Morning Constitutional – Wednesday, 21 July 2010

Good morning, folks. Sarah\’s not going to Bristol\’s wedding. Now, your morning constitutional:

USDA employee Shirley Sherrod resigned yesterday after it was revealed that she gave a racist speech to the NAACP. Oh, wait: turns out it was a speech about overcoming racism.

This morning, President Obama will sign the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law.

The U.S. has announced new sanctions against North Korea targeting the sale and purchase of arms and import of luxury goods.

The Senate broke a Republican filibuster yesterday on a bill that would extend unemployment benefits to those out of work for more than six months. The bill will be voted on today and is virtually assured passage.

The Obama administration is beginning to look into reforming housing policy and possibly giving more support to renting than ownership.

States with progressive health care policies having the most trouble getting federal funding for the new temporary high-risk pools.

Dahlia Lithwick: The bogus Republican case against Kagan.

Eric Alterman: Why a progressive presidency is impossible, for now.

In the Ottoman era, Jews, Arabs, Copts, even Freemasons lived side by side in peace. So what happened?

Finally, a German teacher lost a defamation suit yesterday against a student who spread rumors that she was afraid of rabbits after the student was able to prove that she was, in fact, afraid of rabbits.