Summary
That’s all for today, thanks for following along. Some key links and developments:
- Barack Obama has backed conservative West Virginia Democratic senator Joe Manchin’s voting rights compromise proposal.
- A coalition of civil rights groups said Manchin’s compromise proposal was inadequate and does not do enough to protect minority, incarcerated and disabled voters.
- In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump advocated shipping Americans who contracted Covid-19 abroad to Guantánamo Bay, according to a new book.
- Tucker Carlson of Fox News is a “go-to source” for the US political media he claims to “hate”, according to a columnist for the New York Times.
- Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, has responded strongly to growing rightwing criticism and conspiracy theories connected to the release of thousands of his emails under freedom of information law.
- Prosecutors in New York are investigating whether Matthew Calamari, a top Trump Organization executive, received tax-free fringe benefits.
- The supreme court has unanimously voted in favor of college athletes, ordering the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to broaden education benefits for student athletes.
- The White House announced it would distribute 55m vaccine doses to countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia in the coming months.
- White House officials said Joe Biden would fall short of his commitment to ship 80m Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June because of regulatory and other hurdles.
- US deaths from Covid-19 have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since March 2020.
Updated
New York City’s contentious mayoral primary campaign is coming to a close, with voters heading to the polls tomorrow to choose the Democratic nominee, who is expected to become the next mayor in the November general election.
The former presidential candidate Andrew Yang was initially a frontrunner in the race to be New York’s next mayor, but recent polls have shown that he has slipped.
The current frontrunner is the former police officer Eric Adams, who is currently the Brooklyn borough president. He is considered the more centrist candidate, alongside Kathryn Garcia, a former New York sanitation commissioner who has been endorsed by the New York Times. In the final weeks of the race, progressives have rallied around Maya Wiley, a civil rights attorney.
The Guardian reporter Adam Gabbatt breaks down the state of the race here:
Updated
The Biden administration plans to support criminal justice reform legislation that would end the disparity in sentences between crack and powder cocaine, according to a report in the Washington Post.
NEWS w/@seungminkim:
— Sean Sullivan (@WaPoSean) June 21, 2021
Biden admin plans to endorse specific legislation Tues that would end disparity in sentences between crack and powder cocaine offenses that Pres. Biden helped create decades ago, according to ppl with knowledge of the situation. https://t.co/zcWzdRRVdD
Regina LaBelle, the acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, plans to express support for the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act, or Equal Act, at a Senate judiciary hearing on Tuesday, the paper reported.
The law is meant to fix one of the racist legacies of the tough-on-crime drug laws that Biden championed decades earlier. The bill, sponsored by senators Richard Durbin, Cory Booker and Rob Portman, would allow for resentencing for some people.
In a prepared statement obtained by the Post, LaBelle said:
The current disparity is not based on evidence yet has caused significant harm for decades, particularly to individuals, families, and communities of color. The continuation of this sentencing disparity is a significant injustice in our legal system, and it is past time for it to end. Therefore, the administration urges the swift passage of the ‘Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act’.
The legislation has bipartisan support.
Updated
Here is more from Senator Chuck Schumer, majority leader, who is pushing a crucial vote on federal voting rights legislation tomorrow:
Sen. Chuck Schumer: "My Republican friends are fond of saying they just want to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat in an election. But...it's spectacularly obvious that Republicans are making it harder to vote and easier to steal an election." https://t.co/0PEmy203xJ pic.twitter.com/6aGIiOs5hc
— ABC News (@ABC) June 21, 2021
My Republican friends are fond of saying they just want to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat in an election. But when you look at what they are actually doing, it’s spectacularly obvious that Republicans are making it harder to vote and easier to steal an election...
Did my colleagues forget? Remember what Donald Trump did? Was he interested in a free, open and fair election? Donald Trump tried to pressure local officials to overturn a democratic election in America. It was a stress test on our democracy unlike any other in recent history... So now what do Republicans want to do? Change the results. Change the election officials.”
Prosecutors in New York are investigating whether Matthew Calamari, a top Trump Organization executive, received tax-free fringe benefits, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal. The inquiry is part of prosecutors’ probe into whether the former president’s company and its employees violated the law by avoiding paying taxes on perks.
