The dangers of obeying: 4 risks for organizations bowing to the Trump administration

  A key element in the authoritarian playbook is the targeting of perceived enemies who can stand as a bulwark against political leaders amassing unchecked power. The second administration of President Donald Trump, since Inauguration Day, has been aggressively targeting a wide range of key civil society organizations—such as universities, law firms, media companies, nonprofits, and business leaders—in attempts to have them comply with a long list of demands that arguably undermine their constitutional rights. Organizations under threat have some reason to submit to the administration, especially as they face intimidating investigations into their free speech, restricted access to government spaces, and cancellation of federal grants based on their use of certain disfavored words, among others. However, huge risks accompany submission. And ultimately, too many civil society organizations failing to stand up to the administration’s unreasonable, coercive demands could hasten the degradation of U.S. democracy.

1 in 4 Americans reject evolution, a century after the Scopes monkey trial spotlighted the clash between science and religion

  The 1925 Scopes trial, in which a Dayton, Tennessee teacher was charged with violating state law by teaching biological evolution, was one of the earliest and most iconic conflicts in America’s ongoing culture war.

  Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” published in 1859, and subsequent scientific research made the case that humans and other animals evolved from earlier species over millions of years. Many late-19th-century American Protestants had little problem accommodating Darwin’s ideas – which became mainstream biology – with their religious commitments.

Keeping brain-dead pregnant women on life support raises ethical issues that go beyond abortion politics

  Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old woman from Georgia who had been declared brain-dead in February 2025, spent 16 weeks on life support while doctors worked to keep her body functioning well enough to support her developing fetus. On June 13, 2025, her premature baby, named Chance, was born via cesarean section at 25 weeks.

  Smith was nine weeks pregnant when she suffered multiple blood clots in her brain. Her story gained public attention when her mother criticized doctors’ decision to keep her on a ventilator without the family’s consent. Smith’s mother has said that doctors told the family the decision was made to align with Georgia’s LIFE Act, which bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and bolsters the legal standing of fetal personhood. A statement released by the hospital also cites Georgia’s abortion law.

It's not easy

  Let’s be honest. Ethics is not for wimps.

  It’s not easy being a good person.

  It’s not easy to be honest when it might be costly, to play fair when others cheat, or to keep inconvenient promises.

Your brain learns from rejection − here’s how it becomes your compass for connection

  Imagine finding out your friends hosted a dinner party and didn’t invite you or that you were passed over for a job you were excited about. These moments hurt, and people often describe rejection in the language of physical pain.

  While rejection can be emotionally painful, it can also teach us something.

I’m a physician who has looked at hundreds of studies of vaccine safety, and here’s some of what RFK Jr. gets wrong

  In the four months since he began serving as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made many public statements about vaccines that have cast doubt on their safety and on the objectivity of long-standing processes established to evaluate them.

  Many of these statements are factually incorrect. For example, in a newscast aired on June 12, 2025, Kennedy told Fox News viewers that 97% of federal vaccine advisers are on the take. In the same interview, he also claimed that children receive 92 mandatory shots. He has also widely claimed that only COVID-19 vaccines, not other vaccines in use by both children and adults, were ever tested against placebos and that “nobody has any idea” how safe routine immunizations are.

The Declaration of Independence wasn’t really complaining about King George, and 5 other surprising facts for July 4th

 Editor’s note: Americans may think they know a lot about the Declaration of Independence, but many of those ideas are elitist and wrong, as historian Woody Holton explains.

  His book, “Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution,” shows how independence and the Revolutionary War were influenced by women, Indigenous and enslaved people, religious dissenters, and other once-overlooked Americans.

  In celebration of the United States’ birthday, Holton offers six surprising facts about the nation’s founding document – including that it failed to achieve its most immediate goal and that its meaning has changed from the founding to today.

What the Supreme Court ruling against ‘universal injunctions’ means for court challenges to presidential actions

  When presidents have tried to make big changes through executive orders, they have often hit a roadblock: A single federal judge, whether located in Seattle or Miami or anywhere in between, could stop these policies across the entire country.

  But on June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court significantly limited this judicial power. In Trump v. CASA Inc., a 6-3 majority ruled that federal courts likely lack the authority to issue “universal injunctions” that block government policies nationwide. The ruling means that going forward, federal judges can generally only block policies from being enforced against the specific plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit, not against everyone in the country.

3 years after abortion rights were overturned, contraception access is at risk

  On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eliminated a nearly 50-year constitutional right to abortion and returned the authority to regulate abortion to the states.

  The Dobbs ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade, has vastly reshaped the national abortion landscape. Three years on, many states have severely restricted access to abortion care. But the decision has also had a less well-recognized outcome: It is increasingly jeopardizing access to contraception.

Britt and Tuberville enter Trump’s fantasy world at Alabama’s expense

  I have no inside sources in the White House.

  I do not have access to military intelligence. Or any expert knowledge of the Middle East.

  But I’ve spent my adult life watching American presidents try to bomb the region into peace. It never works.

  Which leaves me wondering how Alabama’s senators, who on paper have better sources than us Goat Hill wretches, think that President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iranian nuclear facilities solved anything.