ICYMI: The Supreme Court, Tucker Carlson and more

It's Saturday, which means it's time for the round-up of this week's top premium columns.

These are columns our subscribers loved or that people subscribed specifically to read. Subscribe, read, share and let us know your thoughts. 

1. Yes, investigate the Supreme Court leak. What about Thomas?

By Rex Huppke

I was glad to hear U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts launched an investigation into who leaked a draft opinion on abortion rights, and while I don’t claim to be an expert on leaks or investigations or court credibility, I wonder if he might also want to look into how the wife of another justice might have supported an attempt to overthrow the government.

Just throwing that out there in hopes of being helpful.

2. Ending Roe might boost infant supply. So would condom ban.

By Rex Huppke

Like most wholesome Americans, I’m deeply concerned about our domestic supply of infants. I went shopping for one this weekend and couldn’t find a single store that sells them, leading me to believe that once-great infant distributors like TotMart and Bambinos R Us have been driven out of business by radical leftists.

Clearly, something needs to be done, and it appears the U.S. Supreme Court is on the case, so to speak.

3. Democrats can use leaked Supreme Court Roe opinion to protect abortion

By Jill Lawrence

“Saturday Night Live” used to have a segment called “What if?” that asked the pressing questions on everyone’s mind. Like, what if Superman grew up in Germany instead of America? What if Napoleon had a B-52 bomber at Waterloo? And my personal favorite, what if Eleanor Roosevelt could fly? 

Here’s a new one that might seem equally hypothetical, but I’ve got to ask: What if Democrats could emerge from the midterm elections with enough senators to eliminate a stupid custom that’s kept them from getting things done, even things America sorely needs and most Americans support? In other words, what if Democrats had enough votes to kill the filibuster, an obstruction tactic that lets 41 of 100 senators block any bill they want?

The Supreme Court’s draft opinion overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which established abortion as a constitutional right, has the potential to turn goals into realities.

4. From Tucker Carlson to Trump, damage to America is mounting

By Tim Swarens

In "Sea of Tranquility," Emily St. John Mandel's new novel, the United States no longer exists. In its place is a collection of recognizable but independent nations – the Atlantic Republic, United Carolina, the Republic of Texas, the city/state of Los Angeles.

Somehow, the ties that bind the land of the free from sea to shining sea have been severed and unknown forces have balkanized America's remnants. (Like Mandel's best-known novels, "Station Eleven" and "The Glass Hotel," the themes of "Tranquility" center on how humans cope with catastrophe and loss, and not on the mechanics of disaster.)

Implausible? Today, perhaps. But not so much if we plot America's current trajectory 200 years into the future, when a portion of Mandel's story is set.

5. Overturning Roe could be hellish for men, too

By Amanda Jayne Miller

Many unsuspecting men do not yet know that their lives are on the precipice of changing radically. Unless the leaked draft of a Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade is drastically altered, the nearly 50-year-old ruling, which guarantees women the constitutional right to an abortion, appears poised to fall. 

Numerous authors have decried the collision course this will put American women of childbearing age onto, with predicted outcomes ranging from the need for women (at least those who can afford to do so) to travel out of state to America devolving into an Atwoodian hellscape. But it seems that no one is talking about the impact the end of Roe might have on the other half of the population: men.

This newsletter was compiled by Jaden Amos.