Summary
That’s it for today’s politics blog. Here’s what happened so far:
The US Southern Command fatally struck a boat in the Eastern Pacific, claiming that the vessel was being operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” without additional evidence, according to an update posted to X. At least two people were killed and another person injured during Friday’s military action, read the update.
US Transportation secretary Sean Duffy criss-crossed the nation in a van with his family and filmed for a reality show, which aired on Fox News. Speaking to the network, Duffy said the trip was inspired by the 250th anniversary of American independence. He praised the quality time spent with family.
US Transportation secretary Sean Duffy’s road trip and subsequent reality television show debut has garnered criticism. Chasten Buttigieg, husband of former Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, lambasted Duffy in a post to X.
A panel of judges in Alabama rejected a request for a stay after Republican lawmakers in the state passed a bill that would allow for new US primaries if a redrawn congressional map is approved. The three-judge panel ruled that they did not have jurisdiction over the case as it is being appealed at the US Supreme court.
Donald Trump’s administration is quietly pushing national park, refuge and wilderness area managers to dramatically scale back hunting restrictions, raising questions about visitor safety and the impact on wildlife.
Thank you for reading!
US Transportation secretary Sean Duffy’s road trip and subsequent reality television show debut has garnered criticism.
Chasten Buttigieg, husband of former Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, lambasted Duffy in a post to X.
Chasten wrote that Duffy previously “threw endless fits on national television when Pete was working from our son’s ICU bedside” and is now bragging about taking the “multi-month, taxpayer-funded family road trip” as gas prices skyrocket nation wide.
“How much more unfocused, unserious, and out of touch can you be?,” Chasten said.
Duffy has repeatedly criticized Buttigieg for being a “no show” transportation secretary. In a post last November, Duffy accused Buttigieg of being “basically AWOL at the [Department of Transportation].” “I spend my whole day dealing with your neglect and cleaning up your messes,” he added.
The US Southern Command fatally struck a boat in the Eastern Pacific, claiming that the vessel was being operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” without additional evidence, according to an update posted to X.
At least two people were killed and another person injured during Friday’s military action, read the update. The Command alleged that the struck boat was “transiting along known narco-trafficking routes” and “engaged in narco-trafficking operations”. No US military officials were harmed in Friday’s strike.
Friday’s military action comes after three people were killed in a boat strike on Tuesday. The US military similarly claimed that the boat was being operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” sans evidence to back up said claim.
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In recent months, the transportation sector has weathered various crises.
A partial government shutdown led to a DHS funding lapse, which in turn caused TSA agents to quit in droves. Travelers waited in long lines due to the staffing shortage.
New York City’s LaGuardia airport saw its first deadly crash in over 30 years after an Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck. The pilots of the Air Canada aircraft were killed.
Meanwhile, dominating headlines has been the spike in gas and jet fuel prices, as the US-Israel war with Iran continues to disrupt the oil industry.
In the same time span, US Transportation secretary Sean Duffy criss-crossed the nation in a van with his family for a hearty, wholesome road trip.
A clip of the journey, which was filmed for a reality TV program, aired on Fox News. Speaking to the network, Duffy said the trip was inspired by the 250th anniversary of American independence. He praised the quality time spent with family.
Along the way, he said, he also got “some work” done.
Updated
A panel of judges in Alabama have rejected a request for a stay after Republican lawmakers in the state passed a bill that would allow for new US primaries if a redrawn congressional map is approved.
Kyle Whitmire with Al.com shared the update in a post to X. The three-judge panel ruled that they did not have jurisdiction over the case as it is being appealed at the US Supreme court.
“Quite simply, we do not have the authority to issue an order that upends Alabama’s status quo, especially in the middle of an election, while our injunction establishing that status quo is well under review in the nation’s highest court.”
Donald Trump ostensibly issued a Mother’s Day message on his Truth Social platform, though his post was more to tout last month’s stronger-than-expected US job gains.
