The Senate is scheduled to vote today on Kevin Warsh’s nomination to a 14-year term on the Federal Reserve Board, followed by a cloture vote on his nomination to serve as Fed Chair. Senate Republicans are pushing a roughly $72 billion enforcement package through reconciliation, including major new funding for ICE, CBP, and Secret Service security upgrades connected to Trump’s East Wing ballroom project. And last week, Tennessee enacted a new congressional map carving up Memphis’s majority-Black district, becoming the first state to adopt new districts after the Supreme Court undermined a key Voting Rights Act protection.

Today’s Three Calls

Today, we are asking everyone to contact their senators on three issues that are happening right now.

First, tell your senators to oppose Kevin Warsh’s confirmation to the Federal Reserve Board. The Senate is scheduled to vote on his 14-year term as a Fed governor today, with a cloture vote on his Chair nomination to follow.

Second, tell your senators to oppose the $72 billion reconciliation package that would fund ICE, CBP, and security upgrades connected to Trump’s White House ballroom project, all through a process that bypasses the normal 60-vote threshold. Committee markups are expected the week of May 19, which means this week is the best window for pressure.

Third, tell your senators to support federal voting rights legislation and oppose any redistricting effort that eliminates Black representation. Tennessee just carved up Memphis’s majority-Black congressional district in a special session, and other states are preparing to do the same.

The Message For Today:

Protect independent institutions.
Fund people, not enforcement without accountability.
Defend the right of every American to be represented.

Call One: Oppose Kevin Warsh’s Confirmation to the Federal Reserve Board

The Senate voted 49-44 last night to advance Kevin Warsh’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The Senate is scheduled to vote on his 14-year term today, Tuesday, May 12, with a cloture vote on his separate nomination to serve as Fed Chair to follow. Jerome Powell’s term as Chair expires Friday, May 15.

Trump has repeatedly demanded that the Fed cut interest rates. The administration launched a criminal investigation into Powell, reportedly focused on headquarters renovation cost overruns. A federal judge blocked the investigation, calling it a “mere pretext” to pressure the Fed on rates. The DOJ dropped the probe only after Sen. Thom Tillis refused to advance Warsh until they did. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who ended the investigation, said at the time she would restart a criminal investigation “should the facts warrant doing so.”

The Senate Banking Committee advanced Warsh on a party-line vote, 13-11. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called it the first fully partisan committee vote on a Fed Chair nominee in the committee’s history, and warned that confirming Warsh “will bring the president one step closer to completing his illegal attempt to seize control of the Fed.”

The Federal Reserve is supposed to operate independently from political pressure. That independence is what protects the value of your paycheck, your savings, and your retirement. When the president gets to install a loyalist at the Fed after using the DOJ to force out the sitting Chair, that is not business as usual. That is institutional capture.

Sens. John Fetterman and Chris Coons were the only Democrats to vote to advance Warsh.

Share

Call Two: Oppose the $72 Billion ICE/CBP Reconciliation Package

Senate Republicans released the text of a roughly $72 billion reconciliation package on May 4. The Judiciary Committee’s portion includes $30.7 billion for ICE and $3.5 billion for CBP-related immigration enforcement. The Homeland Security Committee’s portion adds $32.5 billion more for DHS, including CBP personnel, border security, immigration enforcement, and related programs. Committee markups are expected the week of May 19, and the full Senate could take up the package within two weeks after that.

The package also includes $1 billion for the Secret Service for “security adjustments and upgrades” connected to what the legislation calls the “East Wing Modernization Project.” That is the White House ballroom. Trump has said private donations would cover the ballroom itself, but the proposed security upgrades connected to the project would be charged to taxpayers through this package.

Republicans are using reconciliation because Democrats refused to fund ICE and CBP without reforms, especially after multiple reports and investigations involving deadly force by federal immigration officers. Reconciliation lets the Senate pass the bill with 51 votes instead of the usual 60, which means public pressure before committee markup is the best window for influence.

When families ask for help with health care, housing, food, and education, Congress asks how to pay for it. When power wants $72 billion for enforcement and a ballroom, somehow the money appears.

Share

Call Three: Defend Voting Rights and Black Representation in Tennessee and Nationwide

Last week, Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature enacted a new congressional map that carves up the state’s only majority-Black congressional district, centered in Memphis. The map splits Memphis’s political power across three Republican-leaning districts and gives Republicans a chance to win all nine of Tennessee’s congressional seats in November.

Gov. Bill Lee called a special session amid Trump’s broader push for Republican-led states to redraw maps before the midterms. The legislature convened on May 5, repealed a state law that had prohibited mid-decade redistricting since 1972, drew a new map, and passed it on May 7. Lee signed it into law the same day.

This happened days after the Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly weakened how Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act can be used to protect voters of color in redistricting cases. For decades, Section 2 has been one of the central tools communities used to challenge maps and election systems that dilute minority voting power. The Court’s ruling gave Republican-led states new grounds to attack majority-Black districts before the midterms.

The NAACP Tennessee State Conference sued in state court on May 7 to block the map. On May 12, three Memphis voters, represented through the ACLU, filed a separate federal lawsuit alleging that the new map discriminates against Black voters.

Tennessee Democratic Rep. London Lamar put it plainly. “You cannot take a majority Black city, fracture its voting power, and then tell us race has nothing to do with it. Racism does not become less racist because it’s called partisan.”

Tennessee is not the end. Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina have also taken steps toward new maps, and Alabama may now be able to eliminate one of its two largely Black congressional districts before the midterms. This is a national pattern, and it requires a national response.

Congress has the power to restore voting-rights protections. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would strengthen federal protections against racial discrimination in voting. Your senators need to hear that this matters today.

Share

Bonus Call: Protect Medicare from Automatic Cuts

For those who have time for one more call, this is a strong one.

Budget rules known as PAYGO could trigger automatic Medicare payment cuts as a result of the deficit impact from last year’s reconciliation bill, H.R. 1. Unless Congress acts to exempt Medicare, providers could face automatic payment reductions of up to 4%, which would ripple through hospitals, doctors, rural health systems, and patient access. This is a budget process most people never hear about, and it could affect care for millions of seniors if Congress does not act.

Subscribe now

Where to Find Your Lawmakers

Find your senators through the official Senate contact page. The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

Find your House representative through the official House lookup tool.

You can also use 5calls.org for issue summaries, call scripts, and direct lawmaker contact information. Or text your ZIP code to Resist Bot at 50409 to send letters to your representatives by text message.

Today’s Action:

Make three calls and send one email.

Share

Reading List

Here are the sources behind today’s post, so you can read further and share with confidence.

Warsh’s Fed Nomination Clears First Senate Vote (Bloomberg, May 11, 2026)

Warsh Moves Closer to Fed Role with Senate Cloture Vote (Roll Call, May 11, 2026)

Trump Fed Pick Kevin Warsh Clears Key Senate Hurdle (CNBC, April 29, 2026)

Ballroom Fight, Warsh Confirmation on the Agenda This Week (Roll Call, May 11, 2026)

Reconciliation Bill Text Would Fund ICE, CBP, Ballroom Security (Roll Call, May 5, 2026)

Congressional Budget Office Score of Reconciliation Legislation (CBO, May 2026)

Senate Republicans Release $72 Billion Reconciliation Bill (National Low Income Housing Coalition, May 2026)

NAACP Sues Tennessee to Block Elimination of Black Voting District (NAACP, May 7, 2026)

Memphis Voters File Federal Lawsuit Against New Congressional Map (WSMV, May 12, 2026)

Tennessee Republicans Pass Map Carving Up Memphis After SCOTUS Guts Voting Rights Act (Tennessee Lookout, May 7, 2026)

NAACP Tennessee Files Lawsuit Challenging Redrawn Map (Tennessee Lookout, May 7, 2026)

Tennessee Redistricting Plan Splits Memphis Neighbors (AP via Washington Times, May 9, 2026)

Share

Subscribe now

On April 29, the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In a 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, the Court held that the Act did not require the state to create an additional majority-minority congressional district, making it far harder for voters of color to challenge maps that dilute their political power.

Within days, Louisiana’s governor suspended the state’s ongoing primary election to redraw congressional maps.

Alabama immediately filed to reinstate maps a lower court had struck down for diluting Black votes.

One ruling has already landed. Another is coming. The Supreme Court is expected to decide Trump v. Barbara, the birthright citizenship case, by late June or early July.

Both decisions will frame the weeks leading up to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The administration has its own plan for the anniversary. They are calling it “Freedom 250.” Its official program includes mobile “Freedom Trucks” touring American history through 48 states, a Great American State Fair on the National Mall, and UFC Freedom 250 at the White House. But the story being told through these events is not the full story America needs. It’s a version of the founding that skips the parts where people had to fight, and bleed, and organize for decades to make the founding’s promises apply to them.

Subscribe now

While the government stages a celebration built around that incomplete story, organizers across the country are building something else.

On June 27th, 2026

Americans across the country will march, rally, and gather for All of U.S. 250, a national day of action supported by Get Free, 50501-aligned partners, , and organizers across the broader No Kings ecosystem.

The 250th anniversary of this country doesn’t belong to any administration.

It belongs to every generation that fought to close the distance between what America promised and what it actually delivered. The abolitionists who forced a reckoning with enslavement. The suffragists who spent decades fighting for the vote. The civil rights marchers who bled for the protections the Supreme Court is now taking apart, piece by piece. The disability rights activists, the labor organizers, the immigrant communities who insisted that the word “all” in our founding documents should actually mean all.

Federal agencies have been scrubbing civil rights history from government websites and programs.

Funding for cultural institutions that tell the full-American story is being slashed. School curricula are being rewritten to remove the chapters that complicate a narrative of unbroken triumph.

All of U.S. 250 is an affirmative response. On June 27th, we show up for the full truth of this country.

Anyone can join an event near them, or host one. Events are being added to the map every day, and every new gathering makes the June 27th event stronger.

Join or find an event near you at allofus250.org

50501 hosts: Create an event here

Organizations: Endorse and add your logo

If you want to learn more before June 27th, there is a national briefing on June 3rd at 3pm ET. Register here.

Leave a comment

Share today’s announcement

The more people who see this in the next 48 hours, the more events get created and the more organizations sign on. Share GET FREE from any of these platforms:

TikTok · Bluesky · Threads

Share

Where this stands

The Supreme Court has already weakened one of the Voting Rights Act’s most important protections. States are already moving to redraw maps in ways that reduce the political power of Black and Latino voters. The birthright citizenship case is still pending. And the administration is planning a 250th anniversary celebration that tells a version of the American story with the struggle left out.

You’re here. You’e paying attention. And on June 27th, you can be part of one of the largest affirmation of what this country is that the anniversary will see.

allofus250.org

Leave a comment

📌 NOTE FOR NEW READERS: This is an independent publication covering 50501, No Kings, and the broader pro-democracy and civic-action ecosystem. Subscribe to join our community and to keep us posting.

Subscribe now

Share

MONDAY: This Week in Action | May 4–10, 2026

After May Day, the most useful thing people could do was to find a local organizing page.

We pointed you to the May Day Strong follow-up call, election deadlines in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Oregon, NDLON’s Adopt a Day Labor Corner campaign, No Kings trainings, mifepristone education, and local action finders.

Movements grow when people know where to go next, who to listen to locally, what training they need, and how to turn one day of public action into a habit of civic participation.

Read Monday’s full action guide here: This Week in Action | May 4–10, 2026

Subscribe now

TUESDAY: Who to Call and Email Today | May 5

Mifepristone access, ICE and Border Patrol funding, and voting rights. The Supreme Court had temporarily restored access to mifepristone by mail while it considered emergency requests, but that pause was temporary. Congress was also moving through a reconciliation process that could steer major funding toward ICE and Border Patrol, with committee recommendations due by May 15.

Call your senators. Call your House member. Ask for a clear position. Ask them to defend medication access. Ask them to oppose immigration-enforcement funding without accountability, due process protections, transparency, and oversight. Ask them to defend voting rights before the midterms.

A call does not fix everything, but silence fixes nothing.

Read Tuesday’s full call and email guide here: Who to Call and Email Today | May 5

WEDNESDAY: Tennessee Is Testing the New Redistricting Strategy

We focused on Tennessee, where lawmakers moved quickly after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.

Tennessee Republicans used a special legislative session, called by Gov. Bill Lee at President Trump’s urging, to redraw congressional maps around the Memphis-based 9th Congressional District. That district is Tennessee’s only Democratic-held U.S. House seat, held by longtime Rep. Steve Cohen, and it is rooted in majority-Black Memphis. Wednesday’s post called on readers to help pack committee hearings and contact Tennessee lawmakers because speed was part of the strategy: a state sees a favorable Supreme Court ruling, calls a special session, changes its redistricting rules, and redraws the map before the public has time to respond.

On May 7, Tennessee’s Republican supermajority passed a new congressional map that carves Shelby County, home to majority-Black Memphis, into three Republican-controlled districts. The new lines split Memphis and Shelby County across Republican-leaning districts that tie parts of the city to communities far outside Memphis, weakening the political power of the state’s only majority-Black congressional district. Tennessee also repealed its own longstanding state law that prohibited redistricting between census cycles and removed the requirement that election officials notify voters by mail if redistricting changed their polling places or precincts.

Gov. Bill Lee signed the map into law the same day.

Protesters filled the state Capitol. State troopers cleared the House gallery. Democratic lawmakers walked out. State Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis called the new maps “racist tools of white supremacy.” State Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville said, “This is not a special session. This is a white-power rally and a white-power grab.”

Less than three hours after the signing, the NAACP Tennessee State Conference filed an emergency lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court to block the map, arguing that the mid-decade redistricting violates Tennessee statutory law and the state constitution.

Tennessee is the first state to pass a new congressional map after the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling. It will not be the last. Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina have also taken steps toward redistricting. Reuters reports that Republicans have built a net advantage of about four House seats across nine states so far, with the outcome in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama still pending and litigation in Virginia, Florida, and Missouri still capable of changing the picture.

Today, the target is majority-Black Memphis. Tomorrow, it could be working-class voters, young voters, rural voters, union voters, or any community that becomes politically inconvenient.

Read Wednesday’s full Tennessee alert here: URGENT: ACTION NEEDED | Tennessee Is Testing the New Redistricting Strategy

THURSDAY: The Mifepristone Maze

The central problem is essential. The larger problem is the whiplash.

Between Friday and Monday, mifepristone access went from legally restricted to temporarily restored.

Providers froze prescriptions over the weekend. Patients canceled appointments. Some pharmacies pulled the drug from shelves and then put it back. Ordinary people were left trying to understand whether access still existed, where it existed, and whether it might change again within days.

Since Thursday, this story has also moved.

Today was the deadline for responses and emergency filings at the Supreme Court. Louisiana filed a brief arguing the Court should let the 5th Circuit’s restrictions take effect. At the Supreme Court stage, the emergency defense of the 2023 rule is being carried most visibly by Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, the drug manufacturers that intervened to defend the regulation. Reuters has reported that the Trump administration opposed Louisiana’s challenge in the litigation and argued Louisiana lacked standing, while also citing an ongoing FDA safety review. That still leaves a critical question: how aggressively will the federal government defend its own medication-access rule as the case moves forward? Meanwhile, a coalition of 22 states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief urging the Court to keep the stay in place.

The Supreme Court’s temporary pause still expires Monday, May 11, at 5 p.m. ET. What Justice Alito does next, whether he extends the stay, lets it expire, or refers it to the full Court, will determine whether telehealth access to abortion care continues or shuts down nationally while the case proceeds.

Read Thursday’s full explainer here: The Mifepristone Maze

Subscribe now

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THIS WEEK

ICE and Border Patrol funding is moving through reconciliation. The House passed the Senate budget resolution on April 29, setting up a process that could move immigration-enforcement funding with a simple majority. PwC’s summary of the resolution says it instructs Judiciary and Homeland Security committees to submit reconciliation recommendations by May 15, allowing deficit increases of up to $70 billion over the 2026–2035 budget window. A reconciliation bill can pass the Senate without the usual 60-vote threshold, which means Congress can advance major enforcement policy with less bipartisan pressure and less public visibility than a normal appropriations fight.

Other Southern states are moving on redistricting. Tennessee is the ninth state to enact a new congressional map since Trump urged Texas Republicans to start mid-decade redistricting last year. Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina have also begun taking steps toward redrawing their maps after the Callais ruling. This is a national redistricting fight.

Election deadlines are live. Pennsylvania’s voter registration deadline for the May 19 primary was this week. Oregon’s May 19 primary is underway; ballots have been mailing since April 29. Indiana and Ohio held primaries on May 5. Michigan held a special general election for State Senate District 35.

COMING UP NEXT WEEK

Monday, May 11: The Supreme Court’s temporary mifepristone pause expires at 5 p.m. ET. Watch for whether Justice Alito extends the stay, lets it lapse, or refers the matter to the full Court.

