International Workers Day on May 1 commemorates the great labor struggles of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when workers fought and died for decent wages and working conditions.

The militant energy of the early labor movement, long dormant in the United States, has been making a comeback recently as Americans chafe at economic instability, the destruction of health care and other basic rights and protections, and recoil from a government dedicated to further enriching billionaires at the expense of working people. Add to that the campaign of terror the Trump administration has launched against immigrants who do much of the manual labor in this country and the violent repression of the neighbors who try to protect them, and it’s starting to feel like 1886.

On Friday, May 1, labor unions and immigrants rights groups are coming together to organize mass walkouts in more than 3,000 cities across the U.S. “No work. No school. No shopping” is the tag line for the national campaign, joined in Wisconsin by Madison Teachers Inc., the Southcentral Federation of Labor, and myriad civic groups. 

This week’s protests grow out of “A Day Without Immigrants,” the May Day general strikes that began 20 years ago to oppose Wisconsin U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner’s federal bill that proposed making unauthorized presence in the U.S. a crime punishable by mandatory prison sentences. For the first time, in those May Day protests, “you saw largely Latino immigrant, working-class families … with grandparents and baby strollers, coming out in this peaceful wave of mass marches,” recalls Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, the Milwaukee-based immigrant workers’ rights group. “It really was like an earthquake, and it shelved that terrible bill and put the conversation of immigration reform back on the table.”

This year, national labor unions are showing up for the May Day actions in a big way. That’s inspiring, because it’s clear that massive resistance from a broad, working-class movement is what it’s going to take to stop the brutal repression and outright theft of public resources by the current regime.

“Workers’ rights and immigrants’ rights are the same,” Andy King, managing director of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) said on a May Day press call this week. His group’s May Day demands include no more funding for ICE and Border Patrol, permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, and stopping the construction of megawarehouses for the mass detention of human beings. 

The fear-mongering about immigrants coming from the Trump administration is not an accident, Neumann-Ortiz said during the same call. “It’s a strategy to divide us, to scapegoat and to distract from the real challenges working families face, and in particular, the growing control of our economy by billionaires.” She talked about the heartbreaking case of Elvira Benitez, a mother of three from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, who was arrested by ICE during a routine check-in after she was approved for a green card. Now she’s sitting in detention in Kentucky, and her youngest daughter is under medical supervision for suicidal thoughts related to the traumatic experience of being separated from her mom, Neumann-Ortiz said.

She also highlighted the case of Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, a legal permanent resident, who was detained by ICE in what appears to be a retaliatory arrest for his political speech defending Palestinian rights. 

A secretive police agency that whisks people away in order to silence dissent should worry all of us. “And these are not isolated cases, as we know,” Neumann Ortiz said. “It’s a system.”

Deaths in ICE custody have hit a new record since the beginning of Trump’s second administration. Yet the federal government plans to expand warehouse detention to house more than 92,000 people. Adriana Rivera of the Florida Immigrant Coalition told reporters on FIRM’s May Day press call, “our state has become ground zero for a system that warehouses human beings for top dollar, makes jokes and merch at their expense, where suffering is hidden and accountability is absent.”

“Shut down these disgusting warehouses and choose a path rooted in care,” she demanded.

What is happening to our country? What will it take to wake people up?

During the same week I listened to activists planning the May Day walkout, my phone rang and an automated voice informed me that Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was holding an impromptu “telephone town hall” in the middle of a weekday afternoon. I stayed on and listened to Johnson tell his constituents that he favors eliminating the Senate filibuster in order to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security without the guardrails Democrats are seeking for ICE and Border Patrol. We’re living in too “dangerous” a time not to act immediately, Johnson said, and Congress is “too broken” to make these decisions in a deliberative fashion. That’s why, he explained, now that President Trump is in office and Republicans hold a majority, he has switched his position on ending the minority party’s power to filibuster legislation. Johnson wants to get Democrats out of the way to pass the SAVE America Act, which will severely curtail voting rights on the thoroughly disproven theory that undocumented immigrants are voting in large numbers and swaying U.S. elections. 

Johnson listened approvingly to voters on the call who recycled Trump’s Big Lie that Democrats are stealing elections. He expressed his enthusiasm for RFK Jr. and “progress” on his pet issue — getting rid of supposedly harmful vaccines. Some callers expressed anxiety about the Iran war, with Johnson reassuring them that it was going “perfectly.” One woman swore at him and was disconnected. But the most revealing part of the call came when a caller mentioned that a lot of people are worried about health care — a brewing crisis in Wisconsin where 63,000 people are losing Medicaid coverage because of Trump’s cuts and another 20,000 have dropped their Affordable Care Act coverage because of rising premium costs after Republicans refused to renew ACA enhanced tax credits.