“Happy Mother’s Day weekend to all, especially to the 115 THOUSAND AMERICANS who found jobs in the month of April alone!” the president wrote, to no mothers in particular. “Despite the best efforts of Jerome “Too Late and Won’t Leave” Powell, and the America Hating Democrat Party, more Americans are working today than ever before.”
Utah supreme court justice Diana Hagen resigned her position on Friday amid an investigation into allegations that she had an improper relationship with an attorney working a case before the state’s highest court, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.
In her resignation letter to Utah governor Spencer Cox, Hagen wrote: “As a public servant for twenty-six years, I am keenly aware that public service requires sacrifice. I have willingly accepted those sacrifices for the privilege of holding a position of public trust, where I could do my part to uphold the rule of law and protect the constitutional rights of every Utahn.
“I also understand that public officials are rightly held to a higher standard and must accept a greater degree of public scrutiny and diminished privacy. But my family and friends did not choose public life. They do not deserve to have intensely personal details surrounding the painful dissolution of my thirty-year marriage subjected to public scrutiny.”
Hagen was under pressure as Republican leaders including Cox, house speaker Mike Schultz and senate president J Stuart Adams had last month announced an investigation into the allegations. The judicial conduct commission said the allegations had “very little credibility”.
Updated
Trump administration pushes national park managers to scale back hunting restrictions
Donald Trump’s administration is quietly pushing national park, refuge and wilderness area managers to dramatically scale back hunting restrictions, raising questions about visitor safety and the impact on wildlife.
Doug Burgum, interior secretary, issued an order in January directing multiple agencies to remove what he termed “unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers” to hunting and fishing and justify regulations they want to keep in place, reports AP.
“Expanding opportunities for the public to hunt and fish on Department-managed lands not only strengthens conservation outcomes, but also supports rural economies, public health, and access to America’s outdoor spaces,” Burgum wrote. “The Department’s policy is clear: public and federally managed lands should be open to hunting and fishing unless a specific, documented, and legally supported exception applies.”
The order applies to 55 sites in the lower 48 states under the National Park Service’s jurisdiction, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. Various locations have already lifted prohibitions on hunting stands that damage trees and training hunting dogs, using vehicles to retrieve animals and hunting along trails, according to an NPCA review of site regulations.
Hunting is currently allowed across about 51m acres belonging to the National Park Service spanning 76 sites, although only about 8m of those acres lie in the contiguous United States with the rest in Alaska, according to the NPS website. Fishing is allowed in 213 sites. NPS sites typically adopt state hunting and fishing regulations, although they can impose restrictions that go beyond them to protect public safety and wildlife resources, such as prohibiting shooting along a trail or near buildings.
Dan Wenk, a former Yellowstone national park superintendent and NPS deputy operations director, said park managers established their regulations by talking with stakeholders and, as a result, most of the restrictions have been widely accepted. He said it makes no sense for the Trump administration to upend that structure without substantial public discussion.
“Process never seems to stand in the way of many things with this administration,” Wenk said. “This was never a big issue. I’d love to know the problem we’re trying to solve. Then I could understand the costs that it’s going to take to solve it in terms of resources and visitor safety.”
Interior department spokesperson Elizabeth Peace said in an email that the order was a “commonsense approach to public land management” and promised that any closures or limits needed for public safety, resource protection or legal compliance will remain in place.
Updated
Virginia Democrats file motion with state's supreme court to stay recent decision rejecting voter-approved congressional maps
Virginia Democrats have filed a motion with the state’s supreme court to stay a recent decision that rejected voter-approved congressional maps, the Virginia Scope first reported.
The motion, submitted by Virginia politician Don Scott, who is speaker of the Virginia house of delegates, paves the way for a likely appeal to Friday’s ruling.
“On May 8 2026, this Court issued its decision in this case. Appellants and the Commonwealth intend to file an Emergency Petition to the Supreme Court of the United States,” court documents read.
