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Friday, March 7

The Trump administration must release part of the $2 billion in frozen foreign aid, judge rules

* A D.C. federal judge ordered ([link removed]) President Donald Trump’s administration to release part of the $2 billion in frozen foreign aid funding by Monday. The funds will be paid to the nonprofits and aid organizations involved in the lawsuit.

A federal judge won’t restrict DOGE access to Treasury data

* A federal judge declined ([link removed]) to block the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Treasury Department data in a lawsuit from advocacy and union groups.
* However, DOGE's access to Treasury data is restricted ([link removed]) by a court order in a separate lawsuit from Democratic attorneys general.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
* The Trump administration is giving DOGE unrestricted access to Americans’
personal data, including our finances, health records, and social security data.
* This leaves every one of us vulnerable to data breaches, mass
surveillance, politically motivated attacks, and worse. Join the ACLU in demanding that Congress act now to stop DOGE from violating our privacy. ([link removed])

Right-wing group drops Pennsylvania as defendant in legal effort to purge voters

* Litigation will continue ([link removed]) in the lawsuit filed by the right-wing 1789 Foundation aiming to remove more than 277,000 voters from Pennsylvania's rolls after the plaintiffs dropped the state as a defendant.
* Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and pro-voting groups AFT Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans remain in the case to defend the voter rolls.

Washington Supreme Court upholds the state’s ballot signature verification system

* The state’s highest court ruled ([link removed]) that the state’s ballot signature verification system — the process by which election officials compare a voter’s signature on a mail-in ballot envelope to the one that’s on file with election officials — doesn’t violate Washington’s constitution.
* The pro-voting groups who filed the original lawsuit in 2022 alleged that the signature-matching process “is an inherently fraught endeavor” that could lead to voter disenfranchisement.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
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The so called Department of Government Efficiency is composed of unvetted outsiders who have forced their way into the government’s most protected systems without care or consideration for the safeguards created by Congress to keep our data safe. Join the ACLU in calling on Congress to step up and check the president’s violations of our rights. ([link removed])

A court hearing on Monday could determine the fate of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

* A federal judge in Washington, D.C. will hold a hearing Monday in a lawsuit ([link removed]) from the National Treasury Employees Union that is seeking to prevent the shutdown of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the nation's financial watchdog agency.

Don’t let the shock and awe distract you from the importance of state courts
* “As Trump attempts to remake the federal government into an instrument of destruction, we must both hold the line on our federal courts and also turn to state courts as a critical defense for our civil rights, health and safety,” Democracy Docket Contributor Keith Thirion wrote ([link removed]) .

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