Supreme Court Hands Trump Huge Win in Quest to Make Voting Harder

The Supreme Court just brought Donald Trump’s immigration database back to life.

The nation’s highest judiciary sided with the Justice Department Friday, undermining a lower court’s ruling that stopped state officials from using sensitive personal data such as Social Security numbers to perform citizenship background checks.

The ruling effectively revives the Homeland Security Department’s redesign of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (also known as SAVE), an enormous database that has previously flagged eligible voters as noncitizens. The Supreme Court’s decision also allows the administration to utilize that tool in its quest to create indexes of adult citizens in each state.

SAVE was created out of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 to assist federal agencies in determining the status of immigrants and naturalized citizens applying for public benefits. Its form and purpose were distinctly different then: it was not a database, but rather a jumping-off point as a tool to query other federal databases, according to the American Immigration Council.

That changed in 2025, when the Trump administration reimagined SAVE as a device to restrict the electorate. The goal, according to an April 2025 release by DHS and DOGE, was to “ensure a single, reliable source for verifying non-citizen status nationwide.”

The administration integrated criminal records, immigration timelines, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license data, and federal passport databases into SAVE. The government pushed the system onto state agencies, citing Trump’s debunked 2020 election fraud conspiracy while urging them to upload their state voter rolls to investigate and verify American voters.

It is not clear how accurate the new system is, but a Texas Tribune-ProPublica investigation published in February found that at least 87 people in Texas (one of the first states to comply) were falsely flagged by SAVE as noncitizens.

Brian Broderick, the chief of the verification division at Citizenship and Immigration Services that oversees SAVE, told those outlets at the time that the system can’t always source the most current citizenship information.

Opponents to the sweeping initiative have argued that SAVE violates federal privacy mandates.

In June, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocked the new version of SAVE, ruling that the “federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote.” Weeks later, the U.S. Court for the District of Columbia Circuit refused to intervene.

The sustained block inspired Solicitor General D. John Sauer to appeal to the Supreme Court earlier this month. He argued in writing that the ruling “threatens the integrity of upcoming elections by vacating the federal government’s authority to internally use Social Security data when fulfilling its duty to respond to requests by States to verify the citizenship of individuals for voting and other purposes.”

Sauer argued that the government would suffer “irreparable” harm due to Sooknanan’s order, as it would force the government to “return to an older, more cumbersome, and less reliable version” of the SAVE system. He added that any reversal of the ruling “would come too late for the 2026 midterms.”

This story has been updated.

Ed Sheeran has had his upcoming weekend shows at billionaire Robert Kraft’s Gillette Stadium due to inclement weather—a fitting, ironic end to an embarrassing saga for the British singer.

The cancellation was announced Friday morning as a massive nor’easter is anticipated to hit the East Coast over the weekend.

“Due to the severe weather forecast throughout the weekend, the tour has made the difficult decision to cancel the Ed Sheeran concerts at Gillette Stadium,” a spokesperson for Kraft told TMZ Friday. “The decision was made with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority. Refunds are available now at the point of purchase.”

Sheeran drew waves of backlash after a coalition of NFL owners demanded that he either boot rapper Macklemore from his U.S. Loop Tour or have the concerts canceled entirely. Macklemore has been an outspoken voice against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, which clearly set off Kraft, an avowed Zionist who runs the “Touchdown in Israel” program that takes former football players on a propaganda tour of Israel. Sheeran took the easy way out, and Macklemore was removed from the tour earlier this month. The move led Sheeran to lose thousands of followers on social media, as he was lambasted for being spineless—all of which was made worse after he gave a morally impotent statement after Macklemore’s dismissal.

“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine. Macklemore’s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me,” Sheeran wrote on Instagram last week. “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

“Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium,” Macklemore said in his own statement. “Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”

Now Sheeran won’t be playing either, at least this weekend, as this incoming nor’easter serves him his poetic justice.

On Thursday, Macklemore announced his own tour, titled the “Free Palestine” tour with Macklemore and Friends. It will make stops in Dublin, Paris, and London in late October.

This story has been updated.

The president apparently did not realize that he’d lose the spotlight when he decided to ban news outlets from the White House.

MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire told Morning Joe Friday that Donald Trump was confused by the lack of cameras at the executive mansion the night before, despite the fact that he had banned MS NOW, CNN, and Politico, sparking a press pool–wide protest as a result.

Trump did not consult with his aides before he banned the trio, according to Lemire.

“They understand that, first of all, he needs the media like he needs oxygen,” Lemire said. “So he would be the one to miss it.”

“In fact, even yesterday I am told he was asking aides ‘Where are the cameras?’ because there was no pool camera, and here’s why,” Lemire added.

