The Slatest for Aug. 17: The Latest Abortion Pill Ruling Makes a Dark Bet on the Supreme Court
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—”where law goes to die,” as Mark Joseph Stern previously put it—has made a new abortion pill ruling that targets patients directly.
This ruling won’t have any immediate impact because the Supreme Court issued a stay earlier this year until it has the chance to rule on the issue. Still, the 5th Circuit’s ruling is troubling. “This case has nothing to do with ‘protecting women,’ but rather ending abortion at pregnant people’s expense,” David S. Cohen, Greer Donley, and Rachel Rebouche write.
The ruling also gives us some insight into how conservatives are adjusting their anti-abortion strategy, Mary Ziegler writes. She argues that “it represents conservatives’ best guess that the Supreme Court is going to go much further than it did in Dobbs in limiting abortion at a national level—even if not necessarily in this case.”
Plus: David Coale explains how the 5th Circuit is learning from past Supreme Court smackdowns.
A bitter conflict is defining the island’s recovery from the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Shirin Ali takes a closer look at what’s at stake as Lahaina rebuilds.
Plus: Did an aging electrical grid, a failed warning system, and an overstretched fire department contribute to the fire’s devastating toll? What Next asks: Who failed Hawaii?
There’s an angle to the A.I. arms race that we’re not talking about enough: the potentially disastrous consequences for the climate, Nitish Pahwa writes. He breaks down why tools like ChatGPT use so much energy.
Trump can’t escape the charges he faces in Georgia with a pardon. The state’s rules around pardon power “cut off any escape hatch for Trump and his co-defendants,” Adam Gershowitz writes. But what does that mean for other criminal defendants, and the larger problem of mass incarceration? He looks at the ways in which Georgia’s pardon rules “show us both the right and wrong ways forward.”
The Summer I Turned Pretty is ostensibly for teens—but plenty of grown adults are secretly obsessed with the show’s angsty love triangle. Heather Schwedel homes in on what makes the show so appealing.
… much like DJ Crazy Times, alter ego of comedian Kyle Gordon, whose debut single, “Planet of the Bass,” is the surprise viral parody song hit of the summer. Luke Winkie spoke to Gordon about what’s next for him.
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