May 15: Reconciliation deadline for House committee recommendations on ICE and Border Patrol funding.

Tennessee: The NAACP’s emergency lawsuit challenging the new congressional map is now in Davidson County Chancery Court. Watch for an injunction ruling.

Other states: Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina redistricting efforts are developing. If your state has not acted yet, that does not mean it will not.

And we can’t forget to share a Friday dance from Todd Gentry! (Volume up!)

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

📌 NOTE FOR NEW READERS: This is an independent publication covering 50501, No Kings, and the broader pro-democracy and civic-action ecosystem. Subscribe to join our community and to keep us posting.

Subscribe now

Share

Between Friday and Monday, Mifepristone medication went from legally restricted to temporarily restored.

Mifepristone has been FDA-approved since 2000. A generic has been available since 2019.

It’s been part of the standard of care for a quarter century. And at this moment in time, whether a patient can access it depends less on medical evidence than on which court ruled most recently.

On Friday, a federal appeals court blocked mifepristone from being mailed or dispensed at pharmacies and by Monday, the Supreme Court had paused that order.

Providers froze prescriptions over the weekend, patients canceled appointments, some pharmacies pulled the drug from shelves and then put it back.

This is Mifepristone whiplash. We’re walking through the maze so we can see where the walls are, and how to get out.

The Civic Clarity Maze

At each step in the maze, when we hit a wall, we ask a question: Is this clarity, distraction, or a pressure point?

Clarity means we know what happened and can explain it.

Distraction means people are being forced to make consequential decisions under manufactured uncertainty.

A pressure point means there’s still somewhere public attention, civic pressure, or organized response can change the outcome.

The point of this is to help make it understandable. When a legal fight becomes too complicated to follow, confusion narrows access. Making the issue easier to understand, explain, and to act on.

Wall One: What Even Is Mifepristone?

Mifepristone is one of two medications used in the standard medication abortion regimen. The FDA’s own labeling states that mifepristone is used with misoprostol to end an intrauterine pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation.

But the clinical reality extends further than that framing suggests. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has been clear that mifepristone is used for both abortion care and miscarriage management. The political fight over this medication doesn’t stay in just one category. Legal restrictions on mifepristone move through the broader systems patients and clinicians rely on for time-sensitive reproductive care, including care that has nothing to do with elective abortion.

Medication abortion is also not a fringe practice.

The Guttmacher Institute reports that medication abortion accounted for 65% of all clinician-provided abortions in the United States in 2023, up from 53% in 2020. This legal fight affects the central pillar of reproductive health care delivery in this country, not an edge case.

Maze check: Clarity.

We know what the medication is.
We know it has been FDA-approved for decades.
We know medication abortion is now the majority method of clinician-provided abortion care in the United States.
The clinical evidence supporting mifepristone’s safety and efficacy hasn’t changed.
What’s in dispute is if courts can override the FDA’s regulatory conclusions about how that medication should be dispensed.

Leave a comment

Wall Two: What Changed?

On May 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a ruling that restricted access to mifepristone by blocking mail distribution and reinstating an in-person dispensing requirement.

It reverses the FDA’s 2021 decision to remove the in-person dispensing requirement, a decision the agency formalized in 2023 after concluding that expanded telehealth and mail distribution were safe and appropriate.

The FDA, KFF, and the ACLU all point to years of safety data and real-world use supporting the current dispensing rules, but the Fifth Circuit credited Louisiana’s argument that the FDA had not adequately justified allowing remote dispensing without additional safeguards. The case came from Louisiana’s challenge to the FDA’s regulatory authority.

Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, Congress gave the FDA authority to regulate drugs nationwide, including how they are prescribed and dispensed.

That authority exists so drug safety standards are determined by scientific evidence evaluated at the federal level, not by individual state litigation strategies.

Maze check: Distraction.

When a court ruling can abruptly reverse how a medication is accessed nationwide, patients are not dealing with law in any functional sense. They’re dealing with uncertainty at the exact moment when clarity matters most. A patient seeking time-sensitive care can’t wait for the appellate calendar.

Leave a comment

Wall Three: What Did the Supreme Court Do?

On May 4, the Supreme Court administratively stayed the Fifth Circuit’s order, temporarily blocking it from taking effect while the Court considers emergency appeals from mifepristone manufacturers. AP reported that Justice Samuel Alito’s order allows telehealth, mail, and pharmacy access to continue under the FDA’s 2023 rules while the Court considers what to do next.

The ACLU described the order as a one-week pause, lasting until May 11, while the Court considers whether to block the Fifth Circuit’s ruling for a longer period.

This was a temporary administrative hold. The Supreme Court did not say the Fifth Circuit was wrong. The Court said, in effect, that the status quo should be preserved while the justices decide how to proceed.

For now, the immediate federal restriction is paused. But the legal fight underneath it remains active, the stay expires at 5 p.m. EDT on May 11, and access continues to depend on state law, local provider availability, and pharmacy policy.

Maze check: temporary clarity.

The pause expires on May 11.

Share

Wall Four: Why Does This Feel So Disorienting?

Because the effect is disorienting, whether or not confusion is the stated goal of any party to this litigation.

Axios reported that the legal back-and-forth has caused confusion for pharmacies, telehealth providers, clinicians, and patients, including in states where abortion remains fully legal.

Some providers reportedly paused teleprescribing entirely while they waited for the courts to act.

In states where abortion is legal, where no state restriction applies, providers still hesitated because the federal legal landscape had become too unstable to interpret confidently in real time.

Rights can become functionally inaccessible when people don’t know what’s legal, when providers hesitate out of legal caution, when pharmacies wait for compliance guidance, when state and federal rules appear to collide, and when patients are left trying to interpret emergency court orders instead of focusing on their own medical decisions.

Confusion is one of the primary ways access gets narrowed. Clear information, under these conditions is a civic resource.

Maze check: Distraction plus pressure point.

The Distraction is the not-knowing. The pressure point is public clarity.

Access by Confusion

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs, abortion access has not been governed by one national standard. It has been shaped by a shifting patchwork of state bans, court injunctions, provider decisions, pharmacy policies, federal agency rules, emergency motions, and temporary pauses.

And keep in mind that the patchwork doesn’t affect everyone equally.

People with financial resources, flexible schedules, reliable transportation, internet access, and supportive personal networks can often find a path through the maze. People without those advantages face the hardest version of it.

The single parent working hourly shifts who can’t take a day off to drive to another state. The patient in a rural area without broadband who can’t access telehealth. The young person without a credit card or a car.

Choose Your Civic Role

The Explainer

Choose this if people in your life ask you when they are confused.

Your mission: explain what happened in easy to understand terms.
The facts: A federal appeals court temporarily ordered the FDA to reinstate in-person dispensing rules for mifepristone. The Supreme Court administratively stayed that order until May 11 while it considers emergency appeals. For now, the FDA’s 2023 access rules remain in place, meaning telehealth, mail, and certified pharmacy dispensing can continue where otherwise allowed. Access still depends on state law, provider availability, pharmacy policy, and what the Court does next.

That’s enough. Not every conversation needs a law-review article. Sometimes democratic resilience starts with one person saying, calmly and accurately, “Here is what actually happened.”

The Sharer

Choose this if you do not have energy for a phone call today but can help stop confusion from spreading.

Your mission: share a verified source with someone asking, “Wait, what is actually going on?” Send this article or share the FDA’s mifepristone information page, the ACLU’s case update, or AP’s Supreme Court coverage.

The goal is not to worry anyone to the point of panic. Replace confusion with something reliable.

Share

The Caller

Choose this if you have 10 minutes and want to apply direct civic pressure.

Your mission: call or email one elected official and ask where they stand on protecting access to reproductive health care, medication abortion, miscarriage care, and FDA regulatory authority.

*We provided you with a script below if you don’t know what to say.

The Local Guide

Choose this if you like helping people find information.

Your mission: drop a comment with your state and a reliable state-level reproductive health resource. This turns the comment section into a practical, crowd-sourced reference readers can use across the country. Your resource might be what someone is actively looking for.

Leave a comment

The Rested Resister

Choose this if you are exhausted.

Your mission: save this article and come back when you are ready.

Civic engagement can’t survive if you burn yourself out responding to every emergency. Staying engaged might mean choosing the smallest possible step and refusing to quit. Rest up, you’ve got this.

Activist Burnout Guide

The 10-Minute Action Guide

If you have 10 minutes today, choose the path of your civic role, or try something new.

Path One: Save the guide. Keep this post as a reference if the legal landscape shifts again.

Path Two: Share the guide. Forward this to someone who is confused, overwhelmed, or trying to understand what changed.

Path Three: Make a call. Contact an elected official and ask where they stand on protecting access to medication abortion, miscarriage care, and FDA-approved medication.

Path Four: Help another reader. Leave a comment with your state and a medical resource.

Call or Email Script

Hello, my name is *NAME, and I am a concerned constituent.

I am calling to ask *OFFICIAL NAME to support access to reproductive health care, including medication abortion and miscarriage care.

The recent court fight over mifepristone has created confusion for patients, providers, pharmacies, and families across the country. People should not have to navigate legal whiplash to access time-sensitive medical care.

Please support policies that protect access to FDA-approved medication, defend the ability of patients and providers to rely on evidence-based regulatory decisions, and prevent courts from creating nationwide disruption before cases are fully resolved.

Thank you.

Clarity Check

This is an obvious attack on women’s rights and reproductive freedom.

This case shows how the attack works: Rights don’t usually just disappear in one move. They are often weakened through what we are experiencing now. Through confusion, delay, provider hesitation, and pharmacy uncertainty.

Right now, Mifepristone is showing us just how unstable and fragile women’s rights are here, in the United States.

What Comes Next

The Supreme Court’s current pause is temporary.

Justice Alito’s administrative stay lasts until 5 p.m. EDT on May 11, with responses due by Thursday, May 7.

After that, the Court will decide whether to block the Fifth Circuit’s order for a longer period while the case proceeds.

This story may change again within days.

When it does, the pressure point may move fast: to Congress, state legislators, FDA authority, legal organizations, providers, pharmacies, voter mobilization, public education, or practical support networks helping patients navigate access.

This is why we can’t afford to get lost in the maze.

Public clarity will help determine how quickly people understand what changed, who is affected, and how we mobilize.

Leave a comment

Sources

FDA: Information about mifepristone for medical termination of pregnancy through ten weeks gestation | Questions and answers on mifepristone

ACOG: What to know about abortion and miscarriages with or without mifepristone

ACOG: Medication abortion up to 70 days of gestation

Guttmacher Institute: Abortion in the United States

AP: Court restricts abortion access across the U.S. by blocking the mailing of mifepristone

Supreme Court docket: Danco Laboratories, LLC v. Louisiana, et al.

ACLU: Supreme Court issues one-week pause on nationwide restriction on abortion and miscarriage medication

ACLU: State of Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Axios: Abortion pill rulings cause whiplash and confusion

KFF: Louisiana v. FDA: Access to Mifepristone Back at the Supreme Court

KFF: The intersection of state and federal policies on access to medication abortion via telehealth after Dobbs

FDA: Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

Subscribe now

Protect The South

Pack The Committees | Wednesday, May 6

Sign Up For All You Can Attend: Mobilize.us/forwardtn

Share

Tennessee is moving through one of the fastest and most consequential redistricting fights in the country right now

Speed is part of their strategy:

Tennessee Republicans are using a special legislative session to redraw congressional maps and potentially break apart the Memphis-based 9th Congressional District, Tennessee’s only Democratic-held U.S. House seat and a district rooted in majority-Black Memphis.

Key committee meetings are happening today, Wednesday, May 6.

Organizers need people to help pack those rooms!

Tennessee is testing how fast political power can be redrawn.

On April 29, the Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana v. Callais that a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Reuters reported that the ruling gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act by making it harder for minority voters to challenge maps as racially discriminatory, and that it could prompt Republican-led states to seek new maps before the 2026 midterms.

Gov. Bill Lee called a special legislative session beginning May 5 to review the state’s congressional map. Specifically, the 9th Congressional District, Tennessee’s only Democratic-held U.S. House seat and a district centered in majority-Black Memphis. WPLN reported that the special session could redraw congressional maps in the Memphis area and potentially eliminate the state’s remaining Democratic district.

Tennessee lawmakers are considering legislation that would remove the state’s existing prohibition on changing congressional districts between apportionments.

If this works in Tennessee, it becomes a standard for other states looking for a fast way to weaken representation before voters can organize. A state sees a favorable Supreme Court ruling, calls a special session, changes its own redistricting rules, and redraws the map before the public has time to respond. That is not governance, this is an ambush and all of our rights are on the line.

On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters gathered at the Tennessee Capitol as the special session began. WPLN reported that lawmakers may have only three days to redistrict, even though the process usually takes months, and that Republican leadership rejected Democratic efforts to require more public feedback or release proposed maps 72 hours before a final vote.

Redistricting decides if a community votes together with enough strength to elect someone who reflects its needs, or if that community will get sliced apart and scattered across districts where its voice disappears. When lawmakers redraw lines to weaken a community’s representation, they are deciding who gets heard in Congress.

That is why today matters and why we need you:

Today, the Tennessee General Assembly has a packed schedule.

According to the Tennessee General Assembly’s official calendar, the Senate State and Local Government Committee meets at 9:30 AM Central Time. The Senate Judiciary Committee meets at 11:00 AM Central Time. The House Congressional Redistricting Committee meets at 11:00 AM Central Time, followed immediately by Finance, Ways, and Means and then Calendar & Rules.

Again, this was intentional. Speed benefits the people drawing the maps, not the people living inside them.

Share

The room needs people today. ASAP.

A full committee room tells lawmakers that people are watching. And it tells the press this is not a quiet procedural fight. This tells voters across the entire South that Memphis is not being carved up without witnesses.

Pack the committees today, Wednesday, May 6. RSVP through Forward Tennessee’s Mobilize page at www.mobilize.us/forwardtn.

Share this post. Send it to friends, family, organizations, churches, unions, student groups, civic groups. Send it to anyone in or near Tennessee. Send it to anyone who knows someone in Tennessee.

Protect District 9. Protect Black voting power in Memphis.

Protect the South from becoming the testing ground for mid-decade attacks on representation.

SOURCES

1. Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court guts key provision of Voting Rights Act

2. Gov. Bill Lee: Special legislative session announcement

3. WPLN: Tennessee special session redistricting coverage

4. WPLN: Hundreds march as Tennessee takes up redistricting call

5. Tennessee General Assembly: HB7002/SB7002 bill page

6. Associated Press: Tennessee Republicans target Memphis House district

7. Tennessee General Assembly official calendar

8. Forward Tennessee Mobilize page

   Share

Subscribe now

The Supreme Court temporarily restored access to mifepristone by mail while it considers emergency requests from drug manufacturers, but that pause currently expires Monday, May 11, at 5 p.m. ET. The House also passed a budget resolution setting up a reconciliation process that could move major funding for ICE and Border Patrol, with committee recommendations due by May 15. And voting rights are under pressure from the Supreme Court’s Louisiana redistricting order, federal voter-data demands, and the ongoing SAVE Act fight.

You can find your senators through the U.S. Senate contact page, find your House member through the official House ZIP code tool, or call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Mifepristone access | The pause only lasts one week

The Supreme Court temporarily paused a Fifth Circuit order that would have restricted access to mifepristone by mail. SCOTUSblog reports that the administrative stay expires Monday, May 11, at 5 p.m. ET, unless the Court extends it.

The Associated Press reports that the order temporarily restores access through telehealth, mail, and pharmacies. The FDA states that mifepristone, used with misoprostol, is approved to end an intrauterine pregnancy through ten weeks gestation.

Who to contact: Both senators first, then your House member.

What to ask: Defend access to mifepristone. Oppose federal interference with FDA-approved medication for abortion and miscarriage care. Urge HHS and FDA not to impose new restrictions.

Phone script:
“Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to defend access to mifepristone and oppose any federal restriction on medication abortion or miscarriage care. The Supreme Court’s pause is temporary, and patients should not lose access to FDA-approved care because of political pressure. Please log my call and let me know the office’s position.”

Email subject:
Resident asking you to protect mifepristone access

Email body:
Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. I am asking you to publicly defend access to mifepristone and oppose any federal effort to restrict medication abortion or miscarriage care. The Supreme Court’s temporary order does not resolve the threat. Patients in every state deserve access to evidence-based medical care without political interference. Please let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

ICE and Border Patrol funding | Reconciliation is moving

The House passed S. Con. Res. 33 on April 29 by a vote of 215–211, setting up a reconciliation process that could move immigration-enforcement funding with a simple majority.

According to PwC’s summary of the budget resolution, the resolution instructs the House and Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees to submit reconciliation recommendations by May 15, 2026, and allows deficit increases of up to $70 billion over the 2026–2035 budget window for those jurisdictions. PwC also notes that Republican leaders have said the purpose is to fund ICE and Border Patrol.

