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WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert condemns 'hate' against Alyssa Thomas while Caitlin Clark stays exposed
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert folded under pressure late Tuesday night by issuing a reactionary statement after Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas publicly shamed her for a lack of support.
It's a great reminder that behind every incompetent league is bad judgment.
Engelbert capitulated hours after Thomas, a lightning rod for controversy following her latest violent on-court altercation with Caitlin Clark, cast herself as the victim.
Thomas successfully deflected from the fact that she had just been suspended for striking the league's golden goose.
SUSPENDED ALYSSA THOMAS BLASTS WNBA'S SILENCE AFTER CAITLIN CLARK FOUL, OFFERS NO ACCOUNTABILITY
Despite earning the suspension that fueled the backlash, Thomas still turned herself into the victim, blasted Engelbert and the commissioner predictably folded.
"The WNBA vehemently condemns any and all forms of hate," Engelbert said in the statement on Tuesday.
One has to wonder where fists to the throat rank on the commissioner's list of priorities.
The statement amounted to a complete submission to Thomas, who used her Tuesday media availability to blast Engelbert.
"The safety and well-being of everyone in our community is always the league's top priority. We are aware of Alyssa Thomas' comments, and what she and her teammates have experienced is completely unacceptable and not representative of the WNBA community. The league and our security team have been in contact with the Phoenix Mercury organization and remain committed to protecting all players."
Rather than hold Thomas to her action, Engelbert bent a knee to the wrong player.
During a loose-ball scramble, Thomas struck Fever superstar Caitlin Clark in the throat with her fist.
While officials on the floor inexplicably missed it, the league office later upgraded the play to a Flagrant 2 and slapped Thomas with a retroactive one-game suspension for a "non-basketball act."
Fever coach Stephanie White called the initial no-call "absolutely unacceptable," and Clark ultimately exited the game with a back injury.
Instead of answering for endangering a fellow player, Thomas displayed an astonishing lack of accountability, claiming, "A lot of us, myself included, didn't even know the play took place until after the game."
She then complained that her team was being "painted as thugs," cited severe online harassment and attacked the WNBA for failing to properly notify her of the suspension.
"Honestly, I didn't even know I was being suspended until 10 minutes before it was put on social media," Thomas said, taking a direct shot at the commissioner. "As usual, she remains silent."
Engelbert took the bait. The league office showed it was more interested in validating Thomas' grievances than protecting its biggest gate attraction.
Engelbert has consistently mismanaged the overt physical hostility directed at the league's biggest star.
Hard fouls are routinely minimized, and meaningful discipline often arrives only after public outrage forces the league's hand.
By validating the self-perceived victimhood of a player who had just been suspended for a "non-basketball act" against Clark, Engelbert's administration exposed its priorities.
The WNBA continues to coddle veteran players who resent Clark's spotlight instead of enforcing a consistent standard of player safety.
Engelbert made her choice. It wasn't Caitlin Clark.
Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela
Trump’s push for national concealed carry reciprocity would protect good guys with guns
When President Trump recently spoke at the Mack Trucks facility in Macungie, Pennsylvania, gun owners were encouraged to hear him call for national concealed carry reciprocity.
He's right. Constitutional rights shouldn't end at a state line.
And the need for reciprocity isn't theoretical. Armed citizens save lives every year.
FLORIDA COURT SAYS 18-YEAR-OLDS HAVE SAME GUN RIGHTS AS OTHER ADULTS
Just recently, a Marine veteran carrying a concealed firearm helped police in Massachusetts stop and apprehend a convicted felon who had illegally obtained a firearm and was randomly shooting at motorists.
In Missouri, two armed citizens confronted and stopped an active shooter in a parking lot. According to police, their actions prevented even greater bloodshed.
Stories like these happen all across America. Yet millions of law-abiding gun owners still risk becoming criminals simply by crossing an invisible state line.
You can drive your car across all 50 states. You can take your family, your luggage — even your dog. But in many states, you can't bring the firearm you legally carry for self-defense back home.
