Talking Points Memo

Hello, it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️ Is What’s Good for Texas Good for California? The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Texas does not have to redraw its maximal gerrymander, finding that the map is not illegally race-based, and that it’s too close to the election … Texas Gets a Pass for a Gerrymandering Free-For-All. Will California Be Given the Same?Read more

Indiana’s Republican-controlled state House approved a new gerrymandered congressional map on Friday, as expected. 

Lawsuits have been percolating over President Trump’s unprecedented attempt to undermine birthright citizenship since the beginning of his second term, but it took until Friday for the Supreme Court to announce that it will hear the case on the merits. 

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published by The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. As disputes rage on over religion’s place in public schools, the Ten Commandments have become a focal point. At least a dozen states have considered proposals … 3 States Are Challenging Precedent Against Posting the Ten Commandments in Public SchoolsRead more

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been one of the most vociferous defenders of President Donald Trump’s expansive use of executive authority, withholding billions of dollars in federal funding … Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Once Defended Congress’ Power of the Purse. Now He Defies It.Read more

Kate goes deeper on the new definition of “eve” the Court promulgated to help Republicans hold the House next year. (I don’t think it’ll be enough, but that’s another matter.) They take a principle that has some logic in extreme cases: there needs to be some balance between … Crooked as We Wanna Be, Say The Corrupt GOP SixRead more

Judges Noticed and Called It Out Federal judges in the Eastern District of Virginia have been calling out the Trump DOJ in court for continuing to list Lindsey Halligan as interim U.S. attorney in court filings, more than a week after she was ruled invalidly appointed to the … Lindsey Halligan Still Cosplaying as U.S. AttorneyRead more

The Supreme Court was simply hamstrung, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, unable to knock down Texas’ hyper-partisan, likely racial gerrymander because the election it would govern is so close.

FBI HQ is reportedly pressuring its domestic terrorism agents to launch a seditious conspiracy investigation into the six Democrats who recently published a video calling on active duty service members to remember their oath to the Constitution and their duty to refuse illegal orders, according to Bloomberg.

The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 order, has put on hold a lower court ruling that blocked Texas’ aggressive gerrymander, a maneuver the state legislature had carried out on orders from the Trump administration and the president himself, hoping to preserve Republicans’ majority in the U.S. House in … Supreme Court Conservatives Reinstate Texas’ Gerrymandered House MapsRead more

SCOTUS rescues Texas gerrymander, says lower court erred by rejecting the map on “eve” of election.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, last seen lighting her political career on fire in a run for New York governor, has declared war on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). Why exactly I’m not entirely sure, other than she simply doesn’t like him. It sparked this deliciously petty but not inapt … Reality Sets in for the House GOP … And Every Urge Is UnleashedRead more

To all of you readers who submitted noxious nominations for the 17th annual Golden Duke awards, we thank you for your service. It’s not easy to sift back through the grime that’s caked atop the first year of President Trump’s second term to elevate and celebrate the scandals … Grifters, Ring-Kissers and Supporting Hatchet Men: It’s Time To Vote for 2025’s Golden DukesRead more

Kate and Josh talk the Tennessee special election, a new Dem running for Chuy Garcia’s gifted seat and the Nuzzi-Lizza-RFK trainwreck. You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.

After nearly five years, the FBI arrested a Virginia man on Thursday on suspicion of planting two pipe bombs on January 6, 2021.

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at Balls and Strikes. On Monday, December 1, the Trump administration fired eight immigration judges in New York City without warning or explanation. With these latest terminations, President Donald Trump has now fired over 100 immigration judges—about … Trump Has Never Been Clearer About What an Immigration Judge’s Real Job IsRead more

The Unrelenting Boundlessness of Trump II In the past few weeks, Democrats’ performance in the off-year election and the dismissals of the indictments of James Comey and Letitia James bred a general sense that perhaps a corner has been turned in the Trump II presidency. But the long-held … Trump’s Lawless Rampage Is Only AcceleratingRead more

