The Week Magazine July 8, 2022 - July 15, 2022

Every four years, pundits proclaim that “this is the most important election of our lifetimes.” In 2016, we now know, it was actually true. The election of Donald Trump to the presidency was an asteroid strike that profoundly altered America’s political and cultural landscape. Six years ago, Trump offered a devil’s bargain to evangelical Christians: If they gave a thrice-married, biblically illiterate New York City libertine their vote, he’d deliver Supreme Court justices who’d overturn Roe and promote a conservative Christian agenda. Trump delivered, with help from Mitch McConnell and Democrats who stayed home in 2016 or voted for Jill Stein because of their distaste for Hillary Clinton. Trump appointed three Federalist Society–minted justices who, last week, gleefully erased Roe—triggering a war between the states over abortion whose consequences we…

What happened A woman’s constitutional right to an abortion came to an end after a half century last week, as an emboldened Supreme Court conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade by a vote of 6 to 3. The ruling, a long-sought victory for abortion foes that thrilled the right-to-life movement and caused anguish for supporters of choice, empowers states to decide on abortion’s legality. As a result, abortion will be criminalized or severely restricted in 26 states and remain a protected right in 24. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the majority opinion, which was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Alito said the 1973 ruling erred in its conclusion that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment conferred an…

What happened The Supreme Court’s conservative majority effectively overturned precedent in several transformative cases this week, striking down a 111-year-old state gun law and defending a high school football coach’s public prayer sessions. In a 6-3 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, the court overturned New York’s Sullivan Act, which required seekers of concealed-carry handgun permits to demonstrate “some special need” for self-defense. Five other states have similar laws. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms was “not a second-class right” subject to bureaucratic whim. In his dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer said the ruling refused to consider a state’s interest in legislating to keep its people safe, even though 2020 alone saw 45,000…

Last month, 20-year-old Anthony Perry noticed an unconscious man on the electrified third rail of an L train stop in Chicago. Perry jumped onto the tracks, grabbed the man, and performed CPR with another commuter—likely saving the man’s life. Early Walker, founder of the anti-violence organization I’m Telling Don’t Shoot recently gathered Perry’s neighbors together to award him a gift for his heroism: A 2009 Audi A8. Perry is looking forward to driving the car to work, and skipping the L—along with the rest of his daily two-bus-and-a-train commute. In 1972, a thief snagged a pair of 19th-century portraits worth $30,000 from the historical society in New Paltz, N.Y., as police were tied up with a fire elsewhere in town. Five decades later, Josephine Bloodgood, the society’s curator, joined librarian…

“Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony landed like a bomb,” said Elie Honig in CNN.com. This week, the former White House aide blew the roof off the Jan. 6 committee hearings as she offered a stunning, blow-by-blow account of President Trump’s unhinged behavior on the day of the deadly assault on the Capitol. Hutchinson, a special assistant to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said that Trump was warned his Jan. 6 rallygoers were carrying knives, clubs, brass knuckles, stun guns, and spears fastened onto flagpoles and, outside the perimeter, even AR-15s—but still demanded they be let in before the march to the Capitol. “I don’t f---ing care that they have weapons,” she quoted Trump as saying. “They’re not here to hurt me.” The aide, 26, said an enraged Trump…

Good week for: Golden handshakes, after an office worker in Chile was accidentally paid the equivalent of $180,000—286 times the usual monthly salary. The unnamed employee initially promised to reimburse the company—but did not, and has now disappeared. Definite articles, after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved The Ohio State University’s bid to trademark the word “The” on sports apparel and merchandise. “THE has been a rallying cry in the Ohio State community for many years,” said a university spokesman. Everyone, after BioNTech and Pfizer announced they would begin testing in the second half of this year a new pan-coronavirus vaccine that would, in theory, provide protection against all variants. Bad week for: The Week, which in the June 24 issue misidentified Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancé in this space.…