UPDATE: The Supreme Court has sent the Texas Affirmative Action case back to a lower court in a 7-1 decision, in what Bloomberg calls “a limited victory for opponents of racial preferences.” More analysis here.
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Good morning. @thereidreport will be filling in for Alex on today’s show, and it will be a busy one. Keep your eyes on the Supreme Court as we await rulings on cases involving affirmative action, voting rights laws and same-sex marriage. Ron Fournier, Glenn Thrush, Margaret Talev and Michael Eric Dyson will be joining Joy.
First up on the show, the hunt for Edward Snowden continues. While you were outside grilling frankfurters this weekend, Snowden continued to lead the world press on a wild goose chase. The former NSA contractor has not been seen since reportedly arriving in Moscow on Monday, though “passengers on that flight interviewed at the airport could not confirm that he was on board.” Subsequently, he did not show up his scheduled flight from Moscow to Havana, much to the chagrin (delight?) of a plane full of journalists who now get a free trip to Cuba.
Standing next to Edward Snowden's seat on flight to Cuba. He ain't here. pic.twitter.com/NVRH3Pzved
— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 24, 2013
Ezra Klein asks if the media’s obsession with Snowden is distracting us from the larger issues of the NSA story:
“It’s Operation: Snowden that’s leading every news homepage and cable broadcast in the world right now. The effort has even neutralized journalistic resources that could’ve been devoted to the larger NSA stories (the poor reporters who got on the flight to Havana won’t be able to turn around for three days, for instance). Operation: Snowden has become the NSA story.”
Next up, the George Zimmerman trial kicks off today. The Washington Post’s Kathleen Parker ponders the implications of his jury being composed entirely of women:
What makes the six-member jury interesting, other than the head-snapping reporting of its composition, is that it forces to the fore all the implications we try to avoid: Do gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and so on matter when it comes to judging one another? We like to think not. Yet, admit it: The reason the all-women jury made headlines is because it raises those very questions.
And finally, Yahoo news referred to Kenya “The Country of Obama’s birth.” Sigh.
But hey, Twinkies are back.
Billy Silverman