New: New York prosecutors are investigating whether Trump Org COO Matthew Calamari received tax-free fringe benefits as part of their probe into whether Trump’s company and its employees illegally avoided paying taxes on such perks. w/@coryramey https://t.co/meG873ARff
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) June 21, 2021
The scrutiny of Calamari, who also used to be Trump’s bodyguard, suggested that authorities were not just concerned with possible tax avoidance by Allen Weisselberg, the company’s chief financial officer, and his family, the Journal reported.
Calamari is currently the Trump Organization’s chief operating officer. Prosecutors have advised him and his son, Matthew Calamari Jr, who is the company’s corporate director of security, to hire their own lawyer, according to the Journal’s report, citing people familiar with the matter.
The case has to do with whether the men received benefits from the company, such as subsidized housing, without paying taxes on those benefits. The paper reported that the older Calamari has lived in a Trump luxury building for years and also has driven a Mercedes leased through the company.
Updated
Civil rights groups oppose Joe Manchin voting rights compromise
Joe Manchin’s compromise voting rights proposal is inadequate and does not do enough to protect minority, incarcerated and disabled voters, a coalition of civil rights groups said Monday.
Manchin, a must-have vote for Democrats, does not support the sweeping For the People Act, also known as S1, but last week released a more modest set of proposals he backed. Those include requiring 15 days of early voting, requiring voter ID, and banning partisan gerrymandering.
“Senator Manchin’s compromise fails to adequately address the more than 400 voter suppression measures that are being introduced across the country. This proposal also negates the years of work that thousands of voting rights advocates and policymakers have given to the creation of legislation accepted by voters across this country,” more than 20 groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Black Voters Matter, said in a joint statement.
We need the #ForThePeopleAct (S.1), not watered-down legislation. We have seen the relentless efforts to keep people from the ballot box since the 2020 election. We need systemic change to ensure that the right to vote is protected. https://t.co/oM8N40JsSH
— Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) June 21, 2021
The comments underscore the precarious position for Democrats as they try and navigate a path forward on passing voting rights legislation. Manchin’s more modest proposal may be the only pathway towards passing any kind of voting legislation, though there’s no indication Republicans would be more likely to support them. Manchin currently supports keeping in place the filibuster, a senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance legislation, and it’s extremely unlikely 10 Republicans would sign on to any Democratic voting rights proposal.
“There has been no indication from Senator Manchin’s reported conversations with conservatives that he has been able to secure Republican support for any of the core elements of S1 which is disappointing to the many activists who are pushing for passage of the bill,” the civil rights groups said.
In a signal of a potential split to come, Barack Obama endorsed Manchin’s voting proposals in remarks to supporters on Monday.
“The bill itself, which is called the For the People Act, is a product of compromise, an effort by maybe the most conservative Democrat in the Senate or maybe the most conservative Democrat in Congress, Joe Manchin of West Virginia to come up with some common sense reforms that the majority of Americans agree with, that Democrats and Republicans can agree with,” Obama said Monday, according to a transcript of his remarks.
A vote to proceed to debate on S1 is expected Tuesday, and Republicans are expected to deploy the filibuster to stop it.
Enrollment in Medicaid has increased to its highest ever levels, with nearly 10 million Americans joining over the last year, according to a new government report:
Breaking News: Medicaid enrollment is now at an all-time high after nearly 10 million Americans joined during the pandemic, a government report showed. https://t.co/XhcRQ9v9n3
— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) June 21, 2021
A quarter of the US population is now covered by the program, the New York Times reported.
The 10m new enrollments between February 2020 and January 2021 represent a 13.9% increase, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report released today. There are now more than 80m people receiving health coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
The expansion in enrollment was a direct result of the pandemic, officials said.
“The increase we are seeing is exactly how Medicaid works: the program steps in to support people and their families when times are tough,” CMS administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement. “For the parents that may have lost a job or had another life change during the pandemic, having access to coverage for themselves and their kids is life-changing.”
Hi all - Sam Levin in Los Angeles here, taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day.
Michelle Obama is also advocating for the For the People Act, the federal voting rights legislation that is heading for a vote. On Instagram, the former first lady said:
Over the past few months, there’s been a movement in state legislatures all across the country to pass laws that make it harder for people to cast a ballot. That means we’ve got to pass the For the People Act before it’s too late. This bill is one of our best chances to stop these voter suppression efforts at the state level and enact national voting standards to ensure all of us have a say in our future—whether that’s issues like pandemic relief, criminal justice, immigration, healthcare, education, or anything else.