The root cause of the problem with health care, Johnson said, is the government’s involvement. 

“Take a look at Amazon, what that private sector competitor has done to deliver products in hours, sometimes at a really low cost. So private sector consumerism works, but we’ve driven consumerism out of healthcare by having somebody else pay for it,”  he said. His solution? “Move to a rational system of catastrophic care plans, and then most of healthcare paid out of pocket with real consumerism.”

Never mind Johnson’s choice to hold up Amazon as a paragon of business, a company that was sued by the Federal Trade Commission for illegally blocking competition, inflating prices using its monopoly power, and stifling innovation. Never mind the multiple lawsuits brought by its drivers for high-pressure, inhumane working conditions and that unfortunate incident in which a warehouse worker died on the floor while his coworkers were allegedly told by management to ignore him and keep production rolling.

Setting all that aside, how many regular voters in Wisconsin agree that the best way to handle crushing healthcare costs is to make them pay out of pocket for every medication, office visit and procedure?

As Trump’s approval ratings reach a new low and gas prices spike, Johnson’s position that you should cover the full cost of your healthcare out of pocket is unlikely to give Republicans a bump.

The problem in our country is that we seem to have lost the class consciousness that animated the labor movement of the Progressive Era.

Instead, today, we have a rightwing populism that purports to defend the interests of blue collar workers but is, in fact, investing in the immiseration of the vast majority of Americans, the theft of their healthcare, their education, their wages and workplace protections, for the benefit of oligarchs like Johnson, who couldn’t care less if people suffer, sicken and die, so long as he remains rich. 

I don’t think people can put up with this for much longer. The inhumane treatment of regular, hardworking people, the pain and waste of the greed-driven regime we are living with should turn the stomach of every American. 

May Day is a sign of hope. 

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

SUBSCRIBE

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources asked those attending their spring county hearings and online if it’s users would support increases in license fees or a state sales tax increase as the department looks to increase…

(The Center Square) – There are accusations of DEI in the child pornography case that earned a former Sun Prairie school official almost two decades in prison.

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The median price of a Wisconsin home has increased significantly in the past few years, but it has not doubled.

Median means half the sale prices were higher and half were lower.

The latest full-year figures: 

2025: $325,000

2024: $310,000

2023: $285,000

2022: $265,000

The 2025 median was 23% higher than in 2022.

In each of the first three months of 2026, the median price was higher year-over-year compared with 2025.

The last time the median decreased was in 2011.

Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic and a 2022 interest rate spike in 2022 caused homeowners to postpone or cancel plans to sell. The smaller supply pushed prices higher.

Also, construction costs have risen and new home building has not kept pace with population increases.

In 2023, the Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers allocated $500 million toward loan programs aimed at creating affordable housing.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• Wisconsin Realtors Association: Wisconsin Housing Statistics, as of April 27, 2026
• Wisconsin Policy Forum: Home Prices Outpace Incomes
• Wisconsin Watch: Wisconsin faces a housing affordability crisis. Here’s how lawmakers and candidates for governor plan to address it.
• Kurt Paulsen, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of urban planning Email

Have Wisconsin home prices doubled in the last three years? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Initial damage assessment reports indicate that this month’s flood damage is smaller in scale to last year’s storms and will not meet the requirements to request federal assistance, according to county and city officials. 

Milwaukee County is coordinating with municipal emergency managers to evaluate damage using resident reports to 2-1-1 and communication with local and regional partners, according to Emily Tau, public affairs director with the Milwaukee County Office of the County Executive. 

“While the impacts to affected households are significant and taken seriously, at this time, the impacts from this flooding in Milwaukee County do not meet the thresholds required to initiate a FEMA Preliminary Damage Assessment and potential Presidential Disaster Declaration,” Tau said.

Ryan Zollicoffer, director of the City of Milwaukee Office of Emergency Management, said joint teams from the Department of Neighborhood Services and the Milwaukee Fire Department are continuing on-site evaluations of the most impacted residential areas.

Based on preliminary reports, both Zollicoffer and Tau said the magnitude of damage to date appears substantially lower than after August’s flooding, when historic rainfall exceeded 10 inches in parts of Milwaukee. Rainfall totals from April 13 to April 15 topped 5 inches in the city. 

