PBS NewsHour and FiveThirtyEight examine the end of the Supreme Court term

I am in too serious a mood because of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and other decisions about guns, the establishment clause, and West Virgina vs. EPA to posting about entertainment today. Besides, I posted entries about entertainment and pop culture for Canada Day and World UFO Day and will likely post something light tomorrow for July 4th. I'll make up for it.

I begin today's examination with PBS NewsHour's Supreme Court hands down climate change, immigration rulings on final day of historic term.

The U.S. Supreme Court has wrapped up a term that rewrote the law books on abortion, guns, climate change and asylum policy. That, in turn, set the stage for more history, when Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman on the court. She was sworn in Thursday by Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired. The National Law Journal's Marcia Coyle joins John Yang to discuss.

This has certainly been an eventful term, thanks to the three justices that The Former Guy appointed, which moved the court even more to the right. The damage from his maladministration continues, a year and a half after he left office. At least the Biden Administration can claim victories over immigration and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

I'm continuing with PBS NewsHour's EPA Administrator Michael Regan discusses Supreme Court ruling on climate change.

Many environmental advocates acknowledged Thursday that the Supreme Court's decision in the Environmental Protection Agency’s case is a significant blow in the government's efforts to limit greenhouse gases in the short term. West Virginia won the case after a legal battle over the clean power plan. EPA Administrator Michael Regan joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

This is indeed bad news for fighting climate change and could be a precedent that constrains regulations by many branches of government. The good news is that hasn't happened yet and greenhouse gas emissions from power plants are decreasing because of market forces, which EPA Administrator Michael Regan mentioned in his interview. May we continue to be so lucky.

Follow over the jump for three of FiveThirtyEight's videos explaining the Supreme Court's decisions about abortion, the establishment clause, and guns.

I am beginning FiveThirtyEight's coverage with Here’s What Overturning Roe Means For Abortion Access Across The U.S.*

The Supreme Court just overturned Roe v. Wade. Before today, the right to an abortion was protected under the U.S. Constitution, which meant that state lawmakers couldn’t just ban the procedure if they wanted to. Now states have free rein to ban abortion, to restrict abortion and to regulate abortion. So what happens next? Here’s where abortion laws stand in each state.

That's a useful guide to an unpleasant situation.

Next, The Supreme Court Dealt A Big Blow To The Separation Of Church And State.

On Monday, the Supreme Court released an opinion that could erode the separation between church and state. In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the court’s conservative majority ruled that a public high school football coach was within his rights to pray at midfield after games. In doing so, the court abandoned a decades-long precedent on how the First Amendment is interpreted.

This may be a popular decision, unlike many of the others I'm highlighting today, but I think it's also a bad precedent.

Finally, I'm embedding How The Supreme Court’s Gun Ruling Remakes Gun Control For Millions Of Americans.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that the right to bear arms in public is protected by the Second Amendment. This means that it could soon be much easier to carry a handgun on the streets of New York or Los Angeles. What will Americans think of the decision?

This is the decision in the case that worried Samantha Bee and it's bad news for gun control. The good news is Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a gun control bill into law. I'll take that half a loaf from the other two branches of government.

Stay tuned for July 4th. Will the theme be drum corps or theme parks? Come back to find out!

*FiveThirtyEight has two more videos about the fallout from the decision. Both are about a half-hour long, so I decided to save them for a future post.