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1. A State Supreme Court Justice Decries the “Horrors and Treachery” Coming From SCOTUS
2. Trump Made a Freudian Slip About Abortion. You Probably Missed It.
3. How Bad Are Biden’s Polling Numbers Right Now? Are You Sitting Down?
4. The Prosecution Actually Wants the Jury to Think Michael Cohen Is a Pathetic Scumbag

“I was genuinely not sure if I would finish the day alive”: Lockdown drills to prepare students for a school shooter are now a common part of the school year for most, but little time has been spent talking with kids themselves about what it’s really like to routinely practice the unthinkable. In collaboration with the Trace, we asked kids of all ages—from 6 to 17—about how these active shooter drills feel: at times, scary, goofy, surreal, fun, pointless, and all-too-real. Hear it in their own words, and then listen to today’s What Next episode with Tali Woodward, deputy editor at the Trace.

Impeachment: OK, the House hadn’t voted on impeachment by the time I finished this newsletter, so here are some other things about the I-word. First, Dahlia Lithwick breaks the obvious bad news: The Senate is not going to play by the rules on impeachment, but that doesn’t mean the trial is totally thrown already. Mark Joseph Stern reports on what the Senate is doing instead: pushing through 13 judicial confirmations today, further cementing Donald Trump’s legacy in elevating many, many candidates to the federal bench. And, preempting more holiday politics talk, Dahlia’s back with a way to dispense with the patently absurd lies surrounding impeachment. It involves ponies.

Slow Burn: If you’ve been waiting for the season finale to finally hear about Biggie and Tupac, I’ve got great news! Episode 8 is now live: Joel Anderson looks into the investigations of Biggie and Tupac’s deaths, their legacies, and what hip-hop lost. There’s also a Slate Plus bonus episode, featuring reporter Cathy Scott, on what went wrong with the investigation into Tupac’s murder. This week’s transcript excerpt showcases Greg Kading, who was a narcotics detective in Los Angeles when Biggie’s case was reopened in 2006.

End of the 2010s: More of our end-of-decade stories are up! Mark Joseph Stern explored how a decade of conservative jurisprudence gutted class-action lawsuits, leaving employees and consumers with ever-limited options to be made whole in a company-driven world. Meanwhile, Black women claimed the spotlight in the current era of protest, which, Julia Craven writes, “is inclusive in an unprecedented way and challenges what it means to be a Black American interested in liberation.”

For fun:Here’s why Sam Adams didn’t like The Rise of Skywalker.

Hooked on Star Trek,
Dawnthea

 

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