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'Pam Bondi Must Testify': House Democrats Demand GOP Set New Deposition Hearing for Fired AG
"Any attempt to evade the subpoena must be met with measures to hold Ms. Bondi in contempt of Congress," said Rep. Robert Garcia.
Apr 17, 2026
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Friday demanded their Republican colleagues force former US Attorney General Pam Bondi to meet her obligations to testify under oath.
Bondi had been subpoenaed to testify on April 14 about her handling of criminal case files related to late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
However, the Department of Justice said in a letter sent to the committee last week that she didn’t have to comply with its congressional subpoena because she is no longer attorney general, having been fired by President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), ranking member of the panel, sent a letter to Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) in which he expressed concern that "Oversight Republicans are unwilling to take the actions needed to secure Ms. Bondi's required testimony."
Garcia pointed out that the committee voted on a bipartisan basis to subpoena Bondi last month to testify about the "possible mismanagement of the government's investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell," and other topics.
Garcia said that while Republicans on the committee have made noises about compelling Bondi to testify, "there has been zero indication that there, in fact, has been any concrete progress toward a rescheduled date."
The California Democrat concluded by warning Comer that letting Bondi skate on testifying before the committee was not optional.
"Any attempt to evade the subpoena must be met with measures to hold Ms. Bondi in contempt of Congress," he wrote. "In the absence of any communication with the committee, and with no indication that she even plans on appearing for her compulsory deposition, this step may soon be appropriate."
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) promoted Garcia's letter in a social media post and declared: "Pam Bondi must testify under oath in front of the American people. No exceptions."
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) earlier in the week also said there needed to be consequences for Bondi after she failed to show up for her scheduled testimony.
"Since she didn’t show up, Oversight Democrats will move to hold her in contempt of Congress," said Crockett. "The [Epstein] survivors deserve justice—and we will get answers. Enough is enough."
Democrats aren't the only ones on the committee who are demanding Bondi testify, as Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) wrote last week that the former attorney general "cannot escape accountability simply because she no longer holds the office of attorney general," emphasizing that "the American people deserve answers, and we expect her to appear as soon as a new date is set."
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Talarico Win Shows Democrats Can't 'Write Off Latinos Who Voted for Trump': Ex-Sanders Strategist
Democratic operative Chuck Rocha described Talarico as "a special candidate" who "ran the right kind of race at the right time."
Mar 04, 2026
James Talarico's victory in the Democratic US Senate primary in Texas on Tuesday shows why it would be a mistake to think Latino voters who jumped ship to support President Donald Trump in 2024 are a lost cause, according to Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha.
Rocha, who worked on Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign and who is a senior adviser for Talarico's campaign, told the Wall Street Journal that the Democratic Senate hopeful won over Latino support in Texas by focusing on a populist economic message first and foremost, such as when he accused US billionaires of "stealing from the American people, stealing the wealth that we created."
"Latinos are an aspirational people, and they want to aspire," said Rocha. "And they are also religious people, and they're... for economic populism."
The Journal noted that Talarico easily bested his rival for the nomination, US Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), by roughly 27 percentage points in Texas counties whose populations are 60% or more Latino, including counties in the southern part of the state that were longtime Democratic strongholds that swung to Trump in 2024.
The lesson of the election for Democrats, Rocha told the Journal, is "don’t write off Latinos that voted for Donald Trump."
In a video posted on social media Wednesday, Rocha elaborated on how Talarico and his campaign secured the nomination, calling the Texas Democrat "a special candidate" who "ran the right kind of race at the right time."
The facts about how @TeamTalaricoHQ won last night pic.twitter.com/1IUd9VpPUh
— Chuck Rocha (@ChuckRocha) March 4, 2026
Beyond that, Rocha said, Talarico and his staff were simply relentless campaigners willing to seek votes wherever they could find them.
"He won because he showed up in communities," Rocha said. "He ran advertising in those communities. He had an amazing field team of 28,000 volunteers, over 600 community events in just eight weeks. They sent over 4 million peer-to-peer texts."
Rocha said that it was too soon to say whether Talarico's message meant that Latino voters were returning to Democrats more broadly, but added, "They will move back for James Talarico if you show up and give them a hopeful message."
