” Read more at Axios
“BANGKOK (AP) — The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists from the Southeast Asian nation and the United States.
The stingray, captured on June 13, measured almost 4 meters (13 feet) from snout to tail and weighed slightly under 300 kilograms (660 pounds), according to a statement Monday by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-U.S. research project.
The previous record for a freshwater fish was a 293-kilogram (646-pound) Mekong giant catfish, discovered in Thailand in 2005, the group said.
The stingray was snagged by a local fisherman south of Stung Treng in northeastern Cambodia. The fisherman alerted a nearby team of scientists from the Wonders of the Mekong project, which has publicized its conservation work in communities along the river.
The scientists arrived within hours of getting a post-midnight call with the news, and were amazed at what they saw.” Read more at AP News