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.

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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.

Just so you know, there were 39 protest marches and rallies in Wisconsin on April 5. There may have been more that weren't listed on the spreadsheet compiled by WE (the people) dissent. The Hands Off protests were a great start, but we have serious work ahead of us to counter and ultimately halt the demise of our democracy.

As a country and a state we are facing numerous thorny issues:

• the fate of healthcare for veterans;
• the independence of our colleges and universities;
• the fate of Medicare and Medicaid;
• our Social Security system;
• and so much more.

Join us to air questions about these issues at a Town Hall with (or without) Senator Ron Johnson on Saturday, April 19, at Nicolet High School (6701 N Jean Nicolet Rd, Glendale). This is an opportunity for you to voice YOUR concerns to your elected representative. Doors will open at 9:30. The program will take place from 10:00am to 12:00 — or longer if there are people who still wish to speak. We have asked the senator to attend but as of this date have not heard back. Whether he attends or leaves an empty chair where he ought to be, we will make sure he hears what you have to say, both through the recording of the meeting and through the questions and comments we urge you to write on index cards to be delivered to him. The event is sponsored by several Milwaukee area Indivisible and other grassroots groups. Questions? Contact Debbie Patel. Please sign up.

Although some in the press are still temporizing and even denying it, to me it's clear that we have now arrived at the constitutional crisis many foresaw. The current administration has decided to ignore court orders and to lie to the courts and the American people. In today's New Republic, Harry Litman (senior fellow at the USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy) writes "On Abrego Garcia, Trump Is Lying on the Facts and Wrong on the Law." Litman calls it "a case where the injustice is so stark and the constitutional breach so unambiguous" that it surely arouses the conscience of the nation.

After the ridiculous display of presidential helplessness in the Oval Office on Tuesday, officials have now brought out a litany of lies to justify — and walk back — the "mistake" that sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to that notorious prison in El Salvador. This morning, Rolling Stone refuted each of the newly concocted Trump administration lies in its article "The Trump Admin’s Lies About Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Debunked." The segment in which the article appears is headlined "Alternative Facts."

The grave significance of this manifest lawlessness goes well beyond the fate of this one Maryland father. And it is not lost on Jamelle Bouie in today's New York Times (gifted article):

Bouie persuasively links the current ICE kidnappings to "the fraught legal status of free Black Americans in the antebellum United States." You have to read the piece to fully grasp how precarious the status of ostensibly free people with the wrong skin color was. And how precarious the freedom of all of us is now under the regime launched by Abrego Garcia's detention and deportation without due process of law.

Bouie ends by reminding us that "you cannot restrict unfreedom to a particular class of people. It will metastasize to consume the entire society. This was true of the slave system, where the large majority of people lived in conditions of servitude; it was true of the Jim Crow South, where economic exploitation and political disenfranchisement were the rule for Black and white Americans; and it will be true of our time for as long as we continue on the current path."

We have work to do.

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

Last week I provided an extensive explanation of what the Act would do and why it is pernicious. You can see that explanation here. But here is a very brief account of its harms:

The SAVE Act would upend voter registration as we know it. Requiring voters to present Documented Proof of Citizenship in person at election offices would nullify common methods of voter registration:

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

Although the senate is in recess now it will return after Easter. And there's no time like to present to call and to keep calling.

On May 1 and 2, VOCES de la Frontera is hosting its "Day without Immigrants & Workers" (in Milwaukee) and a statewide lobbying day in Madison.

The Milwaukee event will gather for mass march at the Voces Milwaukee Office at 733 W. Mitchell St. at 9:30am. The rally will be followed by a march to the Federal Courthouse, 517 E Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee. Since the march will cover more than two miles, you could simply wait for it to arrive at the Federal Courthouse and join the rally there. Sign up through Facebook.

The Madison event on May 2 will begin in Brittingham Park (829 W Washington Ave, Madison) at 3:00pm. The statewide rally and lobbying day is to demand justice for the immigrant and working community.

I don't know about you, but I'm still on a high about our big wins on April 1. (I'll have more on election results later in the newsletter.) The rally on April 5 was also awesome! According to Wikipedia, "demonstrations voicing opposition to the administration's policies occurred in over 1,400 locations across all 50 U.S. states, drawing up an estimated 3 million participants nationwide according to the demonstration organizers." According to the Wisconsin Examiner, organizers of the rally in Madison say it drew "more than 10,000 people." Here in Milwaukee, "organizers estimated 5,000 people gathered in front of the Federal Building."

So the rallies all over the nation were a HUGE SUCCESS. But we cannot — and will not — stop resisting the depredations the current administration is wreaking on us. On Saturday, April 19, Grassroots North Shore, Grassroots Germantown, the League of Progressive Seniors, Worth Fighting For Wisconsin and other local grassroots groups are sponsoring A Ron Johnson Town Hall at Nicolet High School Cafeteria (6701 Jean Nicolet Rd, Glendale). The doors will open at 9:30am and the event will run from 10:00 - 12:00. The program will be recorded for the public and sent to Senator Johnson. 

Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy will begin the program which will then be open to the public to make comments and ask Senator Johnson questions, if he makes an appearance, or pose them to an empty chair, if he decides not to attend. If the Senator chooses not to face his constituents in person, we will make sure the comments and questions are sent to him for his response. We expect a crowd and need to remind everyone who attends to be civil and peaceful.

While the Ron Johnson Town Hall focuses on the effects of the cuts to personnel and funds all over the federal government, Worth Fighting For Wisconsin will hold its monthly meeting online on Monday, April 14, at 7:00pm, to shine a light on what's happening with the proposed 2025-2027 Wisconsin State Budget. Representative Deb Andraca (member of the Joint Finance Committee) and Emily Miota and Daithi Wolfe (Kids Forward) will be speaking about the process of passing a bienniel budget and highlighting important parts of it. Attorney Jim Santelle (Amicus: A Law Review) will then join us for a discussion of pending national legal cases that may change the future of democracy in America. Register for this event.

Now about that election. There's a lot to examine in the numbers and our Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair — Ben Wikler — has produced some analysis that is absolutely stunning. In Wisconsin Supreme Court race shows Democrats how to fight back—and win, he notes that every county in Wisconsin swung left from 2024. Susan Crawford did not win every county, of course, but the share of votes for her (a proxy for Democratic votes) exceeded the share of votes for Trump in every county. And it's only been five months since he barely won Wisconsin in November, 2024. You can see the map for yourself.

But that is hardly the most stunning part of the analysis. Wikler notes that votes for Schimel were hardly lacking: "Schimel turned out so many voters — 1,063,244 — that if he’d been running in 2023 (when Janet Protasiewicz won by a similar double-digit margin), he would have won. He beat his own vote goal. In fact, Schimel drew more votes than any Supreme Court candidate in Wisconsin history — other than Crawford." Here's an account of the vote totals in races for Supreme Court seats going back a decade:


He goes on to show just how remarkable the result was: "It’s nearly unheard of for a spring election to generate higher turnout than a November midterm. But Crawford drew more votes in the spring of 2025 than any Republican candidate for governor in a November election in Wisconsin history." (Just a reminder: in this state governors are elected in the midterms.)

Like many other groups around the state, Grassroots North Shore worked tirelessly on this election. We sent out more than 4000 postcards ahead of the spring primary in February, 10,800 postcards for the April 1 election, made calls (left voicemails or texted) to 10,800 women to follow up on the postcards we had sent, volunteered in droves for canvasses in the North Shore, Ozaukee County, and Germantown, and handed out almost 2800 flyers on the UWM campus, at MIAD and at MSOE. Turnout in the areas where we worked (the territory mostly included in Senate District 8 and Assembly District 10 plus the wards for the UWM campus) was very high. Our work shows results!

Here are a few nuggets from the data I gathered: Susan Crawford won every North Shore community by spectacular margins. The lowest was 59.38% in River Hills. The highest was 88.25% in Shorewood. Those outcomes are not the most noteworthy, though. She won the urban areas in Ozaukee County with percentages only slightly lower than her statewide average (55%). The most jaw-dropping results, though, came in the wards that include the UWM campus — so include those students who live on the main campus and the streets surrounding it. In those four wards, turnout was 63.33%, 65.67%, 68.25% and 62.30%. And they voted for Susan Crawford: 95.21%, 94.14%, 89.86%, and 87.89%, respectively! (All the data on the spreadsheet come from the communities' clerks or the clerks of Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, and Waukesha counties.)

You can download my full spreadsheet with tabs for turnout in each area where it was available, for the race for the Supreme Court, and for the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction.

On a final note, the program Grassroots North Shore held on Sunday, April 6 — What's Next for the State and the Nation — was also a great success. It was taped and will be available for anyone who missed it to watch in the coming days. You might also want to view the Annual Report that details many of the activities Grassroots North Shore undertook in 2024 and the first three months of 2025. The report includes a list of the newly elected officers and a list of our standing committees with an invitation to get more involved with the organization and its work. You can also download the handout Attorney Jim Santelle prepared as a synopsis of his talk.

TAKE ACTION

Save us from the SAVE Act! Call your congressional representative ASAP. This pernicious legislation would require anyone who wants to register to vote or to update their registration to provide documentary proof (DPOC) that they are a citizen of the United States. The Southern Poverty Law Center explains.

Call 202-224-3121 to reach the Capitol Switchboard and ask to speak to your representative or use the app 5 calls. Here's a simple script you can use, complements of Public Citizen:

What A GLORIOUS VICTORY we had yesterday! Both Judge Crawford and Dr. Underly won their races by 10% and 6% respectively. It wasn't even close in either race. And it is due in large part to the energy and dedication of all those who

• wrote thousands of postcards;
• made thousands of calls;
• sent thousands of texts and left thousands of voicemails;
• handed out hundreds of leaflets at MIAD and UWM;
• wrote emails, texted and talked to friends, family members, even strangers on the street!

