A comprehensive and really valuable guide by @taniel.bsky.social to the 32 U.S. states with supreme court elections this year:

Virginia Governor Vetoes a Ban on Plea Deals That Waive People's Constitutional Rights - Bolts Abigail Spanberger blocked a bill to bar prosecutors from pressuring Virginians to waive protections against unreasonable police searches as a condition of pleas.

In a surprise move, VA Gov. Abigail Spanberger vetoed a bill that would have stopped prosecutors from asking people to waive their 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable searches & seizures in plea deals. This commonly happens in some counties.

More here:
boltsmag.org/virginia-fou...

Oregon Voters Have Zero Choice in DA Races - Bolts Each of Oregon's 15 DA elections is uncontested this year, shutting the door for public debate around prosecutors’ policies and power over people’s lives.

I think that lack of competition is one of the most important mini-beats we cover at @boltsmag.org. Here’s @taniel.bsky.social on Oregon, where 15 DA seats are up this year, and every one of them drew just a single candidate: boltsmag.org/oregon-uncon...

NEW: Oregon has 15 DA elections this year.

Each and every one drew just one candidate.

So I had to write about what’s going on with these uncontested elections — here, and elsewhere. boltsmag.org/oregon-uncon...

Louisiana GOP races to eliminate an elected office won by an exonerated man A New Orleans man exonerated after serving nearly 30 years in prison has a new fight on his hands. Calvin Duncan has been elected as the city's new clerk of criminal court, but now Republican lawmakers are racing to eliminate the position.

I tend to agree w people who say innocence cases are the low-hanging fruit of carceral reform, but it's remarkable -
& deeply symptomatic - how far Louisiana officials will go to deny that these clear miscarriages of justice occur & even retaliate against their victims
apnews.com/article/new-...

…in other words, there is a way around the poll tax, but it’s not a viable solution for most, in this particular moment.

Yes, but that applies to non-driver ID, and the specific Kansas problem now is that people are suddenly without driver’s licenses, which many not only used to vote but also to drive/participate in society. So, the thing they’ll want to replace, for voting but also life in general, does cost $ still.

This Wisconsin City Ditched AI Surveillance Cameras. Now Activists Want to Keep Going. Some cities are opting out of camera networks like Flock’s, concerned about abuse by police and immigration authorities. Organizers hope Dane County is the “next big domino” to fall.

The breadth of Flock’s surveillance network amplifies the risk of breaches of sensitive data. Officers have repeatedly been caught using the network to stalk romantic partners and Flock cameras have been used to spy on No Kings Day protesters.

A New Law Voids IDs of Transgender Kansans. It Also Threatens Their Voting Access. - Bolts Almost as soon as Kansas lawmakers passed a new law targeting transgender people in late February, state officials started invalidating some people’s driver’s licenses without warning. The law, which ...

Just to spell this out…

You need ID to vote in Kansas. For most, that means a driver’s license.

Kansas has canceled valid licenses of people who’d updated their gender marker. Many of those affected will need new licenses to be able to vote.

A new license costs $16.

= Poll tax on trans people.

A New Law Voids IDs of Transgender Kansans. It Also Threatens Their Voting Access. - Bolts Almost as soon as Kansas lawmakers passed a new law targeting transgender people in late February, state officials started invalidating some people’s driver’s licenses without warning. The law, which ...

Very grateful to @burness.bsky.social for pitching and writing this piece. Of all the innumerable ways legislation tries to insult and erase trans Americans, jeopardizing their voting rights is one of the most disresepctful.
boltsmag.org/kansas-trans...

Teen who went to photograph L.A. 'No Kings' rally shot, blinded by Homeland Security agent, attorney says Tucker Collins, an 18-year-old freshman at USC, attended a 'No Kings' protest in Los Angeles on Mar. 28. He ended up getting shot in the eye with a less-lethal projectile by a Department of Homeland S...

A second photographer in Los Angeles lost an eye to law enforcement "less-lethal" munitions while just taking pictures at protests.

These weapons are supposed to be used ONLY for immediate violent threats.

