Axios

The Supreme Court has asked Maryland officials, including Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, to enforce state and county laws that prohibit picketing at private homes after protests started outside of the Supreme Court Justices' homes last month, NBC News reports.

The big picture: Demonstrations began after the draft Supreme Court abortion decision was leaked in May, and have continued on since the court overturned Roe v. Wade last month.

Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police chief Pete Arredondo, who has faced criticism over the botched response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary, has resigned from the Uvalde City Council, the Uvalde Leader-News reported.

Driving the news: Arredondo was sworn in as a council member in May shortly after the shooting that left 19 children and 2 teachers dead.

A new civics training program for public school teachers in Florida says it is a “misconception” that “the founders desired strict separation of church and state,” the Washington Post reports.

Driving the news: That and other content in a state-sponsored training course has raised eyebrows among some who have participated and felt it was omitting unflattering information about the country's founders, pushing inaccuracies and centering religious ideas, per the Post.

Voters don’t want President Biden or former President Trump on the ballot in 2024, according to a new Harvard Center for American Political Studies and Harris Poll.

Driving the news: A majority of people surveyed in late June spurned the possibility of a Biden and Trump rematch in the next presidential election, but the survey did find that Trump is on stronger footing with his base.

Three police officers have died after a mass shooting in Floyd County, Kentucky on Thursday that also injured four others, according to Kentucky State Police.

Driving the news: The alleged shooter barricaded himself before firing at police who were trying to serve a warrant stemming from a domestic violence incident in the Eastern Kentucky county, NBC reports.

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday night barred clinics from performing abortions, days after a lower court ruling said a pre-Roe ban did not forbid them from seeing patients, the Associated Press reports.

Driving the news: The decision opens the door for civil enforcement of a ban on the procedure in the state, but does not permit criminal enforcement of that prohibition, per the AP.

Clarence Thomas is suddenly, for the first time since his confirmation, the main character at the Supreme Court.

Why it matters: Thomas is more powerful than he’s ever been inside the court, and ideas that the legal establishment once treated as his quirky hobbyhorses now carry increasing weight.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a legal advocacy organization that tracks hate and extremism, is working with the House Jan. 6 select committee to document extremist groups' involvement in the insurrection.

Driving the news: The organization's testimony and research have helped track "coordination between Trump, his allies and two extremist groups we’ve tracked for years," Michael Lieberman, a senior policy counsel at the SPLC, said in a statement to Politico.

New York lawmakers advanced an amendment on Friday to enshrine the right to get an abortion in the state's constitution, a week after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The big picture: The amendment passed in the state Senate and Assembly during an extraordinary session that Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) called. The process to change the New York Constitution requires that lawmakers pass the change during the next regular legislative session, as well. Advocates hope voters will be able to decide on the amendment in 2024.