Summary of the day
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
The US supreme court shot down a fringe legal theory that observers said posed a considerable threat to democracy, ruling that state courts have the authority to weigh in on disputes over federal election rules. Civil rights groups praised the court’s ruling. The court will release more opinions on Thursday. The nine justices have seven cases left to decide, including those dealing with affirmative action and Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan.
Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy insisted that Donald Trump is “stronger today than he was in 2016”, hours after he appeared to question whether the former president was the strongest GOP nominee to win the 2024 election.
A new federal law that requires employers to provide accommodations to pregnant and postpartum employees took effect on Tuesday, providing protections to millions of eligible people.
A group of House Democrats are calling for an independent investigation into US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, following reports that he received lavish gifts and financial support from the Republican mega-donor and billionaire real estate developer Harlan Crow.
Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, announced a special session for lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional district maps after the US supreme court earlier this month declared that they were unfair to Black voters.
Walt Nauta, the valet to Donald Trump who was indicted alongside him for charges related to the classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago, missed his arraignment today. The hearing will now take place on 6 July.
A New York appeals court ordered that Ivanka Trump be dismissed from a civil fraud case filed by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and three of his adult children.
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, vowed to succeed where Donald Trump failed and to “actually” build the wall between the US and Mexico, as the two held dueling campaign events in New Hampshire.
The third “Florida Man” in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Miami mayor Francis Suarez, suffered an embarrassment during an interview with a conservative radio host when he was asked about the plight of the oppressed Uyghurs, a Muslim minority in China.
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Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, has announced a special session for lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional district maps after the US supreme court earlier this month declared that they were unfair to Black voters.
In a statement released by her office, Ivey called for the session to begin 17 July and said Alabama’s legislature “has one chance to get this done”. She added:
Our Legislature knows our state, our people and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups do.
It comes after the supreme court upheld a three-judge panel’s ruling that the state of Alabama illegally diluted the political power of Black voters by having only one majority Black congressional district.
The ruling meant Alabama would have to redraw its congressional map to add another district where Black voters comprise a majority of the district’s voting age population. The court’s surprise decision is a major victory for the embattled Voting Rights Act.
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