Voting Rights
Week of October 10-16, 2025
Welcome to TRACKING THE CRISIS, a weekly round-up from The Democracy Collaborative tracking the administrative, legislative, and other actions of the Trump Administration as well as the many forms of legal and movement response from across a broad range of social, political, and economic actors. TDC is providing this service for collective informational purposes, as a tool for understanding the times during a period of disorientingly rapid flux and change in the U.S. political economy. TDC should not be understood as endorsing or otherwise any of the specific content of the information round-up.
TRUMP TRACKER: Administration actions
SCOTUS set to rule on key cases, including one that could gut the Voting Rights Act. Voting rights experts are warning of a five-alarm fire threatening fair elections after hearings began in a key voting rights case on Wednesday, October 15, and the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority appeared poised to gut a central provision of the Voting Rights Act that had barred redistricting practices that would weaken the power of minority voters. A lower court ruling in that case had ordered Louisiana to create a second majority-Black district after Black voters sued over a 2022 congressional map which they claimed had diluted political representation for Black communities. After a Republican-aligned group claiming to represent ‘non-African-American voters’ took the case to the Supreme Court, conservative justices Roberts and Kavanaugh appeared open to limiting all consideration of race in redistricting, thus narrowing Section Two of the Voting Rights Act and stripping minority voters of a key tool to challenge discrimination. NAACP lawyer Janai Nelson said the consequences of weakening Section Two could be ‘catastrophic’ for Black representation in Congress, as the ruling could open the door for GOP gerrymandering efforts across Southern states that could eliminate Democratic seats in the House, undermine the 2026 midterm elections and secure a near-permanent Republican majority. Congressional Black Caucus chair Yvette Clarke warned that the case “threatens to dismantle one of the last remaining safeguards against racial discrimination in our electoral system” at a time where the “stakes could not be higher” given the Trump-driven redistricting wars ahead of the 2026 midterms. North Carolina became the latest state to launch redistricting efforts for Trump this week, as California’s retaliatory redistricting effort has drawn unprecedented levels of spending ahead of November’s voter referendum.
The Supreme Court has come under fire from legal experts for seemingly ‘rubber-stamping’ the Trump Administration’s overreach after overturning lower court rulings in several key cases on its emergency ‘shadow docket’. Dozens of federal judges are warning the public about the ‘judicial crisis’ caused by the Supreme Court’s ‘mystical’ unexplained rulings and shared their concerns with the New York Times this week, with a majority of current incumbents objecting to SCOTUS’ ‘inappropriate’ and ‘opaque’ use of the emergency docket to hand victories to Trump. Even conservative legal scholars have taken issue with the Supreme Court’s apparent drift away from ‘originalist’ principles in their interpretation of the Constitution, as the Court leans more towards the once-fringe ‘unitary executive’ theory embraced by Project 2025 and MAGA. In a much-criticized defense of SCOTUS’ shadow docket, Justice Amy Comey Barrett admitted that the Court lacks the power of the ‘purse’ or the ‘sword’ to prevent Trump from simply ignoring court rulings. Key cases to watch on the docket in the new term include two lawsuits dubbed ‘Citizens United 2.0’ that critics warn could legalize bribery and hand elections to billionaires backing the GOP; another upcoming case tests Trump’s ‘unconstitutional’ power grab over tariffs, where Trump himself is planning to present his argument before the Court for the first time next month.
As Trump Administration cracks down on ‘Antifa,’ leaked internal texts reveal Young Republicans’ embrace of fascist rhetoric. This week, Senator Elissa Slotkin issued a stark warning that the Trump Administration is drawing up ‘secret watchlists’ of people and groups they consider to be ‘Antifa terrorists’ as a consequence of Trump’s new National Security Directive that classifies a broad swath of liberal and left-wing ‘anti-fascist’ beliefs as indicative of domestic terrorism. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the Trump Administration is planning a radical overhaul of the IRS’s investigative unit, installing Trump loyalists in key IRS roles in order to pursue a host of targets tied to the Antifa directive, including liberal nonprofits and major Democratic donors. The Treasury Department is also reportedly encouraging banks to report on suspected ‘financing of terrorist activity’ related to the directive. Observers have noted that Trump’s escalating war rhetoric against domestic opponents threatens the creation of a police state in the United States, encouraged by MAGA influencers provoking tensions at protests as well as Stephen Miller, whom critics claim has sought to deepen political polarization in order to normalize dictatorial rule. The Justice Department brought its first charges under the ‘Antifa’ terrorism directive against two individuals with a Texas group who allegedly vandalized an ICE facility and opened fire on police officers, wounding one; defense lawyers claim neither of the defendants handled firearms during the incident.
