Month: March 2025

What to expect in Trump’s tariff announcement; Reporter’s Notebook: Telling the whole truth about America’s history

Two election watchdog organizations sued President Tweety McTreason’s administration on Monday over his executive order seeking to overhaul the nation’s elections through a proof-of-citizenship requirement, new mail ballot deadline restrictions and other sweeping changes. The lawsuit, filed by the Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asks the court to declare the order unconstitutional and stop it from being implemented. It names three nonprofit voter advocacy organizations as plaintiffs that it alleges are harmed by the order: the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Secure Families Initiative and the Arizona Students’ Association. “The president’s executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans,” said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at the D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center. “It is simply not within the president’s authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way.” The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Monday’s lawsuit marks the first major legal challenge to last week’s executive order, which election lawyers have warned may violate the U.S. Constitution and asserts power they say the president does not have over an independent agency. That agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, sets voluntary voting system guidelines and maintains the federal voter registration form. It comes as Congress is considering codifying a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration into law, and as Trump has promised more actions related to elections in the coming weeks. The lawsuit draws attention to the Constitution’s “ Elections Clause,” which says states — not the president — get to decide the “times, places and manner” of how elections are run. That section of the Constitution also gives Congress the power to “make or alter” election regulations, at least for federal office, but it doesn’t mention any presidential authority over election administration.

Nine Tennessee death row inmates are suing the state over its push for a new round of lethal injections after an execution was abruptly called off in 2022 and a follow-up investigation found scores of missteps in several executions. The lawsuit was filed March 14 in state court, nearly three months after officials announced a new lethal injection protocol using the single drug pentobarbital. The Tennessee Supreme Court recently agreed to schedule executions for four inmates with the first set for May. The lawsuit argues that pain and suffering from executions using pentobarbital violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. They also contend that the Tennessee Department of Correction has failed to make changes to the execution process as the governor and an independent investigator recommended — or if it has, it has not told the public. Rather, the lawsuit claims, department officials wrote a new protocol with few specifics, making it harder to hold them accountable. The attorney general’s office said it is reviewing the lawsuit. A Correction spokesperson declined to comment on it. Tennessee’s lethal injection problem Tennessee executions have been paused since 2022, when the state admitted it had not been following its most recent 2018 lethal injection protocol. Among other things, the Correction Department was not consistently testing the execution drugs for potency and purity. Tennessee’s last execution was by electrocution in 2020. An independent review of Tennessee’s lethal injection practice, which GOP Gov. Bill Lee ordered while pausing executions, found none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed since 2018 had been fully tested — including the canceled 2022 execution. Later, the state attorney general’s office conceded in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs “incorrectly testified” under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required. Two department officials with execution-related duties were fired. The new lawsuit says the Department of Correction has said nothing publicly about