MICHIGAN SUPREME COURT: Right-to-Work Laws Apply To State Employees, Mean They Can’t Be Forced To Contribute To Union.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR HOUSING MOVES FORWARD: Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart reports on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, the Obama Administration’s latest affirmative action pet project that will withhold federal funds to localities that fail to have an as-yet-undefined acceptable percentage of minority residents:

The AFFH rule “gives the federal government a lever to re-engineer nearly every American neighborhood — imposing a preferred racial and ethnic composition, densifying housing, transportation, and business development in suburb and city alike, and weakening or casting aside the authority of local governments over core responsibilities, from zoning to transportation to education,” as National Review’s Stanley Kurtz put it last week.

When then-Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan first proposed the AFFH rule in 2013, Paul Compton, a housing law expert and partner at the law firm Bradly Arant Boult Cummings told the Weekly Standard it is “a real shift in emphasis from ensuring that the private sector and participants in federal programs don’t unlawfully discriminate to defining the existence of racially and ethnically ‘segregated’ neighborhoods to be in themselves a violation of fair housing.”

Under this new rule, Compton said, “if a neighborhood is not integrated in some vaguely defined ratio, then that in itself is a fair housing issue.”

The Supreme Court has long recognized an important distinction between de jure (by law) versus de facto (by fact) racial segregation, with the former being forbidden by the Equal Protection Clause and the latter being, well, just the result of private conduct and human nature/preferences, and thus beyond the reach of the Fourteenth Amendment (which limits only “state”–government–action). Congress, however, has increasingly endorsed, via statutes–including the Fair Housing Act–that the notion that mere statistical differences in racial representation in private activities such as housing, mortgages, and employment, can constitute “racial discrimination” due to a theory called “disparate impact.”

The AFFH rule is the Obama Administration’s radical vision of how to implement disparate impact theory under the Fair Housing Act. Congress could stop it immediately, if it so desired, by an explicit amendment to the Fair Housing Act that disapproves of the AFFH rule. But as is all too common these days, Congress seems unable to exercise its constitutional authority, instead preferring to roll over and show its beta belly in response to President Obama’s extreme transformation of the country.

I hope the moderators of the upcoming GOP presidential debates will be sure to ask all the candidates whether they will make it a priority to reverse the AFFH and similar disparate impact rules enacted by the Obama Administration.

WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE THE WHITE HOUSE HASN’T ISSUED STEWART’S TALKING POINTS YET: During the multi-country press tour for Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, not even Jon Stewart has dared ask Tom Cruise about Scientology.

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MORE LIBERAL INTOLERANCE OR JUST PLAIN HYPOCRISY? Hans Wyss, the Swiss billionaire and funder of Clinton Foundation’s No Ceilings project to empower women,  doesn’t want one woman – Jackie Long – empowered. He’s asked a Pennsylvania court to put her in jail because she told the Daily Caller News Foundation about allegations of how he sexually abused her. And Wyss threatened the DCNF with litigation after it published those allegations.

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Citing IRS Targeting, Cruz Compares Obama to Nixon.

KOCHS BUILDING NEW POLITICAL NETWORK: “One of the prime objectives could have a direct impact on Election Day 2016: to create a permanent ground force powered by a vast trove of data, replicating the kind of infrastructure that helped President Obama win reelection. . . . The libertarian-oriented network serves both as a valuable GOP ally and a rival power center to the Republican National Committee.”

My advice for the Kochs — put some money into media.

WASHINGTON POST: For Democrats, there’s no right answer on Planned Parenthood.

The surprise of today’s Republican press conference on Planned Parenthood came when one of the freshman class’s stars praised Hillary Clinton. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa.) described how undercover videos had found the family planning group’s executives coldly discussing the sale of fetal body parts, and said that even Democrats were recoiling.

“The American people, Republicans and Democrats alike, are horrified by the utter lack of compassion showed by Planned Parenthood for these women and their babies,” said Ernst. “In fact, now, Hillary Clinton is calling these Planned Parenthood images disturbing, and I agree.”

That line had the intended effect. It rattled abortion rights supporters, reminding them that the Democratic frontrunner for president had hedged on their issue. The fight to defund Planned Parenthood is only the latest in a series of conservative attempts to shift the conversation on abortion, from one that bedevils Republicans to one that flummoxes Democrats.

Bernie Sanders is hedging, too.

HANS VAN SPAKOVSKY: Can Mark Levin’s New Book, ‘Plunder and Deceit,’ Rescue America’s Youth?

ASHE SCHOW: Hardly any mention of due process at Senate hearing on campus sexual assault.

There was little discussion of due process rights in campus adjudications during a Wednesday hearing on campus sexual assault.

As expected, the one-sided hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee focused on how to make reporting easier for sexual assault accusers — which is very important — but failed to address the very real problem of false accusations. Typical statements from senators and other panelists consisted of long discussions about providing help for accusers, with a passing statement about ensuring a fair process tacked on at the end.

Most of the senators present — including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Claire McCaskill and Patty Murray – continually referred to accusers as “victims” or “survivors” and the accused as “accused,” “alleged perpetrator” or “rapist.” This, like the language of the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, imposes a clear bias.

