The "What happened in your state last week?" Megathread, Week 25 - Politics

The "What happened in your state last week?" Megathread, Week 25
Discussion Thread: Supreme Court Decisions Week of 6/20/17
Jay Sekulow’s bizarre debut: Donald Trump picked a lawyer he saw on Fox News and it isn’t going well
Donald Trump dragging US 'back to the past' by promoting coal and ditching Paris climate accord, Vatican warns
Supreme Court to hear potentially landmark case on partisan gerrymandering
Data on 198M voters exposed by RNC contractor
At height of Russia tensions, Trump campaign chairman Manafort met with business associate from Ukraine
Mueller team lawyer brings witness-flipping expertise to Trump probes
New study says House GOP healthcare bill would lead to the loss of almost 1 million jobs in 10 years
EPA chief Scott Pruitt met fossil fuel industry bosses but no environmentalists in first weeks in office
John McEnroe: 'My Support of President Trump is Fake News. We’re Not Friends.'
Democrats to halt Senate business in health care protest
198 million Americans hit by "largest ever" voter records leak
Senate Republicans are getting ready to admit they don’t care about deficits after all
Gingrich says presidents can’t obstruct justice — but accused Bill Clinton of doing just that
Yes, Mitch McConnell’s secretive lawmaking is really unusual — in these 4 ways
Republican Data-Mining Firm Exposed Personal Information for Virtually Every American Voter
Jason Chaffetz Slams Donald Trump And Jeff Sessions As He Leaves Congress
The FBI is America’s best hope against Trump
Trump builds case against himself with tweets
Trump’s Victory Inspired Thousands of Women to Get Involved in Politics
Why won’t Donald Trump rush to tweet criticism of attacks against Muslims?
Map: Donald Trump’s “mean, mean, mean” health care bill is meanest to his most crucial voters
After a US F-18 shot down a Syrian fighter, Russia says it will treat US, coalition jets as targets
Trump’s lawyer’s very bad and contradictory Sunday, annotated
GOP considers cancelling August recess to salvage agenda
Energy Secretary Rick Perry: Carbon dioxide is not ‘primary’ driver of climate change

The "What happened in your state last week?" Megathread, Week 25

Posted: 19 Jun 2017 09:28 AM PDT

Welcome to the 'What happened in your state last week' thread, where you can post any local political news stories that you find important in the comments. This is a weekly thread posted every Monday, in order to facilitate more discussion on local issues on /r/politics. Since this is intended to be a thread about local politics, top-level comments that are exclusively about national issues will not be allowed. When commenting, please include the state you're living in, and don't forget to link sources.

If someone from your state made a news round-up that you think is insufficient, feel free to comment to that round-up with further news stories. Enjoy discussion, and review our civility guidelines before engaging with others.

submitted by /u/optimalg
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Discussion Thread: Supreme Court Decisions Week of 6/20/17

Posted: 19 Jun 2017 10:01 AM PDT

Introduction

Welcome to /r/politics' discussion thread for Supreme Court decisions! The Supreme Court traditionally releases a number of decisions on Mondays, with many high profile cases (eg. Obergefell v. Hodges; NFIB v. Sebelius) being decided in June. We aren't sure what cases will come out this week, but a couple significant ones have not been decided yet. This thread is intended for users to discuss newly issued opinions, as well as opinions from earlier this term. As a reminder, please be civil and respect our comment rules.

Opinions, notable Orders, and Grant of Certiorari

Order List
Gill v. Whitford. Further movement on this case appears to be a finding of jurisdiction, although 3 judge panel cases are appealed to the Supreme Court as of right. This is the partisan gerrymandering case arising from Wisconsin that seeks to test the Efficiency Gap theory.
Matal v. Tam (holding that the disparagement clause of the Lanham Act (Trademark Act) is unconstitutional). This case involved an Asian rock band named "The Slants" which sought to "reclaim" the racially charged term. It has potential ramifications in the dispute over the Washington Redskins name as well.
Packingham v. North Carolina (holding that North Carolina's law barring sex offenders from accessing social media websites frequented by minors violates the First Amendment).
McWilliams v. Dunn (overturning a death penalty where an indigent defendant was not afforded an adequate mental health evaluation).

Resources

SCOTUS Blog (also, be sure to check out our AMA with SCOTUS Blog publisher Tom Goldstein later this month on June 29th!)
Oyez (case briefs for prior cases)
Cornell Law's Legal Information Institute (useful for finding statutes, federal rules, and court opinions)
Supreme Court official page