Morning Report — Supreme Court stirs end-of-term suspense

The Supreme Court issued four rulings Thursday and will unveil more today. But the most closely watched and anticipated opinions remain behind the court’s curtain until next week or early July. 

Metal barricades lined the streets outside the court Thursday, a sign of added security in a section of the nation’s capital accustomed to demonstrators, placards and protests.

Yet to be revealed: rulings on former President Trump’s claims to immunity from prosecution, legal options for Jan. 6 rioters, the opioid crisis, homelessness, social media and the power of administrative agencies.

As President Biden and Trump prepare to spar in the first of two presidential debates next week, the Supreme Court could rule whether (or when) Trump stands trial for alleged criminal schemes to try to hijack Biden’s victory in 2020.

A key backdrop in the presidential race are the justices, their ethics and their powerful impact on Americans’ lives. Biden and Vice President Harris have been campaigning this month to remind voters that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court two years ago this week overturned Roe v. Wade and gave 50 states the task of enacting abortion laws. A resulting patchwork of unpopular abortion bans is mobilizing voters and keeps the Supreme Court at the center of partisan turmoil. Trump has told other Republicans that the high court’s abortion ruling is costing the GOP. Abortion initiatives will be on November ballots in at least four states and perhaps more.

“Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America,” Biden said during his State of the Union address in March.

“Women are not without electoral power — excuse me — electoral or political power,” the president added, referring to a line from Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion overturning Roe. “You are about to realize just how much you were right about that.”

▪ The New York Times: Here are the Supreme Court’s major rulings still pending this term and a summary of opinions already issued.

▪ SCOTUSblog: The high court this week added four cases to its docket next term.

On Thursday, justices upheld a tax provision for offshore earnings, which was enacted during Trump’s presidency. The dispute involved a one-time foreign income tax, but many viewed it as a broader challenge to ward off a wealth tax in a future Congress.

The New York Times: Democrats’ dream of a wealth tax is alive, for now.

The high court Thursday ruled for a former city council member in Texas, clearing the way for Sylvia Gonzalez, 76, to continue litigation to try to establish that she suffered political retaliation when she was arrested and charged in 2019 with tampering with government records. She argues she became a target when she criticized the city manager in Castle Hills, Texas. Justices ruled that a lower court had applied an “overly cramped” reading of its caselaw.

The Hill: In a 6-3 decision featuring illegal drugs and expert witnesses, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a woman who claimed not to know she had drugs in her car. Justice Neil Gorsuch chastised the majority.

Meanwhile in Florida, federal Judge Aileen Cannon, who has been criticized in legal circles for her handling of the slow-moving Trump classified documents prosecution, was encouraged last year by two federal judges to turn down the case and hand it off to another judge. Her assignment raised eyebrows because she has scant trial experience and had previously shown unusual favor to Trump by intervening in a way that helped him in the criminal investigation that led to his indictment, only to be reversed in a sharply critical rebuke by a conservative appeals court panel.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY 

▪ On Wall Street, everyone tracks records. The broad market index briefly climbed above 5,500 for the first time Thursday and S&P 500 futures ticked up marginally this morning. What goes up usually comes down, but analysts talk about “rebalancing” more than a market crash.

▪ Lost or stuck in space? Two astronauts at the International Space Station are experiencing an extended stay while engineers try to sort out problems with Boeing’s Starliner.

▪ An unprecedented American tourism boom in southern Europe is turbocharging growth. But some economists think it could end badly.

LEADING THE DAY

© The Hill / Greg Nash | Former President Trump and President Biden are scheduled to debate Thursday in Atlanta without an audience, moderated by CNN anchors.

POLITICS 

BIDEN AND TRUMP WILL SOON MEET on a debate stage in what is expected to be a pivotal opening match in the presidential race. Despite low voter enthusiasm, lawmakers and experts are predicting that Americans will tune into Thursday’s CNN debate in droves. Both candidates face serious questions from voters about their fitness for office, from issues related to age and temperament. Biden, who is behind in swing-state polls to Trump, needs a game-changing moment.

“I think it’s going to be really important,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). “We’ve seen this with other candidates, and if you don’t handle a question correctly or if you misspeak … your answers are pretty consequential, so this is pretty high stakes.”

Meanwhile, Trump and other conservatives have in recent days floated the baseless claim that if Biden does well at the debate in Atlanta, it will be because he’s using some kind of performance enhancer.

The claims echo a similar strategy used to downplay Biden’s well-received State of the Union speech earlier this year and come as some Republicans worry Biden will defy the caricature that Trump and right-wing media have painted of him as a feeble, confused old man.

“Republicans would be wise to play down expectations,” said one Republican strategist. “Make the point that Biden is a good debater.”

2024 ROUNDUP

▪ Timothy Mellon, a reclusive heir to a Gilded Age fortune, donated $50 million to a super PAC supporting Trump the day after the former president was convicted of 34 felonies. Biden’s advantage over Trump in the money chase ebbed as the former president capitalized with donors using his legal status. Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee reported a $141 million haul in May. At the end of May, Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee reported $212 million in cash on hand while Trump’s campaign declined to report its comparative total. Biden’s total last month does not include a $20 million contribution from billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

▪ Biden’s main reelection super PAC is raising millions to try to solve a problem vexing Democrats: how to compete with Trump’s social media machine that spits out a wall of viral videos.

▪ Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lashed out after failing to meet the CNN threshold to debate Biden and Trump June 27 in Atlanta.

▪ Trump boasts a narrow edge over Biden in critical battlegrounds in the wake of his historic conviction in a New York criminal trial, new Emerson College Polling/The Hill state polls show.

