Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The fact that this outcome was expected doesn’t make it any less disappointing: “The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard in a major victory for conservative activists, ending the systematic consideration of race in the admissions process. … The vote was 6-3 in the UNC case and 6-2 in the Harvard case, in which liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was recused.”
* President Joe Biden was not pleased: “Biden was asked whether this Supreme Court is a ‘rogue court’ as he left the Roosevelt room following his remarks. ‘This is not a normal court,’ he replied.”
* A relevant detail: “A footnote in today’s majority opinion specifies that the court’s decision on affirmative action does not apply to military academies.”
* Another closely watched case: “The Supreme Court on Thursday made it easier for employees to seek religious accommodations in a case involving a lawsuit brought by an evangelical Christian mail carrier who asked not to work on Sundays.”
* Smoky skies: “Three weeks after Canadian wildfire smoke, propelled south by stiff winds, blanketed New York City in an eerie, unhealthy haze, people across the Midwest experienced conditions similar to what New Yorkers confronted in early June, when a plume of smoke bathed the city in an acrid cloud over two days.”
* Good economic news: “The U.S. economy showed much stronger-than-expected growth in the first quarter than previously thought, according to a big upward revision Thursday from the Commerce Department. Gross domestic product increased at a 2% annualized pace for the January-through-March period, up from the previous estimate of 1.3% and ahead of the 1.4% Dow Jones consensus forecast.”
* Unrest in France: “A police officer who shot and killed a teenage driver, setting off rioting in French cities, was detained on Thursday on charges of voluntary homicide. But it was unclear if the officer’s detention would calm the widespread anger against the police, which has been simmering for years in France’s poorer urban centers.”
* An investigation worth watching: “The FBI is trying to determine the origin of more than 100 suspicious letters containing apparently harmless white powder that have been sent to public officials in at least seven states in recent weeks, some with muddled messages and bearing the return addresses of dead transgender people, law-enforcement officials said.” * NATO: “Jens Stoltenberg is set to stay on as NATO’s chief for another year, four people familiar with the decision told POLITICO. A U.S. official said the secretary general’s leadership extension is ‘a done deal.’ Asked if that was the case, a senior diplomat from Western Europe said ‘yes,’ adding it ‘will be formalized next week.’” * It’s hard to blame him for finding this funny: “Jon Huntsman, who Donald Trump appointed to serve as his U.S. Ambassador to Russia, nearly broke out laughing when asked about his former boss’ claim that he will resolve the war in Ukraine in 24 hours if he’s re-elected.” * Fascinating: “On Wednesday evening, an international consortium of research collaborations revealed compelling evidence for the existence of a low-pitch hum of gravitational waves reverberating across the universe. The scientists strongly suspect that these gravitational waves are the collective echo of pairs of supermassive black holes — thousands of them, some as massive as a billion suns, sitting at the hearts of ancient galaxies up to 10 billion light-years away — as they slowly merge and generate ripples in space-time.” See you tomorrow.
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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