memeorandum: Now's the Time To End Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions (Mark Oppenheimer/TIME)

12:00 PM ET, June 29, 2015

Top Items:

Sen. Rand Paul / TIME:

Rand Paul: Government Should Get Out of the Marriage Business Altogether — Paul is the junior U.S. Senator for Kentucky. — While I disagree with Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage, I believe that all Americans have the right to contract. — The Constitution is silent on the question …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Hit & Run, Politico, The Week, Real Clear Politics, Bloomberg Business, Vox Popoli, Instapundit, The Daily Caller and PinkNews

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton:

Attorney General Paxton: Religious Liberties of Texas Public Officials Remain Constitutionally Protected After Obergefell v. Hodges — Attorney General Ken Paxton today made the following statement and issued an opinion in response to questions about the impact of Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that redefined marriage:

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Dallas Morning News, Washington Post, Guardian, Daily Kos, Shakesville, Trail Blazers Blog, Above the Law, TFN Insider, Outside the Beltway, Towleroad, Hinterland Gazette, Mashable, Politico and Wall Street Journal

Austin American-Statesman:
Texas AG: County clerks can refuse gay couples

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, The Last Tradition, Althouse, Walid Shoebat, Daily Kos and Wall Street Journal

Lauren McGaughy / Houston Chronicle:
Texas AG tells clerks they can flout Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Balloon Juice

Patrick Svitek / The Texas Tribune:
Cruz: Clerks Should be Able to Opt Out of Gay Marriage Licenses

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, msnbc.com, Towleroad, Guardian and Off the Kuff

Alexa Ura / The Texas Tribune:
Paxton: Clerks Don't Have to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

Discussion: Reuters, Off the Kuff, The Week and San Antonio Current

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg Business:

States Seeking Voter Citizenship Proof Denied by U.S. Supreme Court — The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider letting states require evidence of citizenship when people register to vote for federal elections, rejecting an appeal from Arizona and Kansas.

Discussion: Politico, Election Law Blog, Hinterland Gazette and Political Wire

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg Business:

Independent Redistricting Panel Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court — The 5-4 ruling is a setback to Arizona Republicans. — The U.S. Supreme Court bolstered efforts to make federal elections more competitive, upholding an independent commission set up by Arizona voters to draw congressional districts.

Discussion: Political Wire

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg Business:

BP, Anadarko Rejected by U.S. Supreme Court on Gulf Spill Fines — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from BP Plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., leaving intact a ruling that opens the companies to potentially billions of dollars in fines for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Discussion: The Week

Peter Nicholas / Wall Street Journal:

Will He Run? Biden Speculation Mounts — Both sons urged the vice president to enter 2016 presidential race, but so far a bid doesn't seem imminent — When deciding whether to run for office, Vice President Joe Biden has made it a practice to seek his family's counsel.

Discussion: Philly.com, Politico, OnPolitics, Daily Mail, Moe Lane and Washington Post

Juan Williams / The Hill: The pollution of politics — When President Obama lobbied …

Michael Falcone / ABC News:
The Note: What The GOP Is Saying About SCOTUS

Discussion: Slantpoint, NBC News and Associated Press

Todd J. Gillman / Trail Blazers Blog:

Updated: Spat escalates as Ted Cruz dusts off 2009 email to rebut Karl Rove denial on Bush41 endorsement episode — Republican strategist Karl Rove speaking in Sacramento on March 2, 2013 — Sen. Ted Cruz at the Capitol on Sept. 23, 2013. — updated 9:45pm

Discussion: Washington Post

Karl Rove / Medium:
A Time for Setting the Record Straight

Discussion: Dallas Morning News, Fox News, Washington Post and Cruz for President

Matthew Boyle / BREITBART.COM:
Exclusive — Cruz's New Book : Rove Thought Bush '41 ‘Too Old to Have Good Judgment’

Discussion: Politico and New York Times

Kim Bellware / The Huffington Post:

Supreme Court Upholds Oklahoma's Use Of Lethal Injection Drug — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled in a 5-4 vote that Oklahoma may continue to use a controversial lethal injection drug during executions. — The Oklahoma death row prisoners who brought the matter to court …

Discussion: Business Insider and Daily Kos

Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Supreme Court Allows Use of Execution Drug

Discussion: Washington Post, The Week, The New Republic, The Verge and Slate

New York Times:

Puerto Rico's Governor Says Island's Debts Are ‘Not Payable’ — Puerto Rico's governor, saying he needs to pull the island out of a “death spiral,” has concluded that the commonwealth cannot pay its roughly $72 billion in debts, an admission that will probably have wide-reaching financial repercussions.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Politico, Telegraph, Washington Post, Business Insider, The Last Tradition, Reuters, Bloomberg View, NBC News, The Week and Bloomberg Business

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

Chief Justice Roberts' Marriage Equality Dissent Has A Hidden Message For Conservatives — Friday's landmark victory for marriage equality was handed down over the dissents of four justices, each of whom wrote their own dissenting opinion. Of these, by far the most thoughtful …

Discussion: Washington Post, Hit & Run and Hot Air

Mark Oppenheimer / TIME:

Now's the Time To End Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions — Mark Oppenheimer writes the biweekly “Beliefs” column for The New York Times and is editor-at-large for Tablet. He also reports for The Atlantic, The Nation, This American Life, and elsewhere.

Discussion: Power Line, The Federalist and RedState

Washington Post:

Jeb Bush dogged by decades of questions about business deals — In early 1989, seven weeks after his father moved into the White House, Jeb Bush took a trip to Nigeria. — Nearly 100,000 Nigerians turned out to see him over four days as he accompanied the executives of a Florida company …

Discussion: The Week

Stephen Rex Brown / New York Daily News:

Subway vigilante Bernie Goetz fighting the possible eviction of his pet squirrel — Notorious subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz is going nuts over the possible eviction of his beloved three-legged squirrel. — The eccentric gunman's pet, named Glinda's Sister, has had a rear leg amputated, and the other is paralyzed.

New York Times:

David Sweat, Escaped New York Convict, Is Shot and Captured as Hunt Ends — CONSTABLE, N.Y. — David Sweat, the remaining prison escapee on the run in northern New York, was shot by a state trooper and taken into custody on Sunday after a 23-day manhunt that began with an improbable escape …