SOCIAL MEDIA/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Even before President Trump’s new Supreme Court nominee is announced, a fight over the choice is raging on social media. In the days since Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said he would retire, partisan groups have turned to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks with political ads. Some of the ads urge voters to pressure their Senators to block or speed the confirmation process for Mr. Trump’s eventual nominee. Others oppose allowing specific jurists to fill the vacant seat. Judicial Crisis Network, an organization that promotes conservative judicial nominees, announced last week that it would spend more than $1 million to support President Trump’s nominee. So far, the group has spent as much as $140,000 on a series of nearly two dozen Facebook ads. Many of the Facebook ads are targeted at users in North Dakota, Indiana, and West Virginia, all red states with vulnerable Democratic senators who are up for re-election this year.”
–Kevin Roose, “Facebook Ads Offer Peek at Looming Supreme Court Fight,” The New York Times online, July 3, 2018