That makes no sense.
There is legislation in Congress that would establish national concealed carry reciprocity. Unfortunately, the Senate has become the graveyard for too many pro-gun reforms.
SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN BLUE STATE'S 'VAMPIRE RULE' IN MAJOR WIN FOR GUN RIGHTS
The last time the Senate voted on reciprocity — in 2013 — the measure actually received 57 votes. A majority of senators supported it, but not enough to overcome the filibuster. Back then, there were still a handful of Democrats willing to vote for legislation protecting the Second Amendment. Those days are largely behind us.
Fortunately, Congress isn't the only battlefield.
While politicians argue, Gun Owners of America has been building a nationwide patchwork that allows law-abiding Americans to carry in more and more places.
It started with Constitutional Carry.
GOA was the first national organization to make permitless carry a legislative priority. Today, thanks to years of relentless work by GOA and our allies, 29 states recognize Constitutional Carry. In well over half the country, law-abiding citizens no longer need a government-issued permit to exercise a constitutional right.
But GOA didn't stop there. We also turned to the courts.
For decades, anti-gun states like New York and California refused to recognize the rights of visitors. If you lived somewhere else, they simply denied you any meaningful opportunity to carry legally.
GOA challenged those policies — and won. As a result, both New York and California must now provide a pathway for qualified, law-abiding Americans from other states to obtain concealed carry permits. It's not full reciprocity, because applicants still have to navigate each state's permitting process. But those states can no longer slam the door on out-of-state residents simply because they don't live there.
We're pursuing the same principle in Illinois.
Right now, Illinois recognizes permits from residents of only six states: Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas, and Virginia. GOA is challenging that discriminatory system because the correct number isn't six — it's all 50 states.
GOA's legal victories didn't happen in a vacuum. They were built on a constitutional principle that the Supreme Court emphatically reaffirmed in 2022. That was the Supreme Court's landmark Bruen decision , which made clear that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry firearms outside the home.
Many anti-gun states complied — but only on paper.
Unable to ban carry outright, they devised new ways to make the right practically impossible to exercise.
One of the worst examples became known as the "Vampire Rule." Like the vampires of folklore who supposedly needed permission before entering a home, states such as New York and Hawaii required gun owners to obtain affirmative permission before carrying on virtually all private property open to the public.
The result was predictable. Overnight, lawful carry became prohibited in most stores, restaurants, gas stations, and businesses throughout those states.
GOA sued New York and won.
Hawaii initially prevailed in its own litigation, creating a split among the federal circuits. That gave the Supreme Court the opportunity to step in.
In Wolford v. Lopez, the Court struck down Hawaii's Vampire Rule, reaffirming that constitutional rights cannot be nullified by requiring Americans to beg permission before exercising them.
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Freedom won.
Law-abiding Americans do not need to ask permission before carrying into the neighborhood grocery store, gas station, or restaurant.
Freedom wasn’t restored all at once. It has been won one lawsuit, one state, and one victory at a time . Even here in Virginia, GOA recently secured a temporary injunction against the Commonwealth's unconstitutional ban on carrying certain commonly owned firearms.
National reciprocity remains an important goal, and we welcome President Trump's support for making it a reality.
But until Congress acts, GOA will continue doing what we've always done — using the courts, the legislatures, and every lawful avenue available to ensure that the right to bear arms doesn't disappear the moment an American crosses a state line.
REP ROGER WILLIAMS: 250 years of hard work pay off for Main Street businesses
For 250 years, America's story has been written behind the counters of family-owned stores, on ranches and farms passed down through generations, and on Main Street where hardworking Americans take risks, open their doors and build something from the ground up.
I know this because I’ve lived it. Before serving in Congress, I spent decades helping grow my family's business in Texas. I learned what it feels like to lie awake wondering how you're going to make payroll, and what it feels like the morning you finally can. It was grit, family, faith and a lot of long days.