Zollicoffer said some residents may be eligible for assistance through the U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loan programs, depending on final damage determinations.

The city and county will then work with the state to determine whether any additional recovery resources or support mechanisms are warranted, he said. 

Some elected leaders have expressed interest in exploring options to request aid.

Governor’s effort

On Wednesday, Gov. Tony Evers announced that he directed Wisconsin Emergency Management to submit a request for FEMA to assist the state in conducting a formal federal preliminary damage assessment from recent extreme storms and flooding throughout the state.

Wisconsin Emergency Management is the division of the state’s Department of Military Affairs that coordinates disaster and emergency responses.

Evers signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency on April 15 and authorized the Wisconsin National Guard to assist in relief and recovery efforts from flooding, hail, strong winds and tornadoes that hit communities across Wisconsin in April.

In an April 17 letter, Evers requested Wisconsin’s two U.S. senators and eight U.S. representatives help urge the Trump administration to reconsider the denials of the state’s requests for assistance from August’s storms and approve outstanding requests.

President Donald Trump approved individual assistance to Wisconsin homeowners and residents after the August flooding. However, the administration denied requests for assistance to repair public infrastructure and for the hazard mitigation grant program. 

Wisconsin appealed both decisions to FEMA but was once again denied public assistance and is still waiting on a response for the hazard mitigation grant. 

“These denials and delays have left Wisconsin more vulnerable to this next wave of storms and flooding,” Evers wrote. 

Wisconsin does not have its own standing assistance program to help property owners make repairs from flooding or storms, according to Wisconsin Emergency Management, the division of the state’s Department of Military Affairs that coordinates disaster and emergency responses. 

Next steps

Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell authored a resolution to be introduced at the outset of the new board term in May that requests the county Office of Emergency Management conduct a comprehensive assessment of the damage from April’s storms, according to Erin Caffrey, communications specialist with the Milwaukee County Clerk’s Office. 

The countywide review of damage would be used to inform recovery efforts and strengthen future applications for state and federal aid, she said. It would also support the development of a coordinated flood preparedness, response and communications plan that would create a flooding information alert system and help supervisors effectively engage with residents, Caffrey said. 

“This resolution is about bringing our partners together, assessing the damage, improving communication with residents and making sure we are better prepared before the next storm hits,” Nicholson-Bovell said in a statement. “Our communities deserve a coordinated response and the long-term investments needed to protect homes, neighborhoods and businesses.” 

Ald. Andrea Pratt introduced a communication file to the Milwaukee Common Council to discuss city intersections and areas that are hot spots for flooding, which was on the agenda for a Public Works Committee meeting on Wednesday morning at City Hall.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson, County Executive David Crowley and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Executive Director Kevin Shafer formed a Flood Mitigation Task Force to evaluate mitigation efforts to reduce impacts from future storms and solicit feedback. It is expected to meet soon.

Other resources

Anyone can report storm damage or request to be connected to volunteer cleanup resources by calling 2-1-1 or submitting a report online through the 211 Wisconsin website. 

The Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church, in partnership with UMCOR and Team Rubicon USA, is organizing 100 volunteers to assist families with cleanup in Milwaukee County in the coming weeks and months, Tau said. The American Red Cross and the Salvation Army are also active in support efforts. 

Organizations interested in coordinating with partners through the Southeast Wisconsin Community Organizations Active in Disasters can visit sewicoad.org or contact coadsewi@gmail.com.

Residents who lost food purchased with FoodShare can apply for replacement benefits through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services until the extended deadline of May 4.^.

Call or text the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 for free, 24/7, confidential, multilingual emotional support.

The Department of Neighborhood Services’ Compliance Loan Program helps owner-occupied properties address building code violations with a no-interest, deferred payment loan. Residents can apply if flood damage is under the purview of the program and they meet the requirements.  

Jeremy McGovern, marketing and communications officer for the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services, said the department would not be opposed to waiving permit fees related to flood damage repairs like it did for the August floods, but doing so would require Common Council authorization. 

He also said the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Project inspectors and plan examiners can be resources in helping navigate timelines and repairs.

---

Find more resources in NNS’s previous reporting. 

---

Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

---

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Federal flood assistance unlikely in Milwaukee: Officials discuss next steps is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

In relaunching our guest opinion section earlier this year, we asked you to bring us arguments rooted in evidence, lived experience and a genuine interest in Wisconsin’s future.

You’ve delivered — and then some.

