From me in @boltsmag.org: some of the most important legal questions on voting rights and democracy that we're facing this year

weekend must-read from @burness.bsky.social: How American Samoans, unlike ppl born in every other US territory and state, don't have voting rights—which has long generated confusion even among public officials, and has now made American Samoans a troubling new target for voter fraud prosecutions

good point here: "By electing prosecutors less willing to confront police misconduct, two cities hit hard by ICE also found themselves with prosecutors less willing to stand up against ICE" slate.com/news-and-pol...

no surprise when a killer cop was part of training police academies can be notoriously violent places that preach a combative view of the public www.texasobserver.org/the-culture-... police instructors give all kinds of contorted testimony to justify violence www.texasobserver.org/hands-dont-s...

i don't totally get why it's all labeled 'illegal' when there are many exceptions to the PO box ban, but even if so.. doesn't this just show that the number is tiny (100-200ish out of 2.6 million registered voters) and that local election workers were already screening and suspending many of these?

Eleven American Samoans in Alaska face serious prison time for voting in the only country they’ve ever known. Theirs is a wild story of colonialism, cops, “voter fraud” panic, small-town beef, and family. I spent months on this + am so glad to now be able to share it: boltsmag.org/prosecuted-f...

If you were born on US soil, have a US passport, SSN, you can vote in US elections, right? Not those from American Samoa. They're unique in not having birthright citizenship, something one Alaska town found out the hard way. Can't-miss story by @burness.bsky.social boltsmag.org/prosecuted-f...

2025 was just as busy as 2024, so we’ll forgive you if you missed some of our articles at @boltsmag.org! Our team chose just 10 of our favorite pieces of the year. It was very hard to choose—but these are articles I'd love for you to not miss. (And: thank you for reading us!) 🧵

“Grace periods” for late-arriving mail ballots were not controversial until very recently. (Kansas lawmakers voted *163-1* for a grace period in 2017!) But Trump wants them banned, so red states have lately rushed to help him. Ohio just joined the list: boltsmag.org/ohio-ends-gr...

NM lawmakers in 2023 passed a Second Chance Act to ban life without parole sentences for juveniles. But a recent opinion by the state’s AG, which appears to conflict with the reform law, is now blocking releases and threatens to pull others back into prison the latest from @laurengill.bsky.social

All asylum decisions paused. Naturalization ceremonies canceled. Green card applications on hold. The Trump administration's blanket restrictions on legal immigration "don’t just disrupt paperwork, they derail lives.” My latest for @motherjones.com:

The Massey Commission was established after Sonya Massey was killed by a sheriff's deputy in her own home. I followed along for 9 months as its members tried to enact real policing & mental health reforms – & grappled w/ the limits of these commissions to effect change: boltsmag.org/sonya-massey...

Over the past year, a group of activists, former law enforcement officials, and relatives of people who were harmed by police worked to recommend police reforms for Springfield, Illinois. Their new report reflects months of debate and compromise.

NEW: Here's my story on Arlington, Texas, becoming the first known city in the nation to kill a city-wide LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination policy in response to the Trump administration. With no statewide protections, it was one of the few things protecting LGBTQ+ Texans: www.chron.com/culture/arti...

Max Huntsman, the inspector general tasked with holding the LA Sheriff’s Department to account, is retiring… and going out with a bang in this letter 🔥

They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.

A shady stop and search outside San Antonio underscores the role of local elected officials (sheriffs) in the growing surveillance dragnet by federal police www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investi...

New from me: The DOJ plans to dismantle protections for trans and intersex people in federal, state, and local prisons, jails, and youth detention facilities, according to a government memo obtained by Prism.

FOLKS, do you have questions on the redistricting wars (especially tonight)? Bolts just launched a call for questions today: Tell us what you want to know... on new maps, about lingering questions, about lawsuits, on VRA threat, what where it means for 2026? Reply below, or there's a form in here:

an unapologetic fascist and attorney in North TX is trying to move from court-appointed cases to a seat on the bench see more of Steven's great coverage of this guy thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/22/c...

Men incarcerated at the notorious Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia in the 1800s had more access to sunlight than people held at DCP now. And it can lead to lifelong health consequences. www.pennlive.com/news/2025/12...

a very kind offer from a reader, any level of support really helps—even if just a follow and/or share, which still gets us more $ from Russ! i'm proud of the reporting that this small team continues to crank out every week, and immensely grateful to the readers who have helped us keep it going

North Carolina prisons just hiked up prices for basic goods – such as food, drinks & AAA batteries. But the prices were already high. Even if prices are up mere cents, it could have a big impact: The state pays incarcerated workers between just 40 cents & $1.25/day. boltsmag.org/north-caroli...

NC prison officials say “shifting economic conditions” forced them to raise their markup on basic goods like food, drinks, batteries to run radios, etc Phill Smith, who’s incarcerated there, reports on the impact of the price hike and how prisons squeeze revenue from those who can least afford it

absolutely harrowing description of adx supermax in colorado boltsmag.org/death-row-cl...

After 30 years in prison and 25 years on Louisiana's death row, Chris Duncan walked out of Angola today a free man. "I'm cruising down a highway," he texted me. "Most glaring emotion is shock."

