Affirmative action, student loan forgiveness and Scot Peterson acquitted: Morning Rundown

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan after striking down affirmative action. The FBI is cracking down on fraudulent 911 calls. And why sea lions in Southern California have been attacking people.

Here’s what to know today.

Supreme Court expected to decide fate of Biden’s student loan debt plan

It’s the last day of the Supreme Court’s nine-month session. And after a high-profile ruling yesterday that struck down college affirmative action programs, all eyes are on the court — again — as it’s expected to decide whether President Joe Biden’s long-delayed plan to forgive student loan debt can move forward.

The program would allow an estimated 43 million eligible borrowers to cancel up to $20,000 in debt and is estimated to cost more than $400 billion. The Biden administration said the program would wipe out all federal student loan debt for about 20 million people. 

With a conservative-majority court, the plan faces a significant hurdle. Read the full story here.

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Affirmative action struck down

Yesterday’s decision to strike down affirmative action programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard ends the systemic consideration of race in the admissions process.

The decision will likely have impacts beyond higher education, including on K-12 schools, and puts pressure on institutions to come up with race-neutral programs that would foster racial diversity. It could also lead to future challenges to racial diversity programs used by employers. Read the full story here.

‘Swatted’ 43 times and counting 

Author Patrick Tomlinson and his wife have been “swatted” at their home in Milwaukee more than 40 times, most recently on Tuesday. “Swatting” is when people make fraudulent 911 calls to prompt a major police response to terrorize their targets. 

For Tomlinson and his wife, the calls often result in police pointing guns at their heads. Their tormentors have also called in false bomb threats to the baseball stadium where the Milwaukee Brewers play, a theater where fans gathered for a Patti Labelle concert and a local Irish pub. 

The couple’s terror comes as swatting incidents appear to be on the rise in the U.S. The FBI said it has recently formed a national database to get an idea of the problem on a national level.

Parkland security officer acquitted over failure to confront gunman

A Florida jury cleared Scot Peterson, the former school security officer who was charged over failing to confront a gunman who massacred 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Peterson had been charged with seven counts of neglect of a child and three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury. He was found not guilty on all counts. 

Peterson openly wept as the decisions were read. Afterward, in a lengthy post-verdict statement, State Attorney Harold Pryor was unapologetic about his office’s decision to prosecute Peterson even though no convictions were won.

What’s in the California reparations report

A highly anticipated report released yesterday outlines how Black Californians can receive monetary compensation for the “innumerate harms” of systemic racism throughout the state’s history. While the report did not feature a proposed payment plan, the state task force presented an estimation of at least $1 million per eligible person. The components laid out in that estimation includes health, housing discrimination, mass incarceration and unjust use of eminent domain against Black citizens.

The nearly 1,100-page document also offers suggestions for issuing a formal apology and implementing a new state-wide curriculum based on the findings.

So who would be eligible to receive reparations? And what would it take for the proposed efforts to go into effect? Here’s what to know.

▼ Today’s Talker 

Southern California beachgoers are being warned…

… to be wary of sea lions after two reports of injuries this week, an Orange County Parks spokesperson said. The creatures are ubiquitous along SoCal’s coast and usually harmless, but the mammals are very sick at the moment — so sick that “it literally affects their brains,” one expert said. 

▼ Politics in Brief

Supreme Court: In addition to its affirmative action ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court also ruled in favor of a Christian mail carrier who refused to work on Sundays, making it easier for employees to seek religious accommodations. 

E. Jean Carroll suit: A federal judge shot down Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation claims against him, writing that “presidential immunity” is “not a ‘get out of damages liability free’ card.”

Possible new evidence: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee say they have unearthed a piece of evidence from the 2019 impeachment investigation into then-President Donald Trump that they say rebuts Republican claims of a possible bribery scheme between Joe Biden and a foreign national.

War in Ukraine: The U.S. is leaning toward providing cluster munitions to Ukraine, and the announcement could come as early as next month, according to two senior officials.

▼ Staff Pick

 Putin’s stooge or savior?

Last weekend, just as the tense standoff between Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to boil over, Prigozhin announced his mercenary group was turning around. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the man at the middle of the deal, claims to have played a pivotal role in Prigozhin’s decision. But one critic says Lukashenko was “just a messenger” who helped Putin in order to save himself. — Elizabeth Robinson, newsletter editor

▼ In Case You Missed It

 A Texas grand jury determined rapper Travis Scott was not criminally responsible for the crowd crush that left 10 people dead during his 2021 Astroworld music festival.

Over 600 have been arrested in France after three days of violent protests marked by fires and looting over the police shooting of a teenager. 

A man has been charged in the stabbing of a professor and three other people during a gender studies class, in what police say was a “hate-motivated incident.”

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands is expected to apologize for his country’s role in the slave trade, which would pile pressure on the royal families of Britain, Belgium and other former slave-trading European nations to do the same.

The CDC has recommended RSV shots to older adults, clearing the way for Pfizer and GSK to begin distributing vaccinations this fall.

Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney said Bud Light’s failure to stand by her amid massive right-wing backlash was “worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all.”

A 32-year-old woman faces charges after she allegedly falsified paperwork to attend three Boston high schools for an entire academic year.

▼ Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

 With the weekend almost here and the Fourth of July just a few days away, you may be considering heading out for a picnic. You don’t need much to enjoy a meal outside, but there are some items that can help. Here are the essentials for a perfect picnic, including blankets, baskets, coolers and more.

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