Since January, we’ve published perspectives tackling everything from the rise of data centers and threats to groundwater to the systems shaping youth mental health and the everyday pressures of poverty. Here’s what these pieces have in common: They aren’t quickly dashed-off hot takes. They’re arguments built on research and careful thought.

That strength has created a welcome challenge. We’ve received more high-quality submissions than we anticipated, and they require the same kind of fact-checking and editing we apply to our journalism. The result is a longer queue. To those still waiting to see their work published: thanks for your patience. We’re working through them, and there’s much more to come.

Below is a sampling of the WisConversation so far.

As a reminder, these commentaries reflect the views of their authors and are independent of the in-depth reporting produced by Wisconsin Watch’s newsroom staff. Want to join in? Email your submission to opinion@wisconsinwatch.org. 

How poverty’s gravity pulls workers under

“Being poor, it turns out, is expensive,” writes Sachin Shivaram, CEO of Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry in Manitowoc. His experience with employees shows how small setbacks and mounting fees create a gravitational pull that’s nearly impossible to escape.

After-school programs are essential. Wisconsin should fund them that way.

Wisconsin lags behind other states that provide dedicated funding for after-school programs. That leaves an estimated 275,000 children without access to programs that make them safer and healthier, writes Daniel Gage, a consultant with the Afterschool Alliance and Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance.

In Wisconsin’s CAFO counties, glyphosate monitoring gaps threaten groundwater

State monitoring programs largely overlook glyphosate in northeastern Wisconsin’s CAFO-heavy counties, where groundwater may be most vulnerable, writes Allison Gilmeister, a Yale University graduate student and Appleton native.

How Wisconsin can protect consumers and the environment during the data center boom

Renewable energy and efficiency are the lowest-cost ways to meet soaring demand, but they aren’t enough on their own, writes John Imes, co-founder and executive director of the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative and village president of Shorewood Hills. He argues Wisconsin needs clear guardrails to protect consumers, water and the climate.

How to fix water bills so conservation pays off

Fixed charges and delayed pricing signals can make water conservation hard to see on household bills, freelance writer Michael V. Haley argues. He proposes ways to redesign rates so saving water pays off.

Wisconsin must regulate crisis pregnancy centers to protect patients

Layne Donovan, a native Wisconsinite who works in reproductive health, highlights a proposal that would require crisis pregnancy centers to obtain consent before sharing client information. But she argues lawmakers should go further — cracking down on deceptive practices and protecting access to evidence-based care.

To curb alcohol harm, Wisconsin must rethink its drinking culture

Alcohol misuse is woven into the state’s history and identity, but its health consequences are widespread, writes Kayla Doege, a graduate student at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Master of Social Work program. Treating addiction as a public health issue — not an individual failing — is the first step toward meaningful change, Doege writes.

No shortage of opinions: Readers fuel the WisConversation is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

An attorney read from a laptop propped atop a snowplow.

To his left was a Caterpillar street grader, and to his right, a dusty workbench. A disheveled American flag hung next to a red toolbox in the center of the impromptu stage.

Dozens of southwest Wisconsin residents recently forsook part of the local high school’s track-and-field meet so they could cast their votes inside the town of Cassville’s garage. The attorney had been retained by the town’s elected leaders to read the soon-to-be-newest regulation.

The unanimous outcome — 44 ballots in favor of banning data centers, none against — reflected a hostile backlash to unwelcome big tech incursions into rural spaces.

Residents instructed their town board to put a stop to the billion-dollar proposal by an anonymous developer after learning their community was on the short list.

Even promises of 50 jobs and more than $5.5 million in annual property tax revenue weren’t enough to make up for the loss of about 500 acres of Wisconsin’s Driftless area.

The pastoral landscape — known for rolling bluffs that straddle the locks and dams of the nation’s upper Mississippi River — possesses a bountiful aquifer, a temperate climate and few land regulations.

The latest move against data centers

Cassville’s ordinance is the latest move by a Midwestern community seeking to protect the qualities that make life so appealing to people — and data centers. 

Pushback over the power-hungry facilities that make the cloud run are occurring across the country, as companies expand in states like Mississippi and Tennessee.

Residents in Port Washington, Wisconsin, were the first in the nation to pass a referendum that would prevent their city from offering generous tax incentives without first obtaining voter approval.

Wisconsin lawmakers — some of whom previously supported a state sales tax exemption for new data centers — sponsored bills that would prevent developers from using confidential nondisclosure agreements when prospecting for new sites.

And in Clayton County, Iowa, directly across the river from Cassville, officials are considering zoning, setback and size restrictions.