Other than the Texas case, the Trump Administration has reportedly had trouble finding any other ‘Antifa’ members; right-wing podcaster Glenn Beck said that Kash Patel sent FBI agents to his home to ask for help in exposing elements of the alleged ‘Antifa network’. Republican rhetoric has escalated against anti-Trump protests and dissenters ahead of the nationwide ‘No Kings’ demonstrations scheduled for Saturday, October 18, with some lawmakers claiming that the protests are being organized by the ‘terrorist wing’ of the Democratic Party. House Speaker Mike Johnson slammed the protests as a ‘Hate America, pro-Hamas’ rally, as Senator Ted Cruz urged support for a bill he introduced in July that would allow the DOJ to prosecute those ‘funding’ the protests that are expected to bring millions into the streets this weekend, most of whom Republicans claimed to be ‘paid’ protestors. Karoline Leavitt also used the word ‘terrorist’ to describe the entire Democratic rank-and-file base in an interview with Fox News this week. A study released this week by the International Federation for Human Rights highlights how governments across the West have ‘weaponized’ counter-terrorism legislation to crack down on rights to free speech and political dissent.
Meanwhile, leaked Telegram chat logs from leaders of Young Republican groups published by Politico this week revealed a pervasive culture of racism, violent rhetoric and open admiration for Hitler among the group of up-and-coming GOP leaders. Among the texts shared by Politico included messages praising rape as ‘epic,’ repeated utterances of the ‘n-word’ and calls to send political opponents to ‘gas chambers’; others said “I love Hitler” among antisemitic tirades while another bragged about having driven a Young Republican opponent to suicide. Capitol Police were also called in this week to investigate an American flag altered to include a swastika that was visible behind a GOP Congressional staffer during a virtual meeting. JD Vance defended the young Republicans, dismissing the outraged responses from observers, Democrats and some Republican lawmakers as ‘pearl-clutching’ and downplaying the ‘ostentatious bigotry’ of the texts as ‘edgy, offensive jokes’ because ‘that’s what kids do’. Mother Jones notes that the ages of the Republicans involved in the text threads ranged from 24 to 35 and were apparently well-connected to the Trump campaign, as a photo of Trump smiling backstage with two of the offenders also emerged. Former alt-right pundit Richard Hanania wrote this week that the racist invective revealed in the chats is the norm rather than exception among young Republicans who have grown up on offensive language which has become commonplace in right-wing internet communities such as 4chan, which was fined by the UK this week for failing to disclose information assessing the risks of violent far-right content on the platform that has been linked to several mass shootings. Andrew Torba, CEO of the far-right social platform Gab, noted that the rhetoric in the leaked group chat “was tame… they have no idea what is coming.”Judges take action against Trump’s war on Chicago as Trump pushes forward with crime crackdown; San Francisco named as next city to be threatened with federal takeover. On Thursday, October 16, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to maintain a district court’s block on Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, as District Judge Sara Ellis called the Trump Administration back to court to answer for apparent violations of the restraining order she issued last week blocking federal agents from using aggressive tactics against journalists and anti-ICE protestors. National attention has been called to the escalating violence being used by ICE agents in immigration raids as well as against protestors at ICE’s detention facility in Broadview; on Tuesday, federal agents teargassed neighborhood protestors as well as a dozen Chicago police officers during a tense confrontation that ensued after ICE agents rammed an SUV following a high-speed chase through residential neighborhoods. Judge Ellis on Thursday said she was ‘startled’ to see the images of federal agents using tear gas and pointing guns in residents’ faces in direct contravention of her ruling, and expanded her restraining order to require ICE agents to wear bodycams in Chicago.
Trump’s ambitions of using the Insurrection Act to instigate a military takeover of U.S. cities, which JD Vance said this weekend was necessary to protect ICE officers conducting immigration raids, has repeatedly been stymied by the courts as his claims of ‘hellscape’-like violence in urban centers have fallen apart under scrutiny. A claim he made last month that National Guard troops engaged in ‘hand-to-hand combat’ with ‘child gang members’ of Tren de Agua in D.C. was disputed by military officials, while court documents revealed ICE agents lied and concealed evidence in a recent case against a protestor in D.C. who was detained while filming an immigration arrest. The Washington Post reports on the ‘phalanx’ of conservative influencers attempting to provide Trump with evidence of ‘violence’ in Portland, where a group of federal agents violently wrestled a mom to the ground while she played her clarinet and threatened to shoot an ambulance crew that arrived to take an injured protestor to the hospital.
