Vox Sentences: The National Guard arrives in Baltimore

1. Troops in the streets

Members of the Maryland National Guard stand guard over the Baltimore city hall building. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

• Hundreds of Maryland National Guard troops have been deployed to Baltimore to keep the peace in the wake of yesterday's riots.

  [Baltimore Sun / Ian Duncan]

• Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake also issued a citywide 10 pm curfew, starting tonight and to last at least one week.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• The violence broke out after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died of a spinal cord injury while in police custody.

  [Vox / Jenée Desmond-Harris]

• President Obama: the rioters are only a "handful" of the overall protesters, most of whom are peaceful; while Obama condemned the rioters, he also argued attention needs to be paid to systemic problems like police brutality and poverty.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• To that point: Gray lived in a neighborhood where more than half of residents aren't employed and more than 60 percent lack high school diplomas, and a third of properties are vacant or abandoned.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• If the Baltimore police did, as is alleged, cause Gray's spinal cord injury during a van ride, it would fit the department's habit of sending suspects on "rough rides" in vans.

  [Vox / Libby Nelson]

• Rawlings-Blake has been widely quoted as saying she wanted to give rioters "space to destroy"; that's not at all what she meant.

  [Bloomberg / David Weigel]

• Newly installed Attorney General Loretta Lynch: "I strongly urge every member of the Baltimore community to adhere to the principles of nonviolence."

  [Justice Department]

• Baltimore native Ta-Nehisi Coates: "When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con."

  [The Atlantic / Ta-Nehisi Coates]

• If you want to go really whole-hog, here's Jesse Myerson and José Martín's defense of rioting, originally pegged to Ferguson.

  [Rolling Stone / Jesse Myerson and José Martín]

• Wire creator David Simon: you can, and should, argue for nonviolence while simultaneously condemning the state violence that caused the rioting.

  [David Simon]

2. Oral arguments

Demonstrations near the Supreme Court earlier today. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

• Oral arguments on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans began at the Supreme Court today.

  [NYT / Adam Liptak]

• You can read the arguments in the cases here …

  [Supreme Court]

• … and here.

  [Supreme Court]

• All eyes were on swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy. Some of his questioning sounded skeptical of marriage equality proponents, e.g.: "This definition has been with us for millennia, and I think it's very difficult for this court to say we know better."

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• But at other points, he was harshly critical of same-sex marriage opponents and raised the prospect of marriage bans harming children of same-sex couples (a key argument in his 2013 opinion striking down the federal same-sex marriage ban).

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Based on the arguments, it doesn't look like Chief Justice John Roberts is a swing vote, as some have speculated.

  [Slate / Mark Joseph Stern]

• That said, it's hard to predict just based on oral arguments; this statistical model provides a better way.

  [Vox / Dylan Matthews]

• If the court strikes down the bans, it will be fulfilling years of predictions by Justice Antonin Scalia, who opposed past gay rights decisions on the grounds they'd lead to same-sex marriage.

  [Vox / Dylan Matthews]

• There are two likely ways the court could strike down marriage bans: by requiring states to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, or by full-on striking down all marriage bans. The latter would be a significantly bigger win for LGBT people.

  [NYT / Emily Bazelon and Adam Liptak]

3. Fun times with seized cargo ships

The USS Farragut, an American destroyer dispatched to monitor the Maersk Tigris situation, at sea. (Handout/Getty Images)

• Iran has seized a cargo ship in the near Strait of Hormuz, which separates Iran from the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• The ship is flagged to the Marshall Islands, which is under US military protection despite not being a US territory; no Americans were aboard.

  [Yahoo / Olivier Knox]

• Iranian forces asked the ship to divert course; the captain initially refused, spurring the Iranians to fire shots across the ship's bow.

  [The Guardian / Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Julian Borger]

• The ship put out a distress call, and the US Navy responded by sending a destroyer to the area.

  [NYT / Helene Cooper]

• Iranian press reported that the ship was "seized due to legal issues" involving "financial violations" and that it had "reportedly trespassed on Iranian waters"; it's unclear what exactly they're talking about.

  [Washington Post / Missy Ryan and William Branigin]

• According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the ship was "on an internationally recognized maritime route."

  [Yahoo / Olivier Knox]

• A Pentagon spokesperson called the warning shots "inappropriate"; a State department spokesperson stated that Marshall Islands hasn't requested assistance and discussion of the US using force in the area is premature.

  [CNN / Barbara Starr, Jim Sciutoo, and Jamie Crawford]

• The Strait of Hormuz is massively important strategically; almost 20 percent of the world's oil passes through it.

  [Energy Information Agency]

• Earlier this week, Iran and the US had another naval dispute after Iran sent a flotilla suspected of carrying supplies for Yemeni rebels; the US sent an aircraft carrier nearby and the flotilla reversed course.

  [WSJ / Dion Nissenbaum and Hakim Almasmari]

• The disputes come as nuclear talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif are recommencing; yesterday was their first meeting since the initial deal was reached early this month.

  [NYT / Michael Gordon and Thomas Erdbrink]

4. Misc.

• Inside the dirty world of Capitol Hill snack trading (Hershey's from the Pennsylvania delegation, macadamia nuts from Hawaii, etc.).

  [Politico / Helena Bottemiller Evich]

• IUDs are the best tool we have for combating teenage pregnancy and abortion. But politicians are having a hard time getting on board.

  [National Journal / Nora Caplan-Bricker]

• The most common way to count calories from protein, nuts, and high-fiber foods could be totally wrong, with those foods providing significantly fewer calories than previously thought.

  [NYT / Philip Hilts]

• School closures are really unpopular. But they're also good for students.

  [WSJ / Michael Petrilli and Aaron Churchill]

• Yelp, only for refugees.

  [Chris Blattman]

5. Verbatim

• "Hatred of bands, specifically, is often about the story of ourselves that we're comfortable telling the world."

  [NPR / Stephen Thompson]

• "Idealists are constantly being asked to produce blueprints, but this is a foul trick … It’s as if I say 'We ought to find a way to build a bridge over that river,' and you insist that my opinion is invalid unless I have an in-depth knowledge of truss design and caisson placement."

  [Navel Observatory / Nathan Robinson]

• "When the time comes, Blake Lively will stare Death in the eyes and return its chilly gaze not with fear, not with denial, but with the knowledge that she must depart this earth, so another can grow in her place."

  [NY Mag / Allison Davis]

• "With any other product in the world there would be no Glock company because they would be sued out of existence. You don’t have a safety? That can’t be right."

  [Aaron Walsh to New Republic / Amanda Gailey]

• "Famously, she once wired him when she was desperately short of cash, saying 'Wife and baby starving send money soonest.' He characteristically replied 'Sorry no money suggest eat baby.'"

  [WSJ / Michael Phillips]

• "Full House is truly something Satan would’ve dreamt up during an unshakeable flu. It is abominable in a way nothing else is, and it will take you only five minutes of watching this show in syndication in 2015 to find that out."

  [Daily Beast / Ben Collins]