Good morning. Here’s what our writers and editors have their eyes on today.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in one of the biggest cases of the term, dealing with redistricting in Texas. Only a handful of questions put before the court this term remain unanswered, but we’ll likely have those answers by the end of this week.

One case, Janus v. AFSCME, asks the court to decide whether employees whose interests are represented by public-sector unions, but who are not themselves part of a union, have to pay fees that go toward collective bargaining. Many states have laws that allow unions to collect these “fair-share fees,” which the conservative, anti-union movement has sought to eliminate. This one looks likely to end in victory for those forces; the court split on a similar case 4-4 two years ago, before Justice Neil Gorsuch was on the court. His addition is unlikely to help unions.

Another big case remaining before the court deals with the third iteration of Trump’s travel ban, barring travelers from five predominantly Muslim countries — Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Somalia — and two others, North Korea and Venezuela. This case, like many others, will likely hinge on Justice Kennedy and on how far the judges are willing to go in considering Trump’s motives.

But the biggest decision we’re waiting to learn about this week won’t come in the form of a ruling from the court itself. It’s whether Justice Kennedy, the court’s swing vote, will retire. If he does, he’ll likely announce his decision at the end of the term, or a few days after.

Kennedy will be 82 years old next month and is the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court. Though a swing vote, he is a conservative, and, many speculate, more likely to retire during a Republican president’s term. If he steps down, Trump will be able to pick his second Supreme Court justice; if another comparatively young justice in the mold of Neil Gorsuch — a former Kennedy clerk — is confirmed, it will likely put the already conservative court more firmly in conservative hands for years to come. We could then see the court revisit past decisions the continue to enrage conservative culture warriors, including Roe v. Wade and cases relating to gay rights.

But whoever Trump nominates will have to make it through the confirmation process first. In that way, Kennedy’s decision, which we’ll likely learn this week, could set up a key political battle that will unfold during the second half of 2018.

Good morning; happy Monday.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is taking a stand against the Trump administration, holding up an appellate court nominee for two weeks — and threatening to hold up more nominees — in order, according to one unnamed CNN source, to prompt a Congressional discussion about the administration’s trade and Cuba policies.

It may seem somewhat out of left field that after all the Trump administration’s various outrages, Flake decided to take a stand against it in part because he disagrees with the administration’s stance on Cuba.

But the senator has a long reputation as a rare Republican dove on Cuba. He’s visited the island several times since taking office. When the Obama White House moved to engage with it, he was one of the administration’s key allies in doing so.

Earlier this month, Flake became the first U.S. senator to meet with the country’s new president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, who is the first person to lead the nation in a half century who doesn’t have the last name “Castro.” He traveled with a collection of Google executives, including former CEO Eric Schmidt. The Miami Herald reports that Google is hoping to reach an agreement with the Cuban government to expand internet access on the island.

“The funny thing about freedom is that when people experience a little more of it, they don’t want to give it up, and they want more than they have,” Flake told Politico back in 2014, arguing that the Obama administration’s move to relax travel restrictions to Cuba will help foster Democracy in the country. “That has been the case with travel and will continue to be the case in Cuba.”

The Google proposal is in line with this theory. The island currently gets its internet via a cable from Venezuela. It is slow, limited, and expensive for Cubans. It is also controlled by the government. The Google initiative would change that. The more that the Cuban people are able to connect with the outside world, the theory goes, the more they’ll pressure their government to do the same, regardless of American policy toward the island.

When Flake leaves Congress this year, the Senate will lose one of only a handful of Republican champions of reengaging with the nation at a time when the administration appears ready to take relations back to their Cold War-era status quo.

Good morning. Here’s what our writers and editors have their eyes on today.

As it attempted to stave off public outcry about the border crisis, the Trump administration argued that it was helpless to take action. This is a law, or maybe a policy, representatives of the administration said; its hands were bound.

Good morning. Here’s what our writers and editors have their eyes on today.

In a speech to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a conservative lobbying organization, today, President Donald Trump gave his assessment of the forces that have contributed to the current border crisis. By his estimation, here’s who is responsible.

Democrats in Congress, who are excited to win the MS-13 vote

“Democrats love open borders. Let the whole world come in. Let the whole world. MS-13 gang members from all over the place, come on in — we have open borders. And they view that possibly intelligently, except that it’s destroying our country. They view that as potential voters. Someday they’re going to vote for Democrats.”

The fake news media, which hopes to distract from congressional hearings on the Department of Justice Inspector General’s probe

“The fake news media back there doesn’t talk about that. (Laughter and applause.) They’re fake. They are helping — they are helping these smugglers and these traffickers like nobody would believe. They know it. They know exactly what they’re doing and it should be stopped — because what’s going on is very unfair to the people of our country. And they violate the law. People that come in violate the law. They endanger their children in the process. And frankly, they endanger all of our children. And you ought to see the hearings that are right now on television but that folks are being — you know, they’re going on to the mainstream, fake news media. They want to focus on immigration because they want to keep the cameras away from the hearings because those hearings are not good for them.”

Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, who were helpless in the face of partisanship

“Whether it was President Bush, President Obama, President Clinton — same policies. They can’t get them changed because both sides are always fighting.”

Mexico, which is not sending its best

“They come up through Mexico. Mexico does nothing for us. You hear it here: They do nothing for us. They could stop it. They have very, very strong laws. Try staying in Mexico for a couple of days. See how long that lasts. Okay?”

Corrupt immigration judges, who are on the take

“They said, ‘Sir, we’d like to hire about five or six-thousand more judges.’ Five or six-thousand? Now, can you imagine the graft that must take place? You’re all small business owners, so I know you can imagine a thing like that would happen. But here’s a guy — they say, ‘Could you please be a judge? Come on, get it.’ They line up to be a judge. It’s horrible.”

Good morning. Here’s what our writers and editors have their eyes on today.

Good morning, happy Monday. Here’s what our writers and editors have their eyes on today.