Who to contact: Your House member first, then both senators.

What to ask: Oppose any reconciliation bill that expands ICE and Border Patrol funding without enforceable accountability, due process protections, transparency, and limits on enforcement abuse.

Phone script:
“Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Representative/Senator Name] to oppose any reconciliation package that gives ICE and Border Patrol a blank check. Any funding must include due process protections, transparency, clear identification requirements, and independent oversight. Please log my call and let me know the office’s position.”

Email subject:
Resident asking you to oppose ICE funding without accountability

Email body:
Dear [Representative/Senator Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. I am asking you to oppose any reconciliation bill that expands funding for ICE and Border Patrol without enforceable accountability and due process protections. Congress should not use a fast-track budget process to expand immigration enforcement without guardrails. Please let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

Leave a comment

Voting rights | The midterm map fight is already here

The Supreme Court has allowed its Louisiana Voting Rights Act ruling to take effect ahead of schedule. Reuters reports that the move gives Louisiana Republicans a faster path to pursue a new congressional map before the November midterms.

This comes alongside another voting-rights fight: federal demands for sensitive voter data. The Brennan Center’s tracker says DOJ has sued Washington, D.C. and 30 states for refusing to provide statewide voter-registration lists with driver’s license and Social Security numbers.

The SAVE Act suite is also still active. The League of Women Voters warns that these bills would require documentary proof of citizenship to register and/or vote, even though noncitizen voting is already illegal.

Who to contact: Both senators and your House member.

What to ask: Support federal voting-rights protections. Oppose the SAVE Act suite. Reject federal collection of sensitive voter data without clear legal authority and strong privacy protections.

Phone script:
“Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to defend voting rights before the 2026 midterms. Please support legislation restoring and strengthening the Voting Rights Act, oppose the SAVE Act suite, and reject federal efforts to collect sensitive voter data without strong legal and privacy protections. Please log my call.”

Email subject:
Resident asking you to defend voting rights before the midterms

Email body:
Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. I am asking you to defend voting rights before the 2026 midterms. Please support legislation restoring and strengthening the Voting Rights Act, oppose proof-of-citizenship barriers like the SAVE Act suite, and reject federal efforts to collect sensitive voter data without clear legal authority and strong privacy protections. Voters should choose their representatives. Politicians should not be allowed to manipulate maps, registration rules, or voter data systems to shape the electorate. Thank you, [Name]

Share

A script that works for anything

For anyone who does not want to write a new message from scratch every week, this works for nearly any issue:

Phone:
“Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to take action on [issue]. I want the office to [specific ask]. Please log my message and let me know the office’s position.”

Email:
Subject: Resident asking for action on [issue]

Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. I am writing to ask you to [specific ask]. I would like to know where you stand on this issue. Thank you, [Name]

Leave a comment

Sources & Additional Reading

SCOTUSblog: Court issues temporary order allowing access to abortion pill by mail

Associated Press: Supreme Court restores access to mifepristone through telehealth, mail and pharmacies

FDA: Questions and Answers on Mifepristone

House Clerk: Roll Call 143 on S. Con. Res. 33

PwC: House approves Senate-passed budget resolution for immigration enforcement funding

Reuters: Supreme Court lets Voting Rights Act ruling take effect ahead of schedule

Brennan Center: Tracker of Justice Department Requests for Voter Information

League of Women Voters: Tell Congress to oppose the SAVE Act suite of bills

U.S. Senate: Contacting U.S. Senators

U.S. House: Find Your Representative

Share

Subscribe now

Thank you to everyone who participated on May 1! Thank you for raising your voices and continuing to show up.

Monday, May 4

Thank your organizers for May Day! :)

Search your city or county plus terms like “Indivisible,” “No Kings,” “50501,” “May Day Strong,” “labor council,” “mutual aid,” “immigrant rights,” or “pro-democracy.” Pick a local group to follow today.

The best action today:

Find a new local organizing page near you. Follow it, save, & share it!

Tuesday, May 5 | Join the May Day Strong follow-up call

May Day Strong is holding a national “What’s Next” call on Tuesday, May 5. The event is listed on Mobilize as “May Day: What’s Next!” and May Day Strong’s site is also directing people to join its May 5 mass call.

Tuesday, May 5 | Election Day in several places

This week is also an election week.

Ballotpedia lists May 5 election activity, including primary elections in Indiana and Ohio and a special general election for Michigan State Senate District 35.

Check your ballot. Check your polling place. Check whether your state has a primary this month. Check whether your friends know there is an election happening.

For Pennsylvania voters, TODAY is the last day to register to vote for the May 19 primary, and May 12 is the deadline to request a mail-in or absentee ballot.

For Oregon voters, the May 19 primary is underway. Oregon’s Secretary of State lists Election Day as May 19, and Multnomah County says ballots began mailing April 29; voters there who do not receive a ballot by Thursday, May 7 should contact the elections office.

Check your state’s official election website today. If you have a ballot, make a plan to return it. If someone near you has an election this month, send them a reminder.

All week | Adopt a Day Labor Corner

NDLON’s Adopt a Day Labor Corner campaign asks people to show up where immigrant workers are most exposed: day-labor corners, Home Depots, car washes, delis, hiring sites, and schools serving immigrant families. The campaign includes an interest form, toolkit, Adopt a School pathway, events calendar, and Mobilize options to register or host local groups and trainings.

Use NDLON’s Adopt a Day Labor Corner page to find the interest form, toolkit, and upcoming events. If your area does not have a listed group yet, use the host option or start by gathering a few trusted people who can learn the basics together.

All week | Use No Kings trainings before the next action

The No Kings training page remains a useful resource for anyone who attended May Day, helped host an event, or wants to be better prepared for the next one. It includes recordings on immigrants’ rights, protest rights and safety, safety marshal training, de-escalation, digital content, messaging, media, and organizing beyond a single event.

This is a good week to train.

If your local group had a strong turnout, don’t wait until the next major action to figure out safety, de-escalation, media, accessibility, or volunteer roles.

Pick a No Kings training recording and watch it.. Decide on something your local group can improve before the next public action.

All week | Protect medication abortion and miscarriage care

A federal appeals court has ordered nationwide restrictions on mifepristone, a medication used for abortion and miscarriage care. The ACLU says the ruling could disrupt care even in states where abortion is legally protected. ACLU’s case update says a mifepristone manufacturer filed an emergency motion at the Supreme Court asking it to block the Fifth Circuit’s May 1 decision.

People need clear public education right now about this.

This is about whether patients can access timely care through telehealth, mail, or pharmacy systems. It’s about miscarriage care and rural patients, disabled patients, low-income patients, and people who can’t safely or realistically travel for time-sensitive care.

Share a factual resource about mifepristone this week. Use the ACLU’s medication abortion action page, share a trusted explainer, or post a simple reminder that miscarriage care is part of this fight too.

Do not let people think this only affects someone else, somewhere else.

Share

All week | Find a local action near you

Mobilize has many local 50501, ICE, democracy, and weekly visibility events around the country for this week and next weekend. Search results currently show examples including “Trump Regime Takedown Saturdays,” “Disappeared in America - ICE Protest,” “No Wars No Kings No Ice,” and local No Kings/ICE actions.

Because local event pages can change quickly, use the event finders rather than relying on one screenshot or one forwarded post.

Search Mobilize, Indivisible’s event finder, 50501, No Kings, and your local groups by ZIP code. If there is an event near you, register or share it. If not, consider whether your town needs a weekly visibility action, sign wave, courthouse gathering, postcard table, or community meeting.

Not every action needs to be massive.

Some of the most useful actions are small, steady, and repeatable.

If there is no big action near you

Use the No Kings trainings. Search Mobilize. Check Indivisible’s event finder. Look up NDLON’s Adopt a Day Labor Corner campaign. Check your ballot. Share your state’s election deadlines. Ask a local group what they need help with. Invite some people into the next call.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

MONDAY: This Week in Action | April 27–May 3, 2026

More than 200 demonstrations took place the Saturday before May Day, targeting the Trump administration’s expansion of warehouse-style ICE detention facilities. Communities gathered outside proposed and converted detention sites, including a roughly 261,000-square-foot warehouse near Detroit Metro Airport and a proposed 640,000-square-foot facility in San Antonio.

Then the week turned toward May Day Strong, the nationwide coalition calling for rallies, marches, teach-ins, labor actions, and for those who can safely participate, a refusal of business as usual through No Work, No School, No Shopping.

Monday’s post also covered Workers Memorial Day, the ACLU People Power Action Call, the Supreme Court TPS arguments, the Section 702 deadline, and ways people could participate even if they could not attend an in-person event.

Click here to read the full post from Monday & sources

Leave a comment

TUESDAY: Who to Call and Email Today | April 28

The Section 702 surveillance deadline was approaching. The TPS cases for Haitians and Syrians were at the Supreme Court. ICE and Border Patrol funding was moving through Congress. The Senate Banking Committee was weighing Kevin Warsh’s nomination to chair the Federal Reserve. Workers Memorial Day connected labor rights, workplace safety, and the May Day moment. And the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether federal pesticide law can block state-level failure-to-warn lawsuits in a Roundup case.

Tuesday’s we give you a clear guide on calling your two senators and your House member. Use the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and be sure to ask for a clear position. Then follow up with a short email if you can.

Tuesday’s post included ready-to-use phone scripts and email templates for Section 702, ICE funding, TPS protections, Federal Reserve independence, worker protections, Roundup accountability, and EPA funding.

Click here to read the full post from Tuesday & sources

Share

WEDNESDAY: 7 Stories From This Week’s Political Fever Dream

Wednesday’s post some stories that might have been buried under the sheer velocity of the news cycle. Trump and Melania called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke. A quiet immigration ruling could make it easier to move deportation cases forward against DACA recipients. Trump backed renaming ICE as “NICE” while people continue dying in immigration custody. The Justice Department moved to expand federal execution methods to include firing squads, electrocution, and gas asphyxiation. Tariff issues continued. AI stories keep showing us how easy political reality can be manipulated.

Click here to read the full post from Wednesday & sources

Leave a comment

THURSDAY: Black Representation Is on the Line. May Day Must Meet the Moment.

Thursday’s post focused on the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais the story that will define this week in history books.

The Court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map, the one that included a second majority-Black district, the one that resulted in the 2024 election of Congressman Cleo Fields. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the six-justice majority, held that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create the district, and therefore the state lacked a compelling interest to justify the use of race in drawing it. In practical terms, the ruling makes it dramatically harder for Black communities to challenge maps that dilute their political power.

Justice Elena Kagan, in dissent, called the decision the latest chapter in the majority’s demolition of the Voting Rights Act, and said it rendered Section 2 effectively a dead letter.

Black residents make up roughly one-third of Louisiana’s population. Two majority-Black districts out of six reflected that reality far more closely than one. Now the Court has invalidated the map, and within hours, a request was filed to expedite the judgment so the state legislature could redraw the lines before the 2026 midterms. Tennessee’s Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is running for governor, posted calling on her state legislature to reconvene and create another Republican seat. This is how fast it moves.

Click here to read the full post from Thursday & sources

Share

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THIS WEEK

The House advanced the $70 billion immigration enforcement plan.

On Wednesday evening, the House approved a budget resolution that creates a pathway for roughly $70 billion more for ICE and Border Patrol. The vote was 215–211, strictly along party lines, with Speaker Mike Johnson holding the vote open for more than five hours to wrangle holdouts. The Senate had already approved the plan on April 23. This is not the final funding bill, it’s a budget plan that allows Republicans to use the reconciliation process to bypass a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. It’s a major step. Republicans used the same procedure last year to push through around $130 billion in immigration enforcement funding. They’re hoping to pass the details in May.

The House voted to renew Section 702 surveillance powers.

Also on Wednesday, the House passed a three-year reauthorization of Section 702 of FISA by a vote of 235–191. The program allows U.S. intelligence agencies to intercept the communications of foreign nationals abroad without a warrant but the data of Americans who communicate with those targets gets swept up too, and the FBI can search that data without a court order. Civil liberties advocates have spent nearly two decades pushing for a warrant requirement. It was not included. The bill faces trouble in the Senate, partly House leaders attached an unrelated ban on a central bank digital currency to win conservative votes, provision Senate Majority Leader Thune has called a nonstarter.

Louisiana’s congressional primaries face upheaval after the Supreme Court ruling.

State officials are now confronting and asking how to redraw the congressional map before the 2026 midterms. Congressman Cleo Fields has argued that redrawing at this stage would be imprudent, given that voters have already made their decisions through the qualifying process. The immediate result is confusion for voters. The longer result is a new redistricting fight under a Voting Rights Act that has been significantly weakened.

Trump Passport

The State Department confirmed this week that it’s preparing a limited release of commemorative U.S. passports featuring Donald Trump’s portrait on the inside cover, with his signature in gold, as part of the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations. Between 25,000 and 30,000 will be available through the Washington, D.C., passport office beginning around July 4. Trump would be the first living president featured on a U.S. passport. Public documents belong to us, the public. They’re not meant to become Trump’s personal branding.

COMING UP

Today, May 1: May Day Strong.

Workers Over Billionaires. No Work. No School. No Shopping. Rallies, marches, teach-ins, labor actions, and community events are taking place in more than 3,000 locations across the country, backed by a coalition of over 500 labor and community organizations including 50501, No Kings, Indivisible, the NEA, and National Nurses United.

This weekend, May 2–3:

If you attend an event today, post your pictures! Share what your city did. Join the group that hosted it.

Next week:

The ICE funding reconciliation package. Section 702’s fate in the Senate. The Louisiana redistricting fight. TPS protections at the Supreme Court. Local May Day follow-up events. The work after a major action day is when people drift away or become part of something durable. Choose durable.

What are you doing for May Day today?

Will you march, rally, avoid shopping, call Congress, support a local action, help with mutual aid, share information? Even a small action can help someone else see a place to begin. Leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

You can grow this movement by forwarding this to someone, leaving us a comment to boost the algorithm, or hitting the like button. Every interaction helps more people find us.

Share

Dancing Todd: IMMIGRANTS MAKE AMERICA GREAT!

Subscribe now

Congressman Cleo Fields represents Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District. He is Black.

His district is majority-Black. And now, for the second time in his career, a majority-Black district tied to Fields’s congressional service has been invalidated by the Supreme Court.

The first time was 1995. The Court said the district was drawn based on race. The district was later redrawn, and Fields was forced out of Congress.

Thirty years later, after a new round of litigation, Louisiana created a second majority-Black district again. Black residents make up roughly one-third of Louisiana’s population and now had a majority in two of its six congressional districts. This was representation looking like the people being represented.

Fields ran and he won.
He was sworn into Congress in January 2025.

Fifteen months later, the Court invalidated the district going forward.

A Black man from Louisiana runs for Congress in a district where Black voters can elect a candidate of their choice. He wins and serves.. and then the highest court in the country says that district shouldn’t even exist. TWICE. In one career, thirty years apart. This is a civil-rights emergency.

Here is the simplest way to understand what happened: Your community has enough people to elect someone to the city council who knows your neighborhood, shares your concerns, and fights for your schools, roads, and hospitals. Then someone redraws the district lines so your community gets split across three different council districts. In each one, you’re outnumbered. You can still vote but you can never elect anyone who represents you. You’re not banned from the ballot box but your power is divided up until it disappears or just doesn’t mean anything anymore.

Now imagine your community sues and wins and the court says the lines were unfair, and the map gets redrawn so your neighborhood is whole again. You elect your representative and the system works how it should. Then the Supreme Court steps in and says the new map relied too much on the makeup of your community. The map gets thrown out and the legal ground your community used to challenge the unfair lines in the first place is made much harder to use going forward.

That’s exactly what happened yesterday to Black voters in Louisiana, and setting “the standard” to Black and Latino communities across the country.

Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that this district is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The majority, written by Justice Samuel Alito and joined by every conservative justice on the bench, said the Voting Rights Act didn’t require Louisiana to create the district, so the state had no compelling reason to consider race when drawing it.

Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the three-justice dissent, called the ruling the “latest chapter in the majority’s now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.” She said Section 2 of the Act has been rendered “all but a dead letter.”

She said states can now “systematically dilute minority citizens’ voting power” without legal consequence.

This is the dissenting opinion of a sitting Supreme Court justice.

And we need to understand exactly what it means historically and racially. The tools designed to protect Black political power have now been stripped away. The Court has framed the dismantling as constitutional principle while the consequences have fallen on the same communities.

What Section 2 Was Built to Do

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 came out of Selma. It came out of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It came out of a century of poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, economic retaliation, and organized violence designed to keep Black Americans from voting and from political power.

It was racial exclusion, enforced by law and by terror, sustained across generations, and aimed at one group of Americans.

The Voting Rights Act was put in place and it worked.

Black voter registration surged, Black elected officials increased dramatically across the South.

