Wednesday, April 16

Judge Boasberg’s opinion today brings the country even closer to a constitutional crisis — and the Trump administration gets to decide whether we descend into further chaos or restore the rule of law. Upgrade to a premium membership today to support independent, pro-democracy journalism at this critical moment in history.

Some promising news for North Carolina Justice Allison Riggs

• North Carolina officials said that the number of contested military and overseas ballots cast in the state Supreme Court race is 1,409 — around 4,000 fewer than Republicans are seeking to challenge. But the voters who cast these ballots, plus 266 "never resided" voters, are still at risk of disenfranchisement.
  
  
• The board’s latest filing appears to significantly narrow the number of voters who must cure their ballots, likely boosting the chances of Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat. But there are almost certain to be more legal twists and turns still to come.

The Trump administration could be held in contempt of court

• A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration showed “a willful disregard” toward his order to stop deportation flights. The judge said he will start criminal contempt proceedings.
  
  
• District Judge James Boasberg added that the Trump administration risked making a “solemn mockery” of the Constitution by defying his March 15 order, which temporarily blocked the government from using the Alien Enemies Act to justify sending Venezuelan migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

GOP Attorney General seeks to defend Pennsylvania’s handwritten date requirement and block a federal court ruling to count undated mail-in ballots

• Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday (R) filed an emergency motion to intervene in a legal challenge to the state’s handwritten date requirement for mail ballots. The state is seeking to join the lawsuit to defend the law.
  
  
• A federal court ruled last month that the state must count undated or wrongly dated mail-in ballots. But Republicans appealed the ruling, and Sunday is seeking a stay in time for the May 20 primary elections.

Federal court orders Mississippi to draw new state senate districts

• In a win for voters, a federal court ordered Mississippi to draw new state senate districts for Desoto County, finding that its new map does not fix violations of the Voting Rights Act. The state has seven days to draw a new map.
  
  
• The ruling stems from a 2022 lawsuit filed by the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP over state Senate and House redistricting maps drawn with 2020 census data that violated the VRA. After several court orders to redraw the map, the plaintiffs submitted in March partial objections to the legislature's latest Senate map in Desoto County. 

A hearing is scheduled tomorrow in a challenge to Trump’s anti-voting executive order

• A federal court will hear arguments in a series of lawsuits filed by the Democratic Party and a coalition of pro-voting groups against Trump’s order. The lawsuits allege that Trump exceeded his constitutional authority in imposing documentary proof of citizenship requirements for the federal voter registration form, conditioning election funding for states on compliance with parts of the order and targeting states with extended mail ballot receipt deadlines.
  
  
• The plaintiffs are asking the court to block implementation of several provisions of the order while litigation continues.