Despite the barriers posed by legal constraints and on-the-ground realities, Trump has pushed forward with his law-and-order crackdown on mostly Democratic-led cities with support from Republican state officials; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced plans to deploy the National Guard to Austin for this weekend’s ‘No Kings’ protest, while Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee pledged to make the federal military presence in Memphis a permanent fixture through his creation of an interagency ‘Memphis Safe Task Force’. Trump said to reporters on Tuesday that he wanted Democratic governors to ‘admit they have crime’ and ‘beg’ him to send in troops, and suggested on Wednesday that San Francisco may be the next city to face a federal takeover as state and local officials insisted that federal intervention was neither wanted nor needed. A recent San Francisco Chronicle investigation found that the city’s homicide rate was on track to be the lowest in 70 years, although SF-based billionaire tech CEO Marc Beinoff threw his support behind Trump’s takeover plans in an apparent reversal of his previous liberal views.Government shutdown projected to be longest ever as impasse drags into third week; Congress in disarray as federal workers begin to feel the pinch amid layoff confusion. The three-week government shutdown will extend into next week after the GOP’s spending bill failed to advance out of the Senate for the tenth time, defying Republicans’ expectations that Democrats would cave within a few days of the shutdown. Even Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s gambit to force a vote on a normally bipartisan defense spending bill failed as Democrats played hardball and held firm on their demand to address extending ACA healthcare subsidies for approximately 22 million Americans who face exponential increases in healthcare costs if credits are allowed to expire. Axios reports that Senate leaders Thune and Schumer have stopped speaking to each other amid the standoff. House Speaker Johnson warned that the shutdown could become the longest in history as he reiterated that he “won’t negotiate” with Democrats over healthcare until they capitulate and end the shutdown. Despite GOP claims that Democrats are trying to protect healthcare for ‘illegal immigrants’, data shows that fully half of Americans dependent on ACA subsidies are small business owners, a traditionally Republican constituency, along with their employees and self-employed contractors. Speaker Johnson has also refused to reconvene the House during the shutdown, frustrating members of his own party as well as Democrats who condemned Johnson’s delay in swearing in newly elected Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who has pledged to provide the final signature to force release of the Epstein files. Arizona’s Attorney General has threatened to sue Johnson over his refusal to seat Grijalva as her district has been left without representation. Johnson dismissed the calls to swear in Grijalva as a publicity stunt.
The extended shutdown reflects the high-stakes impasse over control of government finances that hangs in the balance as Trump and Vought move to exploit the shutdown for their own ends. OMB director Russell Vought attempted to move on his long-held ambition to use a government shutdown to decimate the civil service, issuing Reduction-In-Force notices to over 4,000 federal workers at seven federal agencies on Friday, October 10. Over 1,300 layoff notices targeted public health workers at the Department of Health and Human Services, including nearly its entire office in charge of family planning and the CDC’s safety and security division just months after a deadly shooting rattled the agency. A federal judge blocked the mass layoffs on Wednesday as an ‘unlawful’ and ‘politically motivated’ action, forcing the CDC to rescind over half of its firings and causing mass confusion. Also on Wednesday, October 15, the deadline for military paychecks, Trump signed an executive memo granting Hegseth authority to repurpose federal funds previously dedicated to research and development to pay the military, further challenging Congress’ role as the sole Constitutional authority to decide on federal spending. A day earlier, Trump froze or canceled over $28 billion in Congressionally appropriated infrastructure funds, deliberately targeting ‘Democrat-backed’ programs in an escalation of his campaign to ‘inflict pain’ on Democratic districts, further complicating the budget impasse. Other Congressional Republicans have expressed frustration at ‘being left in the dark’ in regards to the Trump Administration’s funding decisions.Federal workers fear they are being used as political pawns as they struggle to make ends meet while the shutdown drags on. Some federal workers have taken to TikTok to chronicle their struggles as others turn to side jobs, carpools and other ways to navigate the pause in pay. Sen. Brian Schatz reintroduced a bill to assist federal workers with housing costs to avoid foreclosures and evictions during the shutdown. Trump promised to pay immigration and border patrol agents who remain working through the shutdown, drawing further criticism for politically motivated decisions to favor some workers over others. Senate Democrats, joined by lone Republican Lisa Murkowski, implored the Administration to guarantee back pay for federal workers furloughed during the shutdown. Next week will push the shutdown to a critical point as federal services including SNAP benefits will become impacted by the interruption in funding, and pressure on aviation services lead to compounding delays for commercial flights. House Republicans, nervous about impacts to their districts, have begun to doubt their party’s shutdown strategy as calls grow for Trump to be more personally involved in resolving the impasse.
