Jun 03, 2013
Uproar. Pogrom. Uprising. That's how Nadezhda Tolokonnikova defines the word "riot" in a new documentary on Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk collective that rattled the world last year when three members were arrested for performing an anti-Putin "prayer" in Russia's premier Orthodox church.
Tolokonnikova, better known as Pussy Riot's complex, mysterious, fist-raising "Nadia," is perhaps the most intriguing and provocative figure in Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer. The film premiered in January at the Sundance festival, where filmmakers Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award.
Nadia is currently serving a two-year sentence in a Russian penal colony, along with bandmate Maria "Masha" Alyokhina, for a conviction of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred." Hooliganism, because on February 21 of last year, five Pussy Riot members dressed up in day-glo tights and balaclavas and ostentatiously entreated the "Mother of God" to oust Russian President Vladimir Putin, and religious hatred because they did it on the sacred ambon (a raised platform reserved for clergy) of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow's most prominent church. While the group had performed similar numbers before--including a confrontational song blasting the Putin government right outside the Kremlin--it turns out that belting "It's God shit!" with bare arms and masked faces in one of Russia's holiest places sparks a reaction even the young dissidents didn't expect.
Here's what they did:
That's it! Revisiting the a cappella original (as opposed to the more raucous, widely circulated music video version edited with a recorded soundtrack later) reinforces just how out out of proportion the government backlash appears.
For their seconds-long crime, Nadia and Masha got two years each in a penal camp--and the whole world's attention. (Two Pussy Riot members evaded arrest, and one, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal last year).
While public opinion polls show that a good portion of the offended Russian populace finds the punishment fitting, international outrage from the likes of Paul McCartney, Madonna, and even the Obama administration has helped make the trio into global political heroines--martyrs of Putin's controversial third term and a narrowing tolerance for divergent political opinions.
Their dissent, expressed through "oppositional art" (which, Nadia laments in the film, is little understood in Russia) has cost them not only two years of freedom, but also separation from their families. Though it's rarely emphasized in the media, where Pussy Riot is primarily identified as pranksters and radicals, both Nadia and Masha are mothers of young children.
And more than one year in, they're still trying to fight a sentence that has done more to indict the Russian judicial system than get the convicted to repent.
This week, Alyokhina was hospitalized during a hunger strike that has now continued for 10 days in the Ural mountains facility where she is imprisoned. Alyokhina was protesting the denial of her right to attend her own parole hearing in Moscow's highest court, which rejected parole for both her and Nadia earlier this week. Their lawyer, Irina Khrunova, told the Associated Press she will appeal to Russia's Supreme Court next.
Also this week, an unnamed (and unjailed) member of the collective testified in front of a European Union subcommittee on human rights that the post-trial crackdown on Pussy Riot members is symptomatic of a growing trend of human rights violations. Subcommittee chairwoman Barbara Lochbihler pledged to put human rights at the forefront of future relations with Russia.
While the possibility of early release was rejected in part due to the contention that neither Nadia nor Masha are sorry for what they did, the film lingers on the profuse apologies they offered to Russia's "believers"--Orthodox Christians--for any perception that Pussy Riot was criticizing faith itself rather than politics and the union of church and state. And here's where the movie ventures into some surprising--and poignant--territory.
Pussy Riot struck a nerve in targeting a building that had been destroyed under Soviet rule, during a period when Christians were oppressed. After the fall of communism, the film explains, the church was lovingly reconstructed by "the faithful." During a massive Pussy Riot counter-protest, one elderly woman grieves the church's desecration, crying that it was rebuilt with "[our own] coins." A somewhat perplexed gang of Orthodox cross-bearers (with full beards, leather vests, and skull t-shirts that say "Orthodoxy or Death") assumes Nadia must be possessed by a demon. They seem to not know what to make of her politics. In the end, shaking their heads, they leave judgement to the courts--but not without reminding each other that in the past, they would have hanged the feminist punks.