Marshall Woodruff and now Tucker Collins were armed with nothing but a camera.

Liberals Gain Seat on Wisconsin Supreme Court, Adding to Firewall in Voting Cases - Bolts Voters in Wisconsin ensured on Tuesday that the supreme court in one of the nation’s premier swing states will be controlled by liberals through at least 2030.  Chris Taylor, a... Read More

Liberals now have significant majorities on all three "Blue Wall" state supreme courts: 5-2 in Wisconsin, 5-2 in Pennsylvania, 6-1 in Michigan.

Their latest win, tonight in Wisconsin, is a romp: Chris Taylor leads by about 20 points, having so far flipped 15+ counties that went for Trump in 2024.

Wisconsin liberals haven’t had more than 4 seats on the state supreme court since at least the 1970s. They’re about to hold 5 seats, following tonight’s win.

*And* liberals could grow their majority to 6-1 a year from now.

A remarkable turnaround in just a few cycles.

Liberals Gain Seat on Wisconsin Supreme Court, Adding to Firewall in Voting Cases - Bolts Voters in Wisconsin ensured on Tuesday that the supreme court in one of the nation’s premier swing states will be controlled by liberals through at least 2030.  Chris Taylor, a... Read More

Wisconsin liberals have just won another state Supreme Court election, in what is shaping up to be a blowout.

Importantly: Liberals are now sure to hold a majority on this court during the 2028 cycle and through at least 2030.

New in @boltsmag.org:

boltsmag.org/wisconsin-su...

A New Law Voids the IDs of Transgender Kansans. It Also Threatens Their Voting Access. - Bolts Almost as soon as Kansas lawmakers passed a new law targeting transgender people in late February, state officials started invalidating some people’s driver’s licenses without warning. The law, which ...

Trans erasure is also voter suppression.

New in @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/kansas-trans...

This is absolutely true. Local TV news, NPR stations, websites and newspapers depend on AP to inform their communities. People do not appreciate the service AP provides to people across the country.

“New York Times headline and subheadline reading: ‘White House Seeks $1.5 Trillion for Defense in New Budget Request. The huge proposed increase would be partly offset by steep cuts to domestic programs, some of which the Trump administration describes as wasteful.’“​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Pretty surreal to explain how mass homelessness emerged in the 1980s from the deliberate defunding of housing and the social safety net—and then see this, today, from the White House:

"It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these individual things."

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court Reins in Life Sentences for Felony Murder The court’s ruling could create a pathway out of prison for more than 1,000 people who were automatically sentenced to life without parole for murders they themselves didn

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week that it’s unconstitutional to automatically sentence someone to life in prison without the possibility for parole for a killing they didn’t participate in or personally commit.

At This Prison, Staffing Fluctuations Land Hardest on Lifers For those serving life sentences, these disruptions aren't just inconveniences. They deeply affect psychological well-being.

This country has built behemoth prison systems, which it has no trouble filling with prisoners but routinely struggles to staff, and when staffing runs low these systems restrict the already extremely limited freedom of the people in their custody.

@prisonjournalism.bsky.social:

The state of Alaska is *still* prosecuting Miliama Suli, an attorney for the family says.

The state continued to prosecute her, on charges that carried up to 10 years of prison time, even as she was dying, and as of now it has not dropped those charges, almost three weeks after her death.

The 40 Elections to Watch This April - Bolts Two statewide votes are headlining the election calendar in April. First, Wisconsin will choose a new supreme court justice, with major implications for voting rights. Then, Virginia will decide wheth...

Voting is underway in Anchorage now, with some important elections ending April 7. Because of American Samoa’s unique status in U.S. democracy, thousands of non-citizen American Samoan “nationals” in Alaska are blocked from participating.

boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

Americans by Name, Punished for Believing It - Bolts In a small Alaska town, American Samoans face prosecution for voting in the only country they’ve ever known. They live in a limbo, created by colonial expansion, that now confuses even public official...

Did you know that there is one group of Americans who are not entitled to birthright citizenship?

People born American Samoa are classified instead simply as “U.S. nationals” — and as a result they cannot vote or run for office anywhere else in the country.