Trump confirms CIA is covertly operating on Venezuelan soil as boat attacks continue, regime change plans come into focus; Admiral in charge of Southern Command resigns. The Trump Administration escalated its unauthorized ‘armed conflict’ against Venezuelan drug cartels this week as it brings tactics from the War on Terror to the new War on Drugs. On Tuesday, October 14, Trump announced another military strike on an alleged ‘drug boat’ off the Venezuelan coast that killed 6 people; bringing the total death toll from the strikes up to 27 and drawing condemnation from legal and human rights experts who decried the lethal strikes as ‘murder’ and ‘war crimes’. On Wednesday, Trump expressed his intention to escalate his anti-drug campaign on land, announcing that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela to target drug cartels. He declined to confirm if regime change operations to overthrow Maduro were also part of the CIA’s mission, which Pentagon officials have previously discussed with the media in private. Observers denounced last week’s Nobel Peace Prize award to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, saying that the recognition has actually escalated the threat of war as it bolsters opposition calls for forcible regime change. The U.S. military’s elite Special Operations unit flew two B-52 bombers and several helicopters within 90 miles of Venezuela’s coast on Wednesday, further ratcheting up pressure on the Maduro government. On Thursday, Hegseth announced the abrupt retirement of Admiral Alvin Holsey, the top military official in charge of the U.S. Southern Command in the Caribbean, after less than one year into his tenure; DOD sources told CNN that Holsey and Hegseth have been at odds over the legality of the recent boat strikes. Also on Thursday, the military attacked a sixth boat in the Caribbean, leaving survivors among the crew for the first time; it is unknown whether the survivors were taken into U.S. custody. A report released on Thursday also confirmed Gustavo Petro’s allegations that at least one Colombian national was among those killed in the boat strikes last month; Venezuela’s UN ambassador announced that a formal letter has been delivered to the UN Security Council requesting that they open an investigation into the boat attacks, which Venezuela denounced as a “new series of extrajudicial executions” with impacts to the entire region.
China, U.S. resume trade war footing with amplified tariffs, export controls, and port levies ahead of October talks. The United States and China resumed hostilities in the trade war this week as China announced new export controls on rare earth materials essential to most modern technologies, including semiconductors for AI chips, U.S. military hardware, and arms manufactured and sold by U.S. defense companies. China’s new rules, effective November 8, will prohibit exports to overseas military suppliers, which rattled Western nations even as officials assured global firms that most licenses for civilian applications would be approved. On Saturday, October 11, Trump announced a 100 percent tariff on all Chinese goods on top of previous levies, sparking threats of retaliatory measures from China. Beijing’s customs agency reported that China’s exports to the United Staates fell by 27 percent in September, though its overall export trade strengthened by 8 percent in the same period. Despite conciliatory statements from Treasury Secretary Bessent over the weekend to assuage spooked stock markets, both countries escalated the standoff on Tuesday by announcing tit-for-tat port fees on international shipping firms, putting pressure on global supply chains. While Bessent repeated his conciliatory rhetoric, offering to extend the current 90-day pause on Chinese import levies if China walks back its rare earth controls, China blamed the United States for inciting panic and renewed trade conflict after the Commerce Department widened the application of sanctions to blacklist subsidiaries of some Chinese firms. China indicated it remained open to trade talks as Trump called his own retaliatory tariffs ‘not sustainable’; experts note that China’s near-monopoly on rare earth minerals give it a powerful strategic advantage as Trump and Xi head into planned talks scheduled in South Korea at the end of October.