The Senate is preparing to bring a vote the For the People Act to the floor for a vote tomorrow. Earlier today, Barack Obama backed West Virginia senator Joe Manchin’s voting rights proposal, calling it a “product of compromise” in an interview.
“I have tried to make it a policy not to weigh in on the day-to-day scrum in Washington, but what is happening this week is more than just a particular bill coming up or not coming up to a vote,” the former president said.
Manchin had opposed the For the People Act but recently introduced compromises he would support, including 15 days of early voting and automatic voter registration.
Republican opposition to the bill has renewed calls to end the filibuster. Here’s California’s newest US senator, earlier today:
WE MUST DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO PASS THE FOR THE PEOPLE ACT. THAT MEANS ENDING THE FILIBUSTER.
— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) June 21, 2021
Evening summary
- White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US fell short of its global vaccination distribution goal because of logistical issues. “We have plenty of doses to spread with the world but this is a Herculean logistical challenge,” Psaki said at a briefing on Monday.
- US deaths from Covid-19 have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since March 2020.
- Barack Obama backed West Virginia senator Joe Manchin’s voting rights proposal, calling it a “product of compromise” in an interview with Yahoo News. “I do want folks who may not be paying close attention to what’s happening ... to understand the stakes involved here, and why this debate is so vitally important to the future of our country,” Obama said.
- Vice president Kamala Harris was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today promoting the child tax credit, a provision that could dramatically reduce child poverty in the US. “If you want to take care of the child, you do it in the context of the family in which that child is being raised,” Harris said.
Barack Obama has backed West Virginia senator Joe Manchin’s voting rights proposal, calling it a “product of compromise” in an interview with Yahoo News.
“I have tried to make it a policy not to weigh in on the day-to-day scrum in Washington, but what is happening this week is more than just a particular bill coming up or not coming up to a vote,” the former president said.
“I do want folks who may not be paying close attention to what’s happening ... to understand the stakes involved here, and why this debate is so vitally important to the future of our country,” Obama said.
Manchin, a Democrat, opposed the For the People Act but last week introduced a list of compromises he would support, including 15 days of early voting and automatic voter registration. His compromise would also ban partisan gerrymandering and require voter ID.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said he opposed the compromise, which is expected to be introduced Tuesday.
Obama said Democrats and Republicans have abused the redistricting process, but shared concerns about efforts in Republican-controlled states to limit access to voting.
“Around the world we’ve seen once-vibrant democracies go in reverse,” Obama said. “It is happening in other places around the world and these impulses have crept into the United States … we are not immune from some of these efforts to weaken our democracy.”
“If we have the same kinds of shenanigans that brought about January 6, you know — if we have that for a couple more election cycles we’re going to have real problems in terms of our democracy long term.”
Updated
Vice president Kamala Harris has been in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today promoting the child tax credit, a provision that could dramatically reduce child poverty in the US.
Speaking at Brookline Recreation Center, Harris encouraged families to take advantage of the credit.
“When we talk about child policy, it has to be with the recognition that we don’t just come in and take care of the child,” Harris said. “If you want to take care of the child, you do it in the context of the family in which that child is being raised.”
“You recognize the challenges of working parents,” she added. “You recognize the challenges of families that are just barely holding it together. And then you treat the issue in the context of the whole.”
Guardian US chief reporter, Ed Pilkington, reported a fantastic piece about the child tax credit in late March and wrote:
The child tax credit, is so much more than the cold, bureaucratic transaction suggested by its title. It will transform the way that welfare is addressed in the US, bringing it into line with European and other wealthier countries by discarding the old shibboleth of deserving and undeserving poor that has dogged America’s approach for a quarter of a century.
Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat, is under scrutiny after he again defended his family’s membership at a reportedly all-white Beach Club in the state.
The local news site, GoLocal, had asked WhiteHouse about his membership in the club in 2017 and over the weekend asked him if Bailey’s Beach Club in Newport, also known as Spouting Rock Beach Association, had admitted any non-white members since then.
“I think the people who are running the place are still working on that and I’m sorry it hasn’t happened yet,” Whitehouse told the site.
“It’s a long tradition in Rhode Island and there are many of them and I think we just need to work our way through the issues, thank you,” Whitehouse said.
In response to a question about the senator’s comments from Fox News, Whitehouse communications director Richard Davidson said: “The club has no such restrictive policies. The club has had and has members of color.”
