And an update on North Carolina’s maps

• A three-judge panel found that the North Carolina General Assembly did not violate the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act in drawing the 2023 maps. Challenges related to the state's 2025 gerrymander remain pending.
  
  
• Learn more about the case >>>

Coming up Monday

• A state court will hear arguments on a motion to dismiss a legal challenge to Missouri’s new gerrymander.
  
  
• Learn more about the case >>>

AND NOW FOR THIS WEEK’S GOOD NEWS

Indiana Senate defies Trump’s push for mid-decade gerrymander

• The Indiana Senate voted against President Donald Trump’s call for a special session to redraw the state’s congressional map. Nineteen Republican senators joined Democrats to block the session, defying Trump and Gov. Mike Braun’s (R) demands for an aggressive new gerrymander. The move preserves Indiana’s current map — already one of the most GOP-tilted in the country — and marks a rare instance of a GOP-led legislature openly rebuffing Trump’s pressure campaign.
  
  
• Read the full story >>>

Courts rebuke Trump’s National Guard deployments in D.C. and Memphis

• In Washington, D.C., a federal judge found that Trump’s deployment of more than 2,000 National Guard troops was likely illegal and violated the District’s right to self-govern. And in Tennessee, a state court temporarily barred Gov. Bill Lee’s (R) deployment of Guard troops to Memphis at Trump’s request, finding the move exceeded the governor’s authority. Both rulings push back against Trump’s efforts to use the military as domestic police.
  
  
• Read the full D.C. story >>>
  
  
• Read the full Tennessee story >>>

Federal judge strikes down Arkansas’ ballot initiative crackdown

• A federal judge in Arkansas halted six GOP-backed laws designed to all but shut down Arkansas’ citizen-led ballot initiative process, ruling the restrictions violated core First Amendment rights. The court blocked provisions like the required reading level standards for ballot titles, requiring ID for signing, and rules that slowed signature gathering to a crawl.
  
  
• Read the full story >>>

New York’s top court preserves state Voting Rights Act

• The New York Supreme Court dismissed a case attempting to repeal the state’s John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, ruling the GOP-backed challengers had no standing. The decision keeps the NYVRA fully intact and enforceable — protecting voters against discriminatory election systems — and allows the underlying case challenging the Town of Newburgh’s at-large voting scheme to move forward.
  
  
• Read the full story >>>

Judge denies Trump bid to force ICE courthouse arrests in New York

• A federal judge in New York tossed the Trump administration’s case against a state law that bars ICE from making immigration arrests inside state and local courthouses. The judge rejected the administration’s Supremacy Clause claim, finding it had no standing and no legal basis to override New York’s control of its own courts. This ruling ensures people can seek justice without fear and protects state sovereignty.

Appeals court throws out Trump’s election denial suit against CNN

• A federal appeals court unanimously denied Trump’s attempt to revive his defamation lawsuit against CNN, calling his claims “meritless.” The three-judge panel — which included two Trump-appointed judges — affirmed that CNN’s references to Trump’s 2020 election lies were protected speech, not defamation. The ruling marks yet another failed effort by Trump to weaponize the courts against accurate reporting.