The religious backlash is why it's so interesting that Nadia's lengthy closing statement at the trial does not so much narrow in on criticism, blame, or an indictment of closed-mindedness; instead, it opens up to inclusion and connection, returning again and again to motifs like dialogue, truth, freedom--and, unexpectedly, Jesus. It's replete with religious imagery and references to the Bible's vision of truth, justice, and authenticity, and Nadia takes heart from the growing numbers of Orthodox "believers" who pray for her, stand up for her, and promise their solidarity. There's no such thing, she reminds her accusers--and nation--as a monolithic group where everyone believes exactly the same thing, even within the church. And that's a good thing.
"We just need to make contact," she says. "To establish a dialogue and a joint search for truth, to seek wisdom together, to be philosophers together, rather than stigmatizing and labeling people. This is one of the worst things people can do and Christ condemned it."
It's the kind of truth-to-power trajectory that has the potential to override not just political oppression, but social fragmentation and even personal imprisonment. After all, we in the West may enjoy freedom of speech, but we don't always practice it with a free spirit.
For those who prefer the Pussy Riot punk version: "Open the door / off with the shoulder-straps / join us in a taste of freedom."
Christa Hillstrom wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions.
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Uproar. Pogrom. Uprising. That's how Nadezhda Tolokonnikova defines the word "riot" in a new documentary on Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk collective that rattled the world last year when three members were arrested for performing an anti-Putin "prayer" in Russia's premier Orthodox church.
Tolokonnikova, better known as Pussy Riot's complex, mysterious, fist-raising "Nadia," is perhaps the most intriguing and provocative figure in Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer. The film premiered in January at the Sundance festival, where filmmakers Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award.
Nadia is currently serving a two-year sentence in a Russian penal colony, along with bandmate Maria "Masha" Alyokhina, for a conviction of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred." Hooliganism, because on February 21 of last year, five Pussy Riot members dressed up in day-glo tights and balaclavas and ostentatiously entreated the "Mother of God" to oust Russian President Vladimir Putin, and religious hatred because they did it on the sacred ambon (a raised platform reserved for clergy) of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow's most prominent church. While the group had performed similar numbers before--including a confrontational song blasting the Putin government right outside the Kremlin--it turns out that belting "It's God shit!" with bare arms and masked faces in one of Russia's holiest places sparks a reaction even the young dissidents didn't expect.
Here's what they did:
That's it! Revisiting the a cappella original (as opposed to the more raucous, widely circulated music video version edited with a recorded soundtrack later) reinforces just how out out of proportion the government backlash appears.
For their seconds-long crime, Nadia and Masha got two years each in a penal camp--and the whole world's attention. (Two Pussy Riot members evaded arrest, and one, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal last year).
While public opinion polls show that a good portion of the offended Russian populace finds the punishment fitting, international outrage from the likes of Paul McCartney, Madonna, and even the Obama administration has helped make the trio into global political heroines--martyrs of Putin's controversial third term and a narrowing tolerance for divergent political opinions.
Their dissent, expressed through "oppositional art" (which, Nadia laments in the film, is little understood in Russia) has cost them not only two years of freedom, but also separation from their families. Though it's rarely emphasized in the media, where Pussy Riot is primarily identified as pranksters and radicals, both Nadia and Masha are mothers of young children.
And more than one year in, they're still trying to fight a sentence that has done more to indict the Russian judicial system than get the convicted to repent.
This week, Alyokhina was hospitalized during a hunger strike that has now continued for 10 days in the Ural mountains facility where she is imprisoned. Alyokhina was protesting the denial of her right to attend her own parole hearing in Moscow's highest court, which rejected parole for both her and Nadia earlier this week. Their lawyer, Irina Khrunova, told the Associated Press she will appeal to Russia's Supreme Court next.
Also this week, an unnamed (and unjailed) member of the collective testified in front of a European Union subcommittee on human rights that the post-trial crackdown on Pussy Riot members is symptomatic of a growing trend of human rights violations. Subcommittee chairwoman Barbara Lochbihler pledged to put human rights at the forefront of future relations with Russia.
