SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
");background-position:center;background-size:19px 19px;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-color:var(--button-bg-color);padding:0;width:var(--form-elem-height);height:var(--form-elem-height);font-size:0;}:is(.js-newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter_bar.newsletter-wrapper) .widget__body:has(.response:not(:empty)) :is(.widget__headline, .widget__subheadline, #mc_embed_signup .mc-field-group, #mc_embed_signup input[type="submit"]){display:none;}:is(.grey_newsblock .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper) #mce-responses:has(.response:not(:empty)){grid-row:1 / -1;grid-column:1 / -1;}.newsletter-wrapper .widget__body > .snark-line:has(.response:not(:empty)){grid-column:1 / -1;}:is(.grey_newsblock .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper) :is(.newsletter-campaign:has(.response:not(:empty)), .newsletter-and-social:has(.response:not(:empty))){width:100%;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;justify-content:center;align-items:center;gap:8px 20px;margin:0 auto;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col .text-element{display:flex;color:var(--shares-color);margin:0 !important;font-weight:400 !important;font-size:16px !important;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col .whitebar_social{display:flex;gap:12px;width:auto;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col a{margin:0;background-color:#0000;padding:0;width:32px;height:32px;}.newsletter-wrapper .social_icon:after{display:none;}.newsletter-wrapper .widget article:before, .newsletter-wrapper .widget article:after{display:none;}#sFollow_Block_0_0_2_0_0_0_1{margin:0;}#sSHARED_-_Social_Desktop_0_0_11_0_0_1.row-wrapper{margin:40px auto;}#sBoost_post_0_0_0_0_0_0_1_0{background-color:#000;color:#fff;}.boost-post{--article-direction:column;--min-height:none;--height:auto;--padding:24px;--titles-width:calc(100% - 84px);--image-fit:cover;--image-pos:right;--photo-caption-size:12px;--photo-caption-space:20px;--headline-size:23px;--headline-space:18px;--subheadline-size:13px;--text-size:12px;--oswald-font:"Oswald", Impact, "Franklin Gothic Bold", sans-serif;--cta-position:center;overflow:hidden;margin-bottom:0;--lora-font:"Lora", sans-serif !important;}.boost-post:not(:empty):has(.boost-post-article:not(:empty)){min-height:var(--min-height);}.boost-post *{box-sizing:border-box;float:none;}.boost-post .posts-custom .posts-wrapper:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post article:before, .boost-post article:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post article .row:before, .boost-post article .row:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post article .row .col:before, .boost-post article .row .col:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post .widget__body:before, .boost-post .widget__body:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post .photo-caption:after{content:"";width:100%;height:1px;background-color:#fff;}.boost-post .body:before, .boost-post .body:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post .body :before, .boost-post .body :after{display:none !important;}.boost-post__bottom{--article-direction:row;--titles-width:350px;--min-height:346px;--height:315px;--padding:24px 86px 24px 24px;--image-fit:contain;--image-pos:right;--headline-size:36px;--subheadline-size:15px;--text-size:12px;--cta-position:left;}.boost-post__sidebar:not(:empty):has(.boost-post-article:not(:empty)){margin-bottom:10px;}.boost-post__in-content:not(:empty):has(.boost-post-article:not(:empty)){margin-bottom:40px;}.boost-post__bottom:not(:empty):has(.boost-post-article:not(:empty)){margin-bottom:20px;}@media (min-width: 1024px){#sSHARED_-_Social_Desktop_0_0_11_0_0_1_1{padding-left:40px;}}.donation_banner{position:relative;background:#000;}.donation_banner .posts-custom *, .donation_banner .posts-custom :after, .donation_banner .posts-custom :before{margin:0;}.donation_banner .posts-custom .widget{position:absolute;inset:0;}.donation_banner__wrapper{position:relative;z-index:2;pointer-events:none;}.donation_banner .donate_btn{position:relative;z-index:2;}#sSHARED_-_Support_Block_0_0_14_0_0_3_1_0{color:#fff;}#sSHARED_-_Support_Block_0_0_14_0_0_3_1_1{font-weight:normal;}.sticky-sidebar{margin:auto;}@media (min-width: 1024px){.main:has(.sticky-sidebar){overflow:visible;}}@media (min-width: 1024px){.row:has(.sticky-sidebar){display:flex;overflow:visible;}}@media (min-width: 1024px){.sticky-sidebar{position:-webkit-sticky;position:sticky;top:100px;transition:top .3s ease-in-out, position .3s ease-in-out;}}#sElement_Post_Layout_Press_Release__0_0_1_0_0_11{margin:100px 0;}.grey_newsblock .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper.sidebar{background:linear-gradient(91deg, #005dc7 28%, #1d63b2 65%, #0353ae 85%);}.black_newsletter{background:linear-gradient(91deg, #005dc7 28%, #1d63b2 65%, #0353ae 85%);}.black_newsletter .newsletter_bar.newsletter-wrapper{background:none;}
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Today, Morgan Harper, Senior Advisor at the American Economic Liberties Project, will appear in front of the House Judiciary Committee to discuss Economic Liberties' policy priorities and the recommendations in the Antitrust Subcommittee's recent report on restoring competition in digital markets.
