Read the Most Chilling Lines From Justice Sotomayor’s ‘Slaughter’ Dissent on Trump’s Expanding Power: ‘Chaos Will Follow’

PUBLISHED 6/30/2026 by

On the second-to-last day of its 2025-’26 term, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 along party lines President Donald Trump can fire Rebecca Slaughter, who served as commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2018 until her dismissal in 2025. But the decision reaches far beyond one commissioner: By overturning nearly a century of precedent, the Court held that presidents may remove members of independent multimember agencies that Congress deliberately structured to operate with some distance from partisan politics. 

We read all 49 pages of Sotomayor’s urgent dissent and pulled out the most striking passages, so you don’t have to—though after reading them, you just might want to.

The Antiabortion Playbook Is Coming for Birth Control

PUBLISHED 6/29/2026 by

The United States is on its way to banning or severely restricting birth control.

I know this statement will be met with incredulity—but I would refer you to the disbelief so many of us in the reproductive health field faced when we warned that the constitutional right to abortion was in danger. Nearly four years later, we are living in this reality that so many dismissed as alarmist fantasy.

If the anti-contraception tactics we see today look extremely familiar, it’s because they come straight from the antiabortion playbook: spreading mis- and disinformation, advancing incremental regressive policies, and denying problems with access—the same tactics that helped pave the way for the eventual overturning of Roe.

In a Forceful Dissent, Justice Elena Kagan Says the Supreme Court Ignored Evidence of Trump Administration’s Anti-Haitian Bias

PUBLISHED 6/28/2026 by

For more than 350,000 Haitians and roughly 6,000 Syrians living legally in the United States under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe is not simply another legal ruling. It clears the way for the Trump administration to end TPS while legal challenges continue, leaving hundreds of thousands of people who have built their lives in the United States facing the immediate possibility of deportation.

Writing for the dissenters, Justice Elena Kagan argues that the Court not only insulated the executive branch from meaningful judicial review, but also brushed aside compelling evidence that anti-Haitian bias may have influenced the administration’s decision. Her dissent forcefully rejects the majority’s conclusion that President Trump’s repeated derogatory remarks about Haitians are legally insignificant, calling them plainly infused with racial stereotypes.

For Kagan, the case is about much more than Temporary Protected Status. It asks whether courts will meaningfully examine executive actions that affect hundreds of thousands of lives—or instead allow those actions to proceed before serious constitutional and statutory challenges can be fully heard.

Supreme Court ‘Mullin v. Al Otro Lado’ Decision Hinges Asylum Law on a Single Word

PUBLISHED 6/27/2026 by

Just days after World Refugee Day, the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a significant victory on immigration, allowing it to revive a policy that turns away asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border before they have an opportunity to present their claims.

In Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion rests on an isolated reading of the word “in”—an approach the dissenters say ignores decades of asylum law and the realities facing people fleeing persecution.

Trump Holds Housing Aid Hostage to Force GOP Support for Voting Restrictions

PUBLISHED 6/27/2026 by

This week, Trump cancelled a planned signing ceremony for the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act—which would help address the worsening housing affordability crisis—and said he won’t sign it unless Republicans in the Senate vote to pass the SAVE America Act. If you recall, the SAVE Act would implement sweeping voting restrictions, including necessitating proof of citizenship to vote, and in doing so, make it much more difficult for millions of women who changed their name at marriage to vote.

His fixation on the SAVE America Act isn’t about safeguarding the elections for Americans—it’s about rigging the elections to ensure a Republican win, by suppressing the votes of those who disagree.

10 Must-Read Stories on Women in Politics This Week: Title IX Anniversary, AI’s Anti-Women Bias and Ranked-Choice Voting Victories

PUBLISHED 6/26/2026 by

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a weekly compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment! Published every Friday.

—This week marked the 54th anniversary of Title IX.
—As the Taliban approaches the five-year mark of its return to power this August, a rare protest in western Afghanistan last week laid bare both the brutality of its rule and the resilience of those living under it.
—A woman will replace Eric Swalwell in California … but for not two more months.
—A study of 133 AI systems found that 44 percent demonstrated gender bias, and more than a quarter showed both gender and racial bias.

… and more.

America’s Roman Holiday: Prime Day and the Price of Convenience

PUBLISHED 6/26/2026 by

Amazon Prime Day has become one of the biggest shopping events in the country, but its success tells a story far bigger than discounts.

In an economy where families are struggling with the cost of groceries, rent, healthcare and childcare, the appeal of lower prices is understandable. Yet the massive scale of Prime Day also raises a harder question: What does it mean when one of America’s defining consumer rituals depends on a labor system that workers, regulators and advocates have repeatedly described as dangerous, underpaid and deeply unequal?

Amazon’s influence extends far beyond its own warehouses. By normalizing ever-faster delivery, constant surveillance and relentless productivity, the company has helped reshape expectations across the retail economy.

As billionaire wealth continues to soar and labor protections face renewed political pressure, Prime Day reveals the growing divide between those who profit from convenience and those whose labor makes it possible.

With Latest Immigration Decisions, the Supreme Court’s Conservative Majority Rewrites Immigration Law, One Word at a Time

PUBLISHED 6/26/2026 by

Just days after World Refugee Day, the Supreme Court issued two immigration decisions that dramatically narrow protections for asylum seekers and Temporary Protected Status holders: Mullin v. Al Otro Lado and Mullin v. Doe.

Although the cases address different legal questions, they share a troubling approach: The conservative majority isolates individual words from their statutory context to expand presidential authority while limiting humanitarian protections Congress intended to provide.

In one decision, the Court allows the Trump administration to revive a policy that turns away asylum seekers at the border before they can present their claims. In the other, it shields the administration’s termination of TPS for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and thousands of Syrians from meaningful judicial review.

Powerful dissents from Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan argue that the majority ignored both the broader legal framework and the real-world consequences of its rulings.

These opinions are about far more than technical questions of statutory interpretation. By reading immigration law out of context, the Court is reshaping who can seek protection in the United States—and how much power the executive branch has to decide their fate.

Peace Without Women? Ongoing Peace Talks and War Negotiations Keep Leaving Women Behind

PUBLISHED 6/25/2026 by

As negotiations over conflicts across the Middle East continue, one pattern remains stubbornly familiar: women are largely absent from the room. From Gaza to Iran, women are bearing the costs of conflict, repression, displacement and economic collapse even as negotiations over security, governance, reconstruction and political transition move forward without their meaningful participation.

This exclusion has consequences far beyond representation. Decisions about who governs, who receives aid, who returns home and who is protected shape whether societies emerge from conflict more secure or more fragile. When women are kept outside these processes, transitions risk reinforcing the inequalities and grievances that helped drive conflict in the first place.