Democracy Docket

1 day ago | democracydocket.com | Matt Cohen

A three-judge panel in a North Carolina court blocked a Republican scheme to gain power over the state’s election board — the agency charged with running elections and enforcing campaign finance laws. Gov. Josh Stein (D) sued Republican legislative leaders over a power-grab law the GOP passed last year when they had a veto-proof supermajority. The measure removed the governor’s power to appoint members to the state board of elections, instead granting it to the state’s Republican auditor.

2 days ago | democracydocket.com | Matt Cohen

The U.S. Supreme Court looks set to be asked to rule on a far-reaching GOP bid to ban states from accepting ballots that arrive after Election Day, potentially disenfranchising a large number of voters across multiple states. No petition has yet been filed with the Supreme Court. But a federal court paused proceedings Tuesday in a Republican lawsuit challenging Mississippi’s ballot receipt deadline law.

2 days ago | democracydocket.com | Marc Elias

Following Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020, we witnessed an explosion of voting and election-related litigation. Sparked by a wave of voter suppression laws and Republican efforts to justify the “Big Lie,” nearly 600 lawsuits were filed over the next four years — reaching almost every state in the country. Leading up to the 2024 election, we anxiously followed the twists and turns as laws, rules, regulations and interpretations were litigated in court.

6 days ago | democracydocket.com | Jacob Knutson

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from gutting an independent agency tasked with protecting people from financial fraud. During a Friday hearing, District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, said she was “deeply concerned” about President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire almost all of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) employees, according to reporting from the AP.

6 days ago | democracydocket.com | Jacob Knutson

A federal judge Thursday extended restrictions on Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) accessing Americans’ personal data held by the Social Security Administration (SSA). District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander said the plaintiffs in the case — a coalition of unions and retirees represented by Democracy Forward* — were likely to succeed in arguing that the SSA giving DOGE access to the sensitive information likely violated the Privacy Act and other federal laws.