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Good morning.

I'm James Holman from the Washington Post

and this is the Daily 202 for Friday August 31st.

In today's news, the Trump administration is canceling funding for a program that

benefits Palestinian refugees.

Trump proposes a pay freeze for all federal employees,

and the president says he won't oust Jeff Sessions

until after the midterm elections.

But first, the big idea.

In 1999, a conservative legal activist named Brett Kavanaugh said he believed it was inevitable

that the Supreme Court within the next 10 to 20 years would conclude that we are all one race in the eyes of the

government. 19 years later as Kavanaugh prepares for his confirmation hearing

next week to join the Supreme Court.

The Trump administration formally weighed in Thursday to support a pending lawsuit against

Harvard University that could possibly end affirmative action as we know it, and perhaps even

give Kavanaugh the chance to make his own prophecy a reality.

Because he's the nominee to replace the now retired Anthony Kennedy, reality. Evidence of Kavanaugh's past skepticism toward affirmative action is being studied closely, and it's giving heartburn to civil rights advocates. During a speech just last year at Notre Dame Law School, Kavanaugh discussed how hard it is for a judge

...