The Dictatorship
Wednesday’s Mini-Report, 6.24.26
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The right call: “A federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing most of his first executive order on elections, part of which sought to require people to show documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper in Boston effectively converts a preliminary injunction she issued a year ago, in which she temporarily blocked many of Trump’s efforts to overhaul elections, into a permanent ban.”
* Another heartening ruling: “A judge on Tuesday barred the federal government from making arrests at immigration courts, ordering an end to a practice that took hold shortly after President Donald Trump took office last year.”
* A sweltering continent: France again shattered records for its hottest day ever Wednesday, with more brutal temperatures as a deadly heat wave scorches much of western Europe. … Red alerts were also in place in Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland as the extreme early summer heat forced school closures, travel disruption and alarm about climate change across a region ill-equipped for such blistering conditions.”
* Sometimes, suppressed truths reach the public anyway: “A study on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness has finally been published after being blocked from a government health journal. The vaccine was found to be about 55% effective against COVID-19-associated hospitalizations, and reduced COVID-19-related trips to emergency departments and urgent care clinics by 50%, according to the study published Tuesday by JAMA Network Open.”
* The state of the U.S. refugee program: “Under Mr. Trump, the program has effectively become a whites-only path to life in the United States, a culmination of the president’s longstanding antipathy toward immigrants and his embrace of the concept of ‘reverse racism’ as a guiding principle in his administration.”
* The push for a data center moratorium picks up a notable advocate: “House Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey on Wednesday called for Congress to impose a nationwide data center moratorium. Pallone is now the most powerful congressional Democrat with jurisdiction over energy and environment issues to support such a policy in the face of public backlash.”
* Sounds about right: “Former President Obama on Wednesday said he thinks President Trump has an ‘obsession’ with him, existing in a ‘suite in his head.’”
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.”