The Dictatorship

Voting rights are under assault throughout the South — but the people are fighting back

Published

4 weeks ago

May 13, 2026

May. 12, 2026, 5:23 PM EDT

The Supreme Court dealt a blow to a remaining key protection of the Voting Rights Act less than two weeks ago in Louisiana v. Callais. Lawmakers in states across the South heard this starting shot from the high court, jumped off the block and sprinted to redraw maps to undermine Black voters’ voices.

Alabama’s legislative majority wants different maps that would harm Black voters, and on Mondaythe Supreme Court issued a ruling that opened the door for the majority to do just that. Plaintiffs in the case — everyday Black Alabama voters and civic organizations affected by this court decision — immediately went back to the district court to ask them to keep the current map, given people are already voting under it.

Louisiana is trying to stop a primary election that’s already underway and is signaling it will eliminate one or both of the state’s two majority Black congressional districts. South Carolina has opened a process to extend its session to gerrymander its state voting maps. Mississippi lawmakers have signaled they will consider redrawing the state’s maps. And Tennessee just became the first state to adopt new maps after Callais.

This is a crisis for democracy, but the people are making their dissent heard, testifying and rallying at statehouses across the region. Voters in these states refuse to quietly accept these cynical attempts by lawmakers to choose their voters in order to unfairly retain power. The day after the decision, tens of thousands registered for a single organizing call with the “No Kings” coalition.

Hundreds showed up outside the Tennessee State Capitol to rally against the power grab, shouting “no” to the return of Jim Crow maps. In Louisiana, voters in Baton Rouge marched to the capitol to advocate for fair maps at committee hearings. The hearing room in South Carolina on Friday was overflowing with voters standing up for their rights and their communities’ voices. And right now, voters and groups are preparing for a national day of action this weekend, including large peaceful demonstrations in Montgomery and on the historical Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

In real time, we are witnessing a coordinated effort to undermine the voting rights of Black Americans in the South. But the people who forced the Voting Rights Act into reality did not do so by waiting for those in power to get on the right side of history.

This is a crisis for democracy, but the people are making their dissent heard – testifying and rallying at statehouses across the region.

Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and thousands of other movement leaders bled, marched and mobilized to pass the Voting Rights Act — the “crown jewel” of the Civil Rights Movement and the foundation of our multiracial democracy. With the Callais decision, however, the court has torn a big hole in that hard-won victory and the fabric of our democracy.

It has failed to do the one thing that the architects of this strategy wanted: It has not made voters disengage. People are flooding into their capitol buildings to stand up for our democracy and for the Black voters whose voices are integral to it. People are doing what the generation before them did: refusing to be silenced and disenfranchised.

They are showing up because they know it’s their right to choose their lawmakers, not the other way around. Gerrymandering, or the practice of election officials creating irrational voting districts to create outcomes that favor one party, is one of the most unpopular practices in American politics. Across every region, every demographic, every party, the vast majority of Americans believe voters should pick their politicians, not the other way around. In poll after poll, large majorities think states drawing legislative districts to favor one party is unfair and should be illegal.

The maps themselves are the tell. Tennessee’s new plan — drawn to eliminate the state’s lone Black-majority congressional district — slices up Memphis into three pieces and pairs Black Memphis voters with voters in Nashville suburbs more than 200 miles away.

That’s not redistricting. That’s voter suppression.

Our communities and country deserve better. We have been here before, and we know what to do, thanks to the courageous actions of previous generations of civil rights leaders. Our work may be harder and the path to success longer because of the Callais decision. But the work is already underway, and We the People will prevail.

So, to lawmakers in the South: Your voters are watching you. The country is watching you. History is already taking notes.

Molly McGrath is a voting rights attorney, advocate, and organizer. She is Director of National Campaigns in the ACLU’s National Political Advocacy Department where she leads voting rights campaigns across the country.

The Dictatorship

Court denies request to immediately block DOJ ‘slush fund’

Published

2 hours ago

June 11, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Court denies request to immediately block DOJ ‘slush fund’

Jun. 10, 2026, 6:14 PM EDT

A federal judge in Washington has denied a bid Wednesday brought by a watchdog group to immediately block the Justice Department’s “anti-weaponization” fund, for now choosing to trust the department’s assertions that it is not moving forward with the fund.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled immediately, denying Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have blocked the Department of Justice from taking steps to create the fund.

Throughout the 30-minute hearing, the DOJ reiterated that the administration was not moving forward with the nearly $1.8 billion fund, which seeks to compensate individuals who allege they have been politically targeted or victimized by the DOJ.

Andrew Block, the only lawyer present for the government, repeatedly cited Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s June 2 congressional testimonyin which he said the administration was “not moving forward” with plans to create the fund.

Leon indicated he agreed with the DOJ’s position that the case appeared to be moot, saying he was not persuaded there was an issue for the court to decide regarding the creation of the fund. He issued a stern warning to the DOJ, saying, “Don’t play possum with this court!” — meaning he does not want to be deceived.

The plaintiffs argued Blanche’s testimony did not amount to an official cancellation. Nikhel Sus, CREW’s attorney, said Blanche “refused to memorialize that rescission,” or in other words, put it in writing. Sus said that was “highly unusual.” Leon responded, “This whole case is highly unusual to say the least.”

Leon asked the government twice why they would not just rescind the order that established the fund. Block responded, “I don’t know,” and pointed again to Blanche’s public statements about the fund’s future.

