‘The Fate of the Day' Review: The Revolution's Middle Age
The American Revolution defined the United States in an epic conflict that reached far beyond its shores. 'The Fate of the Day,' the second volume of Rick Atkinson's Revolution Trilogy, traces the war's growth from colonial revolt into a global stalemate that reflected both sides' refusal to flinch, showing how it affected ordinary people as well as examining the motives of the statesmen and soldiers who drove it. Varying his focus to capture compelling personalities and episodes along with the wider picture, Mr. Atkinson sustains dramatic tension in a detailed, comprehensive account of the Revolution's pivotal middle years.
He frames the book with two British victories, at New York's Fort Ticonderoga in 1777 and Charleston, S.C., three years later. Neither achieved lasting success. Gen. John Burgoyne's victory at Ticonderoga delivered Lake Champlain, but the campaign ended months later with his humiliating surrender at Saratoga. Gen. Henry Clinton captured American Army and naval squadrons at Charleston, leading him to think that 'the spirit of rebellion might be thoroughly subdued in the two Carolinas.' He was mistaken.
Throughout 1777, British campaigns sought to recover the momentum dented by Washington's Christmas 1776 attack over the Delaware. Burgoyne's success opened a path south toward the Hudson, but Gen. William Howe's decision to turn the main army at New York against Philadelphia rather than meeting Burgoyne at Albany divided what should have been a coordinated effort to isolate New England. According to Mr. Atkinson, the fault lay with a fatal lack of planning, exacerbated by quarrels among British generals with strong personalities. Howe's choices made little sense, especially when he approached Philadelphia via an extended voyage up the Chesapeake instead of more directly. He outfought Washington at Brandywine with a deft flanking maneuver helped by good intelligence but lacked the mobility to capitalize on his success by vigorously pursuing the enemy.
After the Brandywine defeat, Congress fled Philadelphia, crossing the Susquehanna River and stopping at York more than 100 miles away. In December Washington posted his Army at Valley Forge, hoping, among other things, to deny British forces easy support from Pennsylvania loyalists, whose numbers the British government consistently overestimated—Mr. Atkinson rightly calls loyalist aid 'a political chimera that distorted British military decisions for years.'
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Associated Press
16 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Florida agency tells newspaper to halt reporting angle on foundation associated with governor's wife
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CBS News
18 minutes ago
- CBS News
The Supreme Court will issue a flurry of decisions in the coming weeks. Here's what to expect.
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Tennessee is one of 25 states that have passed laws that seek to restrict access to gender-affirming care for young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The legal battle over the ban is the first in which the Supreme Court waded into the debate over health care for transgender youth and it is one of the most significant cases before the justices this term. Following arguments in December, the court's conservative members appeared sympathetic to Tennessee's efforts to restrict access to the medical care for young people experiencing gender dysphoria. Birthright citizenship and nationwide injunctions The Supreme Court held a rare May argument session to consider a trio of emergency appeals from the Justice Department involving the president's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship. 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That judge ordered the state to put a remedial plan in place that had two majority-Black congressional districts, and state GOP lawmakers ultimately approved a map with that makeup. But the second iteration of the voting boundaries were struck down by a divided three-judge district court panel, which concluded the map was an unlawful racial gerrymander. The dispute demonstrates the challenges state lawmakers face when trying to balance compliance with the Voting Rights Act without relying too much on race during the drawing of political lines, which can violate the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. Parental opt-outs from school lessons with LGBTQ themes In the case known as Mahmoud v. Taylor, the justices are considering whether a Maryland school district unconstitutionally burdened parents' First Amendment right to exercise their religion freely when it requires their children to participate in instruction on gender and sexuality that violates the families' religious beliefs. The dispute arose after the Montgomery County Board of Education introduced "LGBTQ-inclusive" storybooks for elementary school students into its English Language Arts curriculum in 2022. The board initially allowed parents to opt their children out of reading and instruction that involved the storybooks, but in March 2023, the board said parents would no longer be able to have their kids excused. With more than 160,000 students, Montgomery County is home to Maryland's largest public school system. A group of families sued the Board of Education, arguing that denial of the notice and opt-outs violated their right to exercise their religion freely under the First Amendment because it overrode their freedom to direct the religious upbringing of their children. The Supreme Court appeared sympathetic to the parents during oral arguments in March and seemed inclined to require that public schools give parents the ability to opt their children out of instruction featuring the books. Defunding Planned Parenthood South Carolina moved to withhold state Medicaid funds from a Planned Parenthood affiliate in the state in 2018, kicking