Rocha's enthusiasm for Talarico was echoed by Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
"James Talarico is the future of the Democratic Party," Casar declared in a social media post. "He unites working people of all kinds to take on the billionaires who are making life unaffordable. He’s going to show Texas Republicans how powerful working people are when we stand together. On to victory in November."
Mark McKinnon, a one-time Texas political operative who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats, said in an interview with Politico that Talarico's victory would be an unwelcome development for the Texas GOP, which will have to work harder to defeat him than other prospective Democratic nominees.
"A perfect storm is lining up for Texas Democrats," McKinnon said. "They have a nominee who can appeal to moderates and soft Republicans. Talarico could be Moses who leads the Lone Star Democrats out of the desert they’ve been in for 35 years."
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Outspoken Pro-Palestinian Pastor Wins Primary to Replace Crockett in House
A group that tracks pro-Israel lobbying said his victory "proves that the AIPAC era is over."
Mar 04, 2026
A pro-Palestine pastor has won the Democratic primary to fill the House seat in Texas that will be left behind by the pro-Israel Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who was a congregant at his church for years.
Frederick Haynes III, who has led the Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas for more than 40 years and was chosen by the late Rev. Jesse Jackson to lead his famed Rainbow PUSH coalition, won the primary for the seat now held by the two-term congresswoman with 72% of the vote.
Crockett announced in December that she would run for the US Senate rather than for reelection to her House seat.
Haynes—who campaigned on Medicare for All, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and hiking the minimum wage—was endorsed by Crockett (D-Texas), who lost the bitterly contested Senate primary to state Rep. James Talarico (D-50) on Tuesday.
But where Crockett has faced heat from the Democratic base over her statements and votes in support of Israel amid its genocide in Gaza and her backing by pro-Israel megadonors, Haynes's credibility was bolstered by his willingness to call out Israel's human rights abuses against Palestinians when few other Democrats would.
On October 8, 2023, as Israel was just beginning what would become a two-year campaign to destroy Gaza in retaliation for Hamas' killing of around 1,200 Israelis the previous day, Haynes delivered a sermon questioning what was then a bipartisan consensus of unwavering military and diplomatic support for Israel.
“I recognize that we’ve got to be pro-Israel... or we get in trouble,” he said, echoing the views of a small number of progressive members of Congress at the time. “Well, I’m coming to get in trouble.”
Quoting former President Jimmy Carter, he said, "Israel is engaging in apartheid with Palestinians."
The Palestinians... don’t have the weaponry of Israel, the Palestinians don’t have the financial backing from the United States that Israel has. And so they throw their rocks and shoot their arrows, and Israel is able to bomb them and kill them. Watch in the news the disparity between Palestinians being killed and Israelis being killed. It is totally unfair. But this country is going to stand on the side of apartheid because that’s its track record.
It was a speech that would prove prescient, as Israel’s military campaign would result in the deaths of around 73,000 Palestinians in the coming years, according to official tallies from the Gaza Health Ministry, nearly 70% of whom were women and children, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office. Independent estimates suggest the actual death toll is much higher.
In that time, neither Democratic former President Joe Biden nor current Republican President Donald Trump cut off weapons sales despite a tremendous collapse of public support for Israel.
Haynes' run for Congress began mere months ago. After testifying against Republicans' efforts to racially gerrymander Texas in July, he waited right up until the federal filing deadline in December to announce a bid for Crockett's seat.
His campaign did not focus heavily on the Israel-Palestine conflict—instead emphasizing issues closer to home like the high cost of living, voting rights, and Trump's use of ICE to attack immigrant and minority communities.
But the virality of his past comments and his campaigning for the Biden administration to cut off weapons to Israel back in 2024 bolstered his image as a fighter for Palestinian rights, which earned him the endorsement of Justice Democrats and $72,000 in support from the American Priorities PAC, a newly formed group intended to support progressive candidates and counter the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
His victory on Tuesday comes as Palestinian rights have become vastly more salient among Democratic voters and the public at large. Less than a week ago, a Gallup poll showed that for the first time, a larger percentage of Americans sympathize with the Palestinians than the Israelis.
