ED MORRISSEY: 20 States Sue To End ObamaCare — And They Might Have A Point.

The original 5-4 decision on NFIB v Sebelius et al was intellectually shaky at the time, especially with its reliance on a lower-order argument on the power of taxation. Removing the tax penalties from the mandate eliminates the factual crutch used by Justice Roberts. In the syllabus to his majority opinion, Roberts expressly found that “the individual mandate is not a valid exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause,” on which he expands shortly afterward.

Without the tax penalty, the entire structure becomes problematic — at least if we go by Roberts’ opinion that carved out the constitutional niche in the first place.

So yes, the removal of the tax does make the mandate ripe for a court to strike down. The mandate, though, is also meaningless without the penalty. The question is whether striking down the mandate would cause the court to strike down the entire ACA — and that seems unlikely.

This wouldn’t even be an issue to discuss had the GOP fulfilled its longstanding promise to repeal ObamaCare.

YUGE: Ohio Sheriff Offers Free Gun Training To 50 Teachers; Forced To Cap At 300 After Huge Response.

INNOVATION: Apple is launching its own medical clinics for its employees.

“AC Wellness Network, LLC. is a subsidiary of Apple, Inc. and is the dedicated management services organization (MSO) for AC Wellness Network, a dedicated independent medical group that serves Apple Wellness Centers in Santa Clara Valley,” you can read in job ads on Indeed.com. “Our mission is to deliver the world’s best healthcare experiences for Apple employees.”

CNBC found two clinics in Santa Clara County, not far from Apple’s offices in Cupertino. In addition to making sure that your employees have everything they need to remain healthy, Apple could use this subsidiary to test new devices and services.

This isn’t the first time private companies form healthcare companies for their own employees. Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire are teaming up to form their own healthcare company.

They’re trying to fix what Washington has broken.

GOOD LORD: Sec. Shulkin Backtracks on Veteran Admin’s Medical Experiments on Puppies.

POST-REELECTION FLEXIBILITY OR MERELY ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL? Russia compromised seven states prior to 2016 election.

Tell me again whose amazingly scandal-free administration was supposed to be in charge of preventing this kind of thing.

BALDILOCKS: We’re Not Disarming Fast Enough for the Left. “They’ve been trying to get ‘er done for some time. Everything we see in the media right now are just the new tactics. The attacks on the NRA seem pointless, but I don’t think the Organized Left cares about taking down the NRA. Not really. A mindset is being planted.”

Read the whole thing.

MICHAEL WALSH: The death throes of the legacy media are not a pretty sight.

It might not be much to look at, but it’s schadenfreudelicious!

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Gun Control Legislation Push, Mueller Expands Probe and Much, Much More. “I had no doubt he was going to do this. My husband and I both knew that we would eventually see him one day on the news, wearing an orange jumpsuit being charged with murder.”

HMM: Senate Key Race alert: Texas is no longer Solid Republican.

Beto O’Rourke versus Ted Cruz:

The Democratic underdog from El Paso outraised the first-term Republican senator and former presidential candidate by $1.5 million — $2.3 million to $800,000 — from the beginning of 2018 through mid-February. That impressive fundraising haul comes after O’Rourke also outpaced Cruz in the closing quarter of 2017, $2.4 million to $1.8 million.

Cruz still holds a clear advantage in the race. When it comes to cash on hand, Cruz leads O’Rourke by a little more than $1 million.

The Republican also has recent Texas electoral history on his side. Democrats haven’t won a statewide election there since Bob Bullock’s re-election as lieutenant governor in 1994. The last Democrat elected to the US Senate from Texas? Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.

O’Rourke is hoping to end the Democratic skid by running a different kind of campaign, embracing his punk rock roots. He’s been traveling from one event to another in a car with aides, listening to Spotify and sharing it all with the world via Facebook and Twitter. O’Rourke has already visited 223 of the state’s 254 counties, including some deep red turf.

Remember Wendy Davis and her “iconic” tennis shoes — and her huge loss to Greg Abbott anyway? O’Rourke seems to be running a hip campaign, but I’m not sure there’s as much to this story as CNN’s headline implies.

CHANGE: Dick’s, Major Gun Retailer, Will Stop Selling Assault-Style Rifles.

Given the hypercompetitive retail environment, I’m not sure annoying a key demo is CEO Edward Stack’s smartest move.

I THOUGHT THIS IS WHAT EVERYONE TRAINED FOR, POST-COLUMBINE: Denton County Sheriff: We don’t wait, we engage active shooters.

“We do not stage and wait for SWAT, we do not take cover in a parking lot, and we do not wait for another agency. We go in and do our duty. We go in to engage and stop the shooter and save lives,” Sheriff Tracy Murphree wrote.

Murphree said the memo was designed to make his policy clear on what to do in situations like a school shooting.

“If for any reason you cannot follow this directive please inform your supervisor and we will work to get you re-assigned,” Murphree wrote.

That seems both fair and responsible.

REPORT: Rick Perry planning nuclear energy talks with Saudi Arabia.

The administration is reportedly considering a deal that would allow Saudi Arabia to enrich and reprocess uranium while setting up American companies including Westinghouse Electric Co. to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East.