Updated
Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, has responded strongly to growing rightwing criticism and conspiracy theories connected to the release of thousands of his emails under freedom of information laws.
“‘Fauci has blood in his hands’ – are you kidding me?” Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said in a frank interview with the New York Times on Monday.
“Here’s a guy whose entire life has been devoted to saving lives, and now you’re telling me he’s like Hitler? You know, come on, folks. Get real.”
US Covid deaths below 300 a day
Some good news for Joe Biden, in light of the missed goal for vaccine exports: US deaths from Covid-19 have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since March 2020.
Data from federal sources also shows the drive to put shots in arms at home approaching an encouraging milestone: 150 million Americans fully vaccinated.
The US death toll from Covid-19 stands at more than 601,000. The worldwide count is close to 3.9m. The real figures in both cases are believed to be markedly higher.
About 45% of the US population has been fully vaccinated, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 53% of Americans have received at least one dose, the CDC also said on Monday.
New cases are at about 11,400 a day, down from more than 250,000 in early January. Deaths per day are down to 293, according to Johns Hopkins University, after topping out at more than 3,400 in mid-January.
The coronavirus was the third-leading cause of death in the US in 2020, behind heart disease and cancer, according to the CDC. Now CDC data suggests more Americans are dying every day from accidents, chronic lower respiratory diseases, strokes or Alzheimer’s disease than from Covid-19.
In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday the state had 10 new deaths. At the height of the outbreak there, in spring 2020, nearly 800 a day were dying.
Tucker Carlson of Fox News is a “go-to source” for the US political media he claims to “hate” and has called “cowards” and “cringing animals not worthy of respect” – according to a columnist for the New York Times.
Ben Smith, a former editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, outed Carlson as “the go-to guy for sometimes-unflattering stories about Donald J Trump and for coverage of the internal politics of Fox News (not to mention stories about Mr Carlson himself)”.
Carlson has become a star of the pro-Trump right – even figuring in polls regarding the next Republican presidential nomination, although he told a podcast last week he will not run – and a hate figure on the US left.
Smith quoted a leading recycler of Washington gossip, Michael Wolff, who has written two Trumpworld tell-alls and last week announced a third.
“In Trump’s Washington, Tucker Carlson is a primary supersecret source,” Smith quoted Wolff as writing in a new book of essays. “I know this because I know what he has told me, and I can track his exquisite, too-good-not-to-be-true gossip through unsourced reports and as it often emerges into accepted wisdom.”
Carlson told Smith: “I don’t know any gossip.”
But Smith said he spoke to 16 journalists from publications other than the Times.
One “reporter for a prominent publication who speaks to Mr Carlson regularly” said: “It’s so unknown in the general public how much he plays both sides.”
Another said: “If you open yourself up as a resource to mainstream media reporters, you don’t even have to ask them to go soft on you.”
Smith said he would not reveal the contents of his own off-record chats with Carlson.
In the final part of today’s White House press briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki said Joe Biden this week will speak about rising crime rates in the US and what he will do to address issues such as gun violence.
Speaking about tomorrow’s vote on a voting rights bill, Psaki said: “Democrats, we suspect and hope, will be united.”
One reporter asked Psaki about efforts by some leaders in the Catholic church to deny Biden the communion during his weekly church visits because of his support for women’s access to abortion. Psaki said the White House would not comment on the “inner workings of the Catholic church” because Biden sees his faith as personal, not political.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also weighed in on the Supreme Court ruling against the NCAA on Monday. “NCAA student athletes work very hard, both on the athletic field and in the classroom … their hard work should not be exploited,” Psaki said.
Asked what else the White House could do to improve vaccination rates and meet its goal of having 70% of the population vaccinated by 4 July, Psaki said “we set this bold, ambitious goal because we wanted to continue to make progress”
Psaki said 16 states have met the goal but the White House was concerned about lower vaccination rates among young people and was working to address it.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US fell short of its global vaccination distribution goal because of logistical issues. “We have plenty of doses to spread with the world but this is a Herculean logistical challenge,” Psaki said at a briefing on Monday.
Psaki said issues include getting vaccines through customs, availability of materials like alcohol wipes and language barriers.
She was also asked about the push this week in the Senate to support a voting rights bill, the For the People Act. Psaki said if the bill fails, she expects it would renew the debate in Congress about ending the filibuster, a rule which allows a minority of 41 senators (out of 100 total) to prevent a vote on most legislation.