While support for Israel was also not at the forefront of the Senate primary, both Talarico and Crockett avoided joining the bulk of the party base in calling the US-backed Israeli assault on Gaza a "genocide." However, Talarico referred to the destruction of Gaza as a "moral and spiritual emergency" and condemned Israeli "war crimes."
Haynes's district is considered one of the safest in Texas for Democrats, and he is believed to be the overwhelming favorite to win the seat in November and head to Congress.
The group AIPAC Tracker, which monitors donations that politicians receive from the powerful group and the rest of the pro-Israel lobby, said that Haynes’ “big win” on Tuesday “proves that the AIPAC era is over.”
"Candidates like him all over the country," they said, "are speaking the truth rather than running away in fear."
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Texas Democratic Primary Turnout Surges in Show of 'Strong Enthusiasm' From Base Voters
Texas Democratic primary turnout has already broken records in both Harris County and Tarrant County.
Feb 26, 2026
Turnout among early Democratic voters in Texas has been surging in what election analysts say is a key sign for what's to come in the 2026 midterm elections.
As CNN reported on Thursday, early voting data shows that more than 850,000 ballots have so far been cast in the Texas Democratic primary, which is "nearly 60% more than the number of votes cast at the same point in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary."
CNN said that this high turnout points to "a continuing trend of strong enthusiasm among the party's base."
To put this in perspective, the Texas Tribune noted that "more ballots have been cast in Texas through the first seven days of early voting for the 2026 midterms than any recent midterm or presidential election year," driven primarily by Democratic turnout.
The Tribune added that Democratic turnout has already broken records in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas, and in Tarrant County, where Democrat Taylor Rehmet earlier this year pulled off an upset victory in a district that President Donald Trump carried by 17 points in the 2024 election.
In breaking down the early turnout numbers so far, CNN polling analyst Harry Enten said on Wednesday that Democrats in Texas may actually outvote Republicans in a primary this year for the first time since 2002.
Enten also said that the turnout surge has big implications for the 2026 midterms.
"When we're talking nationally, primary turnout matters," he explained. "The fact that more people are voting on the Democratic side in Texas at this point, that translates nationally, that would suggest Democrats [are] well on their way to winning the House. And in a red state like Texas? As I said: Mind blown."
Mind blown about the early vote in Texas. TX Dems may outvote the GOP for the 1st time in a midterm primary since 2002!
This indicates they're well on their way to having higher primary turnout nationally & since 06 the party w/ higher primary turnout won the House every time. pic.twitter.com/QaBlWZOCi2
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) February 25, 2026
While winning the primary turnout battle wouldn't guarantee a Democratic victory the Texas US Senate general election, Politico reported on Thursday that Republicans in the state are growing nervous about the race.
In particular, Republicans fear that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a highly divisive figure even among Texas Republicans, could win the nomination over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told Politico that Cornyn is "the best candidate on the ballot in a general election, not only for the Senate, but also for down-ballot races in the House that could be impacted by the Senate race too. He added that the GOP would likely have to spend more money propping up Paxton should he win the Republican nomination.
"Honestly, if you look at the polling in a general election setting," said Thune, "I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that the seat [flips], depending on who the Democrats nominate."
US Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Texas state Rep. James Talarico are the two leading Democrats battling for the party's US Senate nomination. A survey released Wednesday by pollsters from the University of Texas found that Crockett is leading Talarico in the primary race by 12 percentage points.
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5-Year-Old Abducted by ICE in Minneapolis Now Sick in ‘Abysmal’ Texas Detention Facility
"Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality. He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever, and he no longer wants to eat," his mother said.
Jan 29, 2026
Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy abducted by immigration agents in Minneapolis last week, is now in poor health after being sent to languish in a Texas facility with “absolutely abysmal" conditions, according to his family.
HuffPost reports that "Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. This is despite Arias entering the country legally and having no criminal record, according to [the family's lawyer]. Late Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked federal immigration officials from deporting Ramos and Arias, for now."
Reporters got in contact with Zena Stenvik, the superintendent at the Columbia Heights public school district, where Ramos attends preschool, who said she spoke with Ramos' mother.
Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center. I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.
