“As ‘No Kings’ protests decry Trump, surveillance worries emerge”

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Reuters / MSN:  

People who take part in Saturday’s mass “No Kings” protest against President Donald Trump’s administration may be targeted for federal government surveillance with a range of technology that could include facial recognition and phone hacking, civil libertarians said. 

“No Kings” organizers expect 2,600 rallies across all 50 U.S. states. But the level of surveillance at protests and the type of technology in use is likely to be both location-specific and dependent on the police forces present, said Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Friday.

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“White House and Government Agencies Join Bluesky, Then Attack Democrats”

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NYT: 

The White House and more than half a dozen government agencies on Friday joined a social media platform popular with liberals and promptly shared posts declaring Democrats were to blame for the ongoing government shutdown.


….Experts in employment law have previously cautioned that the politically divisive language shared by government agencies appeared to violate the Hatch Act, a law devised to ensure that the federal work force operates free of political influence or coercion.

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“U.S. Supreme Court case from Louisiana likely to reshape Voting Rights Act, legal experts say”

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NOLA.com

Thinking about how the U.S. Supreme Court will handle the Louisiana case that could reshape the Voting Rights Act, the crowning legislative achievement of the civil rights era, Southern University political science professor Albert Samuels says he can’t help but think back.

Out of Louisiana, he noted, came the litigation that helped end Reconstruction laws protecting the formerly enslaved, the “grandfather clause” that kept Blacks from registering to vote and the landmark Plessy case, which enshrined Jim Crow laws limiting African American opportunities.

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Thurs & Fri: Univ. of Penn Law Review Multiracial Democracy Symposium 

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You can register for and get more info on the symposium here.  

In light of recent attacks on multiracial democracy, I’m honored to co-organize The Future of Law & Multiracial Democracy Symposium this upcoming Thursday and Friday (October 23-24) in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.  

We’ll hear from leading thinkers on voting rights, including Guy-Uriel Charles, Torey Dolan, Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Nathan Fleming, Damon Hewitt, Ellen Katz, and Michael Morse.

We’ll also hear from many top scholars in other areas shaping our multiracial democracy, including technology, courts, history and culture, immigration, civil rights, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (the full agenda and list of scholars is here).  

The articles from the symposium will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Law Review in 2026. 

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“Voting Rights Act faces a near-death experience at US Supreme Court”

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Reuters:

…The Trump administration’s framework would impose new evidentiary requirements on Black voters who sue over how electoral maps are drawn. Among other things, they would need current statistics showing that a legislature discriminated based on race, rather than party affiliation.

In the United States, where more than 80 percent of Black voters back Democratic candidates, decoupling race and party affiliation in such a way is difficult.

The Justice Department’s approach “would make it extremely difficult for Section 2 plaintiffs to win in jurisdictions where you have intense polarization, like you do in the Deep South,” said Travis Crum, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

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“Trump Pushes Indiana Lawmakers to Redraw State Maps”

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NYT:  

President Trump called Republicans in the Indiana Senate on Friday morning to encourage them to redraw the state’s congressional maps to benefit Republicans ahead of the midterm elections, according to three people familiar with the call.

Mr. Trump asked the state lawmakers to support a new map that would eliminate the state’s two Democratic districts and give Republicans all nine congressional seats, the people said.

The call is part of an escalating White House pressure campaign on Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps to help the Trump administration retain control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections next year.

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