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The Supreme Court has ruled that federal law protects LGBTQ workers from discrimination nationwide, in a shocking throwback to a bygone era in which good things happened sometimes.
- In a six-to-three (!) decision the Court held that the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars workplace discrimination on the basis of sex, should be read to cover sexual orientation and gender identity as well. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the four liberal justices, with the Trump-appointed Gorsuch (!!) writing the opinion of the Court.The landmark ruling addressed three cases including a lawsuit brought by Aimee Stephens, who died last month.
- This is the biggest victory for LGBTQ civil rights since the 2015 Supreme Court decision enshrining the Constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and it’s a huge deal, but conservatives will attempt to use their hammerlock on the judiciary to roll it back. The court is already set to hear a separate case on the question of whether religious organizations get a free pass to ignore federal law and discriminate their hearts out. And while Gorsuch was weirdly on the right side of history today, he suggested in his 2018 opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission that he supports religious exemptions for anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
- The decision may also void the Trump administration’s new rule rolling back health-care protections for transgender Americans, which the Department Health of Human Services finalized on Friday. (Surely by pure coincidence, on the anniversary of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting. Also, during Pride. Additionally, during a pandemic.) The rule leans on redefining the word “sex” in the ACA’s anti-discrimination section to mean only “male or female and as determined by biology”—what HHS calls the “plain meaning of the word.” One of Trump’s own Supreme Court picks just called bullshit on that exact argument.
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In less wonderful Supreme Court news, the court declined to hear a bundle of cases re-examining the doctrine of qualified immunity.
- Qualified immunity makes it almost impossible to sue police, even in cases of egregious misconduct, and activists have called on the Supreme Court to re-examine the doctrine amid the recent outpouring of evidence that police abuse that immunity to brutalize law-abiding citizens, but to no avail. (Your move, Congress.) Those protests are still going strong, by the way. Thousands of people across the country rallied and marched for black trans lives over the weekend.
- While the protests have largely grown more peaceful, another instance of deadly police violence has generated a fresh wave of anger. On Friday night, Atlanta, GA, police officer Garrett Rolfe shot Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black man, twice in the back as he ran away. Brooks had parked and fallen asleep in his car at a Wendy’s drive-through, and officers attempted to arrest him after he failed a sobriety test. Atlanta police chief Erika Shields resigned on Saturday after video of the incident emerged (but will remain employed by the city), Rolfe was fired on Sunday, and another officer on the scene was placed on administrative duty.
As protesters risk their health and safety to fight for reimagining (if not outright abolishing) the police, it’s both heartening and startling to see a major civil rights victory handed down from a Supreme Court controlled by conservatives. Take the time to celebrate it. Then take a moment to recall that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) defended her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh by claiming that he would defend LGBTQ rights, have yourself a nice laugh, and chip in what you can to help relieve her of her duties →
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Have you heard the good word? Crooked has a new podcast, Unholier Than Thou. Award-winning journalist and editor Phillip Picardi is on a quest to better understand his relationship with spirituality by learning how faith plays a role in other people’s lives.
The first two episodes are out now and they are FANTASTIC. Episode 1 looks at miracles in the emergency room, and episode 2 explores how politicians use religion. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts →
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Two black men were found hanging from trees within 50 miles of each other in California, 10 days apart. Robert Fuller, a 24-year-old black man, was found hanging in Palmdale, CA, early last Wednesday, in a park near Palmdale City Hall. Homicide investigators and city officials quickly deemed Fuller’s death a suicide, and without evidence attributed it to emotional despair caused by the coronavirus crisis. Fuller’s family says it doesn't believe his death was a suicide, and hundreds of protesters gathered over the weekend to demand an investigation. Now the family of 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch, who was found hanging in Victorville, CA, on May 31, has come forward to express skepticism that his death was a suicide.
That area has a history of racist incidents. Southern California has seen a large spike in white-supremacist activity, KKK fliers were distributed in Palmdale in 2007, and Palmdale officials have a history of pushing black families out of certain neighborhoods. That context, along with the eerie similarity of the two men’s deaths outside municipal buildings against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter protests, have people understandably worried that the deaths might have been lynchings.
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- President Trump announced late Friday that he would reschedule his Tulsa, OK, rally for June 20, “out of respect” for Juneteenth. Meanwhile, the director of the Tulsa Health Department warned that the city’s coronavirus cases have spiked to their highest levels yet, and that this is perhaps not the best time for a huge indoor rally filled with maskless seniors.
- Oluwatoyin Salau, a 19-year-old Black Lives Matter protester, was found dead in Tallahassee, FL, a week after she went missing. Her body was found along with that of Victoria Sims, 75. On the day she was last seen, Salau tweeted that she had been sexually assaulted.
- Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stocks in early March, on the same day Trump went on Fox News to assure the public that the economy was “doing fantastically,” and just a few days after Mulvaney got onstage at CPAC and claimed the media was fearmongering about the coronavirus to bring down the president.
- Trump’s difficulties descending a ramp and taking a sip of water at his West Point commencement speech once again raised questions about his health. Your periodic reminder that we still don’t know why Trump was suddenly rushed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center back in November, and that Trump’s efforts to conceal and lie about his health history is a huge problem.
- The FDA withdrew emergency-use authorizations for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as coronavirus treatments after reviewing findings from large clinical trials and concluding that the drugs “are unlikely to produce an antiviral effect.”
- A Russian court convicted American businessman Paul Whelan of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison, in a closed trial that U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan called “a mockery of justice,” but which Trump called a terrific justice, maybe the best justice, people are saying it more and more.
- Faulty software or scanners used to count mail-in ballots in Georgia may have prevented thousands of votes from being counted. Election officials identified the problem in at least four counties, and it likely went further: The same scanners and software were used to count absentee ballots across the state.
- Trump’s niece Mary Trump is set to publish a tell-all book this summer featuring “harrowing and salacious” stories about the president. Mary will also reportedly detail how she supplied the New York Times with the family’s financial documentation for its investigation of Trump’s tax crimes.
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) challenged 70-year-old Ron Perlman to wrestle Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) after Perlman called Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) a dipshit. A rare instance of Cruzing for someone else's bruising.
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The Trump administration’s efforts to undermine climate-change science are increasingly driven by mid-level officials who are scared to lose their jobs. Where Trump’s political appointees once led the way in blocking research on climate change, rank-and-file federal workers have now internalized that pressure and begun steering away from climate science to protect their budgets and avoid scrutiny. Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, said that makes the situation more dangerous: “If top-level administrators issued a really clear public directive, there would be an uproar and a pushback, and it would be easier to combat.” Instead, managers quietly deny government approval to studies related to climate change, look to hide evidence of federal funding for those studies, and urge employees to omit the phrase “climate change” from their work.
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The Supreme Court refused to hear the Trump administration’s challenge to a California sanctuary law that prohibits local enforcement from aiding federal agents in aggressive efforts to identify and deport undocumented immigrants.
The Supreme Court also refused to hear several Second Amendment cases, suggesting that the four most conservative justices don’t think Chief Justice John Roberts would side with them.
Racial justice groups have been flooded with donations in the last two weeks, with bail funds alone receiving $90 million.
Beyoncé wrote an open letter to Kentucky’s attorney general urging him to charge the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor. Now more than ever, be like Beyoncé.
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