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Today, the Supreme Court showed us again just how far it has shifted to the right in the two decades since John Roberts became Chief Justice.
The Court sided with the Trump administration, allowing it to resume using its controversial expanded citizenship database to check voter rolls just weeks before the midterms. More on that below.
The story of how we got this Court goes back much further.
In her new book, The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America’s Courts, traces the decades-long conservative project to reshape the judiciary: the money, the think tanks, the legal theories, the pipeline of judges, and the people who understood early that political power isn’t just about winning elections. It’s about building institutions that can shape the country for generations.
We talk about how that machine was built, why the left never built anything quite like it, and what might be next for the courts.
I also ask what she thinks about my proposal to create a voluntary constitution of shared standards for independent journalists and evidence-based creators.
I think you’ll enjoy this conversation. It was informative, fun, and a reminder of the value of spending time learning history.
If you’d prefer to read a transcript of our discussion, find that here.
In today’s newsletter: The Supreme Court greenlights Trump’s voter database. Midterm warning signs for Trump. ICE raids hit cattle ranchers. Love, taxpayers. Artificial diplomacy. And Dolly ever after.
Breaking: The Supreme Court for the third timeblockedMissouri from using a gerrymandered voting map that favored Republicans. Catch up on thishereandhere.Midterm Madness: States can now use a controversial federal database to check the citizenship of registered voters just weeks before the midterms. The Supreme Court temporarilyallowedthe Trump administration to use its expanded citizenship database for these voter checks. Lower courts hadblockedthe administration from using the database, concluding it violated privacy rights, among other things. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority disagreed. Federal lawpreventsofficials from conducting mass voter purges within 90 days of a federal election, but**the majority ruled officials could conduct “individualized inquiries” before the midterms.**Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and her liberal colleagues dissented. Jacksonwarnedthat allowing officials to use the database would likely force lawful voters to unnecessarily prove their citizenship or disenfranchise them altogether, a tangible harm that “outweighs the nonexistent harm that the government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take.”The Database:*The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, or SAVE, was created decades ago to check the eligibility of noncitizens for benefits. Under Trump’s orders, DHS overhauled SAVE, linking sensitive information on millions of Americans (including Social Security numbers), allowing officials to conduct bulk queries, and pressuring states to upload their voter rolls. DHS says states can choose whether to use SAVE, but has repeatedly threatened to force states to submit their voter rolls.*Case Study: Critics of the expanded SAVE databasepoint outthat DHS has refused to release the system’s error rate. We do have a case study, though. Texas put all 18 million of its registered voters into SAVE. Of those, 2,724 wereflaggedas potential noncitizens and given 30 days to prove their citizenship. More than one in five were later found to be citizens — i.e.,**the error rate was over 20%.**Texas officials referred just 117 cases for further investigation for potential noncitizen voting. That’s roughly 0.00065% of registered voters.
Thousand Eyes: The Justice Department ispreparing to deployover 1,000 election monitors across the country for the midterms, which one official𝕏saidwould be its “largest monitoring effort” ever. At least a few of the monitors deployed during the primaries were attorneys who helped challenge the 2020 election,according toDemocracy Forward and CNN. Separately, the RNC istraininga cohort of “special monitors” to gather data on voting machines, which critics worry will be used to sow doubt about their trustworthiness. I discussed election monitoring with Sen. Mark Warner on Monday. Hear his suggestions for addressing the issuehere.Reading the Tea Leaves: Will the midterms bring a blue wave? Electionexpertsincreasingly think so. Somethink itcould match or even exceed 2018. This week independent analystsshiftedtheirpredictionsfor more than a dozen races toward Democrats. Sentiment among Republicans isworsening. Trump’s poll numberskeep dropping, and heannounced plansto campaign in deep red states, a sign that Republicans in battleground states would ratherhe campaignelsewhere. It could be an early symptom of lame-duck syndrome. That said, some polls do showglimmers of hopefor Republicans.Through His Stomach: Cattle ranchers have been a reliable Trump constituency. But his ICE raids are hitting the beef business hard. Groups representingthousandsof ranchers issued a𝕏statementwarning that ICE operations are disrupting operations, costing millions, and “chilling” even legal workers — and, therefore, driving up beef prices. They warn the loss of workers could eventhreaten food safety.