Today, Morgan Harper, Senior Advisor at the American Economic Liberties Project, will appear in front of the House Judiciary Committee to discuss Economic Liberties' policy priorities and the recommendations in the Antitrust Subcommittee's recent report on restoring competition in digital markets.
The hearing -- "Reviving Competition, Part 1: Proposals to Address Gatekeeper Power and Lower Barriers to Entry Online" -- comes on the heels of a particularly scandalous week for Facebook, in which it shut off access to Australian news and information around the world and is under increasing scrutiny for allegedly systemically defrauding advertiserson its platform. In her testimony, Harper will encourage the subcommittee to pursue a "regulated competition" approach, arguing that both structural solutions and new regulation are needed to address the broad range of economic and social harms posed by dominant platforms like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.
Morgan Harper's written testimony is available below.
Chairman Cicilline, Ranking Member Buck, and Members of the Subcommittee and the full Committee, thank you for the opportunity to give this testimony.
I appear before you today as someone who has devoted her career to figuring out how to broaden economy opportunity in this country. That pursuit has led me many places: the Federal Trade Commission as a recent college graduate, a corporate law firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What those experiences have shown is that until we address corporate power at its core, the rest of us are just playing for economic scraps. And currently, there is no greater power that threatens our livelihoods and civil liberties than the Big Tech platforms.
The basic issue is best put by none other than Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "In a lot of ways Facebook is more like a government than a traditional company," Mr. Zuckerberg said. "We have this large community of people, and more than other technology companies we're really setting policies."
The technology that we have today is extraordinary. Each of us carries a camera-enabled supercomputer in our pocket, which connects to a grid of billions of people with whom we can talk, do business, tell stories, or organize in civic or political groups. My generation has grown up watching these technologies flourish. The most important technologies underpinning the digital era, like semiconductors, networking equipment, personal computing, are the result of decades of research and engineering across public and private institutions, as well as coherent competition policy which ensured that this technology would never be captured by a monopolist.
And yet, today, that is exactly what has happened. We have allowed the digital technology that should be a tool of liberty to become instead a vehicle for profit-driven control and deception. By refusing to use our traditional anti-monopoly policies, we have allowed a few tech barons to choose who gets to participate in politics, pick winners and losers in the economy, and sell services enabling scams, counterfeiting and racial discrimination.
There are many reasons to be concerned with the overwhelming power of large technology platforms, and monopolies in general. In this testimony, I'm going to try to cover many of them. But the core problem is simple and gets to what Mr. Zuckerberg noted. Facebook and the other tech platforms are not just corporations. They run critical 21st century infrastructure and make their own rules. We cannot allow tech monopolists to wield this power, with the ability to censor or destroy. Under your leadership, Congress can restore the government's long legacy of standing up to corporate power that threatens our American way of life. It is time to break them up.
