"Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement from the Supreme Court is going to have immediate political consequences by creating a headache for red state Senate Democrats seeking reelection. ...

"Democrats are expected to overwhelmingly oppose any of the 25 names that Trump has promised he'd choose from, and they'll be under pressure from their base to pull out all stops to try and block a vote.

"But the political incentives of the party as a whole are much different than the pressures facing the Democratic Senators up for re-election in red states.

"In 2018, there are 10 Democrats seeking re-election in states that Trump carried in 2016. Of those, five races are viewed as 'tossups' by Cook Political report: Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida, Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Claire McCaskill in Missouri, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, and Joe Manchin in West Virginia.

"The difficulty faced by red state Democrats is that even in a more conservative states, a substantial portion of their base is going to be fiercely anti-Trump, and opposed to any of his judicial nominees. At the same time, particularly in the very red states (Missouri, North Dakota, Indiana, and West Virginia) where Trump won big, it's going to be really difficult to vote 'no' on a qualified Supreme Court nominee."

"So much for the claim that Donald Trump's strident campaign rhetoric about Muslims rendered him unfit to wield the powers of the presidency. The Supreme Court will have none of it.

"That's the bottom line in the justices' blockbuster decision to back President Trump against a suit by Hawaii on the so-called Muslim travel ban, overruling the lower courts.

"Not only that, but the decision was a major blow to the 'judicial resistance' -- the attempts by judges to constrain Trump's clearly vested powers because they don't like the president who's wielding them.

"The vote may have been a narrow five to four. It was backed up, though, by a thumping decision by Chief Justice John Roberts, eviscerating claims by the judicial resistance to Trump. ...

"So clearly did the high court assert Trump's authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act that this case could well be remembered for its weakening of the judicial resistance seeking to use the courts to undo the voters' choice in 2016."

"Two senior Trump administration officials were heckled at restaurants. A third was denied service. Florida GOP Attorney General Pam Bondi required a police escort away from a movie about Mister Rogers after activists yelled at her in Tampa -- where two other Republican lawmakers say they were also politically harassed last week, one of them with her kids in tow.

"In the Donald Trump era, the left is as aggressively confrontational as anyone can remember.

"What it means for 2018 -- whether it portends a blue wave of populist revolt for Democrats or a red wall of silent majority resistance from Republicans -- largely depends on one's political persuasion. But there's a bipartisan sense that this election season marks another inflection point in the collapse of civil political discourse."

"Because stopping illegal immigration is popular in much of the nation, it is not surprising that an early poll finds most criticism directed at the Central American parents who risk their children's lives by bringing them on the dangerous journey or sending them with smugglers.

"Rasmussen reports that 54 percent of likely voters said the parents are more to blame for the crisis, against 35 percent who say the government is more to blame.

"Meanwhile, the left is going in the opposite direction by uniting behind California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who turned 85 last week and is seeking another six-year term. Trying to rally the far-left base in her blue state, Feinstein authored a bill that would, among other things, prohibit an arrest for illegal entry anywhere within 100 miles of a border.

"Incredibly, the other 48 Senate Dems signed on, meaning they've all cast their lots with an outlandishly radical policy.

"Yet Feinstein and others insist they don't favor open borders. OK, then, let's put it this way: they favor no borders and want the US to admit the whole world, free of charge and no questions asked.

"Yeah, that'll sell in November."

"Charles Krauthammer, a longtime Fox News contributor, Pulitzer Prize winner, Harvard-trained psychiatrist and best-selling author who came to be known as the dean of conservative commentators, died Thursday. He was 68. ...

"In recent years, Krauthammer was best known for his nightly appearance as a panelist on Fox News' 'Special Report with Bret Baier' and as a commentator on various Fox news shows. ...

"But Krauthammer was arguably a Renaissance man, achieving mastery in such disparate fields as psychiatry, speech-writing, print journalism and television. He won the Edwin Dunlop Prize for excellence in psychiatric research and clinical medicine. Journalism honors included the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his Washington Post columns in 1987 and the National Magazine Award for his work at The New Republic in 1984. His book, 'Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics,' instantly became a New York Times bestseller, remaining in the number one slot for 10 weeks, and on the coveted list for nearly 40."

"New York's revenge-porn bill died early Thursday morning after the Senate adjourned for the year and took no action in the wake of an 11th-hour campaign by Google against the legislation.

"The proposal -- which has languished in Albany since its introduction in 2013 and was recently taken up again after a Post expose -- would have made nonconsensual dissemination of sexually explicit images a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

"It would have also helped victims sue Web hosts to remove the offending images.

"But Google mounted a late effort against the bill, with the Internet behemoth opposed to any government oversight over how it regulates content."

"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley were right to withdraw U.S. membership from the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

"While that council purports to defend human rights, it actually focuses on far less noble objectives. Namely, attacking Israel, challenging Western liberal values of free speech, and lending moral credibility to the world's most unpleasant regimes. Ignoring repeated U.S. challenges to address those failings, the council deserves neither U.S. diplomatic credibility nor U.S. taxpayer dollars. ...

"The U.N.'s own statistics show that the U.S. was the largest voluntary contributor to the organization's 2017 human rights efforts. The Human Rights Council will surely miss that money. But if they want it back, they need only to start living up to their name."

"Germany is no longer the largest recipient of new asylum applications worldwide, according to the United Nations: the U.S. is.

"A report released Tuesday by the U.N. Refugee Agency showed that the number of new, individual asylum applicants plummeted drastically by 73 percent in Germany between 2016 and 2017, from 722,400 down to 198,300.

"Meanwhile, the U.S. saw a nearly 27 percent increase in new applications within a year, reaching 331,700 in 2017. This was the first time since 2012 when the U.S. was the largest recipient of new asylum applications. ...

"Worldwide, the report said that forced displacement reached a new high last year for the fifth year in a row, including 25.4 million refugees and 40 million internally displaced people."

"As FBI director Christopher Wray started giving his response to the blistering report on the Hillary Clinton investigation, I hoped he would accept the findings as proof the agency lost its way and must be shaken to its foundation. By the time he finished talking, I felt naive for daring to hope.

"Wray's performance was worse than disappointing. It was infuriating proof that it will take more than one election to change the corrupt culture of Washington. ...

"The report ends forever the illusion that Comey was a noble public servant. He served only himself and is now so toxic to both parties that it's unlikely he will ever get another government job. Hallelujah.

"But the FBI didn't stink only from the head. The report paints an agency run amok, with numerous examples of serious misconduct by leaders, agents and lawyers."

Read entire article here.

"[T]he real reason Americans should care about Thursday's development isn't that it created rare unity of Clinton-Trump opinion.

"Rather, it is because the FBI, over which Comey presided, had leaders who lied, violated the rules, usurped authority that was not theirs, and expressed political biases that may have impacted how two presidential candidates were treated by the bureau during the middle of one of America's most precious events -- an election.

"With all the awesome powers that the FBI possesses, and the trust Americans must place in the agency, that crime is one that should not be tolerated by Republican, Democrat or independent alike."