Cassville residents fear data centers will devalue their properties, contaminate their wells and increase their electric bills.

“This is the Driftless area for Christ’s sakes,” said John Hawn, who retired to the area several years ago. “I suppose they didn’t expect any problems coming into a small town.”

‘There’s no information’

The Cassville project has been shrouded in secrecy. That includes the proposed location and what company will use it, leaving residents to fill in the vacuum with a frenzy of social media engagement.

“I don’t know really what to think about it because there’s no information,” town Supervisor Scott Riedl said. 

Ron Brisbois, executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Corp., has met with a developer but to date declined to identify the company that is scouting for locations so as not to jeopardize the project.

In an interview after Cassville’s vote, he said the town’s appeal is its proximity to electricity, specifically the high-voltage Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line that entered service in September 2024.

Brisbois estimated the data center would require 400 to 500 megawatts of power — a lot, even by the new transmission line’s standards.

But the town’s attorney, Eric Hagen, said if Cassville can make it inconvenient, the data center developer may look elsewhere. The company also is considering sites in Indiana and North Dakota.

“My read of the situation right now: They’re looking for the lowest-hanging fruit with the least amount of regulations,” Hagen said.

Cassville’s new ordinance prohibits data centers in the town for up to two years and prevents land use changes, such as constructing a residence on a farm field, without the town board’s approval. And the county cannot preempt local zoning authority in the town’s case, Hagen said.

“We can beat them to the punch.”

Data centers raise ire

Days after the town’s vote, Brisbois fielded questions from a concerned public at J&J’s Sandbar, a Cassville restaurant, over chicken and ham, mashed potatoes with gravy and macaroni salad.

He wonders whether the objections reflect data centers’ tarnished image more than concerns over actual water and power use. If a battery or farm equipment manufacturer were to move in and consume more of each, would residents even notice?

Brisbois said the developer has remained quiet for the past month, which he attributes to the lack of local tax incentives for the project rather than community unease.

“I’m looking forward to a bit quieter days,” he said, “where all I have to worry about with townships is housing and maybe an ag or a farm expansion.”

In rural Wisconsin, a town rejects a plan to build a massive data center is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

In response to concerns from three northeast Wisconsin towns, the Manitowoc County Board unanimously approved an 18-month moratorium on data center permitting.

The post Manitowoc County Board approves 18-month data center moratorium appeared first on WPR.

A new lawsuit filed by a watersports group argues an ordinance passed by a Wisconsin village is an illegal and unconstitutional ban on wake surfing and wake boats.

The post Lawsuit claims Wisconsin village passed an unconstitutional ban on wake surfing appeared first on WPR.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a video game released last year that has taken the roleplaying world by storm. And the music world.

The post WPR Music new album of the week: ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’ appeared first on WPR.

Literacy coaches funded by the state will arrive next fall in Wisconsin schools where students are struggling to learn to read, fulfilling a key component of the 2023 Act 20 legislation that was stalled by political infighting. 

The post Literacy coaches will join 54 Wisconsin schools this fall where reading scores are lowest appeared first on WPR.

Marquette Law School's latest polls find distrust of data center developments and the artificial intelligence they fuel crosses political, age and economic lines.

The post Latest Marquette polls find deep skepticism of data centers, artificial intelligence appeared first on WPR.

Wisconsin is the latest state to be sued by the federal government over its attempt to shut down prediction markets from being used by residents. 

The post Federal government sues Wisconsin over state’s lawsuits against prediction markets platforms appeared first on WPR.

Justice-elect Chris Taylor announced Wednesday that she's endorsing liberal Appeals Judge Pedro Colón in the 2027 Supreme Court election. Colón faces liberal Clark County Judge Lyndsey Brunette.

The post Justice-elect Chris Taylor endorses Pedro Colón in 2027 Supreme Court race appeared first on WPR.

Drummer Viola Smith was a musical trailblazer and innovator. Known as “the fastest girl drummer in the world,” her career lasted almost 100 years. Author Dean Robbins took a trip […]

The post ‘The fastest girl drummer in the world’: Celebrating Wisconsin’s Viola Smith appeared first on WPR.

Some Wisconsin health professionals are bracing for a bad year for Lyme disease as tick activity is already higher than the same time last year.

The post Wisconsin could be in for ‘a big year’ for Lyme disease as tick bites soar appeared first on WPR.

New data on Wisconsin’s tax incentives for data centers have some state leaders calling for more regulation. Others say the industry is helping drive economic growth.