After Biden commuted the sentences of 37 men on federal death row last year, the Trump administration is retaliating by sending them to the supermax. Prisoners are locked in cells smaller than a parking space 22-24 hours a day. One prisoner told me he fears he won't make it out alive. My latest:

Congressional redistricting is monumentally important. But for Black people in places like Fayette County, TN, it is the County Commn where the stakes are highest. What SCOTUS does in Louisiana v Calláis may threaten Black representation across the rural South. boltsmag.org/voting-right...

Biden granted mercy to most everyone on federal death row before leaving office. Trump retaliated by putting them in some of the harshest conditions of longterm isolation that American prisons can impose. Another must-read by @laurengill.bsky.social boltsmag.org/death-row-cl...

NEW: You've heard SCOTUS could soon upend the balance in power in Congress by gutting the VRA. But that'd also be a huge blow to Black voting power in *local* governments. In west Tennessee, Black residents just won a new county map this year—but those gains now look very fragile. Great reporting:

Incredibly depressing to see this story wrap up by quoting a lawmaker who says, “we have to allow for more exceptions,” when the entire story is evidence that exceptions don’t work, especially for a Black woman like Tierra Walker who was already at higher risk of dying due to medical neglect

My last freelance piece of the year published yesterday in @boltsmag.org, taking a look at how Illinois' name change law still disproportionately impacts trans people with criminal histories. boltsmag.org/illinois-nam...

This is so cool. I interviewed Calvin Duncan - exoneree, and now Orleans Parish Clerk of Court - back in 2023 about his work as a jailhouse lawyer for the folks on death row in Louisiana. I remember being really struck by his words:

On Oct. 31, a judge acquitted former Cook County juvenile jail guard Kevin Walker of battery and official misconduct saying, “The defendant puts his hand on [the boy] and maybe pushes him at best.” Now, you can watch the video for yourself.

A Republican sheriff in a swing county that Trump won by 0.1% signed a contract to help ICE, then lost last week by 11. New by me in @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/sheriff-of-b...

the TX AG's office has a long, ugly history of targeting Black and Latino organizers who register new voters www.texastribune.org/2025/11/10/t... Under Abbott, the office staked out the home of an old woman bc she helped a housebound neighbor mail a ballot www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Incoming NJ governor Mikie Sherrill hasn't said whether she'll uphold a state policy limiting law enforcement cooperation w/ ICE. Advocates say lawmakers must pass legislation to preserve & expand protections for NJ's 2.2 million immigrants before she takes office. boltsmag.org/immigration-...

Ten years ago this week, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance failed to pass. It would have protected Houstonians from discrimination in a variety of ways, but it failed after Republicans ran ads about trans predators in bathrooms. Here's my retrospective from last year: www.chron.com/culture/arti...

New Jersey's unusually productive lame-duck session is around the corner, & immigration advocates want lawmakers to promptly codify the protections against ICE put in place by the outgoing admin. Why? Governor-Elect Mikie Sherrill has declined to say if she'd keep them, Lauren Gill reports.

Last night’s overwhelming Democratic sweep in Pennsylvania preserves liberal control of the state supreme courts across the Midwest’s Blue Wall—MI, PA, WI. These courts are really important for election law and voting rights. boltsmag.org/pennsylvania...

A photojournalist was arrested by ICE at gunpoint — and his DACA status revoked. “Ya’akub isn’t being accused of breaking immigration law — his DACA protection doesn’t expire until May 2026. In fact Ya’akub’s lawyers say he hasn’t been accused of any crime.” thebarbedwire.com/2025/11/04/h...

All day, many of you have been asking for a Cheney obituary from me. Get ready:

As we see indicia of big turnout in today's NYC mayoral election, worth keeping in mind that roughly one in seven adult NYC residents are categorically barred from voting. If you're on the fence about turning out, remember that this is a privilege many of your neighbors do not have

Most likely don’t have this on the Election Day radar, but felony disenfranchisement is on the ballot next week in Virginia, an unusually harsh state for denying voting rights to people with criminal records. Major reform may be coming there, and Tuesday is pivotal. Here’s what you need to know:

Great reporting here on a measure on the TX ballot this week that would expand Greg Abbott’s growing influence over a commission that disciplines judges www.texastribune.org/2025/11/03/t...

Just over an hour after 3 Supreme Court justices warned that Alabamian Anthony Boyd would suffer psychological torture, he was subjected to the longest nitrogen gas execution in US history, gasping for air more than 225 times. Read my eyewitness account: www.treadbylee.com/p/after-just...

SCOTUS just allowed Alabama's execution of Anthony Boyd: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p... Justice Sotomayor wrote this vivid dissent blasting AL for using the method of nitrogen gas. @laurengill.bsky.social's reporting from an AL execution shows you why: boltsmag.org/alabama-nitr...

Alabama plans to execute Anthony Boyd tonite by suffocating him with nitrogen gas, an experimental method that appears to be agonizing by most available witness accounts read Lauren's important reporting on Boyd's case and the death penalty in Alabama boltsmag.org/alabama-nitr...

For @boltsmag.org, I wrote about one group that, despite being a huge chunk of the adult population in NYC, is uniformly excluded from electoral coverage: noncitizens. A 2021 law promised many could participate in municipal elections for the first time, before it was challenged and struck down

I’m guessing you haven’t even hard of this case: San Antonio Police Officers shot and killed Melissa Perez in 2023. Now, her daughter is hoping a criminal trial will mark the first time murder charges stick for on-duty officers in the city. thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/16/s...