Perry’s meeting with Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih is seen as a crucial stage in the negotiations, which have reportedly been ongoing for months.

Saudi Arabia plans to build 16 nuclear reactors over the next 20 to 25 years, according to the report. The Trump administration is reportedly considering whether to ease restrictions on the sharing of nuclear technology in order to help U.S. companies compete for bids to build those reactors.

Even the oil-soaked Saudis are getting serious about reducing greenhouse gasses — what’s wrong with our homegrown “environmentalists?”

HEH: Democratic lawmaker in Virginia holds hammer-and-sickle image behind colleague aligned with Democratic Socialists.

“Even though sometimes we get overboard by laughing and having fun with each other in terms of our debates, I don’t think our House or any of our committees should be a place where we bring juvenile jokes like that,” Keam said.

Carter seemed visibly unhappy when Keam approached him to talk after the House adjourned. Other Democratic leaders also got involved in an apparent attempt to smooth things over.

“After watching the video, it was clearly intended as a joke, but it was in very poor taste and rooted in a lack of knowledge about the history of the political left,” Carter said Monday evening.

Must’ve hit it pretty close to the mark to get him all riled up like that.

VERÄNDERUNG: Germany Paves Way for Diesel Ban, Dealing Blow to Auto Makers.

A German court rang the death knell for certain diesel cars on Tuesday, striking a blow to the country’s flagship auto industry that could now be forced to spend billions to upgrade or replace millions of cars.

In a landmark decision, Germany’s Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that German cities Stuttgart and Düsseldorf could ban diesel vehicles from urban traffic as a way to reduce pollution, rejecting an appeal of a lower-court ruling. Ultimately, the ruling clears the way for any German city to ban older diesel vehicles and could inspire similar measures in cities around Europe, analysts said.

The closely watched ruling is likely to accelerate the demise of a technology that German auto makers have pushed as a panacea that provides solid driving performance, fuel economy and low greenhouse gas emissions, but which has been largely been discredited in the wake of widespread emissions-cheating scandals at Volkswagen and other car makers.

Flashback: The gap between petrol and diesel taxes in Europe is quite unique in the world and is the main reason why diesel engines have taken off in Europe and not worldwide.

Germany may ban the cars they incentivized people into buying.

NEVER TOO EARLY: 5 Things to Know About Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 Campaign Manager. “Facebook genius has political ambition and entrepreneurship in his blood.”

UH-OH: FBI now involved – 11 people ill after opening letter at Virginia military base.

OOPS: Kushner loses access to top-secret intelligence.

Kushner is not alone. All White House aides working on the highest-level interim clearances — at the Top Secret/SCI-level — were informed in a memo sent Friday that their clearances would be downgraded to the Secret level, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.

The SCI acronym stands for sensitive compartmented information, a category of information that comes from sensitive intelligence sources and must be walled off.

The memo was not signed by chief of staff John Kelly, but it comes as the retired Marine general and other top White House aides are grappling with the fallout of a scandal involving former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, which revealed that dozens of White House aides had yet to receive permanent clearances but nonetheless had access to some of the country’s deepest secrets.

It’s the right move, but it also indicates that staffing remains a problem for this White House.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Kevin Spacey Will No Longer Touch British Kids. “Suddenly nobody involved with the Kevin Spacey Foundation wants you to know that they had anything to do with it.”

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Dolce & Gabbana used drones to carry handbags down the runway instead of models.

THESE ARE HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS — WE JUST LIVE IN THEM: Mexican Women ‘Marry’ Trees in Mass Wedding Ceremony.

NEWSWEEK’S BITTER END: Dozens Of Journalists Bail As Fraud Probe Heats Up.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Dems Worry: Are We Overplaying The Gun-Control Hand?

Forget it — they’re rolling.

SPACE: Cape Canaveral could see two launches in one day Thursday.

Two launch pads at Cape Canaveral could host a pair of satellite launches separated by fewer than 17 hours Thursday, a rapid-fire turnaround made possible by an automated range safety mechanism and other upgrades to cut the time between missions at the Florida spaceport.

A spokesperson for Hispasat, which owns a communications satellite set for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, told Spaceflight Now on Monday that the mission is scheduled for liftoff shortly after midnight Thursday, Florida time.

The Falcon 9’s two-hour launch window opens at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT) Wednesday, pending final approval from the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Space Wing, which runs the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, a network of communications, tracking and safety installations used by every launch from Florida’s Space Coast.

Assuming Air Force officials grant SpaceX’s request for a launch date Wednesday, it would be the first of two blastoffs from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in a span of around 16-and-a-half hours.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is on track for launch Thursday during a two-hour launch window beginning at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT).

I’d say “Faster, please,” but in this case that feels presumptuous.

NOTHING MORE THAN A FRIENDLY SUGGESTION, I’M SURE: Internal Email Shows Broward Sheriff’s Office Urging Staffers to ‘Stand With’ Sheriff Israel.

GENTLEMEN, YOU CAN’T OPINE HERE — THIS IS THE OP-ED PAGE!: “The newsroom feels embarrassed”: Backfires and Explosions at the New York Times as a Possible Future Chief Re-invents the Paper’s Opinion Pages.