Communities that had been locked out of government for generations finally had representation.

The law didn’t create equality overnight. However, it created legal architecture that made progress possible. But exclusion adapted.

Once it became illegal to keep people from the ballot box directly, their strategy shifted. Communities could still vote, but their power could be diluted through maps.

A large Black community could be split across multiple districts so it could never form a majority.

That practice is called cracking.

A community could also be packed into a single district when it had enough population to influence two or more. Either way, people could still cast a ballot while losing the ability to elect anyone who would represent their interests.

Which is WHY Congress amended Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in 1982.

The original version required proof of discriminatory intent. Congress recognized that modern discrimination shows up through district lines, at-large election systems, polling place changes, and rules that sound neutral while producing unequal results. The 1982 amendment told courts to examine the results, not just the stated motive.

For more than forty years, Section 2 has been the primary legal tool for communities of color to challenge maps and voting systems that weaken their political voice.

Yesterday the Supreme Court changed that standard. The Court made Section 2 much more difficult to use, raising the burden on voters challenging discriminatory maps, and gave states far more room to defend harmful maps as partisan rather than racial.

What the Court Just Did

The majority’s opinion says Section 2 now “imposes liability only when the evidence supports a strong inference that the State intentionally drew its districts to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race.”

After forty years of a results-based test, the ruling moves Section 2 much closer to the intent-based standard Congress rejected in 1982, according to Kagan’s dissent and voting-rights advocates.

The majority says its interpretation “does not demand a finding of intentional discrimination,” while simultaneously requiring circumstances giving rise to a “strong inference” of intentional discrimination.

The practical effect, as Kagan and civil rights groups warn, is that voters challenging a discriminatory map must now come much closer to proving racial motive, even when the real-world impact on communities of color is visible and measurable.

Kagan’s dissent explains why that shift is devastating: A state can announce that it drew maps for partisan advantage, not racial reasons, and plaintiffs may have no effective claim under Section 2, even if the practical result is that Black voters lose the ability to elect representatives of their choice. In states where race and party are closely linked, partisan justification can become the escape hatch.

In the South, where residential segregation still shapes political geography and where racially polarized voting is well documented, the communities most affected by redistricting manipulation are overwhelmingly Black and Latino.

A legal standard that lets states claim partisan motive while producing racial harm risks becoming a standard that permits racial harm.

Will Black voters end up with less political power when the maps are redrawn…?

Leave a comment

Justice Clarence Thomas went further in concurrence, writing that Section 2 “does not regulate districting at all.” If adopted, that view would eliminate Section 2 challenges to redistricting maps entirely.

That is a sitting justice arguing that the central protection against racial vote dilution should not apply to the maps that determine political representation.

Why Civil-Rights Groups Are Calling This a Racial Justice Crisis

A policy can be racially discriminatory in its effect. A map can weaken Black political power without anyone speaking a slur in committee. A legal standard can make racial discrimination harder to prove while the discrimination continues. A court can leave rights on paper while stripping communities of the tools needed to enforce them.

And that is what Section 2 was built to recognize.

Congress amended it in 1982 precisely because proving intent was too hard, and because discrimination hides behind systems that appear neutral.

The people who have spent their careers fighting for voting rights are not taking this lightly, rightfully so.

This is a Civil-Rights Crisis.

• Janai Nelson, President of the Legal Defense Fund, said the ruling is “devastating for Black Louisiana voters and for fair representation for all voters of color.” She called it the “height of hypocrisy” and said the Court “has rendered key voting protections that have served this country for more than 60 years null and void.”

• NAACP President Derrick Johnson said the Court “betrayed Black voters” and that the ruling “threatens to erode the hard-won victories we’ve fought, bled, and died for.”

• The ACLU of Louisiana called it “a devastating blow to Black and brown Louisiana voters, who have fought for decades to see their voices fairly represented.”

• The Native American Rights Fund said the decision “cruelly undercuts the Voting Rights Act, the foundational tool for Native voters and other voters of color to protect themselves from racial discrimination.”

• Cleo Fields himself said the ruling “dismantled decades of settled law that Congress established to ensure that no community’s votes could be silenced.”

• The chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Yvette Clarke, called the Supreme Court “rogue” and said the decision “effectively signed the death certificate of the Voting Rights Act, undoing decades of Black progress.” The caucus called for a vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

  These are the organizations that have litigated voting rights cases for decades, in some cases since the 1940s. When they say a ruling is devastating, they are comparing it to the entire history of this fight.

  ---

Executive Director of Voices of Florida talks about the impact of the Supreme Court decision from yesterday:

Share

This Is NOT Just Going to Happen in Louisiana

Just three years ago, in Allen v. Milligan, the Court sided with Black voters in Alabama and required the state to create a second majority-Black congressional district.

That ruling prompted Louisiana to do the same.

Alabama now has two Black U.S. House members serving together for the first time in its history.

Now the legal foundation of that outcome has been pulled away.

The possible consequences are already being mapped. And they fall on the same communities the Voting Rights Act was meant to protect.

AP reports that nearly 70 of 435 congressional districts have been shaped by Section 2 protections, according to election-law expert Nicholas Stephanopoulos. Pre-ruling analyses from Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter warned that a decision gutting Section 2 could eventually help Republican-led states flip as many as 19 majority-minority congressional seats. Analysts have warned that up to a quarter or more of the Congressional Black Caucus and roughly a tenth of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus could be affected by map changes that would previously have triggered Section 2 scrutiny.

These represent communities where Black and Latino voters organized, litigated, and fought for representation over decades. School board seats. City councils. State legislatures. Congressional districts. Each one of those gains was built through the legal framework that this ruling just weakened.

Florida’s legislature has now passed a new congressional map that could give Republicans up to four additional seats. The Senate voted 21-17 on the same day as the ruling, sending the map to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who proposed it and is expected to sign it. Litigation is expected.

Mississippi’s governor has called a special legislative session for May 20 to redraw state Supreme Court election maps in light of the ruling.

Texas had already pushed through a mid-decade congressional map after pressure from Trump and his allies, and the Supreme Court cleared that map for use in 2026. With Section 2 narrowed, remaining legal challenges face steeper odds.

And then there is Tennessee.

Within hours of the ruling, Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is running for governor, called on Tennessee lawmakers to reconvene and redraw the state’s congressional map. Marsha Blackburn is pushing for a 9-0 Republican map that would eliminate Tennessee’s only remaining Democratic district, TN-9, a Memphis-based district historically preserved as Black-majority under the Voting Rights Act. “I urge our state legislature to reconvene to redistrict another Republican seat in Memphis,” she wrote. “I’ve vowed to keep Tennessee a red state.”

She is openly calling for the elimination of a historically Black-majority district and framing it as partisan strategy. Tennessee already cracked Nashville’s minority voters across three districts in 2022, flipping a Democratic seat. Memphis is the last one left.

Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents TN-9 and is the only Democrat in Tennessee’s congressional delegation, announced a press conference the same day to address the ruling’s potential impact on Tennessee and Blackburn’s call for a special session. That is how quickly this moved from Supreme Court opinion to political strategy.

This is exactly what Kagan’s dissent warned would happen. A state announces a partisan goal. A Black community loses its representation. And under the new legal standard, the partisan framing may be enough to shield the map from a successful Section 2 challenge, even though the community being targeted is overwhelmingly Black.

In the hours after the ruling, Florida passed a new map. Tennessee Republicans began openly discussing a 9-0 map, and a U.S. senator running for governor posted her plans on social media with a map showing every district in red.

These are the dominoes falling.

All of those districts now exist on weaker legal ground.

This is the third major blow to the Voting Rights Act in thirteen years. And every one of them has landed on the same communities.

In 2013, the Court gutted preclearance in Shelby County v. Holder. Preclearance had required jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination to get federal approval before changing voting rules. After Shelby, states no longer needed permission.

Texas announced a strict voter ID law the same day.

Restrictive voting measures followed across the South, disproportionately affecting Black and Latino voters.

In 2019, the Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that partisan gerrymandering can’t be challenged in federal court.

Maps drawn purely for partisan advantage were declared a political question the courts would not touch. In states where race and party are closely intertwined, that ruling gave lawmakers cover to weaken minority representation.

And now, in Callais, the Court has narrowed Section 2 so that vote-dilution claims face a much higher bar.

These three rulings mean that preclearance is gone, partisan gerrymandering is allowed, and the main remaining tool to challenge racial vote dilution has been hollowed out.

The Voting Rights Act was the most consequential civil rights law of the twentieth century. It was built to address racial exclusion. Every tool it created was designed to counteract a specific form of racial harm. And this Court has now dismantled those tools one by one, each time with language that avoids saying the word race while producing outcomes that fall hardest on Black and Latino communities.

As Kagan wrote in dissent, the Voting Rights Act “must be brought low to make the world safe for partisan gerrymanders.”

Share

From (Follow & Subscribe to them if you haven’t!)

Share

What You Can Do Right Now

This ruling was issued yesterday. The response needs to be sustained, specific, and directed.

JOIN A MAY DAY ACTION FOR TOMORROW!

Share

Call your members of Congress. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is designed to restore and modernize key Voting Rights Act protections, including federal oversight tools weakened by earlier Supreme Court rulings. Demand that your senators and representative support it. Call the congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use 5calls.org for scripts and contact information.

Send a message through Resistbot. Text RESIST to 50409 or visit resist.bot to send letters to your elected officials about voting-rights protections.

Pay attention to your state. Redistricting is not only a federal issue. State legislative maps, county commissions, city councils, school boards, and judicial districts can all be affected by redistricting rules and voting-rights litigation. Governors, state legislators, secretaries of state, attorneys general, courts, and local officials can all shape maps and voting rules. Your state-level elections now carry even more weight.

Support voting-rights organizations. Groups like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the Campaign Legal Center are deeply involved in voting-rights litigation, legal research, public education, and redistricting accountability. They will need resources and public support for the map battles ahead.

Talk about redistricting before it becomes an election result. One of the reasons map manipulation works is that it happens in quiet processes that most people do not follow. Share this information. Explain it to someone in your life. Treat redistricting as what it is: one of the central ways political power is distributed in this country.

Leave a comment

The civil rights generation didn’t fight for only the physical act of casting a ballot.

They fought for representation and they fought against a system that spent generations finding new ways to keep Black citizens from shaping the laws, budgets, schools, courts, roads, hospitals, and institutions that governed their lives.

This ruling takes one of the most successful civil rights laws in American history and turns it into something easier for politicians to work around. It tells Black voters that discrimination may be visible but legally unreachable.

When a right becomes difficult to enforce, the people who need it most are the first to lose it.

Black voters fought for generations to be heard in this democracy!

This is a week to understand what happened, explain it to others, and make very clear to every elected official within reach that dismantling voting rights protections for the communities that need them most will not go unanswered.

The ruling told lawmakers across the country that if they can call racial dilution “partisan strategy,” the courts may be less willing to stop them.

Congressional pressure still works.
State-level elections still shape the rules.
Public attention still changes what lawmakers believe they can get away with.

Tennessee heard that message within hours.
The question now is whether the rest of us heard it too.

How would you explain vote dilution to someone who thinks voting rights only means access to the ballot box?

Leave a comment

Share this with someone who wants to understand what the Supreme Court just did to the Voting Rights Act.

Share

Subscribe now

Since Trumps second administration, the news continues to move so fast that stories worth stopping for get buried under the next breaking news before most people even see them.

Some are absurd, alarming and some are procedural and easy-to-miss stories that could change things permanently while everyone is too caught up reading about something else.

Share

1. Trump and Melania called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke.

On Thursday, April 23, Jimmy Kimmel filmed a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner roast for his ABC late-night show.

In the segment, he joked that First Lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow.” It was, by Kimmel’s account, an age-gap joke.

Two days later, on Saturday, April 25, a gunman named Cole Tomas Allen attempted to enter the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton while the Trumps and much of the nation’s political leadership were inside. He has since been charged with attempted assassination of the president.

On Monday, April 27, both Trumps publicly called for Kimmel to be fired.

Melania Trump posted that his “hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country.” The president wrote on Truth Social that Kimmel should be “immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” calling the joke a “despicable call to violence.”

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr also publicly pressured ABC to take action.

On Monday night, Kimmel said the joke was about the couple’s age difference. “It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination. And they know that.”

These government officials believe that political satire should be answered with institutional punishment.

Leave a comment

Sources: PBS NewsHour, NPR, Time, CNN, CBS News

2. A quiet ruling could make it easier to deport DACA recipients. More than 500,000 people could be affected.

Catalina Santiago came to the United States as a child and grew up here.

She went to school here and had DACA status, which gave her deferred action and work authorization, but not permanent legal status or a path to citizenship.

Last year, she was detained at the El Paso airport while boarding a domestic flight to a conference. She spent roughly two months in ICE detention before a federal judge ordered her release.

On Friday, April 24, her case became the drive for something more. The Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative court inside the Justice Department, published a precedent-setting decision in her case. The ruling says that DACA status is not enough to justify terminating removal proceedings, which could make it easier for DHS to move deportation cases forward against recipients.

Published BIA decisions set binding precedent for immigration judges nationwide unless modified by the attorney general or federal courts. The board sided with government lawyers in 97 percent of publicly posted cases last year. That’s at least 30 percentage points higher than the average over the past 16 years.

DACA was created in 2012 to protect people who came to the United States before age 16 and have continuously resided here since June 15, 2007. It covers roughly 505,000 people. It provides temporary protection from deportation and work authorization. Recipients must renew every two years.

Since Trump returned to office, DHS has urged DACA recipients to self-deport. Reporting on enforcement numbers has varied that earlier figures from then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem cited 261 arrests and 86 removals between January and November 2025, while later reporting cited 270 arrests and 174 deportations from January through September 2025, with 73 additional arrests by mid-November.

The discrepancies have not been publicly reconciled.

Not a lot of viral attention on this story, just a procedural ruling inside an administrative court that could reshape the legal ground under more than half a million people, many of whom have spent most of their lives in this country.

Sources: NPR, Democracy Now!, Latin Times

3. Trump backed the idea of renaming ICE as “NICE”

On Monday, April 27, Trump endorsed a proposal to rename Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “NICE,” short for “National Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

The idea came from a conservative influencer’s March post suggesting the rebrand would force the media to say “NICE agents.” Trump reshared it on Truth Social and wrote, “GREAT IDEA!!! DO IT.”

Yup, Trump saw a social media post about making a federal law enforcement agency sound friendlier and responded with all caps enthusiasm. 🤡

Meanwhile, inside ICE detention, people are dying at a rate not seen in over two decades.

KFF reported that as of March 18, 2026, 46 people had died in ICE custody or detention facilities since Trump returned to office in January 2025.

Deaths in 2025 exceeded the highest level in more than 20 years.

Deaths in 2026 are on pace to meet or exceed that number.

As of mid-April, ICE custody deaths had already hit an all-time fiscal year high, with 29 deaths since October, surpassing the previous record of 28 set in 2004.

House Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee have said 53 people have died in ICE or CBP custody since Trump took office, a figure that includes deaths the agency’s own reporting may not capture.

A softer acronym doesn’t answer to the detention deaths, medical care, overcrowding, and oversight we desperately need.

Leave a comment

Sources: Newsweek, The Hill, KFF, NPR

4. The Justice Department moved to expand federal execution methods

On Friday, April 24, Reuters reported that the Justice Department plans to expand federal execution methods to include firing squads, electrocution, and gas asphyxiation.

Firing squads. Electrocution. Nitrogen gas.

The DOJ cited difficulties obtaining drugs for lethal injections and framed the expansion as part of Trump’s promise to resume capital punishment. The department’s report said it authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had already authorized nine of those. Blanche also directed the Bureau of Prisons to examine relocating or expanding federal death row, or constructing an additional execution facility.

Before Trump’s first term resumed federal executions in 2020 after a roughly 17-year gap, the federal government had largely stepped away from capital punishment.

In his first term’s final months, 13 federal prisoners were put to death, more than under any president in modern history.

Before leaving office, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row. Three remain: the Boston Marathon bomber, the Charleston church shooter, and the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter.

The death penalty already raises serious concerns about error, racial bias, due process, and cruel punishment.

The Supreme Court’s liberal justices have sharply criticized nitrogen gas executions, with Justice Sotomayor warning that the person can convulse, gasp for air, and experience “intense psychological torment.”

Sources: DOJ Press Release, NPR, NBC News

5. Trump’s mail-voting order could pull USPS into election administration

On March 31, Trump signed an executive order directing the administration to compile lists of verified U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state and requiring the Postal Service to deliver mail-in ballots only to voters on each state’s approved absentee list.

So the Postal Service is being asked to deliver ballots only to voters on a federally shaped approved list.

