Friday, July 10 — the broken commission

0:00 The federal agency that helps states run secure elections just had its last members fired.

0:06 A single email from the president brought the Election Assistance Commission to zero commissioners, four months before the midterms.

0:15 Let's start with the biggest thing today: the Election Assistance Commission—the EAC—is gone. Not defunded. Not restructured. Dismantled.

0:27 On July 9th, President Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, by email. The Republican member, Christy McCormick, was allowed to resign.

0:40 The fourth seat had been empty since April. The agency now has no one. No quorum. It cannot certify voting machines. It cannot update the national voter registration form.

0:52 It cannot distribute the hundreds of millions of dollars in election security grants that states need for the midterms. This is the predictable result of the Supreme Court's June ruling in Trump v.

1:04 Slaughter, which stripped for-cause removal protections from independent agency members—except the Fed, a carve-out the Court wrote just for them. Election commissioners got no such shelter. So here we are.

1:20 A bipartisan agency, designed by Congress in 2002 to keep voting infrastructure above partisan fights, has been zeroed out by one party's executive action.

1:32 Now—and this is important—a different federal court had already blocked key parts of the administration's earlier election executive order, ruling that it violated the Constitution's Elections Clause, which gives states and Congress the power to set election rules.

1:49 That ruling stands. It blocked the White House from commanding the EAC directly. But the White House didn't need to command the EAC. It just needed to fire everyone on it.

2:02 The agency can't be commanded because there's no one left to command. Meanwhile, there's a parallel story out of Houston. An ICE officer shot and killed a man during an immigration sweep.

2:15 It's at least the eighth death tied to these operations under this administration. No body cameras, no independent investigation required. That's Project 2025's enforcement agenda at street level.

2:29 Across the country in Illinois, the Seventh Circuit upheld the state's assault weapons ban in a 2-1 ruling on July 9th.

2:38 The court said AR-15s and 30-round magazines are not protected by the Second Amendment under the Bruen standard. It's a win for public safety.

2:48 But the Supreme Court has already agreed to hear a similar case from Cook County, so this fight isn't over. Then there's health data.

2:58 HHS has removed racial, ethnic, and gender identity variables from major federal health surveys—the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, among others.

3:11 The official disclaimer says the administration "rejects gender ideology." The practical effect? CMS cannot track racial disparities in Medicare fraud. State health departments cannot map maternal mortality clusters.

3:26 The data is gone. And on the Iran front: the administration is pursuing what it calls "technical talks" with Iran, even as it carries out airstrikes and declares the ceasefire over.

3:40 Congress has not authorized either track—the bombing or the diplomacy. The talks lack the legal framework required under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.

3:53 It's a secret, contradictory policy with no democratic consent.

3:58 Closer to home, but not a federal story: California's Governor Newsom signed AB 181, replacing the elected state superintendent of public instruction with a governor-appointed director.

4:12 Teachers unions call it a power grab. It's a state law, not a federal one, but it fits a national pattern of centralizing education authority in ways that can accelerate privatization.

4:26 Finally, a quick note on a case that ended quietly. Two transgender girls in New Hampshire dropped their lawsuit against the state's sports ban after the Supreme Court's fractured ruling in West Virginia v. B.P.J.

4:41 left them no clear path forward. The plaintiffs cited relentless harassment. The fight now shifts to legislation and administrative enforcement. None of this is happening in isolation.

4:53 We're reading Project 2025 itself, line by line—147 of its actions have been reframed and logged so far. The full arc now covers 1,143 distinct actions on the record. The watch is constant, and we keep the receipts.

5:12 The EAC will remain inoperative unless Congress confirms new commissioners or the courts compel the administration to seat them.

5:20 The Supreme Court is expected to decide soon whether to take up the Illinois assault weapons case, Barnett v. Raoul. And the House is reportedly preparing a resolution on Iran oversight, though no date has been set.

5:35 That's the news for Friday, July 10th. We'll be back tomorrow. Until then, take care of each other.