Updated
More Democratic leaders have pledged to fight against the Virginia supreme court decision and broader attempts to redraw congressional districts. The political committees of several House democrat caucuses promised to “use every tool at our disposal to fight back against this decision”, in a joint statement.
Chairs of the New Democrat Coalition Action Fund, the Congressional Black Caucus Pac, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Bold Pac, the Congressional Progressive Caucus Pac, Elect Democratic Women, and Equality Pac denounced the Virginia decision.
“Maga Republicans continue to cut undemocratic, unconstitutional, backroom deals with the help of their hand-picked judges, who are handing down baseless rulings from the bench,” the statement read.
The statement also called out Republican lawmakers in Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas leading redistricting efforts that are “maliciously disenfranchising millions of Americans overnight against the will of the people”.
“We will not sit idly by as Republicans dismantle the progress that generations of Americans fought and died to deliver. We will use every tool at our disposal to fight back against this decision and every insidious effort to strip Americans of their fundamental freedoms.”
Updated
Democratic representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas’s 30th district, also criticized the Virginia supreme court decision, in a scathing post to X.
Crockett called the rejection of voter-approved maps in Virginia “voter suppression”.
“They keep losing when people actually vote, so instead of changing their policies, they keep trying to silence the voices of the people,” wrote Crockett, referring to Republicans.
Texas notably redrew its congressional maps in 2025 to add more Republican seats, a move that faced legal challenges but was later approved by the US supreme court.
Representative Terri A Sewell for Alabama’s seventh district, blasted attempts from Alabama legislators to potentially hold new US House primaries if redrawn congressional maps are allowed.
“Black voters make up nearly one-third of Alabama’s electorate,” said Sewell during an NPR interview. “What state lawmakers are doing is trying to dilute the power of Alabama Black voters, silence their voices, and eliminate their ability to elect congressional and state leaders of their choice.”
Sewell added: “This is not about party politics. It’s about whether Black Alabamians have a seat at the table or whether they will let state lawmakers take us back to the Jim Crow era.”
Alabama governor Kay Ivey has signed the passed plan, House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1, which would allow for new US House primaries to occur if redistricting maps are approved by the courts.
In a statement following the bill’s signing, Ivey said that “Alabama now stands ready to quickly act, should the courts issue favorable rulings in our ongoing redistricting cases.”
Read the full statement here.
Following the Virginia supreme court decision, Alabama lawmakers passed a plan on Friday that would allow for new US House primaries if courts approve the use of different congressional district maps.
The latest decision is another significant setback to Democrats and minority voting rights advocates who are dealing with redistricting efforts from several southern Republican states.
In addition to Alabama, legislatures in Louisiana and South Carolina are trying to implement redrawn district maps following the Supreme Court decision that diminished Voting Rights Act protections for minorities.
Read the full article here.
Other major Democrats have decried the decision by the Virginia supreme court to strike down a voter-approved congressional map.
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat representing Washington’s seventh district and chair of the Congressional Progressive caucus, criticized the decision in a post to X that also called out decreasing public trust in the court system.
“The Virginia Supreme Court just overturned the new congressional maps that voters in Virginia approved,” she wrote. “The American people are already losing trust in the courts, and this total violation of the will of the people will only make more lose faith.”
Updated
Eric Holder, the chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), described the decision by the Virginia supreme court to strike down the new voter-approved congressional map as “baffling”.
In a statement, the former attorney general noted that the court “could have expressed itself BEFORE the vote”.
“Now that the people have spoken, it is hard to understand both the rationale of the Court-permitted process and the reasoning behind the Court’s opinion that silences the majority voice of Virginia voters,” he added. “This is especially troubling given the reality that this nation faces with Republican efforts to steal the 2026 midterm election.”
