Southern Progressives

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has made his first public appearance since a mercenary uprising demanded his ouster. He inspected troops in Ukraine n a video released Monday aimed at projecting a sense of order after the country’s most serious political crisis in decades. But uncertainty still swirled about Shoigu’s fate, that of the rebellion leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army, the impact on the war in Ukraine, and even the political future of President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said it had made a deal that would see Prigozhin move to Belarus and receive amnesty, along with his soldiers. Yet Russian media report that a criminal probe against Prigozhin continued, and his whereabouts were unknown.

The Supreme Court is getting ready to decide some of its biggest cases of the term. The high court has 10 opinions left to release over the next week before the justices begin their summer break. As is typical, the last opinions to be released cover some of the most contentious issues the court has wrestled with this term, including affirmative action, student loans and gay rights. There's also the case of a Christian mail carrier who refused to work Sundays when he was required to deliver Amazon packages and a case about the power of state legislatures to make rules for congressional and presidential elections without being checked by state courts.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito accepted a 2008 trip to a luxury fishing lodge in Alaska from two wealthy Republican donors, one of whom repeatedly had interests before the court. That's according to the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica, which also reported that the conservative jurist didn't disclose the trip on his financial disclosure that year. Alito flew to the fishing lodge aboard the private plane of billionaire Republican donor Paul Singer, whose hedge fund has brought roughly a dozen cases before the court. Alito didn't recuse himself from participating in any of those cases. His accomodations at the lodge were paid for by another wealthy donor. Alito said ProPublica's report was misleading.

The G.O.P. needs to have the reckoning with Trump that it vainly hoped would never be necessary.

Reproductive rights advocates knew from the start there would be tremendous challenges for Tennessee women seeking abortion access across state lines once the procedure was banned here. One year after the Supreme Court ended federal protections for abortion, advocates say those challenges have been far greater than anyone anticipated. Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and Northern […]