Incredible. DOJ, in court, tells Judge Reyes "no closure notice has been issued" for the East Potomac golf course. Moments later the judge is handed a note saying that closure signs are on parts of the golf course today. There's a reason the presumption of regularity is gone.

This talking point is now repeated as gospel truth across the MAGA right. Legal filings and public evidence make clear that the SPLC was warning about the 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally - not sponsoring it. Which is of course obvious to anyone outside of the MAGA media cocoon.

As the 1860s Republicans understood, the Constitution explicitly empowers Congress to regulate the court. By contrast, it says nothing about the court’s claimed authority to regulate Congress. The court’s defiance of federal law is sustained only by our tolerance of it—a choice we can unmake.

Trump calls for invalidating (primary) elections to gerrymander new maps for 2026. The Supreme Court for 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 has ruled that replacing illegal maps “too close” to elections is too burdensome on election administration & Republicans get to hold at least 1 election with illegal maps before redrawing

“A Justice Department that is willing to stretch both the facts and the law to mislead a grand jury into returning an indictment could literally charge any American with a crime"

The Yale Law School Federalist Society just gave this guy a profile in courage award this weekend.

what kinds of “restaurants” have been asking Todd Blanche for ID

US Department of Justice loses a quarter of its lawyers ft.trib.al/VHEV5T4

With @barbmcquade.bsky.social on her new book about mob justice and the dire threat of seashells on a North Carolina beach, and @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app on the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act.

My first RN job was in Labor and Delivery, Postpartum and Newborn care. Mifepristone has SO many other uses, but they don’t care about that. In my job we used it to help induce labor when needed, or help it along. This is a slippery slope. I hate it here. We TOLD you this was going to happen.

NEW: The ultraconservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked the 2023 rule change that allowed for telemedicine prescriptions of the abortion drug mifepristone—nationwide.

My New One at MS Now: “The Supreme Court’s redistricting ruling creates a dangerous choice for Democrats; Democrats could spread out minority voters who are reliable supporters to help capture more seats. But doing so would reduce minority representation in the House.” www.ms.now/opinion/supr...

Listen to @legaldefensefund.bsky.social President @janainelson.bsky.social, who argued the Louisiana v Calláis case in the Supreme Court, talk about the decision she calls rightly “catastrophic” with @dahlialithwick.bsky.social. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Instead, I just do my work, knowing that it's got to stand for itself. I promote it, to be sure! But, it's different, and you all know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I wrote a 2,500-word report from the courtroom about what happened with and at SCOTUS yesterday. Check it out. Subscribe.

“Supreme Court paves the way for largest-ever drop in Black representation in Congress” electionlawblog.org?p=155775

Exquisitely written. Important issues for U.S. public corruption. Solution oriented. "Lessons can be drawn from peers like Canada, Mexico, and France, which do not exempt their heads of state from conflict-of-interest rules." @abigailbellows.bsky.social, former NSC Director for Anti-Corruption

With @janainelson.bsky.social of NAACP LDF on the profound error, future harms, and deliberate misunderstanding of history in Callais

An “era of extreme gerrymandering” just began out of nowhere.

In its latest ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act, the Roberts Court has inverted the Reconstruction Amendments to justify the same racist devices and practices they were adopted to dismantle (🎁) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

My latest @npr.org story: The Supreme Court has paved the way for the largest-ever drop in representation by Black members of Congress by weakening Voting Rights Act protections against racial discrimination in redistricting www.npr.org/2026/04/30/n...

WaPo reports Louisiana’s governor will announce on Friday that he is suspending the House primaries where people have already started voting and redraw the map; I’d expect them to go for an all-Republican map and eliminate both majority-Black districts, not just one.

With @janainelson.bsky.social of NAACP LDF on the profound error, future harms, and deliberate misunderstanding of history in Callais

The Roberts Court majority may be pretending they don't know the Voting Rights Act is what ended Jim Crow and their decision to gut it is license to take us back ("again") to stealing power from Black voters, but Americans do:

An Alito map is one that blatantly dilutes the voting power of Black voters and other disenfranchised communities on account of race in order to maximize partisan advantage with a SCOTUS stamp of approval.

By all that is holy, if and when SCOTUS decides that birthright citizenship is protected in the Constitution, don't let the 3-3-3 numpties tell you this is a moderate, centrist court. Rejecting an a-textual stupid Hail Mary doesn't cash out to a push when it comes to eviscerating the VRA today.