Tracking the Money: ‘Argentina First’ bailout for hedge fund managers; brazen bribery; Trump’s ballroom blitz. After the Trump Administration raised eyebrows last week by announcing a $20 billion bailout for Argentina when Javier Milei’s free-market experiment in economic policy resulted in a currency collapse, Treasury Secretary Bessent literally doubled down on the bailout this week, saying on Wednesday, October 15 that the United States will expand Argentina’s lifeline to a total of $40 billion, working with private sector funders to match the government’s contribution. Bessent claimed the bailout was part of a broader effort to boost U.S. influence in the region, as Trump indicated the bailout would happen only if Milei’s right-wing party prevails in the country’s upcoming midterm elections. The bailout has sparked widespread backlash – not just from Democratic watchdogs like Sen. Warren, who launched a probe into the ‘baffling’ offer of foreign aid after the Trump Administration gutted billions in Congressionally approved foreign aid funding, but also from ‘America First’ MAGA supporters, especially soybean farmers in red states whose livelihoods are crashing after China dropped nearly all U.S. soybean imports in favor of Argentina last month. While GOP lawmakers moved to kill Sen. Warren’s bill attempting to block the bailout, many Republicans are still wrestling with angst over the political backlash amongst constituents in the farm industry who are reeling from a soaring number of farm bankruptcies since Trump’s tariff war commenced in April. When pressed by reporters after Milei’s visit to the White House on Tuesday, Trump admitted that the United States does not stand to benefit from the bailout; although investigative reports revealed that large, well-connected hedge fund investors stood to benefit greatly from the bailout, including billionaire fund manager Rob Citrone, Scott Bessent’s personal friend and former business colleague.
Such revelations are now routine for what is being called Trump’s ‘quid pro quo presidency’ as such dealmaking and kickbacks appear to characterize much of Trump’s theory of statesmanship. This includes deep involvement from the Trump family business, as evidenced by Indonesian president Subianto’s awkward ‘hot mic’ moment asking for time with Eric Trump. The Trump family has personally benefitted from crypto deals and Wall Street bets tied directly to federal policies, and Republican lawmakers stand to save millions in tax cuts from Trump’s ‘big beautiful’ budget bill, while some Trump Administration officials prefer simply taking cash bribes in paper bags. Trump has also openly invited wealthy donors to curry favor with the Administration as he did this week, throwing a lavish dinner party for billionaire heads of tech, crypto and defense companies who have pledged millions in donations to fund Trump’s $250 million White House ballroom project. The Lever reports on how Silicon Valley AI startups are close to closing on billions of dollars’ worth of defense contracts after years of lobbying the Pentagon on behalf of the emerging industry in AI-fueled ‘autonomous weapons’, which received dedicated funding for the first time in this year’s ‘big, beautiful’ $1 trillion defense budget.
MOVEMENT TRACKER
Upcoming ‘No Kings’ protests expected to be largest in U.S. history despite threats of repression from the Trump Administration and GOP. Organizers for the second ‘No Kings’ nationwide Day of Action on Saturday, October 18 report that over 2,500 protest actions have been registered throughout the United States as well as in 18 countries worldwide. The action has been endorsed by a coalition of over 200 organizations, who speculate that it could turn out to be the largest one-day action in U.S. history, dwarfing the 4-6 million in attendance for the first ‘No Kings’ protest in June. Momentum is building for the protest even as the Trump Administration escalates its crackdown on dissent; Harvard’s Crowd Counting Consortium notes that this may be the most geographically diverse protest action in history as ‘No Kings’ protests are reaching further into Trump country; their research also finds that as of August 2025, the ‘median protest county’ in the United States cast more votes for Trump than Harris in the 2024 elections. U.S. cities under threat of military occupation have emerged as leading voices calling for protests, saying “we will not be bullied” by threats and intimidation from the GOP, MAGA and Trump himself; organizers remain hopeful that ‘courage is contagious’ and will draw out more participants ahead of the protest. Local organizers are nonetheless preparing for potential provocation and repression from police and federal forces; the ACLU reports that over 15,000 people have participated in the organization’s know-your-rights trainings in recent weeks.