I. Defining dominance and harm
As the subcommittee's extraordinary 16-month investigation and report revealed last year, Big Tech corporations--Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple--have and abuse their extreme market power. Facebook and Google, which together control key communications networks and the digital advertising industry, conduct unwanted surveillance of their users to maximize advertising revenue and depreciate the value of newsgathering. Amazon runs the infrastructure for modern commerce, and engages in a host of anti-competitive practices, such as predatory pricing, leveraging its dominance from one market into another, self-preferencing its own products, tying its services to extract more money from those who must use services, and weaponizing counterfeit products. Apple dominates the mobile operating system market, and uses it to demand exorbitant fees and commissions from developers for software distribution.
It is impossible to include an exhaustive list of the harms this dominance causes because they are so large and so intertwined with much of our economic activity. Fortunately, this subcommittee is well-aware of the remarkable scale and scope of these institutions, so I will just mention a few.
Let's start with entrepreneurship, the backbone of Silicon Valley. There has been a sharp decline in business formation since the early 1980s, but venture capitalists have started using a specific term in the technology industry. They call industry segments dominated by a Big Tech monopolist a "kill zone," and research shows there is less investment and innovation in areas adjacent to large firms such as Google and Amazon. But it's not just in the technology sector. Big Tech undermines ordinary small businesses that are the glue of our communities. From 2000 to 2015, the economy lost more than 108,000 local, independent retail businesses, a drop of 40 percent when measured relative to population. In a 2016 survey of more than 3,000 independent business owners, 70 percent noted that competition from Amazon was their biggest challenge. These firms also have significant tax advantages from cities and states, which they then use to compete with smaller local firms.
These monopolists also tend to reduce product quality over time as competition declines. For instance, surveys routinely show that Americans do not like corporations collecting their private data, and when it was competing with MySpace and other social networks, Facebook promised that it would not engage in excessive collection and misuse of user data. At one point, the firm even allowed users to vote on its terms of service. As soon as Facebook gained market power, however, it backtracked on its promises to both users and media partners that had installed Like and Share buttons under the premise that Facebook would not collect user data. When users could no longer switch, Facebook downgraded the quality of the product. It has subsequently begun collecting more data and inserting more ads into its social networks. Google, similarly, is directing more and more traffic to its own properties and paid search results, as well as disguising which search results are paid and which are organic. This can cause massive harm, such as directing addicts to poor quality recovering facilities. Google, Amazon and Facebook regularly enable scams and the sale and trafficking in counterfeit items.
Collectively, these firms control the livelihoods of many American small business owners and workers. They enable the rampant spread of misinformation, which has compromised our elections and the safety of our schools, communities, and even members of Congress. And they have almost entirely destroyed a core American institution- a free and vibrant press in the form of local newspapers.
II. Dominance not the result of skill, but exploitation of public policy gaps
The dominant tech firms did not achieve this market power only through ingenuity or business acumen. Rather, they exploited gaps in public policy, including the weakening of merger law and decades of lax monopolization enforcement, to build dominance by aggressively acquiring other businesses and employing anticompetitive tactics to squash competitors. Google has spent over $20 billion to buy more than 145 companies. One of these companies was DoubleClick, which enabled Google to control the infrastructure between advertisers and publishers in the display ad market. Facebook acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, eliminating their most serious competitors. In total, Facebook has acquired over 80 companies that triggered public reporting since its inception. Amazon has acquired at least 100 companies. And Apple's own CEO has told the media they acquire a new company every two to three weeks. Not a single acquisition was challenged by enforcers, and the Department of Justice did not bring a major Section 2 monopolization claim from 1998 until 2020.
This unquestionable dominance led this subcommittee to take on the important work of launching the most thorough investigation into monopoly power in 50 years. The subcommittee's report and recommendations made clear that a traditional, regulated competition approach, including structural separations, is necessary to rein in these corporations and restore freedom in the digital markets.
III. Our history of regulated competition
The United States has a tradition of using a regulated competition approach to limit corporate power and protect democracy. Congress has been especially attentive to corporations that play an infrastructure role and have integrated into adjacent markets that rely on their networks. By 1900, for example, the dominant railroad corporations had acquired coal mining businesses. After beginning to limit rail for coal operators whom they did not own, Congress passed the Hepburn Act, which prevented corporations from managing transportation and ownership of the companies using such transport.
