GOOD NEWS (EXCEPT FOR PETS) — "Fireworks Come Roaring Back This Summer," per the NYT TODAY'S TOP READS It's a slow news day as we hit the halfway point of this holiday weekend, but a good one to catch up on three big summer storylines that will continue to reverberate long after Independence Day: the rise of Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.), the Supreme Court's historic term and Russia's occupation of eastern Ukraine: 1. CHENEY — You would expect last week to have been dominated by President JOE BIDEN. The Supreme Court set back the liberal policy agenda by decades — on abortion, gun control, the separation of church and state and climate change — while the Jan. 6 committee presented its most compelling evidence that DONALD TRUMP may be criminally responsible for the attack on the Capitol. At the end of the week, the court said it would take up a gerrymandering case from North Carolina that voting rights advocates fear could completely upend election laws in America by endorsing a once-fringe legal doctrine known as the independent state legislature theory (ISLT). But it was Cheney rather than Biden who emerged as the face of the opposition to Trumpism. She pushed the Jan. 6 committee to hold an extra hearing featuring its blockbuster witness on Tuesday in Washington, flew to Southern California to speak at the Reagan Library to condemn Trump's grip on the GOP on Wednesday, was back in Wyoming for a primary debate on Thursday, and today is on ABC's "This Week" for her first interview since the hearings started. WSJ's Natalie Andrews captures how it's all playing in Cheney's home state: "The race serves as the marquee test of whether vocal anti-Trump lawmakers can survive in today's Republican Party, pitting supporters of the former president against a persistent and unapologetic critic with little patience for Mr. Trump's false claim the election was stolen." In an interview with Jonathan Karl on "This Week," Cheney made some news on whether Trump should be prosecuted and her own 2024 plans. On whether the hearings "demonstrated that Donald Trump needs to be prosecuted": "Ultimately, the Justice Department will decide that; I think we may well as a committee have a view on that. … If you just think about it from the perspective of what kind of man knows that a mob is armed, and sends the mob to attack the Capitol and further incites that mob when his own vice president is under threat, when the Congress is under threat? … It's very chilling, and I think, certainly, we will continue to present to the American people what we found." She also said that it's still possible that the committee will make a criminal referral. On her presidential aspirations: "I haven't made a decision about that yet. And I'm obviously very focused on my reelection, I'm very focused on the Jan. 6 committee, I'm very focused on my obligations to do the job that I have now, and I'll make a decision about '24 down the road. But I think about it less in terms of a decision about running for office and more in terms of, you know, as an American and as somebody who's in a position of public trust now, how do I make sure that I'm doing everything I can to do the right thing? To do what I know is right for the country and to protect our Constitution." 2. SCOTUS — NYT's Adam Liptak makes several notable points this morning about what's going on behind the scenes at the Supreme Court as justices become more secluded and less collegial with one another: — Covid protocols and new security = a more isolated court: "Always cloistered and remote, the court is now impenetrable." — Retreating from public: "The release of the decision in the abortion case highlighted another way in which the court has withdrawn from public scrutiny. For unexplained reasons, the justices have stopped announcing their decisions from the bench, abandoning a tradition that is both ceremonial and illuminating." — Less collegial: "[T]here is every reason to think that the leak, the investigation it prompted, the controversy over Justice CLARENCE THOMAS's failure to recuse himself from a case that intersected with his wife's efforts to overturn the election and the justices' very real security concerns have made the court an unhappy place." — All of which is bad for the liberal minority: "A less collegial court seems like it could be especially problematic for the three liberal justices. There are now five Republican-appointed justices who are even more conservative than [Chief Justice JOHN] ROBERTS. If the court is a less collaborative place, I would imagine it gives the justices in the minority — both the liberals and, in some cases, Roberts — less ability to shape decisions." More weekend step-backs from the Times, the Post, and the AP: — "Gridlock in Congress Has Amplified the Power of the Supreme Court," by Liptak — "With sweep and speed, Supreme Court's conservatives ignite a new era," by WaPo's Robert Barnes — "'Revolutionary' high court term on abortion, guns and more," by AP's Mark Sherman 3. UKRAINE — Is it the end of the line in Luhansk? Russia claimed today to have fully captured Lysychansk, the Ukrainian region's last city to be taken over. Ukrainian forces said they still controlled the city (though the Russian advance has looked inexorable of late). More from CNN Related read: "Russian strikes with older Soviet weapons pushed up the civilian death toll in recent weeks, Ukraine says," by NYT's Valerie Hopkins, Daniel Victor and Ivan Nechepurenko
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