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.

For the 4th of July holiday, let's begin the newsletter with uplifting, positive news for a change.

NO KINGS Day was a huge deal and a monumental success. G. Elliott Morris, author of the substack Strength in Numbers, undertook what he calls a collective crowdsourcing effort "involving many members of the independent data journalism community." Here's what that early report found:

Here in Milwaukee, at least 12,000 people turned out! Grassroots North Shore was no small part of its success: we provided a donation page to raise the funds needed for the sound system and the porta-potties and other rally needs and we provided lots of the publicity also. We owe a big thanks to Cheryl Maranto who did much of the heavy lifting for the event.

So give yourself a treat and watch Indivisible's compilation of the more than 2100 protest events nationwide. It takes about 2.5 minutes. The Milwaukee protest shows up at about 1:48. But the song playing over the images is well worth your time for the whole thing.

In other welcome news, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the 1849 law "that had banned abortions in nearly every situation" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 2, 2025). The MSJ piece makes sure you know that it was the liberal justices who "affirmed a lower court's previous decision that overturned the 19th Century law." Surprisingly, perhaps, the New York Times has a much more comprehensive account of the context and the effects of this latest Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in its article Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down 1849 Abortion Ban (gifted so you can get past the paywall).

There's mixed news about the bienniel budget in the works for Wisconsin. Yesterday, Republican and Democratic legislative leaders and Governor Tony Evers "reached a tentative agreement on the 2025-27 state budget, agreeing to invest hundreds of millions in the University of Wisconsin system, to create new grant and payment programs for child care facilities, further boost investment in special education and cut $1.3 billion in taxes" (Wisconsin Examiner, July 1. 2025). The deal, however, is not completely done: "elements of the spending plan could change before the final bill gets to Evers' desk" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 2, 2025). The legislature's Joint Finance Committee has released the bill. The Assembly and the state Senate will vote on it this week.

According to another article in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, complaints and unhappiness about the compromise have appeared both on the left and on the right. Wisconsin Public Education Network, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, WISDOM, W.E.C.A.N. ane WEAC released a joint statement statement detailing the bill's shortcomings from their perspective: Public Education, Health Care, Criminal Justice, and Child Care Advocates Urge NO Vote on State Budget Deal.

On the national front, the Senate squeaked out enough votes, with Vice President J.D. Vance providing the tie-breaker, to pass Trump's Big Bastard Budget Bill. But the Senate's amended version still needs to pass the House of Representatives where the so-called "Freedom Caucus" want yet more changes, as of 1:30 pm CDT on July 2, The Guardian reports: "It remains unclear if he [Speaker Mike Johnson] has the numbers needed to pass the bill as the House prepares to take a key procedural vote to get the bill closer to final passage." But there's still time to twist arms to get the product to the president's desk so he can sign it with his usual tacky flourishes on July 4, as he has been demanding.

In tariff news, there's this nugget: "Trump's tariffs beat up economy as private sector loses jobs in June." The Daily Kos post explains that "President Donald Trump's destructive trade policy appears to finally be having the devastating impact on the job market that economists predicted, as ADP reported on Wednesday that private employers shed 33,000 jobs in June amid uncertainty created by Trump’s nonsensical tariffs." Just as experts had foretold.

Finally in schadenfreude-inducing reports, the AP's headline reads "Tesla sales plunge again as anti-Musk boycott shows staying power and rivals pounce." The story emphasizes Musk's political views as a key driver: "Sales of Tesla electric cars fell sharply in the last three months as boycotts over Elon Musk's political views continue to keep buyers away, a significant development given expectations that anger with the company's billionaire CEO would have faded by now." The New York Times article, which I won't link to, blames Musk and the company's focus on self-driving cars rather than putting resources into new models aimed at attracting buyers and calling its current offerings an aging lineup.

TAKE ACTION

Support Judge Hannah Dugan: On Thursday, July 9, there is a hearing scheduled in the Judge Dugan case at the Federal Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee. A faith vigil outside the courthouse is schedule to begin at 7:30am with the program starting at 8:00am. The hearing is an in-person status hearing although Judge Dugan is not required to attend. The judge presiding over the case, Judge Lynn Adelman, has delayed the July 21 trial date in the federal criminal case to ensure there is enough time to rule thoughtfully on the defense's motion to dismiss the case altogether. So even though the defendant need not be present at this hearing, it's important for her supporters to show up! Hope you can make it.

The Omnibus Big Bad Budget Bill:It's not too late to call your Representative, especially if your rep. is a Republican, to register your view that the House member should vote NO on the reconciliation bill currently being "tweaked" so it can garner enough Republican votes. You can find the number for your congress person here. Call now! Especially if your representative is Glenn Grothman! (And by the way, after weeks if not months of swearing he could not possibly vote for the budget-busting bill the President is pushing, Senator Ron Johnson nevertheless voted "yes" when it came time to pass it.)

From the ACLU: Send a message to US Representatives. This piece mentions Medicaid cuts but really homes in on how its spending items "turbocharge President Trump’s mass deportation machine. The bill includes $170 billion for immigration enforcement – with $45 billion allocated for the detention of more than 750,000 children, families, and adults in ICE detention facilities notorious for abuse. " Send the message.

From the Democratic Pary of Milwaukee County: Volunteer with the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County at State Fair. This year, the State Fair runs July 31st–August 10th. 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! So Sign up for one or more shifts!

Any questions or having problems with sign up, please contact Mary Jonker, [email protected] or call 262-497-4672.

So we bombed Iran and all we have to show for it is this lousy Battle Damage Assessment (gifted from the New York Times, June 24, 2025) and this paltry newsletter!

Seriously, though, this will be a short one. Technically, I am on vacation. But stuff still happens, both nationally and in Wisconsin. In today's TAKE ACTION section, you will find two easy-peasy things to do, both urging you to contact an elected official to vote no or to veto some legislation. So when you get to that section, just pick up your phone or go to your computer and take care of business!

In addition to those two activities, Debbie Patel together with her co-host Brittany Vulich is holding a garden party to support the Comité sin Fronteras (Committee without Borders) on Sunday, June 29, at 3:00pm at her house (9130 N Spruce Rd, River Hills). It's a Friend- & Fund-Raiser Garden Party. So registration is required. The financial goal is to raise $5,000 at this event, which Debbie will match. Donations can be made online. All funds will be used to support immigrants in the greater Milwaukee area, and will go where the need is greatest.

