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Friday, April 4
From DOGE’s dismantling of federal agencies to the question of birthright citizenship, our Trump Accountability Litigation tracker is your weekly scorecard on the battles to check Trump’s powers — available only in our brand new premium newsletter, The Opposition. Upgrade today for $10/month ([link removed]) and don’t miss a single edition!

** ON THE DOCKET THIS WEEK
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** * A win and a loss for voting rights in Wisconsin
* Why a court ruling that Pennsylvania must count undated ballots is a big deal
* Trump’s DOJ drops another Biden-era voting rights lawsuit

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** WISCONSIN
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** A win and a loss for voting rights in Wisconsin
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Susan Crawford, a liberal judge backed by Democrats, won ([link removed]) the election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday, comfortably defeating conservative judge Brad Schimel, who had the backing of President Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk and the full weight of the GOP.

Crawford’s win means Wisconsin’s highest court will remain a 4-3 liberal majority — likely ensuring the state’s new, fair Democratic-drawn legislative maps passed ([link removed]) in 2024 remain in place. Democrats also hope the court could redraw the state’s congressional map, potentially handing them two more seats in the U.S. House and giving Wisconsinites fairer representation.

“Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” Crawford said ([link removed]) at a campaign event after the race was called. “And Wisconsin stood up and said, loudly, that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”

The contentious election was the most expensive ([link removed]) judicial election in U.S. history, with over $90 million spent supporting the two candidates. More than $50 million was spent to help Schimel, mostly from billionaire right-wing megadonors like Musk ([link removed]) and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein.

A Musk-backed PAC even launched ([link removed]) a campaign to pay voters who signed a petition opposing “activist judges” and took photos ([link removed]) of Wisconsin residents posing with a Schimel picture outside of polling places. The weekend before the election, Musk traveled to Wisconsin and awarded several $1 million prizes to voters who signed the anti-Crawford petition — a move that Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul charged violated state campaign finance laws. Wisconsin’s courts refused ([link removed]) to take up the case.

But it wasn’t all good news in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin voters also approved a ballot measure to enshrine the state’s restrictive voter ID requirement into the state constitution. Wisconsin lawmakers passed a voter ID requirement in 2011, which only allows ([link removed]) certain types of IDs to be used for voting — limiting common forms like student IDs. The law faced a litany of legal challenges that were mostly unsuccessfu, and went into effect in 2016.

With voters enshrining the voter ID law into the state constitution, it will be a lot harder for lawmakers to reverse it — they could do so only by passing another constitutional amendment. And the measure’s passage could embolden other states to advance restrictive ID rules.

“Enshrining a voter ID mandate into the Wisconsin Constitution will guarantee the continued exclusion of many voters from the ballot box in future elections,” All Voting is Local Wisconsin State Director Sam Liebert said in a statement. “Seniors, people of color, people with disabilities, and people from low-income households are among the Wisconsinites who have difficulties obtaining an active form of ID and will be effectively disenfranchised by this mandate.” Read more about Wisconsin’s election results and what they mean for democracy here ([link removed]) . ([link removed])

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
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Last week, the ACLU was at the Supreme Court fighting an attempt to deny Black voters equal representation in their district maps and a meaningful choice at the polls.

The right to vote has never been more important and all voters deserve maps that fairly reflect their communities. Join the ACLU to defend everyone's constitutional right to vote ([link removed]) .
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** PENNSYLVANIA
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** Why a court ruling that Pennsylvania must count undated ballots is a big deal
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A big win in Pennsylvania Monday after a federal judge ruled ([link removed]) that the state must count undated or wrongly dated mail-in ballots, finding that a previous law rejecting such ballots violated the First and 14th Amendments. Republicans have for years been trying to doggedly to disenfranchise voters who submit these ballots, despite no evidence whatsoever of fraud. And they immediatelyhttps://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/441-2025-04-02-Notice-Of-Appeal-.pdfappealed ([link removed]) Monday’s ruling.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit ([link removed]) , originally filed in 2022 by three Pennsylvania voters, along with the campaign of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, challenging the state’s instructions to county boards of elections that any mail-in ballot that’s timely cast but either missing a date or containing the wrong date on the outer return envelopes should not be counted.

