NPR News: 05-12-2026 2AM EDT

The NPR News Now episode from May 12, 2026, rounds up key developments including Supreme Court deliberations on voting rights enforcement, a Pentagon push for legal efficiency, President Trump's foreign engagements, public skepticism around recent security incidents, deaths among migrants in Texas, and early U.S. bird flu cases.

Supreme Court Weighs Private Lawsuits Under Voting Rights Act

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to confer this Thursday on three redistricting cases from North Dakota, Mississippi, and Alabama that challenge the longstanding use of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. For decades, this civil rights-era provision has protected racial minority voters primarily through lawsuits brought by private individuals and advocacy groups. Republican officials in these states argue that only the Justice Department has standing to sue, potentially curtailing such challenges. The cases follow a Supreme Court ruling last month that already raised the bar for proving discriminatory maps under Section 2, and a decision here could further erode the law's enforcement mechanisms.