Comité is a group of young immigrant leaders and activists focused on immigration reform. Today’s immediate focus is training volunteers to verify and document ICE raids. We do not interfere or break laws. Instead, we help immigrants know their rights, and bear witness when those rights are violated. This work helps all of us in the fight to protect democracy and the rule of law. Do what you can to get behind this effort. Donate here. Register to attend here.

A big topic in the national news is the fate of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" in Congress and, more importantly, in public opinion. Sahil Kapur at NBC News surveys the polls for us. One interesting poll he cites comes from Fox News: "A Fox News poll found that 38% of registered voters support the “One Big Beautiful Bill” based on what they know about it, while 59% oppose it." There are a bunch of other polls in his piece showing the same sort of public response. Read the whole thing.

While the Big, Ugly, MAGA-backed reconciliation bill bumbles along in the Senate, Wisconsin's legislature seems even more bizarre as it tries to pass its budget bill for the 2026-2028 biennium. Here's how the Wisconsin Examiner summarizes the current state of affairs: "With the state’s budget deadline less than a week away, the Wisconsin State Assembly approved a slate of bills that would create new programs but withheld funding, which Republicans said would come later. Democrats criticized Republicans, saying they couldn’t trust that the funding would actually be passed." Meanwhile Governor Evers has said publicly that he will not sign a budget if it fails to provide funding for the Child Care Counts program.

In an effort to see into the future — sort of like holding up a wet finger to the wind to find out what the weather will be like 18 months from now — a post in Daily Kos today (June 25, 2025), extrapolates from a very good primary for progressives in New York City and also in Syracuse and Buffalo. The blogger calls it a "strong night for left" and implies that it augers well for the midterms. Let's hope he's right.

And that's all for today. Stay cool but get busy.

TAKE ACTION

We expect the Big Bad Budget Bill debate to begin on the US Senate floor Wednesday evening, with a final vote on Thursday. The House may vote on the final version on Friday or into early next week. Contact Senator Ron Johnson and tell him to VOTE NO!

Contact information for Senator Johnson:
email web form
phone his Washington, D.C., office: (202) 224-5323.
phone his Milwaukee office: (414) 276-7282.

CALL TO ACTION: Urge Governor Evers to VETO the Modern-Day Poll Tax  
Wisconsin lawmakers just passed AB 87 / SB 95, a bill that would strip voting rights from people with past convictions unless they can afford to pay restitution and fees, even after serving their time and completing probation. Let’s be clear: this is not about justice. This is a Jim Crow-style poll tax designed to silence voters and suppress turnout, particularly in Black and brown communities. We need your voice right now to help stop it. TAKE ACTION NOW: Send a letter to Gov. Evers using this form. Learn more from the CCWI Press Release.

Before we get to the part where we can crow and chortle over our successes on June 14, Grassroots North Shore is already looking to the next big thing for us: Wisconsin Helps Wisconsin Volunteer Fair. As Professor Timothy Snyder exhorted the 100,000+ people at the NO KINGS Rally in Philadelphia, "We act together today and we DO SOMETHING TOGETHER tomorrow." That's because freedom comes after we kick out the kings, the wannabe dictators and tyrants through struggle, together. So Sunday, June 22, we are coming together in Doctors Park (1870 E Fox Ln, Fox Point) from 4:00 - 5:30pm, to meet, hear from, and sign up with a range of grassroots groups who will be undertaking various actions that collectively advance the cause of freedom for our families and our futures. I hope you'll be there to carry on the struggle.

In case you haven't heard, a HUGE number of people turned out for the NO KINGS events — old, young, black, brown, white and everything in between. We demonstrated and marched as American patriots, a melting pot of opposition to the current regime whose goal on that day was to suppress, intimidate, and frighten people — after all, that was the message the illegal deployment of the California National Guard and the US Marines over the objections of Mayor Bass and Governor Newsom was supposed to send to the rest of us. We understood the message. We just chose to defy it. To get a sense of the diversity, the energy, and the sheer size of the more than 2,100 NO KINGS events, Indivisible created this NO KINGS Indivisible mash-up. You should take some time to watch it: Milwaukee and Baltimore (where I was that day) both make the cut!

The Milwaukee rally attracted more than 12,000 people, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. Cathedral Square Park was packed with an overflow crowd who stood off to the side in the shade. Cheryl Maranto, co-chair of Grassroots North Shore and an essential participant in the planning committee, deserves our thanks and congratulations: she worked with the city to obtain the necessary permits, to provide the insurance certificate, to rent the portapotties, and to make sure the police were notified and prepared to ensure the safety of the protesters. As the Examiner notes, "There was no evidence of property destruction or clashes with police, and counter protesters were nowhere in sight." It was a great and glorious day!

Because I was in Baltimore on June 14, I had to find a demonstration I could attend with my family and friends, including our 8 year old grandson. So we all went to one in Catonsville, a Baltimore suburb where, as it happens, my husband was born and raised. A blogger at Daily Kos posted about it: "there appeared to be some 700-800 people at the protest in Catonsville." We all had made signs and wore matching NOPE t-shirts in a range of colors.

The number of participants nationwide is still somewhat in flux, as you can imagine. Some of the NO KINGS events took place in highly visible and centralized locations, such as the ones in Philly, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, and LA. But many took place in small locations, like Eagle River, WI! Getting all the data from so many different places takes a bit of doing. The substack Strength in Numbers published an account of the data from about 40% of the events and extrapolated from there. The result? "According to our back-of-the-envelope math, that puts total attendance somewhere in the 4-6 million people range. That means roughly 1.2-1.8% of the U.S. population attended a No Kings Day event somewhere in the country yesterday."

The centerpiece of the day, of course, was supposed to be Trump's military parade ostensibly to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US Army but really to celebrate his 79th birthday. So how did it go? Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo reports. The Biggest Loser: The Public Is Rejecting Trump’s Degenerate Police State Antics. "The soldiers manning the tanks trundling down the city streets were all smiles, waving at the admittedly sparse crowd, saying “hi” to kids. I don’t think that’s the kind of parade Trump wanted. That’s not what a strongman’s military parade looks like. The soldiers are impassive. Their eyes are fixed on El Jefe. This wasn’t that."

Here's how Rex Huppke in USA Today (June 16, 2025) assessed it: "All he wanted was to celebrate his 79th birthday with a massive military parade that made him look powerful, scary and beloved. Instead, thanks to millions of Americans and their stupid First Amendment rights, he got a derpy, dull parade overshadowed by massive nationwide protests denouncing him."