Over the course of the 20th century, policymakers have used laws, regulations, or antitrust suits to break up aviation, banks, television networks, bank holding companies, electric utilities, data processing/telecommunications and telephone systems, often to eliminate conflicts of interest, encouraging resiliency, block concentrations of power and control, and promote diversity. The result was the most robust economy in global history, with high wages, high technology, and high business formation.
This approach has been especially important in communications industries, from the founding of the Post Office to telegraph regulation to the antitrust suits against AT&T in the 20th century that opened our telecommunications apparatus to both local control and competition. In the 1970s, the government sued AT&T, at the time a telecommunications giant operating local exchange calls, long distance calls, and telephone equipment. They eventually reached a settlement that required AT&T to divest Bell Operating Companies that ran local exchanges. Though many speculated about the feasibility of breaking up such a large company, the divesture arguably led to, "competition in the telecom sector and a burst of technological progress" as John Kwoka and Tommaso Valetti write. The most common result of break-ups of monopolies, in other words, is likely innovation.
IV. Why break-ups are necessary
As noted in the above examples, at the core of a regulated competition approach are structural separations or break ups. There are several reasons to break up dominant Big Tech platforms:
Some claim that break ups are infeasible and unduly burdensome, but available evidence does not support that claim. In fact, there is reason to believe that break ups, particularly in the case of undoing previously consummated mergers, might be easier to accomplish with a tech platform than some other commodity-based industries. Furthermore, companies commonly initiate self-imposed break ups. One study examining corporate activity in the 1990s found that over 1600 divestitures occurred, amounting to roughly two per year. They are widely recognized as a tool to streamline operations at many of the largest global corporations. Digital platforms similarly will adjust with changed business models after structural separations.
V. The Need for Regulation and Antitrust Law Updates
Structural separation will not entirely tame the problem of dominance. First, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple will still be very large corporations with substantial power to recreate their dominance, or to continue choosing who gets to participate in our commerce or politics. Dominant firms should be banned from discriminating against other firms. The same principle making railroads common carriers in the 1880s, should apply to the dominant platforms after structural separation. They should give market players equal access to their platforms and not pick winners or losers. Part of preserving this equal access will involve allowing users to communicate between different platforms and have access to their data in case they want to switch platforms.
Second, competition is not an unvarnished virtue. While it is possible to compete with better products and services, it is also possible to compete with lower standards for product quality or wages, or for more unwanted surveillance and monetization of fraudulent or defamatory content. Privacy rules such as purpose limitation of data, rules against deceptive search engines, do not track rules, labor and safety standards for workers, anti-counterfeiting measures, and/or bans on targeted advertising can recreate a high-trust, high-wage economy with strong business formation.
Finally, structural separation must be completed with changes to antitrust law to restore mid-20th century monopolization and anti-merger statutes. Breaking up firms is relatively useless if they can simply recombine. Bright lines rules against mergers based on size or market power, as well as specific bans on market conduct for dominant firms, would enable competition to work as a discipline against dominant firms. Similarly, banning arbitration agreements and easier methods to enable class action lawsuits would once again grant competitors, workers and customers access to the courts to seek redress.
It is important to reemphasize that this problem is fundamentally political, not technical. Regulation alone cannot stop the harms the digital platforms are causing, because it will not erode the political power that has allowed these firms to challenge the rule of law itself. Facebook is taking out full-page ads in The New York Times inviting regulation because its executives know that the true threat to their business model is a break-up. In fact, when the Australian government moved forward with a regulation forcing them to compensate news outlets for their content, far from welcoming the measure with open arms, Facebook announced it would ban all news. They are retaliating to scare other governmental bodies like this Congress from imposing even more aggressive remedies. Only structural separation can limit their power to enable effective regulation.