The post Wisconsin data center tax incentives spark debate over cost and regulation appeared first on WPR.

A Dane County Circuit Court judge ordered the Wisconsin Department of Justice to release its list of about 16,000 law enforcement officers certified in the state. 

The lawsuit was brought by media outlets the Badger Project and Invisible Institute. Police officers in Wisconsin are required to be certified by the state’s Law Enforcement Standards Board. The DOJ has previously released partial versions of the list, arguing that the full database could compromise the identity of officers working undercover. 

Both outlets have frequently written about “wandering cops” who leave departments due to misconduct or abuse only to be hired by another agency. The DOJ list includes a record of cops being fired or resigning in lieu of termination. 

Judge Rhonda Lanford ruled on Tuesday that the DOJ’s argument against releasing the list went against the state’s open records law. 

“When responding to records requests, there is a strong presumption of openness and liberal access to public records,” she wrote.  “[T]he DOJ has not met its burden to show that this is an ‘exceptional case’ warranting nondisclosure.”  The judge concluded that DOJ’s denial “was not the product of a genuine, case-by-case balancing analysis, but rather a habitual denial based on [its] past inability to garner compliance from local agencies.”

Lanford noted that law enforcement officers hold a public position and therefore “necessarily relinquish certain privacy and reputational rights by virtue of the amount of trust society places in them and must be subject to public scrutiny.”

Tom Kamenick, the lead attorney in the lawsuit and founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Institute, said the decision was a win for transparency in Wisconsin government and the requirement that officials must prove real risk of harm when denying an open records request. 

“Courts have ruled time and time again that speculative fears of harm do not justify withholding government records from the public,” Kamenick said in a statement. “Government officials must do more than merely claim that, hypothetically, something bad might happen if the records are released.  Rather, they must show that harm is likely to occur and is sufficiently serious to overcome the presumption of access to government records. DOJ could not do that here.”

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

SUBSCRIBE

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision gutting the federal Voting Rights Act sent Black Democrats in the U.S. House reeling on Wednesday, as they confronted a new reality where Republicans could gerrymander some of them out of office and limit the ability of Black voters to elect candidates in the future.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus vowed to fight the court’s decision. They demanded fresh votes on federal voting rights legislation that has languished for several years and urged voters to turn out in the November election.

But facing a Republican-controlled Congress for at least the rest of the year and a Republican White House for at least the next two-and-a-half years, the prospect of major new voting rights legislation becoming law appears slim in the near term.

“It will pave the way for the greatest reduction in representation for Black and minority voters since the years following Reconstruction,” Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat, said of the court’s decision, referring to the post-Civil War period in the South.

Republicans could ultimately secure up to 19 U.S. House seats nationally directly because of the Supreme Court’s decision, according to a projection by Fair Fight Action, a Georgia-based progressive voting rights group, and the Black Voters Matter Fund, which advocates on behalf of Black voters. 

As of Aug. 4, 2025, Congress included 61 Black members of the House, including two delegates, and five senators, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Racial gerrymander

In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana’s congressional map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because it unnecessarily created a second district where a majority of residents are Black.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act had previously limited states from using maps that dilute the voting power of minority citizens. Justice Elena Kagan, one of the court’s three liberal justices, wrote in a dissent that the decision would now allow states to dilute the voting power of minority voters without legal consequences.

Republicans welcomed the decision, with many saying race should play no role in redistricting. President Donald Trump, informed about the ruling by reporters and told that it would help Republicans, exclaimed, “I love it.”

Florida lawmakers approved a new map within hours of the opinion. The proposal, offered by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this week, seeks to secure four additional House seats for Republicans. DeSantis had invoked the court’s decision, even before it was released, to push lawmakers to pass the new map.

GOP candidates and officials in other states urged state lawmakers to move quickly to redraw maps, even with primary elections approaching. Even if only a small number of states enact fresh gerrymanders this year, the Supreme Court decision will likely trigger another, bigger wave of redistricting over the next two years ahead of the 2028 election.

“The Court rightly acknowledged that the South has made extraordinary progress, and that laws designed for a different era do not reflect the present reality,” Alabama Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.

Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, in a statement said the decision “restores fairness, strengthens confidence in our elections, and ensures every voter is treated equally under the law.”

The Supreme Court in 2019 allowed states to redraw maps for political advantage, ruling that federal courts would no longer adjudicate partisan gerrymandering cases. That previous decision, combined with Wednesday’s opinion, offers states a wide berth to draw maps that limit the voting power of minorities if they’re sold as politically necessary.

Bloody Sunday

Sewell represents a district that includes Selma, where the civil rights activist and future U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., along with other marchers, was beaten by state troopers in 1965 while walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in an episode called Bloody Sunday. 

The beatings helped spur Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act later that year — the same law the Supreme Court weakened on Wednesday.

“The court just gave states permission to use partisan gerrymandering as a wholesale excuse to deny Black and minority voters a voice in our democracy,” Sewell said.

In Missouri, the Republican-controlled legislature earlier this year passed a map intended to oust Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who was Kansas City’s first Black mayor. The state Supreme Court is weighing a legal challenge that could keep the map from taking effect before the November election.

On Wednesday, Cleaver in a statement called the opinion “deeply disrespectful of the generations of African Americans and civil rights advocates who gave their freedom, their blood, and even their lives to make it possible.” 

Obama criticizes ruling

Former President Barack Obama condemned the decision as another example of how a majority of the current Supreme Court seems intent on “abandoning its vital role” in ensuring equal participation in American democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach.

“The good news is that such setbacks can be overcome,” Obama said in a statement. “But that will only happen if citizens across the country who cherish our democratic ideals continue to mobilize and vote in record numbers – not just in the upcoming midterms or in high profile races, but in every election and every level.

Several Democrats said Congress should pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a Democratic-sponsored measure that seeks to restore preclearance — a requirement that states with a history of discrimination obtain federal approval before making voting changes. The Supreme Court effectively halted preclearance in 2013.

The House, under Democratic control, passed the legislation in 2021 but it stalled in the Senate. Democrats could likely pass the bill again if they retake the House in November but would face a likely filibuster again in the Senate. Even if they managed to pass the bill, Trump would be virtually certain to veto it.

Rep. Cleo Fields, a Louisiana Democrat whose district was ruled an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, sought to place the court’s decision in a broader, historical context. 

Looking ahead to midterms

Recalling Louisiana’s Jim Crow past, he said the state used to require individuals to recite the Constitution’s preamble before registering to vote.

“If you tell me I’ve got to jump a certain height, I could probably do that. Tell me I’ve got to run a certain distance, I could probably do that, too. But if you tell me I have to be white to serve in Congress from Louisiana, I can’t do nothing about that — I need some help from my government,” Fields said, adding that’s why Congress needs to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the Supreme Court’s conservative majority “illegitimate” and said the opinion was unacceptable but not unexpected. 

While acknowledging the decision represents a setback, America has an opportunity to mount a comeback in the upcoming election, he said.

Jeffries, who is set to become speaker if Democrats retake the House in November, said one of the chamber’s first actions would be to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

“So we can end the era of voter suppression in America once and for all,” Jeffries said.

Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court appeared poised Wednesday to uphold the Trump administration’s efforts to end temporary legal protections for 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. 

The decision could also affect several other lawsuits related to what is known as Temporary Protected Status that are pending in lower courts. The suits challenge the Trump administration’s procedures to terminate country protections, which have sharply raised deportation risks for more than 1 million immigrants. 

So far, the Trump administration has ended TPS destinations for 13 countries, out of 17 that were active at the start of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Arguing on behalf of the Trump administration, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said that federal courts, under the law, cannot review the executive branch’s decision to end or extend a TPS designation.

“They challenge the very kind of foreign policy-laden judgments that are traditionally entrusted to the political branches,” Sauer said of TPS recipients who are suing to remain in the United States. 

But two lawyers, Ahilan Arulanantham, representing Syrians, and Geoffrey Pipoly, representing Haitians, argued that their clients could challenge a lack of proper procedure that then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took in ending those TPS designations. 

That would include not undertaking a review of country conditions before making a determination, the lawyers said.

Most of the questioning came from the three liberal justices, who grilled Sauer and pressed him on Trump’s racist remarks disparaging Haitians.

The conservative justices, who hold a 6-3 majority, asked Sauer only a handful of questions, and seemed skeptical of Arulanantham and Pipoly’s argument, signaling that they may already agree with the Trump administration’s position that the courts cannot review TPS terminations. 

A decision is not expected until June or early July. Both cases would go back to the lower courts to continue on the merits argument. 

But if the Supreme Court agrees with the Trump administration, then TPS holders from Haiti and Syria could be subject to deportation. 

The effort to end TPS designation is part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to curtail immigration and strip legal status for people, creating thousands of newly unauthorized immigrants in order to subject them to his mass deportation drive.

How TPS works

TPS is a humanitarian program that Congress created in 1990 to allow for temporary protections for nationals who hail from countries deemed too dangerous to return to due to violence, disasters or other extreme circumstances. 

TPS holders must go through vetting to be approved for work permits and legal protections. Each renewal lasts from six to 12 to 18 months. 

Those determinations are up to the Department of Homeland Security secretary, who typically consults with the State Department to evaluate country conditions and determine if the status needs to be extended. Decisions would depend upon whether conditions are still unsafe for a migrant’s return.

Sauer argued that the courts cannot review that final decision, including procedural ones that lead up to it. 

Arulanantham contended that position is a “double edged sword.” Another administration could easily come in and a new DHS secretary could theoretically use TPS to give legal status to immigrants in the country unlawfully, and that decision would not be subject to review by the courts, Arulanantham said.

The TPS holders before the Supreme Court argue that Noem did not consult with the appropriate agencies, such as the State Department, before deciding to end TPS designation. They say she did not follow proper procedure — but they are not challenging that a decision to terminate a country can be reviewed. 

Arulanantham said with Syria, if Noem had reviewed the State Department’s report, which advises people not to travel to the country because of armed conflict, and still decided against renewing protections, that decision is not reviewable. 

“What is reviewable is whether she actually asks anything and gets any information about country conditions,” he said. 

Sauer said that legal argument was “meritless,” because the TPS “statute does not micromanage the degree of consultation with other agencies.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett pressed Arulanantham why a challenge to the review of how a TPS termination is ended would even matter.

“If it’s just kind of a box-checking exercise, I mean, why would Congress permit review of the procedural aspect, when really what everybody cares about much more is the substance?” she asked.

Arulanantham said it’s “because Congress … and the millions of people who live with TPS, have some faith in government, and they believe that if there is consultation, the decisions will be better.”

He said, “Our view is that even if it comes back like a box-checking exercise, people will at least know that somebody talked to somebody else.”

Trump ‘racial animus’ cited

Pipoly argued that the ending of TPS for Haiti was based on racial animosity toward Haitians, pointing to the president’s own words where he referred to the Caribbean island as a “shithole.” 

“The true reason for the termination is the president’s racial animus towards non-white immigrants and bare dislike of Haitians in particular,” he said. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Sauer about those comments from Trump. 

“We have a president saying at one point that Haiti is a ‘filthy, dirty and disgusting s-hole country,’ I’m quoting him, and where he complained that the United States takes people from such countries, instead of people from Norway, Sweden or Denmark,” she said. “I don’t see how that one statement is not a prime example of … showing that a discriminatory purpose may have played a part in this decision.”

Sauer argued that none of those statements “mentions race or relates to race,” and instead the president was referring to “problems like crime, poverty, welfare dependence.”

In the lower court that blocked the Trump administration from ending TPS for Haiti, federal Judge Ana Reyes found that there was racial animosity in the government’s decision to end the humanitarian protections. 

This is not the first time Trump has tried to end TPS for Haiti — he did so in his first administration in 2018, but was blocked by the courts.

Haitian workers in the US

The day before Wednesday’s oral arguments, a handful of Democratic lawmakers gathered with domestic care advocates outside the U.S. Capitol to stress the importance of TPS workers. More than 20,000 Haitians work in healthcare, according to the immigration advocacy group FWD.us.

“At this moment, over 1 million people are at risk of being removed from their homes, separated from their families, having their lives uprooted because of Trump’s cruel and unlawful attempt to terminate their temporary protected status,” Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley said during the Tuesday press conference. 

Pressley said that thousands of TPS holders serve as essential workers, including one recipient from Haiti who took care of the congresswoman’s mother, who died from cancer.

“It was Haitian nurses who prayed over my mother, who sang songs to my mother, who oiled her scalp lovingly and braided her hair,” Pressley said. “Everyone who calls this country home benefits from TPS, and stands to be harmed by this termination.”

Pressley has led the bipartisan push in the House to approve a measure that would extend TPS for Haiti up to three years. 

Ten Republicans, including one independent who caucuses with the GOP, joined Democrats in approving the bill earlier this month. 

While it passed in the House, the legislation would need 60 votes in the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans. Additionally, if Congress managed to pass the bill, it would likely be rejected by Trump. 

“We are demanding the Supreme Court uphold the law, save lives and protect our communities,” Pressley said. “To send vulnerable families to countries like Haiti, Venezuela and Syria that are enduring horrific humanitarian crises is unconscionable, shameful, unlawful and preventable.”