Judge calls out Trump’s ‘full-throated assault on the First Amendment’

• A Reagan-appointed judge issued a 161-page rebuke to Trump, finding the U.S. government violated the First Amendment by targeting pro-Palestinian student activists for deportation, and blasting the administration’s “full-throated assault on the First Amendment.”
  
  
• At the top of the opinion, before even listing the parties involved in the case, US District Court Judge William Young included a copy of an anonymous handwritten postcard his chambers recently received. “Trump has pardons and tanks, what do you have?” the postcard read.
  
  
• In reply, Young wrote, “Alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together, We the People of the United States — you and me — have our magnificent Constitution.”

Trump admin sued over ‘interagency database’ of Americans’ private info

• Advocacy groups sued the Trump administration over its creation of vast, centralized databases of Americans’ personal information for purging voter rolls and launching criminal investigations. The lawsuit argues the databases violate federal privacy and regulatory procedure laws.

Minnesota voters push back against DOJ grab for their data

• The Minnesota Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund and a recently naturalized citizen and voter filed to intervene as defendants in a DOJ lawsuit seeking access to the state's voter registration data. They argue that the DOJ’s demand threatens voter privacy rights and violates state law.
  
  
• The voter warned that the demand could deter some eligible voters from casting a ballot, adding, “This is particularly true of naturalized citizens like myself—many of whom are currently afraid of being targeted simply because they are immigrants—as persons in and aligned with the federal government engage in increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric."

A loss for North Carolina voters

• A federal court in North Carolina upheld the 2023 Republican-drawn state Senate map, ruling that the Black voters who challenged the map failed to prove it dilutes Black voting power in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
  
  
• U.S. District Court Judge James Dever, an appointee of President George W. Bush, began his order by framing the case in an unusually partial way: “This case involves two plaintiffs who contend that the North Carolina General Assembly violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by not engaging in race-based districting and not creating a majority-black Senate district.”

Coming up tomorrow

• A federal court in El Paso, Texas will begin considering whether to block the state’s new congressional gerrymander, enacted after pressure from Trump. What’s at stake? Up to five congressional seats and fair representation for millions of Black and Brown Texans.
  
  
• Democracy Docket reporter Jen Rice will be on the scene in El Paso, keeping you updated in real time.