A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Last Undecided Race Of 2024 Nears End
Six months after Election Day, a federal judge ordered the North Carolina Board of Elections to certify Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs as the winner of the fiercely contested race for her seat on the state Supreme Court.
Riggs has been clinging to a narrow 734-vote lead and fighting off efforts from Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin to flip that result through all manner of machinations and after-the-fact changes to the rules.
In a new opinion Monday, U.S. District Judge Richard Myers thoroughly rejected Griffin’s attempts to rewrite the election rules after the election was held: “That principle will be familiar to anyone who has played a sport or board game. You establish the rules before the game. You don’t change them after the game is done,” Myers ruled.
At one point in the post-election litigation, Griffin was seeking to throw out more than 60,000 already-cast ballots. Over time his challenges were whittled down by the courts to a smaller batch of ballots that, if rejected, still had the potential to flip the result of the exceedingly close race.
Myers ruling on the remaining ballots under challenge – mostly from military and civilian voters overseas – was decisive in Riggs’ favor: They must all be counted. But Myers stayed his decision for seven days to give Griffin time to appeal to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Reacting to the Myers decision, election law expert Rick Hasen said the decision would likely hold up on appeal:
I expect any appeal would be rejected. Although part of the due process portion of the court’s analysis rests on Bush v. Gore, and not every court would agree on reading Bush v. Gore in this way, the due process arguments are nonetheless extremely strong even without relying on that case. And the equal protection arguments are even stronger.
“Today, we won,” Riggs said in a statement last evening.
Trouble In MAGA Paradise: Ed Martin Edition
Despite a new push from President Trump, the Senate Judiciary Committee is running out of time to bring Ed Martin’s nomination for D.C. U.S. attorney to a vote, Punchbowl reports. With Martin’s temporary appointment ending on May 20 and various procedural hurdles to navigate, committee chair Charles Grassley is pretty much down to next week to move the nomination. Meanwhile, Martin had to supplement his disclosures to the committee for the fourth time, with a new letter on his public appearances on Russia state media.
The Destruction: Higher Ed Edition
- Columbia University: The Trump administration has presented Columbia with the terms of a consent decree that would bring the university under federal supervision, the WSJ reports.
- Harvard University: The Trump administration continued to put an unlawful squeeze on the nation’s oldest university by withholding all future federal grants. “This letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek grants from the federal government, since none will be provided,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote in a letter to university President Alan M. Garber.
Trump’s Case For Alien Enemies Act Falls Apart
The U.S. intel community released a declassified memo that undermines a key justification for President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. The IC assesses that Tren de Aragua is not controlled by the administration of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro: “The Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States.”
The Other Abrego Garcia Case
Morning Memo previously mentioned the case of another foreign national unlawfully deported to El Salvador in circumstances similar to Kilmar Abrego Garcia. While Abrego Garcia had a immigration judge order barring his removal, the until-now anonymous Venezuelan man in a separate Maryland case was covered by a 2024 settlement agreement that barred removal of a class of asylum seekers until their cases were heard.
Politico has now identified that man as Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a 20-year-old who had been living in Houston and was removed to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act on March 15.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher of Maryland has already ruled that the removal of Lozano-Camargo violated the settlement agreement that she had previously approved and ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return a la Abrego Garcia. The Trump administration is fighting that order, too.
For Your Radar …
“Hackers have targeted GlobalX Air, one of the main airlines the Trump administration is using as part of its deportation efforts, and stolen what they say are flight records and passenger manifests of all of its flights, including those for deportation,” 404 Media reports.
Secretary Of Dense
Since taking office, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has used the encrypted app Signal more extensively than previously known, engaging in at least a dozen separate chats, including using settings that disappeared messages before they were properly recorded as a government record, the WSJ reports.
Hegseth Launches Broader Purge Of Generals
Two things to keep an eye on as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moves to reduce the number of 4-star officers and general officers in the National Guard by 20% each:
- Are women and people of color disproportionately purged?
- Do the numbers creep back up over time, replaced by officers perceived to be loyal and/or compliant?
Quote Of The Day
“There’s nothing like it.”–Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, on the corrupting conflicts of interest that have emerged in the second Trump term.
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