While the possibility of early release was rejected in part due to the contention that neither Nadia nor Masha are sorry for what they did, the film lingers on the profuse apologies they offered to Russia's "believers"--Orthodox Christians--for any perception that Pussy Riot was criticizing faith itself rather than politics and the union of church and state. And here's where the movie ventures into some surprising--and poignant--territory.
Pussy Riot struck a nerve in targeting a building that had been destroyed under Soviet rule, during a period when Christians were oppressed. After the fall of communism, the film explains, the church was lovingly reconstructed by "the faithful." During a massive Pussy Riot counter-protest, one elderly woman grieves the church's desecration, crying that it was rebuilt with "[our own] coins." A somewhat perplexed gang of Orthodox cross-bearers (with full beards, leather vests, and skull t-shirts that say "Orthodoxy or Death") assumes Nadia must be possessed by a demon. They seem to not know what to make of her politics. In the end, shaking their heads, they leave judgement to the courts--but not without reminding each other that in the past, they would have hanged the feminist punks.
The religious backlash is why it's so interesting that Nadia's lengthy closing statement at the trial does not so much narrow in on criticism, blame, or an indictment of closed-mindedness; instead, it opens up to inclusion and connection, returning again and again to motifs like dialogue, truth, freedom--and, unexpectedly, Jesus. It's replete with religious imagery and references to the Bible's vision of truth, justice, and authenticity, and Nadia takes heart from the growing numbers of Orthodox "believers" who pray for her, stand up for her, and promise their solidarity. There's no such thing, she reminds her accusers--and nation--as a monolithic group where everyone believes exactly the same thing, even within the church. And that's a good thing.
"We just need to make contact," she says. "To establish a dialogue and a joint search for truth, to seek wisdom together, to be philosophers together, rather than stigmatizing and labeling people. This is one of the worst things people can do and Christ condemned it."
It's the kind of truth-to-power trajectory that has the potential to override not just political oppression, but social fragmentation and even personal imprisonment. After all, we in the West may enjoy freedom of speech, but we don't always practice it with a free spirit.
For those who prefer the Pussy Riot punk version: "Open the door / off with the shoulder-straps / join us in a taste of freedom."
Christa Hillstrom wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions.
Uproar. Pogrom. Uprising. That's how Nadezhda Tolokonnikova defines the word "riot" in a new documentary on Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk collective that rattled the world last year when three members were arrested for performing an anti-Putin "prayer" in Russia's premier Orthodox church.
Tolokonnikova, better known as Pussy Riot's complex, mysterious, fist-raising "Nadia," is perhaps the most intriguing and provocative figure in Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer. The film premiered in January at the Sundance festival, where filmmakers Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award.
Nadia is currently serving a two-year sentence in a Russian penal colony, along with bandmate Maria "Masha" Alyokhina, for a conviction of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred." Hooliganism, because on February 21 of last year, five Pussy Riot members dressed up in day-glo tights and balaclavas and ostentatiously entreated the "Mother of God" to oust Russian President Vladimir Putin, and religious hatred because they did it on the sacred ambon (a raised platform reserved for clergy) of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow's most prominent church. While the group had performed similar numbers before--including a confrontational song blasting the Putin government right outside the Kremlin--it turns out that belting "It's God shit!" with bare arms and masked faces in one of Russia's holiest places sparks a reaction even the young dissidents didn't expect.
Here's what they did:
That's it! Revisiting the a cappella original (as opposed to the more raucous, widely circulated music video version edited with a recorded soundtrack later) reinforces just how out out of proportion the government backlash appears.
For their seconds-long crime, Nadia and Masha got two years each in a penal camp--and the whole world's attention. (Two Pussy Riot members evaded arrest, and one, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal last year).
While public opinion polls show that a good portion of the offended Russian populace finds the punishment fitting, international outrage from the likes of Paul McCartney, Madonna, and even the Obama administration has helped make the trio into global political heroines--martyrs of Putin's controversial third term and a narrowing tolerance for divergent political opinions.
