SCOTUS Vacates Ruling That Found Michigan Unconstitutionally Gerrymandered Congressional Districts
“I think it important to underscore that fact: The majority disputes none of what I have said (or will say) about how gerrymanders undermine democracy. Indeed, the majority concedes (really, how could it not?) that gerrymandering is ‘incompatible with democratic principles,’” [ Justice Kagan ]said from the bench.
Pompeo Cornered as Ukraine Envoy’s Testimony Forces Hard Choice
As Pompeo weighs Tuesday’s developments, Taylor is still the charge d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, the outpost’s highest-ranking diplomat. Sending him back to Ukraine to keep doing his job would be seen as an implicit rebuke of Trump and risk Pompeo’s potential bid for a Senate seat next year, but not doing so would further damage the secretary’s standing with the State Department rank-and-file he needs to carry out the president’s foreign policy agenda.
Ukrainian leader felt Trump pressure before taking office
Volodymyr Zelenskiy gathered a small group of advisers on May 7 in Kyiv for a meeting that was supposed to be about his nation’s energy needs. Instead, the group spent most of the three-hour discussion talking about how to navigate the insistence from Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani for a probe and how to avoid becoming entangled in the American elections, according to three people familiar with the details of the meeting.