Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah said Monday they'll vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation to the Supreme Court, bringing the total GOP votes for President Biden's nominee to three.
The big picture: With all Democrats planning to vote for her, Jackson's confirmation is all but a sure thing. Rep. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said last week that she would also vote to confirm Jackson.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that former criminal defendants who sue law enforcement for a wrongful arrest don't need to prove that they were innocent of the offenses they were charged with, only that their underlying cases ended without a conviction.
Why it matters: The 6-3 decision is a "major win for plaintiffs in police accountability cases," Law360 notes. It will make it easier to pursue lawsuits under the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable seizures.
Senate negotiators in both parties on Monday announced a deal on a $10 billion COVID-19 preparedness funding package.
Why it matters: The deal comes after the White House had raised alarm bells about insufficient funding to ward off future pandemics and COVID surges, though it still falls far short of what top Democrats say is needed.
Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination will be sent to the Senate for a full vote, despite a tie in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.
The big picture: All 11 Democratic members voted in favor of advancing Jackson while 11 Republicans voted against in the evenly-split panel. But a tie vote won't affect whether she is confirmed.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday unveiled a campaign to place digital billboards in five major cities in Florida to oppose the controversial Parental Rights in Education Law, dubbed by critics the "Don't Say Gay" bill.
Driving the news: Adams said in a press conference the city is partnering with private companies to place billboards in Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday said that if Republicans controlled the Senate, Democrats would have chosen a more moderate Supreme Court nominee than Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Driving the news: The Senate Judiciary Committee today is expected to vote on Jackson's nomination to the high court — a vote anticipated to fall mainly along party lines.
A recently published biography delves into the life of a little-known but key Latino civil rights leader who co-founded one of the most influential Hispanic civil rights organizations and became a U.S. diplomat.
A report from the American Library Association released Monday found over 700 "challenges" to library, school and university materials in 2021, the most since at least 2000, when the organization started tracking them.
Driving the news: Book bans have risen substantially over the past year, as conservative groups have challenged public school libraries and successfully purged books from those libraries, generally about LGBTQ issues and people of color, per Axios' Russell Contreras.
The European Union announced Monday it's working on further sanctions against Russia's government "as a matter of urgency" following allegations that Russian forces committed war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere in Ukraine.
What they're saying: The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement that the 27-nation bloc "condemns in the strongest possible terms" the "reported atrocities."
A new Ken Burns documentary,"Benjamin Franklin," premieres Monday and Tuesday night at 8/7c on PBS. The two parts run a total of four hours. I interviewed Burns from his farmhouse in Walpole, N.H..
"He's on the hundred-dollar bill for a reason," Burns said. "He has represented to nearly every generation of Americans since our founding a sort of striving — of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, a kind of libertarian view of how you advance in America, this poor kid from Boston who makes it."
Former President Trump endorsed Sarah Palin on Sunday in her bid to fill Alaska's only U.S. congressional seat following the death of Republican Rep. Don Young.
What he's saying: "Sarah shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016, and we won big," Trump said in an emailed statement about Alaska's former governor. "Now, it’s my turn!"
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he claimed victory in the country's elections on Sunday night, per the BBC.
Driving the news: "We have such a victory it can be seen from the moon, but it's sure that it can be seen from Brussels," the far-right leader said in his Sunday night speech, in a nod to his government's long-standing tensions with the European Union, CNN reports.
Former President Obama will return to the White House on Tuesday to join President Biden for an event celebrating the former commander-in-chief's signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act.
Why it matters: This will be Obama's first public appearance at the White House since leaving office in January 2017.
Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam announced Monday she won't seek a second term as chief executive.
Why it matters: Under Lam's tenure, the autonomy and many of the freedoms Hong Kong previously enjoyed that had allowed the Chinese territory to flourish as a global financial hub have been encroached on.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Americans in a pre-recorded video from a bunker in Kyiv to "support us in any way you can. Any — but not silence."
Why it matters: Celebrities urged the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to let Zelensky appear during the Oscars last week but ultimately chose to feature a moment of silence instead.
