News & Brews August 26, 2026
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Shapiro gets court loss on mail-in ballots
You know how Gov. Shapiro likes to sue Trump and claim he never loses? Well, he just suffered a loss. WHYY reports, “The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the Trump administration to move forward with portions of an executive order targeting mail voting, lifting an injunction obtained by Pennsylvania and nearly two dozen other states.” The Court ruled “that the states sued prematurely because President Donald Trump’s order directs federal agencies to pursue election-related policies but does not itself require states to change their procedures.” SCOTUSblog breaks it down.
Flock camera backlash comes to Pa.
It’s hard to avoid the debate over flock cameras—cameras that go well beyond traditional traffic cameras and log vehicle data including not only license plates but bumper stickers, dents, scratches, colors, and, concerningly, where vehicles are going. Then, this data heads to a massive database. Do you have a habit of getting Wawa coffee (far better than Sheetz, btw)? Flock knows.
As the deputy director of technology law and policy at New York University explains, “They monitor, quite simply, when we go to and from work, where we go to the doctor, where we drop our kid off at daycare. What we’ve enabled in practical reality is law enforcement to go back and look at where any of us was at any given point in time.” Gee, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, the debate over Flock cameras (a “flock fight” if you will) is underway in Pennsylvania. In Montgomery County, Abington Township is stuck in a Flock contract but is looking for a new surveillance system. In Bethlehem, police are defending Flock use. In Franklin County, residents have taken to destroying the cameras. York County also has concerns. Is this just the beginning? Probably.
AG Dave Sunday sues Snapchat
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday yesterday announced a lawsuit against the social media app Snapchat, “accusing them of harming young users drawn in by the app’s addictive content,” WESA reports. The lawsuit “alleges the company “markets its app as safe for users as young as 13 even though Snap knows that its app carries a high risk of harm to minors.” The suit follows a similar suit Sunday filed against TikTok.
Have you seen these billboards?
I feel like I’m on autorepeat here. National Democrats are targeting GOP congressional members in swing states, including Pennsylvania (rinse, repeat). In the latest story (this one from the Washington Post), “the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee plans to roll out mobile billboards targeting a handful of House Republicans in swing districts” who voted for legislation imposing work requirements for some individuals getting SNAP benefits. (By the way, work requirements are awesome and actually help people for the long-term far more than benefits without requirements.) In Pa., the Dems are targeting GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie.
What the heck is going on in Philly sheriff’s office?
So I haven’t followed this one too closely, but it looks like there’s quite a mess in the Philly sheriff’s office. The Inquirer reports that Sheriff Rochelle Bilal is trying to avoid testifying to a city judge about “major problems” in her office. It seems “winning bidders at sheriff sales continued to flood the courts with petitions seeking their deeds,” as apparently “Bilal’s office had not been issuing the deeds for a year or more after the auctions, leaving neglected homes unable to be renovated, rented, or resold.”
Bilal’s lawyer claims, “Requiring Sheriff Bilal to appear and testify regarding events and administrative practices that are not within her unique personal knowledge would impose an unreasonable burden and oppression … and would divert a high public official from the discharge of her official duties ….” Oppression? Ok all you lawyers out there, is testifying in court the same as “oppression”?
