Power Grab on Hold for Now
A second judge has blocked aspects of a March order by President Trump that would require the Postal Service to only send mail ballots to voters the federal government has deemed to be eligible.
Postmaster general David Steiner attracted quite a bit of attention last month when he told the Senate the USPS was ready to carry out Trump’s order. The very next day, the majority of it was blocked by Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama-appointed district court judge in Massachusetts. Another judge, Trump-appointed Carl John Nichols, a district court judge for the District of Columbia, had upheld it in May.
On Wednesday, Washington, D.C., District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, appointed by Clinton, also blocked the Postal Service’s plan, finding that it violated a 2021 settlement agreement with the NAACP, requiring the postmaster general “to prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of election mail.”
The new Postal Service rule, based on Trump’s order, “will not accept ‘noncompliant mailings’ and therefore will not deliver mail-in or absentee ballots to some voters,” and “will not mail ballots to any voters in a state where the state ‘declines or fails to certify a list” — both of which violate the settlement agreement, Sullivan wrote.
The fight is the tip of the spear in terms of Trump’s efforts to mess with the midterms and the 2028 presidential election by suppressing vote by mail. The two earlier district court rulings on the order have been appealed, and the fight may well end up before the Supreme Court.
Fourth Appeals Court Rules Against Trump’s Mass Detention Policies
- A three-judge panel on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, unanimously, against a sweeping July 2025 Trump policy to detain immigrants, regardless of how long they have been in the U.S., as deportation proceedings progress, denying them bond.
- A Politico review in May found that the administration had already seen a staggering tens of thousands of rulings against this policy. Wednesday’s ruling was the fourth such one from a circuit court; other circuits have upheld the policy, suggesting it is inevitably Supreme Court-bound.
- In April, Bryce Covert reported for TPM that even those detainees who do get bond are seeing it set for far higher sums than before, taxing bail funds who are also fielding more requests for help amid the Trump administration crackdown.
- Various outlets reported yesterday that we are in the midst of another, quieter Department of Homeland Security surge, with 10,000 people detained in the last week alone.
Tabs
The Trump admin’s cuts to government are part of the reason why weather forecasts have gotten so inaccurate.
Remember the soaring cost of eggs? The DOJ and 17 states are settling with three major egg producers they accuse of colluding to “artificially inflate the daily price quotations for eggs” between June 2022 and March 2025. None of the companies are admitting wrongdoing, but, in the settlement, the companies will “collectively be on the hook for $3.3 million and 53 million eggs,” per New York Attorney General Tish James.
Trump made $86 million last year suing media companies.
Quote of the Day
“A policeman came up to me — a big, strong, good-looking guy — and he said, ‘sir, I want to thank you.’ He was almost, sort of, crying.”
— Trump, with the latest installment in his ongoing series about large men thanking him while crying
“The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.” — Thomas Carlyle
Good morning
Willie Sutton was wrong, Trump proved that the Presdiency is where the money is!
You know those sir stories are not real accept in the CF’s brain. Especially those big, strong, good-looking guys.
Is Dear Leader flagging?
“A policeman came up to me — a big, strong, good-looking guy — and he said, ‘sir, I want to thank you.’ He was almost, sort of, crying.”
Are buff, looksmaxxing, male authority figures from central cast no longer moved to tears by gratitude for being in his very presence? (ed.)