On April 21, 37 Democratic senators sent a letter to the Postal Service warning that the order illegally seeks to transform USPS into an election administration agency. The senators, led by Chuck Schumer, Gary Peters, Alex Padilla, and Dick Durbin, wrote that the Constitution “provides no role for the President in regulating federal elections.”

State attorneys general have also filed suit, arguing that the order unlawfully interferes with mail-in voting by directing USPS to block ballot delivery based on criteria outside the states’ control. On April 22, senators introduced the Absentee and Mail Voter Protection Act to nullify the executive order and prohibit USPS or any other agency from spending funds to implement it.

Election law experts have called the order unconstitutional. A previous Trump executive order on elections was already blocked by federal judges who said the president lacked the authority.

Mail voting is used by older voters, disabled voters, rural voters, military voters, caregivers, and workers with difficult schedules. The federal government is trying to change who receives a ballot or what systems states must use before an election.

With the 2026 midterms ahead, that is worth watching.

Sources: NPR, The Hill, Reuters via U.S. News, Sen. Gallego

Share

6. Companies may get tariff refunds while consumers wait

In February, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Trump’s broad tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were illegal.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection collected roughly $166 billion under those tariffs. On April 20, CBP opened a portal for importers to request refunds.

The refund system is limited to importers of record and authorized customs brokers.

If you paid more for groceries, clothes, appliances, or school supplies because of those tariffs, you are not eligible to file.

On April 21, Trump told CNBC he would “remember” companies that do not seek refunds. Asked whether he would find it offensive for companies to request their money back, he said, “Brilliant if they don’t do that.”

The Yale Budget Lab estimated the average household paid more than $1,700 in higher costs last year because of the tariffs.

On April 23, a group of 15 House Democrats led by Rep. Steven Horsford sent letters to the CEOs of Walmart, Home Depot, Target, Best Buy, FedEx, Amazon, Lowe’s, Costco, UPS, and DHL asking what steps they would take to pass refunds back to consumers. They also asked whether the companies would commit to not using refund money for stock buybacks or executive compensation.

FedEx, UPS, and DHL have all pledged to return tariff refunds to their customers once they receive them from CBP. The major retailers have not yet made similar commitments.

So: consumers paid higher prices. Companies may get the refunds. And Trump is openly signaling favor toward companies that choose not to ask for money back.

Leave a comment

Sources: CNBC, Axios, CBS News, U.S. News, Rep. Larson

7. A town of 7,000 is being asked to make room for 51 data warehouses

Archbald, Pennsylvania, is a former coal town of about 7,000 people tucked in a valley near the Pocono Mountains. It spent decades recovering from its industrial past.

The forests grew back and wildlife returned. It’s been described as a “quiet community where you could look out your back window and see black bears, deer, and owls.”

Now, the data center developers have arrived.

Developers have proposed six separate data center campuses in Archbald that could eventually cover roughly 14 percent of the town’s land.

The campuses would include 51 data warehouses, each about the size of a Walmart Supercenter. One project has already begun clearing about 180 acres of trees.

Tim Bachak, a 43-year-old public school teacher, told the Post he woke up to the sound of chainsaws last month. The forest behind his home, being cut down.

The reason Archbald is attractive to developers is because the town sits near the nuclear-powered, 500-kilovolt Susquehanna-Roseland power line, with access to significant power, freshwater, and available land.

One site plan would place hundreds of diesel backup generators near homes, and Grist reported that Project Gravity is expected to pump 360,000 gallons of water a day from Lake Scranton.

The community is pushing back.

Four of Archbald’s seven borough council members resigned after backlash, and three of those seats have since been filled by data center opponents.

The town’s mayor, Shirley Barrett, told the Post that the situation has fractured the community.

Most of the projects are not fully approved. WVIA reported that none of the six campuses had received full local approval as of April 22, and the Post reported that it could be months or years before any data centers are built.

These Data centers are being proposed in small, rural communities that have available power, land, and limited resources to evaluate or resist the proposals. Residents are also raising questions about who pays for the infrastructure, power, water, and environmental costs when projects of this size show up in small communities.

Archbald used to be a coal town and it spent a long time healing from that. Now residents are watching it happen again with a different industry and the same question: who benefits, and who takes the cost?

Sources: Washington Post, WVIA, Grist

Leave a comment

If this post helped you see something more clearly, share it with someone who is trying to keep up. And if this work is useful to you, a subscription keeps us posting.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Several things are moving at the same time this week, and some of them are moving fast.

• The Section 702 surveillance deadline is Thursday, April 30.

• The Supreme Court hears arguments tomorrow on TPS protections for Haitians and Syrians.

• The Senate has already voted to advance the initial budget resolution tied to a roughly $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol funding plan, and the House is now the next.

• The Senate Banking Committee votes Wednesday on a nominee who could reshape the Federal Reserve.

• And May Day Strong is this Friday.

*Reach out to your own three offices first: your two U.S. senators and your House member. Use the Senate contact page to find your senators and the House ZIP code finder to find your representative. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121.

Call first. Then send a short email with the same ask if you can (Some make it difficult to email). Give your ZIP code & ask for a clear position.

If time is short today, start with Section 702 and ICE funding. Those are where the most immediate congressional pressure is this week.

Share

Section 702 | The deadline is Thursday

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expires this Thursday, April 30.

Congress passed only a short 10-day extension after failing to agree on a long-term plan, and 5 Calls confirms the April 30 stopgap deadline is still active.

The central reform is a warrant requirement, when the government searches Americans communications collected under this law, should it need a warrant first?

Section 702 was designed for foreign intelligence surveillance. The concern is that Americans communications get swept into the database and can then be searched without the warrant protections the Fourth Amendment was built around.

Who to contact: Both senators first, then your House member.

What to ask: Oppose a clean extension of Section 702. Support a warrant requirement for searches involving Americans’ communications.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to oppose a clean extension of Section 702 and support a warrant requirement for searches involving Americans’ communications. Please log my call and let me know the office’s position.”

Email subject: Resident asking you to oppose a clean Section 702 extension

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. The Section 702 surveillance deadline is April 30, and I am asking you to oppose a clean extension. Any renewal must include a warrant requirement for searches involving Americans’ data. Constitutional protections should not be traded away in a last-minute extension. Please let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

ICE and Border Patrol funding | The fight moves to the House

The Senate voted 50-48 to advance the initial budget resolution tied to a roughly $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol funding plan, setting up a reconciliation process that could allow later funding legislation to move through the Senate with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes normally required. This now moves to the House.

That Senate vote didn’t happen quietly.

Democrats pushed for amendments requiring judicial warrants for home entries, visible identification for agents, body cameras, and independent investigations of enforcement abuses. Those reforms did not make it in. What passed was the funding framework. The House is now where accountability demands can still happen.

Who to contact: Your House member first, then both senators.

What to ask: Oppose any reconciliation bill that expands ICE and Border Patrol funding without enforceable accountability, due process protections, and oversight of enforcement abuses.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Representative/Senator Name] to oppose any reconciliation package that funds ICE and Border Patrol without meaningful accountability, due process protections, and transparency. The Senate vote left out the guardrails. The House needs to put them back in. Please log my call.”

Email subject: Resident asking you to oppose ICE funding without accountability

Email body: Dear [Representative/Senator Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. The Senate has advanced the initial budget resolution tied to a roughly $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol funding plan without the accountability reforms Democrats sought, including warrant requirements, agent identification, body cameras, and independent oversight. I am asking you to oppose any reconciliation bill that expands enforcement funding without those protections. Please let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

TPS protections | The Supreme Court hears arguments tomorrow

The Supreme Court hears arguments tomorrow, Wednesday, April 29, in the consolidated TPS cases involving Haitian and Syrian immigrants.

The cases challenge the Trump administration’s attempt to end Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians, and advocates warn the outcome could affect the broader TPS program and other immigrant communities who are watching closely.

TPS holders have lived here lawfully, often for years or decades, because conditions in their home countries have been officially designated too dangerous or unstable to return to. The cases before the Court tomorrow are about due process and existing legal protections.

Contacting the Supreme Court is not the appropriate action here. The action is congressional pressure for protective legislation and oversight of DHS.

Who to contact: Both senators first, then your House member.

What to ask: Support legislation protecting TPS holders. Oppose mass termination of TPS designations. Push DHS to preserve work authorization, family unity, and due process.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to support protections for TPS holders. The Supreme Court is hearing a major TPS case this week, and Congress needs to act. Please support legislation that protects TPS holders and keeps families together.”

Email subject: Resident asking you to protect TPS holders

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. The Supreme Court hears arguments on TPS protections tomorrow, but Congress has an independent responsibility to act. TPS holders have lived lawfully in this country, often for years, and many have children who are U.S. citizens. I am asking you to support legislation protecting TPS holders, oppose mass termination of TPS designations, and push DHS to preserve work authorization and family unity. Please let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

Federal Reserve independence | Senate Banking Committee votes Wednesday

The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday, April 29, on Kevin Warsh’s nomination to chair the Federal Reserve.

All committee Democrats have indicated opposition, citing concerns about Federal Reserve independence. Republicans control the committee and the vote.

The Federal Reserve sets interest rates, manages inflation, and shapes borrowing costs for mortgages, car loans, and business credit. Its chair has enormous influence over the economic conditions that affect everyday life.

Will the Federal Reserve remain an independent institution or become more responsive to political pressure from the White House?

Who to contact: Both senators. If one of your senators sits on the Senate Banking Committee, call that office first.

What to ask: Oppose advancing Warsh’s nomination unless he gives clear, enforceable commitments to protect Federal Reserve independence from political interference.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator Name] to oppose Kevin Warsh’s nomination to chair the Federal Reserve unless he commits clearly to protecting the Fed’s independence from political pressure. The Federal Reserve should serve the public interest, not any administration’s agenda.”

Email subject: Resident asking you to protect Federal Reserve independence

Email body: Dear Senator [Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. The Senate Banking Committee votes Wednesday on Kevin Warsh’s nomination to chair the Federal Reserve. I am asking you to oppose this nomination unless he gives clear, enforceable commitments to protect the Federal Reserve from political pressure. The Fed’s independence affects interest rates, inflation, mortgages, and the livelihoods of working people. Please protect it. Thank you, [Name]

Workers Memorial Day is today

Today, April 28, is Workers Memorial Day, which honors workers killed or injured on the job.

May Day Strong is this Friday, May 1, with events organized nationwide. No work, no school, no shopping.

Today however, connects workers rights, immigration, democracy, and economic fairness under one broad demand, that working people have power, dignity, and protection.

OSHA and the National Labor Relations Board both face significant pressure from the current administration, and their enforcement capacity directly affects whether workers can organize, report unsafe conditions, and hold employers accountable.

Who to contact: Both senators and your House member.

What to ask: Protect OSHA and NLRB enforcement. Defend workers’ right to organize. Oppose budgets that cut worker protections while delivering more to the wealthy.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to protect workers’ rights, defend OSHA and NLRB enforcement, and oppose any budget that cuts protections for working people. Today is Workers Memorial Day and this Friday is May Day. Workers deserve safety, fair wages, and the right to organize.”

Email subject: Resident asking you to protect workers’ rights and workplace safety

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. Today is Workers Memorial Day and May Day is this Friday. I am asking you to protect OSHA and NLRB enforcement, defend workers’ right to organize without intimidation, and oppose any budget that weakens protections for working people. Workers deserve safety, fair wages, and dignity. Please let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

Find a local May Day Strong event for this upcoming Friday at maydaystrong.org or through mobilize.us.

Roundup and the right to sue | Corporate immunity vs. consumer accountability

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell, a case about whether federal pesticide law can be used to block state-level failure-to-warn lawsuits over Roundup.

Bayer, which owns Monsanto, is trying to use federal regulation as a shield against tens of thousands of lawsuits from people who say Roundup caused their cancer and that they were not warned about the risk. Reuters reported that a recent poll found broad public concern about pesticide safety and strong opposition to corporate legal immunity.

Who to contact: Both senators and your House member.

What to ask: Protect consumers and workers right to sue companies that fail to warn about health risks. Oppose federal legal immunity for pesticide manufacturers.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to protect the right of residents and farmworkers to hold pesticide companies accountable when they fail to warn about health risks. Federal regulation should not be used to block people from having their day in court.”

Email subject: Resident asking you to protect the right to hold pesticide companies accountable

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. The Supreme Court just heard arguments in a case that could let Monsanto use federal pesticide law to block cancer lawsuits from people who say they were never warned about Roundup’s risks. I am asking you to protect the right of residents and farmworkers to hold corporations accountable when they fail to warn about health risks. Federal regulation should protect people, not shield corporations from accountability. Thank you, [Name]

EPA funding | Clean air and clean water are on the table

The House Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee held a budget hearing for the Environmental Protection Agency this week with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

The administration’s proposed budget includes cuts reported at roughly 52 percent to EPA programs covering clean air, clean water, environmental justice, Superfund cleanup, and grants to states and local governments for pollution enforcement.

These determine whether rivers are monitored, if communities near industrial sites have someone to call, and if hazardous waste sites get cleaned up before they contaminate drinking water.

Who to contact: Both senators and your House member.

What to ask: Reject deep cuts to EPA enforcement. Protect funding for clean air, clean water, Superfund, environmental justice, and state and local pollution programs.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to reject deep cuts to the EPA. Clean air, clean water, and hazardous waste cleanup should not be budget casualties. Please protect EPA enforcement funding.”

Email subject: Resident asking you to reject EPA budget cuts

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. I am asking you to reject the proposed deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA funding protects clean air, clean water, Superfund cleanup, and the ability of communities to hold polluters accountable. Weakening enforcement does not reduce the pollution. It just removes the accountability. Please protect EPA funding and let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

A script that works for almost anything

For anyone who does not want to write a new message from scratch every week, this works for nearly any issue:

Phone: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to take action on [issue]. I want the office to [specific ask]. Please log my message and let me know the office’s position.”

Email: Subject: Resident asking for action on [issue]

Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. I am writing to ask you to [specific ask]. I would like to know where you stand on this issue. Thank you, [Name]

This week has more live action windows than most.

Section 702 expires Thursday. The TPS arguments are tomorrow. The Banking Committee votes on the Fed chair Wednesday. May Day is Friday.

Start with your House member on the ICE package. Then call both senators on Section 702, TPS protections, and Federal Reserve independence. After that, choose the something that feels most urgent and make sure your office hears from you. *Comment “Done!” or “Will do!” if you plan to commit to a call or email today.

Leave a comment

Sources & Additional Reading

AP News: Senate extends Section 702 surveillance powers until April 30
Reuters: US Senate votes to advance $70 billion funding plan for ICE and Border Patrol
AP News: Haitians, Syrians aren’t the only immigrants watching SCOTUS arguments on TPS
Reuters: Senate Banking Committee to vote Wednesday on Kevin Warsh’s nomination
The Guardian: What is May Day Strong?
Official Senate contact page
House “Find Your Representative” tool
May Day Strong event finder
mobilize.us local events

Which office will you contact today? Paste your script if you want, it can help or inspire someone else here. Thanks for reading!

Leave a comment

Daily articles are free because of the generosity and commitment of our subscribers. Consider becoming one.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

More than 200 demonstrations happened last Saturday. May Day is this Friday.

This past Saturday, more than 150 events in at least 33 states mobilized against the Trump administration’s expansion of warehouse-style ICE detention facilities, with more than 200 demonstrations organized nationwide by coalitions including the Disappeared in America network, Detention Watch Network, Indivisible, MoveOn, and Public Citizen. Hundreds gathered in Romulus, Michigan to march to the roughly 261,000-square-foot warehouse being converted near Detroit Metro Airport. Over 100 gathered in San Antonio in front of a proposed 640,000-square-foot facility that would hold up to 1,500 people. These are communities standing at the fence lines of warehouses built for cargo that are being converted to hold human-beings.

This week’s actions and how to join them

Monday, April 27 | Make your May Day plan

The anchor for this week is May Day Strong, the nationwide Workers Over Billionaires day of action on Friday, May 1. Rallies, marches, teach-ins, labor actions, and, for those who are able, a refusal of business as usual through No Work, No School, No Shopping. More than 3,500 actions are planned across the country.

Find your event on the May Day Strong map and search by city or ZIP code. If there is no event near you yet, the site also includes a host toolkit and a pledge for people who want to join without hosting.

Not everyone can safely miss work or can keep a child home from school. There are many ways to participate. Attending before or after your shift, helping with rides, avoiding shopping for the day, printing signs, or sharing on social media, these all add up.

Share

Tuesday, April 28 | Workers Memorial Day

Tuesday is Workers Memorial Day, the day labor movements use to remember workers killed, injured, or made sick on the job and recommit to the fight for safer workplaces. The AFL-CIO has 2026 materials, toolkits, and event-planning resources available now.

Workers are not disposable! A country that protects billionaire profits while working people are injured, underpaid, and treated as replaceable is not a healthy democracy. Look for a local labor council, union, or AFL-CIO event near you. If there is nothing nearby, use the day to uplift and support workers in your own community who keep everything running.