Psaki said Joe Biden’s efforts to expand access to voting will go beyond this week. “This will be a fight of his presidency,” she said.
Afternoon summary
- The White House announced it would fall short of its goal to distribute 80m vaccine doses abroad by the end of the month while announcing plans to allocate the final 55m of the doses.
- The Supreme Court unanimously voted in favor of college athletes, ordering the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to broaden education benefits for student athletes. The landmark decision was one of the few rulings to be heralded across the political spectrum.
- The secretary of veterans affairs, Denis McDonough, announced over the weekend that the government will offer gender confirmation surgery to transgender veterans.
- Kamala Harris traveled to Pittsburgh today to highlight the expanded child tax credit.
Biden to miss target of 80m vaccine doses by end of June
White House officials said Joe Biden would fall short of his commitment to ship 80m Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June because of regulatory and other hurdles, according to the AP.
The White House announced how the doses would be allocated on Monday, but officials said fewer than 10m doses have been shipped around the world, including 2.5m delivered to Taiwan over the weekend, and about 1m delivered to Mexico, Canada and South Korea earlier this month.
Officials said the US-produced doses are ready, but deliveries have been delayed because of legal, logistical and regulatory requirements. A White House official said shipments will go out as soon as countries are ready to receive the doses and the administration sorts out logistical complexities.
Updated
White House announces which countries will receive 55m vaccine doses
The White House announced it would distribute 55m vaccine doses to countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia in the coming months.
The Biden administration committed to donating 80m doses abroad by the end of June and previously said 75% would be distributed through the global vaccine sharing initiative, Covax, and the other 25% would be targeted by the US. Today, the White House provided specifics on where 55m of those doses would be allocated.
“Our goals are to increase global Covid-19 vaccination coverage, prepare for surges and prioritize healthcare workers and other vulnerable populations based on public health data and acknowledged best practice, and help our neighbors and other countries in need,” according to an administration fact sheet.
It had previously said the first 25m doses were mostly going to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America through Covax. The others were being donated to “regional priorities” including Mexico, Iraq and Haiti.
The 55m doses are being distributed as follows:
- 14m for Latin American and the Caribbean, including Argentia, Colombia, Honduras and Dominican Republic.
- 16m for Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Pacific Islands.
- 10m for Africa, to be shared in coordination with the African Union.
- 14m with “regional priorities and other recipients” including Afghanistan, Philippines, Nigeria, Ghana, Kosovo and Bosnia.
“This will take time, but the President has directed the Administration to use all the levers of the US government to protect individuals from this virus as quickly as possible,” the fact sheet said. “The specific vaccines and amounts will be determined and shared as the administration works through the logistical, regulatory and other parameters particular to each region and country.”
Guardian US senior political reporter, Daniel Strauss, has an update on the Michigan’s governor’s election. Strauss reports:
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer has brought on a seasoned Democratic strategist as she and Republicans gear up for a contentious 2022 gubernatorial election.
Whitmer, a first term Democratic governor, has hired Preston Elliott, a veteran campaign manager, as the Michigan gubernatorial election looms, according to multiple Democrats with knowledge of Elliott’s hiring.
Elliott is a well-respected Democratic strategist with a long resume of running statewide campaigns. In 2020 he was the campaign manager for Texas Democrat M.J. Hagar’s ultimately unsuccessful Senate campaign against incumbent Senator John Cornyn of Texas.
Elliott has also run Senate and gubernatorial campaigns in North Carolina, California, and Montana among other states.
Whitmer has been a favorite punching bag of Republicans but the Republican primary field is still forming.
Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, has pushed back on the prospect that she might run. John James, a businessman and former Republican nominee for US Senate is still a prospect as well, according to NBC News. What’s more, in recent years the state has shifted more toward Democrats even as surrounding Midwestern states -like Ohio or Indiana- have tilted more Republican.
Last week Whitmer announced that all Covid-19 restrictions would be lifted across the state, the latest development in a bumpy road for Michigan’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic. That same week, Whitmer also signed a proclamation celebrating Juneteenth.
Updated
In the early weeks of the pandemic, Donald Trump reportedly suggested Americans abroad infected with Covid-19 should be quarantined at Guantánamo Bay, according to a new book about the pandemic by Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta.
The book, Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History, is based on interviews with more than 180 people.