As America gets ready to celebrate its 250th birthday, I'll be thinking about the entrepreneurial spirit that has driven our country since its founding. Our Founding Fathers were entrepreneurs in their own right — visionaries and risk-takers who charted a new course for a nation built on freedom and opportunity.
SECRETS OF REVOLUTIONARY WAR BATTLEFIELDS EMERGE 250 YEARS AFTER AMERICA'S FOUNDING
I'll also be thinking about those who have always done the quiet work of building this country — the shopkeepers, tradesmen and family businesses. Those business owners who bet on themselves and, in doing so, helped build the most prosperous nation the world has ever known.
Two hundred and fifty years later, they're still at it. And this Independence Day, I’m proud to say that the backbone of our economy is roaring back.
I hear it when I talk to people back home in Weatherford, Texas. This past May, our economy added 172,000 jobs — more than twice what the so-called experts predicted, and unemployment held steady at 4.3%. That made for the best three-month hiring run we've seen in over two years. It didn’t happen by luck; it happened because of less government, allowing small businesses to do what they do best — create jobs!
THE RED STATES RACING AHEAD IN AMERICA’S POWERFUL WEALTH BOOM — AND THE STATES FALLING BEHIND
Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce took a hard look at the data and found that small businesses have accounted for about 78% of all hiring in this country since 2001. Lately, it's even more.
Since early last year, small businesses have created roughly 4 million jobs a month and more than three-quarters of all new job openings. If you're looking for your next opportunity, odds are it's waiting for you on Main Street.
Thanks to congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump, a big part of that growth is attributable to one thing: the Working Families Tax Cuts.
LABOR SEC CHAVEZ-DEREMER: TRUMP TAX CUTS DELIVER BIGGER REFUNDS AND A BIG BOOST FOR WORKING FAMILIES
The Working Families Tax Cuts prevented a $5 trillion tax hike, the largest in American history, and one that would have negatively impacted every family and small business in America. Instead of costing taxpayers more of their hard-earned money, the Working Families Tax Cuts put it right back into their pockets.
This past filing season, 97% of filers got a tax cut, and most of that relief went to Americans earning under $100,000. We delivered key priorities: no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and a doubled Child Tax Credit benefiting nearly 40 million families. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and my Republican colleagues, we provided real relief to hardworking American families when they needed it most.
As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently noted, America's small businesses finally have greater tax certainty and relief from burdensome regulations. That means more confidence to invest, hire and grow — helping keep our economy moving forward.
With Republicans in Congress and President Trump in the White House focused on getting Washington out of the way, the foundation is in place for a true American comeback — one built from the ground up by workers, families and entrepreneurs.
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And the timing could not be more fitting as America celebrates its 250th anniversary.
This Fourth of July, somewhere between backyard barbecues and fireworks, take a moment to thank the small business owners in your community. Stop by their stores. Support their work. Cheer them on. They carry forward the same spirit of enterprise, independence and determination that helped build this nation in 1776. And they remain living proof that America's greatest days are still ahead.
Happy 250th birthday, America. God bless those who continue to be the backbone of our economy — those who dream big, take risks and keep this great nation moving forward — from the small businesses on Main Street, from the mountains to the prairies and in every community they serve.
How American energy helped build 250 years of freedom and opportunity
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a brave group of risk-takers believed that liberty was worth the cost and declared their future would rely not on the rule of a distant king but instead on the courage of free people. They had no guarantee of success. But they had conviction. And that conviction built a great nation.
As we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, it is worth asking what transformed a revolutionary idea into the most prosperous country the world has ever known. The answer has many parts: the rule of law, free enterprise and the ambition of generation after generation.
Yet America’s story is not simply one of ideas. It is also a story of turning ideas into progress and achievement. And running through every chapter of that success is an often-overlooked force: abundant, affordable and reliable American energy.
SENATE REPUBLICAN PUSHES OVERHAUL TO CUT RED TAPE AND SPEED UP AMERICAN ENERGY PROJECTS
Time and again, ingenuity has transformed that energy into greater opportunity, greater prosperity and greater security.
