Today’s edition of quick hits.
* SCOTUS news: “The Supreme Court has granted the Trump administration’s bid for permission to revoke temporary legal protections for more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela pending further litigation, in a decision that a two-justice dissent said creates devastating consequences.”
* Good for the CDC: “Days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that Covid shots would be removed from the federal immunization schedule for children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated advice that largely counters Mr. Kennedy’s new policy.”
* Putting aside the question of why this is a presidential priority, there’s also the question of whether Trump has the authority to fire the National Portrait Gallery director: “President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet. … It is unclear if the president has authority to dismiss Sajet. The Smithsonian’s programming is not under the purview of the executive branch.”
* On the heels of NPR’s related lawsuit: “PBS sued President Trump on Friday to block an executive order that would cut federal funding for public television and radio, arguing that it was unconstitutional.”
* One of the problems with this story is that Trump’s statement included a great many elements, many of which were outrageously untrue: “President Donald Trump said Friday that he will no longer be ‘Mr. NICE GUY’ with China on trade, declaring in a social media post that the country had broken an agreement with the United States.”
* Quite a shakeup at ICE: “Several Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders are leaving their roles, the agency announced on Thursday, in the third major change among its leadership in recent months. … The Trump administration has struggled to meet President Trump’s campaign promises of mass deportations, grappling with a lack of extensive resources despite efforts to bring in personnel from other parts of the federal law enforcement system.” * Direct lobbying campaigns like these remain highly unusual and inappropriate: “President Trump revived his criticism of the Federal Reserve in a private meeting with its chair, Jerome H. Powell, on Thursday, saying it was a mistake not to lower interest rates. The meeting, which was organized at Mr. Trump’s request, is the first since the president returned to the White House.” * Trump could comment on a story like this one, but at least so far, he hasn’t: “The United States and 10 allies on Thursday said the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea flagrantly violates U.N. sanctions and has helped Moscow increase its missile strikes on Ukrainian cities.” Have a safe weekend.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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