Injunction Functions

This Week in Democracy

• Two courts ruled against some of President Trump’s tariff policies in separate cases, including one brought by a dozen state attorneys general. “This ruling reaffirms that our laws matter, and that trade decisions can’t be made on the president’s whim,” said Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who led the lawsuit.

  The Trump administration appealed the first decision to a federal appeals court, which temporarily put it on hold.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About the Limits of Presidential Power on Tariffs

• Sixteen states sued the Trump administration to block it from cutting programs and funding for the National Science Foundation. More than 1,700 research grants—together worth over $1.4 billion—have been canceled as of Wednesday, according to the foundation. “Putting politics over science will only set our country back, and I will continue to fight to protect critical scientific research and education,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
• A federal judge struck down Trump’s executive order targeting WilmerHale, a D.C.-based law firm. The judge wrote in his decision that the “cornerstone of the American system of justice is an independent judiciary and an independent bar.” Calling the order unconstitutional, the judge said it amounted to “coercion to suppress WilmerHale’s representation of disfavored causes and clients.”
• The Trump administration said it would cancel all of the federal government’s remaining contracts with Harvard University. Since April, the administration has frozen more than $3 billion in grants and contracts with the university, including more than 350 medical research grants. Harvard has refused to comply with the administration’s demands and has sued to restore its funding.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About the Impact of Targeting Higher Education

• The Trump administration said that it was working to return a man who was deported to Mexico. Last week, a judge ordered officials to “facilitate” his return. Another judge ruled that the administration’s attempt to deport a different man was likely unconstitutional.

  Separately, the administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to freeze a judge’s order that blocked it from quickly deporting people to countries they have no ties to. The administration’s request follows an attempt to deport eight people to South Sudan—a country only one of the deportees is from. A federal judge ordered the administration last week to maintain custody of the people.

• NPR and three Colorado public radio stations sued the Trump administration, challenging Trump’s executive order that directed federal agencies to withhold funding from NPR and PBS. The stations argue that the order, which claims public media is not “fair, accurate, or unbiased,” violates the First Amendment.

  “The Supreme Court has ruled numerous times over the past 80 years that the government does not have the right to determine what counts as ‘biased,’” NPR CEO Katherine Maher wrote in a statement. “NPR will never agree to this infringement of our constitutional rights, or the constitutional rights of our Member stations, and NPR will not compromise our commitment to an independent free press and journalistic integrity.”

• Trump nominated Emil Bove, his former personal lawyer who represented him in the federal election interference and classified documents cases, to be a federal judge. Trump also nominated Paul Ingrassia, a lawyer and former podcast host, to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. In late 2020, his podcast promoted election denial rhetoric on social media.

State of the States

In Minnesota, Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a response in an appeal over a state law that regulates media created by artificial intelligence (AI). The law, which passed in 2023, specifically regulates AI-generated content intended to affect the outcome of an election. “Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of democracy,” he wrote. “The right to cast votes is a fundamental right that protects all other rights. Intentionally providing voters with false or misleading information injures that right.”

States United is serving as pro bono outside counsel to Ellison for the appeal.

➡️ READ: More about the case

In North Carolina, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state’s election board, claiming that state officials aren’t doing enough ensure that its voter registration records are accurate. The lawsuit makes many of the same claims that Judge Jefferson Griffin made in his unsuccessful challenge to the results of the 2024 state Supreme Court election.

State officials said that many of the department’s demands are already underway. As is the case across the country, voter roll maintenance is a continuous process, and states already have rigorous procedures to keep them up to date.

In Wisconsin, the state elections commission concluded that state law allows towns with populations under 7,500 to count ballots by hand—instead of using machines—without the state’s permission. The commission said that those communities must still provide at least one machine to accommodate voters with disabilities. The commission’s decision could be appealed.

Hand counts are regularly used to audit election results, but research shows that machine counts are more reliable and accurate. Hand counts are also more expensive and more time-consuming than using machines.

➡️ EXPLORE: The Reality of Full Hand Counts: A Guide for Election Officials

Recommended Reading

Stephen Richer, the former recorder of Maricopa County, Ariz., and a member of States United’s Bipartisan Advisory Board, penned an op-ed for NC Newsline about how federal courts defended against election denial in North Carolina.