“The book offers new insights about Trump as the president careened between embracing miracle coronavirus cures in his quest for good news, grappling with his own illness — which was far more serious than officials acknowledged — and fretting about the outbreak’s implications for his reelection bid,” according to the Washington Post’s report on the book.
Trump also reportedly was in a frenzy about testing, an essential responses to an infectious disease, and argued that the federal government shouldn’t be tracking infections, according to the Post.
When former vice president Mike Pence was installed as the head of the coronavirus task force in February 2020, his chief of staff Marc Short “pushed back against an HHS effort to send free masks to every American household in the response’s early days, a step that some public health experts think would have depoliticized mask-wearing but which Short believed would unnecessarily alarm people,” according to the report.
The secretary of veterans affairs, Denis McDonough, announced over the weekend that the government will offer gender confirmation surgery to transgender veterans.
Speaking at a Pride event in Orlando on Saturday, McDonough said it is “the right thing to do” and was part of a broader effort to overcome the “dark history” of discrimination against LGBTQ+ service members.
The National Center for Transgender Equality estimates more than 134,000 veterans are transgender and more than 15,000 trans people are currently serving in the US military.
This change won’t happen immediately and McDonough said they will use the time to expand Veterans Affairs health benefits to “develop capacity to meet the surgical needs” of transgender veterans.
“We’re making these changes not only because they are the right thing to do, but because they can save lives,” he said.
In the landmark Scotus decision against the NCAA today, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a staunch defense for student athletes.
In a concurring opinion, Kavanaugh highlighted some of the most hallowed events in US sports, including the NCAA baseball world series and said “but those traditions alone cannot justify the NCAA’s decision to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated.”
The case was brought by former student athletes who argued the education-related compensation - such as: computers, tutoring and study abroad scholarships - they received while participating in sports at school was unfair. The case doesn’t decide whether athletes can be paid salaries - an issue that will continue to be debated.
Supreme Court votes 9-0 against the NCAA
The Supreme Court has unanimously voted in favor of college athletes, ordering the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to broaden education benefits for student athletes.
The case challenged the NCAA’s limits on compensation for student athletes, arguing that the governing body violated federal laws barring price fixing in markets. During oral arguments in March, the justices expressed skepticism about the NCAA’s argument that broadening benefits would defeat the purpose of “amateurism” in college sports.
In reviewing the case, the justices determined in the majority opinion that the NCAA “is capable of depressing wages below competitive levels for student-athletes and thereby restricting the quantity of student-athlete labor.”
Some NCAA rules limiting compensation will remain in place, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that limits on other forms of compensation should be scrutinized too.
In response to the court’s decision, Connecticut senator, Chris Murphy, said: “The NCAA collusion machine, designed to keep college athletes impoverished so the billions in profits can be kept for a small cabal of insiders, is finally starting to crumble to pieces.”
More and more revelations are emerging about just how far Trump’s justice department went rogue and new inquiries are being set up to examine the wrongdoing, writes Peter Stone for the Guardian:
More political abuses have emerged, with revelations that – starting under attorney general Jeff Sessions in 2018 – subpoenas were issued in a classified leak inquiry to obtain communications records of top Democrats on the House intelligence committee. Targets were Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, who were investigating Kremlin election meddling, and also several committee staffers and journalists.
Democrats in Congress, as well as Garland, have forcefully denounced these Trumpian tactics. Garland has asked the department’s inspector general to launch his own inquiry, and examine the subpoenas involving members of Congress and the media. Congressional committees are eyeing their own investigations into the department’s extraordinary behavior.
“There was one thing after another where DoJ acted inappropriately and violated the fundamental principle that law enforcement must be even-handed. The DoJ must always make clear that no person is above the law,” said Donald Ayer, deputy attorney general in the George HW Bush administration.
Biden to meet financial regulators at White House
Good morning,
Joe Biden is set to meet with financial regulators on Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, to discuss issues including the financial risk of climate change. Kamala Harris will also prioritize economic issues today, in a roundtable with a local union and on a trip to Pittsburgh to highlight the expanded child tax credit.
Participants in the Oval Office meeting with Biden will include the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, and the chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Jelena McWilliams.
Biden is also working this week to sway senators to back his infrastructure proposal.
There will also be some rustling this week around voting rights, as the Senate prepares for a procedural vote on Tuesday about the For The People Act.
Stay tuned for more.
