Transgender rights: When the Supreme Court upheld a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, it didn't answer the question of whether transgender people are entitled to certain legal protections, writes Jordan Rubin. But in a concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett (joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and echoed by Justice Samuel Alito) laid the groundwork for a future court to weaken transgender rights further by arguing that the history of legal discrimination against transgender people isn't sufficient to merit comparison to discrimination against racial minorities. Read more.
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Sell-phone plan: The Trump Organization claimed that it will start selling mobile phones to help make cellphone service cheap again. Not only is its plan more expensive than comparable ones, but Trump himself had an opportunity in his first term to keep cellphone prices down by stopping the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, writes policy researcher Ashley Nowicki. Indeed, the president's current administration is only making things worse with tariffs on cellphone parts and less effective oversight of the telecommunications industry. Read more.
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Masked up: It's disturbing enough that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are snatching people off the streets. But that they are doing it while wearing masks is downright un-American, writes Jarvis DeBerry. Americans have long been able to see a police officer's face and demand their name and badge number, a vital measure of accountability. A California bill that would outlaw masked law enforcement may not work, but it's a necessary and symbolic rebuke nonetheless. Read more.
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Cover song: Sabrina Carpenter knows how to create rage-bait — whether that's a music video in which she pretends to murder ex-boyfriends in a Catholic church or the cover of her new album, "Man's Best Friend." But the debate over that cover, which features Carpenter on her hands and knees while a man grabs her hair, is a stale retread of an online argument over feminism that never seems to be resolved, writes Hannah Holland. Even if it was designed as a bubble-gum provocation to sell albums, the imagery feels particularly unnecessary at this moment. Read more.
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When it was reported that the alleged shooter of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses appears to have also been targeting reproductive rights activists, abortion providers in the state went on high alert. Longtime Midwesterner, abortion rights activist and "The Daily Show" co-creator Lizz Winstead likely knows people on the suspect's list. "They are people I may have shared meals with, laughed with, marched alongside," she writes. In her deeply personal piece, she notes the toll these attacks have taken on a community that is sadly no stranger to harassment, intimidation and violence. Read the column here.
— Ryan Teague Beckwith, newsletter editor |
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