Hawaii Just Killed Citizens United and More Great News That Ruined Trump’s Weekend
A grieving son rewrote the law. Small businesses beat Trump’s tariffs in court. And Denver told the DOJ to go to hell.
The story of Hawaii becoming the first state in the country to effectively end Citizens United won’t be told this way anywhere else. Hit the ❤️ like button and re-stack this edition right now to punch a hole through the MAGA spin.
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GRIEF BECAME LAW IN MINNESOTA
Colin Hortman’s parents were assassinated by a politically motivated gunman last June. He then spent eight months fighting insurance companies and bureaucratic indifference just to be able to safely re-enter his childhood home.
When he testified at the Minnesota Capitol, he told lawmakers his family had lawyers, government connections, and the ability to wait. Most families have none of that. He described wanting to sit at his parents’ kitchen table one last time—and being unable to because the house still wasn’t safe. Tear gas residue everywhere—and nobody would tell him what chemicals were used, or who was supposed to pay to clean it up.
Sen. Bonnie Westlin, a Democrat from Plymouth, turned his testimony into two bills. One forces police to disclose what chemicals are deployed during law enforcement operations inside a building. Another forces homeowner’s insurance to cover the cleanup. Both passed with strong bipartisan support.
On Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz signed them into law. Walz also signed a separate bill renaming Minnesota’s community solar garden program after Melissa Hortman. She spent her life powering this state. Now she always will.
COURTS KEEP KILLING TRUMP’S TARIFFS
It’s the second time in three months a court told Trump his tariffs are illegal. In February, the Supreme Court struck them down. Trump tried again with a 10% worldwide tariff under a Trade Act from 1974.
On Thursday the Court of International Trade found those to be illegal too, ruling 2-1 against Trump. That made his tariffs invalid.
Small businesses sued to stop them—small businesses won.
The regime will appeal, and the case will eventually head back to the Supreme Court—which has already ruled against him once. Trump ran on making “the best deals” and he can’t even keep his own tariffs legal. Judges keep saying no.
DENVER TELLS DOJ: “HELL NO”
On April 28, Trump’s DOJ sent letters to Colorado and Denver city leaders—demanding they declare their own laws unconstitutional, and sign permanent court orders agreeing to never pass similar legislation again. The kind of demand losing lawyers send when they’ve got nothing left.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston answered from the steps of Denver’s City Hall: “We’re here today to let them know our answer is hell no.” He closed with names the DOJ apparently forgot: “In Colorado, you only have to say the places. Columbine. Aurora. Boulder.”
City Attorney Miko Brown called the DOJ’s demand “baseless, irresponsible, and a clear overreach”—then cited six federal appeals courts that upheld similar laws since 2022.
The DOJ sued Denver on Tuesday and Colorado on Wednesday. But six courts have already told them how this ends.
HAWAII STOPS CITIZENS UNITED
For sixteen years, corporations have poured unlimited amounts of secret money into American elections—thanks to a Supreme Court decision called Citizens United. The court said corporations have free speech rights and can spend whatever they want on elections.
Hawaii found the one thing the court never addressed: corporations only exist because states allow them to. Which means that every power a corporation has was given to it by the state. Hawaii just took one of those powers off the list—starting next year, corporations in Hawaii can no longer spend money on state and local elections.
A bill from Democratic State Sen. Karl Rhoads—co-authored by Republican Rep. Kanani Souza—does just that, and it passed both chambers with bipartisan support. It now heads to Gov. Josh Green, who has committed to signing the legislation.
No other state has ever passed anything like it. Will it face legal challenges? Yes—Hawaii’s own Attorney General said so. Americans across party lines have wanted this gone for sixteen years—bring it on.
This is what we do. Every single day, we find the stories the regime hopes you never see, tell them without softening a word, and make sure they reach people who would otherwise only hear Trump’s spin.
The victories in this edition aren’t small. These are the fights that decide what this country becomes—and we will be here with you for every single one of them.
We’ve been doing this longer than almost anyone in independent media—since February 2016. Before most outlets took the threat of Trump seriously, before resistance journalism even had a name.
There’s more the regime is hiding, and we’ll be here to uncover it all. But this work only happens because readers fund it. If you haven’t yet, join us as a paid subscriber today:
Hit the ❤️ like button and re-stack this right now to help spread the word that Citizens United can be eliminated! Your share makes a real impact.
Onward!
Scott
Do you think Hawaii’s Citizens United law survives the courts?
Denver said hell no to the DOJ. What’s your hell no this week?
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