SCOTUS's Massive Voting Decision & Elon Musk Appears In Court

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Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act decision, Musk vs. Altman in court, the UAE leaving OPEC, Jerome Powell’s last Fed meeting (as chair), Trump’s big crackdown, and why you feel creeped out in haunted houses.

“My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life.” ― Miles Davis

Ruling Out The Voting Rights Act

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's congressional map on the grounds that it was set up via unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. The decision will severely limit Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting procedures that discriminate on the basis of race.

The decision centers around Louisiana’s voting map, which was rearranged after the 2020 census. After that redraw, only one of the state’s 6 congressional districts was majority Black despite the fact that over a third of all voting-age adults in Louisiana are Black. Voting rights groups filed suits about that imbalance, which eventually led to lower court decisions ordering Louisiana to set up a second majority-Black district.

Those decisions were the main issue for the Supreme Court. In its decision, the judiciary said that the order to set up an explicitly majority-Black district infringed on white voters’ rights under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. “In considering whether the Constitution permits the intentional use of race to comply with the Voting Rights Act, we start with the general rule that the Constitution almost never permits the Federal Government or a State to discriminate on the basis of race,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. “If other states follow Louisiana's lead,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan in a dissenting opinion, “the minority citizens residing there will no longer have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.” Civil rights groups also say that the decision will erode minority voting power across the South.

A Trillion Dollar Court Case

Two of the most famous people in the tech world have been duking it out in an Oakland, California courtroom for the past few days. The courtroom battle – between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – is centered around ownership of OpenAI. More specifically, the point of contention is OpenAI's decision to spin out a for-profit entity. 

In its early years, the ChatGPT-maker was actually operating as a non-profit, and Musk was a major investor. Eventually, the company’s leadership (including Musk) decided that OpenAI should create a for-profit wing in order to help fund the non-profit’s AI research. After multiple rounds of negotiations, though, Musk and his colleagues were unable to come to an agreement on how ownership of the for-profit company should be structured, and the Tesla CEO decided to leave the company entirely. 

“I specifically chose to make it something for the benefit of all humanity,” said Musk in his testimony. OpenAI, though, are framing Musk as jealous of the company’s success, and point out that his (for-profit) AI lab, xAI, is a direct competitor. “We’re here because Mr. Musk didn't get his way at OpenAI,” said OpenAI’s lawyer, adding, “because he's a competitor, he will do anything he can to attack OpenAI.” Musk is suing for tens of billions of dollars in “ill-gotten gains” from OpenAI’s for-profit turn, and also wants Altman and other leaders removed from the company. The case is expected to take roughly three weeks, with testimony from Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and other key players at OpenAI.

The UAE Says C U Later To OPEC

• On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates announced that it plans to leave OPEC, an international oil cartel whose member states control roughly 80% of the world’s proven oil reserves. The UAE’s exit is set to take place on May 1. The country – a member of the cartel since 1967 – was the third-biggest oil producer in OPEC, outputting roughly 3.4 million barrels (about  3% of global crude supplies) per day prior to the U.S.-Israel-Iran war.

• The word “cartel” might make you think of drug cartels, but it’s actually just used to describe a group of producers (businesses or companies) that work together to raise prices by collectively limiting production. In OPEC’s case, the group raises global oil prices by setting production ceilings for its 11 member states.

• The UAE’s decision to leave will reduce OPEC’s production capacity by a whopping 13%. “Its departure therefore removes one of the core pillars underpinning OPEC’s ability to manage the market,” a former energy demand analyst at OPEC. “Losing a member with 4.8 million barrels a day of capacity, and the ambition to produce more, takes a real tool out of the group’s hands.”

• Why the sudden split? The UAE has been a major target for Iran throughout the ongoing war, and while it received some defensive support from the U.S. and Israel, its Arab OPEC allies have largely declined to pitch in. The country has also wanted to boost its oil exports for years, and leaving the cartel will allow it to do so.

Additional World News

• South Korean court sentences ex-President Yoon to 7 years in prison (NPR)

• Iran killed any delusions of US military domination over China (Responsible Statecraft)

• US Sanctions and the Sharp Rise in Infant Mortality in Cuba (CEPR) 

• Emerging market stocks hit record high as Asian chipmakers surge (FT, $)

• US military commanders to brief Trump on new options against Iran, Axios reports (Reuters)

• Oil price soars to highest level since 2022 as US-Iran impasse shows no sign of resolution (Guardian)

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J. Pow Won’t Bow Out

• Yesterday, the Federal Reserve held its last Open Market Committee meeting under the leadership of Jerome Powell. The central bank opted to keep its benchmark interest rate at the 3.5% – 3.75% range, though 4 of the committee’s 12 members voted in opposition to the decision. You might think that that level of dissent – not seen since 1992 – signals that Fed officials are pushing for more rate changes, but the opposite is true. 

