The retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has triggered a political earthquake in Washington, as Republicans see an opportunity to cement a conservative majority and Democrats worry a possible overturn of abortion rights and anti-discrimination legal guidelines, and even — probably — challenges to the Affordable Care Act. Kennedy has been the deciding vote in dozens of circumstances over his lengthy profession on the excessive courtroom, largely siding with conservatives however crossing ideological traces typically sufficient that liberals see him because the final bulwark towards challenges from the precise to many insurance policies.
The Supreme Court made different well being information this week, ruling that California can not require anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” to publish indicators informing ladies of their proper to an abortion and telling them that monetary assist is accessible.
This week’s panelists for KHN’s “What the Health?” are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times.
Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:
Kennedy’s retirement will put all eyes on the Senate, the place Republicans have a slim majority however have additionally modified the foundations to permit affirmation with solely 51 votes as an alternative of the same old 60. The combat over Kennedy’s substitute is more likely to provoke each Republicans and Democrats, but in addition put within the scorching seat the 2 Republican feminine senators who’ve supported abortion rights — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. This week’s primaries once more put the highlight on Democratic assist of single-payer well being proposals, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez upset the fourth-ranking Democrat within the House in New York and former NAACP head Ben Jealous gained the Democratic nomination for governor in Maryland. But whereas Democrats have made clear that well being is their high challenge for the approaching marketing campaign, they’ve to this point managed to paper over their intraparty variations on incremental versus wholesale change. The California legislature might vote on a measure as quickly as Thursday that will intestine efforts by municipalities to place in place soda taxes. If it passes, it is going to mark a change in momentum away from the success of those measures throughout the nation. The soda business took a web page from the tobacco firms in executing this plan. The controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s immigration coverage that separates youngsters from their mother and father on the border continued to be a flashpoint this week. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was questioned about it on Capitol Hill throughout a listening to about drug pricing. Congressional Republicans discover themselves in a troublesome place. Many don’t need to defend the administration, however there doesn’t appear to be an avenue by which to maneuver ahead both.
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