Here's a recap of the day so far
In a blow to national and state Democrats, the Virginia supreme court struck down a constitutional amendment, approved by voters last month that redrew the state’s congressional districts. The top court ruled that Virginia’s Democratic-majority legislature did not follow proper procedure in approving the referendum before it was put before voters. The new map would have probably flipped four Republican seats blue in the upcoming midterm elections, and given Democrats a 10-1 advantage for Virginia’s congressional delegation.
In response, Donald Trump welcomed the news, calling it a “huge win for the Republican Party, and America”. Democrats expressed extreme frustration and disappointment in the ruling, particularly after the majority of Virginians voted in favor of the referendum. “The decision to overturn an entire election is an unprecedented and undemocratic action that cannot stand,” said Hakeem Jeffries, US House minority leader, Jeffries, adding that Democrats are “exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision”.
Trump has announced there will be a three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, from 9-11 May. The pause in fighting will be to honor Victory Day, but will also include a swap of 1,000 prisoners from each country, the president said. Trump added that he made the “request” to Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself.
The Pentagon has released a trove of “never-before-seen” files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) – the modern term for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO). “These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation,” the defense department said in a statement. However, the first batch of unresolved, declassified cases released on Friday, incorporate hundreds of pages on a monochrome new defense department website, and offered little new or conclusive evidence.
Following a meeting with Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni, secretary of state Marco Rubio said his Thursday meeting with Pope Leo XIV was “very positive”. Rubio said that he updated the Vatican on the situation with Iran, “expressed our point of view about why this was an important and the danger that Iran poses to the world, which is largely recognised.”
Updated
In response to the Virginia supreme court ruling that rejected a ballot measure to re-draw the state’s congressional map, Democratic governor Abigail Spanberger said she was “disappointed” in the top court’s decision.
“The majority of Virginia voters voted to push back against a President who said he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress with a temporary and responsive referendum,” the governor said.
Spanberger went on to say that her focus ahead of the November elections will be to ensure that “all voters have the information necessary to make their voices heard”.
Trump announces three-day ceasefire between in Ukraine war
Donald Trump has announced there will be a three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, from 9 to 11 May.
The pause in fighting will be to honor Victory Day, but will also a swap of 1,000 prisoners from each country, Trump said.
“This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War,” the president added on Truth Social.
Updated
Pentagon releases previously unseen UFO files
The Pentagon has released a trove of “never-before-seen” files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) – the modern term for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO).
“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation,” the defense department said in a statement, “and it’s time the American people see it for themselves.”
The files, now declassified, are unresolved cases. As my colleague Richard Luscombe notes, the first batch released on Friday, incorporating hundreds of pages on a monochrome new defense department website, offered little new or conclusive evidence.
The Pentagon said it “welcomes the application of private-sector analysis, information and expertise” and “will continue to conduct separate reporting on resolved UAP cases, as mandated by statute. Under this Administration, we will pursue the truth and share our findings with the American people.”
The release follows a directive from Donald Trump in February for federal agencies to begin identifying, declassifying and releasing government files related to unidentified flying objects, now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), and the possibility of alien life beyond Earth.
In their legal challenge against the redrawn congressional maps, the Republican party in Virginia claimed that the constitutional amendment that was struck down by the state’s supreme court did not follow proper legislative procedures.
According to Virginia state law, a proposed amendment to the constitution can only be approved by two consecutive state legislatures – with a state election in between them.
Part of the GOP’s argument included the fact that the Democratic legislative majority approved this particular amendment in October, just days before the November state elections, and since early voting had already begun when the amendment was first passed, Republicans claimed this did not meet the standards of the overall process. During those elections, Democrats won additional legislative seats. They then passed the amendment for a second time in January and scheduled the referendum for April.
Updated
Trump on Friday afternoon again said that the “cartels rule Mexico”, amid heightening tensions between the US and Mexican governments.
Last week, the justice department announced an indictment against a governor in Mexico, accusing him of collaborating with a Mexican criminal group. The US is pushing for the Mexican government to turn the governor over to the US, who has temporarily stepped down. The Mexican government is requesting the evidence against the governor.
