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Trump news at a glance: Friday rulings hamper administration on food stamps, voting access

President Trump received a trio of legal setbacks Friday related to the government shutdown and his attempts to tweak voting access in US elections.

First, two federal judges issued back-to-back rulings in separate cases ordering the administration to use contingency funds to continue paying for food stamps under the Snap program.

One judge in Rhode Island blocked the Trump administration from suspending all food aid for millions of Americans, in a case brought by a group of US cities, non-profit organizations and a trade union. At almost the same time, in a separate but similar case, a judge in Massachusetts ruled that the government must continue to fund the program that helps low-income households stave off food insecurity, in a case brought by the Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia and three governors who sued the administration.

And later Friday, a US district judge in Washington DC ruled that Trump’s proof-of-citizenship directive to overhaul US elections was unconstitutional.

“Because our constitution assigns responsibility for election regulation to the states and to Congress, this court holds that the president lacks the authority to direct such changes,” judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her opinion.

That’s a blow to the administration and its allies who have argued that such a mandate is necessary to restore public confidence that only Americans are voting in US elections.

Trump administration blocked from suspending Snap benefits for millions of Americans

Two federal judges issued back-to-back rulings on Friday in separate cases ordering the Trump administration to use contingency funds to continue paying for food stamps during the government shutdown.

A federal judge in Rhode Island blocked the Trump administration from suspending all food aid for millions of Americans, in a case brought by a group of US cities, non-profit organizations and a trade union.

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Trump can’t require citizenship proof on the federal voting form, judge rules

Donald Trump’s request to add a documentary proof of citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form cannot be enforced, a federal judge ruled today.

US district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington DC sided with Democratic and civil rights groups that sued the Trump administration over his executive order to overhaul US elections. She ruled that the proof-of-citizenship directive is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers, dealing a blow to the administration and its allies.

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Justice department seeks 2020 election records from Georgia county

Trump’s justice department on Thursday asked election officials in Fulton county, Georgia, to turn over records related to the 2020 election, a request that underscores how the administration is trying to revive one of the president’s biggest falsehoods about the election he lost five years ago.

Investigators have cleared Fulton county of malfeasance in 2020. Nonetheless, a Republican majority on the board voted to reopen the investigation last year.

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Harrison Ford lays into Trump on climate

Harrison Ford has said that Donald Trump’s assault on measures to address the climate crisis “scares the shit out of me” and makes the US president among the worst criminals in history.

In a blistering attack, Ford told the Guardian Trump “doesn’t have any policies, he has whims. It scares the shit out of me. The ignorance, the hubris, the lies, the perfidy. [Trump] knows better, but he’s an instrument of the status quo and he’s making money, hand over fist, while the world goes to hell in a handbasket.”

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How Stephen Miller is creating an ‘anti-immigration machine’

The historic shifts in US immigration under Donald Trump have been dictated by Stephen Miller, the president’s immigration czar, who in recent months has turned the state department’s visa and refugee operations into what some current and former diplomats have described as a personal fiefdom.

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