The Supremes: Two days after de-commissioning the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the court threw out lower court rulings that the Texas voter identification law and political redistricting are discriminatory.

National: Arriving in Senegal today, President Obama said he was not going to scramble jets to get fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden out of Moscow. “I’m sure there will be a made for TV movie,” he said.

• Same sex marriage could resume in California within weeks after Wednesday’s decision by the Supreme Court that confirms California’s ban is unconstitutional. Opponents are exploring whether they have any legal way to stop it.  
• As the Eastern wars wind down, the US Army is cutting combat brigades from 45 to 33, a reduction of about 80,000 soldiers over the next five years. That will reduce the army to 490,000 on active duty. The cut is expected to save $400 billion alone on construction costs at military bases.

Illegal Hit: NFL tight end Aaron Hernandez was charged with murder in the death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, a semipro football player. Prosecutors say surveillance video from the Hernandez home show him with a gun before and after Lloyd was killed and that they have evidence the two men were together just an hour before the estimated time of Lloyd’s death. The New England Patriots released Hernandez from his $40 million job.

Life in the Lone Star: Texas Gov. Rick Perry called the legislature back to special session to pass anti-abortion legislation after a Democratic filibuster played out the clock in the regular session.  The room broke into raucous shouting and confusion Tuesday midnight at the end of a 13-hour talkathon by State Sen. Wendy Davis. Announcing the recall Gov. Perry said,  “We will not allow the breakdown of decorum and decency to prevent us from doing what the people of this state hired us to do.”

• Texas carried out it 500^th execution since resuming the death penalty in 1982. Kimberly McCarthy was given a lethal injection for the murder of her 71-year-old neighbor. The pro-life state performs the most executions of the 32 states that have the death penalty.

The Obit Page: Marc Rich, the fugitive financier, swindler and tax dodger who was pardoned at the 11^th hour of the Clinton administration, died in Switzerland at 78. Rich was once on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list along with Osama bin Laden. His former wife Denise made big Democratic political donations and Rich’s connections in Israel lobbied for the pardon he got from President Clinton. Rich never returned after fleeing the US in the 1980s.

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