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Gabbard resigns as Trump's top US intelligence official

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/gabbar ... 026-05-22/

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[caltrek]

Roberts and Kavanaugh Just Broke Ranks in a 5-4 Supreme Court Vote
By Gabe Whisnant
May 28, 2026

Introduction:

(Newsweek) The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a Black Mississippi death row inmate can pursue renewed challenges to his conviction, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the court’s liberal wing in a 5-4 decision.

The ruling highlights differences on the conservative-majority court over how aggressively to police claims of racial bias in jury selection and reinforces precedent barring discrimination against Black jurors. It reopens a decades-long legal battle for Terry Pitchford and sends his case back to lower courts, where his conviction and death sentence could again be reconsidered.

“Mr. Pitchford is now entitled to a fair trial in the state court,” Joseph Perkovich, who argued the case for Pitchford at the Supreme Court, told the Associated Press.

A Fractured Conservative Block Over Racial Bias

At issue was whether prosecutors improperly removed Black prospective jurors during Pitchford’s 2006 capital murder trial, in which he was sentenced to death for his role in the robbery and killing of grocery store owner Reuben Britt in northern Mississippi. Prosecutors struck four of the five eligible Black jurors, leaving a panel with just one Black member, prompting objections from defense attorneys who argued the moves were racially motivated.

The case turned on the court’s 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky, which prohibits excluding jurors on the basis of race and requires courts to scrutinize prosecutors’ explanations for such strikes. Pitchford’s lawyers contended they were not given a meaningful opportunity to argue that those explanations were pretextual, a conclusion a federal district judge reached in 2023 when overturning his conviction.

Read more here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ ... f16&ei= 38

caltrek’s comment: It is good to see that the Supreme Court has apparently not totally removed itself from the notion of fair play in our judicial system.