Stephen Dinan

Supreme Court allows challenge to Illinois mail-in ballot law on counting votes after Election Day

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that federal candidates can challenge state laws that allow mail-in ballots to be counted past Election Day.

January 14, 2026

Lawmakers ask judge to appoint independent monitor to release Epstein files

The congressmen who wrote the Epstein Files Transparency Act have asked a federal judge to appoint an overseer to speed up the Trump administration's review of files from the disgraced and deceased sex offender, saying the Justice Department appears to be bungling the process.

January 13, 2026

Supreme Court open to transgender sports bans, but some justices are grappling with issue for states

Republican-led states asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to uphold their laws that generally bar biological males from female sports, saying women and girls deserve leagues of their own.

January 13, 2026

DHS to end deportation amnesty for Somalis

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday said she will allow the government's special deportation amnesty for Somali citizens to expire in March, leaving hundreds of them subject to deportation.

January 13, 2026

Minnesota has released more than 400 ‘criminal’ migrants in 1 year: DHS

The Department of Homeland Security challenged Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to start cooperating with ICE to turn over illegal immigrants with criminal records from his prisons and jails, saying he's released hundreds of them back onto the streets over the last year.

January 13, 2026

Lawmakers urge NIH to stop taxpayer money for ‘dangerous’ bat virus lab in U.S.

Republican lawmakers have asked the Trump administration to cancel its support for a controversial new lab being built in Colorado to research coronaviruses and other dangerous pathogens, saying it imports the risks of the Wuhan virus lab to the U.S.

January 13, 2026

U.S. can’t give Venezuelan deportees due process, Rubio tells Judge Boasberg

The Trump administration says it is not feasible to carry out a judge's order to set up new methods for migrants already deported back to Venezuela to argue why they should be allowed to return.

January 13, 2026

Jack Smith, special prosecutor who pursued Trump, to testify publicly to Congress

Former special counsel Jack Smith, who pursued two criminal cases against President Trump during the Biden administration, will testify publicly about the prosecutions later this month.

January 12, 2026

Supreme Court grapples with Big Oil’s request to hear Louisiana coastal damage case in federal court

The Supreme Court grappled Monday with whether fossil fuel companies who provided oil to the federal government can force climate change-related lawsuits out of state courts and into more friendly U.S. courts.

January 12, 2026

Fed audit says local police don’t report all terror watch list encounters to FBI

State and local police never report many of their encounters with people on the FBI's terrorism watch list, the government's chief watchdog said Monday, blaming the feds for failing to give better guidance on how to use the watch list.

January 12, 2026

DOJ announces charges against illegal immigrant shot by Border Patrol in Portland

Federal prosecutors have charged one of the illegal immigrants shot by Border Patrol in Oregon last week with assaulting a federal officer, saying he repeatedly rammed his pickup truck into a government rental car, forcing officers to react.

January 12, 2026

Judge rebuffs HHS for illegal retaliation against pediatricians over vaccine changes

A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration likely engaged in illegal retaliation against the American Academy of Pediatrics for not kowtowing to the government's new position on childhood vaccines, and ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to restore $12 million to the outfit.

January 12, 2026

Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate map survives legal challenge

The Southern Poverty Law Center survived one of its toughest courtroom challenges last week, when a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit accusing the group's vaunted hate map of libel for describing an immigration crackdown group as anti-immigrant.

January 11, 2026

Democrats call for Kristi Noem’s impeachment amid clashes between Homeland Security and public

Democrats have called for the removal of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying she has created a confrontational "culture" that has led to growing clashes between immigration authorities and the public that culminated in last week's shooting death of a woman in Minnesota and two people wounded in Oregon.

January 11, 2026

Judge blocks Homeland Security from canceling ‘parole’ for migrant family reunification

A federal judge ruled Saturday that the Trump administration can't shut down "parole" status for some family reunification migrants, saying the Department of Homeland Security failed to properly notify them of their impending loss of status.

January 11, 2026

ICE adopts new policy limiting congressional visits to detention facilities

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revealed a new policy that makes it more difficult for members of Congress to make oversight visits to ICE facilities, requiring seven days' advance notice.

January 11, 2026

New video shows protester taunting ICE officer before Minneapolis shooting

A new video from the perspective of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer involved in the shooting of Renee Good shows him being taunted by another protester just before the deadly interaction in Minneapolis.

January 9, 2026

Feds detail 3 more noncitizen voting cases

Federal authorities this week won a guilty plea from an illegal immigrant who cast votes in Michigan, plus announced indictments against two men they accused of voting illegally in New Jersey.

January 9, 2026

DNC threatens lawsuits against states that cooperate with feds to scrub voter rolls

The Democratic National Committee warned 10 GOP-led states Friday that it will sue them if they cooperate in a Trump administration effort to clean up their voter rolls.

January 9, 2026

DHS launches massive probe of immigration fraud in Minnesota

The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday what it called a "sweeping" review of refugees in Minnesota, saying it would conduct new background checks and reverify their claims of persecution to ensure they deserved to be in the U.S.

January 9, 2026