Supreme Court debates free speech

Plus Sweden clears its final NATO hurdle and the FTC sues to stop a grocery mega-merger [View this email in your browser]( [Brand Logo]( SCOTUS skepticism, NATO expansion and grocery merger opposition   Good morning, With Sweden as its 32nd member, NATO will be bigger and stronger than ever. But not all is well on the Eastern front. Hungary's dithering before finally approving Sweden's accession has to leave some allies uneasy about Budapest's divided loyalties, and Europe is having to seriously contemplate what mutual defense against Russia would mean with an inconstant Donald Trump in the White House. In today's Michigan primary, Trump and President Joe Biden will presumably prevail. But the numbers will talk. Peter Weber The Week Digital     Today's NATIONAL story Supreme Court wary of state social media regulations What happened? The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in the tech industry's challenge to Texas and Florida laws that would limit the ability of social media companies to moderate content on their platforms. A majority of justices appeared skeptical that the states were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users. Who said what? The state has a "First Amendment interest in promoting and ensuring the free dissemination of ideas," said Florida Solicitor General Henry Whitaker. "When the government excludes speech from the public square, that is obviously a violation of the First Amendment," Justice Brett Kavanaugh said. But when a "private entity" makes those decisions, that's protected "editorial discretion." The commentary Kavanaugh's "straightforward" First Amendment argument is "clearly correct," but it's "disconcertingly unclear" whether a majority of justices will agree with him, or let Texas and Florida "weaponize conservative paranoia over Big Tech's alleged liberal bias" to "turn the most popular websites on earth into unusable quagmires of hate and extremism," Mark Joseph Stern said at Slate. These laws aren't great, but the justices shouldn't let Facebook and YouTube "hijack the concept of free speech and make it into their own broad cloak of protection" against "accountability," Tim Wu said at The New York Times. What next? The ruling is expected in late June. Kavanaugh and three other justices "strongly pushed back against the laws," but "it takes five justices to reach a majority," Chris Geidner said at Law Dork.     Today's INTERNATIONAL story Sweden clears final NATO hurdle with Hungary vote What happened?Hungary's parliament overwhelmingly approved Sweden's accession to NATO on Monday, clearing Stockholm's final obstacle to joining the Western alliance. Who said what? Sweden is "now leaving 200 years of neutrality and non-alignment behind us," said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. "It is a big step, we must take that seriously. But it is also a very natural step." The commentary Thanks to his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin "now finds himself faced with an enlarged and motivated NATO, one that is no longer dreaming of a permanent peace," The New York Times said. Having Sweden and Finland in the alliance will make it "much easier to bottle up" Russian's navy in the Baltic Sea and protect NATO's northeastern flank. What next? Sweden's accession will be official once its paperwork is filed with the U.S. government, the depository of the North Atlantic Treaty. Then, with Stockholm's highly capable air force and navy and Baltic Sea assets, "many within the alliance are likely to ask what NATO ever did without Sweden," said Elizabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.   Advertisement by Betterment [Betterment is the automated investing app that puts your money to work](   Today's BUSINESS Story US sues to block Kroger-Albertsons merger What happened? The Federal Trade Commission sued Monday to block the $24.6 billion merger between grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons. Nine states joined the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon. The combination of Kroger and Albertsons and their several brands would be the largest grocery merger yet. Who said what?"Kroger's acquisition of Albertsons would lead to additional grocery price hikes for everyday goods," said Henry Liu, the director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition. The merger would "ensure our neighborhood supermarkets can better compete" with "mega retailers" like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, Albertsons said, "benefiting our customers," workers and communities. The commentaryThe lawsuit "shows that the FTC understands how the outsized power of big retailers is damaging the entire food system," said Stacy Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. What next? A federal judge in Oregon will first decide whether to grant the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction, then "how much competition is lost to the merger," The Wall Street Journal said. Kroger and Albertsons hoped to close this year.     On this day February 27, 1693 The female-oriented periodical The Ladies Mercury is published in London by the Athenian Society. Although the magazine only ran for four issues, other women's publications would follow at the turn of the 18th century, such as The Female Spectator. Today, The Ladies Mercury is widely considered the first English-language women's magazine.   Advertisement by Betterment [Betterment is the automated investing app that puts your money to work](   TODAY’S newspaperS ['Hush him up']( Tuesday's New York Daily News dedicates its front page to former President Donald Trump's looming porn star hush-money trial in New York, and the district attorney's request for a gag order. Trump and President Joe Biden are making dueling trips to the U.S. border on Thursday, The Washington Post says. And the Post and The New York Times highlight Biden's potential troubles with key Democratic constituencies in Tuesday's Michigan primary. ► [See the newspaper front pages](     It's not all bad Plastic bottles that once littered the streets and waterways of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, are being transformed into bristles for brooms. Entrepreneur Has Kea launched the broomstick enterprise as a way to do something about plastic waste pollution in Phnom Penh, and every day his warehouse turns about 5,000 bottles into brooms, Reuters said. The plastic is purchased from trash collectors and garbage depots, and in nearly a year, 40 tons of bottles have been turned into bristles.     Under the radar [It might be time to add a new hurricane category]( An extra category might be needed to accommodate worsening hurricanes. This could help raise public awareness surrounding the dangers of an impending storm, but it might also backfire. Hurricane winds are measured using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, rating storms on a 1-to-5 basis. For a Category 5, winds must reach 157 miles per hour. However, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a Category 6 may be required for increasingly extreme hurricanes. The Saffir-Sampson scale was created in the 1970s, when Category 5 storms were rare. But with the acceleration of climate change, the planet is "experiencing a new class of monster storms," Michael Mann, a climate scientist and the director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability & the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, told USA Today. The scale is mostly used as a warning system for people who will be affected by the storm. Adding a category could better inform them of potential catastrophic damage. Not everyone thinks it is necessary, however. The Saffir-Sampson scale only takes wind into consideration, yet hurricanes can also elicit deadly storm surge and flooding from rainfall. "We don't want to overemphasize the wind hazard by placing too much emphasis on the category," Jamie Rhome, the deputy executive director of the National Hurricane Center, told USA Today. A new and higher category could also diminish the danger of a Category 5 storm in the eyes of the public — to their detriment.     Tall tale A hop in the park When police in Texarkana, Texas, recently received a phone call about a kangaroo on the loose at a local park, officers thought, "Yeah right," the department said in a Facebook post. But when they arrived at Spring Lake Park, a kangaroo was hopping around. He wasn't an escape artist from a zoo, however. The marsupial, named Rocky, was with his family enjoying a day outside. "Guess we really have seen everything now," the department said.     Later today NATO's newest member has a king, Carl XVI Gustaf, but Sweden's monarchy did not earn a place in today's Evening Review of modern royal scandals. You don't have to go far south from Stockholm to hit scandal, though. If you want to get a closeup view of, say, Spain's latest royal intrigue, we review a hotel in Barcelona you may want to try out this spring. Thanks for reading, Peter     Morning Report was written and edited by Catherine Garcia, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Harold Maass and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek. Image credits, from top: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via Getty Images; Balint Szentgallay / NurPhoto via Getty Images; Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images; Frank Ramspott / Getty Images   © Future US, Inc • [theweek.com]( [Unsubscribe from this newsletter]( [Privacy Policy]( The Week is published by Future US, Inc. 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