Late last month, two CIA officials were killed in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, following a counternarcotics operation in coordination with state officials. The Mexican federal government grew furious, since the CIA officials did not have approval to operate in Mexico, in an alleged violation of Mexico’s national security law.
Updated
Trump claimed without proof on Friday afternoon that “they emptied the prisons of the Congo, into the area of the southern border and they told them to just walk in”, referring to the Biden administration.
“These were hard, mean, vicious criminals they allowed into the country”, Trump added.
In honor of “Angel Moms”, Trump said they’ve rapidly turned “the most dangerous border in the history of our country into the strongest border in American history”.
“We have no people come in, during the last 11 months – we’ve had zero, zero”, Trump said.
Trump is referring to the number of border encounters by US border officials. The number of border encounters has reduced, due to the strong limits to asylum put in place in an executive border this past year.
Trump said on Friday afternoon that many “strong” mothers were joining them at the White House Rose Garden during lunch. He gave a special shout-out to “Angel Moms”, which is the term used to refer to mothers whose children were killed by undocumented immigrants.
“Among those with us this afternoon are a number of the ‘Angel Moms’, who saw their precious children stolen from them by the open border policies of the radical left,” Trump said. “Open borders? I call them stupid borders. Not open. Stupid borders. By stupid people that put them there”.
Updated
Trump speaks at the White House
President Donald Trump is delivering remarks at the White House Rose Garden this afternoon. He arrived to the podium to the song God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood.
Stay tuned as we bring you the top lines.
Updated
Tim Kaine, a Democratic US senator from Virginia, spoke out today in opposition to the Virginia supreme court’s decision that struck down a new congressional map, according to reporting from Notus.
“The timing of this ruling speaks volumes”, senator Kaine said. “If the Virginia Supreme Court had legitimate concerns about this referendum, the time to stop it would have been before three million Virginians cast their ballots”.
Updated
Top US House Democrat says party is 'exploring all options' to overturn Virginia supreme court decision
Hakeem Jeffries, the US House minority leader, decried the ruling by the Virginia supreme court today that ultimately struck down a new congressional map, approved by voters.
“Over three million Virginia citizens cast their votes in a free and fair election, yet the State Supreme Court has chosen to invalidate their voice, disenfranchise them and violate their due process rights,” the top Democrat wrote in a statement. “The decision to overturn an entire election is an unprecedented and undemocratic action that cannot stand.”
He added that his party was “exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision” in order for Democrats to reclaim a majority in the House come November.
“Our fight is not over. We are just getting started,” Jeffries said.
Updated
Trump heralds Virginia supreme court decision as 'huge win' for GOP
Donald Trump took to Truth Social to welcome the news from the Virginia supreme court, calling it a “huge win for the Republican Party, and America”.
He called the new maps, approved by a majority of voters through a ballot measure, a “horrible gerrymander”. However, the president has been pushing lawmakers in deep-red states to redraw their congressional maps to ensure that the GOP can retain its majority in the US House – currently a narrow five-seat margin.
Updated
Democratic Virginia House speaker says legislature will 'respect' supreme court decision
Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House, said that the legislature will “respect the decision” of the state supreme court that rejects a voter approved ballot-measure to redraw Virginia’s congressional map.
“Three million people voted in a free and fair election. We gave this decision to the voters – exactly where it belongs – and they spoke loud and clear,” Scott said in a statement. “That truth doesn’t change because of a court ruling … We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters – not politicians – have the final say. Because in Virginia, power still belongs to the people.”
Updated
The ruling out of Virginia today could now bolster Republican hopes of keeping their majority in the US House in the midterms, particularly as a number of southern states, like Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana have expedited redrawing their congressional maps in favor of GOP majorities.
A reminder that the US supreme court’s decision last week to gut section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has essentially pushed GOP legislatures to quickly redraw their maps ahead of November.
