Contributing Writers

As the Supreme Court ends its term, Justice Stephen Breyer is officially retiring, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson takes his place as the country’s first Black woman justice, joining a court dominated by conservatives. We speak to ACLU national legal director David Cole about what can be done in the face of lifetime judicial appointments to the nation’s highest court who often rule counter to majority opinion in the country.

The United States announced at a NATO summit in Madrid plans to build a permanent military base in Poland, as it formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance after they applied for membership in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We look at the impact of prolonged U.S. military presence in Europe and the overemphasis on Russia or China as enemies to the West at a time when threats to Western liberal democracy seem to be primarily internal.

Former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, revealed Tuesday to the House January 6 committee that Meadows and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani both sought pardons after the insurrection. Meanwhile, in a video deposition with Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, Flynn repeatedly refused to answer questions from committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney.

Minutes after rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows seemed unperturbed and reluctant to act, according to live testimony from his former aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, at the public hearing on Tuesday. Then-President Donald Trump, rather than calling off his supporters, defended their chants to hang Vice President Mike Pence for validating the election results.

In one of the most dramatic revelations at Tuesday’s hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, star witness Cassidy Hutchinson described how then-President Trump intended to join his supporters in the march to the Capitol and lunged at his Secret Service agent, who tried to prevent him from doing so, and grabbed the steering wheel of the presidential limousine, before he was driven back to the White House.

In explosive testimony Tuesday, Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, revealed new details to the January 6 select committee about the events leading up to the “Stop the Steal” rally. She indicated then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle, that included personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, expected the event to grow violent and did little to stop it.

Reproductive health advocates are urging Congress to pass the My Body, My Data Act, which will prevent consumer data that is related to reproductive health from being used as criminal evidence. Protecting how sensitive personal information is collected and stored online is critical to combating anti-abortion laws, says Daly Barnett, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

We look at the fight for privacy rights in a post-Roe America amid concerns that anti-abortion activists could use identifying data from online platforms like Facebook to target abortion seekers. Investigative reporter Grace Oldham describes how this data is already being used by medically unlicensed “crisis pregnancy centers” that actively lure patients to discourage them from seeking abortions.

Is raising money to send pregnant people to another state to get an abortion aiding and abetting? We speak to Kamyon Conner, executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund, the first Black woman to head the organization, about how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has threatened to prosecute anyone violating a statewide abortion ban that was passed in the 1920s and never repealed. Lawmakers are also introducing bills to restrict FDA-approved abortion pills delivered through the mail.

At least 46 migrants were found dead Monday inside a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas in one of the deadliest tragedies in recent decades. It comes as the Biden administration continues to enforce harsh border policies blocking most people from safely entering through ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border.

During an abortion rights rally in Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday, Jennifer Rourke, Democratic candidate for state Senate, was punched multiple times by her Republican opponent Jeann Lugo, an off-duty Providence police officer. A video recording shows Lugo confronting Rourke before striking her in the face. Lugo dropped out of the race after being placed on paid administrative leave and charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct.

We look at how reproductive health clinics are reacting to the overturning of Roe v. Wade last week. In at least 13 states, including Missouri, trigger laws that criminalize abortions are either already in effect or expected to soon kick in. Clinics have mobilized to center patient care by moving or referring them to safer states. We speak to Yamelsie Rodríguez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.

As protests continue across the country in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, speak with two leading legal scholars. Kathryn “Kitty” Kolbert is co-founder of the Center for Reproductive Rights and argued the landmark case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992, which upheld Roe v. Wade. She is the co-author of “Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom.

The conservative-led Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 on Friday to uphold a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, while voting 5 to 4 to overturn Roe v. Wade. Chief Justice John Roberts supported upholding the Mississippi law but not overturning Roe. Nine states have already banned abortion since Friday, and 17 more states are expected to do so soon.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol revealed Thursday that six Republican members of Congress who supported Donald Trump’s lies sought broad presidential pardons for their involvement in the campaign to discredit the election results: Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona.