Yesterday, there was more bad news from the Supreme Court (SCOTUS). In the latest shadow docket ruling the court once again overruled lower courts by allowing the Trump regime to fire federal workers en masse while the lower courts continue to deliberate, and deliberate, and deliberate on the matter. There was only one written dissent — from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. "She said President Donald Trump is unleashing a 'wrecking ball' on the federal government, and she slammed the court’s majority for its 'demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this President’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture' "(Politico, July 8, 2025). The lower court's injunction at least temporarily stopped the Trump regime from laying off employees at the departments of State, Treasury, Transportation, Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration, among others. The Supreme Court has now made it possible for those agencies to take their own figurative chainsaws to their workers.

Jackson's dissent comes with a dire warning: she has "no doubt that executive lawlessness will flourish because of the decision" and she predicts "executive power will become completely uncontainable" (ABC News, July 8, 2025). Justice Sotomayor, who voted with the majority to stay the lower court's injunction, defended the ruling: "I agree with Justice Jackson that the President cannot restructure federal agencies in a manner inconsistent with congressional mandates. Here, however, the relevant Executive Order directs agencies to plan reorganizations and reductions in force ‘consistent with applicable law’ … and the resulting joint memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management reiterates as much." It's not clear, however, that agencies are in fact doing much planning. And the federal government can easily be decimated by the time any court rules on the merits of these cases. Stay tuned.

Apparently, last week's catastrophic flooding and rising body count did not factor into the SCOTUS decision. Vacancies in important positions in the National Weather Service MAY have played a role in the failure of the area's officials to respond adequately to warnings, though there seems to be a lot of finger pointing going on around this tragedy. According to a Snopes report (July 9, 2025), "The weather service issued a series of timely alerts: a flood watch early in the afternoon on July 3, a flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. July 4, and a flash flood emergency at 4:03 a.m. July 4, before any in-person reports of flooding had been received." The 4:00 a.m. warning did specify that it was an emergency, which should have triggered evacuations.

According to the National Weather Service, a flash flood WARNING is issued "when dangerous flash flooding is happening or will happen soon." It goes on to say "this is when you must act quickly as flash floods are an imminent threat to you and your family. You may only have seconds to move to higher ground." In other words, a flood warning is a serious matter requiring fast action. A flash flood EMERGENCY, like the one issued at 4:03am, is "issued for the EXCEEDINGLY RARE situations when extremely heavy rain is leading to a severe threat to human life and CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE from a flash flood is happening or will happen soon. Typically, emergency officials are reporting LIFE-THREATENING water rises resulting in water rescues/evacuations." At the time the emergency warning was issued, the Guadalupe River was already rising, but the warning should have alerted authorities to react quickly to move people out of harms way.

In other court news, the ACLU is suing again to stop Trump's assault on birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court issued a ruling that could allow the government to deny citizenship to certain American-born children – so the ACLU is suing again. In an email to supporters, the group wrote:

In a bright spot for this litigation round-up, we should not ignore a huge loss for the Trump regime: "A federal judge ruled as unlawful an executive order by President Donald Trump that barred asylum by claiming an 'invasion' at the southern border and the need to protect states" (Wisconsin Examinar, July 2, 2025). The July 2 ruling prevents the Department of Homeland Security from enforcing the executive order. Although Judge Moss put his order on hold for 14 days to give the federal government time to appeal the ruling, he also "also agreed to certify a class for potential asylum-seekers, which comes after last week’s Supreme Court ruling that curtailed nationwide injunctions from lower courts. Certifying a class was suggested by the court to give judges an avenue to make an order broader."

In local court news, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at the results of today's hearing in the case of Judge Hannah Dugan: Once on a fast track, a trial for Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan now likely months off. A U.S. Magistrate Judge's report on the motion to dismiss the case recommended denying the motion. But that is not the end of the story. "During the four-minute hearing, the defense and prosecution agreed that the next round of filings on the defense's motion to dismiss will be filed later this month. Then it will be up to [U.S. District Judge] Adelman to rule on the motion in August at the earliest." Either way the case goes, the losing party can appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Nothing about our system of justice seems to be expeditious enough to meet the moment. And for the duration, presumably, Judge Dugan remains suspended with pay.

And while we're on the subject of litigation, I almost missed an announcement from mid-June that a Wisconsin lawsuit seeks to ban Elon Musk from offering $1 million checks to voters. "The lawsuit filed ... by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign says that Musk’s actions create 'the risk that Wisconsin elections will become an open auction, where votes go to the preferred candidates of the highest bidders and the election outcome is determined by which candidate has a patron willing and able to pay the highest sum to Wisconsin voters.'" Our own former chair, Debbie Patel, is one of the plaintifs in the suit. The remedy the suit seeks — an order that Musk and his affiliated PACs never offer similar payments to voters again — seems simple and obvious enough. With another supreme court election scheduled for April 2026, we will be watching!