Energy is not a sidebar to the American story. It is one of the foundations. Throughout history, Americans have found new ways to harness energy for the benefit of our society.
When Edwin "Colonel" Drakedrilled the world’s first commercial well in Titusville, Pa., in 1859, he did not simply strike oil. He unlocked a new source of human possibility. Within a few short years, kerosene refined from American crude replaced whale oil in lamps, lit homes and streets, and helped drive an industrial expansion unlike any the world had seen before. The age of American energy had begun, and our nation would never be the same.
ANTARES REACHES REACTOR CRITICALITY UNDER TRUMP PILOT PROGRAM, MARKING MAJOR NUCLEAR MILESTONE
Henry Ford put ordinary Americans behind the wheel. The Wright brothers gave us powered flight. Gasoline-powered tractors transformed farming to help feed a growing world. In each case, ingenuity supplied the vision and energy transformed bold ideas into reality.
That energy proved decisive when the stakes were highest. During World War II, the United States produced nearly two-thirds of the world's oil and the overwhelming majority of the fuel that powered the Allied war effort. American fuel propelled the ships that crossed the Atlantic, the bombers that flew over Europe and Asia, and the tanks that rolled across North Africa. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized that the war was, at the core, a war of logistics and fuel.
Allied victory was forged in steel and powered by American oil.
And energy helped build the peace that followed. The postwar boom was fueled, quite literally, at the corner service station. Millions of families bought their first car and took to the interstate, making America’s open roads synonymous with freedom itself.
The decades that followed opened new frontiers. American energy powered the factories that built the middle class, fueled the airlines that shrank the globe and supplied the building blocks of modern-day innovation, from lifesaving medical devices to essential communication technologies. It even helped carry Americans to the moon.
When the world needed reliable energy, American producers delivered. When markets shifted, they adapted. When technology advanced, they innovated.
Today, the United States is the world’s largest energy producer. And we stand at yet another inflection point. A new technology revolution is underway. Artificial intelligence promises to transform how we work, learn, invent and create – with an almost insatiable appetite for reliable power. Data centers running these systems will consume electricity on the scale of entire nations.
As with every great American leap forward — from industrialization to aviation to the internet — the technologies shaping tomorrow will rely on what powered our nation’s rise: abundant, affordable and reliable energy.
For virtually all of America’s history, the men and women of my industry have quietly powered the nation’s progress. Their work is often out of sight and too often taken for granted. I have stood on platforms in the Gulf of America, walked oil fields in the Permian and refinery control rooms in California, boarded tankers carrying American energy across open water and traced the pipelines that connect it all.
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What strikes me is how invisible it is by design. Every day, millions of Americans flip a switch, board a plane, charge a phone or power a business without a second thought. That quiet reliability is one of the great achievements of modern America.
The record is clear: American energy has fueled victory in wartime, prosperity in peacetime, and innovation at every turn.
Two hundred and fifty years in, the American experiment continues. New challenges will arise. New technologies will emerge. New frontiers will open. The tools will change, but the formula remains the same. As it has been throughout our history, the future will be built by ingenuity and powered by American energy.
DSA’s third major primary win deepens Democrats’ fight over the party’s future
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are taking their political playbook nationwide.
One week after DSA-aligned candidates scored ballot-box victories over establishment-backed contenders in two congressional primaries in New York City that grabbed outsized national attention, the group scored another major upset in a deep-blue U.S. House district in Denver, Colorado.
Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette, who was first elected to Congress in 1996 and took office in 1997, was defeated by DSA-backed Melat Kiros, a first-time candidate and former attorney who is 29 years old.
Kiros’ victory comes a week after Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old progressive community organizer in New York City, ousted incumbent Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and state Assembly Member Claire Valdez, another DSA-aligned contender, won a congressional primary to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez.
VICTORIES BY MAMDANI-BACKED CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES SPOTLIGHTS GROWING RIFT IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY
The victories by Chevalier and Valdez, who were backed by socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, coupled with the win this week by Kiros, are further emboldening the progressive left as it takes on the center-left establishment in a high-stakes battle for the future of the Democratic Party.