Both Leon and Sus raised the issue of Trump’s continued public defense of the fund. “It can still be an important issue and also not moving forward,” Block said. “That isn’t a direction to move forward with the fund.”

Although Leon rejected CREW’s bid for an immediate block, he indicated he is still considering its request for a longer-term block against the fund.

A block order from a separate federal judge in Virginia remains in effect until at least Friday.

Fallon Gallagher is a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW.

The Dictatorship

Trump is accelerating our Social Security insolvency crisis

Published

2 hours ago

June 11, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jun. 10, 2026, 5:50 PM EDT

The date when Social Security’s trust fund is expected to run out of money just got bumped up. The fund is now projected to empty in 2032according to a new report released by Social Security’s trustees.

The new depletion date isn’t an earth-shaking change — it’s only a quarter earlier than the estimate in last year’s report. But it illustrates how President Donald Trump’s policies are degrading a program he promised to never jeopardize — and accelerating an approaching crisis in how our government will assist the elderly and disabled.

The report names three factors that contributed to the earlier insolvency date. One is a declining fertility rate, but the other two drivers can be traced back to Trump: a drop in immigration into the country, and the “substantial effect” of the tax policies in the One Big Beautiful Bill he signed last summer.

Trump’s acceleration of the program’s insolvency comes atop his assaults on the program’s administrative capacities.

Reduced immigration during Trump’s second term — especially when coupled with a declining fertility rate — strains Social Security because the program is funded through payroll taxes. Those come out of people’s paychecks, and fewer workers supporting an aging population means the program receives less revenue. Indeed, Social Security already has been tapping its trust fund for the better part of the past two decades because the program’s costs have exceeded its cash income. And as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out last yearlast year’s tax cuts were a boon to the rich but a bust for the solvency of the Social Security trust fund.

To be clear, if the fund is depleted, Social Security won’t go belly up. Benefits will continue to be paid out, but there will be a large drop in the amount. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the “average monthly cut would total $500, which is more than what the average retired household spends on groceries each month.”

That would be a huge blow to the budgets of many older Americans. Social Security is a major source of income for most retirees, and roughly 40% of beneficiaries over the age of 65 rely on it for most of their income. And it would mark the destabilization of the sole source of retirement security for most Americans that is supposed to be insulated from ups and downs — unlike 401K plans. As the CBPP has pointed outSocial Security is “most workers’ only source of guaranteed retirement income that is not subject to investment risk or financial market fluctuations.”

Trump’s acceleration of the program’s insolvency comes atop his assaults on the program’s administrative capacities. His cuts to the Social Security Administration have left offices understaffedincreased wait timesand reduced quality of customer service.

Ultimately, Trump is exacerbating a colossal social safety net problem that predates him, and the trust fund will hit dire straits after he has left office. Democrats need to have clear plans for shoring up the program and making it robust for the future — which will require not being sheepish about taxes as a tool for renewing the social contract. And when Republicans try to claim that they, too, are champions of Social Security, all Democrats need to do is point to the truth.

Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.

The Dictatorship

Wednesday’s Mini-Report, 6.10.26

Published

2 hours ago

June 11, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The latest from Northern Ireland: “The family of a man who lost an eye in a knife attack appealed for calm on Wednesday after the incident triggered a wave of anti-immigrant violence in Belfast overnight, with masked men burning families out of their homes and torching vehicles. The appeal ‌came as a Sudanese man appeared in court charged with attempted murder and as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and politicians in Northern Ireland condemned the violence by ‘masked thugs’ that had targeted ethnic minorities.”

* In related news: “The British government hit out at X owner Elon Musk Wednesday, accusing him of whipping up tensions online ahead of disorder in Belfast.”

* The tenuous state of a dubious ceasefire: “Trump said the U.S. is going to hit Iran ‘hard’ today when pressed by reporters in the Oval Office about his statement earlier that Tehran will ‘pay the price’ for taking ‘too long’ to reach a peace agreement. ‘Well, we’re going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard, resuming bombing,’ he said.”

* The latest casualty figures from Lebanon: “Israel’s military offensive in Lebanon has killed at least 3,666 people, including 131 healthcare workers, and injured more than 11,300 since the U.S. and Israel began their war with Iran in late February, the Lebanese health ministry reported yesterday.”

* The changing nature of modern warfare: “Ukraine is wreaking havoc on unarmored trucks and trains in the battlefield’s rear, using drones with upgraded engines and batteries, integrated Starlink communication systems and new artificial-intelligence capabilities. The ramped-up attacks are causing fuel shortages, complicating troop rotations and reducing Russian military activity on the front.”

* This seems like a reasonable request: “Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee demanded Wednesday that Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for acting director of national intelligence, submit to a full security check before assuming the post, including an examination of his financial holdings and foreign contacts.”

* Some market trends can’t be stopped despite the White House’s best efforts: “Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the U.S. and remains the leading source of new power. Data released Wednesday by global energy think tank Ember, along with a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal, or 12.8%, Ember said.”

* A bizarre schedule for a nonemergency vanity project: “Federal officials are laying more groundwork to begin construction on President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, sharing additional documents that detail the project’s scope and an aggressive timetable for potentially completing work before Trump’s term ends. According to National Park Service documents posted this month, the administration envisions 20 hours per day of construction on the arch, year-round, in hopes of completing the project within two to three years.”

See you tomorrow.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”