NY Times: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a legal theory that would have radically reshaped how federal elections are conducted by giving state legislatures largely unchecked power to set rules for federal elections and to draw congressional maps warped by partisan gerrymandering. The vote was 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing…

AR Times: “Philip Edwin Kaplan, a Little Rock lawyer who was nationally recognized for his work in civil and human rights, died Friday of a stroke. Kaplan moved to Little Rock in 1968 and started his career in class-action lawsuits representing inmates in the Arkansas prison system, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The landmark Holt v….

WaPo: “Several advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging a Virginia law that automatically stripped the right to vote from more than 300,000 convicted felons is an illegal vestige of historical efforts to keep Black residents from casting ballots. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia, the voting rights group Protect Democracy and…

AR Times: “Blue Arkansans are not the only ones marveling at how much harm the state’s citizens will suffer from new laws passed during the 2023 legislative session. Two professors from Kansas State University and Bard College took aim at Arkansas’s mystifying rollback of child labor protections in an article published yesterday in The Conversation. John A….

KWTX10: “Three San Antonio Police Department officers – identified as Sergeant Alfred Flores, Officer Eleazar Alejandro, and Officer Nathaniel Villalobos – on June 23 were charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a 46-year-old woman who was experiencing a “mental health crisis,” the police chief said. The shooting happened shortly after 2 a.m. Friday…

WaPo: ““The pain of not being myself,” says Rachel Fleit in her film, “Bama Rush,” “became greater than the pain of not fitting in.” Fleit’s documentary, about sorority culture at the University of Alabama, is streaming on Max (the service formerly known as HBO). She’s referring to her experience as a bald woman — a person with…

CNN: “In most any other year, Nashville Pride looks and feels like other Pride celebrations in major cities: There are sweaty masses of starry-eyed revelers, drinking in the infectious joy. There are floats and concerts with splashy corporate sponsorships and packed gay bars where famous drag queens and local performers share the stage. And, naturally,…

Commercial Appeal: ““What I’ve learned these last few weeks is that democracy is incredibly fragile,” said Bassow, a senior at Nashville’s Hume-Fogg High School, as he cheered Pearson’s reinstatement in the shadow of the Capitol building.  “But because of the power of the people,” he added, “we were able to fix this.”  Less certain, the…

Political Wire: “Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, the wife of Attorney General Ken Paxton, is barred from voting in the impeachment trial that could lead to her husband’s permanent removal from office, the Republican-controlled Senate decided Wednesday,” the AP reports. “The rule settles a question that has loomed over the Texas Capitol since Ken Paxton last month…

TX Observer: “The history of Texas, in the way it is taught, researched, and presented to the public, has reached a crisis point. Since 1897, the principal organization in the presentation, teaching, and researching of Texas history has been the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). For 126 years, the TSHA has welcomed academics, lay historians, and anyone…