Hasan Piker, the controversial, far-left streamer, at the Kiros primary night event in Denver, told Fox News, "I think progressive politics, left populism, a politics that centers the needs of the working class, can work in every district, in every state. That's why I kept saying over and over again, it's coming to a city near you."
The latest DSA primary victory came in Colorado's 1st Congressional District, a Democrat-dominated seat anchored in Denver that then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried by nearly 56 points in the 2024 election.
"Another Democratic Socialist is going to Congress!," the DSA touted in a social media post. "Congresswoman Kiros will take the fight for a better world to D.C: to Abolish ICE, free Palestine, and win Universal Childcare and Medicare for All."
Kiros, who lost her job as a lawyer in New York after writing an essay critical of Israel, was also supported by Justice Democrats, the nearly decade-old political group known for heavily supporting "Squad" members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib as they toppled entrenched incumbents in their initial elections to Congress.
DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB
University of Colorado regent Wanda James, who jumped into the Democratic congressional primary in April and was described as a spoiler, finished third, in single digits.
Progressives also scored an impressive victory in the neighboring 8th Congressional District, a crucial swing seat which stretches along the I-25 corridor north of Denver.
State Rep. Manny Rutinel tallied a convincing double-digit victory over former state Rep. Shannon Bird, a more moderate candidate. Rutinel will now take on Republican Rep. Gabe Evans, who flipped the seat in the 2024 cycle.
The race is considered one of two or three dozen that will determine if the GOP holds onto its razor-thin House majority in the midterms.
Immigration was a top issue in the Democratic primary in a district where roughly 40% of the population is Latino. Rutinel criticized Bird for a vote she cast last year opposing a measure limiting cooperation between local and state law enforcement and ICE. And Rutinel was boosted by big spending from allies, including prominent Latino groups.
While Rutinel has tempered his previous support for top progressive issues, including Medicare for All and opposition to fracking, Republicans viewed him as the easier general election challenger than Bird. During the primary campaign, the right spotlighted pictures of him rallying alongside Mamdani.
"Democrats have chosen a far-left, radical socialist, Mamdani-wanna-be extremist — someone who supports eliminating oil and gas, defunding law enforcement, calling farmers and ranchers horrific, and threatening the industries that power our economy," Evans charged in a statement.
Another primary showdown highlighting the split between progressives and moderates, as well as the party's generational divide, was the Senate nomination battle between incumbent Sen. John Hickenlooper, 74, and former state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a 43-year-old progressive.
Hickenlooper, a former Denver mayor and two-term governor, saw his once-large advantage over Gonzales, a one-time DSA member, narrow in the weeks ahead of the primary.
Hickenlooper prevailed and will now be the clear favorite in the general election against Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley, who was unopposed in his primary.
But Gonzales saw a silver lining in defeat, writing in a statement, "My heart is full, knowing that we've put the Democratic establishment on notice: keep taking folks like us for granted at your own peril."
Meanwhile, state Attorney General Phil Weiser topped U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in the expensive and combustible Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Weiser, who ran to Bennet’s left on certain issues, closed the gap with the senator as he spotlighted his efforts to take on President Donald Trump, including filing or joining dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration as attorney general.
Longtime Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo, a veteran of progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, told Fox News Digital that "it is undeniable that progressives have built a coalition and have a message that can serve to buoy a candidate when they are an acceptable alternative to the status quo."
While plenty of mainstream Democrats have racked up primary victories in recent weeks, it is the far-left that's grabbing the media spotlight. And that's giving Republicans more ammunition as they portray all Democrats as radicals.
"The socialist takeover of the Democrat Party is no longer confined to deep-blue strongholds. The radicals are taking over battleground districts, putting must-win seats out of reach for Democrats and sinking their chances of flipping the House," NRCC Spokesman Mike Marinella said as he pointed to Rutinel's victory.