Trump announced last week that he was banning MS NOW, CNN, and Politico from the White House, writing on Truth Social that the prohibition was the result of “FAKE NEWS.” Within days, the trio had filed a lawsuit against the president and his administration, describing the selective ban as a “a blatant violation” of the First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly reinstated the outlets’ access for a two-week period starting Thursday morning, though the Trump administration immediately defied the order. The denied entry sparked a request for an emergency hearing, in which an attorney for the media entities claimed that the White House “already repeatedly” violated the court order.

Reporters were not allowed to return to the premises until Thursday afternoon. Some journalists with the affected broadcasters, including CNN and MS NOW, were still denied entry well into the evening as Trump’s state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping commenced.

“Whoever gave them that order should go to jail,” said Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough. “I mean, that’s contempt of court.”

“There will be a time when justice will be done for people in this administration ignoring court orders. There will be a time when the masks will be taken off of ICE agents and justice will be done for every person that they beat, for every person that they jailed, for every person that they starve, for every person that they tortured, that time is coming.”

“So I want to know,” Scarborough continued. “I want somebody to take note in the White House, who gave those Secret Service agents, who defied a court order, who gave them that order to defy a federal judge? Because when you defy a federal judge, you’re in contempt.”

President Trump’s Department of Justice doesn’t think desegregation is worth the effort.

The DOJ on Thursday announced it has dropped more than 50 school desegregation cases. As The New York Times reports, that brings the total to 57 dropped cases since Trump was reelected. Nearly 80 percent of the cases took place in the Southern states of Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana.

The move drew backlash with Democrats on the House Education and Workforce Committee saying the move was “turning us back toward the Jim Crow era.”

“Schools are just as segregated today as they were in the late 1960s,” the committee wrote in a post on X Thursday. “Segregated schools mean segregated opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Republicans in the South celebrated.

“This is just the beginning,” Alabama Attorney Steve Marshall posted on X, thanking Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, for ending “three outdated orders” in his state. “We will keep working until every school district in Alabama is free from unnecessary consent decrees.”

Dhillon posted a video bragging about the move Thursday, claiming that “Ending outdated consent decrees means these school districts can finally redirect taxpayer dollars back to students.”

“In this administration, we are ending prolonged federal oversight of these school districts because the effort does not reflect the reality of those classrooms today,” Dhillon added in a statement.

The orders didn’t only seek to ensure racial diversity in schools. They also mandated equal funding, access to better facilities, encouraged fair representation in advanced classes, and are the product of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education making segregation unconstitutional. For years, the DOJ took school districts to court to enforce desegregation, with many of them being federally monitored and required to report enrollment data.

Now, with the Trump administration’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion, those efforts will end. Dhillon’s statement didn’t make any mention of discrimination. With no government enforcement, many southern school districts, along with others across the country, will soon be able to discriminate openly.

You’re paying for Trump’s newest “Love Me” campaign ad.

The president unveiled yet another hype video on Wednesday set to JMSN’s hit song “Love Me.” The ad goes full Red Scare, playing audio from Trump in which he proclaims that “together we will defeat communism, Marxism, and socialism in America. America will never be a communist country.” The ad then flashes pro-Trump claims like “Largest Tax Cuts in History,” “Reigniting American Manufacturing,” and “Defend Law and Order and Police,” all while “America Will Never Be a Communist Country” flashes on the screen. The ad notably states it was “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”

The ad debuted Wednesday on Fox News during Primetime with Jesse Watters and began airing on CBS and other national networks the next day.

The White House is framing this blatantly biased advertisement for one of the most unpopular presidents in history as a “public service announcement.”

“These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad,” said a White House spokesperson. “The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic. We should be proud of our country.”

The ad is not educational—it’s just a hype edit for a president who deserves none, especially seven months into a widely panned war on Iran that has resulted in death, destruction, and skyrocketing fuel prices. It’s one of many the Trump administration has been posting as midterms draw near, but this time, it’s paid for by taxpayers. Other presidents have made public service announcements, but never like this. For comparison, a public service announcement in the Biden administration urged Americans to obtain a Covid-19 vaccination.

JMSN decried the use of his song for the ad.

“To anybody who has followed my career and knows what I stand for and built my career on, it should go without saying that I would never authorize my music to be used for ANY political agenda or campaign. For those who are new here, this could have gone 2 ways. 1. The President or his team reach out and ask to license the song, I respond ‘no’ and you never know about it. 2. The President illegally uses the song without asking but still the public goes full retard and immediately assumes that a license was granted,” he wrote Thursday afternoon. “Obviously it went the second way.”

The commercial was also criticized by congressional Democrats in a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

“This is the sort of government propaganda one might expect in North Korea, not the United States of America, and it is an egregious and illegal misuse of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars.”