06.30.2020 - By Brad Friedman
On today's 'BradCast': Some good-ish news, as the U.S. Supreme Court's Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Court's liberal wing on another major case to strike down an extremist anti-abortion measure in Louisiana. Slate's Supreme Court correspondent, MARK JOSEPH STERN, joins us to explain the ruling and why advocates of reproductive rights won't have long to enjoy it. Has Roberts seemingly become a 'liberal squish' on three important landmark cases this session? Stern discusses that question, and another ruling today regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) dreaming up new (non-existent) Constitutional powers for the Presidency, and a SCOTUS decision blocking expansion of absentee voting in Texas, in the middle of a pandemic, in clear violation of the 26th Amendment. Also today: Florida, Texas and Arizona, among the first to reopen, are now seeing the largest growth in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations in the country, highlighting the hubris of their Republican governors and rightwing media in misleading the public about health experts' warnings. The Trump Campaign removed social-distancing protocols and measures intended to protect attendees at his death rally in Tulsa, underscoring Trump's affirmative endangerment of the public. The GOP-controlled Mississippi state legislature voted to remove the Confederate flag symbol from their own state flag.