Charles Pierce, writing I Went to Trump’s Military Parade. Everything About It Was Wrong in Esquire, called the parade "this leaden spectacle." He goes on to say "I have never experienced such a joyless, lifeless, and sterile mass event in my entire life. Grim-faced soldiers, marching past half-empty grandstands, many of them obviously wanting to be somewhere else. No bands. Little bunting. Just piped-in rock music and MAGA hats. If this truly was meant to honor the 250 years of the United States Army, all we got was an endless procession of uniformed troops looking like they’d prefer to have been at Valley Forge."

The nationwide protests carried the day and the military parade was a flop. But those events were marred by the assassination of Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. Another legislator and his wife were wounded but survived. Although several prominent Republicans used their official social media accounts to condemn the violence, some — including Representative Derrick Van Orden — used their personal accounts to joke about it or to insinuate that the shooter was a liberal or to point fingers at Governor Walz. See the story in Monday's Journal Sentinel. Shame on them. Senator Baldwin, Representative Pocan, and Representative Moore were among the other 70 or so names on the assassin's list of targets. Let's hope the shooter does not become a model for others.

And in other news, Trump flip-flops on ICE raid policies. First he announced on Thursday, June 12, that immigrant farm workers — including aquaculture, meat-packing plants — and those in the hotel and leisure businesses would be exempt from the mass deportation effort currently underway. But TACO Don reversed course, as we knew he would, once "pressure from Stephen Miller and other anti-immigration zealots in the Trump administration convinced the president to flip-flop again and re-start the ICE raids." Needless to say, the on-again-off-again policy deeply affects Wisconsin and other states with large agricultural and hospitality concerns. So much so that "one of its biggest business groups, the MMAC wants a policy stopping the deportations of workers needed in all industries" (Urban Milwaukee, June 17, 2025). Deporting lots of immigrants sounds great until one's own ox (or cow) is gored!

I'll leave you this week with some Gandhi wisdom: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." I think we're at the laughing at us and fighting us stages. Next up, WINNING!

TAKE ACTION

From Wisconsin Public Education Network: It is not too late to raise our voices about the terribly inadequate budget proposal put forward by Joint Finance Republicans last week: every legislator still has to vote on this, and the Joint Finance Committee is not the final decider on what the budget will look like. Both houses now have the power to improve this budget, and the governor has the power to reject any budget that fails to meet the needs of our kids and their public schools. With exactly two weeks until the July 1 target date for budget signage, now is the time to be a voice for Wisconsin kids and their public schools!

• Sign our letter to Governor Evers calling on him to reject any budget that does not meet Wisconsin's needs & priorities: sign on here and share widely (both individuals and organizations may sign).
  
  
• Contact your legislators: It's time to connect with our own lawmakers across the state to tell our local stories and make sure they know what’s at stake for local students. This is about meeting kids’ needs and providing them with the conditions it takes to thrive in our public schools. Let them know you appreciate our public schools and expect an investment in the 2025-2027 state budget that puts kids first. See our budget priorities here in English and in Spanish.

From LuAnn Bird (Birds on a Wire): The vote on the big awful budget bill is coming up in the Senate, perhaps as soon as this week. LuAnn writes, "Our Senator Ron Johnson was a no vote! He is adamantly opposed to adding to the debt, but after a conversation with Trump last week he started waffling! We can't let that happen! Now is the time to be a Superhero and use your superpowers - calls, letters, emails, etc. to make your views known. We know he does not care about the cuts but he does care about the budget deficit. Here is a script you can use!""

The next big nationwide event to show the strength of opposition to TRUMP 2.0 is happening in about 10 days. The more than 1,400 peaceful demonstrations registered with the NO KINGS site provide both national and local media a response to our dictator-wannabe's expensive military parade — an unprecedented display most commonly seen in authoritarian countries. The date for NO KINGS (and for Trump's parade) is hardly random. June 14 is Flag Day, the 250 birthday for the US Army (so they say), but most importantly our TACO's 79th birthday. The numbers we bring to the streets will show a different kind of strength — without any armaments or threats of any kind.

I hope all of you will attend a rally. In Wisconsin, there are at least 46 separate NO KINGS events, including in such unlikely places as Eagle River, Minocqua, Baraboo, West Bend, Cedarburg, Brookfield, and Delavan! Large, boisterous, and inspiring events will take place in Milwaukee — at Cathedral Square Park (520 E Wells St, Milwaukee, from noon to 2:00pm) — and in Madison (at the UW Library Mall from 2:00 - 5:00pm).

Not in Milwaukee or Madison or even in Wisconsin? Find a rally near where you'll be on the NO KINGS site. Sign up for one (just click on the map's circle for the location you want and you will see an RSVP link for that rally). Encourage like-minded friends and family to join you. And if you have a Bluesky account, make sure you SPREAD THE WORD by posting one of the NO KINGS promotions you'll find below the nationwide map of events. There are SIX varieties to choose from.

Also, we could use a little help from our supporters to cover the cost of renting a robust sound system, some portapotties, and a clean-up crew. You can make a donation online or you can send a check: please make the check out to Grassroots North Shore and include "NO KINGS" on the memo line. Send your check to PO Box 170684, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53217-8056. We deeply appreciate whatever support you can give: publicizing the rally, showing up, bring friends and family wiith you, and giving some financial support. It all counts.

Ghastly news, alas, keeps pouring in. Right here in Milwaukee, a man allegedly "tried to get a witness in the armed robbery case against him deported so he wouldn’t be able to testify. Seizing on anti-immigrant fervor, the man sent letters in the name of the witness threatening to assassinate President Trump. The witness was arrested, but law enforcement eventually figured out the scheme and have filed new charges against the imposter" (Talking Points Memo, June 4, 2025). And ICE or HSI or who knows who tried to pose as utility workers (Arizona Daily Star ), using the deception to try to enter the home of a man they were seeking — without any kind of warrant I might add. A quick-thinking neighbor intervened to prevent the imposters from arresting the man who lived there.

As the verbal attacks on judges emanating from the administration continue apace, "Federal judges across several states are being delivered unsolicited pizza orders — an act of harassment and attempted intimidation, they say, from people who are unhappy with their rulings involving President Donald Trump." Judge Esther Salas, whose son was killed by a faux pizza delivery man, knows what it means: “'We know the first is, ‘I know where you live.’ Second is, ‘We know where your children live.’ And the third now is, ‘Do you want to end up like Judge Salas? Do you want to end up like Daniel?'” (Truthout, May 13, 2025).

Lying, cheating, wearing masks, excoriating and arresting judges, arresting mayors, arresting congressional representatives, deporting people without due process, deporting people who have protective orders, deporting people by "mistake" and then shrugging about it: it's all in the MAGA playbook. But we do not need to be silent about these egregious actions. We WILL make our voices heard!

There's a smidgeon of good news, though, coming from the few town halls Republicans are holding. Call it "buyer's remorse." Here's a Newsweek article: Has Trump Buyer's Remorse Already Set In?. The New York Times (gifted article) chimes in: After Muscling Their Bill Through the House, Some Republicans Have Regrets. There's the response to Senator Joni Ernst's bizarre "We're all going to die" remark when asked about the deaths that will follow from Medicaid cuts (Bloomberg News). And of course there's Elon's implicit threat to primary every Republican House member: "'Shame on those who voted for it,' said Musk, hinting that he may try to unseat the politicians responsible at next year's midterm elections" (BBC News, June 4, 2025). Good luck with trying to unseat all of the 215 Republicans who voted for it. And does that mean he'd support Democrats? Geez. That'll be the day.

So our job now is to work on ramping up the buyer's remorse out there. We have roughly 18 months until the 2026 elections. Now is the time to hone messages and to make plans. We need to flip a minimum of two state Senate seats and a handful of state Assembly seats (and of course elect a Democratic Governor) to enjoy control of state policy. We will also need to help flip the US Congress. And just our luck, there are two possible candidates — even if the congressional electoral maps don't change in time for the 2026 elections. So we have a concept of a plan. We'll be seeking volunteers to help lead and execute it, though. So we are counting on your grit and persistence!

Meanwhile, as we prepare for what is bound to be a busy and impactful political year, a lot of the focus in the news right now has been on the Medicaid cuts the big, ugly bill proposes. To see just how the cuts are likely to affect each congressional district, the Center for America Progress (CAP) has put together a tool to show how many Medicaid recipients are in each district and how much funding will be lost in each district if the bill passes as is. Medicaid expansion could significantly mitigate the cuts, though. The Department of Health Services explains that expanding Medicaid (aka BadgerCare) is the "'cornerstone' of its two-year budget proposal. It projects that taking federal dollars to expand Medicaid would lower state health-care costs by $1.9 billion over the next biennium, which runs from July 1 through June 30, 2027" (Public Health Watch, May 29, 2025). You know what to do: call your Assembly and Senate representatives to discuss the issue.

CAP has also provided an interactive map that will allow you to explore DOGE Cuts by City, State, and Congressional District. A cursory glance at the data suggests some political targeting, with a large number of cuts in the two congressional districts represented by Democrats. But the disparities might also reflect the number of grants at the two state research universities — UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. Or a combination of retribution and going where the money is.

Let's get busy.

TAKE ACTION

From Indivisible: Email your senators -- Republicans and Democrats -- to demand they speak out LOUDLY against the No Contempt Clause! The GOP hid a reckless provision to shield Trump officials from contempt of court in their Medicaid-slashing megabill. We need to get Republican senators on the record about that sneak-attack on democracy -- and push Democrats to disrupt Republicans’ anti-democracy agenda with every tool at their disposal.

Also from Indivisible: Call folks in key states to connect them with GOP senators and disrupt the Republican Tax Scam. As the Senate rewrites the reconciliation bill, we’re making sure vulnerable senators hear from their angry constituents by calling people to connect them directly to senators' offices! Phonebanks happen weekly, and anyone can join with just a phone and computer. Here’s a recorded phonebank training to hit the ground running!. Phone banks are scheduled on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 - 11:30am CDT through June 26.

From the League of Progressive Seniors: "Call our US Senators and tell them not to cut Medicaid and Medicare. Remind them that Wisconsin spends $ 2.1 billion a year to pay for long term care for the elderly and disabled persons. Medicaid covers the cost for about 6 in every 10 persons in nursing homes. If federal funds are cut WHO WILL PAY ?

Call:
Senator Ronald Johnson : DC Office 202-224-5323; Local Office 414-276-7282.
Senator Tammy Baldwin : DC office 202-224-5653; Local Office 414-297-4451.

And while you have them on the line, remind them to read the bill carefully and remove language that allows the administration to ignore the rule of law!"

From WAVE: Yesterday, some legislators introduced a package of lifesaving gun violence prevention bills. "The package includes some of our top policy priorities—evidence-based measures shown to reduce gun deaths in states where these policies are already law. It contains bills to:

• Require background checks on all gun sales – because Wisconsin must keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of already-prohibited people.
• Create an extreme risk law – because those closest to someone in a crisis must be empowered to stop a tragedy.
• Reinstate the 48-hour waiting period, which Republicans rescinded – because rage and despair should never pull the trigger.
• Prohibit ghost guns – because untraceable firearms keep showing up at crime scenes.

" WAVE points out that the measures won't move forward without bipartisan backing. So contact your legislators today and urge them to support these bills!

Postcards to Swing States: "Sign-ups for our postcard programs for this November's elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are off to a great start — click here to order those now. So far, volunteers have signed up to write 4 million postcards with us this year."

The page of instructions notes that the stamps currently cost $0.56. But it does not note that the price will increase to $0.62 on July 13. Since it takes up to 4 weeks for you to receive your postcards, you might want to purchase the stamps for them now.

The big news this week is the emergence of a progressive candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court. Judge Chris Taylor, who currently sits on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in District IV, has announced her candidacy. She will face current Justice Rebecca Bradley who is running for reelection. More about Justice Bradley below.

Judge Taylor served in the Wisconsin Assembly from 2012 to 2020, when Governor Evers appointed Taylor to the Circuit Court in 2020. She was elected to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in 2023. Before her election to the Assembly, she served as the public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. You can read more about her values and her career at her website. See also her X (Twitter), her Facebook page, and her Instagram.

It's early days yet and it's possible other candidates will emerge in the next few months. But if you are so moved, you can donate online. Or you can donate by check. Make the check out to Chris Taylor for Justice and send it to PO Box 1921, Madison, WI 53701. Just remember: early money is like yeast; it makes the dough rise!

Now about Justice Bradley. Here she is in her own words after the election of Susan Crawford to the Supreme Court:

Her pretense of caring about judicial politicization is pretty rich, coming from a justice whose "right-wing partisan activism has earned her an award from the Federalist Society, an extreme group that seeks to exert dangerous right-wing influence on courts and judicial systems both nationwide and right here in Wisconsin" (from A Better Wisconsin Together Press Release, December 5, 2024). According to a piece in the Wisconsin Examiner, "the award was for her 'work on behalf of' the right-wing legal group’s 'legal principles.'”

In an undated McGiver Institute article, three of Bradley's dissenting opinions on the court come in for special praise. She has

As the campaign progresses, we are likely to hear much, much more from the "conservative" echo chamber that supports her and from the Taylor campaign.

Before turning our attention to the fire-hose of excrement emanating from D.C., there's news on the legal action with Judge Hannah Dugan. On Wednesday, July 9, there will be a hearing to handle pre-trial motions at the Federal Courthouse in Milwaukee. The trial date has been set for July 21. On both dates, rallies to support her will take place. Unless of course the motion to dismiss that her lawyers filed the day before she was arraigned is successful! The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes, however, that the motion to dismiss "will take time to play out. The government will need to reply, and then there may need to be oral arguments." Stay tuned for rally news!

The national news is both laughable — see Kristi Noem's explanation of the writ of habeas corpus — and dire. As Katherine Clark, Democratic Whip calls it, the "big, bad bill that benefits billionaires" will explode the deficit "so badly it will trigger automatic cuts, including over half a trillion dollars from Medicare." So the $880 billion cut from Medicaid that will cause more than "seven million Americans to lose health insurance and millions more to face higher medical costs" (a partial CBO estimate, The Bulwark, May 18, 2025) is not a big enough cut to make the bill revenue neutral. Meaning that it will not match new expenditures — chiefly the big, beautiful tax cuts for billionaires — with new revenue and so will increase the deficit. "According to the CBO, the bill's addition to the deficit would trigger a process known as sequestration under the Statutory Pay‑As‑You‑Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010" (Common Dreams, May 21, 2025). And that means BIG CUTS TO MEDICARE (and a lot of other stuff too).

You know what to do, right? Call your Congressional Representative and your Senators right now! Republicans don't have the votes yet to pass the monstrosity. In fact in an article published at noon today, ABC News is reporting that "a last-minute White House meeting that sources tell ABC News is between President Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republican holdouts on Wednesday afternoon comes as the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill Act' appears to be in big, bad trouble." So call NOW! The League of Conservation Voters has How to Call Your Members of Congress in 3 Steps to guide you through.

And this hot off the press: Talking Points Memo is covering the blow-by-blow of an emergency hearing before Federal Judge Brian Murphy today about more deportations without hearings, with the issue of criminal contempt in the mix. The judge has noted that the case involves a large number of errors, some perhaps verging on lies the government has offered under oath: "'Everyone who is involved in an illegal deportation risks criminal contempt from the lowest person involved all the way up,' Murphy said" (Talking Points Memo, May 21, 2025).

So while I was eating lunch, Judge Murphy issued a ruling: "the Trump administration had violated an order he issued last month barring officials from deporting people to countries not their own without first giving them sufficient time to object. The finding was one of the strongest judicial rebukes the administration has faced so far in a series of contentious cases arising from its sprawling deportation agenda." Exactly what Judge Murphy will do now is uncertain. And of course a number of other federal courts are engaged in examining similar issues.

On the retribution front, the Trump administration has now charged a sitting member of Congress with a felony and opened an investigation into Andrew Cuomo, now running for Mayor of New York City, and another into James Comey for some reason. Trump's also pursuing Attorney General Letitia James, Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, and probably some dog catcher somewhere who once contributed to a Democrat. The charges against Ras Baraka, Mayor of Newark, have been dropped. I suspect these other ones will be too. Can the Trump Administration's lawsuits be dismissed as frivolous? That'll be the day.

TAKE ACTION

The budget reconciliation bill threatens to deliver severe blows to our less fortunate friends and neighbors. And the tariffs are going to exacerbate the problems by accelerating inflation. Each of us needs to call our House representative and our two senators, repeatedly, to register our opposition to the "big, beautiful bill" or ANY TAX CUTS FOR BILLIONAIRES and our opposition to the tariffs Trump capriciously imposes and changes at will. You can use 5 calls for a whole host of issues, including the two I have focused on here.

From the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin: Contact Your Assembly Rep: Support Extending Medicaid Services to 1 Year Postpartum. The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin supports the passage of Assembly Bill 97, the companion bill of SB 23 which was passed almost unanimously by the Senate on April 22, 2025! This bill extends postpartum healthcare for one year after giving birth for those who are Medicaid eligible. Currently, postpartum care for those who are Medicaid eligible is only 60 days, with Wisconsin and Arkansas as the only states not providing one year coverage.

We are asking voters to call their state legislators in the Assembly to urge them to request that the Speaker of the Assembly bring the bill to the floor for a vote and to pass AB 97. There is overwhelming bipartisan support for this bill–yet, the bill still has not passed for over 2 years because it has not been brought to the floor for a vote.

A phone call script and more info here. Find your legislators.

{{broadcaster.name}}
www.grassrootsnorthshore.com

As you already know, Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested — and in a way that would maximize her humiliation AND intimidate judges everywhere. It has not and will not deter judges from ruling according to the Constitution and the law. More on legal developments below.

The next step in the judicial process for Judge Dugan is her arraignment at the Milwaukee Federal Courthouse on Thursday, May 15. Hannah has been a long-time member of Grassroots North Shore and regularly attends our events. Grassroots North Shore is co-sponsoring the Defend Our Democracy: Protect Our Freedoms rally outside the courthouse (517 E. Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee) from 7:30am to 10:30am. So we need to show her some extra love. Please join the democracy defense watch outside her arraignment. We demand that the charges be dropped and that Judge Dugan be freed so she can return to presiding in her courtroom.

The Trump regime wants to silence our voices and strip away our right to due process. We will not let them take away our freedoms! As you have undoubtedly heard, Tom Homan (Trump's so-called "border czar") issued a vague threat to arrest our governor for the "crime" of providing guidance to state employees if ICE or other agents show up in their offices. Governor Evers responded: "I am not afraid." And neither should we be. So show up for Hannah. Show up for freedom from oppressive government actions! (You can see Governor Evers's full response to the threat.)

Turning to judicial action in outside of Wisconsin, Trump recently directed the Department of Justice to try to free Tina Peters, former county clerk for Mesa County, Colorado. "In August, Peters was found guilty by a jury of Mesa County residents on seven counts, including four felonies, after she helped facilitate unauthorized access to county voting equipment that she was supposed to safeguard in search of voter fraud." (CPR News, May 5, 2025). Peters is currently serving a nine-year sentence for state crimes. So Trump cannot pardon her outright as he did all the January 6 insurrections. The attempt to free Peters while his administration threatens governors and congress people and judges whose rulings he dislikes provides further evidence of Trump's MO: for my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.

But so far, the law in at least some areas is not yielding. In the last few days, three different federal judges have ruled that the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 cannot be the basis for removing — or as one judge put it, snatching — people off the streets and sending them directly to a gulag in El Salvador without any opportunity for those arrested to contest the claim that they are members of a Venezuelan gang. "Two more federal judges on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s use of deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, saying the wartime power shouldn’t be used. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the administration is indefinitely blocked from removing migrants from the Southern District of New York under the act.... US District Judge Charlotte Sweeney [in Colorado], an appointee of former President Joe Biden, similarly said that Trump had likely exceeded his authority in trying to use the wartime authority for quick deportations" (CNN Politics, May 6, 2025").

In another significant win for the Constitution and the rule of law, Judge Beryl A. Howell issued a 102-page summary judgment in the Perkins Coie LLP case. The suit arises from an executive order that "terminates government contracts with the firm's clients, denies employees of the firm access to federal buildings, and suspends security clearances for firm employees" (Lawfare Litigation Tracker). Howell's opinion begins "No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies [emphasis added] but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: 'The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.' ... Eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power" (Memorandum Opinion, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, May 2, 2025). [I've edited the text to remove all the legal citations.]

The opinion concludes:

Indeed, the courts are finding themselves flooded with cases challenging the current administration's Executive Orders and actions. If you have the patience to look through them, you can find a listing of them, together with when the listing was last updated and its current status, in Lawfare's Trump Administration Litigation Tracker. It covers more than 220 cases and counting.

In a long and erudite piece, Quinta Jurecic tackles The Courts Versus Trump, Then and Now (Lawfare, May 7, 2025). She finds the courts more effective and more willing to take on what she calls "an aberrant executive."

It's a relief to know that the justice system as a whole has learned some lessons from the first Trump administration and is more willing to act to stop executive overreach, at least as Jurecic tells it. As lawyers and judges do their jobs and continue to uphold the law, we must also do our part. Here are five actions you can and should take in the next eight days or so.

TAKE ACTION

Worth Fighting For WI meeting, 7:00pm Monday May 12 (virtual): “Fighting Tyranny (MAGA): The Immigration / Education Edition”

With so much going wrong, it’s hard to know where to focus. But the fight for both immigrants’ rights (actually EVERYONE’s due process rights) and public education seem top of mind in Wisconsin right now, so that’s the focus of the WFFWi meeting on May 12. Guests include Immigration lawyer Cain Oulahan, immigration activist/organizer Iuscely Flores, WI DPI Superintendent Jill Underly, and UW Madison Professor of Educational Policies Studies Nancy Kendall. Register now.

DEFEND DEMOCRACY: Protect Our Freedoms, Thursday, May 15, 7:30 - 10:30am at the Milwaukee Federal Courthouse (517 E Wisconsin Ave). We will hold a press conference and a rally to support Judge Hannah Dugan and to everyone's right to due process. We are demanding that the charges against Judge Dugan be dropped and that she is freed. Please join us.

Become a delegate to the Democratic State Convention being held at Chula Vista Resort in the Wisconsin Dells on June 14th and 15th! You can find more information, buy a Convention ticket, and fill out a 2025 State Convention Delegate Form. PLEASE NOTE: This form will stop accepting submissions at 4:59 PM on Saturday, May 17th. If you wish to request delegate status between May 17th and the final deadline for County Parties to submit their delegate & alternate lists on May 24th at 5pm, you must communicate directly with your County Party by May 23rd.

Individuals who wish to serve as delegates must be a WisDems member in good standing whose membership is set to expire no earlier than June 15th, 2025. Join or renew your membership.

Support the passage of Assembly Bill 97, the companion bill of SB 23 which was just passed almost unanimously by the Senate on April 22, 2025! This bill extends postpartum healthcare for one year after giving birth for those who are Medicaid eligible. Currently, postpartum care for those who are Medicaid eligible is only 60 days, with Wisconsin and Arkansas as the only states not providing one year coverage.

We are asking voters to call their state legislators in the Assembly to urge them to request that the Speaker of the Assembly bring the bill to the floor for a vote and to pass AB 97. There is overwhelming bipartisan support for this bill–yet, the bill still has not passed for over 2 years because it has not been brought to the floor for a vote. Find your legislators.

You can use the following script in order to contact the Representatives for your district. Phone calls are more effective, but emails are a valid option as well:

"My name is (your full name) and I live at (full address). I’m calling to urge (Representative's name) to support AB 97, the bill that expands Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 1 year postpartum. This bill is critical to pass in order to prevent pregnancy-related deaths of 50 women in Wisconsin, on average, who die every year. Over half of these deaths occur within 1 year postpartum and 90% of these deaths are preventable with adequate healthcare, according to the Wisconsin Maternal Mortality Review Team. Passing AB 97 has long-term humanitarian and economic benefits by keeping parents alive and families intact. Please don’t let Wisconsin be the last state in the US to pass this important legislation! Thank you for your attention and consideration."

Participate in Municipal Clerk Appreciation Week - May 4-11, 2025
During of the week of May 4-11, we must pause to recognize the municipal clerks who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure our elections are secure, accessible, and fair. Their dedication to accuracy, transparency, and service is foundational to our democracy — and to the work we do as League members.

Whether they’re processing voter registrations, managing polling places, or answering late-night questions, clerks are trusted stewards of the democratic process in every Wisconsin community.

Let’s show our gratitude! Reach out to your local clerk this week with a thank-you note, social media shoutout, or kind word. Together, we can lift up the public servants who make our elections possible.

he big news in Wisconsin — and in fact nationally (see coverage in the New York Times on April 26 as well as a more recent piece from NBC News on April 29 for examples) — is the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan. Lots of virtual ink has been devoted to this matter because it may have been intended as yet another act of judicial intimidation from the Trump administration. 

Grassroots North Shore has supported Judge Dugan in the past and she is a member in good standing of our organization. I personally cannot imagine that she would ever deliberately break the law! But the Trumpies seem to want to humiliate her by arresting her in a parking lot and handcuffing her there. These are not normal ways of treating someone who has no criminal record and is hardly a flight risk!

Although a former Department of Justice prosecutor, writing in Lawfare.org, concludes that the case is both more nuanced and complicated than it may first appear, he does note that the government's process for obtaining Dugan's arrest have a number of other "unusual" elements.