VI. Conclusion
The concentrated power of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple present systemic risks to our economy and democracy. When questioned about these impacts, executives from these platforms mislead. They lie to the media. They lie to their own customers. They try to divert attention away from detrimental impacts they are causing by making grand philanthropic gestures. They will give millions of dollars in the name of fighting for racial justice, but refuse to acknowledge how their platforms are the biggest threat to civil rights of our time. If we do not act quickly, the harms identified in your report will further erode the economic liberty of workers and small business owners. I encourage the subcommittee to continue to reassert your Congressional authority over monopolists who seek to govern commerce and key parts of society in your place.
Read Economic Liberties' "Addressing Facebook and Google's Harms Through a Regulated Competition Approach," here.
Learn more about Economic Liberties here.
The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America's system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.
"The government," said the judge, "has failed to identify any real countervailing harm in continuing [temporary protected status] for Venezuelan beneficiaries."
An effort by the Trump administration to unilaterally strip the temporary protected status (TPS) of approximately 350,000 Venezuelan refugees living in the United States was blocked Monday night by a federal court judge who described the order by Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as being "motivated by unconstitutional animus."
In a 78-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco said Noem's rescinding of an order made under the Biden administration "threatens to: inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States. At the same time, the government has failed to identify any real countervailing harm in continuing TPS for Venezuelan beneficiaries."
The ruling puts a pause on the Trump administration's action, which would have stripped the humanitarian protections next week and opened the door for immediate deportations of those previously granted the right to live in the U.S. due to the economic and political instability in their home country.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued that Trump's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to follow necessary rules set by Congress in reaching its decision to end the protections. "Until now, no administration had ever moved to rescind a grant of TPS protection," said the Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), among the groups that helped bring the challenge in court.
Chen said the TPS holders who acted as plaintiffs in the case—represented by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at UCLA School of Law, and HBA—were likely to prevail on the merits, showing that Noem's order was "unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus."
Jose Palma, coordinator of the National TPS Alliance, welcomed the decision.
"In the face of adversity, we stand united," Palma said in a statement after the ruling.
"This is not just a legal win," Palma continued, "but a testament to the strength of the TPS community and all who fight alongside us. We will continue this fight with unwavering resolve, not only to protect the future of 350,000 Venezuelans but to defend all TPS holders in this country. Together, we will ensure that the voices of those who seek safety and opportunity are heard and that no one is unjustly torn from their families."
Jessica Bansal, an attorney with NDLON, said, "the Venezuelan TPS holders, like all TPS holders, are living and working lawfully in this country pursuant to a humanitarian program created by Congress 30 years ago. Today's decision to pause the Trump administration's unlawful attempt to strip them of protection provides them and their families with much-needed relief."
One of the plaintiffs, identified by the initials M.H. and due to lose her status within days, also expressed relief.
"My daughter and I rely on TPS to live here," she said. "Without TPS, I would risk being separated from my husband and young son, both of whom are U.S. citizens. I am beyond elated to know that the judge has granted protection while we continue this fight to protect my family and hundreds of thousands of others."
"This executive order, based on nothing but years of disinformation, is blatantly unlawful and a naked attempt to suppress the votes of targeted communities," said LULAC's national president.
A pro-voter coalition on Monday sued to block U.S. President Donald Trump's recent executive order that critics warn would make it harder for tens of millions of eligible citizens to cast their ballots in state and federal elections.
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and State Democracy Defenders Fund (SDDF) sued the executive office of the president and members of Trump's administration in a Washington, D.C. federal court on behalf of three advocacy groups: the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Secure Families Initiative (SFI), and Arizona Students' Association (ASA).
"The president's executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans. It is simply not within the president's authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way," said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at CLC.
"Donald Trump is attempting to wrongfully impede voting by millions of Americans with this latest unlawful executive order."
As the complaint puts it: "Under our Constitution, the president does not dictate election rules. States and Congress do... Through the order, the president attempts to exercise powers that the Constitution withholds from him and instead assigns to the states and to Congress. The order violates and subverts the separation of powers by lawlessly arrogating to the president authority to declare election rules by executive fiat."