Their dissent, expressed through "oppositional art" (which, Nadia laments in the film, is little understood in Russia) has cost them not only two years of freedom, but also separation from their families. Though it's rarely emphasized in the media, where Pussy Riot is primarily identified as pranksters and radicals, both Nadia and Masha are mothers of young children.
And more than one year in, they're still trying to fight a sentence that has done more to indict the Russian judicial system than get the convicted to repent.
This week, Alyokhina was hospitalized during a hunger strike that has now continued for 10 days in the Ural mountains facility where she is imprisoned. Alyokhina was protesting the denial of her right to attend her own parole hearing in Moscow's highest court, which rejected parole for both her and Nadia earlier this week. Their lawyer, Irina Khrunova, told the Associated Press she will appeal to Russia's Supreme Court next.
Also this week, an unnamed (and unjailed) member of the collective testified in front of a European Union subcommittee on human rights that the post-trial crackdown on Pussy Riot members is symptomatic of a growing trend of human rights violations. Subcommittee chairwoman Barbara Lochbihler pledged to put human rights at the forefront of future relations with Russia.
While the possibility of early release was rejected in part due to the contention that neither Nadia nor Masha are sorry for what they did, the film lingers on the profuse apologies they offered to Russia's "believers"--Orthodox Christians--for any perception that Pussy Riot was criticizing faith itself rather than politics and the union of church and state. And here's where the movie ventures into some surprising--and poignant--territory.
Pussy Riot struck a nerve in targeting a building that had been destroyed under Soviet rule, during a period when Christians were oppressed. After the fall of communism, the film explains, the church was lovingly reconstructed by "the faithful." During a massive Pussy Riot counter-protest, one elderly woman grieves the church's desecration, crying that it was rebuilt with "[our own] coins." A somewhat perplexed gang of Orthodox cross-bearers (with full beards, leather vests, and skull t-shirts that say "Orthodoxy or Death") assumes Nadia must be possessed by a demon. They seem to not know what to make of her politics. In the end, shaking their heads, they leave judgement to the courts--but not without reminding each other that in the past, they would have hanged the feminist punks.
The religious backlash is why it's so interesting that Nadia's lengthy closing statement at the trial does not so much narrow in on criticism, blame, or an indictment of closed-mindedness; instead, it opens up to inclusion and connection, returning again and again to motifs like dialogue, truth, freedom--and, unexpectedly, Jesus. It's replete with religious imagery and references to the Bible's vision of truth, justice, and authenticity, and Nadia takes heart from the growing numbers of Orthodox "believers" who pray for her, stand up for her, and promise their solidarity. There's no such thing, she reminds her accusers--and nation--as a monolithic group where everyone believes exactly the same thing, even within the church. And that's a good thing.
"We just need to make contact," she says. "To establish a dialogue and a joint search for truth, to seek wisdom together, to be philosophers together, rather than stigmatizing and labeling people. This is one of the worst things people can do and Christ condemned it."
It's the kind of truth-to-power trajectory that has the potential to override not just political oppression, but social fragmentation and even personal imprisonment. After all, we in the West may enjoy freedom of speech, but we don't always practice it with a free spirit.
For those who prefer the Pussy Riot punk version: "Open the door / off with the shoulder-straps / join us in a taste of freedom."
Christa Hillstrom wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions.
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LATEST NEWS
'Endangering Every American's Health': 9 Former CDC Chiefs Sound Alarm on RFK Jr.
Their "astonishing, powerful op-ed," said one professor, "drives home what we are losing and what's already been lost."
Sep 01, 2025
Nearly every living former director or acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from the past half-century took to the pages of The New York Times on Monday to jointly argue that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "is endangering every American's health."
"Collectively, we spent more than 100 years working at the CDC, the world's preeminent public health agency. We served under multiple Republican and Democratic administrations," Drs. William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle Walensky, and Mandy Cohen highlighted.
What RFK Jr. "has done to the CDC and to our nation's public health system over the past several months—culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as CDC director days ago—is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced," the nine former agency leaders wrote.