ACLU People Power Action Call

Also Tuesday, the ACLU is holding its April People Power Action Call from 8:00 to 9:00 PM ET / 5:00 to 6:00 PM PT. The call is to help connect with volunteer teams and upcoming civil-liberties work. This is a good entry point for those who are not sure where they fit. Not everyone starts with a march and some people start by listening in on a call, learning more, and finding what matches their capacity.

Wednesday, April 29 | TPS at the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Mullin v. Doe and Trump v. Miot, the consolidated cases challenging the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for Syria and Haiti. The ACLU of Northern California explains what is at stake: the Court’s ruling could affect not only the roughly 350,000 Haitian and 6,000 Syrian TPS holders at the center of these cases, but the future of TPS protections for 1.3 million people from all 17 TPS-designated countries. The administration is asking the Court to make TPS decision-making entirely unreviewable by the judicial system.

These are people who built entire lives here under the law as it existed, with work authorization, mortgages, children who are American citizens, and decades of community ties.

What to do Wednesday: if you are near Washington, D.C., TPS families and immigrant-rights advocates are expected to rally outside the Supreme Court during oral arguments. If you are not nearby, read and share the ACLU’s explainer, amplify the National TPS Alliance, NDLON, CARECEN-LA, Haitian community organizations, Syrian community organizations, and local immigrant-rights groups, and call or email your members of Congress asking them to support permanent protections for TPS holders and oppose any effort to strip legal status from people who have built lives here under existing law.

May Day: Solidarity in Action training

Also on Wednesday, Indivisible is hosting a national training called May Day: Solidarity in Action Wednesday evening from 8:00 to 9:00 PM ET. Decide what your participation looks like and make the commitment before Friday arrives.

Share

Thursday, April 30 | FISA Section 702 deadline

Thursday is the deadline for the short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. AP reported that Trump signed a temporary extension through April 30 after longer renewal efforts collapsed, setting up another fight in Congress over surveillance powers.

Section 702 is often described as foreign-intelligence surveillance, but the controversy is that communications involving Americans can be swept in when Americans interact with foreign targets. AP notes that critics want changes including warrants before authorities can access Americans’ emails, calls, or texts.

5 Calls has an active call script ready to use. Call your members of Congress and ask them not to extend Section 702 without meaningful warrant protections for Americans’ private communications. The Brennan Center also has current resources on the reauthorization fight. This is a strong action for those who can’t attend in-person events this week. Use 5 Calls to call your members of Congress, use the ACLU’s action tool to email your House representative and senators, or send a letter through Action Network. The ask is simple: do not extend Section 702 without meaningful warrant protections for Americans’ private communications.

Legal fights and congressional deadlines can make us feel like the action is happening somewhere far away, behind doors most of us can’t enter. But we still has a clear role. We can peacefully show up outside the courthouse. We can amplify the people directly affected. We can call Congress when legal protections need legislative backup. And we can make sure these cases don’t pass quietly while families are waiting to find out if the law will recognize the lives they’ve built here.

Leave a comment

Friday, May 1 | May Day Strong: Workers Over Billionaires

On Friday, we rally, march, and take action.

No Work, No School, No Shopping.

The coalition’s demands include taxing the rich, ending ICE operations and private armies serving authoritarian power, and expanding democracy. The NEA’s May Day Toolkit includes planning guidance, downloadable materials, and messaging for bringing coworkers, neighbors, parents, and local groups into the day.

May Day is a democracy action. It is an immigration action. It is a healthcare and schools and climate and corruption action.

Find your action: May Day Strong event map

Download organizing resources: NEA May Day Toolkit

Sign or share the pledge: Indivisible May Day page

Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3 | Don’t let the action disappear

If you attend May Day, take the next step before the weekend ends.
Post your photos.
Write down what your city did.
Share the local organizer’s link.
Join the group that hosted it.

Share

If there is no big action near you

Use 5 Calls and choose active issue(s). Use Indivisible’s group finder and event finder to locate organizing in your county. Check the May Day Strong map again later in the week, new events are often added closer to the date.

And if your town has nothing listed, that’s not a reason to step back.
It may be the reason to become the person who posts the first link.

Help us reach more people by leaving a comment. (It helps the algorithm!)

Leave a comment

If someone you know has been asking what they can do next, this week has several options.

Share

Subscribe now

MONDAY: This Week in Action | April 20–26, 2026

Earth Day arrived Wednesday and the We Are America March has been on the road all week.

And May Day is just one week away!

Monday we went over the events and actions for this upcoming week, from the No Kings ACLU Know Your Rights trainings to the De-ICE Citizens Bank People’s Shareholder Meeting in Providence, to the We Are America March, which tomorrow finishes its 160-mile walk from Philadelphia and arrives on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Click here to read the full post from Monday & sources

If you attended any of this week’s actions, let us know which one and how it went in the comments.

Leave a comment

TUESDAY: Who to Call and Email Today | April 21

The April 30 Section 702 deadline is days away. ICE funding could move through reconciliation as soon as next week. And the Endangered Species Act was on the House floor.

Tuesday, we shared ready-to-use phone scripts and email templates covering eight issues: Section 702 surveillance reform, ICE and Border Patrol funding, TPS protections for Haitians and Syrians, immigration court independence, the CFPB, Virginia’s Law, and H.R. 1897.

This became one of the week’s most restacked posts, and the comment section filled with readers who adapted the scripts and shared exactly how they used them. One reader from Georgetown, Kentucky pasted her entire combined letter to her representatives, covering all eight issues. 🎉

The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121.
There is still time to call on Section 702 before the April 30 deadline.

Click here to read the full post from Tuesday & sources

Share

WEDNESDAY: Unlike Jan. 6, These Veterans Entered the Capitol to Stop the Abuse of Power

This week’s most widely shared article |

71 veterans and military family members were arrested inside the Cannon House Office Building rotunda on Monday, April 20.

They came carrying red tulips for Iranian civilians killed in the war and a flag-folding ceremony for American service members. They held banners reading “End the War on Iran.” They demanded a meeting with the Speaker and refused to leave when ordered.

They were zip-tied and escorted out.

The war-powers resolution they came to demand had failed in the House just four days earlier: 213 to 214.

Pew-polling found that 61% of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the conflict, while Ipsos found that only 24% said the military action had been worth it. These veterans were speaking more honestly than most elected officials.

You can still act alongside them: contact your representatives through Resist.bot or 5Calls.org, and follow the veteran-led organizations behind this action, including 50501 Veterans, About Face, Veterans For Peace, Common Defense, Military Families Speak Out, and the Center on Conscience & War.

Click here to read the full post from Wednesday & sources

THURSDAY: MAGA Got Played by AI

A 22-year-old medical student in India spent a few hours, used Google’s Gemini, and built a fake MAGA nurse named “Emily Hart” who hit 10,000 followers and millions of views.

He created the backstory, generated ice-fishing and rifle-range imagery, posted rage bait daily, and made thousands of dollars in merchandise and subscriptions before Instagram banned the account for fraud in February. Then there was “Jessica Foster,” a fake AI-generated Army soldier and Trump supporter who hit a million followers in four months before her account disappeared too.

When he tried a liberal version of the same persona, it didn’t work. His explanation: “Democrats know that it’s AI slop.”

Click here to read the full post from Thursday & sources

If one person can industrialize this as a side hustle, coordinated networks with geopolitical funding could do it at a much larger scale. The enforcement is nowhere near matching the scale.

Leave a comment

LOOKING AHEAD: THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS

Monday, April 27: If you haven’t registered a May Day action yet, this is the final stretch. Use the May Day Strong event map or the NEA’s May Day toolkit to find something near you or to register your own.

Tuesday, April 28: Workers Memorial Day. The AFL-CIO has planning resources and materials available. The ACLU’s April People Power Action Call also takes place. RSVP to hold your spot for the call.

Wednesday, April 29: The Supreme Court hears arguments in the consolidated TPS cases for Haiti and Syria. This could determine whether approximately 356,000 people who have built lives under existing law can be pushed toward deportation by executive action.

Thursday, April 30: Section 702 surveillance authorization expires. Congress will either let it lapse, renew it, or attach a warrant requirement. If your senators haven’t heard from you yet, Wednesday is the last day to make that call.

Friday, May 1: May Day Strong, Workers Over Billionaires. Marches, rallies, and for those who are able, a refusal of business as usual through No School, No Work, No Shopping. The more you help us get the word out, the more of an impact we can make.

Share

The veterans who walked into that rotunda on Monday knew they were probably going to be arrested. But they still went anyway.

What do you think is the difference between the kind of civic courage we’re seeing from veterans and military families right now and the silence from most elected officials who took an oath to the same Constitution?

Leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

& A big shout out to Todd G who regularly shares his dancing protest videos with our 50501 community!

You can grow this movement by forwarding this Friday Recap to someone, leaving us a comment to boost the algorithm, or even just hitting the like button. Every interaction helps more people find us.

Have a courageous Friday & keep up the good trouble!

Share

Subscribe now

On Monday, April 21, WIRED published an investigation by reporter EJ Dickson revealing that a popular pro-MAGA Instagram influencer called “Emily Hart” was not a real person.

She was an AI-generated persona, created and operated by a 22-year-old medical student in northern India who goes by the pseudonym “Sam.”

The account, @emily_hart.nurse, presented itself as a twentysomething registered nurse.

Her look was reportedly modeled on Jennifer Lawrence.

Her feed was filled with AI-generated images of her ice fishing, drinking Coors Light, and shooting at a rifle range, paired with emoji-heavy captions pushing pro-Christian, pro-Second Amendment, anti-abortion, and anti-immigration messages.

One of her posts read: “If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported.”
Another Post: “POV: You were assigned intelligent at birth, but you identify as liberal.”
Within a month, the account had more than 10,000 followers, and Sam told WIRED that his Reels were getting millions of views.

If you’re looking for the account now, you won’t find it.

WIRED reported that Instagram had already banned the Emily Hart profile in February for “fraudulent” activity, while the related Facebook page was still active at the time of publication. Follow-up coverage from The Independent and others later reported that the Facebook page also disappeared.

According to WIRED’s reporting, Sam told the outlet he had previously tried making money online through YouTube Shorts and selling study notes to other medical students. None of it worked.

Leave a comment

The idea for Emily Hart came while scrolling through Instagram. He initially posted generic AI-generated images of attractive women using Google’s Gemini tool, but they did not gain traction. So he asked the AI for strategic advice.

According to a transcript Sam shared with WIRED, Gemini described the conservative niche as a “cheat code,” noting that “the conservative audience (especially older men in the US) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal.”

Google disputed the political framing in follow-up coverage, saying Gemini is designed not to favor any political ideology and that the prompts were about how to reach an audience with specific political views.

Share

Sam took the advice and built Emily Hart from scratch.

He created the nurse backstory, generated the all-American lifestyle imagery, and posted content daily. He described his approach to WIRED as posting “rage bait” and noted that even when liberals visited the page to leave negative comments, the engagement helped push content to more people.

WIRED reported that Sam said he made a few thousand dollars a month from Fanvue subscriptions and MAGA-themed merchandise, and later said he made a few thousand dollars in just a few days from more explicit content on the same platform. Fanvue, a competitor to OnlyFans, allows AI-generated content on its site.

Emily Hart was not the only synthetic conservative influencer making the rounds.

In March, The Washington Post reported on “Jessica Foster,” an AI-generated persona presented as a patriotic Army soldier and Trump supporter.

That account gained more than a million followers in just four months, posting fabricated images of the character in combat gear, posing next to F-22 fighter jets, and walking the tarmac alongside President Trump.

Fast Company reported that the creator even posted fake images of Foster attending a White House reception for an MLS championship team.

The account funneled followers toward an OnlyFans page, with the bio reading: “Public servant by day, troublemaker by night.” That account has since been removed.

If one person can do this as a side hustle, imagine what coordinated networks with funding and geopolitical intent can (or already have…) build.

Alethea, a threat-intelligence firm, documented a coordinated TikTok network of AI-generated videos showing fake Iranian female fighter pilots, designed to project military strength and co-opt dissident hashtags.

That campaign accumulated over 25 million views in a matter of days.

As the BBC first reported and The Washington Post later discussed, Iran bans women from combat roles entirely, which makes the fabrication easier to identify but no less effective at scale.

Meta says it applies “AI info” labels based on detected signals or self-disclosure, and has shifted its manipulated-media approach to rely more on labels and context rather than removal. But Emily Hart ran for months without any AI label. Jessica Foster hit a million followers before anyone intervened. The enforcement is not matching the scale of the problem.

The internet we are navigating is now one where political identity is farmed and optimized. Sold to people who mistake aesthetic familiarity for authenticity. It’s not enough anymore to ask whether a post is true. We now have to ask whether the person posting it is real and whether the entire account exists to extract clicks, cash, and influence from people who never thought to question it.

The scam is no longer just that people lie online but that online life is being rebuilt so that lying scales better.

And yes, there is something hilarious about a MAGA who claims to “seeing through deception” getting played this easily. With just a few prompts, some generated photos, a flag emoji, a cross necklace, and a Coors Light. That was all it took.

But once fake people can build trust, raise money, hold a conversation, and influence real voters, we are not dealing with catfishing anymore. We are dealing with industrialized political fiction.

If nothing else, this story is a reminder for all of us. If an online account looks like it was engineered in a lab to confirm everything you already believe, that is a product. And you are not the customer. You are the revenue stream.

Share this story as a warning. Because what built “Emily Hart” is available to anyone, the next synthetic influencer could target any audience, and the only people who are protected are the ones who learned to ask questions before they hit follow.

Have you noticed more obviously fake political accounts lately, or are they getting harder to spot? What worries you more: fake posts, or fake people building an audience?

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Monday April 20,

More than 60 veterans and military family members were arrested inside the Cannon House Office Building rotunda on Capitol Hill.

They had come with red tulips for Iranians killed in the war and a flag-folding ceremony for American service members killed in the war.

They unfurled banners reading “End the War on Iran.” and they demanded a meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson and urged Congress to stop funding the war. They refused to leave when ordered.

There was a total of 71 people were arrested

The country knows what it looks like when a mob enters the Capitol to destroy democracy… Jan 6…. These veterans entered peacefully, in formation, carrying symbols of grief and moral clarity, trying to stop a war and confront the officials enabling it.

On April 16, the House narrowly rejected a war-powers resolution that would have directed Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran absent congressional authorization.

The vote was 214 to 213. Just one vote of a difference. The Senate blocked a similar measure the day before, the latest in a series of failed efforts to reassert congressional war powers.

These brave and courageous veterans acted at the moment when the branch of government charged with checking executive war-making chose, once again, not to. Congress had a chance to act and it didn’t, but these veterans did.

These are veterans, military families, and allied groups with direct knowledge of what wars do to families, minds, and countries.

Army veteran Christina Sarson spoke about her sons and about what war does not only to civilians but to soldiers themselves, loss of life, life-changing injuries, PTSD, moral injury.

The people who know war best were the ones trying to stop more of it.

The coalition behind the action included , , About Face, Veterans For Peace, Military Families Speak Out, and the Center on Conscience & War.

They stood in the rotunda holding flowers for the dead and demanded that the Speaker face them, asking whether Congress intended to keep financing more funerals.

American politics is very comfortable praising veterans in the abstract. Veterans are thanked at games, invoked in speeches, and used to decorate the moral image of the state. But the moment veterans stop serving as patriotic scenery and start speaking with moral clarity about what war actually is, the response changes fast. Video and photo coverage from the rotunda showed Veteran protesters being zip-tied and escorted away. A government that loves veterans in speeches put them in restraints when they raise their voices together to stand up for us all.

This protest happened inside a country already deeply uneasy about the war in Iran.

Pew found in March that 61% of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the conflict and 59% said the decision to use military force was wrong.

An Ipsos poll released last week found only 24% said the military action had been worth it.

And a Reuters/Ipsos poll published Monday found that just 36% approved of Trump’s handling of the Iran war.

These veterans were speaking more honestly than most elected officials have dared to.

The unease is visible inside military culture, too. Reporting from The Guardian found that reaction across military social media was filled with anxiety, dread, and deployment fear rather than confidence.

NPR reporting, carried by Jefferson Public Radio, said calls to the GI Rights Hotline had surged, with service members asking about conscientious-objector status and other options, and that the Center on Conscience & War took on more than 80 new clients in March alone. The disquiet is moving through the military.

Monday should be understood as anti-authoritarian as much as antiwar.

These veterans refuse to let patriotism be defined by silence. They refused to let their service be used as a prop for a war they believe is reckless, unpopular, and morally corrosive.

Patriotism is not obedience And It never has been.

There is a long American tradition of veterans returning to Washington to push back against war and to tell the truth about it. In 1971, Vietnam Veterans Against the War ended a five-day demonstration by throwing their combat ribbons, helmets, and uniforms on the Capitol steps. That history lives in what happened Monday.