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— Joaquin Castro (@joaquincastrotx.bsky.social) January 28, 2026 at 3:45 PM
“Unfortunately, Liam’s health is not doing great right now,” said Stenvik. “He’s been ill. I’ve been told he has a fever. So I’m very, very concerned about his well-being in that facility.”
Earlier this week, Ramos’ mother told Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) that “Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality. He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever, and he no longer wants to eat.”
A lawyer for the family, Eric Lee, told MPR that the conditions at the Texas facility are “absolutely abysmal."
“They mix baby formula with water that is putrid. The food has bugs in it. The guards are often verbally abusive,” he said.
Marc Prokosch, another of the family's lawyers, emphasized that although US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials describe them as a "family unit" that crossed the border illegally, they entered the US lawfully and had no order of deportation against them or criminal record.
He said the tactics ICE has used in Minneapolis seem designed to evade the law and separate detainees from legal representation.
“Since [Operation] Metro Surge came, they’ve been moving them all out to Texas… within 24 hours," he said. "That’s one of the core elements of being able to help somebody in the legal sphere, is to be able to communicate with them… It’s really hard to talk to them.”
Democratic US Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett of Texas went to visit Ramos and his father in the detention facility in Dilley on Wednesday. In a video posted to his social media, Castro said the facility is holding 1,100 other people.
"We spoke to many parents throughout our visit," Castro said. "There were a lot of parents there who talked about their kids experiencing deep depression, anxiety, people losing weight, both because of the bad food but also because of their mental state."
Castro said he "very bluntly told" the ICE officials there and officials for Core Civic, the private prison company that runs Dilley, "the country is against what's going on, that Liam needs to be released, that the country demands his release, and that no child that's five years old should be in detention like that."
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Blamed for Fueling Assault on Ilhan Omar, Trump Says ‘She Probably Had Herself Sprayed’
"Nonstop hate and dangerous rhetoric from Trump and his allies has fueled this type of violence," said Rep. Jasmine Crockett .
Jan 28, 2026
President Donald Trump reacted dismissively to news that an assailant sprayed an unidentified substance at US Rep. Ilhan Omar during a town hall meeting, and insinuated without a shred of evidence that she may have staged the attack herself.
ABC News reporter Rachel Scott on Wednesday asked Trump if he had seen video of the incident, in which a man named Anthony Kazmierczak charged toward Omar (D-Minn.) and sprayed her with an unknown substance from a syringe before being restrained by security forces.
Shortly after, Kazmierczak was taken into police custody and charged with third-degree assault.
Trump indicated that he hadn't seen the video, and then started lobbing personal insults at the Minnesota congresswoman.
"I think she's a fraud," Trump told Scott. "I really don't think about that. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her."
When Scott asked Trump to clarify whether he'd seen the video or not, he said he hadn't, before adding, "I hope I don't have to bother" watching it.
There is no evidence whatsoever that Omar arranged to have someone attack her, and social media posts uncovered by the Daily Beast suggest that Kazmierczak was a Trump supporter.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pointed the finger at Trump and Vice President JD Vance shortly after the attack on Omar.
"It is not a coincidence that after days of President Trump and VP Vance putting Rep. Omar in their crosshairs with slanderous public attacks, she gets assaulted at her town hall," Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a social media post. "Thank God she is okay. If they want leaders to take down the temp, they need to look in the mirror."
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said she was "disgusted and outraged" by the attack on Omar, and she laid the blame for the assault on Trump.
"Let’s be clear: nonstop hate and dangerous rhetoric from Trump and his allies has fueled this type of violence," she wrote. "I stand with Rep. Omar. I stand with Minnesota. This must stop."
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also condemned the attack on Omar, insisting that "the cruel, inflammatory, dehumanizing rhetoric by our nation’s leaders needs to stop immediately."
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Multiple Historically Black Colleges and Universities Go Into Lockdown Amid Wave of Threats
"My heart aches for the constant trauma that students consistently experience simply because some lack the courage to do better!" said Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Sep 11, 2025
Several historically Black colleges and universities went into lockdown on Thursday amid a wave of threats.
According to USA Today, Alabama State University, Hampton University, Virginia State University (VSU), Southern University and A&M College, and Bethune-Cookman University locked down after receiving unspecified threats.
