1 Big Decisions From The Supreme Court Yesterday, Including Trans Athlete Bans And Birthright Citizenship
The Supreme Court closed out its term eysterday with three major rulings. In the first, the justices upheld state bans on transgender girls playing in girls' and women's competitive sports. The 6-to-3 decision, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, reversed lower courts and reinstated laws in West Virginia, Idaho, and 27 other states. In the second opinion, the court rejected President Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship by executive order. The 6-to-3 ruling reaffirmed more than a century of precedent that nearly everyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen. In the third, the court rolled back federal limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with their candidates. The 6-to-3 ruling, also written by Kavanaugh, found the caps, first enacted after the Watergate scandal, violate the First Amendment right to free speech.
2 Rep. Tom Kean Returns To Congress After Four-Month Absence, Says He Was Being Treated For Depression
Republican Representative Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey was expected back on Capitol Hill yesterday after an undisclosed illness kept him out of public view for months, an illness he identified yesterday as a diagnosis of depression. Kean, who is running for a third term in a competitive district, last voted on March 5 and has missed more than 140 votes. He first addressed his absence in late April, calling it a personal medical issue and saying his doctors expected a full recovery. He never shared details, and comments from his family and staff only deepened the mystery. His father, former Governor Tom Kean Sr., called the illness serious but temporary. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he knows what the condition is but was asked not to disclose it, describing it as not very common and not a big thing. During his absence, Kean still introduced legislation and digitally signed disclosure forms.
3 Anthropic Says Trump Administration Lifted Restrictions On Some Claude AI Models
AI company Anthropic said yesterday that the federal government has lifted a set of restrictions on its powerful Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, ending a weekslong dispute with the Trump administration. In a social media post, Anthropic said it would begin restoring access today. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote that his team had worked closely with the company in recent weeks to analyze and approve Fable 5. Anthropic released Fable 5 to the public earlier this month with safeguards it said would reduce the risk of misuse for cyberattacks or other harmful purposes. Days after Fable 5 launched, Anthropic pulled it, saying the government had issued export controls requiring it to block access by foreign nationals, a broad order the company said effectively forced it to disable the model.