10 things you need to know today: June 28, 2023

A photograph of voting rights activists outside the U.S. Supreme Court holding a sign saying &quot;Hands Off My Vote!&quot;

The Supreme Court ruled that states don't have unchecked power to make election laws

(Image credit: Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

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1. Supreme Court rejects GOP theory in N.C. election law dispute
2. Prigozhin arrives in Belarus
3. Appeals court says Trump has to face N.Y. lawsuit, Ivanka doesn't
4. Senate panel says FBI, Homeland Security missed Jan. 6 warning signs
5. Residents clash with police in Paris suburb after officer kills delivery driver
6. Canadian wildfire smoke chokes Chicago
7. Mississippi deputies fired over abuse allegations
8. Ford to lay off 1,000 U.S. employees
9. DOJ watchdog cites jail failures in Epstein suicide
10. Actor Julian Sands' death confirmed after remains identified

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 28 June 2023

1. Supreme Court rejects GOP theory in N.C. election law dispute

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that states don't have unchecked power to make election laws. The court affirmed in the 6-3 decision that state courts can review state laws on how to hold federal elections, rejecting North Carolina Republicans' appeal based on the once-fringe "independent state legislature" theory that state courts had no authority to review election laws for federal races. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote that the Constitution's elections clause "does not insulate state legislatures from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review." Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Thomas argued the case was moot because the North Carolina Supreme Court, which shifted from a liberal to a conservative majority in November, vacated its previous decision.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, arrived in Belarus on Tuesday, ending speculation about his whereabouts, according to Belarusian state media. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, Putin's closest ally, brokered a deal granting Wagner troops amnesty after Prigozhin called off a march by thousands of his troops toward Moscow, and offering Prigozhin exile in Belarus. The uprising posed the biggest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule in two decades. Putin reasserted his authority and portrayed the 24-hour mutiny over the weekend as a sign of the Russian state's strength, praising Russian soldiers for having "essentially stopped a civil war." U.S. intelligence indicated at least one high-ranking Russian general knew about Prigozhin's rebellion plans in advance.

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A New York appeals court on Tuesday ruled that state Attorney General Letitia James' civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump could proceed but dismissed his daughter Ivanka Trump as a co-defendant. Trump had asked the court to end James' lawsuit, which accuses him of "staggering" fraud. James filed the case in September, saying Trump lied about the values of his properties and his net worth to get better terms from lenders and insurers. The lawsuit seeks $250 million in damages from Trump, the Trump Organization, and his eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who have key roles in running the family businesses. Trump has dismissed the civil case and two unrelated criminal indictments as a "witch hunt" orchestrated by Democrats.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security overlooked "a massive amount of intelligence information" signaling possible trouble at the Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of then-President Donald Trump's supporters, the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), said Tuesday. The comments came as the panel released a report on intelligence failures ahead of the riot by Trump supporters trying to block Congress from certifying President Biden's 2020 election victory. Among the tips the FBI ignored was a December 2020 warning that members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group planned to be in Washington, D.C., that day "to literally kill people."

Angry residents in the Paris suburb of Nanterre set barricades and vehicles on fire and clashed with police late Tuesday after a motorcycle officer shot and killed a 17-year-old delivery driver at close range during a traffic stop. Police arrested 13 people. The unidentified officer was detained on suspicion of manslaughter. Police said the officer fired out of fear the driver, identified by his family's lawyers as Nael M., was going to run over two officers. A video circulating widely online appeared to contradict that account. It shows two officers leaning into the driver's window of a yellow car when it pulls away and one of the officers opens fire.

Thick smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the Midwest, making Chicago's air quality the worst in the world on Tuesday. Seeing a city like Chicago, which doesn't normally "have this kind of perennial problem with air quality, at the top of that list, just gives you an idea of how unusual the conditions are right now," said Trent Ford, the Illinois state climatologist. The air quality index rose to a level rated "very unhealthy," according to AirNow, a website that tracks air quality agencies nationwide. Zac Adelman, executive director of the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium, said it's common to have smoke "in the atmosphere," because "there's something burning in North America at all times," but it's rare for it to be so thick at ground level.

Five Mississippi sheriff's deputies have been fired or resigned after being accused of beating and sexually assaulting two Black men, and shooting one of them, Michael Corey Jenkins, in the mouth, Rankin County, Mississippi, Sheriff Bryan Bailey announced Tuesday. Jenkins and his friend, Eddie Terrell Parker, said six deputies burst into a home without a warrant on Jan. 24, and beat them. They said the deputies assaulted them with a sex toy and repeatedly shocked them with Tasers before one of the deputies put a gun in Jenkins' mouth and fired, seriously injuring his face, tongue, and jaw. The Justice Department is conducting a civil rights investigation of the Rankin County Sheriff's Department.

Ford Motor plans to lay off 1,000 or more salaried and contract workers in North America, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The auto maker started notifying some salaried employees of the coming cuts on Monday, a company spokesperson confirmed. The layoffs are expected to focus on engineers. Ford has been cutting costs to offset heavy investments in electric cars. The company went through several rounds of layoffs last year. It cut 3,000 U.S. jobs — out of a North America staff of about 28,000 salaried employees — last summer and a slightly larger number in Europe early this year.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Tuesday that a "combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures" by federal Bureau of Prisons officials and New York City jail workers made it possible for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to commit suicide in his cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. The DOJ watchdog said there was no evidence of foul play. Horowitz said Epstein was left alone in his cell with extra bed linens, which he used to hang himself, despite an earlier suicide attempt. Guards also failed to check on him regularly. Horowitz said the failures also "led to questions about the circumstances" of Epstein's death and deprived his victims of justice in court.

California authorities confirmed Tuesday that human remains found by hikers near Mount Baldy were those of British actor Julian Sands, who went missing in January. Sands, 65, was an avid outdoorsman. His family said on Jan. 13 that he had not returned after going hiking in the Baldy Bowl Trail area of the San Gabriel Mountains earlier that day. The local sheriff's department and volunteers had been searching for him ever since, although the effort was hampered for weeks by unusually harsh winter weather. Sands was best known for his role opposite Helena Bonham Carter in 1985's "A Room With a View," and for "Warlock." Investigators are still trying to determine how he died.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.