• Yesterday’s Fed statement included a section stating that the bank might consider lowering interest rates in the future, and 3 of the 4 dissenters wanted that text removed. This means that Trump appointee Kevin Warsh should expect to face some resistance in his push to lower interest rates, which is the main reason that Trump has picked him to head the Fed.

• On his way out, Powell announced that he plans to keep working at the Fed as a member of the Board of Governors due to the Trump administration’s ongoing legal attacks on him. He plans to step down when “it’s appropriate to do so,” meaning when the investigation is officially closed. “I had long planned to be retiring,” Powell went on. “The things that have happened really in the last three months have, I think, left me no choice but to stay until I see them through at least that long.” His decision to stay will deny Trump a majority on the Board of Governors … for now.

Trump Heard You Talking Smack

• Yesterday, former FBI Director James Comey surrendered himself to authorities to face charges from the federal government. The case against Comey is related to an Instagram post he made in 2025, which featured seashells arranged to form the message “86 47.” Federal prosecutors claim that the post was a call to violence against Trump because “to 86” someone means to kill them in mafia-speak. Comey is claiming that he wasn’t aware of that definition, and he might actually be telling the truth – in restaurants and the hospitality industry, a menu item is “86’d” when it’s no longer available, or a customer should be “86’d” if they need to be kicked out.

• Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is also cracking down on anti-Trump speech. After late-night host Jimmy Kimmel joked that First Lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow” just two days before last weekend’s shooting, the FCC has decided to review 8 local broadcasting licenses owned by ABC (which airs Kimmel’s show). Under normal circumstances, the company would have to apply to renew those licenses as early as 2028. But thanks to the FCC review, ABC will have to rush those applications, which are now due on May 28 of this year. Critics of the Trump White House say that the move is a clear example of politically-motivated revenge for Kimmel’s statements, while the FCC says it wants to “ensure that the broadcaster has been meeting its public interest obligations.”

Additional USA News

• British Royals Crisscross Manhattan in Brief Visit Packed With Photo Ops (NYT, $) 

• Republicans unlock filibuster-skirting power to pump billions of dollars to ICE (Politico)

• Voters will reward candidates who bash insurers, research finds (Semafor)

• Legal filing raises questions about who shot Secret Service officer at press dinner (Reuters)

• The Iran war now has a price tag ($25 billion), but still no end date (NPR) 

• Fewer Americans see themselves buying homes, poll finds (Semafor) 

A Good Reason To Be Freaked Out

• If you’ve ever felt creeped out in an old house, you’re going to want to keep reading. And if you haven’t, maybe you should go get that checked out. This week, researchers published a study in Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience, claiming they might know why humans feel creeped out in certain old houses. The culprit, according to the paper, is inaudible sounds emitted by aging pipes and boilers, called infrasounds. While we can’t actually hear infrasounds, researchers say that test subjects exhibited increased irritability and higher levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) when exposed to the sounds.

• In the study, researchers played two types of sounds – soothing instrumentals or creepier haunted house soundtracks – to 36 volunteers. Beneath those sounds, they sometimes played the infrasounds emitted by old pipes and boilers. “Whether they were listening to calming instrumental music or something more unsettling, the infrasound shifted their mood and their stress response in a negative direction,” said one of the study’s authors. “In plain terms, you cannot hear infrasound, but your body and your mood appear to respond to it anyway, and the response tends to be unpleasant.”

• While more studies are needed to confirm the finding the author noted that the infrasounds should explain the “vague discomfort” some people feel when they enter supposedly haunted houses. “They very likely don’t know what infrasound is, but they have been told they are in a haunted location, so they attribute the feeling of irritation to a ghost rather than the old, low rumbling pipes in the basement.”

Additional Reads

• The only way to fight deepfakes is by making deepfakes (Verge)

• The Ballroom Truthers Have a Theory (Atlantic, $)

• Why AI companies want you to be afraid of them (BBC)

• When we experience FOMO, what are we really afraid of? (Psyche)

• Meet the AI jailbreakers: ‘I see the worst things humanity has produced’ (Guardian) 

• How “The Fast and the Furious” Tells the Story of Hollywood (New Yorker, $)

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