A federal judge has blocked parts of President Trump’s executive order attempting to restrict mail-in ballots as the midterm elections approach. The order, challenged in court by 23 states as well as the District of Columbia, was struck down Thursday by Obama-appointed Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She argued that the Constitution empowers states and Congress to oversee elections, not Trump. Trump’s order, signed in March, would force the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service to create lists of voters eligible for mail ballots, and deny anyone not on the list from receiving one. “The States alone determine voter-eligibility requirements, subject only to the outer limits of the Constitution,” Talwani wrote in her decision. She also noted the high risk of error involved in the endeavor, writing that the federal government lacked “the ability to create complete and accurate lists of the U.S. citizens residing in every State.”“Donald Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional Executive Order sought to undermine eligible voters’ ability to make their voices heard in our democracy. Our Constitution is clear: the authority to set our election rules belongs to the states,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro wrote on X after the ruling was announced. “The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy, and I will take on anyone—up to and including the President—who tries to undermine that fundamental right.”The president has long railed against mail-in ballots as fraudulent, a baseless claim he typically uses whenever his side loses an election. And while Trump’s order was initially allowed to go through in May, this court ruling will be a significant obstacle for his plans, which could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters. “Trump’s vendetta against mail-in voting, which is safe and secure, is about picking who can vote and avoiding accountability,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “Democrats will continue fighting every day to block all of Trump’s illegal actions and ensure that Americans can freely cast their ballots this year.”Trump has yet to comment on the ruling.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate last year that a trip to Samoa in 2019 right before a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines.” New evidence from The Guardian suggests he may have lied.In emails between Kennedy’s team and Samoan officials, one of Kennedy’s colleagues said they were on a “mission” to investigate the island’s medical records. There had been a 10-month pause in vaccinations after two infants died due to an improperly prepared MMR vaccine, and anti-vaccine activists gained interest in the island as a potential case study in the health of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children.*“The mission involves health informatics evaluation from medical record data from all hospitals and clinics in Samoa to evaluate outcomes associated with the recent discontinuity in vaccinations,” Dr. Michael Graven, who worked at Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, wrote in a 2019 email. “Mr. Kennedy asked me to join this mission as I have performed health informatics initiatives in 48 other countries over 40 years.”This stands in direct contrast with how Kennedy repeatedly described his work to the Senate. In response to questioning from Senator Ron Wyden during his confirmation hearings last year, Kennedy said, “I went there, nothing to do with vaccines. I went there to produce a medical informatics system with digitalized records in Samoa and make health delivery much more efficient.”But the emails obtained by The Guardian tell a different story. Graven said in emails that he and Kennedy planned to spend weeks collecting data in Samoa, but the two ended up leaving just a few days after arriving. Antone Greubel, a State Department employee who was stationed in Samoa, sent an email on June 4 to his colleagues: “Based on conversations with my contacts RFK and Dr [Graven] fell far short of their goal to influence Samoan government vaccination policy.”A few months after Kennedy’s visit, a measles outbreak killed 83 people out of a population of around 200,000, most of them children under five.* This story has been updated to clarify the details about the vaccine.
The Supreme Court made one thing plain this week: It is an anti-immigrant court. There were hints before—big ones, to be honest. But in three rulings this week, the Republican-appointed justices voted to green light Trump administration policies against immigrants that both defy federal law and carry a massive humanitarian toll. This week’s decisions display, […]