Friday, June 27

SCOTUS limits federal judges’ ability to block Trump power grab The Supreme Court issued a major ruling limiting the ability of federal judges to block executive actions through universal injunctions. The ruling makes it much harder for courts to block President Donald Trump’s slew of illegal executive actions.  Trump celebrated the ruling during a press conference Friday, falsely declaring that the Supreme Court has allowed his administration to proceed with ending birthright citizenship, and other efforts blocked by courts. Marc and Paige discussed what the ruling could mean for the country. SCOTUS will rehear Louisiana redistricting case next term, signaling major ruling to come In a surprise move, SCOTUS postponed until next term a decision in a high-stakes Louisiana redistricting case that could have major implications for the future of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).  The decision may signal that the majority wants to make a sweeping ruling that could significantly weaken what’s left of the VRA’s power to stop racial gerrymandering.

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Wisconsin Supreme Court won’t hear Democrats’ gerrymandering challenge Despite a near-even partisan split in Wisconsin, six of the state’s eight congressional districts are held by Republicans. And yet, the Wisconsin Supreme Court surprisingly declined to take a case brought by a group of voters who argued the state’s congressional map is the result of years of GOP gerrymandering and asked the court to order a new map for the 2026 election. ACLU wants to join challenge to Montana anti-voting law, citing harm to Native voters The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a state law that slashes same-day voter registration hours and threatens to disenfranchise Indigenous voters across the state.  As Republicans attack elections, state and local officials must defend democracy “There are three concrete steps elected officials of both parties can take over the next 18 months to defend democracy,” write Democracy Docket guest authors Debbie Cox Bultan and David Pepper. Trump DOJ sues every federal district judge in Maryland Marc and Paige discussed an extremely rare legal move from the DOJ this week: The agency sued every federal district judge in Maryland to challenge a standing court order that protects due process rights by temporarily barring the government from deporting people after they have filed a challenge.  Coming up next week A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday in a lawsuit challenging Florida laws that make it harder to participate in the ballot initiative process.