President Donald Trump’s foreign trade policy has been marked by contradiction from the beginning of his second term. He says he’s using tariffs to help close the U.S. budget deficit while increasing that deficit by $2.4 trillion with his signature tax cuts and defense spending package. He ran … It Sure Looks Like the Trump Admin Is Prepping for SCOTUS To Demolish Its Tariff PolicyRead more

Expressing Distress This week, Republicans in Congress are furrowing their brows very strongly about the Department of War’s approach to menacing Venezuela, including reporting from the Washington Post that found Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly gave a verbal order to “kill everybody” aboard a vessel that the … SignalGate Report Heads to Congress At Moment When GOP Is Feeling Not-So-Great About Our Secretary of WarRead more

We seem to be in another Epstein hiatus before the story and obsession again explodes into the center of the political news ecosystem. Presumably the next episode will come when the White House releases the heavily redacted and/or cooked version of the “Epstein files” that Congress ordered the … Steve Bannon’s Surprisingly Key Role in the Epstein ScandalRead more

What Else Is There to Know, Really? As I was describing yesterday the Trump administration’s emerging line of defense to the unlawful strike on the survivors of the already-unlawful high seas attack, I came perilously close to falling into one of the traps of the Trump era. Unlike … Don’t Overcomplicate the Scandal of Trump’s Lawless High Seas AttacksRead more

Jackie Bray has been thinking about how quickly things could spiral out of control. Bray is the New York state emergency leader whom Gov. Kathy Hochul tasked with averting a Chicago or Los Angeles-style surge of immigration agents and National Guard troops. At the core of the job … When To Accommodate, and When To Fight? NY Officials Agonize and Prepare for Federal EscalationRead more

Crisis pregnancy centers, including the one at the heart of the case the Supreme Court heard Tuesday, operate on deception.

Recently, Tom Nichols — the dissident or lapsed conservative who is a key Never Trump figure — wrote a Bluesky thread on the importance of federalism. He focused on the longstanding Democratic demand (albeit a futile one) that the president be elected by a national popular vote. I’ve … Rethinking Federalism in a Time of Trump — A Response to Tom NicholsRead more

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round It seemed inevitable that President Trump’s comments Sunday night disavowing the second Sept 2. strike, which killed two survivors of one of his lawless high seas attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats, would ultimately lead to him scapegoating the military. … Trump White House Throws Military Under the Bus For Lawless AttackRead more

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. As we return from the Thanksgiving holiday, we know some of our neighbors are hungry. Some are detained. And millions more are anxious about what will happen next month, when the federal government once … State Leaders Aren’t Waiting for Congress to Get Its Act TogetherRead more

Brutal Fact Check President Donald Trump recently touted himself as the “AFFORDABILITY PRESIDENT” and suggested this branding would help his fellow Republicans win in next year’s midterm elections. His comments clearly seem borrowed from the playbook of New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist whose upstart … Bernie Sanders Definitely Doesn’t Think Trump Is the ‘Affordability President’Read more

This story was originally reported by Shefali Luthra of The 19th. Meet Shefali and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Texas’ massive new abortion law taking effect this week could escalate the national fight over mailing abortion pills. House Bill 7 represents abortion opponents’ … Texas’ New Abortion Ban Aims to Stop Doctors From Sending Abortion Pills to the StateRead more

The Implications Are Vast and Serious The explosive holiday story from the WaPo — that on orders from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. military deliberately killed survivors of one of the Trump administration’s lawless high seas attacks on alleged drug smugglers — may have finally stirred Republicans … ‘The Order Was to Kill Everybody’: A Savage Incident at SeaRead more

This story is part of a collaboration between FRONTLINE and ProPublica that includes an upcoming documentary. As the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet intensified in June, a nurse in Portland, Oregon, left work one midafternoon and drove to a nearby detention facility to voice his opposition. Federal agents had set off … Trump’s Immigration Forces Are Recklessly Deploying ‘Less Lethal’ Weapons. Protesters Are Getting Maimed.Read more