In a message posted on social media, Alabama State University said that it had closed its campus and asked students, faculty, and staff who don't reside on campus to "leave immediately." The university also told USA Today that it had received "terrorist threats" and decided to shut down out of an abundance of caution.
Local news station WVTM 13 reports that the campus reopened on Thursday afternoon after getting the all clear from law enforcement.
Hampton University went even farther and canceled all activities on its campus on both Thursday and Friday due to what it described as a "potential threat."
Southern University and A&M College lifted its lockdown on Thursday afternoon but nonetheless said that all classes and campus activities were being canceled until next Monday.
"It is imperative that all members of the Hampton University community remain vigilant," the university advised. "If you see something, say something."
Virginia State University went into lockdown for roughly four hours on Thursday before the campus police department lifted it "with restrictions."
"Entry to campus is limited to faculty, staff and students with a valid VSU identification card only," the VSU Police Department said.
US Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) condemned the threats to the schools in a social media post.
"HBCU campuses have been safe havens since their creation," she said. "I'm not sure why or how they have become a target today, but it is not OK. It is not OK for anyone to be targeted for violence! My heart aches for the constant trauma that students consistently experience simply because some lack the courage to do better!"
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) also spoke out against the threats.
"For the love of America, left or right, let us speak out against this violence and seek to heal with peace and grace," he said.
The threats to the colleges came one day after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, although there is so far no indication that the threats are related.
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House Judiciary, Oversight Dems Want Answers on Potential Misuse of FBI
The FBI helping to locate Democratic state legislators who fled Texas to block GOP gerrymandering "raises serious questions about potential overreach and misuse of federal power," said members of Congress.
Aug 08, 2025
Democrats on key panels in the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to top Trump administration officials on Friday to demand answers about the potential misuse of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Texas legislators' gerrymandering battle.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Thursday that FBI Director Kash Patel approved his request for the bureau to "assist" with locating Democratic Texas legislators who fled to Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York to block a rigged congressional map that Republicans are trying to pass during a special session to appease President Donald Trump and help the GOP keep control of Congress next year.
Cornyn told radio host Mark Davis that Patel assigned FBI agents from two Texas cities, Austin and San Antonio, to meet his request. The senator also suggested that the state Democrats may be breaking the law by accepting money for travel—which came from Beto O'Rourke's political action committee, Powered by People, and the George Soros-backed Texas Majority PAC, according to The Texas Tribune—but neither Cornyn nor the director has provided details about FBI involvement.
Four Democratic leaders in the U.S. House want those details. Two members from Texas—Reps. Greg Casar and Jasmine Crockett—joined Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (Calif.) for a Friday letter to Patel and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, as the FBI is part of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Trump is reportedly deploying the FBI to hunt down Texas Democrats that are blocking Republican attempts to rig future elections. It’s a gross abuse of power. Oversight Dems and @democrats-judiciary.house.gov, led by @repcasar.bsky.social, @crockett.house.gov, and Robert Garcia, are investigating.
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— Oversight Dems (@oversightdemocrats.house.gov) August 8, 2025 at 11:12 AM
The congressional Democrats expressed "great concern about the abuse of federal public safety resources for completely political purposes and without a law enforcement rationale," and demanded information about the FBI's "involvement in efforts to locate or apprehend" Texas lawmakers "who are not accused of any federal crime but have chosen to break quorum during the current legislative session."
"Breaking quorum has occurred periodically in the Texas political process for more than a century," they noted. In this case, over 50 Democrats "left the state to counter President Trump's aggressive moves to consolidate power by redrawing congressional district lines in Texas to prevent being investigated by a Democratic majority" in the U.S. House.
Reports from the past 24 hours "suggest that the FBI is diverting federal law enforcement away from fighting terrorism, drug trafficking, and other federal crimes to instead harass and target Texans' duly elected representatives, and thus raise urgent questions about the legal basis, scale, and appropriateness of federal law enforcement involvement in a state-level political matter," the letter continues, calling on the Trump officials to reply to a list of 10 questions by August 21.
"Given the FBI's crucial role as a federal law enforcement agency, it is essential that its actions be guided by clear legal authority, political neutrality, and an appropriate respect for the autonomy of state legislatures and their members," the letter stresses. "The involvement of federal agents in a state-level political dispute raises serious questions about potential overreach and misuse of federal power."
