Supreme Court pushes right in term stocked with Trump cases

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority continued to march American law toward the right during its term that ended last week, in a steady stream of 6-3 decisions in major cases along with a flood of emergency appeals sparked by the Trump administration.

The two dynamics played out over the past months in decisions such as those that upheld Republican-backed actions to ban gender-affirming care and exclude Planned Parenthood from federal funds, and orders that sided with President Donald Trump’s policies on many moves of his that lower court judges had halted.

The court’s decisions in contentious cases often came down to three votes — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett M. Kavanaugh — that determined whether the court’s most conservative justices or its Democratic appointees would prevail.

“The middle three are in the majority an overwhelming majority of the time,” said Kevin King, a partner at Covington & Burling law firm who focuses on appellate and administrative and constitutional law matters. “They have the swing votes, they have the control, they are exercising a significant amount of control over the court’s direction.”

—CQ-Roll Call

Trump suggests zigzagging your way out of a gator’s path. Bad advice, experts say

MIAMI — President Donald Trump told reporters before leaving the White House Tuesday for his visit to the new ICE detention center in the Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by state officials, that if immigrants housed there find themselves near an aggressive gator, they should run away in a zigzag pattern.

But whether the president was making a flippant joke or not, wildlife experts say that’s the wrong advice: You should run in the opposite direction as fast as you can, and in straight a line as possible.

“An alligator won’t chase you very far,” said Frank Mazzotti, professor of wildlife ecology at University of Florida.

Trump said in a briefing that officials are “going to teach them how to run. Don’t run in a straight line. Run like this,” he said motioning his arms in a zigzag.

—Miami Herald

Massachusetts’ Nantucket is testing wastewater for cocaine, fentanyl, meth: ‘Very helpful for both residents and first responders’

BOSTON — The illicit secrets are in the sewage. Just like how wastewater testing helps communities learn when COVID surges, cities and towns are able to see what drugs are spiking in real time from their wastewater.

Nantucket is the latest community to start testing its sewage for drugs — partnering with a Cambridge firm that analyzes sewage for cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, and xylazine.

The wastewater data can help the town in its response to the opioid crisis, as the real-time data provides communities with early warning signs of alarming drug trends.

“It can help them tailor their educational messaging appropriately, letting the community know that a new drug is circulating,” Newsha Ghaeli, president and co-founder of Biobot Analytics, told the Herald.

—Boston Herald

Thailand plunges deeper into crisis as court suspends leader

Thailand’s Constitutional Court suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office until it rules on a petition seeking her permanent removal over alleged ethical misconduct, deepening a crisis that threatens to end her family’s over two-decade dominance of the country’s politics.

Paetongtarn is barred from exercising prime ministerial powers while the nine-member court considers the petition by a group of senators, it said in a statement. The ruling to suspend her was backed by seven out of nine judges, the court said.

While the court set no deadline to adjudicate on the petition, it gave Paetongtarn 15 days to respond to the allegations. In the interim, Suriya Jungrungreangkit, a deputy prime minister and transport minister, will be the acting leader, according to officials.

The petitioners allege that the prime minister’s comments critical of the nation’s army in a leaked phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen constitute a violation of ethical standards — grounds that could lead to her dismissal.

—Bloomberg News