Updated
Virginia supreme court strikes down new congressional map
In a blow to national and state Democrats, the Virginia supreme court struck down a constitutional amendment, approved by voters last month that re-drew the state’s congressional districts.
The top court ruled that Virginia’s Democratic-majority legislature did not follow proper procedure in approving the referendum before it was put before voters.
The new map would have likely flipped four Republican seats blue in the upcoming midterm elections, and given Democrats a 10-1 advantage for Virginia’s congressional delegation.
Stay tuned for more on the decision.
Updated
The White House has branded Star Wars actor Mark Hamill “a sick individual” after an AI-generated image showing Donald Trump in a shallow grave, with the words “If Only” as an overlay was posted to one of star’s social media accounts.
Hamill, who played the lead character of Luke Skywalker in six movies of the iconic science fiction franchise and is a longtime critic of the US president, apologized and removed the post from his Bluesky account on Thursday.
The American actor replaced it with another message clarifying that he was not advocating the president’s demise.
“Actually, I was wishing him the opposite of dead, but apologize if you found the image inappropriate,” Hamill wrote, adding that Trump “should live long enough to be held accountable for his crimes”.
The White House, through its Rapid Response 47 account on X, immediately seized on Hamill’s original post, which portrayed the president lying beneath a gravestone inscribed with “Donald J Trump, 1946-2024”.
“Mark Hamill is one sick individual,” the post said. “These Radical Left lunatics just can’t help themselves. This kind of rhetoric is exactly what has inspired three assassination attempts in two years against our President.”
Read the full report:
A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest on the conflict in the Middle East. Including secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to Rome, to mend strained relations with Italian leaders and the Vatican after Donald Trump chided Pope Leo XIV for his stance on the war in Iran.
Rubio told reporters in Rome that the US should get a response on Friday from Iran to its proposal to end the war.
“We’ll see what the response entails. The hope is it’s something that can put us into a serious process of negotiation,” Rubio said
Economists projected about 55,000 new jobs and a 4.3% unemployment rate. A day earlier, the labor department announced 200,000 people filed for weekly unemployment benefits, a slight increase from the week before.
A series of major changes over the last year – tariffs, government layoffs, changing immigration policies and, now, rising oil prices amid conflict in the Middle East – have rattled the US economy and destabilized the labor market.
The new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also included revisions to previous job figures. Last month, employers added 185,000 jobs, first reported as 178,000. This exceeded economists’ expectations of about 70,000. But in February, the US lost 156,000 jobs – initially reported as a drop of 92,000 jobs – an unexpected and major contraction just before the US-Israel war in Iran.
115,000 jobs added in April according to latest data
New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that the US economy added 115,000 jobs in April, down from the 178,000 initially reported in March, which came after a notable contraction the month prior.
Unemployment in April remained unchanged at 4.3%.
Updated
Donald Trump will begin his day in Washington. We can expect to hear from the president at 12pm ET, when he delivers remarks in the Rose Garden. We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets under way.
Later, Trump will travel to Sterling, Virginia for a dinner for the men’s professional golf tour, LIV.
Trump administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 kids in seven months
A Guardian analysis of government records has found that, during the first seven months of Donald Trump’s presidency, the administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 children.
During this period in 2025, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was deporting about twice as many parents each month compared with 2024.
The records do not detail how many of these children were detained or deported with their parents, and how many families were split up. But the data provides one of the starkest views yet of how Trump’s mass deportation scheme has affected parents and children.
In thousands of cases, DHS sought to deport parents who had a different citizenship or nationality than their children, creating major legal and logistical barriers to keeping families together. You can read more of the investigation by my colleagues, Maanvi Singh and Will Craft, here:
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US to start revoking passports of parents who owe more than $2,500 in child support
The US state department has said it will begin to revoke the passports of Americans who owe more than $2,500 in child support payments.