If people trained inside the institutions of war are now risking arrest in the Capitol to stop where this is heading, then it’s past time for the rest of the country to stop pretending this is normal politics.

These veterans honored our country. They walked into a building where too many officials are treating war as procedure and reminded everyone that war is still made of bodies, funerals, trauma, and the long damage done to democratic life. They were brave in the most concrete sense of the word. They told the truth where truth was inconvenient and accepted the price of saying it out loud.

Subscribe now

What You Can Do to Help

Here is what you can do right now: Contact your representatives and demand they support war-powers legislation requiring congressional authorization for continued military action in Iran.

Call them directly or use Resist.bot or 5Calls.org to make it simple.

If your representative voted against the war-powers resolution, tell them you noticed and that the 214-to-213 margin means every single vote is important next time.

If your representative voted for it, thank them and tell them to keep fighting for us.

Follow and support the veteran-led organizations behind this action, including , About Face, Veterans For Peace, Common Defense, the Center on Conscience & War and Military Families Speak Out.

The people who know war best have told us what they see. They have the right to speak up, we must act alongside them.

Share

What does this protest tell us about the difference between obedience and patriotism?

Leave a comment

📌 NOTE FOR NEW READERS: This is an independent publication covering 50501, No Kings, and the broader pro-democracy and civic-action ecosystem. We cover the forces shaping this moment, the communities pushing back, and the peaceful actions taking shape across the country. Read by thousands, subscribe to join our community.

Subscribe now

Congress passed only a 10-day extension of Section 702, through April 30.
Senate Republicans say a massive new funding package for ICE and Border Patrol could begin moving as early as this week.

The House passed a bill to extend TPS protections for Haitians for three years, and it now heads to the Senate while the Supreme Court prepares to hear the Haiti and Syria TPS cases on April 29.

H.R. 1897, a bill that would make significant changes to the Endangered Species Act, is on the House floor schedule this week. Like always with this administration, there is a lot moving at once to try to divide our attention.

How to reach your offices

Start with your own three: your two U.S. senators and your House member.

The Senate contact page helps you find senators by state. The House ZIP code finder helps you find your representative. The House has no central public email list for members, so your member’s own contact form, linked from their page, is the best way to get their attention. If calling is easier, the Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121.

Calls are the fastest way to register pressure. Emails create a written record. When possible, do both. Call first, then send a short email repeating the same ask. Use your ZIP code, ask for a clear position, then move to the next office.

If there is only time today for a few contacts, start with Section 702, ICE funding, and H.R. 1897. Those are the clearest places where resident pressure can land at the right moment this week.

Here is where our voices are most needed right now:

Section 702 surveillance | Time is ticking

Congress couldn’t agree on a long-term renewal of Section 702, the surveillance law that gives the government broad authority to collect communications, and passed only a short extension through April 30.

The fight now is over whether Congress will renew it cleanly or attach reforms, especially a warrant requirement protecting Americans’ communications from warrantless searches. The Senate also began the process on a separate three-year FISA extension bill, which means this is still very much in play this week.

Congress needs to also close the data broker loophole, which allows agencies to buy sensitive commercial data, including location and other personal data, without the warrant requirement that would normally apply. If lawmakers renew surveillance powers while leaving that loophole open, they’re not really solving the underlying privacy problem.

The April 30 deadline is quickly approaching.

Who to contact: Both senators first, then your House member.

What to ask: Oppose a clean extension of Section 702. Support a warrant requirement for searches involving Americans’ data, and close the data broker loophole that allows agencies to buy sensitive personal data without a warrant.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to oppose a clean extension of Section 702 and support a warrant requirement for searches involving Americans’ communications. Please log my message and let me know the office’s position. Please also support closing the data broker loophole so agencies cannot buy Americans’ sensitive data without a warrant.”

Email subject: Resident asking for Section 702 reform

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. Congress passed only a 10-day extension of Section 702, and that deadline is April 30. I am asking you to oppose a clean reauthorization and support a warrant requirement for searches involving Americans’ communications. Please let me know where you stand on this issue. Thank you, [Name]

ICE and Border Patrol funding | Reconciliation is the backdoor

Senate Republicans are preparing legislation that could begin moving this week to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s term. The expected cost is more than $50 billion over three years. What makes this particularly urgent is the system being considered.

Reconciliation allows a bill to pass with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes normally required, which means limited debate and no ability to filibuster. This is how sweeping immigration enforcement policy gets moved without the full weight of opposition it would otherwise face.

Who to contact: Both senators first, then your House member.

What to ask: Oppose a blank-check expansion of immigration enforcement funding. Oppose fast-tracking massive enforcement increases without meaningful oversight and due-process protections.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m asking [Senator/Representative Name] to oppose any reconciliation package that massively expands ICE and Border Patrol funding without meaningful oversight, transparency, and due-process protections.”

Email subject: Resident opposing unchecked ICE expansion

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. I am writing to ask you to oppose any reconciliation package that massively expands ICE and Border Patrol funding without meaningful oversight, transparency, and due-process protections. A blank-check expansion of immigration enforcement is not something I can support, and I want to know where you stand. Thank you, [Name]

TPS protections for Haitians and Syrians | The Senate is next

The House voted 224-204 on April 16 to extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians for three years, pushing back against the administration’s effort to terminate those protections. The bill now goes to the Senate.

The Supreme Court’s April argument calendar shows the consolidated TPS cases involving Haiti and Syria are set for argument on April 29 these cases affecting approximately 350,000 Haitians and roughly 6,100 Syrians who are already living and working here under existing law.

Who to contact: Both senators first, then your House member.

What to ask: Support TPS protections. Oppose stripping legal status from people already living and working here under existing law.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m asking [Senator Name] to support TPS protections for Haitians and Syrians and oppose efforts to push families into deportation when those protections are still urgently needed.”

Email subject: Resident asking for TPS protections

Email body: Dear [Senator Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. The House has passed a bill to extend TPS protections for Haitians for three years, and the Supreme Court will hear the related cases on April 29. I am asking you to support TPS protections for Haitians and Syrians and oppose efforts to strip legal status from people who are already living and working here under existing law. Please let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

Immigration courts | 113 judges fired

The administration fired six more immigration judges over the weekend, including two who had blocked deportation orders against pro-Palestinian students.

According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, that brings the total to 113 immigration judges fired since January of last year. The Justice Department defended the removals without providing evidence for the bias it alleged.

Congress has oversight authority here and has largely been quiet about using it.

Who to contact: Both senators and your House member.

What to ask: Demand oversight of immigration-court politicization. Defend judicial independence. Protect due process in deportation proceedings.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m asking [Senator/Representative Name] to support oversight of the immigration courts and defend judicial independence and due process.”

Email subject: Resident asking for immigration-court oversight

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, 113 immigration judges have been fired since January of last year, including judges who were removed after blocking deportation orders. I am asking you to support oversight of the immigration courts, defend judicial independence, and protect due process in deportation proceedings. Please let me know where you stand. Thank you, [Name]

H.R. 1897 | The Endangered Species Act

H.R. 1897, the ESA Amendments Act of 2025, is scheduled for House floor consideration under a rule this week and could come up for a vote as soon as later today. The bill would make significant changes to how the Endangered Species Act operates.

It would require the government to prepare an analysis of economic, national-security, human-health, and other effects alongside listing decisions, require congressional notification for certain critical habitat designations and experimental-population releases over 50,000 acres, limit some litigation-fee awards in ESA suits, and restrict judicial review of delisting decisions during the monitoring period.

This would change how species get listed, how habitats get protected, how residents can challenge decisions they believe are wrong, and how much political and economic pressure gets built into a process that is supposed to be grounded in science.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the ESA has prevented extinction for 99 percent of the species listed under it. This bill changes the foundation it rests on.

Who to contact: Your House member.

What to ask: Vote no on H.R. 1897.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m asking Representative [Name] to vote no on H.R. 1897. I do not support weakening endangered-species protections or reducing accountability in the listing process. Please log my message.”

Email subject: Please vote no on H.R. 1897

Email body: Dear Representative [Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. H.R. 1897, the ESA Amendments Act of 2025, is on the House floor this week, and I am asking you to vote no. This bill would add economic-impact requirements to species listing decisions, change critical habitat rules, and restrict judicial review of delisting. The Endangered Species Act has prevented extinction for 99 percent of listed species. These changes would weaken the protections that make that record possible. Please vote no and let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

Also on the House floor this week: H.R. 4690 and H.R. 5587

Two more bills are scheduled under the same House rule package this week and are not getting much attention.

H.R. 4690, the Reliable Federal Infrastructure Act, would repeal certain federal building energy-efficiency performance standards and bar green-building certification systems from denying certification based on fossil-fuel use.

H.R. 5587, the HEATS Act, would waive the federal drilling permit requirement for certain geothermal activity on non-federal surface estates where the U.S. owns less than 50 percent of the subsurface geothermal estate and the operator has a state permit.

In those cases, the bill says the activity would not count as a major federal action under NEPA and would not be subject to ESA Section 7 consultation.

If climate, public lands, or environmental review matters to you, this is a good week to call your House member.

Who to contact: Your House member.

What to ask: Vote no on H.R. 4690 and H.R. 5587.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m asking Representative [Name] to oppose H.R. 4690 and H.R. 5587. I do not support rolling back federal energy-efficiency standards or exempting drilling activity from environmental review.”

Email subject: Please oppose H.R. 4690 and H.R. 5587

Email body: Dear Representative [Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. H.R. 4690 and H.R. 5587 are scheduled for House floor consideration this week. H.R. 4690 would repeal federal building energy-efficiency standards. H.R. 5587 would exempt certain geothermal drilling from federal environmental review and ESA consultation. I am asking you to vote no on both bills. I do not support rolling back energy-efficiency standards or weakening environmental review protections. Please let me know your position. Thank you, [Name]

The CFPB | A quiet dismantling

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created by Congress after the 2008 financial crash to police abusive financial products. Reuters reports the administration has now ended the lease on its headquarters at least six years early and is seeking court approval to reduce the agency to roughly one-third of its previous workforce of about 1,700 employees.

This is a sustained effort to hollow out one of the main federal agencies that protects us from predatory lending, junk fees, and financial scams.

Congress created the CFPB. Congress has the authority to defend it.

Who to contact: Both senators and your House member.

What to ask: Defend the CFPB. Preserve staffing and enforcement capacity. Oppose the effort to reduce the agency’s ability to function.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m asking [Senator/Representative Name] to defend the CFPB and oppose efforts to weaken its staffing, enforcement authority, and independence.”

Email subject: Resident asking Congress to defend the CFPB

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. The administration has ended the lease on the CFPB’s headquarters and is seeking court approval to reduce the agency to roughly one-third of its current workforce. The CFPB was created by Congress to protect ordinary people from abusive financial practices, and I am asking you to defend it. Please preserve the agency’s staffing and enforcement capacity and oppose efforts to hollow it out. I would like to know where you stand. Thank you, [Name]

Virginia’s Law | Survivors should not run out of time

This one is not moving on a this-week deadline, but it deserves attention now.

Virginia’s Law was introduced in February by Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Teresa Leger Fernández. The legislation would eliminate the federal statute of limitations for certain civil claims by survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking, create a new cause of action for survivors, and include a one-year lookback window for older claims that have previously been time-barred.

For survivors who were told their time had run out, this bill is about whether the law can still support them.

It will need committee movement to advance, which is why building pressure now still helps. After contacting your own senators and House member, this is one of the few issues where reaching out to Senate Judiciary Committee members is also worth the effort.

Who to contact: Both senators and your House member.

What to ask: Support Virginia’s Law and push for movement out of committee.

Phone script: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m asking [Senator/Representative Name] to support Virginia’s Law so survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking are not denied justice because of an arbitrary deadline.”

Email subject: Please support Virginia’s Law

Email body: Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. I am writing to ask you to support Virginia’s Law, legislation that would eliminate the federal statute of limitations for certain civil claims by survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking and include a one-year lookback window for older claims. Survivors should not lose their right to justice because of an arbitrary deadline. Please support this bill and help move it forward. Thank you, [Name]

A script that works for almost anything

For anyone who does not want to write a new message from scratch every week, this works for nearly any issue:

Phone: “Hello, I’m a resident of [ZIP code]. I’m calling to ask [Senator/Representative Name] to take action on [issue]. I want the office to [specific ask]. Please log my message and let me know the office’s position.”

Email: Subject: Resident asking for action on [issue]

Dear [Senator/Representative Name], I am a resident of [city or ZIP code]. I am writing to ask you to [specific ask]. I would like to know where you stand on this issue. Thank you, [Name]

Which office will you contact today? Paste your script if you want, it may help or inspire someone else here.

And please let us know if you think this should be a reoccurring theme with updated: who to call/email and what to say

Leave a comment

The Senate needs to hear from us about Section 702, ICE funding, and TPS. Our House members need to hear from us about the Endangered Species Act while it is on the House floor schedule this week. And for those with a few extra minutes, every issue on this list is worth a call.

Daily articles are free because of the generosity and commitment of our subscribers. Consider becoming one.

Subscribe now

Sources

• AP News: Senate extends surveillance powers until April 30 after chaotic votes in House

• Reuters: Funding effort for ICE, Border Patrol could begin in Senate next week, majority leader says

• AP News: House passes a bill to protect Haitian immigrants, in slap back to the Trump administration

• Supreme Court April 2026 argument calendar (PDF)

• Reuters: U.S. fires more immigration judges, including two who blocked deporting pro-Palestinian students

• House Majority Leader weekly schedule

• House Rules Committee: H.R. 1897 page, including H. Res. 1189 PDF and related hearing documents

• House floor documents for the week of April 20

• H.R. 1897 bill text: ESA Amendments Act of 2025

• Reuters: Trump administration ends lease for consumer protection bureau’s headquarters, records show

Subscribe now

📌 NOTE FOR NEW READERS: This is an independent publication covering 50501, No Kings, and the broader pro-democracy and civic-action ecosystem. We cover the forces shaping this moment, the communities pushing back, and the peaceful actions taking shape across the country. Read by thousands, subscribe to join our community.

Actions From Last Week

Tax Day protests took place across the country on April 15, with thousands in the streets in New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, and Dallas. Thousands showed up to push back on funding wars, mass deportations, private detention, while cutting everything else. Showing up on Tax Day is one way of saying, not in our name.

The De-ICE Citizens Bank campaign also kept building. What began as a handful of standouts outside Rhode Island bank branches in January has grown into coordinated protests across more than a dozen East Coast and Midwest states. The campaign held a national coalition call on April 16 to brief groups on what’s coming this Thursday.

And the We Are America March is on the road right now about half way to their destination, retracing the 160-mile route from Philadelphia to Washington that nearly 200 people completed last fall, arriving at the National Mall to be welcomed by a crowd and members of Congress. The spring edition started April 11. It finishes April 25.

This week’s actions and how to join them

Tonight, April 20 | Know Your Rights Training

Tonight’s call: No Kings / ACLU-led Train-the-Trainer on immigrants’ rights. This is a webinar built to give people what they need to train others: the right to remain silent, the right to refuse consent to searches, the right to record ICE and other law enforcement. One trained person can make their whole community harder to intimidate. RSVP and find future sessions and recordings on the No Kings trainings page.

April 18–22 | Earth Week and Earth Day

Earth Day 2026 falls on Wednesday, and this year Earthday.org chose the theme: Our Power, Our Planet. Environmental progress depends on people who keep showing up for our planet. As of late March, Earthday.org reported more than 5,600 events are registered across all 50 states and more than 180 countries, ranging from cleanups and tree plantings to rallies, teach-ins, town halls, and voter registration drives. Use the Earth Day event finder to search by city or ZIP code for something happening near you this week.

Through April 25 | We Are America March

The April launch of We Are America March was hosted by 50501Philadelphia, and the spirit of the march reflects exactly where this movement is right now: people from all kinds of backgrounds and places, deciding that visible, sustained democratic refusal is more important than waiting for a single big moment to arrive.

The spring march runs through April 25. You can join for a day or a community event without committing to the full walk.

Ongoing | NDLON Adopt a Day Labor Corner

Ongoing, NDLON’s Adopt a Day Labor Corner. The premise is to show up where immigrant workers are most exposed, at hiring sites, day-labor corners, Home Depots, car washes, schools serving immigrant families, and build a regular, visible, nonviolent community presence.

NDLON gives you multiple ways to participate, an interest form to connect locally, an Adopt a Corner toolkit, an Adopt a School pathway, and a Mobilize page where volunteers can register for or host local groups and trainings.

Thursday, April 23 | People’s Shareholder Meeting to De-ICE Citizens Bank

Citizens Bank is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. It has branches in communities across the Northeast and Midwest. And according to the De-ICE Citizens Bank coalition, it has helped GEO Group and CoreCivic, the two largest private prison and ICE detention companies in the country, access more than $2.5 billion in financing since 2024.