Grassroots North Shore did its share of the work and reaps its just reward! A huge THANK YOU to everyone who took up the challenge to DO SOMETHING.

I have not yet had enough time and energy to compile the data from all the areas we touched — Assembly District 10 and Senate District 8 were our primary targets — but I should have something to say about vote totals and trends by next week's newsletter. In the meantime, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has provided a county-by-county map showing which counties Crawford won. The map lets you explore the totals and percents for each county.

Of immediate interest is the way vote totals shifted from red to blue EVERYWHERE in the state compared to the 2024 presidential vote totals, as you can see in this small map created by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

If you like you can download a much larger version.

The New York Times uses a version of the same map and also shows the blue shift county-by county. In Milwaukee, the shift was 11 points and in Dane, 12 points. Much less expected are the results in the WOW counties: Waukesha by 4.4 points; Ozaukee by 7.2 points; and Washington by 3.8 points. These are precisely the areas where Democrats have been chipping away at the GOP margins for several election cycles now.

The Director of election analytics at the NYTimes thinks that "turnout in this year’s spring election could be more than 2.4 million. That’s extraordinarily high for an off-year election — nearly 40 percent higher than the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, and just a few hundred thousand voters short of the number that might show up for a midterm election." Mobilizing voters wins elections. Period.

If you read stories in the national press about the outcome of this race (see this gifted article from the New York Times, for example), the article will of course mention the huge amount of money spent in the election. But they are less likely to differentiate between the mega bucks of MAGA donors and the much smaller bucks from billionaires aligned with democratic values. The Journal Sentinel did produce a bar graph that shows just how lopsided the donations to the two candidates were but I could only find it in a Daily Kos article that took it from X (Twitter). Here it is:

You can download the full size image here.

It's crystal clear that, compared to Crawford, Schimel raised buckets from billionaires. Yet Daniel Bice wrote at least two stories with a critical stance on Crawford's backing from Democratic-leaning donors:

• Bice: Susan Crawford says Elon Musk's spending is bad but George Soros' donation is just fine (February 26, 2025)
• Bice: George Soros and Wisconsin GOP billionaires dump big donations in Supreme Court race (February 11, 2025)

Later in the race (March 25, 2025), Bice recognizes the out-sized role Musk's money is playing, but he never produces the totals that starkly reveal the imbalance. So based on the amounts in his article, I have done it for him. Musk and his PACs contributed $35.6 million and other deep-pocketed GOP donors gave $7.4 million for a grand total of $43 million. During the same period, the Crawford campaign had donations from billionaires totaling just $5.24 million. And there you have it. Wisconsin's supreme court could not be purchased, even for $43 million.

It might feel like the really important political action in Wisconsin is over for now. But that feeling would be dead wrong. The stomping Judge Susan Crawford delivered last night is in fact just the beginning of what will be a long road to defeating the oligarchy that has captured our federal government, allowing Donald Trump to become the authoritarian leader he has longed to be. Rest assured, there will be state battles, chiefly centered for now on the budget for the coming biennium.

For now, though, we need to show the power of resistance through physical action. Cory Booker and his 25-hour-long speech on the Senate floor Monday and Tuesday displayed one striking form of physical resistance — so BRAVO Senator Booker. Few of us have such an august platform, though. Thus we will need to come together in a mighty coalition and take up peaceful protests to show our power.

TAKE ACTION

We need EVERYONE to show up on Saturday, April 5, at the Milwaukee Federal Building and Courthouse at 517 E Wisconsin Ave by noon! I can't stress the importance of this enough. But a more authoritative voice than mine explains why. Here's Ezra Levin, cofounder of Indivisible:

There was a time in my life when I would hop a plane or drive to D.C. to participate in this protest at the heart of government. Those days are, alas, behind me. Nevertheless, I will be at the rally in Milwaukee, with my walker and all. Rain, snow or shine. I hope I see all of you there too. Bring friends, neighbors, kids, grandkids along too. And SIGN UP to register our strength in numbers.

OPPOSE the SAVE Act (H.R. 22/S. 128): call your Representative and your Senators this week!

The SAVE Act is another deceptively named bill that would disenfranchise millions of voters. Here's part of the letter the Brennan Center for Justice President Michael Waldman sent to Congress on March 31, 2025.

The SAVE Act was scheduled for a vote perhaps as early as today. But because Speaker Johnson pulled a hissy fit over a failed bill and cancelled all legislative action in the House for this week, we have a bit more time.

For an easy way to find the correct representatives and senators and to make the calls, visit 5 Calls and scroll through the list of topics. Then click on the phone receiver icon (something of an anachronism these days). Once you get the name and contact number of your representative, you will find a sample script near the bottom of the screen together with buttons to register the result of the call: unavailable, voicemail, contact or skip. Make sure to make the calls this week!

In addition to the SAVE Act, 5 Calls offers a range of other topics. You can bookmark the site so that when other issues you care deeply about come up, you can use the tool to connect and to craft your message.