SCOTUS looks set to gut VRA again

• The U.S. Supreme Court escalated the high-stakes redistricting battle in Louisiana by ordering new legal briefings on whether intentionally creating a second majority-Black congressional district — to comply with the Voting Rights Act — might violate the U.S. Constitution.
  
  
• The Court's order suggests that its conservative majority could be readying to make a sweeping ruling that creating districts in which minority voters can elect their chosen representatives under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional.

At last-minute Texas redistricting hearing, Democrats blast GOP’s anti-democratic process

• During a hearing in the Texas House of Representatives, Republicans faced heated questions from Democrats about their scheme to pass a new congressional map that could give the GOP as many as five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
  
  
• Why were they trying to push a new map so soon after passing one in 2021? Why did Texas seem to flip its stance on the use of race in the process? What was the U.S. Department of Justice’s role in pressuring the state to introduce a new map? More here. 

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Judges warn of rising threats as Trump steps up attack on courts

• As President Donald Trump continues to rail against the judiciary, federal judges detailed in rare public remarks the barrage of violent threats they received after ruling against the administration. One judge said the "irresponsible rhetoric is…inviting people to do us harm.” 

Trump fires jobs numbers chief, raising fears that employment data will be manipulated

• Trump said he fired the head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics after a job report showed weakening employment growth. Her firing raises the threat of political interference in U.S. economic data, which economists say could undermine confidence in the economy.

White House urges states to use DHS databases to check citizenship for voting

• The White House sold state election officials on an untested citizenship verification system that uses federal databases to flag noncitizens for removal from state voter rolls. Twenty states and some local election offices are currently registered to use the program.

Far-right legal group sues for Arizona voter data

• Right-wing group Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) filed a lawsuit seeking voter roll maintenance data from Arizona, specifically ERIC data on voters that were mistakenly identified as deceased. They filed a similar lawsuit in Oregon earlier this year, but the court dismissed the case.

And speaking of PILF…

• They’re also asking a federal court in Texas to throw out a lawsuit brought by Black and Latino voters that aims to block a GOP gerrymander in Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth.
  
  
• As Democracy Docket reported at the time, Republicans brought in PILF and the national GOP’s top map-drawer — who’s now helping them gerrymander the congressional map — in order to redraw the county’s maps and gain a seat on the county commission, at the expense of voters of color.

The Epstein Files: What is Donald Trump hiding?

• Trump doesn’t want you to know what’s in the Epstein Files. As the GOP rallies together to protect Trump, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are fighting back. The committee’s ranking member, California’s Rep. Robert Garcia, joined Marc to discuss the subpoena for the Epstein Files, the debate over redistricting in blue states and the march toward authoritarianism.