In Callais, Justice Alito doubles down on the spurious argument from the early SCOTUS decision in Shelby County that discrimination is no longer a problem in the South because the racial turnout gap has closed. That is flatly wrong. /1

The Voting Rights Act is all but dead. Prepare for maximum gerrymandering. www.vox.com/politics/487...

This LBJ speech about the Voting Rights Act, is one of my all time favorite political speeches millercenter.org/the-presiden...

\

Powerful words from Kagan in #SCOTUS voting rights case: The VRA "ushered in awe-inspiring change, bringing this Nation closer to fulfilling the ideals of democracy and racial equality. And it has been repeatedly, and overwhelmingly, reauthorized by the people’s representatives in Congress."

The Supreme Court's Republican supermajority, afraid of the blowback from declaring what remains of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional, instead says only they know the one true way the Voting Rights Act can be constitutional, and nothing will ever meet their new standard.

ANALYSIS: son of a bitch

Breaking: On 6-3 Party Line Vote, Supreme Court Drastically Weakens Voting Rights Act in Callais Case to Make It Much Harder for Minority Plaintiffs to Get Fair Representation in Redistricting electionlawblog.org?p=155728 [post in progress]

Second (and last) #SCOTUS ruling is the big one, Louisiana v. Callais. For a 6-3 majority (Rs v. Ds), Justice Alito purports to narrow the ability of states to draw majority-minority districts as a remedy for race-based vote dilution, but, per Kagan's dissent, comes pretty close to gutting the VRA:

LOUISIANA v. CALLAIS Held: Because the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority-minority district, no compelling interest justi- fied the State’s use of race in creating SB8 & map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. 👀⚖️👇🏾 www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Chief Justice John Roberts will uphold birthright citizenship with some soaring decision and then shiv a longstanding statute with a poorly written decision by Alito. It is how he rolls.

Inside House Democrats’ task force on countering interference in the midterms, w/ @hunterw.bsky.social talkingpointsmemo.com/news/house-d...

NOTED: FBI Director Kash Patel helpfully explains to press that the grand jury that indicted Comey over alleged threat was told about him taking down the post and apologizing. I didn't get to follow up for other details on govt's grand jury presentation www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

BREAKING: A 2nd Circuit court of appeals panel rejects ICE's mandatory detention policy, splitting with the 5th and 8th Circuits and putting the case on a likely trajectory to SCOTUS The 3-0 decision rejects "mass detention w/o bond for millions." www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

PS You can now see video of this conversation about gerrymandering, the Supreme Court, and Republicans playin themselves! featuring me, @dahlialithwick.bsky.social, and @mjsdc.bsky.social for @slate.com Amicus Plus www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILnt...

This is Rule 11 territory.

At the risk of getting ahead of myself, I think congressional Republicans might force a short-notice vote on Trump’s palace ballroom, and that it’d be a terrible omen of the usual suspect Dems defected to provide them bipartisan cover. www.offmessage.net/p/do-not-aut...

In 2025, Democrats gained 25 state Senate and House seats held by the GOP, out of 118 that were up for election. That’s a haul reminiscent of 2017, when Dems flipped 20 percent of GOP-held legislative seats in the run-up to the 2018 midterms.

GOOD NEWS A Virginia judge declines a request from Republicans to halt the implementation of a new congressional map. Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland ruled the Virginia General Assembly acted within its legal authority he wouldn’t override the will of voters. dailyboulder.com/virginia-cou...

In which @sulliview.bsky.social previews the White House Correspondents Dinner tonight as a celebration of lightly charred press freedoms with a side of shredded self-owning. And @mjsdc.bsky.social and I mull the Shadow Docket leak.

I get the funny feeling the Supreme Court is not eager to take up President Trump's appeal in the E. Jean Carroll case. www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx...

The Shadow Docket. CC: @dahlialithwick.bsky.social & @mjsdc.bsky.social Thanks to my anonyomous friend. boingboing.net/2026/04/22/t...

Trump and RFK, Jr., continue to suppress information showing that COVID shots work. wapo.st/41JhAhb

Jay Bhattacharya falsely accused people of “censoring” him for years — including Stanford Internet Observatory. He has his job because of pretend censorship — he parlayed being a fake victim into a government appointment. Here he is suppressing a paper because he doesn’t like its conclusions.

Here’s the 5th Circuit’s opinion openly and directly defying an on-point Supreme Court precedent that prohibits the display of the 10 Commandments in public school classrooms. Shameless defiance of SCOTUS, but we’ll see if the supermajority cares. txvalues.org/wp-content/u...