The revocations would begin on Friday and be focused on those who owe $100,000 or more, or about 2,700 American passport holders, the Associated Press reported.
In a statement, the state department said that the revocation of passports “supports the welfare of American children by exacting real consequences for child support delinquency under existing federal law.” It added:
Any American with significant child support debt should arrange payment to the relevant state or states now to prevent passport revocation. Once a passport is revoked, it may no longer be used for travel. Eligibility for a new passport will only be restored after child support debt is paid to the relevant state child support enforcement agency and the individual is no longer delinquent according to HHS records.
Passport revocations for unpaid child support of over $2,500 is permitted within a rarely used provision in Bill Clinton’s Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act law (1996), which tied benefits to work under reforms that have been criticised for driving up the numbers of people living in deep poverty. When the provision in the law has been applied it is typically focused on preventing people with child support debt from renewing or applying for a new passport.
Meanwhile, Alabama has asked federal judges to lift an order requiring the state to have a second district where Black voters are the majority or close to it. That district gave rise to the election of Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat, in 2024.
Republicans instead want to put in place a map lawmakers drew in 2023 – which was rejected by a federal court – that could allow them to reclaim Figures’ district.
Black residents currently make up about 48% of the district’s voting-age population, according to the Associated Press.
That would drop to about 39% under the 2023 map. Republicans hope the federal courts will see the case differently in the wake of the supreme court’s Louisiana decision, which found that the Louisiana district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields relied too heavily on race (more on this ruling in the next post)
Here are some details about the seismic impact last week’s US supreme court ruling will have on the voting power of racial minorities going forward, courtesy of my colleague Sam Levine:
The US supreme court ruled that Louisiana will have to redraw its congressional map, in a landmark decision that effectively guts a major section of the Voting Rights Act.
In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the court rendered ineffective section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining powerful provision of the 1965 civil rights law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 has long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting.
“Allowing race to play any part in government decision-making represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context,” Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative, wrote for the majority opinion. “Compliance with section 2 thus could not justify the state’s use of race-based redistricting here. The state’s attempt to satisfy the middle district’s ruling, although understandable, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”
The court’s decision is a major upheaval in US civil rights law and gives lawmakers permission to draw districting plans that weaken the influence of Black and other minority voters.
Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether states should redraw their congressional maps in response to the ruling, Donald Trump said: “I would.” In a dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan wrote the court had now accomplished a “demolition of the Voting Rights Act”. You can read more here:
At the Tennessee state capitol, there were a number of protests against the legislature’s move to redraw the state’s congressional map that carved up the state’s majority-Black and sole Democratic district. Here are a selection of pictures that have been sent to us over the newswires:
Anger mounts after Tennessee Republicans redraw maps to erase last Democratic, Black-majority district
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature passed redistricting maps on Thursday, eliminating the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district as GOP lawmakers scramble to improve their fortunes ahead of the November midterms.
The new map splits Shelby County, the home of Memphis, a majority-Black city that played a critical role in the civil rights movement, into three separate Republican-leaning districts.
The majority-Black district being eliminated in the Memphis area has long been represented by Rep. Steve Cohen, the state’s lone Democratic congressional representative. All nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts are now Republican-leaning.
Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton claimed that the new districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.
But Democrats dismissed these claims and have argued that dividing up Memphis effectively deprives the Black community of representation in Congress.
“These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump,” said state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat from Memphis who is running for the US House.
Democrats say the redistricting effort, which prompted fierce protests, was a cynical attack on the hard-fought gains for equal representation won in the civil rights movement in a state that was forged by slavery and segregation.
The redraw comes as Republican-led southern states scramble to enact new maps in the wake of last week’s landmark Callais v Landry decision supreme court ruling, which invalidated swaths of the Voting Rights Act which had restrained state governments from drawing congressional districts that left Black voters at a political disadvantage.
Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting. Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, is reportedly due to sign the map into law imminently.