Fox News' Olivia Palombo and Matthew Donnell contributed to this report
Florida toddler dies after father realizes child was left in SUV during daycare pickup
A 23-month-old Florida boy was found dead Monday inside an SUV outside A World of Discovery Academy after his father mistakenly believed he had dropped him off at daycare, authorities said.
The Plantation Police Department and Plantation Fire Department responded at approximately 5:39 p.m. Monday to a report of an unresponsive child inside a vehicle at the early childhood education center.
Firefighters pronounced the child dead at the scene.
Leslie Novoa, the owner of A World of Discovery Academy, told WSVN-TV she called 911 alongside the toddler's father after the child was discovered in the back seat of the family's SUV.
"This is hard for the parents, hard for us," Novoa told the station. "This is sad to see this family – a wonderful family – to go through so much pain."
Novoa said the father arrived at the daycare to pick up his son before realizing the child had never been dropped off.
"Unfortunately, the dad arrived to pick up his child, and when he arrived to the parking lot, he realized he forgot the child," she said. "He never dropped off the child at the school."
PARENTS OF 7-YEAR-OLD WHO DIED WEIGHING 255 POUNDS CHARGED WITH MURDER IN SUSPECTED NEGLECT CASE
Novoa said she has known the family for six years and described them as loving parents whose three children attended the daycare.
"Like I said before, they’re a very loving family, and unfortunately, this happened," Novoa said.
The daycare later released a statement expressing condolences and pledging support for the family.
WISCONSIN TEEN SENTENCED TO LIFE IN BRUTAL SLAYING OF 5-YEAR-OLD BOY FOUND IN DUMPSTER
"Our primary responsibility is the safety and well-being of our students and their families," the daycare wrote.
"We communicated with our school community as soon as possible, and we remain in contact with our families to provide support during this incredibly difficult time," it continued. "This student and their family are beloved members of our community. At this time, our focus is on supporting those grieving this immense loss."
According to Kids and Car Safety, formerly KidsAndCars.org, about 40 children die in hot cars each year in the United States. The organization says roughly half of those deaths occur after a parent or caregiver unintentionally leaves a child inside a vehicle.
Plantation police said the circumstances surrounding the child's death remain under investigation.
Trump administration threatens Kansas school district funding over transgender student policy
The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would pursue enforcement action that could include withholding federal funding from Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools over its policies that the administration says prevent staff from notifying parents of a transgender student's gender identity.
The Education Department said that Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools’ policy of not disclosing a student's transgender status to their parents violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
The agency announced it was partnering with the Justice Department to take "appropriate enforcement measures," including applicable judicial proceedings and potential loss of federal funding.
LOUDOUN COUNTY PARENTS NOT 'SATISFIED' AFTER SCHOOL OFFICIALS TESTIFY ON TRANSGENDER POLICIES
"Kansas City Kansas Public Schools' sustained efforts to sidestep FERPA, conceal its true policies, and obstruct parents’ lawful access to their children’s education records represents a serious and deliberate breach of federal law," said Frank Miller, Director of the Student Privacy Policy Office at the Education Department.
"A strong and coordinated enforcement partnership between the Department of Education and the Department of Justice will ensure districts are held accountable and fully honor parents’ rights," he added.
According to the government, the district's policy affirms that school personnel "should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others, including parents."
"Despite the Department’s proposed Resolution Agreement, which outlined specific actions the District should take to remedy their FERPA violations, the District continues to ignore federal parental rights law," the Education Department said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the district for comment.
SUPREME COURT MAKES MAKES RULING ON TRANS ATHLETES IN WOMEN'S SPORTS
The administration has threatened to pull federal funding from several other districts across the country over transgender policies.
Earlier this year, the Education Department said policies concerning transgender students in four Kansas school districts, including Kansas City and Kansas Public Schools, were violating federal law.
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order aimed at barring transgender women and girls from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that states may bar transgender women and girls from girls’ and women’s sports, upholding Idaho and West Virginia laws while not requiring states without such bans to adopt them.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Amy Coney Barrett draws backlash from conservative critics who want her to be a Trump partisan
The Supreme Court handed Donald Trump one major defeat and two lesser wins as it closed its session yesterday with a bang.
