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Supreme Court denies request to restore Biden Administration policy giving immigration judges discretion to pause deportation proceedings. The Supreme Court rejected a request from Columbus, Ohio, New Haven, and Baltimore to restore a Biden Administration regulation that allowed immigration judges to temporarily pause deportation proceedings while immigrants seeks humanitarian protections or other forms of legal status. Trump says he ordered Justice Department to file lawsuit attempting to conditionally block Alaska from certifying Senate election. The President said at a campaign event in Florida that he directed the Justice Department to file a lawsuit seeking to block certification of the Alaska Senate election should incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan lose, citing potential voter confusion over the inclusion of another Dan Sullivan – Dan J. Sullivan – on the ballot . Federal District Judge Sharon Gleason wrote in an order related to the case that this suit was filed "[a]fter Alaskans had already begun casting their ballots for the November 2026 election -- and nearly four months after the Alaska Supreme Court directed the Division of Elections to include Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot for the upcoming United States Senate election.” Federal appeals court rejects Trump Administration request to order California to sequester 20,000 ballots. The Administration sued the State of California on October 15th seeking to prevent the state from counting 20,000 ballots that were mailed to residents “until their citizenship status can be determined.” The October 26th decision by a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court stated that the court could not consider the suit because a lower court had yet to rule on it. The Trump administration sought to expedite the case by skipping over the federal district court level. The Ninth Circuit did not rule on the merits of the case. Trump Administration asks Washington State not to count over 400 ballots. The Administration claims that over 400 ballots may have been mailed to individuals who are not eligible to vote. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs stated his office was reviewing the request but defended the security of elections in the state and said that “The timing of this request — one week before the General Election — is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results.” A preliminary investigation by Hobbs’ office revealed that the list of 400 voters from the Administration included U.S. citizens, duplicate entries, and people who were not registered to vote. Armed federal agents knock on doors to search for noncitizen voters. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) shared photos of agents in California and Kansas City knocking on doors as part of an investigation into alleged noncitizen voting. A federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to halt certain field investigations into alleged noncitizen voting in nine states, ruling that DHS was relying on flawed citizenship data and was risking intimidating eligible voters. Justice Department (DOJ) admits purported list of noncitizen voters is faulty as it begins making arrests. The DOJ arrested 11 people in California for alleged voter fraud. Following the arrests, First Assistant Attorney for California Bill Essayli admitted that the list of noncitizen voters the DOJ used to find alleged cases of noncitizen voters was not “foolproof.” Group of national security officials advising state governments, federal lawmakers on how to prepare for the President interfering in midterms. About 10 current and former Defense Department (DoD) officials consulted with state and federal officials from 10 states with competitive elections. These discussions included detailing ways in which the Trump Administration could use its federal powers – both legally and illegally – to sway elections, including deploying troops or immigration agents to polling stations. The DoD officials also counseled the elected officials in these discussions to publicly oppose any election interference efforts and to tighten their election protocols. State Department asked foreign service officers who they voted for during promotion interviews. Top officials at the State Department asked foreign service officers up for promotion who they voted for in 2016, 2020, and 2024, reportedly making it clear that only officials who voted for Trump would be eligible for mid-to-upper level foreign service roles. Candidates for promotion were also told that past donations to Democratic Party candidates would be disqualifying. Federal law directly prohibits federal officials from making any personnel decisions on the basis of political affiliation. Some military review boards decline to discharge trans servicemembers. Review boards charged with removing trans servicemembers from military service are declining to do so in the Navy and the Marine Corps. Of the 12 cases in which these review boards have had a trans servicemember before them, nine of them resulted in a vote to retain that servicemember. This pattern has not held with the Army and the Air Force.
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