Budgets, we like to say, are moral documents. They tell us what the authors value in unmistakeable terms. So before the president could sign the One Big, Bad Budget Bill into law on July 4, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffires used his "magic minute" to deliver the longest House speech in history — 8 hours and 46 minutes! — blasting the bill as immoral for taking from the poor to give even more riches to millionaires and billionaires. Although it was clear that the bill would pass, and that Democrats lacked the votes to prevent it, Jeffries' speech delayed the proceedings so that at least Republicans would have to hold their vote, not in the wee dark hours of the morning, but in the bright light of midday. His speech shone a rhetorical spotlight on the heart of the matter: the bill is "a giveaway to the wealthy that would strip low-income Americans of federally-back health insurance and food aid benefits" (Reuters, July 3, 2025).

At almost the same moment as the One Big, Bad Budget was being passed in Washington, Governor Evers signed the new biennium budget for Wisconsin, what he hailed as a welcome compromise. Here are the provisions the Washington Examiner highlighted: "The budget cuts taxes by $1.3 billion, makes investments in the University of Wisconsin system, boosts public schools’ special education reimbursement rate to 45% and allocates about $330 [million] for child care." The timing of Evers' signature was significant: "a provision in the state budget that increases a Medicaid-related hospital assessment from 1.8% to 6%, the current federal limit, to supplement the state’s Medicaid resources" needed to be signed into law before the president could sign his Big, Bad Budget Bill that would restrict Wisconsin (and all other states) from raising the assessment. That provision is "estimated to result in over $1 billion in additional Medicaid revenue that will go back to Wisconsin hospitals."

It's important to recognize that not all Democrats voted for the budget while some Republicans did. Wisconsin Public Radio notes that "In both the Assembly and the Senate, the bill had bipartisan support — as well as bipartisan opposition." Even though the bill passed in the Assembly, "most Democrats and one Republican opposed" it. Still, "during a long day of debate over the new state budget, Democratic lawmakers repeatedly said the [new legislative] maps ... made a difference." We may actually be seeing the positive effects of having fairer electoral maps because those new maps led to much smaller Republican majorities in both houses. Hence the need for compromise. Let's hear it for fairness, a quintessential American value.

COUNTY & STATE FAIR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER with the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County: "Please consider signing up for 1, 2, 3 or more shifts. This year, the State Fair runs July 31st–August 10th. We could really use your help and experience. It's important that we can represent Democratic Party values, find volunteers to win elections, give our friends the information they need, and let the other side know we're not going away. To do this we need people to volunteer at the State Fair Booth. The issues we face in the future are crucial and we will have the opportunity to come in contact with thousands of people during our time at the fair. We appreciate all the help that we get. There will be 3 shifts per day: 10:00 a.m.-2 p.m.; 2-6 p.m.; and 6-9 p.m. Free admission to the fair is included!" Sign up.

Sign up with the Fighting Oligarchy Coalition: The FOC is seeking volunteers to table/organize at county fairs around the state. FOC will have printed copies of the Economic Justice Bill of Rights flyers and other lit about the impacts of the Big Beautiful Bill. The sign-up form lists all the counties' fairs with in order by their dates so you can sign up for any one (or more) that you want. Sign up.

TAKE ACTION

SIGN UP FOR TRAINING with Indivisible: This summer, Indivisible is launching One Million Rising—a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation, as well as the basics of community organizing and campaign design. This is how we build people power that can’t be ignored. You’re invited to join us—and lead. Let’s build a force bigger than fear and louder than hate. Let’s get ready. Let’s get organized. Let’s stop Trump. Sign up.

POSTCARDS TO SWING STATES: "In just the first three weeks of sign-ups for our innovative News Boosting postcard program, volunteers have signed up to write 560,000 postcards. But we still have 2,568,960 postcards to go to complete this important study.

What is News Boosting? We're sending postcards with useful headlines to Democratic-leaning voters in Virginia to combat disinformation and to make sure they learn how harmful the Trump/GOP agenda is for most people. Target voters will receive 10 postcards between July and October—but each volunteer will send just one headline and have at least four weeks to write their 100+ cards before their assigned mailing date.

We're measuring the effectiveness of this new approach on both turnout and vote choice in a large randomized controlled experiment, which will help inform Democratic strategy." Sign up.

WRITE POSTCARDS FOR NOV 4, 2025 ELECTIONS: "Our large postcard campaign for the November 4 elections is well underway! We're just over halfway to our goal of sending 6.9 million postcards to rally Democrats to vote in the important November 4 elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Both Virginia and New Jersey have important gubernatorial and state legislative elections this fall. And in Pennsylvania, the Democratic majority on the state Supreme Court is at stake." Sign up.

NO MORE CUTS TO NOAA: The Union of Concerned Scientists and MoveOn have created a petition to Congress: "Protect NOAA: Our Safety in a Climate-Changed World Depends on It." Although the petition was created before the tragic flooding and loss of life in Texas, it seems especially apt right now. Sign the petitiion.

EVENTS

Friday, July 11

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Thursday, July 17

Saturday, July 19

Monday, July 21

Wednesday, July 23

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Wednesday, July 30

Saturday, August 2

Wednesday, August 6

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Saturday, August 16

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