Over 30 news outlets walk out of Pentagon, refusing to sign Hegseth’s press agreement banning use of leaked information. After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instituted a new press policy for media outlets covering the Pentagon, which includes banning the use of leaked information and outlining punishments for asking the wrong questions, several leading news outlets – including Hegseth’s former employer, Fox News – overwhelmingly rejected the new policy, refusing to sign the agreement which was offered as a condition for media access. On Wednesday, October 15, dozens of military and defense journalists walked out of the Pentagon en masse, electing to hand in their press passes rather than comply with Hegseth’s demands. The Atlantic’s Nancy Youssef chronicled the atmosphere among the Pentagon’s traditional press corps before it effectively disbanded this week. The Washington Post reports that out of the over 100 reporters that regularly cover the Pentagon, only 15 had signed on to the new policy, including The Federalist and MAGA-affiliated outlet One America, which was the sole outlet to give an institutional endorsement for the policy. PBS hosted an interview with Youssef and David Schulz from the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic on the new policy and its unprecedented attempt to suppress the freedom of the press. Similar concerns have also surrounded pro-Zionist pundit Bari Weiss’s controversial appointment as editor-in-chief of CBS News last week; Zeteo reports on newsroom insiders’ accounts of the chaotic first 10 days of Weiss’ tenure, including an awkward softball interview with Netanyahu and a memo asking staffers for a detailed outline of their daily activities. Unions representing CBS employees, including the Writers Guild of America, urged staffers to hold off on responding to the memo until the network addressed questions from the unions, with the assurance that they would not face punishment for declining to respond.
Four out of nine universities reject Trump’s ‘compact’ for higher education funding. After the Trump Administration recently sent nine top universities an offer for preferential funding in exchange for signing on to a ‘compact’ agreeing to federal control over a host of academic policies including hiring, admissions, and curriculum, four out of the nine universities have formally rejected the compact, including MIT, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and USC. All four cited serious concerns with the curtailing of academic freedom and undermining of institutional governance, and followed mobilizations from student groups and faculty senates at the universities urging administrations to reject the compact. Trump opened the offer to all universities on Monday after MIT submitted its rejection; Dartmouth’s president publicly assured the campus community that she is ‘very firm and clear’ on rejecting the compact ‘as written’. Having found no takers yet for his education compact, Trump has called a meeting with the five universities that have yet to respond to the offer. Faculty associations and campus unions have almost universally condemned the compact, and legal experts have warned university administrations about the possible legal ramifications of signing. The American Council on Education has released a statement signed by over 30 intercampus higher education organizations declaring their unified opposition to the compact, calling it “nothing less than government control of a university’s basic and necessary freedoms.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene continues break with GOP as other Republicans waver on support for Trump policies. MAGA lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene has broken with the Republican Party’s line on several issues in recent weeks, including the Epstein scandal and Obamacare subsidies in the government shutdown fight. This week, she continued slamming members of her own party as well as Trump Administration policies in what GOP commentators have called a ‘media blitz from hell’. Speaking with the Washington Post, she decried how women are being treated within Republican circles and accused male lawmakers in her party as being ‘weak’ in the face of Trump’s erratic behavior, and criticized Speaker Johnson over his light treatment of a recent restraining order against Rep. Cory Mills for threatening to ‘porn-shame’ his ex-girlfriend. She also lashed out this week against Trump himself and the policies he has pursued, characterizing them as putting ‘America last’. She fumed that Republicans are ‘doing nothing’ to address skyrocketing food prices and slammed the Administration’s chaotic execution of ICE raids, noting that while she supports immigration controls, she says there “needs to be a smarter plan than just rounding up every single person and deporting them.” While MTG is decidedly not switching sides to the ‘Antifa’ left, her criticisms reflect a growing disillusionment among large numbers of Trump supporters who are now questioning how far Trump is going with his authoritarian policies.
Lawsuit Updates.
David Ignatius’ op-ed for the Washington Post this week reviews the multiple court rulings rejecting Trump’s attempts to send the military into U.S. cities, noting that while the Trump-friendly Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on the issue, lower courts are nearly unanimous in holding the line against Trump’s war on ‘the enemy within’.
Three major labor unions, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, filed suit against the Trump Administration this week in a bid to block the State Department from reviewing the social media posts of visa holders, arguing that the practice violates the First Amendment rights of people legally in the United States. The suit asks for an end to ‘viewpoint-based investigation and surveillance’, and seeks to destroy any records created so far under the Trump Administration’s program.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the Trump Administration this week seeking to reverse Trump’s new $100,000 fee for H1-B worker visas, arguing that the steep fee is ‘unlawful’ and ‘misguided policy’ that hurts startups and small/mid-size businesses and violates the Immigration and Nationality Act. H1-B visas are widely used by Silicon Valley tech firms and the fee’s implementation in September reportedly caused chaos and confusion amongst U.S.-based employers.