• The agents arrested Dugan on the basis of what's called a "criminal complaint" rather than a grand jury indictment.
• The facts alleged in the complaint "reflect only the government’s account of what happened."
• And the investigation of the alleged acts took a mere six days, not really long enough for a thorough examination of the matter.

Plus, the prosecutors are now on a clock: "a criminal complaint starts the clock on charges in a case that undoubtedly could benefit from additional investigative work. Once the federal government arrests an individual, it has by statute 30 days to file an information or obtain an indictment from a grand jury. And one of the offenses listed in the criminal complaint is felony obstruction of justice, which requires the government to seek an indictment from a grand jury."

Apparently, there will be court proceedings in the case on May 15. Stay tuned for information about a rally and/or march in support of Judge Dugan.

Meanwhile, the awfulness emanating from Washington, D.C., continues on its speedy way. There's so much of it that a lot never makes it to major news resources, let alone above the no-longer-relevant "fold." One such item, one of the latest Executive Orders (EO), is worrying. The headline in Newsweek announces "Trump Executive Order Raises Alarm Over Women's Financial Independence."

Here's the meat of it: The EO "calls for an evaluation of all pending proceedings under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), which was first passed in 1974 and amended in 1976 to prevent lenders from discriminating against women based on marital status." And here's why I find it so troubling: "Prior to the ECOA, women could be asked to have a male relative or spouse co-sign for their credit cards or loans." I was one of those women who, in the early 1970s when I began my graduate degree, could not get credit in my own name! And this dismantling of protections against the discrimination of women is just a minor arm of a much bigger monster.

In fact this latest affront is of a piece with disbanding the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, a move that led to over a hundred career lawyers quitting their jobs. It's just one more assault on communities who won anti-discrimination laws in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

One problem Trump and his minions have with such laws is that many of them depend on "disparte impacts" rather than deliberate prejudice from bankers or police or other local officials. That is, the effects of some process or procedure may on its face be racially neutral or not take gender explicitly into account, but the results show that the process or procedure nevertheless has a disproportionately negative effect on a protected group. But that's just a convenient rationale. The real reason, it seems, is Trump's campaign of retribution.

Here's ABC News: "The resignations come as [Harmeet] Dhillon and Attorney General Pam Bondi have made clear the priorities of the division -- which was established in the wake of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s -- would shift away from priorities like enforcing voting rights laws and cracking down on unconstitutional policing to culture war issues touted by President Trump in his 2024 campaign" (emphasis added).

The New York Times (a gift article) provides greater, in-depth coverage of the issues:

We're headed into a really dark patch, back to the bad old days when people could freely deny other people their rights based on some protected characteristic such as race or gender. So it seems, when this administration is finally history, we're going to have build the whole edifice of anti-discrimination law and practice all over again.

The Take Action and the Events Listings are both full of important things to do over the next few weeks. So worry less and do more!

TAKE ACTION

At its state convention, the Wisconsin Democratic Party will elect a new chair. Needless to say, it's a consequential moment for us. To be able to vote for chair, you need to be a member of the party AND to be a delegate to the convention.

Become a delegate to the Democratic State Convention being held at Chula Vista Resort in the Wisconsin Dells on June 14th and 15th! You can find more information, buy a Convention ticket, and fill out a 2025 State Convention Delegate Form. PLEASE NOTE: This form will stop accepting submissions at 4:59 PM on Saturday, May 17th. If you wish to request delegate status between May 17th and the final deadline for County Parties to submit their delegate & alternate lists on May 24th at 5pm, you must communicate directly with your County Party by May 23rd.

Individuals who wish to serve as delegates must be a WisDems member in good standing whose membership is set to expire no earlier than June 15th, 2025. Join or renew your membership.

Municipal Clerk Appreciation Week - May 4-11, 2025
During of the week of May 4-11, we must pause to recognize the municipal clerks who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure our elections are secure, accessible, and fair. Their dedication to accuracy, transparency, and service is foundational to our democracy — and to the work we do as League members.

Whether they’re processing voter registrations, managing polling places, or answering late-night questions, clerks are trusted stewards of the democratic process in every Wisconsin community.

Let’s show our gratitude! Reach out to your local clerk this week with a thank-you note, social media shoutout, or kind word. Together, we can lift up the public servants who make our elections possible.

LWVWI SUPPORTS EXTENDING MEDICAID COVERAGE TO ONE YEAR FOR POSTPARTUM MOTHERS

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin supports the passage of Assembly Bill 97, the companion bill of SB 23 which was just passed almost unanimously by the Senate on April 22, 2025! This bill extends postpartum healthcare for one year after giving birth for those who are Medicaid eligible. Currently, postpartum care for those who are Medicaid eligible is only 60 days, with Wisconsin and Arkansas as the only states not providing one year coverage.

We are asking voters to call their state legislators in the Assembly to urge them to request that the Speaker of the Assembly bring the bill to the floor for a vote and to pass AB 97. There is overwhelming bipartisan support for this bill–yet, the bill still has not passed for over 2 years because it has not been brought to the floor for a vote. Find your legislators.

You can use the following script in order to contact the Representatives for your district. Phone calls are more effective, but emails are a valid option as well:

"My name is (your full name) and I live at (full address). I’m calling to urge (Representative's name) to support AB 97, the bill that expands Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 1 year postpartum. This bill is critical to pass in order to prevent pregnancy-related deaths of 50 women in Wisconsin, on average, who die every year. Over half of these deaths occur within 1 year postpartum and 90% of these deaths are preventable with adequate healthcare, according to the Wisconsin Maternal Mortality Review Team. Passing AB 97 has long-term humanitarian and economic benefits by keeping parents alive and families intact. Please don’t let Wisconsin be the last state in the US to pass this important legislation! Thank you for your attention and consideration."

Finally, here is Simon Rosenberg's action item: "Plan on calling your Senators and Reps this week and demand that Congress claw back its authority and rescind these tariffs. 13 states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont — have sued the Trump Administration to have the tariffs rolled back. If your state is not on this list call your Governor, Attorney General and state Senators and Reps and demand they join these legal challenges" (Hopium Chronicles, April 26, 2025).

Let's begin with some more election data both statewide and in Milwaukee County. According to analysis by the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County, turnout was very high for a spring election. Statewide, it reached 61.7% of registered voters. In Milwaukee County, turnout was 55.61%. Compared to the Wisconsin Supreme Court election in 2023, when we elected Janet Protasiewicz, overall turnout in 2025 was higher by 10.5%.