But the court, with three Trump appointees, also ruled against the president in some cases.
Trump, to no one's surprise, praised the favorable ones and ripped the adverse decisions.
So the atmosphere was ripe for all kinds of media spin.
SUPREME COURT'S LATEST IMMIGRATION RULING WILL CAUSE AMERICANS TO 'DIE AND SUFFER' ATTORNEY WARNS
Perhaps the ruling that generated the most anger was the court upholding a $5 million Trump payment to writer E. Jean Carroll for her claims of defamation and sexual assault in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996.
Trump’s reaction: "Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to ‘review’ a Fake Case brought against me by a woman I never met (Decades old celebrity photo line, standing with her husband, does not count!) I will continue the fight against this weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength."
But he’s out of appeal. The Supreme Court just turned him down. It’s over.
SUPREME COURT LAMBASTED OVER 'DESTRUCTIVE' AND 'OUTRAGEOUS' BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP DECISION
You know what's fascinating?
Every judicial nominee testifies before the Senate that they'll only call balls and strikes, as John Roberts once put it, and the lawmakers nod sagely.
But as soon as the newly minted justice votes against Trump and his team, they denounce him or her for being off the reservation — in other words, failing a political loyalty test that they had dismissed during the confirmation hearings.
The target du jour is Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee who wrote the opinion in a 5-4 case in which she and Roberts joined the liberals.
Days after Election Day.
The right went haywire. Conservative author Hans Mahncke said on X that "the worst part is that she’ll be there pushing leftist policies for the next 40 years."
Barrett dissented Monday on whether Trump could fire a Fed governor, saying it was wrong to narrowly base their decision on an emergency request by Trump.
In that job, a lifetime appointment, you need thick skin.
In the trio of major cases decided yesterday, the most important by far was the court shooting down Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, in which anyone born on U.S. soil is automatically considered an American citizen.
Barrett, along with the chief justice, joined the court’s liberals in saying that this is a violation of the 14th Amendment, which deals with equal rights for citizens and was ratified in 1868 to protect the rights of newly freed slaves.
Barrett has deeply rooted beliefs based on her career as a Notre Dame law professor, and deep religious beliefs as a Catholic, who is also associated with a charismatic Christian community called People of Praise.
Some Trump allies, says the New York Times, have called the justice, with seven children and two Black children adopted from Haiti, a DEI hire.
Barrett wrote this week’s majority opinion, in that 5-4 case, in favor of a Mississippi law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted after Election Day.
The president, who despises mail-in ballots, called it a "tremendous loss."
Of course, being a swing vote, as Sandra Day O’Connor was, enhances her influence during deliberations behind the white marble portico of Corinthian columns.
In the other two major cases decided yesterday, the high court allowed political parties to coordinate directly with candidates, and upheld the right of states to bar biological males from competing in women’s sports.
"Once," Barrett wrote in her memoir, "when other justices joined a particularly tricky opinion of mine, my chambers celebrated with an impromptu bottle of champagne."
She voted, for instance, to reinstate the death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber, even though she is personally opposed to capital punishment.
In the end, the conservative backlash against Amy Coney Barrett says more about her critics, and sometimes directed at other justices, than it does about her.
They feel betrayed because they want her to politically support the man who nominated her.
But that’s not judicial independence.
Thousands of beer cans spill across Connecticut highway after tractor-trailer overturns
Thousands of beer cans spilled across a Connecticut roadway Tuesday after a tractor-trailer overturned, forcing authorities to shut down the highway for hours.
Connecticut State Police said the crash took place around 5:39 a.m. on Route 44 near Twin Lakes Road in Salisbury.
Police said the tractor-trailer veered off the roadway and overturned.
The truck sustained significant damage, spilling its cargo of beer across the roadway, police said.
