Good morning! Scratch Pyongyang off of your list of summer vacay destinations. According to reports from a defector, North Korea publicly executed a man in 2022 for listening to K-pop — no word yet on their plans for people who sneeze into their hands in public.

SUPREME COURT

🏛️ Court to Congress: do better

Have you ever thought that the person who had your job before you was a useless dolt? That’s what the Supreme Court thinks, too. In a 6-3 vote, the justices tossed a longstanding precedent related to how regulators regulate their regulations.

The court overturned the so-called “Chevron deference” (named for the oil company, not the pattern). The rule came from a 1980s Supreme Court case that, in essence, gave wide leeway to federal agencies to create and enforce regulations.

• Congress passes laws with specific aims. Those laws tell federal agencies to create rules in pursuit of fulfilling Congress' goals.

• The "Chevron deference" meant federal courts had to, within reason, roll with how the agency viewed the power Congress gave it.

Congress said to bake cakes? The cake agency decided on three-tiered chocolate with strawberry icing. The vanilla people had no recourse. Courts had to assume the agency's cake experts knew what they were doing in making their choice.

That's all out the window now. This whole thing came about because fishing boats were forced to pay the cost of keeping a federal regulator on board to watch their activities. They sued. They won. Congress needs to be more specific now and courts can decide if agencies are interpreting laws too loosey-goosey.

Proponents of the ruling say giving agencies power over both making rules and telling courts how to interpret them was wrong.

• The new rule, they say, takes power away from unelected bureaucrats and forces it back into the hands of Congress. Via elections, Congress is more accountable to the American people.

• They believe the old rule made life easier for Congress and the courts. They say it let politicians pass responsibility to federal agencies and avoid taking tough votes on difficult topics. That way voters had no one to be mad at and had no clue how many new laws were being passed.

Opponents of the ruling say this kills the ability of federal regulators to do their jobs. They point out that the geriatric geniuses in Congress probably aren't up to speed on the intricacies of the things they need to write laws about.

• So Congress writes broad, unspecific laws so the experts at various federal agencies can use their expertise to implement the laws properly.

• They also believe this ruling puts judges in charge of interpreting regulations they may not understand. That could make it easier for corporations to wiggle out of the legal boundaries put on their activities.

Who's right? Who knows. But this is one of the most impactful rulings in a long time. It will dramatically impact how laws are written and enforced. It's just been slightly overlooked due to President Biden's, err, situation.

If you’re sick of Supreme Court news, fear not. The end is nigh. The court’s big season finale drops this morning, July 1.

2024

🗳️ Biden discusses future with family

Concern over President Biden’s mental faculties has gone mainstream. What was once the domain of Republican politicians and Fox News is now the top story from The New York Times, ABC News, MSNBC, and more.

In response to a question no campaign wants to get, team Biden said the president is "not dropping out.” Presidents Clinton and Obama issued statements backing him, too. And Biden’s home-state ally, Sen. Chris Coons called him “our candidate for November" and “the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump.”

Even still, President Biden met with his family yesterday to discuss his future. Early reports indicate they told him to “keep fighting” and stay in the race.

• Democrats around the country have rallied around their president to the tune of $33 million in donations since the debate.

• As part of his campaign’s push over the weekend to reassure voters, they sent a fundraising email with polling data favorably comparing his chances against Trump versus those of other Democrats.

• That’s an odd move for an incumbent president who’s already sewn up his party’s nomination. But it shows how hectic things are behind the scenes for team Biden.

White House and Democratic Party leaders are leaking like a busted pipe now. Party officials say they feel “gaslit” by the White House about Biden’s condition. White House insiders say Biden’s only engaged from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Others claim his G7 meetings with other world leaders were… not ideal.

Barring a big change, Biden is intent on staying the course. His allies emphasize his successes in office, including the biggest of all: being the only one so far to actually defeat Donald Trump.