On Thursday, the coalition is bringing that case directly to bank leadership at the People’s Shareholder Meeting outside Citizens’ headquarters in Providence. For those who can’t make the trip to Rhode Island, the campaign gives you multiple concrete ways to act from wherever you are: take the pledge, send a message to bank leadership, move your money away from Citizens Bank, and use the local group map to find a branch action near you. Connecticut actions returned this weekend ahead of Thursday’s Providence event and local reporting in March described more than 60 protests across the eastern U.S.

This week is also May Day prep

May Day Strong is a coalition that includes 50501, , , the NEA, National Nurses United, and dozens more organizations. On May 1, we’re calling for a nationwide Workers Over Billionaires day of action: marches, rallies, and for those who are able, a refusal of business as usual through No School, No Work, No Shopping.

The May Day Strong event map is live.

The NEA’s May Day toolkit includes planning guidance, downloadable materials, and messaging for bringing coworkers, neighbors, and local groups into the day. Actions are planned in hundreds of cities. This week is the time to stop treating May Day as an idea and make a plan. If nothing is mapped near you yet, the toolkit explains how to register your own event.

Coming up next week

Workers Memorial Day is April 28, and the AFL-CIO already has its toolkit, event materials, and planning resources live. The ACLU’s April People Power Action Call is also that night. Then May 1 arrives with May Day Strong’s nationwide Workers Over Billionaires actions. You can use the May Day event map or the NEA toolkit to find a local action or help organize one.

Daily articles are free because of the generosity and commitment of our subscribers. Consider becoming one.

Subscribe now

If your city has something happening this week, post the city, state, and a link below. One of the most useful things this space does is help people find each other before time passes by. What are you doing, and where?

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

📌 NOTE FOR NEW READERS: This is an independent publication covering 50501, No Kings, and the broader pro-democracy and civic-action ecosystem. We cover the forces shaping this moment, the communities pushing back, and the peaceful actions taking shape across the country. Read by thousands, subscribe to join our community.

MONDAY: Hungary Changed their Story. Trump Raised the Stakes.

Monday’s post opened with the biggest democratic development of the weekend: Viktor Orbán losing power in Hungary after 16 years, in an election driven by record turnout and public anger over the exact conditions authoritarianism always produces. Corruption, stagnation, institutional rot, with a leader who looked permanent right up until the moment he wasn’t.

We laid out a full week of action, from Tax Day protests and ACLU rapid-response training to the De-ICE Citizens Bank campaign, the Day of Action for Higher Education, and the start of Earth Week. It also covered the We Are America March, already underway from Philadelphia to D.C., and the ongoing Strait of Hormuz blockade and what military escalation means for democratic accountability at home.

Read the full post from Monday

TUESDAY: Trump’s ‘Doctor’ Explanation Made the Jesus Image Even Worse

This was the week’s most widely shared article. Instead of stopping at outrage over one deleted AI image, Tuesday’s post walked through fifty years of public conduct and held it against the moral tradition being borrowed from.

Housing discrimination in the 1970s, the Access Hollywood tape, the Muslim ban and the “rapists” speech, Charlottesville, January 6, and then the image itself, Trump with bright light pouring from his hands, explained away as a picture of… “a doctor.”

This article used scripture carefully and specifically, as a standard the tradition sets. It asked what it means when the word “Christian” gets redefined into a loyalty oath.

Read the full post from Tuesday

WEDNESDAY: Not Everyone Can Do Everything. But Almost Everyone Can Do Something.

This post identified the pillars that hold authoritarian power in place, money, media, institutions, local governance, labor, and showed where each one is vulnerable to pressure from people acting with intention. Specific points of leverage, from credit unions and independent journalism to school board meetings and union support.

Damage one pillar, and the entire structure is weakened.

Read the full post from Wednesday

THURSDAY: Why So Many People Care Deeply and Still Won’t Show Up

People are not going quiet because they stopped caring. Gasoline is up nearly 19% over the year. Wages are barely moving. Thirty-seven percent of adults are unable to cover a $400 emergency with cash. Participation requires time, money, energy, and stability. The economic conditions are taking a toll on many of us.

If we want this movement to grow, we have to build for people living under real strain. Build entry points that meet them where they actually are.

5 Calls gives people short issue-based scripts and the right phone numbers for elected officials.

Mutual Aid Hub helps people find mutual aid networks and community self-support projects nearby.

Resistbot lets users text RESIST to 50409 or use its web bot to send messages to elected officials in minutes.

Democracy.io lets people email their two senators and House member through a single website instead of contacting each office separately.

Read the full post from Thursday

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THIS WEEK

Here are a few more developments worth watching as next week begins.

The House TPS vote. On Thursday, the House voted 224–204 to pass legislation allowing roughly 350,000 Haitians to remain eligible for Temporary Protected Status for three years after DHS terminated those protections. Ten Republicans and one independent joined Democrats, making it a rare bipartisan break with the administration’s immigration agenda. The bill now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on April 29 over whether the administration can move ahead with ending TPS for Haitians and about 6,100 Syrians. That case could determine whether people who have built lives, families, and work histories in this country can be pushed toward deportation by executive action.

Eastman disbarred. The California Supreme Court disbarred John Eastman, one of the central legal architects behind the effort to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election. The State Bar says the court acted after earlier disciplinary findings concluded that Eastman engaged in appalling and deceitful conduct. Accountability for the attempt to overturn the election has been uneven and incomplete. But this ruling is still a reminder that what happened after 2020 was an attack on the constitutional order, and some of the lawyers who helped construct it are still facing consequences.

The CFPB loses its home. The administration ended the lease on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Washington headquarters at least six years early. The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crash to police abusive consumer financial products, and the administration is also seeking court approval to reduce the agency to about a third of its previous size. Institutional rollback can looks like infrastructure disappearing, staffing shrinking next, and the public only realizing later how much protection was stripped away.

One more to watch: the FLRA rules. The Federal Labor Relations Authority’s interim rule is set to take effect on April 23. The change shifts power away from career regional directors and moves most union election petitions directly to the Authority, where Trump appointees currently hold a 2–1 majority. Control over union representation shapes whether workers can organize effectively, how disputes are decided, and how much independence remains inside the systems that are supposed to protect labor rights.

COMING UP

April 22: Earth Day. Earth Week events are already underway. earthday.org has event maps, toolkits, and local organizing resources.

April 23: Citizens Bank Shareholder Meeting. The De-ICE Citizens Bank campaign is targeting corporate ties to private detention operators at a moment when executives cannot pretend not to hear public pressure.

April 25: We Are America March arrives in Washington, D.C. The 160-mile march from Philadelphia concludes. Learn more at weareamericamarch.com.

April 29: Supreme Court hears TPS case. Oral arguments in the consolidated case on Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians. This is one of the most consequential immigration cases of the year.

May 1: May Day Strong. Workers Over Billionaires. Rallies, marches, walkouts, and community actions nationwide. No Work. No School. No Shopping. Find your local action at maydaystrong.org. Toolkits and resources are already live.

Share

Leave a comment

THANK YOU to everyone who reads, shares, comments, and subscribes. Every interaction helps more people find this work.

-50501 Blue

Subscribe now

Share

Authoritarianism makes daily life so expensive, so unstable, and so exhausting that there is very little left for civic life.

When work takes more and pays less, bills outrun wages, childcare is unavailable or unaffordable, schedules offer no flexibility, when one unexpected expense can unravel everything, people are left with very little room for anything else.

Participation requires wiggle room. It requires time, money, energy, mobility, and the basic sense that one more thing won’t hurt their way of living more than it’s already being attacked by this regime.

In March 2026, the Consumer Price Index rose 3.3 percent over the year. The energy index was up 12.5 percent. Gasoline was up 18.9 percent over the year, and the gasoline index jumped 21.2 percent in March alone, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics said was the largest monthly increase since that series began in 1967. Shelter was up 3.0 percent over the year, and food away from home was up 3.8 percent. Over that same year, average hourly earnings rose 3.5 percent, but average hourly earnings rose only 0.3 percent after inflation.

And even before this most recent spike, the latest annual Federal Reserve survey on household well-being showed how thin the cushion already was. Sixty-three percent of adults said they would cover a hypothetical $400 emergency expense with cash or its equivalent, which also means 37 percent would not. Thirteen percent said they would not be able to cover that expense by any means. Fifty-five percent said they had set aside enough to cover three months of expenses in an emergency. And in response to higher prices, 79 percent of adults said they had adjusted their behavior in the prior year.

We hear that all of us need to do more:
Stay engaged.
Show up.
Organize.
Keep going.
It’s all important and necessary. But calling people into action without acknowledging what they’re up against is pressure on top of pressure.

People who have stepped back from activism are not failing democracy.
Many are living inside a society that has made basic participation harder and harder for people to sustain.

The parent who can’t drive to an event because the cost of getting there is too high is not outside this struggle.

The worker with no schedule flexibility is not on the sidelines.

The person who went quiet after months of giving everything they had is not apathetic.

These people are already paying the cost of the conditions we are all trying to change.

A movement that treats exhaustion as a character flaw will keep misreading the moment. A movement that treats it as useful information becomes aware and tactful.

So what does this useful information tell us?

Participation has a price, and not everyone can pay the same price with their living situations. Movements need flexible ways to contribute, local options, mutual aid, shared resources, and pathways that do not require money, travel, or perfect consistency.

It tells us that civic strength does not always look like maximum visible output.

It can look like staying morally clear, bringing one more person into the conversation, making one call, sharing a verified resource, helping a neighbor, or contributing in a smaller way over a longer stretch instead of burning bright for three months and disappearing.

We should keep asking how to bring awareness to more people but we should also ask what’s making it hard for people who already agree with us to keep going.

Right now, under this kind of economic and emotional pressure, we need patience and understanding and to uplift the members in our community.

Democracy can’t be defended only by people with the most availability. It has to work for all of us. Building for that is not lowering the bar. It’s understanding what the bar requires.

For readers who do want a next step, but need one that fits your capacity, here are some practical entry points:

5 Calls gives people short issue-based scripts and the right phone numbers for elected officials.

Mutual Aid Hub helps people find mutual aid networks and community self-support projects nearby.

Resistbot lets users text RESIST to 50409 or use its web bot to send messages to elected officials in minutes.

Democracy.io lets people email their two senators and House member through a single website instead of contacting each office separately.

Share

What has made civic participation more difficult for you lately? Time, money, burnout, caregiving, transportation, health, fear, something else? Tell us in the comments or share some tips that could help someone out. We should understand what people are carrying, and this is a space where that conversation can happen.

Leave a comment

If this publication helps you find solid ground and a dignified next step, consider supporting it with a paid subscription. That support keeps this work independent and available to everyone. Thank you for reading!

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

What can one person actually do?

Authoritarianism… Money protects it, institutions accommodate it, mainstream media normalizes it, communities get overwhelmed. This article goes over the pillars holding it up. Damage one pillar, and the entire structure is weakened.

Leave a comment

Money is civic power.

Every dollar is a decision, whether or not we treat it that way. Corporations that fund anti-democratic politics, bankroll the dismantling of oversight, or support efforts to suppress voting rights depend on customer loyalty they have not earned and do not deserve. When we shift spending away from those institutions, even partially, we are changing what is rewarded.

Credit unions do much of the same basic work that large banks do, but they are structured differently. They are member-owned, not-for-profit cooperatives rather than shareholder-owned banks. Local businesses also help build the kind of community economic resilience that national chains often do not, because more of that money tends to circulate locally. Researching where money flows, which donors and interests are funding which politicians, which investors are underwriting which damage, and making that information visible to others is its own form of civic pressure.

Who we support shapes what stays.

Nonprofits and community organizations we support help determine what civic infrastructure is still around when times like this leave lasting damage. Many of these groups do quiet, structural work that rarely trends but remains essential such as feeding people, protecting vulnerable neighbors, providing legal aid, and connecting isolated communities to resources they couldn’t access alone. Nonprofits often help communities by providing resources, facilitating access to support, and strengthening the networks and trust that make collective action possible. Civil legal aid, in particular, has been recognized as part of what supports housing stability, veterans, and access to healthcare.

Not every organization deserves automatic trust because it uses the language of charity, faith, or policy. Scrutiny belongs on institutions that protect power while presenting themselves as protectors of people. Public accountability can be demanded and public trust can be withdrawn. The question is the same: who benefits, and who pays the cost?

Media Shapes the Boundaries of the Acceptable

The battle for democracy is also a battle over perception. Propaganda works by flooding our information environment, blurring the line between fact and opinion, and exhausting people’s ability to sort what is true from what is manipulative.

Supporting independent journalism and trustworthy local reporting helps protect the shared factual ground democratic life depends on. Local news, in particular, plays an important role in exposing wrongdoing, informing communities, and supporting civic engagement. Refusing to share content designed mainly to provoke, distract, or inflame matters too. False or unverified content spreads in part because people share impulsively or without stopping to think about accuracy.

Art, writing, humor, and design have long been part of how we communicate what institutions can’t. They help people resist normalization, and build solidarity in ways formal institutions often fail to do. When culture makes the truth clearer instead of foggier, it widens the space in which resistance becomes possible.

Local Races Decide More Than People Realize

Officials at every level, including state and local offices that often get overlooked, are often more sensitive to organized constituent contact than their public posture suggests. Calls, letters, postcards, public comment periods, town halls, and showing up are cumulative. They help staff measure concern and signal that silence has a cost. Personalized outreach tends to carry more weight than mass-produced messages.

Voter registration, canvassing, and campaign volunteering helps in every cycle, not only presidential years. Field experiments have repeatedly found that personal voter outreach can increase turnout. And local races are not secondary. State legislatures shape most election rules, county governments oversee major budgets and services, and school governance decisions affect what communities are taught, funded, and allowed to become. Those offices are often where the most durable fights are won and lost.

People Are More Vulnerable When No One Is Watching

Know-your-rights education is part of civic infrastructure. So are rapid response networks, court watchers, legal support funds, and communities willing to document and bear witness when enforcement overreach occurs. Community legal education helps people understand and use their rights, and court-watch and legal-observer efforts can strengthen transparency and accountability. People facing coercive systems without information, without witnesses, and without support are more vulnerable than people who have some combination of those protections around them.

This work requires discipline. Understanding local law, documenting carefully, and acting with clarity can be the difference between effective solidarity and actions that unintentionally make a situation harder or riskier for the people we are trying to support. Local rules vary, and good intentions are not a substitute for preparation.

Libraries, schools, and educators are under organized pressure.

Book bans are not isolated decisions by local officials acting alone. The available evidence points to a broader censorship movement driven by organized campaigns, state-level policies, and coordinated political pressure. Attacks on accurate, evidence-based history, efforts to monitor and intimidate educators, and campaigns to narrow what students are allowed to read or discuss are part of a larger project to exert ideological control over education. Control over what people are allowed to read, learn, and teach is a recurring feature of authoritarian politics.

Showing up to school board meetings is action, supporting librarians publicly and repeatedly is action, and defending educators who are being targeted for teaching accurately is action. Those acts are important in an environment where censorship is advanced through pressure, intimidation, and campaigns meant to make educators and librarians retreat on their own.

Power Depends on Workers More Than It Admits

Workers keep society functioning. Organized worker action carries weight in the broader choices people make about solidarity. The right to organize and bargain collectively exists because collective action gives workers leverage they do not have alone. Supporting unionized businesses, contributing to worker support funds, learning labor history, and encouraging union participation where possible are not separate from democratic life. They’re part of how we build counterweight against concentrated power.

Visible signs of shared commitment can reinforce trust, remind people they’re not isolated, and help sustain the relationships collective action depends on. Sometimes resistance begins with making sure someone knows they’re not standing alone.

We ask you to share this post. Someone in your life is asking a question or two that this post helps answers. Help us by posting it where people who are ready to act will find it.

Share

You don’t have to do everything to help.

Not Everyone Can Do Everything. But Almost Everyone Can Do Something.

The point is that people contribute in different ways, at different times, with different kinds of leverage. What you can do to help is choosing something you’re passionate about helping with, in the place where you stand, with the capacity you actually have.

That might mean moving one dollar with more intention. Sharing one verified resource. Calling one office. Sending one email. Supporting one local institution. Showing up to one meeting. Backing one worker. Defending one library. Helping document one abuse or rights violation safely and lawfully. Bringing one more person into the conversation who was starting to feel like nothing they did makes a difference.

We build momentum the most when enough people begin acting with purpose in enough places that those in power can no longer rely on passivity. Social movements are built through networks, repeated participation, and visible forms of solidarity.

What’s the one area where you feel most ready to act? What pillar will you focus on? Your answer may inspire someone else here.

Leave a comment

If this gave you something useful, something you will share or return to, consider becoming a supporter.

Subscribe now