Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says lower courts “haven’t gotten the message” about rulings on affirmative action and, to some extent, guns.
Asked which Supreme Court rulings are meeting resistance from the lower courts, he named a pair of 2023 cases. Alito said the cases showed signs of “discriminatory animus” toward Asian Americans, but lower courts upheld the policies.
Alito said guns are another area where lower-court judges, “to a degree,” have not understood the high court’s direction, though he acknowledged legitimately thorny issues in Second Amendment law.
He also said the Obergefell decision, which established a national constitutional right to same-sex marriage, was among the “toughest” precedents set during his two-decade tenure, but doesn’t want to hint that it should be overruled.
Virginia voters will decide on the November ballot whether to safeguard access to abortion and same-sex marriage.
The first measure would create a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” in response to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and kicked the abortion issue back to the states.
The second ballot question would erase the Virginia Constitution’s ban on same-sex marriage. Some LGBTQ advocates are afraid the Supreme Court will revisit the Obergefell ruling.
The list of Republicans considering a 2028 White House bid is expanding as President Trump’s approval ratings dip.
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy added his name this week to the growing field of Republicans who say they’re weighing presidential campaigns as the party’s midterm prospects look increasingly bleak.
Nearly a dozen other Republicans have also expressed interest or hinted they will run to succeed Trump. They include former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Polls show voters are deeply dissatisfied with the president’s job performance, and Democrats are optimistic they’ll take control of Congress in November.
Louisiana is the only state in which public school reading and math scores have risen above pre-pandemic levels after the state tightened its academic and behavioral standards.
The latest Education Scorecard from Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth ranked the Pelican State’s students first in reading growth and second in math growth among all states.
The scorecard estimated that Louisiana’s public school students improved by the equivalent of 0.29 grade levels in reading and 0.07 in math from 2019 to 2025. By comparison, students nationwide remained 0.45 grade levels behind in reading and 0.40 grade levels behind in math.
And finally … Some military Chaplain Corps personnel believe the Biden administration’s mandates on gender identity raised “significant religious liberty concerns” for American troops.
An internal Pentagon memo from 2023 spelled out 11 specific reservations said to have been expressed by Unit Ministry Teams, or UMTs, inside Army Special Operations Command.
The concerns centered on whether the Biden administration’s gender identity policies ignored objections raised on religious grounds.
The memo reads in part, “It places a burden on individuals who object to using pronouns that conflict with their faith and conscience.”
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