OUR PICKSSupreme Court Upholds Law Disarming Domestic Abusers | Far-Right Militias Are Back | AI Is Exhausting the Power Grid, and more

Published 21 June 2024

·  Border Patrol Reports Arrests Down 25% Since Biden Announced Asylum Restrictions
The number of arrests by Border Patrol agents of people crossing illegally into the United States fell in May to the third lowest of any month during the Biden presidency

·  Supreme Court Upholds Law Disarming Domestic Abusers
The decision amounted to a retreat from what had been an unbroken series of major decisions expanding gun rights that started in 2008

·  AI Is Exhausting the Power Grid. Tech Firms Are Seeking a Miracle Solution.
As power needs of AI push emissions up and put big tech in a bind, companies put their faith in elusive — some say improbable — technologies

·  Far-Right Militias Are Back
As the US election approaches, one armed militia organized by a January 6 rioter is spreading its message across the country

·  OIG: Improvements to Asylum Seeker & Noncitizen Screening Required by DHS
OIG releases report: DHS Needs to Improve Its Screening and Vetting of Asylum Seekers and Noncitizens Applying for Admission into the United States

Border Patrol Reports Arrests Down 25% Since Biden Announced Asylum Restrictions  (AP / VOA News)
The number of arrests by Border Patrol agents of people crossing illegally into the United States fell in May to the third lowest of any month during the Biden presidency, while preliminary figures released Thursday show encounters with migrants falling even more in the roughly two weeks since the president announced new rules restricting asylum.
The figures are likely welcome news for a White House that has been struggling to show to voters concerned about immigration that it has control of the southern border. But the number of people coming to the border is often in flux, dependent on conditions in countries far from the U.S. and on smugglers who profit from global migration.
The Border Patrol made 117,900 arrests of people entering the country between the official border crossing points in May, Customs and Border Protection said in a news release. That’s 9% lower than during April, the agency said. The agency said preliminary data since President Joe Biden’s June 4 announcement restricting asylum access show arrests have fallen by 25%.

Supreme Court Upholds Law Disarming Domestic Abusers  (Adam Liptak, New York Times)
The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the government can take guns away from people subject to restraining orders for domestic violence, limiting the sweep of a blockbuster decision in 2022 that had vastly expanded Second Amendment rights.
Indeed, Friday’s decision amounted to a retreat from what had been an unbroken series of major rulings favoring gun rights that started in 2008, when the court first recognized an individual constitutional right to keep firearms in the home for self-defense.
In the 2022 decision, the court established a right to carry guns outside the home and announced a new test to assess all sorts of gun control laws, one that looked to historical practices to judge their constitutionality. That new test has sown confusion in the lower courts, with some judges striking down laws that had been on the books for decades. (Cont.)