Who is the Supreme Court leaker?

By Marita Vlachou

Wednesday, May 4

WHO LEAKED THE SUPREME COURT DRAFT? HERE ARE 4 THEORIES. While the main story is that the Supreme Court now has five votes to overturn women's reproductive rights, the provenance of the leak — of the draft majority opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito — still matters, as it could affect the ultimate outcome of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. There are a very limited number of people who could leak a draft opinion to the press from inside the court: the nine justices themselves, their law clerks and their support staff. Here are the current theories and why they may or may not affect the outcome. [HuffPost]

RUSSIA STORMS STEEL PLANT CONTAINING THE LAST POCKET OF RESISTANCE IN MARIUPOL Ukrainian officials and the U.N. held out hope for more evacuations from the bombed-out steel mill in Mariupol as scores of civilians reached relative safety after enduring weeks of shelling that targeted city's last pocket of resistance. But Russian forces began storming the plant, where some Ukrainian fighters were still holed up. Meanwhile, the European Union's top official on Wednesday called on the 27-nation bloc to ban all oil imports from Russia. [AP]

J.D. VANCE, TRUMP'S PICK IN OHIO, WINS GOP SENATE PRIMARY

J.D. Vance, the author and first-time candidate who nabbed former President Donald Trump's endorsement, won Ohio's GOP Senate primary, settling a tumultuous race for the Republican nomination. The Ohio race and other GOP primaries on Tuesday were the first major tests of Trump's endorsement mettle — and the outcomes seem to bode well for his GOP kingmaker claim. [HuffPost]

PFIZER HOPES TO SUBMIT LITTLE-KID VACCINE DATA BY EARLY JUNE Pfizer now hopes to tell U.S. regulators how well its COVID-19 vaccine works in the littlest kids by late May or early June. The company is testing three extra-small doses of its vaccine in children under 5 after two shots didn't prove quite strong enough. Rival Moderna hopes to be the first to offer vaccinations for the youngest children. [AP]

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PROTESTS ERUPT TO SUPPORT ABORTION RIGHTS AFTER SCOTUS LEAK With the Supreme Court poised to overturn abortion protections, people took to the streets in cities across the country to protest. Big crowds gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington, and activists rallied outside federal courthouses from Oakland, California, to Richmond, Virginia, to Dallas, Denver and Sarasota, Florida. [HuffPost]

NORMAN MINETA, FIRST ASIAN AMERICAN CABINET SECRETARY, DIES Norman Mineta, who broke racial barriers for Asian Americans serving in high-profile government posts and ordered commercial flights grounded after the 9/11 terror attacks as the nation's federal transportation secretary, died Tuesday. He was 90. [AP]

LINKEDIN SETTLES WITH U.S. OVER PAY DISCRIMINATION

The career-networking service LinkedIn has agreed to pay $1.8 million in back wages to hundreds of female workers to settle a pay discrimination complaint brought by U.S. labor investigators. The U.S. Labor Department announced that it has reached a settlement with LinkedIn to resolve allegations of "systemic, gender-based pay discrimination" in which women were paid less than men in comparable job roles. [AP]

REP. SHONTEL BROWN WINS OHIO DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY Rep. Shontel Brown, a Cleveland-area Democrat, won her primary election, virtually assuring her a full term in Congress representing northeast Ohio's predominantly Democratic 11th Congressional District. Brown has now defeated former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a progressive star, for the second time. [HuffPost]

OKLAHOMA GOV SIGNS SIGNS TEXAS-STYLE BAN ON MOST ABORTIONS Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court will uphold new restrictions. Abortion rights advocates already have challenged the law in court. [AP]

OCASIO-CORTEZ TORCHES COLLINS AND MURKOWSKI: 'THEY DON'T GET TO PLAY VICTIM NOW' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tore into Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) after they expressed dismay at the Supreme Court's leaked draft majority opinion. "She and Collins betrayed the nation's reproductive rights when they were singularly capable of stopping the slide. They don't get to play victim now," she tweeted. [HuffPost]