Trump's effort to redo Texas' congressional map—a model that the White House is trying to push in other GOP-controlled states—and related concerns about FBI involvement come amid broader fears about how the president and his allies are impacting the bureau.
Multiple media outlets reported Thursday that the administration is ousting at least three top officials—former acting Director Brian Driscoll, Walter Giardina, and Steven Jensen—as part of what critics called a "campaign to weaponize federal law enforcement and replace highly experienced public servants with political hacks eager to carry out Trump's retribution agenda."
Raskin said in a lengthy Friday statement that "Patel's unceremonious firing of Brian Driscoll reflects the accelerating purge at the FBI of anyone who refuses to pledge their blind and paramount loyalty to Donald Trump over the rule of law and the Constitution."
"Instead of investigating and stopping child predators, the FBI is now redacting their names from the Epstein files," Raskin said, referring to records from the federal case against deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was a friend of Trump. "Instead of hunting down terrorists and criminals, the FBI is tracking down state legislators standing up for voting rights."
"Instead of rewarding agents who love this country and keep their oath to the Constitution, the FBI is sacking them and replacing them with hacks and fanatics," he continued. "The firing of Mr. Driscoll and other career agents is a shameful affront to the rule of law and typifies the Trump administration's campaign to replace nonpartisan career law enforcement professionals with political loyalists and incompetent sycophants."
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Voting Rights Act 'On Life Support' Amid Right-Wing Attacks
"It's time for Congress to restore its full protections by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act," said one Democratic lawmaker.
Aug 06, 2025
As the Voting Rights Act turned 60 on Wednesday, advocates highlighted right-wing attacks on the landmark legislation and called on Congress to pass a long-stagnant bill aimed at restoring and strengthening one of the most important civil rights laws in U.S. history.
The VRA, signed into law in 1965 by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson amid a groundswell of civil rights activism, was meant to ensure that state and local governments could not "deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color."
However, the law has been eroded in recent decades by Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country, including through racially rigged and other gerrymandered congressional maps, restrictions on voter registration, reduction in early voting options, and voter identification laws. These measures disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters, and some GOP officials have admitted that they are intended to give Republican candidates an electoral edge.
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the VRA in Shelby County v. Holder, which eviscerated a key section of the law that required jurisdictions with a history of racist disenfranchisement to obtain federal approval prior to altering voting rules. In 2021, the nation's high court voted 5-4 in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee to uphold Arizona's voting restrictions—even as Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged that they disproportionately affect minorities.
"Instead of anniversary toasts, election law experts are preparing eulogies for the landmark legislation."
Now, the Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority is poised to "end voting rights as we know them," as Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy put it Tuesday. That's because the justices said last week that they would rehear a case that could result in them striking down Section 2 of the VRA, what University of California, Los Angeles legal scholar Richard L. Hasen calls "the last remaining pillar" of the law.
"Instead of anniversary toasts, election law experts are preparing eulogies for the landmark legislation, which conservative lawyers have attacked on multiple fronts in recent years, after the U.S. Supreme Court took square aim at the statute's constitutionality last week," Jim Saksa wrote Tuesday for Democracy Docket.
As Hasen explained:
Louisiana v. Callais, the case that was the subject of last Friday's order, is a voting case over the drawing of the state's six congressional districts. Louisiana has a one-third Black population, but after the 2020 census the state Legislature drew a districting plan, passed over a Democratic governor's veto, that created only one district in which Black voters would be likely to elect their candidate of choice.
Before Callais, Black voters had successfully sued Louisiana in a case called Robinson v. Ardoin, arguing that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act required drawing a second congressional district giving Black voters that opportunity. Section 2 says minority voters should have the same chance as other voters to elect their candidates of choice, and courts have long used it to require new districts when there is a large and cohesive minority population concentrated in a given area, when white and minority voters choose different candidates, and when the minority has difficulty electing its preferred representatives.
However, a group of non-Black voters argued in a lawsuit that the consideration of race in creating a second minority-majority district violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the 15th Amendment's ban on federal and state governments denying citizens the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
"To me, this is it," Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, a law professor at Indiana University Bloomington, told Democracy Docket. "I would bet my left arm that they will tell us that Section 2 is in violation of the 15th Amendment."
