Monday, April 14

GOP bid to steal North Carolina election shifts to federal court

• On Saturday, a federal court ordered North Carolina to proceed with a plan that puts 5,000 military and overseas ballots in the 2024 state Supreme Court race at risk, by giving voters 30 days to cure their ballots. But the court also blocked the state from certifying the election until further notice.
  
  
• On Monday, North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs and pro-voting groups appealed the federal court’s order to the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in hopes of preventing the cure process from moving forward.
  
  
• Also Monday, the League of Women Voters of North Carolina filed a class action lawsuit against the state Board of Elections seeking to block it from potentially disqualifying the 5,000 military and overseas ballots at issue.
  
  
• The North Carolina Democratic Party also filed a motion seeking to stop the cure process for military and overseas ballots without ID. The party also sought to stop the state from discounting any ballots already cast and from certifying the election for Judge Jefferson Griffin, the GOP candidate. 

Trump administration continues to defy SCOTUS order to return wrongly deported Maryland resident

• In a meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, the Trump administration said it will not return a wrongly deported Maryland father being held in a Salvadoran prison, despite a Supreme Court order requiring his return.
  
  
• Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed in the meeting that the U.S. could not order El Salvador to return Kilmar Abrego García.
  
  
• White House aide Stephen Miller said bringing Abrego García back would constitute “kidnapping” and an “invasion of El Salvador’s sovereignty.” He falsely stated that the Supreme Court had ruled in the Trump administration’s favor.