Known for spreading misinformation about vaccines and a series of scandals, Kennedy was a controversial figure long before President Donald Trump chose him to lead HHS—a decision that Senate Republicans affirmed in February. However, in the wake of Monarez's ouster, fresh calls for him to resign or be fired have mounted.
This is powerful. Nine former CDC leaders just came together to defend SCIENCE.Maybe it’s time we LISTEN TO THEM—not the loud voices spreading MISINFORMATION.Science saves lives. Lies cost themwww.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
[image or embed]
— Krutika Kuppalli, MD FIDSA (@krutikakuppalli.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 10:35 AM
As the ex-directors detailed:
Secretary Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence, and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he's focused on unproven "treatments" while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill-prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of US support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez—which led to the resignations of top CDC officials—adds considerable fuel to this raging fire.
Monarez was nominated by Trump, and was confirmed by Senate Republicans in late July. As the op-ed authors noted, she was forced out by RFK Jr. just weeks later, after she reportedly refused "to rubber-stamp his dangerous and unfounded vaccine recommendations or heed his demand to fire senior CDC staff members."
"These are not typical requests from a health secretary to a CDC director," they wrote. "Not even close. None of us would have agreed to the secretary's demands, and we applaud Dr. Monarez for standing up for the agency and the health of our communities."
After Monarez's exit, Trump tapped Jim O'Neill, an RFK Jr. aide and biotech investor, as the CDC's interim director. Critics including Robert Steinbrook, director of Public Citizen's health research group, warn that "unlike Susan Monarez, O'Neill is likely to rubber-stamp dangerous vaccine recommendations from HHS Secretary Kennedy's handpicked appointees to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and obey orders to fire CDC public health experts with scientific integrity."
The agency's former directors didn't address O'Neill, but they wrote: "To those on the CDC staff who continue to perform their jobs heroically in the face of the excruciating circumstances, we offer our sincere thanks and appreciation. Their ongoing dedication is a model for all of us. But it's clear that the agency is hurting badly."
"We have a message for the rest of the nation as well: This is a time to rally to protect the health of every American," they continued. The experts called on Congress to "exercise its oversight authority over HHS," and state and local governments to "fill funding gaps where they can." They also urged philanthropy, the private sector, medical groups, and physicians to boost investments, "continue to stand up for science and truth," and support patients "with sound guidance and empathy."
Doctors, researchers, journalists, and others called their "must-read" piece "extraordinary" and "important."
"Just an astonishing, powerful op-ed that drives home what we are losing and what's already been lost," said University of Michigan Law School professor Leah Litman. "We are so incredibly fortunate to live with the advances [of] modern medicine and health science. Destroying and stymying it is just unforgivable."
'Brazenly Anti-Worker': Labor Day Reports Highlight Trump Attacks on Unions
"This is a government that is by, and for, the CEOs and billionaires," said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler.
Sep 01, 2025
Although US President Donald Trump's administration likes to boast that he puts "American workers first," several news reports published on Monday document the president's attacks on the rights of working people and labor unions.
As longtime labor reporter Steven Greenhouse explained in The Guardian, Trump throughout his second term has "taken dozens of actions that hurt workers, often by cutting their pay or making their jobs more dangerous."
Among other things, Greenhouse cited Trump's decision to halt a regulation intended to protect coal miners from lung disease, as well as his decision to strip a million federal workers of their collective bargaining rights.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, told Greenhouse that Trump's actions amount to a "big betrayal" of his promises to look out for US workers during the 2024 presidential campaign.
"His attacks on unions are coming fast and furious," she said. "He talks a good game of being for working people, but he's doing the absolute opposite. This is a government that is by, and for, the CEOs and billionaires."
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, similarly told Greenhouse that Trump has been "absolutely, brazenly anti-worker," and she cited him ripping away an increase in the minimum wage for federal contractors that had been enacted by former President Joe Biden as a prime example.
"The minimum wage is incredibly popular," she said. "He just took away the minimum wage from hundreds of thousands of workers. That blew my mind."