Trump's order includes provisions enabling the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Department of Homeland Security to subpoena voting records for "list maintenance," restricting mail-in voting, and requiring the Election Assistance Commission to include documentary proof of citizenship on the federal voting form.
"Donald Trump is attempting to wrongfully impede voting by millions of Americans with this latest unlawful executive order. But it will not work. In America voters get to pick their president—presidents don't get to pick their voters, declared SDDF co-founder and executive chair Norm Eisen. "We are proud to stand up for the ability of every American voter to cast their ballots freely and fairly through this litigation."
Advocacy group leaders detailed how provisions in Trump's order would impact various communities if the directive isn't struck down.
"Military families, veterans, caregivers, and overseas voters deserve secure access to the very democracy we serve to protect—no matter where we're stationed or how we serve," said SFI executive director Sarah Streyder. "This new order would mean that the veteran who is a full-time caretaker at home, who has done everything right, may now be shut out of the ballot box due to outdated paperwork."
"This new order would mean that the military family stationed on the other side of the world from home, who crossed every t and dotted every i—their military ID will no longer suffice, and due to mail delays outside of their control, their ballot will never count," Streyder warned.
Roman Palomares, LULAC's national president, declared that "this executive order, based on nothing but years of disinformation, is blatantly unlawful and a naked attempt to suppress the votes of targeted communities—disproportionately impacting the Latino community."
"We are proud to join this coalition seeking to stop the effort to silence the voice and votes of the U.S. electorate—and particularly of voters of color," Palomares continued. "Our democracy depends on all voters feeling confident that they can vote freely and that their vote will be counted accurately."
Trump orders states to open voter files to Musk. Exec Order will cost 21 million their vote. ▶️ Get the full story: www.gregpalast.com/trump-execut...
[image or embed]
— Greg Palast (@gregpalast.bsky.social) March 30, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Kyle Nitschke, co-executive director of Arizona Students' Association, highlighted that some states have imposed voter suppression laws similar to Trump's executive order (EO).
"The Arizona Students' Association has seen firsthand what these egregious citizenship requirements really are, an attempt to suppress the vote. In Arizona we have a dual-track federal registration system, and the voters being affected by citizenship requirements are college students registering to vote for the first time, unsheltered voters, and Native voters, Nitschke said. "There are already extensive citizenship checks in place when registering to vote, Trump's EO is a clear attack on our voting rights. Our student members believe we should live in a country where it's accessible and convenient to be a part of democracy."
The Associated Pressnoted that "Monday's lawsuit against Trump's elections order could be just the first of many challenges. Other voting rights advocates have said they're considering legal action, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Democratic attorney Marc Elias. Several Democratic state attorneys general have said they are looking closely at the order and suspect it is illegal."
Monday evening, the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Governors Association, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced that they also filed a suit against the order in the D.C. court. They are represented by Elias Law Group.
"This executive order is an unconstitutional power grab from Donald Trump that attacks vote by mail, gives DOGE sensitive personal information, and makes it harder for states to run their own free and fair elections," they said in a joint statement. "It will even make it harder for military members serving overseas and married women who have changed their name to have their votes count."
"Donald Trump and DOGE are doing this as an attempt to rationalize their repeatedly debunked conspiracy theories and set the groundwork to throw out legal votes and ignore election outcomes they do not like," they added. "It's anti-American and Democrats are using every tool at our disposal—including taking Trump to court—to stop this illegal overreach that undermines our democracy."
The pro-voter lawsuits are also among several legal challenges to Trump's long list of executive actions since January 20. As Common Dreamsreported earlier Monday, the National Treasury Employees Union filed a federal suit in the same D.C. court over Trump's recent order that aims to strip collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of government workers.
It's not just the Trump administration that's working to make it more difficult for Americans to participate in democracy. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are also planning to hold a vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act this week.
"If the bill passes, more than 21 million Americans could be blocked from voting," the Brennan Center for Justice warned on social media Monday. "The SAVE Act would be the first voter suppression bill ever passed by Congress. Lawmakers should be protecting the freedom to vote—not restricting it. We urge Congress to reject the SAVE Act."
