Obamacare in Supreme Court - Russian bounty on US soldiers - Princeton renames school

In the brief, U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco and other Justice Department officials sided with Texas in a case led by Republican attorneys general, arguing that the requirement for people to buy insurance is no longer valid after Congress scrapped the penalty for non-compliance in 2017. The Justice Department added: "The individual mandate is not severable from the rest of the Act."
...
In anticipation of the filing, Biden gave a speech Thursday warning that if Trump succeeds, "insurers could once again discriminate, or deny services, or drop coverage for people living with preexisting conditions like asthma, diabetes, and cancer. And perhaps most cruelly of all, if Donald Trump has his way, complications from COVID-19 could become a new pre-existing condition," he said in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
...
The case is seen by legal experts as a long shot. Five justices who upheld Obamacare against a constitutional challenge in 2012 remain on the court — Chief Justice John Roberts and the four liberal-leaning members.

The Texas Democratic Party and several voters had urged the court to reinstate a federal trial judge's injunction requiring state officials to allow all voters, and not just those who are 65 or older, to submit their ballots by mail. They relied on the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18 and said the right to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age."
...
The [Supreme Court's] brief order gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices rule on emergency applications, and there were no noted dissents. Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a statement saying that the question in the case raised "weighty but seemingly novel questions regarding the 26th Amendment."
...
In a concurring opinion Judge Ho [of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals] wrote, even if the same reasoning applied to age discrimination in voting, it was not clear what the court should do about the Texas law. "Do we 'level up' (everyone gets to vote by mail) or 'level down' (no one gets to)?" he asked. Since the answer was unclear, he wrote, a stay of Judge Biery's [initial order to allow mail-in voting for all] injunction was warranted.

A Russian military spy unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan, including U.S. and British troops, in a striking escalation of the Kremlin's hostility toward the United States, American intelligence has found.
...
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the story "illustrates the low intellectual abilities of propagandists from American intelligence, who instead of inventing something more reliable have to come up with such nonsense. . . . However, what else can be expected from intelligence, which miserably failed the twenty-year war in Afghanistan."
...
The attempt to stoke violence against Americans, if confirmed, would also represent a significant departure from Moscow's earlier position toward Islamist militants in Afghanistan. Previously, U.S. officials had cited what they characterized as sporadic, low-level Russian support for the Taliban, including the supply of small arms via Afghanistan's northern neighbors.

[Micheál Martin] will lead a three-party coalition consisting of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. It is the first time in history that former Civil War rivals Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have governed together. Mr Martin is expected to lead the country until December 2022 before handing back over to Leo Varadkar, the Fine Gael leader.
...
Speaking to the Dáil (Irish lower house) as taoiseach [prime minister of Ireland] for the first time, Mr Martin said the focus would be on the social, economic, and cultural recovery from the coronavirus. He said he would begin immediately preparing an investment-led jobs and recovery initiative. These proposals would be brought before the Dáil next month.
...
Mr Martin appointed a new cabinet on Saturday evening, dividing the roles between all three parties. Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar is now the tánaiste (deputy PM) as well as minister for enterprise, trade and employment. Writing on Twitter on Saturday evening, he said he was "honoured" to be appointed to the position, and that his party was "doing what is right for the country".

On Saturday, President Christopher Eisgruber released a statement that said the Ivy League institution would remove Wilson's name from its public policy school and residential college, citing his history supporting segregation.
...
"The trustees conclude that Woodrow Wilson's racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or college whose scholars, students, and alumni must firmly stand against racism in all its forms," Eisgruber said. "Wilson's racism was significant and consequential, even by the standards of his own time."
...
As the 28th president of the United States, Wilson, regarded as one of the first 20th-century "progressives," proposed a League of Nations, which evolved in concept to become the United Nations. However, Wilson supported several racist policies as president, including segregating federal workers, and he even hosted a private screening of Birth of a Nation, a silent film depicting the Ku Klux Klan as heroes reclaiming the South, at the White House.