Gillibrand and McCaskill also mentioned having spoken to accused students and their families, making it seem as though their concerns were included in the bill. They were not. The senators may have listened, but they certainly didn’t hear.

You’d think that the GOP would stop the Senate from promoting these efforts to turn colleges into man-hating sexual police states, but you’d be wrong.

Related: Campus serial rapist survey debunked. It’s as if every lefty social crusade is based on bogus “social science” or something.

MOE LANE: The ’13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi’ trailer. “It looks… a bit more serious than the stuff that Michael Bay usually does.” Plus: “I don’t… think that Hillary Clinton is stupid enough to seriously try to get the movie suppressed. But she must be tempted. Ach, well, she should have made better life choices.”

ROLL CALL: On Unattended Guns, Questions Linger for Capitol Police.

Called before Congress for an oversight hearing after a tumultuous few weeks of reports of loaded service weapons left in problematic places around the Capitol and an ongoing hunt for employees who may have leaked internal information, Capitol Police Chief Kim C. Dine promised the acts would be dealt with “firmly and effectively.”

But 10 weeks after that hearing, and six months after the first incident, only one of the officers who left a weapon unattended has been disciplined. The agent assigned to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s security detail who left his Glock and magazine stuffed in the toilet seat cover holder of a Capitol Visitor Center bathroom stall served a six-day suspension without pay. He remains on assignment with the Kentucky Republican.

Disciplinary action is pending for a member of Speaker John A. Boehner’s security detail who left her loaded service weapon in the bathroom of the speaker’s suite 18 weeks ago, where a child discovered it. The case is open for a third officer whose service weapon was found on April 16 by a janitor cleaning the Capitol Police headquarters building on D Street Northeast. She remains in her position in the Mission Assurance Bureau.

Asked Tuesday if the situation concerned him, Boehner said he didn’t think the premise of the question was accurate. “I think these cases have been dealt with and decisions have been made in regards to sanctions on those individuals,” the Ohio Republican said in response to CQ Roll Call’s question during his weekly news conference.

The department has declined to publicly comment on the cases, except in front of Congress, citing a policy of not discussing disciplinary action.

Remember, only trained law enforcement officers can be trusted with firearms. Because they’re accountable!

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Ivy Honors And The Justices: “The differential treatment of justices on the right and left of the Court provides more evidence of the high double standards of higher education. It also offers some indirect evidence that professors on the right likely suffer discrimination in the elite legal academy. After all, the faculty and the administration of the law schools likely have some influence on who gets honorary degrees. And no doubt there is likely to be a similar message in many classrooms about which justices are worthy of emulation.”

OHIO DEM STATE REP: ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ CROWD SHOULD PROTEST PLANNED PARENTHOOD:

“Five thousand, four hundred and ninety-nine abortions are in Cuyahoga County, which I happen to represent,” Patmon said in a speech Tuesday. “And 63 percent of them are black women.”

Video at link. As Moe Lane adds, African-Americans have serious moral issues with abortion. It doesn’t stop African-Americans from voting for Democrats, obviously – but their personal attitudes on abortion still remain. So the Democrats are playing with some serious fire, here. Because you may have noticed that the crowd was firmly in agreement with state Representative Patmon on all of this…”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: NPR: Should Law Schools Pay If Students Don’t Get Jobs?

NO BAYING OVER SPILLED MILK:  For those of you who bought Sasquan (Worldcon) memberships, the deadline for voting is coming up fast.  Don’t forget to vote.

TERRORIST OR DEAD?  Mullah Omar Dead?

MICKEY KAUS ON ANN COULTER’S NEW BOOK ON IMMIGRATION: “Her book would be incendiary if Donald Trump hadn’t come along and made her look like Desmond Tutu. Now maybe we can consider her six big points coolly and calmly. Probably not, of course. But here they are.”

MODERN ART IS DEAD: And I don’t feel so good myself. This is what happens when art becomes a racket at public expense.  Or as Robert A. Heinlein said “A government supported artist is a whore — an incompetent one.”

HE DOESN’T LOOK A DAY OVER 74: Bugs Bunny at 75: Watch the First-Ever ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ Moment.

HE DRINKS HIS OWN INK: Obama: ‘I’m a Pretty Good President’ And If I Ran For a Third Term, I Could Win.

MEANWHILE IN EUROPE: France deployed 120 riot police to Calais on Wednesday to bolster security after thousands of migrants tried to enter Britain through the Channel Tunnel in recent days, with the resulting chaos leading to at least one death. “British daily The Times reported Wednesday that up to 3,000 were involved in a closely coordinated plan to cross the English Channel into Britain on Monday night alone.”

Hmm. “A closely coordinated plan to cross the English Channel into Britain.” Sounds like an invasion.

DO IT: Watch the Trailer for Michael Bay’s Benghazi Thriller ’13 Hours’.

EVERYTHING IS A LIE: “Leftists eternally reference per capita calculations in order to present Australia’s carbon dioxide output in the worst possible light. Yet they do not apply any per capita analysis to Australia’s refugee intake – and for the very same reason.”