Hello and happy Saturday. When I woke up Monday morning, I expected that the news week might be dominated by whatever happened in my home state’s GOP Senate primary. Who would win the right to run for the seat that Rob Portman is vacating at the end of his term: Trump-endorsed J.D. Vance, Trump-aligned Josh Mandel (campaign slogan: “Pro-God. Pro-Guns. Pro-Trump.”), or the late-surging, Trump-avoidant Matt Dolan? 

It ended up being Vance, but that was overshadowed by the story that broke Monday evening when Politico published a leaked draft opinion written by Samuel Alito in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health that indicated the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade.

Don’t worry: I’m not going to spend the next few hundred words giving you my opinion on Roe, the Supreme Court, or the leak. David wrote a great and very useful newsletter on it (summarized below), he and Sarah discussed it at length on Advisory Opinions, the gang talked about it in Tuesday’s Dispatch Live (video here for members), and Jonah tackled it in his Wednesday G-File. 

I did write about abortion in the past, but these days I’d rather dig up the weeds in my flowerbeds with a dinner spoon than try to tackle it. So instead I’ll try to share some lessons I learned.