▪ Trump’s proposal of making tips exempt from income tax is another play to appeal to working-class voters, and it might work — even as some critics worry about unintended consequences, such as more workers being shifted from wages to tips as their primary form of compensation.

▪ Democrats want to overhaul the 1873 Comstock Act that bans abortion-related materials from being sent through the mail, worried that a future Trump administration could invoke the law to crack down on abortion access.

▪ The lobbying arm of United We Dream Action, the largest immigrant youth-led network in the country, is launching a campaign to turn out 1 million young voters in November.

▪ Almost every path to victory for Biden relies on strong support from women. But his current standing among women is the weakest lead a Democrat has had since 2004, a key factor in how tight the race is.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet at 9 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The Senate will convene at 6:30 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10 a.m. at Camp David in Maryland.

Vice President Harris will travel to New York City to address a convention of the hospitality union UNITE HERE at 11:30 a.m. She will tape a “Morning Joe” interview at 1:50 p.m. Harris will headline a campaign event at 5:40 p.m. before departing New York City at 7:55 p.m. to return to Washington.

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press / David J. Phillip | Tropical storm Alberto has brought heavy rains and flooding to Mexico and southern Texas, including Surfside Beach.

STATE WATCH

Tropical Storm ALBERTO — the first named storm of the season — moved inland over Mexico on Thursday, ushering in heavy rains that left at least three people dead but also brought precipitation to a region suffering a prolonged, severe drought. Rain from Alberto fell on both sides of the border, extending up much of the south Texas coast (CBS News).

New Mexico could face more flash flooding as thunderstorms threaten the state. Heavy rain complicated efforts by firefighters to contain two fast-moving wildfires that have killed two people and prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents (NBC News).

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed legislation Thursday targeting addictive social media feeds for children and teens. The “Safe for Kids Act” bars notifications from social media platforms to feeds between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. without parental consent for children under 18. It requires age verification and parental consent tools to be set by the state’s attorney general. Some companies affected are pushing back based on the Constitution and free speech. The law is set to take effect 180 days after the state’s attorney general crafts specific rules and guidelines. New York could issue fines up to $5,000 per violation to social media platforms that are out of compliance. 

The Hill: Here are 10 cities where home prices are rising — and five where they’re dropping.

ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press / Shaul Golan, Yedioth Ahronoth Newspaper | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military are increasingly at odds over plans to defeat Hamas and a post-war strategy in Gaza.

INTERNATIONAL

The question of whether Hamas can be eliminated and the lack of a broader day-after plan for the end of the war in Gaza are contributing to a deepening rift between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the military. Currently, polling shows Israelis remain broadly supportive of the military, and less so of Netanyahu. While Netanyahu’s office has repeatedly stated that the main goal is the destruction of Hamas, it has avoided talking about how Gaza would be governed afterward.

The U.S. and some members of the Israeli military have envisioned a postwar role for an overhauled Palestinian Authority in Gaza. Netanyahu’s government, however, has repeatedly rejected the idea (The Washington Post).

“It’s not in order to continue the war indefinitely,” Netanyahu told Punchbowl News on Thursday. “It’s to, one, win the war on Gaza speedily. And second, prevent a war on the Lebanese front.”

▪ The Hill: White House spokesperson John Kirby on Thursday took issue with comments from Netanyahu claiming the Biden administration was withholding weapons and ammunition.

▪ The Hill: A group of nearly 70 Democrats is urging administration officials to consider opening pathways for Palestinian refugees.

▪ The New York Times: For many Palestinians, securing approval to exit Gaza is possible only after raising thousands of dollars to pay middlemen or an Egyptian company.

Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region is filling with graveyards. A Reuters analysis shows how starvation and disease are taking a mounting toll as combatants block food and medical aid.

The Hill: The U.S. is sending air defense missiles that were contracted for purchase by other countries to Ukraine.

OPINION

■ Trump’s policies have uplifted Black families. Give him another term to finish the job, by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), opinion contributor, The Hill.

■ Extreme heat should inspire urgency, not doom, by Eugene Robinson, columnist, The Washington Post.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / Michel Euler | Unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria in the Seine in Paris are a topic of controversy among triathletes competing in the summer Olympics, which begins next month. Athletes last summer were pictured swimming the first leg of the women’s triathlon test event.

And finally … 👏👏👏 Congratulations to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! Ahead of the summer Olympics in beautiful host city Paris from July 26-Aug. 11, we asked readers about some of France’s challenges as it prepares to celebrate athletic prowess.

Morning Report quiz medalists, including some *bonus question victors: *Mark Roeddiger, Jack Barshay, *Carmine Petracca, *Robert Bradley, *Paul Quillen, *Frank Garza, Laura Rettaliata, Peter Sprofera, Dan Solaiman, Carol Webster, Jeremy R. Serwer, *Rick Schmidtke, *Jaina Mehta Buck, *Ira Azulay, *Harry Strulovici, *Lynn Gardner, *Pam Manges, *Stan Wasser, Chuck Schoenenberger, Blair Marasco, Gary Kalian, *Clare Millians, Luther Berg, John N. Dziennik Jr., *Terry Pflaumer, *Jeanne Kosch, *Steve James, *John Trombetti and *Mark R. Williamson.

The last time France hosted the summer Olympic games was 1924.

Olympic swimmers in Paris are concerned about contracting E. coli from the Seine.

France got creative by locating Olympic surfing 9,000 miles away from the French capital. Bonus point: The location will be *Tahiti (French Polynesia).

A New York Times report in April about alleged illegal doping by China’s Olympic swimmers tossed China into a cascade of headlines about the Paris summer games. 

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