“Trump Says Abortion Restrictions Should Be Left to the States; After months of mixed signals, Donald Trump said that whatever states decide ‘must be the law of the land,’ adding that he was ‘strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother’”: Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Michael Gold of The New York Times have this report.

Hannah Knowles and Marianne LeVine of The Washington Post report that “Trump says abortion should be left to states, does not endorse national limit.”

Alex Leary, Catherine Lucey, and Laura Kusisto of The Wall Street Journal report that “Trump Says States Should Chart Their Own Paths on Abortion; Former president had floated the idea of a 15- or 16-week ban.”

Susan Ferrechio of The Washington Times has an article headlined “Rejecting a federal abortion limit, Trump blunts Democrats’ most powerful weapon for November.”

In commentary, online at The New York Times, columnist Michelle Goldberg has an essay titled “Trump Says Abortion Will Be Left to the States. Don’t Believe Him.”

And online at The Washington Post, columnist Eugene Robinson has an essay titled “Trump’s abortion position just made his 2024 reelection even harder.”

“Prosecutors Ask Supreme Court to Reject Trump’s Immunity Claim in Election Case; The filing was the main submission from Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting the former president; The case will be argued on April 25”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

And Ann E. Marimow of The Washington Post reports that “Special counsel urges Supreme Court to reject Trump’s immunity claim.”

You can access the Special Counsel’s merits brief at this link.

“Stephen Breyer to the Supreme Court Majority: You’re Doing It Wrong; In our system of government, the Constitution has the final say; But it doesn’t come with a user manual.” Louis Menand has this Books essay in the April 15, 2024 issue of The New Yorker.

“The Fifth Circuit’s lawlessness is now spreading from California to D.C.; Two federal judges in Texas recently granted motions to transfer cases to other courts; Then the Fifth Circuit got involved; Now, it’s a nationwide mess”: Chris Geidner has this post at his Substack site.

“Sam Alito’s Dobbs Opinion Has Somehow Aged Even Worse Than You Expected; The majority in Dobbs argued that Roe v. Wade didn’t ‘work’; A new amicus brief demonstrates that Dobbs doesn’t ‘work,’ either — and that the status quo is far worse”: Madiba K. Dennie has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.