Civil rights defenders including numerous Democratic lawmakers urged Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation first introduced in 2021 whose sponsors said will "update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act."
"Sixty years ago today, the Voting Rights Act became law thanks to the perseverance of civil rights activists. Today, our sacred right to vote remains under attack," Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), one of the bill's primary sponsors, said on social media Wednesday. "We must protect our democracy and honor those who risked everything by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act."
Although the bill passed the then-Democrat controlled House of Representatives in 2021, it failed to pass the Senate and a subsequent bid to advance the legislation failed the following year.
Calling for passage of the bill, Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.)—whose home state played a critical role in the civil rights struggle—said on the social media site Bluesky that the VRA "is on life support after being gutted by the Supreme Court and far-right judges."
The Voting Rights Act was signed into law exactly 60 years ago. But today, it is on life support after being gutted by the Supreme Court and far-right judges.It’s time for Congress to restore its full protections by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. 🗳️
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— Rep. Terri A. Sewell (@sewell.house.gov) August 6, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said on Bluesky that "60 years ago today, the Voting Rights Act became law. Now, we have an administration conducting voter suppression in real time. In Texas, Republicans are trying to gut our democracy by redrawing maps to erase five Democratic seats—before a single vote is cast."
"The fight continues," Crockett added. "We owe it to those who marched, bled, and believed to keep pushing until every voice is heard and every vote counts."
The ACLU said: "Democracy can't wait. Congress must protect our voting rights at the federal level by passing the reintroduced John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act."
However, passing the bill will be next to impossible, given Republican control of both houses of Congress and President Donald Trump in the White House. That doesn't mean voting rights defenders should give up, Legal Defense Fund president and director-counsel Janai Nelson stressed Wednesday.
"If we are to continue the pursuit of the multiracial democracy that the VRA set in motion 60 years ago and if we are to honor our republican form of government founded on representation by the people, we must be unwavering in our commitment to fulfill the promise of Selma, refuse to cede any further ground, and mobilize in support of equal voting rights and fair elections," Nelson said.
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'Hard to Think of Anything More Defiant': Paramount-Owned 'South Park' Shreds Company's Capitulation to Trump
The episode depicted Trump literally in bed with Satan.
Jul 24, 2025
The creators of the satirical cartoon "South Park" on Wednesday evening ripped into Paramount mere hours after they signed a $1.5 billion streaming deal with the media giant.
The season premiere of the show's 27th season featured U.S. President Donald Trump filing a lawsuit against residents of the cartoon's fictional small town in Colorado for exercising their First Amendment rights to protest against him.
The show included a satirical depiction of CBS News' "60 Minutes" covering the protests where the hosts of the show nervously insisted that Trump was "a great man" as they sought to avoid the president's wrath. At one point, a "60 Minutes" journalist emphasized that "just to be clear, we don't agree" with the South Park protesters.
At the end of the episode, Jesus Christ descended upon the town and urged residents to capitulate to Trump to avoid hurting the settlement Paramount reached with Trump earlier this year that critics have called a payoff in exchange for approval of the company's proposed $8 billion merger with studio Skydance Media.
"You really want to end up like Colbert?" Christ asked the South Park residents, in reference to the recent decision to cancel the late-night talk show hosted by frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert.
The episode also depicted Trump literally in bed with Satan.
Dylan Byers, a senior correspondent with Puck News, said that the "South Park" episode amounted to a giant middle finger aimed at both the president and the company that just agreed to pay the creators a massive sum of money to continue producing shows.
"Hard to think of anything more defiant in media and entertainment recently than Trey Parker and Matt Stone going scorched earth on Paramount in a 'South Park' season premiere on the heels of netting a $1.5 billion deal with the very same company," he wrote on social media platform X.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers lashed out at the show, which she described as "hanging on by a thread" despite the fact that it just got a $1.5 billion megadeal.
"President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country's history—and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak," Rogers said, according to NBC News.
On the other side of the political spectrum, frequent Trump antagonist Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) gave the series premiere what appeared to be an enthusiastic endorsement and wrote a message on her X account that simply read, "SOUTH PARK!!!"
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