Please Love Me: Your taxpayer dollars just funded what looks remarkably like an ad for Trump. Thecommercial, which aired on Fox News and Newsmax, touts Trump’s character and achievements, while the song “Love Me” plays in the background. (The artistsaidhe didn’t approve its use and is exploring legal options.) Republican Sen Thom Tillis (R-NC)called it“inappropriate” and said it “feels like Viktor Orbán.”Democrats say federal employeeswho made it may have violated multiple laws limiting the use of taxpayer funds for political purposes. The White Houseclaimedthe video is a “public service announcement” that is “educational and unapologetically patriotic.” “Love me,” now a PSA.
Red Carpet Treatment: Trump rolled out the red carpet for China’s Xi Jinping, for a state visit that was thick on flattery and thin on substance,as we predicted. The onlyconcretepolicyagreement was a two-monthextensionof a temporary truce in the U.S.-China trade war. Xi alsoannouncedthat 100,000 young Americans would be allowed to study in China on student exchanges. On AI, where the U.S. and China are competing for technological dominance, there wasno agreement at all. The two countries agreed only to continue “dialogue,” though Xicalledfor both sides to manage AI’s growth.Bare All: Trump spent much of his time giving Xitours,showing himPresident Joe Biden’s autopen and the ballroomconstructionsite. (Leaders of an adversary rival nation getting an early glimpse of the “national security ballroom” construction site… What could go wrong?) Though the two leaders couldn’t reach an agreement on AI, Trump apparently found another use for it: He posted what appears to be anAI-altered photoof himself with Xi.
Flagrant: The White Houserefused to admitreporters from CNN and MS NOW to Thursday’s state dinner, despite a federal judge ordering the administration to restore their access to the White House. Journalists with the networks were granted access to the White House today. The real test will come Saturday, when CNN journalists are scheduled to travel with the president.
At the Podium: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked critics and defended his leadership in aspeechat the UN General Assembly. HearguedIsrael’s actions in Gaza were the “opposite of a genocide” anddownplayedongoing violence by settlers in the occupied West Bank as isolated incidents by “juvenile delinquents.” Much of his speech was aimed at Israelis, who are weeks away from the country’s first national election since the October 7 attacks. He also spoke to Americans,praisingTrump’s “bold leadership” and defending the US and Israel’s attack on Iran as necessary to “save civilization.” Dozens of delegateswalked outduring Netanyahu’s speech and dozens of protesters outside, including celebrities and local politicians, weredetainedby police.Back and Forth: Shortly before Netanyahu’s speech, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani𝕏posted a videoof him with Palestinian families from Gaza planting an olive tree at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence. [Olive trees are widely considered a symbol of Palestinian identity and olive farming is an important] Netanyahusource of incomefor Palestinian families, particularly in the West Bank.accusedMamdani of being antisemitic and claimed Jewish New Yorkers no longer feel safe under his leadership. Mamdani countered that Netanyahu was spreading “baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians.”
No Easy Answers: A Mississippi grand juryconcludedthere was no evidence of criminal conduct in the death of Nolan Wells, the Black teenager who was found dead in the waters off Mississippi’s Horn Island. (Catch up on thathere.) Jurors concluded his death was “consistent with drowning.” But both the state’s official autopsy and an independent autopsycould not determinea cause of death, and the official autopsy found no water in Wells’ stomach or airways. A digital forensics expertclaimedthat Snapchat messages were deleted from Wells’ phone after he last used it. Preserved messages show that Wells’ friends, all of them white, were concerned about potential racism from people on Horn Island. Wells’ family, attorney, and supporters arepushingfor further investigations.Here It Comes: More than 30 million people on the East Coast are under[coastal flood alerts](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/easter-set-hit-east-coast-friday-continue-wee…