The Supreme Court will mark its final day with rulings on several cases, including the birthright citizenship dispute. A CDC panel meeting hints at the direction of the agency under Robert F. Kennedy’s leadership. And why New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s social media campaign was more effective than Kamala Harris’ memes.
Here’s what to know today.
Supreme Court set to rule on a flurry of cases on term’s final day
Today marks the last day of the Supreme Court’s nine-month term — and that means the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is preparing to issue rulings in six outstanding cases.
Of these, the most closely watched case concerns President Donald Trump’s attempt to end automatic birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The longstanding interpretation of the provision is that anyone born on U.S. soil is an American citizen with a few minor exceptions.
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The case before the Supreme Court doesn’t focus on the lawfulness of the proposal itself, but rather on whether federal judges have the power to block it nationwide while litigation continues. It’s a decision that could have wide-ranging impacts, as federal judges have frequently ruled against Trump’s broad use of executive power.
The five other cases the court has yet to rule on are:
→ Whether conservative religious parents can opt their elementary school-age children out of LGBTQ-themed books in class
→ Whether congressional districts in Louisiana are lawful
→ A law enacted in Texas that imposes age restrictions for using adult websites
→ A challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s preventive care task force
→ A Federal Communications Commission program that subsidizes phone and internet services in underserved areas
Read the full story here.
More politics news:
- The White House plans to limit intelligence sharing with members of Congress after an early assessment of damage caused by U.S. strikes in Iran leaked this week.
- Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republican chair of the Intelligence Committee, is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the intel office led by National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard that would slash its workforce by 60%.
- Democratic voters in Virginia will head to the polls this weekend in a special primary election to choose a new representative to succeed the late Rep. Gerry Connolly. The candidates’ pitch to voters has everything to do with Trump.
- Former Trump lawyer Kenneth Cheseboro was disbarred in New York over his role in a scheme to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.
- The Social Security Administration has hired the 19-year-old former DOGE staffer nicknamed “Big Balls,” who the White House earlier this week said had left the Trump administration.
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Republicans suffer setback on Trump’s agenda bill
The Senate referee ruled yesterday that a series of health care cuts and savings in the One Big Beautiful Bill for Donald Trump’s agenda are ineligible for the “budget reconciliation” process Republicans are using to get around the chamber’s 60-vote threshold. The setback throws into question whether senators will be able to start voting on the bill today, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune had hoped to do, with a goal of sending legislation to President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4.
Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who adjudicates procedural disputes between Republicans and Democrats, has disqualified several provisions, including Medicaid rules prohibiting funds without verification of immigration status, new limitations surrounding eligibility for Affordable Care Act funding and more. The disqualified provisions total $200 billion to $300 billion in savings over a decade, one expert said.
So, now what? Republican aides said the rulings aren’t fatal to the overall bill. Senate Republicans will return to the drawing board on some issues and accept the outcome of revoked provisions in other cases. But some conservatives angered by MacDonough’s rulings suggested she should be fired. Read the full story here.
A sign of CDC’s shift under RFK Jr.’s leadership
A mercury-based preservative called thimerosal — which is the subject of widely debunked claims linking the ingredient to autism and hasn’t been used in nearly all vaccines made in the U.S. since 2001 — was the subject of a presentation at the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee meeting. The presentation over an issue that has long been considered settled science signaled how meetings of the panel have already changed drastically under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership.
During the meeting, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices heard from Lyn Redwood, president emerita of the Kennedy-founded anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense about thimerosal. Afterward, the committee voted 5-1 to recommend that children, adults and pregnant women get single-dose thimerosal-free flu vaccines.
A pediatrician who represented the lone dissenting vote said, “This is an old issue that has been addressed in the past.” Medical experts who also participated in the meeting questioned the veracity of Redwood’s claims.
In a separate vote, the committee reaffirmed the existing recommendation that people ages 6 months and older should get annual flu shots. The committee also voted in favor of recommending an RSV drug for infants younger than 8 months. Read the full story here.
Read All About It
- Officials say the suspect in the bombing at a California fertility clinic who was found dead this week at a federal detention center died by suicide.
- Actor Brad Pitt’s Los Angeles home was ransacked and robbed in a late-night burglary.
- A fireball seen shooting through the sky in the southeastern U.S. was confirmed to be from a meteor shower.
- American Vogue is set to hire a new head of editorial content, a role held by Anna Wintour for nearly 40 years.
- There’s a new record for the fastest mile ever run by a woman, but it’s 6.42 seconds short of the time Faith Kipyegon hoped to achieve.
Staff Pick: Why Zohran Mamdani’s online campaign was so effective
While the final results won’t be known for a few more days, Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state legislator, appears to have pulled off an upset in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. I say “upset,” because whenever a candidate’s win seems like a surprise, there are almost always missed signs that victory was likely.
In this story, reporters Angela Yang and Bruna Horvath explain how Mamdani’s social media presence foretold his apparent primary victory. What really struck me in their reporting is not just that he had built a sizable social media following, but how he did it with substance and how he parlayed his social media virality into money, political engagement and votes. And they explain how his success online differed in key ways from the early social media success of Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign. Ultimately, it’s a nice snapshot of the character and strategic savvy of a man who could wind up running the biggest city in the country. — Richie Duchon, deputy platforms editor
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
If you’re looking for an alternative to the Amazon Kindle, the NBC Select team has a roundup of the best e-readers. Plus, we have all the details on the deals to expect during this year’s Target Circle Week, which runs from July 6-12 online and in stores.
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