Tonight’s civics special: the roast beef is cold and the paperwork is radioactive.
First up, a federal judge in Oakland hit pause on DHS’s nine-state noncitizen-voting investigation. The preliminary injunction covers California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin, pending Election Day; the order says DHS’s source data was voluminous and unreliable, that the surge review schedule heightened the risk of error, and that the operation could chill voter-assistance work. The ruling was temporarily stayed to allow an appeal, because apparently even the emergency brake needs an emergency brake. Read the court order. ([storage.courtlistener.com](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.479338/gov.uscourts.cand.479338.87.0.pdf))
Then the Supreme Court cleared New Hampshire to fully exclude student IDs as voting identification for the midterms. The justices granted the state’s emergency request and invoked the familiar don’t-change-election-rules-at-the-last-minute principle; Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson publicly dissented. So, right before a closely watched Senate race, a student can apparently be old enough to take out loans with enough zeros to require ham-radio call signs, but not reliably identifiable with a campus ID. Read AP’s report. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/42da13585a80dc52d92efa0dbe86b95e))
And in Minnesota, state investigators say the federal government stopped providing evidence in their inquiries into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers. According to recent court filings reported by AP, Minnesota still seeks items including officers’ phones, interview recordings, firearms evidence, and other materials; the Justice Department argues it has discretion to decline sharing information with state authorities. That’s one way to do accountability: put it in a box, label it “federal,” and drive away before the seagulls notice. Read AP’s report. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/d18378b40675bb107f9c2d519c2b9853))
No invented outrage is needed tonight. One court found serious enough problems to halt a voter-fraud operation, the high court changed the practical rules for student voters days before an election, and a state says federal agencies are withholding evidence needed to investigate deadly uses of federal power. That’s a hell of a bar tab for one news cycle.
Sources
- https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.479338/gov.uscourts.cand.479338.87.0.pdf
- https://apnews.com/article/trump-states-noncitizen-voting-investigation-california-ac8a87b135f7a2ae9fe961bab3b28825
- https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-midterm-elections-new-hampshire-42da13585a80dc52d92efa0dbe86b95e
- https://apnews.com/article/renee-good-alex-pretti-evidence-immigration-d18378b40675bb107f9c2d519c2b9853
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Featured image: US Supreme Court.JPG by Photo by Mr. Kjetil Ree ., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