NPR published its own Labor Day report that zeroed in on how the president is "decimating" federal employee unions by issuing March and August executive orders stripping them of the power to collectively bargain for better working conditions.
So far, nine federal agencies have canceled their union contracts as a result of the orders, which are based on a provision in federal law that gives the president the power to terminate collective bargaining at agencies that are primarily involved with national security.
The Trump administration has embraced a maximalist interpretation of this power and has demanded the end of collective bargaining at departments that aren't primarily known as national security agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Weather Service.
However, Trump's attacks on organized labor haven't completely intimidated government workers from joining unions. As the Los Angeles Times reported, the Trump administration's cuts to the National Park Service earlier this year inspired hundreds of workers at the California-based Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks to unionize.
Although labor organizers had been trying unsuccessfully for years to get park workers to sign on, that changed when the Trump administration took a hatchet to parks' budgets and enacted mass layoffs.
"More than 97% of employees at Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks who cast ballots voted to unionize, with results certified last week," wrote the Los Angeles Times. "More than 600 staffers—including interpretive park rangers, biologists, firefighters, and fee collectors—are now represented by the National Federation of Federal Employees."
Even so, many workers who succeed in forming unions may no longer get their grievances heard given the state of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
As documented by Timothy Noah in The New Republic, the NLRB is now "hanging by a thread" in the wake of a court ruling that declared the board's structure to be unconstitutional because it barred the president from being able to fire NLRB administrative judges at will.
"The ruling doesn't shut down the NLRB entirely because it applies only to cases in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, where the 5th Circuit has jurisdiction," Noah explained. "But Jennifer Abruzzo, who was President Joe Biden's NLRB general counsel, told me that the decision will 'open the floodgates for employers to forum-shop and seek to get injunctions' in those three states."
Noah noted that this lawsuit was brought in part by SpaceX owner and one-time Trump ally Elon Musk, and he accused the Trump NLRB of waging a "half-hearted" fight against Musk's attack on workers' rights.
Thanks to Trump and Musk's actions, Noah concluded, American oligarchs "can toast the NLRB's imminent destruction."
Trump Voter ID Threat Condemned as 'Unconstitutional'
"The Constitution gives this authority to the states and Congress, not you!" said the head of Democracy Defenders Fund, threatening a lawsuit.
Sep 01, 2025
US President Donald Trump continued his "authoritarian takeover of our election system" over the weekend, threatening an executive order requiring every voter to present identification, which experts swiftly denounced as clearly "unconstitutional."
"Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late Saturday. "I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!! Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!!!"
Less than two weeks ago, Trump declared on the platform that "I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we're at it, Highly 'Inaccurate,' Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES." He claimed, without evidence, that voting by mail leads to "MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD," and promised to take executive action ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Those posts came as battles over his March executive order (EO), "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections," are playing out in federal court. The measure was largely blocked by multiple district judges, but the president is appealing.
Trump's voter ID post provoked a new threat of legal action to stop his unconstitutional attacks on the nation's election system.
"Go ahead, make my day Mr. Trump," said Norm Eisen, who co-founded Democracy Defenders Fund and served as White House special counsel for ethics and government reform during the Obama administration.
"We at Democracy Defenders Fund immediately sued you and got an injunction on your first voting EO," he noted. "We will do the same here if you try it again. The Constitution gives this authority to the states and Congress, not you!"
In addition to pointing out that Trump is "an absentee voter himself," Democracy Docket explained Sunday that "the US Constitution gives the states the primary authority to regulate elections, while empowering Congress to 'at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.' The Framers never considered authorizing the president to oversee elections."
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures: "Thirty-six states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls. The remaining 14 states and Washington, DC use other methods to verify the identity of voters."
Those laws already prevent Americans from participating in elections, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
"Overly burdensome photo ID requirements block millions of eligible American citizens from voting," the center's voter ID webpage says. "As many as 11% of eligible voters do not have the kind of ID that is required by states with strict ID requirements, and that percentage is even higher among seniors, minorities, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and students."
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