Hours before a trial was set to begin, Florida has settled a lawsuit pressing for loosened vote-by-mail rules in time for next month's primary.
But the deal, announced Sunday evening, does not mandate much of what the plaintiffs had pushed for in the third-most-populous state, which has recently become the undisputed national center of the coronavirus pandemic. In general, the settlement tells the state to work more closely with the 67 county election administrators to try to soften the rules.
The suit — brought by the progressive Priorities USA and Dream Defenders, along with the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans and others — argued the highly contagious Covid-19 pandemic makes ready access to absentee voting critically important. It demanded that ballots postmarked by Election Day be counted if they arrive as long as 10 days late, that the state expand deployment of ballot drop boxes, that it provide free postage on returned ballots and that it ease restrictions on paid workers collecting mail-in ballots.
It also challenged Florida's limits on assistance for voters with disabilities, arguing it imposes unreasonable restrictions on speech and the right of association.
The settlement between the plaintiffs and Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration, filed just as a trial was set to begin Monday, does not insist on any of that.
It says canvassing of vote-by-mail ballots will begin 25 days ahead of the early voting window, up from the current 10 days; election supervisors will be encouraged, but not compelled, to maximize the use of drop boxes; and localities will be pushed by the state to do more to make absentee ballot applications and the ballots themselves available in Spanish.
It also instructs the secretary of state's office to hold at least one workshop with local elections officials before the general election to educate them on how federal funds can be used for pre-paid postage and voter accessibility issues, including how to use new voter accessibility technologies.
For counties that do not provide postage, the secretary of state will outline the process in a one-page document — directing local supervisors to inform voters who cannot afford postage to use a drop box or drop off their ballots at a local government office.
Finally, the settlement also outlines how GOP Secretary of State Laurel Lee will execute a social media campaign before the general election to inform voters of their options for voting by mail, as well as voting early or in person on Election Day.
"As a result of our lawsuit, Florida went from doing nothing to committing to educating and encouraging all 67 supervisors of elections to expand access to democracy " said Andrea Mercado, executive director of New Florida Majority, an independent voting rights organization, "This settlement is another step forward in the fight to secure free and safe elections for communities of color in Florida."
This settlement comes on the heels of a defeat for voting rights advocates in the largest purple state. A federal appeals court granted a request from Gov. Ron DeSantis to delay the trial for a suit that would expand voting rights for felons until August, and last week the Supreme Court declined to intervene — meaning several hundred thousand felons given the right to vote through a 2018 referendum will not be able to cast ballots in the nominating contests.
Matthew Dietz, a lawyer who represents blind voters, told the Tampa Bay Times he wasn't satisfied with the settlement and would push on with his effort to make supervisors use systems that will allow blind or print-impaired voters to be able to fill out ballots from home without assistance.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
____
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.