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We have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get right into it.
1. US Supreme Court Guts Voting Rights Act
Sixty years of voting rights protections came to an end this morning in a 6-3 Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais, a ruling which effectively guts Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by the five other Republican-appointed justices. The case centered on Louisiana’s congressional map, drawn in 2024 under federal court order to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Earlier courts found the state’s previous map illegally diluted Black voting power. The legislature did what the courts told them the law required — but today the Supreme Court told them they did it wrong. And rewrote what the law requires moving forward.
Now states can almost never consider race when drawing congressional maps, even to remedy discriminatory effects the VRA was specifically designed to prevent. The practical effect: the Supreme Court just handed the Republican Party the keys to draw congressional maps with no meaningful limit on racial discrimination, months before a midterm election and in the middle of a redistricting war the President himself started. The timing is not a coincidence.
Political experts are predicting that up to 12 House seats could ultimately be affected, giving Republicans a helping hand heading into the midterm elections where control of the House is up for grabs. Legal experts are currently parsing the decision to understand how many congressional districts could be redrawn before the midterms this year. Graphic via NBC.
2. Trump DOJ Indicts James Comey - Again
The Department of Justice indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday for the second time in seven months.
The charges this time: two counts of threatening the President of the United States, each carrying up to 10 years in prison. The alleged threat? An Instagram photo Comey posted nearly a year ago on a North Carolina beach, arranged to spell “86 47”. That’s it, that’s the case. But FBI Director Kash Patel reassured reporters yesterday that this was a serious, careful investigation that took almost a year: “This has been a case that’s been investigated over the past nine, 10, 11 months. These cases take time. Our investigators work methodically. They are career agents, career prosecutors who work these matters.”
Think about that: the FBI Director of the United States stood at a podium and told the country that the world’s premier law enforcement agency spent nearly a year of investigators’ time - pulled away from real threats - to build a case against a man who posted a photo of seashells on a beach.
Comey responded with a video on his Substack titled “Seashells.”
He’s right. It is unfathomable that the United States Justice Department currently operates as the President’s personal grievance enforcement bureau. Even rockribbed conservative Lawyer Jonathan Turley agrees:
3. Pete Hegseth Faces Tough Congressional Hearings
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing congressional questioning today for the first time since the Iran war began. Within minutes, Hegseth identified what he sees as America’s most dangerous threat. Spoiler alert, it’s not Iran: “The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.”
The hearing was technically supposed to be about the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2027 — a 42% year-over-year increase. But Democrats came ready to make Hegseth answer for the war itself, and it isn’t going very well.
First, Hegseth downplayed the war’s costs to American families:
Then he refused to answer if easing sanctions on Russian oil helps Russia:
Tomorrow Hegseth testifies before the Senate. He should expect more tough questions, but I doubt he will have better answers.
4. Rep. Robert Garcia Files Contempt Against Pam Bondi
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will finally testify before Congress about her handling of the Epstein files — but only after Rep. Robert Garcia filed civil contempt charges against her this morning.
Remember, President Trump removed Bondi from her post as AG earlier this month after Republicans and Democrats alike were furious over her handling of the DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law passed last year by Congress requiring the release of the Epstein files. The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed her in March on a bipartisan vote with five Republicans joining all Democrats demanding Bondi testify under oath.
Once Bondi was fired, the DOJ thought they had an excuse: because Bondi had been subpoenaed in her official capacity as AG, the subpoena had no teeth. Even Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who forced the original subpoena vote, was not having it: “Pam Bondi cannot escape accountability simply because she no longer holds the office of Attorney General. Our motion to subpoena Pam Bondi was for Bondi by name, not by title.”
This morning, Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, formally introduced the resolution to hold Bondi in civil contempt for defying a bipartisan congressional subpoena. Subpoenas are not optional. They are not, as the DOJ argued, voidable upon termination of employment. They are legal orders backed by the constitutional power of a coequal branch of government. The fact that we now live in a country where a former Attorney General had to be threatened with contempt to honor a subpoena tells you everything you need to know about how seriously the administration takes the rule of law.
5. Trump FCC Targets ABC After Jimmy Kimmel Jokes About Melania
The FCC just unexpectedly ordered Disney’s ABC to file early license renewals for all eight of its owned-and-operated television stations. The renewals aren’t due until 2028 at the earliest, but the FCC is demanding them by May 28 of this year. The official reason: an “investigation” into Disney’s diversity practices. But we all know this is retaliation and an escalation in the Kimmel vs. Trump feud.
Quick recap: On April 23, Jimmy Kimmel made a joke on his show that Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow” — a riff on the 23-year age gap between the President and the First Lady. After the shooting at the White House Correspondent’ Dinner, the President and First Lady seized the moment in characterizing the joke as a call to violence. Trump followed up with a Truth Social post demanding ABC fire Kimmel.
Kimmel refused to apologize. Disney refused to fire him. And by Tuesday afternoon, the agency that regulates American broadcasters had suddenly decided that ABC’s licenses needed an early look.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr is a Trump appointee who has spent months publicly threatening broadcasters’ licenses over coverage he and the President don’t like. The FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, didn’t pretend otherwise: “This is unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere. It is a political stunt and it won’t stick. The First Amendment is on their side.” Gomez also called it “the most egregious action this FCC has taken in violation of the First Amendment to date.” When a commissioner of an agency tells you the agency they serve on is violating the Constitution, that is not a small thing.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
Russia announced Tuesday that its annual Victory Day parade on May 9th will take place without tanks, missiles, or any heavy military equipment for the first time since 2007. The Russian Defense Ministry cited the “current operational situation” as the reason for the change, a thinly veiled reference to the ongoing war in Ukraine now in its fifth year. Last year’s parade featured over 180 military vehicles, including tanks and missile launchers actively used on the Ukrainian battlefield, along with more than 11,500 troops. Analysts say the absence of hardware this year likely reflects a combination of security concerns, including the threat of Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow, and the very real practical problem of pulling equipment away from active combat operations. Troops and aerobatic aircraft will still participate, but the iconic rumble of armor across Red Square will be conspicuously absent.
President Trump escalated his rhetoric toward Iran early Wednesday morning with a Truth Social post — published just after 4 a.m. ET — declaring “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY” alongside an AI-generated image of himself holding an assault rifle with explosions in the background. The post comes as negotiations to end the Iran War, now in its 60th day, have stalled. Iran’s latest proposal focuses on reopening the Strait of Hormuz while postponing questions about its nuclear program, a nonstarter for Washington. The Trump administration says it is dealing with various factions in Tehran that cannot agree on how to negotiate with the U.S., and the White House has signaled it’s preparing for a prolonged naval blockade of Iranian ports. Oil prices surged nearly 3% to over $102 a barrel.
The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday it will exit OPEC on May 1, delivering a major blow to the oil cartel that the UAE had been a member of for nearly six decades. The shock announcement comes after the UAE was the target of missile and drone attacks for weeks by fellow OPEC member Iran, whose blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has severely constrained the UAE’s ability to export oil. As the group’s third-largest producer, the UAE’s departure will make it significantly harder for OPEC to control output and prices, and analysts warn it could set off a domino effect — with Kazakhstan and Nigeria flagged as potential “flight risks” that could follow suit. The UAE framed the move in terms of “national interest” and a desire to pursue accelerated domestic production, with ambitions to reach 5 million barrels per day of capacity by 2027. Experts warn there is now “significant risk of higher oil price volatility” as a result of the decision, at a moment when global energy markets are already rattled by the Iran war.