The increase in turnout included substantial gains by both parties! And yet Crawford still won by a landslide. Our North Shore communities were among the areas where we saw increases compared to the turnout in 2023. Here's the relevant data for those seven communities (I don't have comparable data from Ozaukee County):

Notice that the increase in Republican turnout percent in 2025 compared to the Republican turnout percent in 2023 often exceeded the increase in Democratic turnout percent. In Bayside, for example, Republican turnout was 15.7% higher in the 2025 election than it had bee in 2023 while the increase in Democratic turnout there was only 11.6%. But percents aren't votes. So even though Schimel got more votes than Dan Kelly, Susan Crawford still beat him — handily — in every one of the seven municipalities here. In Bayside, she won 75.18% of the votes!

Winning is wonderful, but understanding why is just as important. What issues moved voters? The Institute for Reforming Government (IRG) has recently issued a poll undertaken with Napolitan News Service and Scott Rasmussen. IRG is a decidedly "right-wing, Wisconsin-based 501(c)(3) founded in 2018," funded by the Bradley Foundation (see the Center for Media and Democracy Source Watch). So a little interpretive caution is in order.

The poll survey 800 registered voters from April 8-14. Generally, the poll found respondents disapproved of Trump (approve - disapprove: -6 points); of DOGE (-13 points); of Musk (-20 points); and of tariffs (-27 points). When asked about issues that may have influenced their votes, Schimel's position on abortion was decidedly a factor for 63% of voters. 48% considered it a major influence and an additional 15% said it influenced their vote "a little." Close behind that issue, the charge that Schimel was "bought off with campaign contributions" influenced 55% of voters (38% a lot and 17% a little).

Among the key findings of the poll, abortion was a very important issue (60% over all, 47% for Independents and 65% for women). "Sharing my values" was also identified as very important (51%). The IRG's analysis goes further (and implies it's rightward inclinations):

It's interesting that IRG asserts that "635,214 Trump Voters didn’t show up" yet the election became "a referendum on the Trump Agenda & Elon Musk." The germ of the progressive messaging is clear: the agenda Trump and Musk are pursuing is so unpopular that even Trump's voters aren't moved to support it.

As you might remember that every county's votes shifted toward Democrats in the 2025 election compared to the 2024 election. The size of the arrows in the diagram indicate the size of the shift.

(See a much larger version.)

The spring election is not the only exciting event we had this month. On April 6, fresh off the enthusiasm engendered by the nationwide "Hands Off" rallies, Grassroots North Shore held it's annual meeting to hear from state legislators Greta Neubauer, Deb Andraca, and Jodi Habush Sinykin about the state budget and the process of passing it, plus an insightful account of some key legal cases currently pending in federal courts by Attorney Jim Santelle. Dan Folkman taped the whole thing. If you missed it, you can watch it on our YouTube page.

According to the Washington Examiner, Wisconsin's share of the $12 billion federal dollars that should have gone to combatting "infectious disease and other serious health problems that the U.S.," will amount to $210 million. That money was to be used for "mental health, substance abuse prevention and bolstering emergency medical services." Budgets are moral documents, a quotation often attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr., but perhaps spoken by another civil rights activist, Brittney Packnett Cunningham. This cut is an immoral assault by the Trump administration against our state. And it is far from the only one. In the coming weeks, as the state budget is debated in the legislature, we will be asking you to weigh in with your legislators.

Just this last weekend, on Saturday, April 19th, Grassroots North Shore and our co-sponsors held what turned out to be an empty chair town hall for Senator Ron Johnson. On April 4, we invited the senator to attend but on April 18 he declined. So instead of hearing his responses to questions and comments, he had to be represented by some toy chickens. Eilene Stevens also wore an inflatable chicken suit, visually reminding people that our senator is too cowardly to talk directly to his constituents. At least 350 people attended and more than 60 citizens got up to speak to the Senator. Many people wrote comments and questions for him on index cards, too. The event was recorded — and will be available to watch by next week. Both the video and the cards will be delivered to his D.C. office.

The Resistance to the Trump regime's cuts to funding is growing. Rachel Maddow has been leading her show each night with a tour of protest rallies and marches in places large and small. Milwaukee has seen several in the past few weeks, including the overpass protests "Stop the Cut," organized by 50501 to accompany or empty chair town hall. Here's the account from WTMJ-TV. The fullest account is from WPR, complete with quotations from homemade signs and from the people demonstrating. It's well worth a read.

Where is all of this going? It's hard to know. But there is a movement afoot to organize for a General Strike sometime in the near(ish) future. You can sign the strike card — even if you are retired. "The General Strike is a grassroots network of regular people who know our greatest power is our labor and our right to refuse it." Those of us who are no longer working for money (just for love) can meaningfully participate "by boycotting big corporations, providing mutual aid and financial support to striking workers, and doing everything possible to spread the word in the meantime." See the full FAQ. A General Strike may never happen in this country, but it is one way the world's peoples have found effective to rid themselves of noxious authoritarian rule.

TAKE ACTION

CALL AND WRITE YOUR SENATORS — Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson — to urge them to vote NO on the so-called SAVE Act. The House has already passed this measure and now it will be up to the senate to do the same.

Senator Tammy Baldwin (D): (202) 224-5653
Senator Ron Johnson (R): (202) 224-5323

It is absolutely vital that we defeat this ugly, voter-suppression bill. The SAVE Act would upend voter registration as we know it. It would require voters to present Documented Proof of Citizenship in person at election offices and would nullify common methods of voter registration:

• Mail-in registration;
• Online voter registration;
• Voter registration drives.

The senate is back in session now that Easter is in the rearview mirror. There's no time like to present to call and to keep calling.

Plan ahead to PARTICIPATE IN THE NEXT BIG PROTEST on May 1. Voces de la Frontera will be kicking off a march and rally for "May Day: A Day Without Immigrants and Workers" in front of its office at 733 W Mitchell St in Milwaukee. Much like a General Strike, the purpose of a day without immigrants and workers is to demonstrate the economic power of those who work. It's "a powerful demonstration of our collective strength. Our labor fuels the economy, and those who profit from it must respect our rights, dignity, and humanity." The protest DEMANDS that we

• Stop scapegoating immigrant workers and separating families!
• Defend Medicaid, food stamps, and public education! No more tax breaks for billionaires!
• Stand up for sanctuary!
• Immigration reform with a path to citizenship now!

The march is more than 2 miles long. If that is too far for you, just attend the rally at the Voces office or join the march when it reaches the Federal Courthouse.