An election for a single state Supreme Court seat becomes the ‘blockbuster’ political fight of 2025
CNN
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election this spring will decide just one seat, but the contest already is shaping up as one of the most costly and contentious battles of the new year – with the control of the seven-member court and the fate of a 19th century abortion ban hanging in the balance.
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election this spring will decide just one seat, but the contest already is shaping up as one of the most costly and contentious battles of the new year – with the control of the seven-member court and the fate of a 19th century abortion ban hanging in the balance. The race – between liberal candidate, Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford, and the conservative contender, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Brad Schimel – also marks a test of how voters in a crucial swing state view Republican and Democratic politics in the first few months of Donald Trump’s presidency. And it underscores the role of the judiciary in sorting out the thorny issues deeply dividing Americans, ranging from the future of abortion in a post-Dobbs era to union protections for public-sector workers. The election is expected to top the $51 million price tag of the last Supreme Court race in the Badger State, as tallied by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. That race, in 2023, broke national spending records for a judicial election. The April 1 Wisconsin judicial election is officially nonpartisan, but political actors on both sides of the aisle are racing to shape its outcome. Billionaires, such as liberal financier George Soros and Republican-aligned roofing magnate Diane Hendricks, have written big checks to the state Democratic and Republican parties, respectively – which has transferred campaign cash to the candidates’ committees. A new round of ads is slated to begin Thursday from a group tied to the world’s richest person, Elon Musk. The group, Building America’s Future, has bought $1.6 million of advertising in the race so far, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact. Musk – who spent more than a quarter billion dollars to help elect Trump last year and is the leading figure in the new administration’s drive to slash spending and remake the federal workforce – previously expressed support for Schimel’s election.
The Trump administration’s sweeping legal effort to obtain Americans’ sensitive data from states’ voter rolls is now almost entirely reliant upon a Jim Crow-era civil rights law passed to protect Black voters from disenfranchisement – a notable shift in how the administration is pressing its demands.
Venezuelan officials, including acting President Delcy Rodriguez, returned to X late Tuesday in an apparent reversal of Nicolas Maduro’s 2024 decision to block the site in the country.
The woman killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last week served on the board of her son’s school, which linked to documents encouraging parents to monitor ICE and directing them to training.
During a marathon Supreme Court session Tuesday over whether states may ban transgender women from participating in women and girls’ sports, some justices were already focused on what may lie around the corner
President Donald Trump appeared to flip someone off as he toured a Michigan Ford plant in an incident caught on video Tuesday, and the White House defended the action as an “appropriate” response to someone screaming at the commander-in-chief.
White House officials are heaping blame on DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro over her office’s criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, faulting her for blindsiding them with an inquiry that has forced the administration into a dayslong damage control campaign, four people familiar with the matter told CNN.
The interim Venezuelan government has freed at least four Americans who were imprisoned in Venezuela, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now providing free internet access via its Starlink satellite service to users in Iran as the country’s regime continues its bloody crackdown on anti-government protests, according to a tech expert in touch with Iranian Starlink users.
The aircraft used in the US military’s first strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a strike which has drawn intense scrutiny and resulted in numerous Congressional briefings, was painted as a civilian aircraft and was part of a closely guarded classified program, sources familiar with the program told CNN. Its use “immediately drew scrutiny and real concerns” from lawmakers, one of the sources familiar said, and legislators began asking questions about the aircraft during briefings in September.
DOJ pleads with lawyers to get through ‘grind’ of Epstein files as criticism of redactions continues
“It is a grind,” the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division said in an email. “While we certainly encourage aggressive overachievers, we need reviewers to hit the 1,000-page mark each day.”
A new classified legal opinion produced by the Justice Department argues that President Donald Trump was not limited by domestic law when approving the US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro because of his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief and that he is not constrained by international law when it comes to carrying out law enforcement operations overseas, according to sources who have read the memo.
President Donald Trump is working to tighten his grip on his party this week as he faces an unusual threat from Congress: an embarrassing rebuke of his military actions overseas.
Bill and Hillary Clinton refused to appear on Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify in Congress’ Jeffrey Epstein probe in the face of threats from the House Oversight Committee to hold them in contempt.