The Free Press
It’s Monday, June 9. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Jed Rubenfeld on the Supreme Court’s dismantling of affirmative action; Rupa Subramanya on Mark Carney’s ideological shapeshifting; is New York about to make it too easy to die?; and much more.
But first: Two dispatches from the front lines of the deportation fight.
Over the weekend, Los Angeles became the epicenter of the national fight over deportations. On Saturday, the second day of protests against ICE raids in and around Los Angeles County, President Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.” On Sunday, California governor Gavin Newsom called the deployment “unlawful” and urged the administration to back down. It is the first time since 1965 that a president has called up a state’s national guard without a request from that state’s governor.
As I heard reports of growing disorder Saturday, I grabbed my camera and headed for Paramount, a city in southeastern Los Angeles County where more than 80 percent of the population is Latino. Protesters and ICE agents clashed near a Home Depot. I saw the crowd grow and protesters assault law enforcement, throwing glass bottles and shooting fireworks.
Watch my video dispatch from the disorder by hitting the play button below. And stay tuned for more reporting from me and The Free Press team in LA soon.
But first, read my colleague Madeleine Rowley’s dispatch from an ICE operation on the other side of the country in Washington, D.C. Both the disorder in LA and the arrests Maddie witnessed in the capital ultimately come back to maybe the most fraught political question in the country: what to do about the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.
—Austyn Jeffs
In a unanimous ruling last week, the Supreme Court made clear: “Discrimination law protects individuals, not groups.” The Free Press’s legal columnist Jed Rubenfeld says the decision “blows a hole” in the very idea of protected classes. Does it mean the end of affirmative action in America?
Eleven states have legalized assisted dying, but only New York would have no waiting period, which risks turning suicide into a medical treatment option. New legislation could be introduced as soon as today, and rushed through at the end of the session in Albany, to make this law.
In her latest dispatch from north of the border, Rupa Subramanya brings news of how Mark Carney walked back his climate promises, why measles cases are surging, and the Toronto judge who tossed a gun case over “unconscious racial biases.” All that and more, this week in Canada.
President Trump has warned Elon Musk to stay out of the 2026 midterm elections, threatening “very serious consequences” if the billionaire backs Democrats. Asked on Saturday whether he planned to patch things up with former first pal Musk, Trump said, “No.”
Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay is in critical condition after a 15-year-old gunman shot him twice in the head during a campaign event in Bogota. Turbay’s journalist mother, Diana, was killed in a rescue attempt after she was kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel in 1991.
Iran has ordered thousands of tons of ballistic missile fuel from China, signaling a major effort to rebuild its arsenal as it engages in tense nuclear talks with the U.S. The shipments are expected to arrive in the coming months and could power hundreds of missiles, some of which may be supplied to allied militias like the Houthis in Yemen.
Documents found by Israeli forces in Gaza reveal Qatar and Hamas worked together to sabotage Trump’s “deal of the century” peace plan and Arab normalization with Israel, according to Israeli media reports. In a 2019 emergency meeting, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal told Qatar’s emir they needed to “cooperate in order to resist the deal of the century and thwart it,” while at a second meeting then–Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh reportedly declared that “Qatari grants are Hamas’s main artery.”
Russia claims its forces have pushed into Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region—a potentially significant advance that Ukraine denies—as peace talks in Istanbul on June 2 lasted just over an hour with no breakthroughs. Putin has refused an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, offering only a three-day pause in select areas. Trump, on June 5, compared the warring countries to “two young children fighting.”
The Trump administration brought Kilmar Abrego Garcia—the Salvadoran man they mistakenly deported—back to America to face federal charges that he was part of an international smuggling ring. The government says he transported thousands of migrants over nearly a decade, but their case relies heavily on unnamed co-conspirators and cites only one incident from 2020. A veteran prosecutor has resigned over the indictment.
A new U.S. edition of George Orwell’s 1984 now comes with a trigger warning. In a new preface to the great anti-totalitarian work, novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez calls the novel’s protagonist Winston Smith “problematic” and warns modern readers may find his views on women “despicable.”
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner in a five-set thriller at the French Open final Sunday. The nearly six-hour match was an instant classic and marked the first Grand Slam final between the sport’s top two young stars. On Saturday, 21-year-old American Coco Gauff defeated world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win the women’s title.
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What is happening on the streets and in some government offices in LA is a case study in the breakdown of the rule of law, the very backbone of civil society and freedom. It is one thing for the mob to resist the law, it is quite an escalation for elected law makers to defy the rule of law by supporting the mob. To do so is to encourage rebellion and justifies the application of sanction as provided by the law.
Did he say “estimated 11 million illegals in the United States?” Puh-leeze. 🤦🏾♀️ We had that number just in the last four years alone!