Callais is a wake up call and reminder that Democrats can no longer tinker around with small-scale incremental reforms if they are serious about saving and restoring democracy. 2026 needs to be recast as an election about big ideas for democratic reform.

NEW: Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas (D), the force behind the state’s voter-approved redistricting plan, blasted the Trump administration for raiding her office as an act of political intimidation. “When challenged, they try to intimidate and silence the voices who stand up to them,” she said.

Breaking: Tennessee Republicans pass new 9-0 gerrymander after SCOTUS destruction of Voting Rights Act eliminating state’s only majority-Black district & last Democratic seat. Splits Memphis, which is 63% Black, into 3 districts to disenfranchise Black voters. Quite literally a return to Jim Crow

“The dismantling of USAID, according to models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols, “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children,” Gawande wrote.” hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-s...

BIG: Democrats will control the Michigan state Senate through the remainder of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's term.

42,000 Louisianians voted absentee before Gov. Landry suspended US House primaries lailluminator.com/briefs/42000...

Thrilled to share my latest, with @rickhills.bsky.social, in @dukelaw.bsky.social’s DLJ! Presidential Administration After Arthrex tries to work within the Supreme Court’s current Article II jurisprudence to reconcile a powerful, democratic president with competent administration. (1/3)

No state has seen a greater percentage of families kicked off food assistance than Arizona, and it's the direct result of Trump and Republicans gutting SNAP while Americans struggle to get by. I won't stop fighting to fix this so Arizona kids don’t go hungry.

A federal judge ORDERS the Trump DOJ to unseal the names of the currently redacted witnesses cited in the affidavit supporting the search warrant for the seizure of 2020 presidential election ballots in Fulton County, Ga. Doc storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

You can't celebrate Dr. King's legacy once a year in January and then spend the rest of the year trying to attack and dismantle his legacy.

Great post by @rickhasen.bsky.social on tonight's order in Callais. Hard to overstate the massive impact of the Court's original decision in Callais and now this order on its diminishing legitimacy as an institution.

Great post by @stevevladeck.bsky.social on SCOTUS stay in the mifepristone case and the order immediately issuing the judgement in Callais, and how they further highilght the inconsistency of the Court across similar cases, a key point he also raises in his book The Shadow Docket.

My own view is that the central problem with today’s #SCOTUS is the extent to which it isn’t—and doesn’t think it should be—accountable to other government institutions, especially Congress. Today’s “One First” walks through eight of the levers Congress *used* to pull to keep the justices in line:

Alabama’s lieutenant governor, who also serves as president of the state Senate, posted a 7-0 Republican gerrymander calling for his party to eliminate both Black Democrats. Every seat on a map like this would be dark red and heavily white

By gutting the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court is killing the Second Reconstruction. The first Reconstruction shows how Congress should respond. Me and Daphna Renan in the NYT on the tools we have to save democracy from a hostile Court.

Breaking News: Spirit Airlines is preparing to shut down after failing to strike a deal for a financial lifeline from the Trump administration, two people familiar with the matter said. nyti.ms/4tQqtlm

An “accessory.” Justice Marshall delivered it raw and real.

NEW: Alabama is asking SCOTUS for expedited consideration of its appeal from the second Milligan ruling in light of Callais. www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

New, from me: This should be a clarifying moment about the relationship the Supreme Court's opposition to representative democracy in America. Lets look at some graphs that make this point. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/power-demo...

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.

At this moment, it is critical that we teach the history of Sections 5 and 2 of the VRA so students can fully understand the magnitude of what has now been dismantled. Democrats might want to consider doing the same in their electoral campaigns in 2026.

#BREAKING Federal prosecutors in Chicago say they are dismissing the conspiracy count against the remaining members of the Broadview Six.

Here's the conclusion of my post on the Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais, gutting the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act:

In Callais, the Roberts Court has finished the gutting of the VRA, w/ devastating consequences for the future of democracy and minority representation. The future of democracy now rests on 2026 and 2028 & Democrats' ability to enact new civil rights and voting rights laws and even amendments.

Earlier this week, the University of Chicago announced a new minor in Law and Political Economy. Yes, really. And, yes, the good kind of political economy!

Spirit Airlines stock has surged by over 788 percent in the last 5 days.

As of now, US is on the verge of a currency swap to financially support the UAE and taking over a private airline.

"The deal could include $500 million in financing from the government, which could provide a path to give the government an equity stake in the carrier, said the people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks." www.cnbc.com/2026/04/22/s...

Saving Spirit Airlines possibly puts 'good money after bad', Transportation head Duffy says reut.rs/4e7vGQV

“Global prices of jet fuel have risen more than 70 percent since the start the war at the end of February”

BREAKING: Texas can require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, a U.S. appeals court rules.

Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe. https://cnn.it/3Ovxzwk

NBC News projects Virginia Redistricting Amendment will pass, major victory for Democrats in Virginia and nationwide.

With almost 80 percent of the vote in, Virginia Redistricting measure now is winning with 50.3 percent YES, 50 percent of vote from Fairfax County is in.

Breaking: HHS’s ban on gender-affirming care is struck down. Rarely have I read a ruling this sharply worded. “This case is one of a long list of examples of how a leader’s wanton disregard for the rule of law causes very real harm to very real people.” www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

this is what America can be

What is striking to me about these is that the Justices candidly admit they are imposing their will without understanding the merits of the case.

It’s so funny that they pubbed this the day before “john roberts invented the trump era shadow docket to make sure fossil fuel companies could keep killing you and make money doing it” bsky.app/profile/cris...

Texas State Rep. James Talarico just announced his campaign for U.S. Senate raised more than $27 million in the first quarter of 2026 — the largest amount ever raised by a U.S. Senate candidate in the first quarter of an election year.

This is lunacy.

The president has used a loophole in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to get away with mass warrantless surveillance of Americans — and this week Congress will vote on whether to expand this power. Tell Congress to vote NO at 833-946-2258.

Thank you to UB Law Links for this profile on my new role as director of the Jaeckle Center for Law, Democracy and Governance. Excited about the role the Center can play as a forum for advancing research, scholarship and advocacy in the years to come. www.law.buffalo.edu/links/2026-a...

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the panel would be “fully prepared” to vet a Supreme Court nominee should there be a retirement at the end of the term, and would recommend that either Ted Cruz (R-Texas) or Mike Lee (R-Utah) get the nomination.

Disparate impacts of the war: "Migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates, whose hospitality industry has been hit hard by the war with Iran, are facing furloughs, pay cuts and even repatriation." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/w...

"Constitutional Structure and Election Law" is now up @wmborj.bsky.social. The article analyzes the Supreme Court's application of three forms of constitutional structure-based approaches in election law: historicist, structuralist, & background structure. scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol34...

Hungarians deserve every congratulations for giving Peter Magyar a bigger margin than Orban has ever gotten in all of his rigged elections - and this within the system that Orban rigged. Magyar now has a constitutional majority to undo Orban's constitutional prison and govern as a democratic leader.

Consumer prices spiked 3.3 percent due to war.

Realism in international relations feels too real now.

One lesson from the last year is that many underestimated how quickly federal agencies and departments could be shut down or downsized. Rebuilding or creating new agencies and departments in the future will require sustained attention to questions of resilience and preservation.

My New One at MS Now: “Three ways the Supreme Court could upend the midterm elections” — A Call for Court To Take Timing into Account in Callais, NRSC, and Watson @msnownews.bsky.social www.ms.now/opinion/supr...