As litigation dragged on, the issue of counting undated mail-in ballots became the focal point of a series of post-election lawsuits last year in Pennsylvania, in the state’s hotly contested U.S. Senate race. Three Pennsylvania counties — Bucks ([link removed]) , Montgomery ([link removed]) and Philadelphia ([link removed]) — decided to count undated mail-in ballots, despite two previous Pennsylvania Supreme Court orders in similar lawsuits that temporarily halted all counties from counting such ballots.

Republicans sued ([link removed]) in all 67 Pennsylvania counties to ensure that no undated mail-in ballots would be counted in the 2024 election. After the state Supreme Court’s ruling ([link removed]) on the issue in September, there was some ambiguity on how it would affect the November general election, which is why some boards of elections went ahead with counting undated mail-in ballots.

While this ruling stands, Pennsylvania can’t reject any mail-in ballots that have undated or wrongly dated return envelopes. Read more about the case here ([link removed]) . ([link removed])


** DOJ
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** Trump’s DOJ drops another Biden-era voting rights lawsuit
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Attorney General Pam Bondi announced ([link removed]) Monday that she is directing the U.S. Department of Justice to dismiss its lawsuit against Georgia’s massive voter suppression law, Senate Bill 202. The announcement makes this the fifth Biden-era DOJ pro-voting lawsuit that’s been dropped under Trump, with similar legal involvements dropped in Texas ([link removed]) , Virginia ([link removed]) , Alabama ([link removed]) , Louisiana ([link removed]) and Houston County
([link removed]) , ([link removed]) Georgia ([link removed]) .

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed S.B. 202 into law in 2021 and, almost immediately, it was met with a slew ([link removed]) of legal challenges from pro-voting groups and, eventually, the DOJ — alleging that the law violates the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act.

Among the many anti-voting measures in the law are numerous restrictions on mail-in voting, changes to early voting rules, stricter voter ID requirements, restricting who can assist voters who need help completing their absentee ballot, limiting drop boxes in each county, new provisions for runoff elections and a line-warming ban — barring people from handing out water and food for those waiting in line to vote.

By July 2024, the DOJ officially joined ([link removed]) a consolidated lawsuit against Georgia, arguing that many provisions of the law were unconstitutional because of the “disproportionate effect” that it has on Black voters, effectively disenfranchising them in the voting process.

Shortly after Trump returned to the White House, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) sent ([link removed]) a request to Bondi, asking the DOJ to drop its complaint against Georgia.

Nearly two months later, Bondi officially directed the DOJ to drop its Georgia lawsuit.

Litigation against S.B. 202 is still ongoing in both district court and the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals, with various pro-voting and advocacy groups continuing legal efforts. Read more about the DOJ’s decision to drop its lawsuit against S.B. 202 here ([link removed]) . ([link removed])


** OPINION
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** The Power of Standing Up
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In a record-breaking filibuster, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate for 25 hours and 5 minutes, speaking about the threat Trump poses to our democracy. He avoided using the restroom, by going without food or water for days in advance.

“His actions were not merely symbolic or performative; they were substantive,” Marc writes in his latest. “Booker was not killing time merely to inconvenience others; he was using the time to persuade an audience. That is why his speech became so captivating and why millions tuned in to watch. He was not wasting our time or his. He was using it efficiently and effectively to sound an alarm that too few have heard.” Read it here ([link removed]) . ([link removed])

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

Federal law prohibits diluting the voting power of communities of color. All voters deserve maps that represent their communities. Take action now ([link removed]) .


** NEW VIDEO
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** The GOP is Full of "Cowards" and "Crazies" | Sen. Andy Kim
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New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim hosted a series of town halls in Republican congressional districts after the local representatives refused to do so. Sen. Kim joins Marc to discuss what he heard from voters at these events, his co-senator Cory Booker's historic speech and why he believes the GOP is no longer a political party. Watch it here ([link removed]) . ([link removed])


** What We’re Doing
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We’re still in awe of Sen. Booker’s record-breaking 25-hour speech. The Democracy Docket staff had it on in the newsroom and caught some of his most impassioned statements. Luckily, you don’t have to sit through all 25-hours to find those moments; the highlights were captured ([link removed]) on the Associated Press’ YouTube page.
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