NOT JUST A DISAPPOINTMENT, BUT A CONSTITUTIONAL DEBACLE: The Supreme Court rules in favor of Biden administration social media censorship.

UPDATE: More from the NCLA. “Today, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to vacate a historic preliminary injunction granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the case of Murthy v. Missouri, finding that the Respondents protected by the injunction lacked standing to support injunctive (that is, future) relief. The injunction had barred officials from the White House, CDC, FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Surgeon General’s office from encouraging social media platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech. Representing Drs. Jayanta Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff, and Aaron Kheriaty, and Ms. Jill Hines, the New Civil Liberties Alliance is disappointed by this dramatic shrinking of Americans’ First Amendment rights. The Court today protected the government’s ability to censor truthful speech that opposed the government’s false and manipulative narratives on multiple aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic, including our clients’ true statements challenging government falsehoods about natural immunity, vaccine efficacy, masking, the origins of the Wuhan virus, and many other topics.”

PROGRESS: U. Wyoming’s vice president of DEI announces departure as university shutters DEI office.

LOSERS: Meet the Florida State University students arrested at Hamas-endorsed protest.

THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR SHOULD INVALIDATE A SEARCH: Security Cameras Turned Off During Mar-a-Lago Raid ‘For Agent Safety.’

Related:A Due Process Right to Record the Police.

THE TORRICELLI OPTION: Ballot watchdog warns of Democrats illegally switching out Biden for Clinton.

It could be worse: “To anyone watching closely, it’s been obvious that Obama has been thinking about where he fits in today’s political mêlée and working on his public tone.”

STRANGE NEW RESPECT FOR THE TRADES: I Went To Yale Law School And Trade School Because American Prosperity Depends On Both Lawyers And Tradespeople.

HE CAN’T: “The phrase that caught my attention is ‘how much work President Biden will need to do ahead of November.’ Biden is supposed to bring these diverse groups together after so many decades of using them as separate blocs and expecting them to vote the same way in the end? Biden can barely do a minimal job of appearing to be a candidate for reelection. How could he perform this magical task in the last 4 months?”

Related: “Since Trump, upon election, will be a lame duck, I think his prime concern should be who will be best able to carry Trumpism forward into the 2028 election and beyond. In that light, isn’t Vance the right pick? Do you realize that J.D. Vance is only 39?”

THE LEFT’S NEW MANTRA: Submit to leftism or you’re an authoritarian.

They call Javier Millei a fascist as he slashes government and restores freedom and prosperity. If that be fascism, make more of it.

AL JAZEERA ON THE POTOMAC: WaPo Reporter Taylor Lorenz Boosts Defenses of Los Angeles Synagogue Protest: Taylor Lorenz pushed false claim LA synagogue was auctioning Palestinian land.

Remember when lefties told us to punch Nazis?

EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED: Matthew Yglesias: Elite misinformation is an underrated problem: Important institutions are too eager to mislead people. “This strikes me as a shortsighted and pernicious way to think about the purpose of communicating with the public.”

“Shortsighted and pernicious” is a good shorthand for our ruling class, though I’d add “corrupt and incompetent” to the mix.

TOM KNIGHTON: Politically Selective Prosecution.

The way things are supposed to work in our country, people shouldn’t be punished selectively. Their politics should be largely irrelevant to their prosecution nor should who they are or what they stand for prevent it if prosecution is warranted.

That’s the ideal situation, at least.

In reality, prosecutors use all kinds of criteria to determine who gets prosecuted and who doesn’t. Sometimes, that’s informed by the DA’s politics. A conservative “tough on crime” type might prosecute someone that a more liberal DA would let walk, for example.

But again, as long as the defendant’s politics don’t play into things, I don’t have an issue with that. District attorneys are voted on, after all, and people deserve what they vote for.

In Manhattan, however, DA Alvin Bragg isn’t trying to be subtle. He’s blatantly allowing his politics to expressly determine who gets prosecuted and who doesn’t.

For example, we all know about Trump’s prosecution for a crime that makes absolutely no sense. Bragg distorted the law and likely only got a conviction because of an equally biased judge. The idea that an internal accounting error, at worst, is fraud was stupid beyond belief.

Then there’s the flip side, where now people feel betrayed by Bragg over who he didn’t prosecute. . . .

Let’s remember that the mob at Columbia wasn’t just antisemitic. Being antisemitic is constitutionally protected, after all.

Oh no, they were violent. They assaulted individuals, held people in buildings against their will, and took over entire buildings. They destroyed university property as well.

These are real crimes that don’t require the mental contortionism Bragg engaged in when going after Trump, and yet he opted not to prosecute them. Why?

The obvious answer is that they held the right politics.

When the law isn’t evenhanded, people will take the law into their own hands.

SOUNDS LIKE A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY TO ME: How Biden’s DOE Outsourced Regulations to Climate Alarmists.

JESSE SINGAL: On The Urge To Think Things Suck Worse Now Than Ever Before: And Scientific American’s ***COMPLICITY*** in spreading that foul meme.

To be fair, Scientific American hasn’t been scientific in quite a long time.

“EXPERTS.” Elon Musk and other DEI critics are latching on to ‘MEI,’ a new hiring catchphrase that experts say misses the point.

Meet “MEI,” short for “merit, excellence, and intelligence,” and coined by Alexandr Wang, cofounder and CEO of Scale AI, a startup valued at $4 billion that provides companies with labeled data used to train artificial intelligence models. “MEI,” according to a blog post authored by Wang, represents a “hiring principle” that ensures one “[hires] only the best person for the job.”

You can see why “experts” would be uncomfortable with that.

AN ATTACK ON OUR INSTITUTIONS AND “OUR DEMOCRACY.” Inside the million-dollar campaign to smear the Supreme Court ahead of 2024 election.

WE USED TO HAVE THAT SPIRIT HERE: Kenya Explodes in Violence as Protesters Breach the Parliament Building to Protest Planned Tax Increases.

Even in Tennessee, not that long ago.

RSS UPDATE: Old Feedburner feed no longer available. New RSS feed — also at the link at the top — is https://instapundit.com/feed/.

READER BOOK PLUG: From my former student turned Naval Intelligence officer and naval historian, Nathan Canestaro, The Mighty Moo: The USS Cowpens and Her Epic World War II Journey from Jinx Ship to the Navy’s First Carrier into Tokyo Bay.

OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China returns samples from the moon’s far side in historic 1st (video).

EAT MORE ITALIAN: Garlic Could Be a Secret Weapon to Keep Down Your Glucose And Cholesterol.

STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: Critical Leak: How a Spacesuit Malfunction Compromised Spacewalk 90. This flight seems plagued with bugs.

HMM: Having kidney transplant while awake a “pretty cool experience.”

MICROBIOME NEWS: If You Get a Lot of UTIs, Improving Your Gut Health Could Help.

WELL, GOOD: Defensive Shooting Leads to Murder Charges, But Not for the Shooter.