WILD VIDEO SHOWS INMATES RIOTING INSIDE JAIL AFTER FRUSTRATIONS OVER ACCESS BOIL OVER
Photos released by state police showed the tractor-trailer lying on its side, with cans of Michelob Ultra and Bud Light strewn across the roadway.
The roadway remained closed for several hours while crews cleared the debris and removed the overturned truck, according to state police.
Police said the closure was necessary because of the "large volume of debris" and to safely remove the damaged truck.
CALIFORNIA COUPLE SAYS MOVING COMPANY DOUBLED THEIR PRICE AND IS NOW HOLDING BELONGINGS 'FOR RANSOM': REPORT
"Thank you to all motorists for your patience and for seeking alternate routes during the closure," state police said in a statement.
State police said local firefighters, EMS crews, the Connecticut Department of Transportation, the Department of Consumer Protection and towing crews assisted with the cleanup.
Police said the cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said it was not notified of the crash, according to local reports.
Another New Yorker says officers confronted him after he criticized ICE
A second New York resident said on Tuesday that federal authorities served him with a warning over an email that authorities deemed threatening after he criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s tactics.
David Streever, of Rochester, was on a trip to Finland last week when two officers showed up to his home and handed his wife a warning notice notifying him that an email he sent earlier this year was deemed a threat, his lawyer told The Associated Press.
Streever sent an email in January to Todd Lyons, who was the acting director of ICE at the time, after an ICE agent shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good during an immigration enforcement-related incident in Minneapolis.
In the email, Streever told Lyons he was "a monstrous human being" who "will never know peace."
"The way you are protecting the obvious execution in Minnesota, even as we see the videos, will lead to your downfall. Even Trump will turn on you before the end, and you will be a sad, despised man who eats himself alive with shame at your own pathetic weakness," Streever said in the email, according to Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression who is representing Streever.
Federal officers also attempted to confront Streever at a New York City hotel after he returned from Finland, but hotel staff turned them away, Steinbaugh said.
Steinbaugh argued the email was protected speech under the First Amendment and does not represent a legitimate threat.
"A true threat is a serious expression of an intent to commit violence. This email doesn't even come close," Steinbaugh said. "It's political speech, it's an act of petitioning your government."
Streever said he was shocked that federal officers came to his home to question him over his email.
"Like many Americans, I was deeply upset after the shootings in Minnesota and I felt compelled to do something," he said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Writing a letter to the head of ICE seemed like the least I could do to express my sense of outrage. I never dreamed it would lead to a knock on my door by federal officers."
Fox News Digital reached out to ICE for comment.
"ICE investigates all credible threats towards its employees and officers, including threats to the ICE Director," the agency said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The warning to Streever was presented the same week poll worker Paigelynne Gonyea, of Syracuse, said two federal officers confronted her at a voting site during New York’s primaries to question her about a social media post she made about Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who killed Good.
Gonyea said she believes the warning to her was because of a post she made in January in which she shared a picture of Ross along with the caption: "I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted."
Her post, which is still online, was made after Ross had already been identified by the media.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Lauren Bis, shared an image of a different social media post from Gonyea in which she said the woman shared Ross’ address, according to The Associated Press, although part of the post was redacted.
Bis said in a statement last week that Gonyea "committed a federal crime by posting the address of an ICE law enforcement officer online" and "if you doxx our officers, we will investigate you, and you will be brought to justice."
MISSISSIPPI LAW COULD CREATE STATEWIDE REGISTRY OF UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
Free speech advocates, including those at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the American Civil Liberties Union, have argued that these two incidents show federal law enforcement infringing on Americans' rights to privacy and free expression.
Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU's speech, privacy and technology project, said the First Amendment guarantees the right to criticize the government.
"Nobody should be tracked down at their home or hotel room by federal agents in retribution for sending an email merely expressing frustration and opposition to the government’s actions," Wessler told The Associated Press. "This is an abuse of power and a gross attempt to chill Americans’ constitutionally protected speech."
ICE and DHS have said they investigate credible threats and doxxing of law enforcement officers. The government has not publicly provided a fuller explanation of why Streever’s email was treated as a threat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.