off the protracted legal battle now before the Supreme Court. The state's attempt to defund Planned Parenthood stemmed from an executive order signed by Gov. Henry McMaster that directed South Carolina's health department to deem abortion providers unqualified to provide family-planning services through Medicaid and terminate enrollment agreements. The organization and Julie Edwards, a Planned Parenthood patient, then filed a lawsuit challenging the termination decision, alleging that it violated Edwards' right to choose her provider under the Medicaid Act. The question before the Supreme Court is technical: whether Medicaid beneficiaries can sue over a state's decision to exclude their chosen provider from their Medicaid programs. If the Supreme Court finds that Medicaid recipients do not have the right to sue, it would limit patients' ability to enforce a provision of the Medicaid Act that allows them to seek care from the qualified and willing provider of their choosing. The high court heard oral argument in April and appeared divided on the issue. Age verification for pornographic websites Texas enacted a law in 2023 that requires pornography websites to confirm that visitors are at least 18 years old or face civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day. Texas is one of at least 19 states with age-verification laws on the books, which their defenders say are aimed at protecting children from accessing sexual content on the internet. But free speech organizations and trade groups representing the adult entertainment industry argue that these laws burden adults' access to content they are legally allowed to consume in violation of the First Amendment. The issue before the Supreme Court in the case known as Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is whether a federal appeals court applied the correct standard of judicial review when it evaluated Texas' age-verification law. The U.S. Court of Appeals applied what's known as rational-basis review, the least stringent level. But the trade groups and the Biden administration said that the court should've applied the most demanding standard of review, strict scrutiny, because the age-verification law impedes adults' access to constitutionally protected speech. The challengers asked the Supreme Court to find that the requirement is subject to strict-scrutiny, and that it cannot satisfy that test. Texas has been able to enforce the age-verification measure while the case proceeds. Even if the Supreme Court rules that the 5th Circuit applied the wrong standard of review, it could order additional proceedings and allow the law to remain in effect while they play out. The fate of the FCC's Universal Service Fund This pair of cases before the Supreme Court involves the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund, a federal program that aims to expand phone and internet access to underserved communities. The fund is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company, which determines the amount telecommunications carriers must contribute to it and disburses that money to program beneficiaries. Contribution fees are based on a percentage of carriers' revenue, and companies often pass on those costs to consumers. The cases give the high court the chance to revive the nondelegation doctrine, a long-dormant legal principle that says Congress cannot delegate its legislative authority to executive branch agencies. The Supreme Court last invoked the nondelegation doctrine in 1935. A conservative organization called Consumers' Research challenged the legality of the Universal Service Fund in 2022, arguing that Congress unconstitutionally delegated its legislative authority to the FCC, which in turn transferred power to the fund's administrator. But after arguments in March, the Supreme Court appeared likely to reject the challenge and uphold the Universal Service Fund. Health and Human Services' preventive care task force The case Kennedy v. Braidwood Management involves the structure of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an entity within the Department of Health and Human Services that recommends the preventive-care services that must be covered by insurance plans without cost-sharing under the Affordable Care Act. Among the preventive services recommended by the task force are screenings for lung, cervical and colorectal cancers, as well as diabetes; statin medications to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke; and medication to prevent HIV, known as PrEP. The task force's recommendation in 2019 that PrEP be covered by insurance plans at no-cost to patients gave rise to the dispute before the Supreme Court. A group of four individuals and two small businesses filed a lawsuit claiming that the Task Force's members were unconstitutionally appointed, rendering its recommendations invalid. The plaintiffs argued that the task force's structure violates the Constitution's Appointments Clause because it is composed of principal officers who must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. But the Biden administration and now the Trump administration said the members of the panel are inferior officers subject to supervision by the Health and Human Services secretary, and therefore do not require nomination by the president and Senate approval. If the Supreme Court finds that task force members are inferior officers, it could send the case back to the appeals court to decide whether Congress gave the head of the Health and Human Services Department the authority to appoint them. Indeed, several days after the court heard arguments in the case, the Supreme Court asked the two sides to file additional briefs addressing that issue.
CNN
19 minutes ago
- CNN
Family separation is now a ‘daily occurrence,' immigration attorney says
Jasmine Garsd, immigration reporter for NPR, and immigration attorney Sui Chung talk to Bianna Golodryga about the protests in Los Angeles over ICE raids.