This article has been updated to include the Democratic lawsuit.
"We do not need to—and indeed should not—turn public schools into Sunday schools."
A group of 42 Arkansas faith leaders on Monday called on the General Assembly to reject Republican-led legislation that would force every classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments and the national motto, "In God We Trust."
"We are faith leaders from across Arkansas who value religious freedom for all. We urge you to vote against S.B. 433, which would require the display of a government-selected version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom of all elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools and in every other public building or facility maintained with taxpayer funds," a letter to lawmakers signed by the 42 clerics states. The bill was passed by the state Senate on March 19 by a vote of 27-4.
"A government mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all government buildings demeans religious freedom."
State Sen. Jim Dotson (R-34), one of the bill's primary sponsors, called the Ten Commandments "a historical reference point... that has basic things like you shall not kill, steal, commit adultery, those basic foundations of life that is good for everybody to keep front of mind so that we are hopefully living good lives."
However, the faith leaders—41 Christians and one Jew—said that "S.B. 433 is a misguided effort that undermines the faith and freedom we cherish."
"A government mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all government buildings demeans religious freedom," their letter asserts. "The government oversteps its authority when it dictates an official state-approved version of any religious text. The government must respect the rights of individuals and faith communities to make decisions about the sacred texts that inform our religious understandings and practices."
"We do not need to—and indeed should not—turn public schools into Sunday schools," the signers continued. "We remain steadfast and united in affirming the values of religious freedom that are foundational to our democracy and will continue to push back against attempts to impose a singular religious viewpoint into our public institutions."
"Finally, we recognize that the Ten Commandments hold no religious meaning for thousands of Arkansans," the letter acknowledges. "The Ten Commandments are held in a different light for Arkansans who are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Unitarian Universalist, or who practice other religions or no religion at all."
Rev. Brittany Stillwell, associate pastor with students and families at Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, said in a statement that "as a Christian, I understand the Ten Commandments as holy and worthy of contemplation and I take them very seriously."
"They do not, however, belong in schools and other public spaces as a kitschy symbol of a shallow faith," she added. "I don't want the students I pastor to become desensitized to the holiness and reverence they are due. Religious liberty protects scripture from the whims of the government so that it might remain the elevated word from God we hold so dear."
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship director of advocacy Rev. Jennifer Hawks said that "growing up, I spent Easter weekends at my family's homestead in Bearden. My Arkansas aunts, uncles, and cousins played a crucial role in my spiritual formation and never needed the government to define for them Christian teachings or practices."
"When the state writes a CliffsNotes version of a religious text and mandates its use, we all lose," Hawks added, referring to the once-ubiquitous series of student study guides. "The state should not waste time trying to usurp our families and religious institutions. Leave religious instruction to us and don't turn public schools into Sunday schools."
Other Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed or introduced bills requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools or other government buildings. Last year, Louisiana became the only state to fully enact such legislation. However, last November, a federal judge blocked the law, calling it "unconstitutional on its face and in all applications."
Groups including the ACLU and Freedom From Religion Foundation oppose such bills, and faith leaders in other states including Missouri and Texas have also urged lawmakers to reject bills similar to Arkansas' S.B. 433.
While campaigning last year, U.S. President Donald Trump—who critics say has violated at least half of the commandments—expressed support for mandatory classroom display of the divine dicta.
In June 2017, a Ten Commandments monument was installed on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol. A day later, Michael Tate Reed II drove his car into the granite slab, destroying it. The monument was rebuilt with concrete bollards added for protection. Reed—who hads previously wrecked a similar monument at Oklahoma's Capitol—was later acquitted on mental health grounds.
In response to the Arkansas monument, the Satanic Temple fought for and won the right to install a statue of Baphomet, a goat-headed, winged being, on the state Capitol grounds. The statue—which contains two children fawning over Baphomet—was unveiled in 2018.
"If you're going to have one religious monument up then it should be open to others," Satanic Arkansas co-founder Ivy Forrester
said at the time, "and if you don't agree with that then let's just not have any at all."