Welcome to the online edition of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings the latest reports and analysis from the NBC News Politics team’s White House, Capitol Hill and Campaign Trail.
Today’s edition explores the latest ways Congressional Republicans are showing loyalty to President Donald Trump: Targeting the Judiciary. Additionally, Steve Kornacchi writes that next week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court competition will test whether Democrats can maintain the Trump-era edge in off-year elections.
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– Adam Walner
Republicans escalate efforts to curb the court amid ruling that has suspended Trump’s agenda
Republican lawmakers are in a hurry to demonstrate that they are rock stepping with President Donald Trump as they are stepping up their attacks on the judiciary.
He felt pressure on that front from his right flank, speaker, R-La. , which raised the possibility that Congress could eliminate reports from several federal courts, Scott Wong, Melanie Zanona and Rebecca Kaplan on Tuesday.
“You know, you have the power over federal courts. You can eliminate the entire district court. You have the power over funding over the courts and everything else,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday. “But times are calling for hopeless measures and Congress is about to act.”
Johnson, a former constitutional lawyer, later made clear that he was arguing about the “broad powers” of Congress over the court’s “creation, maintenance and governance.” Article 3 of the Constitution established the Supreme Court, but gave Congress the power to “ordain and establish” lower federal courts.
Judicial attorney Jim Jordan and R-Ohio, who are scheduled to hold a hearing focused on district judges next week, said they are talking to GOP budgeters about what he called “legislative relief.”
“We got the money, we got the expenditure process to try and deal with some of this,” Jordan said without adding any details.
These comments could launch a base in Maga, but Republicans are a long way from doing good things to them. It is not clear that sufficient members of their caucus will support the House Refund Court, where the party holds a narrow majority. And then there’s the Senate issue, a 60-vote threshold comes up, with Republicans controlling 53 seats.
The same problem arises when Republicans pursue a judge’s blast, like District Judge James Boasberg. (67 votes make the guilty pole even higher in the Senate.)
House GOP leaders are pursuing one potential off-ramp for a vote that is not politically unstable. Johnson supported the bill from R-Calif Rep. Darrell Issa.
R-La. House majority leader Steve Scalise said the Chamber of Commerce will vote for the bill next week, R-Mo. Senator Josh Hawley said similar laws would be introduced in the Senate.
“We have a big malfunction in federal judiciary, and in fact, another judge actually chooses to put aside the tradition of restraint from the bench every week and be a robe Trump resistance,” Isa told NBC News.
Things you need to know from today’s President Trump
Trump was standing by his national security adviser after the Atlantic editor-in-chief was accidentally added to private, high-level chats at a signal on a messaging app where military plans are being discussed. In a phone interview, Trump told NBC News: “Michael Waltz learned a lesson and he’s a good guy.” At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, National Intelligence Director Tarsi Gabbard and Central Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe said they did not share the material classified in group chat. Frank Vignano, the Trump candidate who leads the Social Security Agency, listened to Senate Democrats at his confirmation hearing, sparking early actions by Elon Musk and the government’s efficiency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pulling back $11.4 billion in funds allocated to state and local health departments, non-governmental organizations and international recipients in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Monales, a scientist whose previous research had been considering using artificial intelligence to improve health, is already acting as a proxy director.
Follow the live update →
Wisconsin Supreme Court Elections Test Major Democrat Benefits
By Steve Kornacki
Next week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court elections reveal whether the party’s defeat in November has endured something that was a Trump-era advantage for Democrats.
This is the type of competition that Democrats have been excelling these days. This is a contest that is oddly timing due to the low office and is expected to be marked by a modest overall turnout. Under these conditions, differences in motivation and intensity between the bases of the two parties are enlarged. And it has addressed the interests of Democrats who increasingly rely on a set of highly educated, high-income voters that are most politically involved in the Trump era.
Consider Wisconsin’s recent history. Despite being nominally independent, Supreme Court elections are undeniably shaped by partisan contours. And compared to the four high-turn-out general election races, the last Supreme Court election held in the spring stands out as the only blowout.
This was a trend not only in Wisconsin, but nationwide, and seemed to accelerate following the US Supreme Court decision to overturn ROE vs Wade in June 2022. Between the summer of 2022 and fall of 2024, 15 special elections for the home seat were held. Democrats swept over three highly contested by both parties, posting eye-opening benefits to others who are supposed to be non-competitive.
Disproportionately revitalised more educated and wealthy voters played a key role. For example, the February 2024 House Special Election for a Long Island-based district in New York saw voter turnout in areas with the most concentrated white voters with university degrees 15-20 points higher than in areas with the lowest concentration.
This was clear that the 2023 Supreme Court election in Wisconsin also won the democratically favorable candidate. That race saw disproportionate turnout in Dane County, home to the University of Wisconsin, with the highest share of white voters with state college degrees.
Dane County has become a large vote bank for state Democrats, and they are increasingly dependent as Republicans build their strength in rural and small towns Wisconsin. And with the 2023 court election, it surpassed that weight. Not only did Democrats win Dane with 64 points, but the county accounted for just 13% of all votes voted across the state. In comparison, last year’s presidential election accounted for just 10.7% of the statewide voting pool.
More broadly, all Wisconsin counties accounted for less than 38% of total voter turnout in the 2023 Supreme Court race, compared to 34.7% in last year’s presidential contest.
The problem for Democrats, of course, is that their prominent edge and special elections in their prominent years did not lead to victory in November last year, when voters were much bigger. This reflects the reversal of the roles of both parties. Until recently, Democrats enjoyed benefits with less involved voters, but the general view was that expanded voters would support them. However, in 2024, it was Trump who gained support from voters who were not normally involved in the presidential election. Many of them are young and non-white.
That dynamic will be tested next Tuesday. If the luxury end of the democratic coalition is still fierce and atypically involved in Trump’s second term, it will become clear to the outcome and serves as a signal for what could be ahead in the year and the next similar low turn-out race.
today’s other top stories
😨 Special Election Fear: Republican leaders plummeted to help candidate Randy Fein revive his campaign in the 11th hour, facing a special House election in the Florida area. Read more →➡→tesla Fallout: The FBI has created a task force to investigate the splates of recent attacks targeting Tesla vehicles and dealers, as agency directors call such actions “domestic terrorism.” Read More → Lessons for 2024: After last fall election, reaching male voters became a political need for Democrats when young men swayed heavily by Trump. Now, three Democratic governors have launched an initiative aimed at supporting struggling boys and men. Read more →
For now, it’s all from the political desk. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Faith Wardwell.
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