Much more here, for anyone curious:

The point, though, isn’t to win in court. Trump is engaging in election denialism theater. It makes voters of all sides mistrust the election process and the virtues of democracy. It convinces his supporters that Democrats have to cheat to win, something that will come in handy should Democrats take back control of the House in November with the intent of beginning investigations and potentially impeachment. It lets Trump, the most powerful person on earth, paint himself as a victim of fraud and of “bad, bad” judges. It also puts into question the rules of an election that is just months away, giving voters reason to fear that the postal service could sabotage their ballots. (The recent Supreme Court ruling saying that postal service employees cannot be held liable for intentionally failing to deliver mail surely doesn’t help that perception.) Trump’s executive order, seems aimed to sow chaos in elections and depress turnout. We will look back at Donald Trump’s presidency as years where the concept of election integrity got turned on its head. In the name of protecting democracy, Trump is breaking democracy. The damage could last a generation, even if the shelf life of his new executive order might be measured in days.

My new one @slate.com on Trump's new mail balloting executive order: Sometimes it's the chaos, not the cruelty, that's the point.
slate.com/news-and-pol...

Trump Wants Mail Votes to Arrive By Election Day. Red States Are Rushing to Toe the Line. - Bolts Two more states just banned grace periods for mail ballots that are sent before polls close but arrive after Election Day. Trump and conservative judges stepped up attacks, too.

Experts say Trump’s new elections EO is clearly unconstitutional, like his last one. Won’t be surprising if it’s quickly blocked.

But these EOs are still illuminating as strategy documents, and red states have often been glad to do Trump’s bidding. For example: boltsmag.org/restrictions...

New Jersey Becomes the 10th State with a Law Barring Local ICE Contracts - Bolts New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill on Wednesday signed legislation banning local law enforcement agencies from partnering with federal immigration authorities, making it the 10th state to adopt laws t...

Yesterday New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a trio of bills protecting the state's immigrants.

New Jersey is now the 10th state (and 4th in the past year) to pass legislation outlawing local law enforcement partnerships with ICE via the 287(g) program.

boltsmag.org/new-jersey-i...

The 40 Elections to Watch This April - Bolts Two statewide votes are headlining the election calendar in April. First, Wisconsin will choose a new supreme court justice, with major implications for voting rights. Then, Virginia will decide wheth...

You know about Virginia's redistricting referendum, but that's just the tip of what you have to watch in April.

A supreme court race. Conservatives looking to take over school boards. Election deniers running for local office. Congressional races.

My new guide to April's elections—just out.

EXCLUSIVE: ICE Locks Thousands, Including Kids, in 170 'Hold Rooms’ Nationwide. Here's Where They Are. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency operates a network of 170 unofficial detention sites around the country, called “hold rooms,” according to agency data obtained via the Freedom of....

ICE locks tens of thousands of detainees nationwide in a network of 170 "hold rooms" spread across 49 states, which are forbidden from containing beds.

Today, we are publishing location and detainee information about all 170 facilities.

coloradotimesrecorder.com/2026/03/excl...

New Jersey just became the fourth state this year (Maine, Maryland, New Mexico) to pass a law banning 287(g) contracts with ICE.

@laurengill.bsky.social:

boltsmag.org/new-jersey-i...

This Wisconsin City Ditched AI Surveillance Cameras. Now Activists Want to Keep Going. - Bolts Last November, the city of Verona, Wisconsin, voted to pull out of the sprawling surveillance network run by tech company Flock Safety in hopes of protecting residents’ privacy and preventing... Read ...

A Wisconsin town covered several surveillance cameras with black plastic bags after the company that runs them, Flock Safety, ignored requests to take them down for months. Officials worried the cameras kept rolling even after the town ended its Flock contract:
boltsmag.org/verona-wisco...

Virginia Democratic lawmakers are essentially daring ICE to comply with new pending state laws, including a mask ban for officers.

It’s an interesting move with significant potential effects: 25+ ICE contracts with Virginia sheriffs and jails could be canceled by Sept. 1.