Stephen Dinan

Appeals court maintains blockade on Trump’s plan to use post office to police mailed ballots

A federal appeals court refused to revive President Trump's scheme to have the U.S. Postal Service oversee mail-in voting and refuse to deliver ballots it deems invalid, ruling Thursday that the federal government didn't make a convincing case for why it should move forward.

September 10, 2026

Supreme Court rejects latest bid to use pro-GOP congressional map in Missouri

The Supreme Court swatted away yet another attempt on Thursday to force Missouri to use a Republican-slanted map for this year's congressional elections, leaving the state to return to the old map used in 2024.

September 10, 2026

The FBI says 16 shooters were stopped by civilians. One researcher counts 225

The FBI's active-shooter database routinely misses cases where an armed civilian stops an active-shooter attack, according to a new report from the Crime Prevention Research Center.

September 10, 2026

Trump team aims to drop race, sexual orientation, illegal immigrants from census

The Trump administration proposed major changes Wednesday to the decennial census, calling for the elimination of questions on race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, which it said would bring the questionnaire more in line with the census' original purpose.

September 9, 2026

Feds move to shut down Chinese cyberscam factory

The federal government has seized a Chinese-run online scammers' marketplace, blocked more than $50 million in laundered cryptocurrency, slapped sanctions on the operators and sent a strike force to Madagascar to help close 13 scam compounds.

September 9, 2026

America backslides on Sept. 11’s hard lessons about IDs, intel agencies and ports of entry

A quarter-century after 9/11, the consensus around securing IDs is fraying, and the same is true for other security lessons from the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

September 9, 2026

Supreme Court won’t revive Missouri’s GOP-friendly congressional map

Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh on Tuesday rejected Missouri's request to restore its Republican-tilted congressional map for this year's elections.

September 8, 2026

DHS asks Supreme Court to revive database to screen out noncitizen voters

The Department of Homeland Security rushed to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking permission to restart a system that states were using to check their voter rolls to identify potential noncitizens who registered to vote.

September 8, 2026

Appeals court rules IRS broke privacy laws in turning over records to ICE

The IRS broke a Watergate-era privacy law when it gave information on 47,000 people to ICE for use in immigration enforcement, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

September 8, 2026

Appeals court maintains blockade on DHS using database to check state voter rolls

A federal appeals court has ruled to keep in place a lower court blockade on the Department of Homeland Security using its SAVE database to check voter rolls, undercutting the Trump administration's efforts to help states boot noncitizens from their registration lists.

September 5, 2026

Supreme Court ruling gives GOP ad advantage in key Senate races

The Supreme Court delivered a victory to Republicans in key Senate races Friday with a ruling that allows GOP political committees to coordinate on campaign ads and pay the lowest possible rates.

September 4, 2026

Trump asks Supreme Court to allow postal service to refuse to deliver some mailed ballots

President Trump took his fight over the conduct of the 2026 election to the Supreme Court again Thursday, asking the justices to erase a lower court blockade and allow the U.S. Postal Service to continue developing plans to refuse to deliver some mailed ballots.

September 3, 2026

IRS says it will deny tax-exempt status to private schools that practice affirmative action

The IRS opened a new front against affirmative action Thursday, proposing a regulation that would allow the agency to strip private schools of their tax-exempt status if they use race-based preferences in their admissions or financial assistance decisions.

September 3, 2026

Florida Bar rejects demands to probe DHS’ top lawyer over criticism of judges

The Florida Bar said it won't investigate the Department of Homeland Security's general counsel, shutting down a complaint filed by anti-Trump activists who said his criticism of sitting federal judges crossed ethical lines.

September 3, 2026

ICE deported this teen to El Salvador twice. He’s not supposed to be deported at all

ICE told a federal judge on Thursday that it was scrambling to try to bring back a migrant teenager whom it had wrongly deported to El Salvador -- for the second time in six months.

September 3, 2026

Trump cuts migrant population by nearly 3 million; total U.S. population likely to drop

President Trump has cut the illegal immigrant population by 2.3 million since he took office, according to a preliminary new analysis of government numbers being released Thursday.

September 3, 2026

Trump’s new birthright citizenship order blocked by federal judge

President Trump's second attempt at an executive order limiting birthright citizenship was blocked by a federal judge, who said the president was trying to eat away at citizenship for some of the people the Supreme Court just ruled were entitled to it.

September 3, 2026

ICE claims new record in August for arresting illegal immigrants

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported arresting 50,925 illegal immigrants in August, setting a new all-time monthly record.

September 2, 2026

States must report known illegal immigrants to feds as condition of getting welfare, DOJ rules

The Justice Department announced a new legal opinion Wednesday finding that states that take federal money to finance their cash welfare programs must report unauthorized immigrants to the Department of Homeland Security -- a move that could potentially defang states' sanctuary policies.

September 2, 2026

DOJ sues Kansas school system to stop ‘secret gender transitions’

The Justice Department announced a new lawsuit Tuesday against the public school system in Kansas City, Kansas, to try to stop what it said were "secret gender transitions" taking place at school.

September 1, 2026