Plantiff in Case That Destroyed Voting Rights Act Exposed as Jan. 6er

The Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act last week came about thanks to a conspiracy theorist who participated in the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021. 

Democracy Docket reports that Phillip “Bert” Callais, the lead plaintiff in Louisiana v. Callais, has long claimed U.S. elections are rigged on social media. Callais posted photos and video from the scene at the infamous “Stop the Steal” protest prior to the 2021 Capitol riot, and his Facebook page is full of MAGA and right-wing content, including attacks on vaccines and anything to the left of President Trump. 

It’s a sharp contrast to the original legal complaint that ultimately reached the Supreme Court. Callais is described there as a “non–African American voter” from Brusly, Louisiana, whose congressional district changed after his state redrew its districts. Callais also said that he was a member of a local board of supervisors in 2024.  

In reality, Callais seems to be a partisan activist steeped in the right’s conspiracy theories regarding elections. On X, he commented on an Elon Musk post in December 2025, writing, “This is f#€king insane, non citizens voting in our country.” In February of this year, he expressed doubt in election security, and in January, he called the voting system “manipulated,” touting hand-counted paper ballots as a solution. 

Callais also dismissed concerns about how eliminating mail-in voting would hurt disabled or elderly voters, posting in February, “Find someone to haul you to the polls. Don’t let your disability put the rest of the country at risk.” 

On Sunday, only days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, election denier Seth Keshel, featured in The New York Times for his voter fraud claims, posted a photo to X of him shaking hands with Callais. 

All of this seems to reveal a plot by conservatives to change how Americans vote in order to satisfy debunked conspiracy theories. With the right plaintiff, Republican politicians and wealthy donors can push through a tailored legal case to undo laws that protect elections from partisan interference. Callais seems to have been ready and willing. 

Louisiana’s secretary of state has already received tens of thousands of absentee ballots for the state’s primary elections, but now won’t count them because of Republican Governor Jeff Landry’s desperate move to please Donald Trump.

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 last week to throw out Louisiana’s congressional map and get rid of its only Democratic (and majority-Black) district. Landry immediately suspended the primary elections for Louisiana’s U.S. House seats in order to implement a new map that could give Republicans an advantage.

By the time the governor pushed the date of the race from May 16 to July 15, more than 42,000 absentee votes had already been received, the Louisiana Illuminator reported Monday.

Landry’s blatant attempt to overturn thousands of votes comes at the bidding of Trump, who has pressured red states to redraw their congressional maps.

Several Democratic candidates and civil rights advocates have urged voters to continue voting in these races, as Landry’s move is subject to an array of legal challenges. Other races in the party primaries on May 16 are going forward, including those for the two Senate contests.

President Trump has trademarked the name “Donald J. Trump International Airport”—and could soon generate millions of dollars for his family.

Palm Beach County commissioners will vote on Tuesday on whether to use taxpayer dollars to rename Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.” If they approve the name change, a trademark deal between the county and DTTM Operations LLC—a company run by Donald Trump Jr.—will force the airport to run all airport-branded merchandise by the Trump family for approval.

Trump would become the first and only president with an airport named after him who has trademarked his own name in this manner.

While Trump’s companies have claimed that the trademark is only for legal protections, and that Trump won’t directly profit, the agreement signed by Trump and reviewed by the Miami Herald would leave loopholes for the president’s companies to sell “President Donald J. Trump Airport” branded merchandise off-site, and even gives the president control over biographical information included at the airport.

The agreement also allows Trump to create the list of “approved retailers” from which airport stores have to buy Trump-branded items. If the county or any retail businesses want to sell DJT Airport merch, they have to buy those products “exclusively and directly from such entities designated by Licensor.” The licensor is DTTM—of which Trump Jr. is the president.

“Normally a license agreement says that the goods have to be of a certain quality. It doesn’t say that you have to purchase them from a retailer that we’re approving them from,” trademark lawyer Josh Gerben told the Herald. “It’s not just a nonpartisan individual that’s going to be able to write marketing materials or talk about Donald Trump. It’s going to be him and his organizations getting to control the messaging here.”

Doubts about the ethics of the deal were raised months ago, with Palm Beach lawmakers stating over email that the airport renaming would confer “a commercial benefit upon the president and his companies.” Even still, the deal may very well be approved on Tuesday, giving perhaps the most blatantly corrupt president yet another free pass.

Senate Republicans are looking to funnel nearly $70 billion with absolutely no strings attached to Donald Trump’s lawless immigration enforcement campaign.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley unveiled the legislative text Monday night for the Republicans’ reconciliation package, directing $38.2 billion to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The bill also allocates $26 billion for offices under Customs and Border Protection, including $3.5 billion for border security technology and screening, according to Punchbowl News.

Meanwhile, another bill from the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee would provide an additional $32.5 billion, bringing the total package for immigration enforcement to roughly $69.2 billion, with ICE set to receive approximately $38.2 billion, according to Migrant Insider.

Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy for the Center for American Progress, warned on X Monday night that these funds had “enormous flexibility, with far less accountability or oversight than typical annual appropriations for DHS funding has.”

Senate Republicans have framed this massive expenditure as giving ICE and CBP enough funds to be shutdown-proof until the end of Trump’s term. But in reality, ICE already had twice as much funding as it needed to run from the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill, passed in July. Now ICE has roughly four or five times the amount of funding it needs to run until 2029, while CBP only has the funds to make it to 2027, according to Kogan.

There do not appear to be any offsetting cuts to pay for this bill.

Since Trump launched his sweeping immigration crackdown, American voters have borne witness to federal immigration agents’ use of threats and intimidation, excessive force, warrantless searches or arrests, racial profiling, and wrongful detentions. ICE has detained hundreds of children, and families of mixed legal status are being regularly torn apart by the administration’s relentless immigration crackdown. Federal immigration agents were also responsible for the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

Rather than reform these federal agencies, Senate Republicans are choosing to write them a blank check using taxpayer dollars.

President Trump thinks that an event where he is surrounded by children is the best time to discuss the Iran war and then doze off.

On Tuesday, at a signing ceremony in the Oval Office to restore the Presidential Fitness Award, Trump went off on a tangent on the war while thanking some members of his Cabinet, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whom he praised for a press conference earlier in the day.

“That was really great, and you’re doing very well,” Trump said from his seat at the Resolute Desk, turning to Hegseth. Then he abruptly changed the subject to Iran.

“They don’t like playing games with us. They don’t like it at all, you’ll see that. As time goes by, you’re gonna see it. I think you’ve already seen it; we’ve basically wiped out their military in about two weeks,” Trump added, with kids and senior officials on either side of him. Later, Trump went further, describing Iran’s leaders as “sick people” and “lunatics” that he would not allow to have a nuclear weapon.

Then Trump thanked Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but as Kennedy spoke about how “grateful” he was for Trump’s decision to restore the fitness test, the president fell asleep.

When it became Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s turn to speak, Trump’s head was bobbing, his eyes opening and closing as McMahon spoke about needing to eat well and exercise to have a “sound mind.”

All of this shows that Trump is not well, mentally or physically. He is in clear decline in full view to the public, and no matter the subject, he will wander off topic and doze off if he gets the chance.