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| Happy hump day, OnPolitics readers! |
| It's a busy day for the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments Wednesday on a lawsuit challenging Mississippi's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. But we'll get to that below. |
| Get excited (or not!): The 2022 midterm elections are less than a year away and the battle for control of the Senate has already started. Democrats took control of the House, White House and the Senate during the 2020 elections, but midterms often don't favor the party in power. |
| Why the GOP is feeling good: Republicans are strutting into the holidays after a series of wins in the fall, as they feel confident about overtaking the Democratic majorities in Congress. |
| Why Democrats aren't giving up: Democrats, who control Congress by one of the thinnest margins in U.S. history, say they aren't resigned to defeat as weeks of infighting culminated in a major infrastructure package and possibly an even larger social spending agenda. |
| It's Amy and Mabinty, with the news of the day. |
Will SCOTUS overturn Roe v. Wade? |
| A majority of the Supreme Court signaled Wednesday it is open to upholding Mississippi's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy but left open the question of just how far it may go to undermine its landmark Roe v. Wade decision. |
| This isn't just about Mississippi: A ruling upholding the law would be a major victory for conservatives who have sought for generations to overturn or weaken Roe . Experts predict that would prompt nearly two dozen states to embrace similar bans, creating a patchwork of abortion laws that would resemble the red-state, blue-state maps of presidential elections. |
| On the conservative side: Each of the six conservative justices asked questions that suggested at least some skepticism with the position taken by abortion rights groups – and the Biden administration – that allowing Mississippi's ban would not only violate the Constitution but also raise questions about the court's neutral interpretation of the law. |
| "Why is 15 weeks not enough time?" Chief Justice John Roberts asked at one point. |
| On the liberal side: The court's liberals, led by Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, quizzed Mississippi's attorney on the implications of overturning one of the court's most widely recognized precedents. The Supreme Court should move cautiously with such a decision, they said, to avoid the appearance of politics. |
| "Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?" Sotomayor asked. |
Real Quick: stories you'll want to read |
| • | World AIDS Day: President Joe Biden's new strategy for combating HIV/AIDS will have a new focus on the growing population of people with HIV who are aging, along with other changes. | | • | Baker backs out: Gov. Charlie Baker, a two-term Republican who at his peak was one of the most popular governors in the country, will not seek a third term. | | • | Honduras' soon-to-be first female president: Honduras ruling party conceded defeat Tuesday in presidential elections held two days earlier, giving victory to leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro, who would become the first woman to hold the position. | | • | "Words matter": GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert has accused Rep. Ilhan Omar and her Democratic peers of belonging to an Islamic militant group and practicing "cancel culture." But Boebert's comments may lead her to face disciplinary action by Congress. | |
Meadows' book reports Trump's undisclosed positive COVID-19 test |
| Former President Donald Trump reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus three days before the first presidential debate with Joe Biden, according to an upcoming book from Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows. |
| But Trump got a negative result from another test shortly after the positive one, Meadows writes in the book titled "The Chief's Chief." |
| A timeline of events: The White House on Sept. 26 also held an event for Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump had just nominated to the Supreme Court. The gathering was later considered a likely COVID-19 "superspreader" event |
| Six days later, on Oct. 2, Trump announced he and first lady Melania Trump would begin quarantining after testing positive the previous night – the same day White House adviser Hope Hicks, who had been traveling with Trump, tested positive for the virus. |
| Trump's response: In a statement Wednesday, Trump called Meadows' claims "Fake News. In fact, a test revealed that I did not have COVID prior to the debate." |
| Did you know? On this day, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott and propelling Martin Luther King Jr. to national fame. — Amy and Mabinty |
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