In the trench war between congressional Republicans and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we have arrived at a crucial battle. A House resolution sets Friday as the deadline for the Justice Department to come clean on the beginning of its investigation into the Trump campaign. We’ll find out if the FBI has been lying to the public.

That is, if the department complies. It has flouted so many subpoenas, and played so many games with redactions and deadlines, that the entire House GOP united last week to vote for the resolution… [Read More]

Trump: I would offer Warren $1M to prove her Native American heritage (The Hill)

President Trump said Thursday that if he were facing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during a debate, he would offer her $1 million to take a test to prove her Native American heritage.

“But let’s say I’m debating Pocahontas, I’ll do this,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Great Falls, Mont., referring to Warren by the racially charged nickname he gave her during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“I promise you I’ll do this, you know those little kits they sell on television for $2? Learn your heritage,” Trump said. [Read More]

Immigration top issue for U.S. voters, economy a close second: Reuters/Ipsos poll (Reuters) 

Immigration tops the economy and healthcare as the most important issue determining Americans’ vote ahead of the midterm elections in November, a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows.

Reuters/Ipsos data shows that immigration became a top concern for registered voters in the United States after the Trump administration in May announced its “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigrants, saying they would be criminally charged. The policy became a political lightning rod in mid-June with disclosures that thousands of children were separated from their parents who were accused of crossing illegally into the country. [Read More]

A PERSONAL CASE FOR JUSTICE AMY CONEY BARRETT (First Things)

It has become something of a ritual among legal junkies and Supreme Court watchers: After nine months of experts’ telling all who ask about this-or-that hot-button, big-ticket case that “a decision is expected in late June,” late June finally arrives, and the Justices release a raft of highly anticipated—and often highly controversial—closely divided rulings.

This year, however, even the Court’s anxiously awaited rulings on the Trump administration’s “travel ban,” the free-speech rights of crisis pregnancy centers, the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering, and the ability of public-sector unions to require financial support from non-members faded quickly from the conversation. That is because, on June 27, after more than thirty years at the center of many of the Supreme Court’s most famous (and infamous) decisions, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced his retirement. [Read More]