Stare Decisis: Siding with the  liberal minority, Chief Justice John Roberts cited precedent yesterday when he joined the liberal minority in an abortion-related decision he had previously opposed. 

  The decision struck down a restrictive abortion clinic law in Louisiana that was almost identical to a Texas law previously ruled unconstitutional. Roberts had dissented in that case known as Whole Woman’s Health. He wrote, “The question today however is not whether Whole Woman’s Health was right or wrong, but whether to adhere to it in deciding the present case.”

  Roberts cited the legal standard of “stare decisis,” Latin for standing by things already decided. He wrote, “The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, absent special circumstances, to treat like cases alike.” He said, “The Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons. Therefore Louisiana’s law cannot stand under our precedents.”

  President Trump’s two court appointees, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, voted to break precedent.

Pandemic: Facing a spike in coronavirus cases, Arizona is shutting down bars, gyms, and theaters for 30 days. Gov. Doug Doucey’s order bans gatherings of more than 50 people and pushes back the re-opening of schools to August 17^th.

  He said, “We’re not going back to normal any time soon.” 

  An official of the Centers for Disease Control warned yesterday that the coronavirus pandemic is far from over.

  Speaking at an event sponsored by the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Anne Schuchat said, “I think there was a lot of wishful thinking around the country that, hey, summer, everything’s going to be fine, we’re over this. And we are not even beginning to be over this.” 

  While the daily number of deaths in the US has dropped dramatically, the rate of spread over 14 days is 80 percent. As of this morning, 126,141 Americans are dead of the virus and nearly 2.6 million have been infected.

  James Fallows writes in The Atlantic, “What if the NTSB were brought in to look at the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic? What would its investigation conclude? I’ll jump to the answer before laying out the background: This was a journey straight into a mountainside, with countless missed opportunities to turn away.”

White (House) Power: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany yesterday defended President Trump’s now-deleted retweet of a video showing a Florida supporter shouting “white power!”

  McEnany said on Fox that Trump didn’t hear what the man said — even though it was very clear — and that  the President retweeted the video to show solidarity to his supporters who are “oftentimes demonized.”

The Numbers: President Trump’s average disapproval rating has hit a career high of 55.5 percent, according to the Five Thirty Eight political blog. Even the right-leaning Rasmussen poll has his disapproval at 56 percent.

  Trump’s approval rating is 40.8 percent.

  Trump tweeted, “Sorry to inform the Do Nothing Democrats, but I am getting VERY GOOD internal Polling Numbers. Just like 2016, the 

@nytimes Polls are Fake! The @FoxNews Polls are a JOKE! Do you think they will apologize to me & their subscribers AGAIN when I WIN? People want LAW, ORDER & SAFETY!”

Killer Genes: The man known as the Golden State Killer pleaded guilty to 13 murders yesterday as well as 13 counts of kidnapping as well as rape and other crimes. Joseph DeAngelo, 73, admitted it all in a Sacramento Court yesterday.

  The crime attributed to the Golden State killer occurred in 1986. DeAngelo, a former police officer was arrested in April 2018, after DNA from a crime scene matched genetic material from a relative registered on a genealogy website. 

The Bulletin Board: Iran issued an arrest warrant for President Trump for ordering the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January. — One man was killed and a 14-year-old boy wounded in a shooting yesterday in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone, known as CHOP, a chunk of the city occupied by protesters against police racism and brutality. — The Paycheck Protection program of forgivable business loans ends today with $130 billion still unspent. 

Father-Daughter Dance: A Michigan state House candidate told this past weekend that he was “deeply hurt” but proud that is daughter posted a call on social media for  voters to cast their ballots for someone else. 

“I mean, I was deeply hurt. That stung,” said pro-life Republican Robert Regan, 52. “When I first saw that, it was like, ‘oh, my goodness, are you serious?’ “

  Stephanie Regan wrote in a post, “for the love of god do not vote for my dad for state rep.” 

  Her father blamed the influence of his daughter’s college saying, “I think it has to do with the indoctrination from the liberal leftist, socialist, Marxist universities.” 

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