Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ) said he has missed four months of votes due to a diagnosis of depression.
Said Kean, in a floor speech: “Asking for help is not a weakness, it is a strength.”
Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens,” the AP reports.
“The justices relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, and more recent federal laws in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.”
Wall Street Journal: “The decision rebuffs Trump’s bid to upend the deep-rooted understanding that virtually everyone born on American soil is automatically a U.S. citizen.”
Supreme Court Strikes Down Limits on Party Spending
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday erased limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and president, striking down a federal election law that is more than 50 years old,” the AP reports.
“The limits on party spending stem from a desire to prevent large donors from skirting caps on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party, with the understanding that the money will be spent on behalf of the candidate.”
Supreme Court Rules States Can Restrict Trans Athletes
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld two state laws barring the participation of transgender female athletes from girls’ and women’s sports teams. The court’s ruling deals with laws from West Virginia and Idaho but has implications for the 25 other states with similar restrictions, and for athletes who compete in school and collegiate sports nationwide,” the New York Times reports.
“The Trump administration, which backed the state bans, has targeted the participation of transgender athletes in sports amid a national pushback against expanding rights for transgender people.”
Oman Proposes Strait of Hormuz Fee Plan
“Iran and U.S.-allied Oman are moving forward with plans to collect payment for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, despite public American objections,” the New York Times reports.
“If enacted, the plans would be a significant change from the prewar status in the strategic waterway, underscoring how the American-Israeli decision to attack Iran on Feb. 28 has changed the Middle East in far-reaching and unanticipated ways.”
Can Democrats Outrun Their Party’s Brand Problem?
G. Elliot Morris: “The Democratic Party has a brand problem. I mean this in two ways. First, it is unpopular: Roughly 55% of Americans say they have an unfavorable view of the party… Only about 40% view it favorably.”
“However, the Republicans are also unpopular, with an equally bad net favorability of -15 — and Democrats currently lead in polls of U.S. House races by about 6 percentage points on average. So this toxic national brand is not preventing it from winning national races — at least not when the president of the opposing party is himself polling closer to -20/-25.”
“What’s more concerning is the Democrats’ position in the states. The second problem with the party’s brand is that it is essentially the same in Brooklyn as in Omaha — LA as in Laredo. An unpopular national brand means an unpopular brand in both swing states and those that lean Republican — and elect the majority of members of the U.S. Senate.”
Bernie Sanders Saw This Coming
Wired: “For decades, the senator has argued that concentrated wealth threatened American democracy. Now he’s betting that frustration with Big Tech, billionaires, and unchecked AI is reaching a tipping point.”
Bessent Claims Only China Buying Iranian Oil
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that most nations aren’t yet ready to purchase Iranian oil, wary over the potential of the US reimposing sanctions, and that this is an incentive for Tehran to negotiate with Washington,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Bessent: “The Iranians thus far have not been able to sell their oil, because the buyers are a little wary of, will it be re-sanctioned. No one other than China, who was already buying it when it was sanctioned, has bought it, so it’s still trading at a discount.”
Moscow Hit Again by Waves of Ukrainian Drones
“President Vladimir Putin of Russia faced a fresh round of pressure on Tuesday as Ukraine launched another attack on the Russian capital, continued to disrupt Russian fuel supplies and pressed its campaign to cut off Crimea, the peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014,” the New York Times reports.
“Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, reported several waves of drones, starting Monday night, less than two weeks after Ukraine launched the biggest drone assault on the Russian capital since the start of the war.”
Trump Wants Out of Trade Pact He Negotiated
“President Donald Trump keeps saying he wants to walk away from the $1 trillion-plus North American trade deal he negotiated in his first term. Nobody believes he will,” Politico reports.
“But Trump’s refusal to commit to the tariff-lowering pact means that his administration must now enter a protracted period of negotiations with Mexico and Canada — extending what has already been a year of uncertainty for major U.S. industries like automakers and dairy farmers who rely on multibillion dollar supply chains and export markets across the continent.”
