US supreme court to release decisions with Trump immunity and abortion rights at stake – live
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The big event for today comes first thing in the morning, when the supreme court releases another batch of opinions at 10am ET. While there’s no telling which cases they will decide, the matters pending before the court give its conservative supermajority opportunities to upend abortion access, federal regulations and the prosecution of Donald Trump for his alleged plot to overturn the 2020 election. The court has decided several cases so far this term, including unanimously allowing abortion pill mifepristone to remain on the market, and doing the same for “bump stocks”, the modification that allows firearms to fire rapidly and was banned under the Trump administration.
The latest batch of decisions comes amid questions over the justices’ ethics, particularly conservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The former has been caught up in a furor over his habit of traveling with a conservative billionaire, which he has only partially acknowledged, and the latter flew flags sympathetic to rightwing causes at his properties. But neither justice has heeded Democrats’ calls to recuse from deciding cases, and are expected to have their names on the opinions released today.
Here’s what else is happening:
Joe Biden has a light schedule today, with little other than a trip to Camp David in the evening on his schedule. Perhaps he’s busy preparing for his debate with Trump, set to take place in Atlanta on 27 June.
Mike Turner, the Republican chair of the House intelligence committee, will at 11am give a speech where he will call on Biden to declassify information about Russia’s nuclear anti-satellite weaponry, warning it presents a grave threat to national security, Politico reports.
Fox News released a poll showing Biden overtaking Trump in the support of national registered voters for the first time since last October. However, the president’s support remains within its margin of error.