The Morning Dispatch: Will Joe Biden Be the 2024 Democratic Nominee?

Happy Wednesday! A company called Meta is suing Meta (née Facebook) for renaming itself Meta. Which is all … pretty meta. 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • The House voted 267-157 on Tuesday—with support from 47 Republicans and all Democrats—to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and require all states to recognize same-sex marriages if the marriage was valid in the state in which it originally occurred. Democrats have argued the legislation is necessary after Justice Clarence Thomas signaled in his Dobbs concurrence last month a desire to revisit Obergefell v. Hodges—which required all states to recognize same-sex marriages—but Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh were adamant that “overruling Roe does not mean the overruling of those precedents, and does not threaten or cast doubt on those precedents.” It’s unclear whether  the Senate will take up the measure, and how many Republicans would support the legislation if it did.

  • President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday directing various federal agencies to sanction officials involved in wrongful detainments or abductions of American citizens, add a new travel advisory warning Americans they’re at risk of detainment if they travel to hostile countries including China and Russia, and communicate more consistently with families of detainees, among other measures. The order is in part a response to the detention of WNBA star Brittney Griner and others in Russia.

  • White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that the Biden administration believes Russian officials are “reviewing detailed plans” to annex four regions of Ukraine—including territory the invading force doesn’t yet occupy. That would make a peace agreement still more difficult, since Russia would likely insist on keeping land it had annexed. According to U.S. intelligence, the Russian proxy governments established in occupied regions of Ukraine would hold fake referendums to approve the move, and those governments have already been mandating the use of the Russian ruble and issuing Russian passports to Ukrainians.

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