Stephen Dinan

Supreme Court limits racial challenges under Voting Rights Act, hands GOP states new mapmaking power

The Supreme Court issued a seismic ruling Wednesday, preserving but tightening the use of the Voting Rights Act, saying the iconic law can't be used to force states to add more minority districts to their maps unless there is clear evidence of racial discrimination.

April 29, 2026

Officers seize nearly $3 million worth of fentanyl, meth at California border

Customs and Border Protection officers manning the San Ysidro Port of Entry from Mexico into California detected $2.8 million worth of fentanyl and methamphetamine in two busts this month.

April 29, 2026

Illegal immigrant admits to impersonating Border Patrol agent to try to stop ICE deportations

An illegal immigrant from Mexico admitted in court to a harebrained scheme where he was impersonating a Border Patrol agent to try to thwart federal agents from carrying out arrests and deportations in southern California.

April 29, 2026

DOJ’s ballroom case briefs sound like Trump wrote them

The government's latest filing in the lawsuit over President Trump's ballroom project sounds like it was written by the top man himself.

April 28, 2026

Appeals court rules against ICE’s expansive detention policy

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that illegal immigrants who make it across the border and aren't immediately caught but are arrested later cannot be subject to mandatory detention by ICE.

April 28, 2026

Feds charge top Fauci aide with conspiracy to hide origins of COVID

The Justice Department announced a groundbreaking criminal case Tuesday against Dr. Anthony Fauci's former top aide at the National Institutes of Health, accusing him of suppressing information about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

April 28, 2026

Appeals court defends ICE in suppressing Portland riots; says sanctuary laws forced agency to act

A federal appeals court blocked a lower court ruling that had found ICE went too far in suppressing riots in Portland, Oregon, saying the officers weren't retaliating against protesters but rather trying to clear out an unruly crowd.

April 27, 2026

Court revives Pentagon’s ban on reporters having unescorted access

A federal appeals court on Monday allowed the Pentagon to reinstate its ban on journalists being able to enter the building without an escort, marking the latest in a back-and-forth battle between Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the press.

April 27, 2026

Taking photo of Muslim inmate without hijab violated her religious rights, court rules

A federal judge has ruled that a federal prison must destroy all mug shots of a Muslim woman who was photographed without her hijab, ruling it a violation of her religious rights.

April 27, 2026

Supreme Court weighs ‘geofence warrants’ for police to get cellphone users’ location data

The Supreme Court probed the trickiest corners of modern technology, convenience and privacy law on Monday as the justices tried to figure out how far police may go in asking Google to turn over users' location data to help solve crimes.

April 27, 2026

Medical workers at border stole millions from DHS by fabricating travel expenses

Contractors who were providing medical services to illegal immigrants at the border bilked the Department of Homeland Security out of more than $1 million by asking for travel reimbursement payments for which they didn't qualify.

April 27, 2026

Supreme Court backs Texas’ GOP-friendly congressional map

The Supreme Court on Monday erased a lower court ruling that had found Texas's new congressional district map to be an illegal racial gerrymander.

April 27, 2026

Chief Justice Roberts gets DACA do-over as Supreme Court ponders migrant deportation protections

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. rode to the rescue of illegal immigrant Dreamers six years ago, ruling that President Trump's attempt to roll back the Obama-era DACA program broke the rules.

April 26, 2026

Immigration court rules DACA is no longer an automatic block to deporting ‘Dreamers’

Having DACA status is no longer an automatic blockade on being deported, the Board of Immigration Appeals has ruled, tossing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant "Dreamers" into a new and more complicated situation.

April 25, 2026

Texas law cracking down on illegal immigrant ‘invasion’ prevails in court challenge

A federal appeals court allowed to stand Texas' law giving the state independent power to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, with the judges saying the groups who challenged it lacked legal standing to bring the case.

April 24, 2026

Feds bust network that smuggled migrants from Iran into U.S.

Prosecutors announced charges against an Iranian man they say operated a smuggling network that specialized in helping illegal immigrants from Iran sneak into the U.S.

April 24, 2026

Appeals court strikes down Trump’s speedy deportation rules, affirms right to apply for asylum

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration went too far in trying to create its own deportation rules to speed up the process, ditching core protections Congress put in place to ensure people weren't sent to countries where they faced danger of persecution.

April 24, 2026

Feds won’t return rapid-fire trigger switches to Democrat-led states

Democrat-led states agreed to drop a lawsuit Thursday after the federal government said it would not send trigger devices, which can make semiautomatic firearms mimic machine guns, to people in states where the devices are banned by law.

April 23, 2026

Feds bust ‘slave labor scam factory’ that stole from Americans

Federal authorities said they've disrupted a vicious "scam factory" network in Asia that recruited local workers, enslaved them in fraud centers as large as cities, then turned them loose to steal from Americans through phone scams.

April 23, 2026

Illegal immigrants and temporary visitors give birth to 9% of U.S. babies

Nearly 1 in 10 newborns in the U.S. in 2023 were delivered by mothers who were either in the country illegally or on a temporary visitor's pass.

April 23, 2026