Future: Should President Biden change his mind and decide not to run, Democratic Party insiders would choose the new nominee. If that’s done at the party’s August convention, things could get dicey — a show like that hasn’t happened since 1976.

In even more thrilling Supreme Court news:

• ⚖️ In a 6-3 ruling, the court threw a bone to loads of January 6 defendants. This wasn't about whether crimes took place but about the law used to bring charges. Justices said federal prosecutors overstretched the law's definition of "obstruction."

• ⚖️ The Supreme Court gave the legal a-okay to cities banning public camping to fight homeless encampments. Justices ruled 6-3 that the bans don't violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."

POLITICS

⚪ CNN’s presidential debate last week, the biggest program in the network's history, drew 51 million viewers. That's about 30% fewer than the first 2020 debate and, adjusted for population growth, a smaller share of Americans than ever before. That's not surprising considering the timing. Previous debates aired in September and October when people, you know, care about politics.

🔴 The Trump campaign held a "Black Americans for Trump" event at an Atlanta barbershop featuring two (of three) Black Republican congressmen. But the shop's owner isn't happy. He says he feels "betrayed" and that he had no clue it was a political event ahead of time.

🔴 Congressional Republicans in both the House and the Senate are taking a page from the Democrat’s 2018 playbook. They want to invoke the 25th Amendment and take Joe Biden's presidential car keys. The 25th Amendment allows the VP, the Cabinet, and Congress to declare the president "unable to discharge" his duties. This would give Harris presidential powers, making her "Acting President." While this is a real legal possibility, it’s almost certainly not going to happen — just like it didn’t when Democrats pushed the same idea on Trump.

TRIVIA

New cost of living data just dropped. Surprising no one, living in top-ranked Manhattan costs more than twice the national average for urban areas. What is the second most expensive place to live in the United States?

WORLD

🇨🇦 Canada: Happy Canada Day! Every July 1, Canadians celebrate the 1867 passage of a British law that began Canada's long road to full independence. That road finally ended when the British Parliament ceded its right to amend Canada’s constitution... in 1982.

 🇱🇧 Lebanon: India, Germany, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are among the growing chorus of countries urging their citizens to leave Lebanon. Tensions are hot there as skirmishes keep breaking out along its border with Israel. Iran and its allies say they’ll jump in against Israel if the fighting gets out of hand.

🇲🇳 Mongolia: If horse girls were a country, they would be Mongolia. The world’s least densely populated country — squeezed between Russia and China — has more horses than people. It also held parliamentary elections last week in which the center-left People’s Party narrowly defeated the (get this) center-right Democratic Party.

BRIEFS

• The NFL owes its customers $4.7 billion after a jury found the league’s Sunday Ticket package violates federal anti-trust laws

• Hit 1990s self-help company Chicken Soup for the Soul declared bankruptcy after brilliantly paying $357 million for Redbox in 2022

• Alec Baldwin's trial for involuntary manslaughter will go to trial next month after a New Mexico judge rejected his final shot at dismissing it

• U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich’s Russian show trial for espionage began last week — Russia has signaled interest in a prisoner swap

• Two ex-Uvalde, TX cops were charged with child endangerment for their lack of action during the city’s tragic 2022 school shooting

QUOTE

SNACKS

🌯 Chipotle: A team of nerds analysts ordered and weighed 75 burrito bowls to prove what we’ve all known for years: The amount of food you get is a total crap shoot.

🏀 Duos: With LeBron James and son Bronny set to make history next season as the NBA’s first-ever father-son duo, take a look at other similar pairings in sports history.

🍿 Movies: Pixar's back in form. Just two weeks after its release, "Inside Out 2" became the first movie since “Barbie” to join the billion-dollar club.

ANSWER

It’s not San Francisco, Miami, or some shocking, weird city in Nebraska. It’s the place where real estate development is hemmed in by water and everything is more expensive because it has to be shipped there. Living in Honolulu will run you about 86% more than the national average. On the opposite end of the scale, Oklahoma City is the most affordable large city in the country.