Key Health Agency Posts Still Vacant
“A slew of Trump health nominees are awaiting Senate confirmation hearings — and most have to go through a committee chaired by a senator who recently clashed with President Trump,” Axios reports.
“While the administration tries to staff up some health agencies after last year’s DOGE cuts, top leadership roles remain unfilled.”
“There are no full-time political leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration. The surgeon general’s post is vacant.”
Sweden Says Russian Threat Likely to Endure After Putin
“The Russian regime is likely to remain a threat to its neighbors well after President Vladimir Putin’s time in office ends, the head of Sweden’s military intelligence agency said,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Thomas Nilsson: “We don’t see this crisis as a temporary one; Russia has chosen its path, and there is no way back. We are in a strategic confrontation that is deep, structural and enduring — we can’t wish that away.”
Rent for Mamdani’s Former Apartment Rose 30%
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani left his rent-stabilized apartment in Queens to move to the mayor’s official residence this year. Now, his former landlord is raising the rent on that unit for the new tenant by more than 30%,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“And there is nothing in the city’s new rent freeze to stop it.”
The Supreme Court Is Reshaping America
Stephen Collinson: “Sometimes, these days, it feels like the Supreme Court is running the country.”
“The nine justices are being repeatedly called upon to adjudicate the most charged disputes that spring from the fault lines of a nation split into ideological halves and that other malfunctioning institutions have failed to decisively solve.”
“They are also incessantly dragged into the fray by Donald Trump, a president who has been as good as his promises to initiate massive constitutional disruption and who often even leverages cases he loses to sharpen his political ax.”
Kash Patel Draws Flak for Posting FBI Case Details
“Kash Patel may have flouted legal constraints and the FBI’s disciplinary code in prematurely divulging arrests in an alleged plot to attack this month’s Ultimate Fighting Championship bout at the White House, bureau veterans have alleged,” The Guardian reports.
“The FBI director was accused of ‘jumping the gun’ by posting details on social media of five arrests in an investigation carried out in conjunction with the Secret Service.”
“It subsequently emerged the inquiry was sealed by a court order, theoretically constraining Patel from publicly disclosing it.”
Speaker Struggles to Keep House GOP Agenda Afloat
Punchbowl News: “Speaker Mike Johnson’s job these days is something like a triage nurse. His function almost every day in the Capitol is to stop the bleeding in the House Republican Conference.”
“The speaker’s decision to use the House Rules Committee to attach the SAVE America Act to the annual defense policy authorization bill is yet another Band-Aid that should keep the floor open this week — although that’s not guaranteed.”
“Don’t get us wrong: Johnson’s play was creative. There’s very little chance that House GOP leaders would’ve been able to advance a rule without this move. But it does little to mask the larger internal problems that House Republicans have with their agenda for the rest of 2026.”
Putin Concedes He Never Cut a Deal with Trump in Alaska
“Russia’s war in Ukraine is stalling — on the battlefield and in the corridors of diplomacy,” the Washington Post reports.
“For months, high-ranking Russian officials insisted that a path to ending the war in Ukraine — largely on Moscow’s maximalist terms — had been decided at a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump last August in Anchorage. Only Ukraine’s intransigence stood as an obstacle.”
“But that narrative has unraveled — perhaps because the only way to get the United States to help broker a new deal is admitting there never was a previous one.”
Trump’s State Fair Plagued by Problems
New York Magazine: “The Great American State Fair is a 16-day event happening right now on the National Mall. Freedom 250, the White House-affiliated organization planning many of the events marking the nation’s 250th birthday, described it as, ‘A world-class exposition and modern-day World’s Fair celebrating the people, traditions, innovations, and spirit that make America the greatest nation on Earth.'”
“In reality, it’s turning into Donald Trump’s answer to the Fyre Festival.”
“To be fair, no Americans are trapped in disaster relief tents on the National Mall subsisting on dry cheese sandwiches (yet). But the event, which kicked off on June 24 and ends on July 10, has been plagued by one embarrassment after another, from low attendance to power outages to a janky wooden replica of Trump’s planned triumphal arch.”
NOTUS: State Fair on the Mall Sputters out of the Gate.
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