NEWS WRAP

The fight is not over

• Still for ‘For the People’? | Senate Democrats’ highest priority legislation – the For the People Act – was blocked on the Senate floor (50-50) after it met what President Biden labelled "a solid Republican wall of opposition", failing to gather the 60 votes needed to bypass the filibuster. The legislation is a flashpoint for the 2022 midterm elections, and a catalyst for debate about the health of US democracy. READ MORE HERE
   
• Juneteenth | In his latest move addressing racial justice, President Biden signed a law to make Juneteenth a national holiday. The day, 19 June, commemorates the end to legal slavery in Texas in 1865, the final state to follow the Emancipation Proclamation. This is the first addition of a federal holiday since Martin Luther King Day during the Reagan administration. READ MORE HERE
   

• Missing the mark | The Biden administration is set to miss its 4 July vaccination goal to administer at least one COVID-19 vaccination dose to 70 per cent of American adults. This is the first target unmet by the administration, partially due to vaccination resistance from younger Americans. READ MORE HERE
   

• Obamacare survives again | On Thursday, the US Supreme Court rejected the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) most recent Trump-backed challenge from 18 Republican-led states who failed to prove the ACA’s ‘individual mandate’ rule is unconstitutional. The challenge is the third case seeking to dismantle Obamacare and demonstrates the growing security of the Act even in a conservative-majority Supreme Court. READ MORE HERE
   

NATO EXPERT TALKS | 29 JUNE

Outcomes of the NATO Brussels Summit

Cybersecurity, defence innovation and climate change in the military were all on the agenda for NATO’s Brussels Summit on 14 June. But with NATO placing unprecedented attention on the Indo-Pacific, what are the summit’s implications for Australia? What will NATO's defence innovations mean for the Indo-Pacific? How can Australia work with NATO to strengthen cyber defences?

To discuss these issues, please join us for a webinar event with NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy James Appathurai in discussion with USSC Lecturer and NATO Defense College Partners Across the Globe Fellow Dr Gorana Grgic.

Presented in partnership with the NATO Public Diplomacy Division.

WHEN:
Tuesday, 29 June, 5pm AEST (Sydney)                                                                    Tuesday, 29 June, 9am CEST (Rome/Brussels)

COST:
Free but registration is essential.

You can also subscribe to have event invitations and reminders sent straight to your inbox, so you never have to miss an event!

ANALYSIS

Is Biden about to fill a Supreme Court vacancy?

Bruce Wolpe
Non-Resident Senior Fellow

Every July, when the Supreme Court completes its term for its summer break, the public strains for any indication a justice of the Supreme Court will announce his or her retirement. Last year, four months out from the presidential election, the big rumour was Clarence Thomas (the uber-conservative appointed by President George H. W. Bush in 1992 and confirmed amidst allegations of sexual harassment) would take a retirement hit for the team and step down. This would enable President Donald Trump, perceived to be on course to be ousted in November, to lock in the prevailing conservative majority on the court before Joe Biden could fill an ‘originalist’ vacancy.

It was not to be. Thomas, in apparent good health, had no intention of resigning — and certainly not now with Biden as president. The vacancy that did occur, however, was the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg), significantly, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah as I addressed last year. Her death gave Trump the unprecedented opportunity to fill her Supreme Court seat within two months of a presidential election with another originalist — locking in a decisive conservative majority on the court which could prevail for years after Trump left office.

In one moment, this captured both the scorched earth hyper-partisanship that has gripped the Supreme Court for decades — and now infests every confirmation fight to fill a seat — and the issue of each justice’s mortality, particularly each weighs whether to retire because the politics of their replacement ultimately affects their judicial legacy and the court’s future.

This is an excerpt from an article by Bruce Wolpe. 
Click below to read the full write-up.

BY THE NUMBERS

US 1% doubles AUS 1% yearly income

Sarah Hamilton
Research Associate for Data Insights

The top one per cent of US income earners made at minimum, $673,000 (AUD) in the 2019 fiscal year. This was more than double the Australian top one per cent ($291,000 AUD) and nearly three times the global one per cent ($229,000 AUD). Australia hit the headlines in 2018, overtaking Switzerland as the country with the highest median wealth. 

The United States was considerably lower in 18th place. US wealth inequality widened in 2020, with wealthy Americans becoming even wealthier through the pandemic. This top one per cent threshold is, therefore, likely to only increase - even without factoring in the intergenerational wealth gap and non-taxable wealth. 

VIDEO

Key players in the
Biden administration

Did you miss our event last week on the key players in the Biden administration? The webinar featured USSC Research Associate Victoria Cooper discussing her recent research publication on who the big Biden influencers are and what Australia should know about them with Non-Resident Senior Fellow Bruce Wolpe and Senior Research Fellow Jared Mondschein.

Enjoy the full event, premieres on our YouTube channel today. Tune in HERE.

Catch this and other recent webinars on the USSC YouTube channel!

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#Juneteenth