Supreme Court Delivers Bad News to Josh Duggar

It's been a busy day for news out of the Supreme Court, with the biggest development being the justices' decision to take up whether states can restrict transgender medical treatments for minors. Also, via the AP:

• Josh Duggar: The court rejected an appeal from Josh Duggar, a former reality-television star convicted of downloading child sexual abuse images. Duggar was on the TLC show 19 Kids and Counting with his large family before his 2021 conviction. The court didn't elaborate on the denial, as is typical. Lower courts have upheld his conviction, rejecting Duggar's argument that his attorneys should have been able to ask about the prior sex-offense conviction of a former employee of the dealership who'd used the same computer. Read the full story.

• RFK, vaccines: The court rejected two appeals related to COVID-19 vaccines from Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit founded by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The justices didn't comment in letting stand rulings against the group from the federal appeals courts in New Orleans and Philadelphia. In a case from Texas, the group joined parents in objecting to the FDA's authorization to administer coronavirus vaccines to children. In a case from New Jersey, Children's Health Defense challenged a Rutgers University requirement, imposed in 2021, for most students to be vaccinated to attend courses on campus. Read the full story.
• Vaccine exemptions: The court rejected a challenge to a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the state's long-standing religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges, and day care facilities. The justices didn't comment on leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the contentious law. Read the full story.
• Holocaust survivors: The court agreed to intervene for the second time in a dispute between Hungary and Holocaust survivors who want to be compensated for the property confiscated from them during World War II. The justices will hear arguments in the fall in Hungary's latest bid to end the lawsuit filed 14 years ago by survivors, all of whom are now over 90, and heirs of survivors. Read the full story.
• Horse racing: The court rejected a challenge from Republican-controlled states to a horse racing safety law that has led to national medication and anti-doping rules. The justices left in place an appeals court ruling that upheld the law and rejected claims that Congress gave too much power to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the private entity that administers the rules. Read the full story.

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