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Timeline

Every entry in the archive, ordered by event date. Page 16 of 42, showing May 1, 2026 to May 13, 2026. Pages contain 50 entries each; entries for a given date may continue on the next or previous page.

2026 Events (1,252)

May(152)

Michigan prison staff dismissed inmate's blood-clot symptoms as lies days before her fatal pulmonary embolism

Khaira Howard, 28, died at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan on May 13, 2026, days before a scheduled parole release, after corrections staff dismissed her reports that she had lost feeling in her legs. An autopsy the Michigan Department of Corrections released July 9, 2026 found the cause of death was a pulmonary thromboembolism caused by a deep vein thrombosis in her lower leg -- the same symptom a prisoner-observation aide said staff had disbelieved.

Pentagon plans to rename Iran war 'Sledgehammer' to restart the War Powers 60-day clock

On May 12, 2026, NBC News reported — citing two U.S. officials and a White House official — that the Pentagon is preparing to officially rename the U.S. war with Iran from "Operation Epic Fury" to "Operation Sledgehammer" if the current ceasefire collapses and President Trump orders the resumption of major combat operations. The White House official told NBC that any renewed campaign would be conducted under a new name and that, from the administration's perspective, this would effectively restart the 60-day clock under the 1973 War Powers Resolution that requires congressional authorization for sustained hostilities. The maneuver layers onto the administration's existing position that the early-April ceasefire paused the statutory clock — which expired May 1 by Antiwar.com's count — even as the United States has continued to enforce a blockade of Iran.

Judge found ICE materially violated Colorado injunction restricting warrantless immigration arrests

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson ruled May 12, 2026, that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Colorado materially violated a November 2025 preliminary injunction in Ramirez Ovando v. Noem that barred warrantless arrests without an individualized, pre-arrest flight-risk determination. The judge's 60-page order, issued after a two-day evidentiary hearing, found ICE continued warrantless arrests -- including of people with no criminal history, longtime residents, asylum seekers, and U.S. citizens' children -- while obtaining "field warrants" after the fact and providing training she found insufficient. She ordered ICE to retrain officers, bar untrained agents from warrantless arrests, and pay the plaintiffs' attorney fees.

Dominican Republic reversed refusal, agreed to accept US third-country deportees

The Dominican Republic's Foreign Ministry announced on May 12, 2026 that it had signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with the United States to temporarily accept a limited number of third-country nationals — reversing President Luis Abinader's prior public refusal to take anyone but Dominican citizens. The agreement, part of the administration's "Shield of the Americas" initiative, excludes Haitian nationals and unaccompanied minors and had produced no confirmed transfers as of this filing.

ICE barred Reps. Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs from interviewing detainees during unannounced Otay Mesa oversight visit

On May 12, 2026, ICE refused to let U.S. Reps. Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs interview detained immigrants during their unannounced oversight visit to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, applying a new agency policy requiring members of Congress to identify detainees by name and obtain signed consent forms in advance. The lawmakers were allowed to tour the facility but blocked from speaking with the people held there, the second consecutive visit at which they were barred from detainee conversations. Beyond the memo, which called such visits "disruptive and resource-intensive," ICE did not respond to requests for comment.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons issued nationwide memo requiring 48-hour notice and named-detainee ID for congressional oversight visits

On May 12, 2026, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons issued a nationwide policy memo requiring members of Congress to identify detainees by name and submit signed consent forms at least two business days before interviewing them during oversight visits to ICE detention facilities. Lawmakers learned of the policy when California Representatives Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs made a surprise oversight visit to San Diego's Otay Mesa Detention Center and were handed the memo after asking to speak with detainees. Because lawmakers cannot learn who is held before they arrive, the rule effectively limits oversight visits to inspections of physical infrastructure.

Transportation Secretary Duffy appeared in a reality series funded by DOT-regulated companies

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy, and their nine children are the on-camera centerpiece of a five-part reality series, "The Great American Road Trip," produced at no personal cost to the family by a nonprofit, The Great American Road Trip Inc. The nonprofit's sponsors are dominated by companies the Department of Transportation regulates — including Boeing, Toyota, United Airlines, Shell, and Royal Caribbean — and a pitch deck reported by Politico offered higher-paying sponsors on-screen logo placement and speaking roles. The watchdog group CREW asked the DOT Inspector General to investigate possible gift- and travel-rule violations, and Senate Democrats pressed Duffy on the arrangement at a May 19, 2026 Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

Pima County Sheriff Nanos allegedly provided false sworn statements about his police background; supervisors referred perjury to the Arizona AG

On May 12, 2026, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted not to remove Sheriff Chris Nanos from office but referred allegations of potential perjury to the Arizona Attorney General's Office after concluding that his sworn statements about his employment history may have contained false information. Nanos had been compelled in April 2026 to submit sworn reports regarding his 1977–1982 tenure with the El Paso Police Department, where supervisors alleged he had concealed disciplinary records in his official background disclosures. The board took no position on whether perjury was committed but directed the county administrator to forward the perjury allegations to the AG for investigation.

Oklahoma Gov. Stitt signed SB904 barring Medicaid and public funds for gender-transition procedures

On May 12, 2026, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 904, prohibiting the state Medicaid program from reimbursing gender-transition procedures and barring the use of any public funds, state property, or state facilities for such procedures for transgender residents of any age. The law carries an emergency clause taking effect immediately on signing and creates a criminal penalty for violations. It cleared the state Senate 39-8 in March 2026 and the House 77-14 in May before reaching the governor's desk.

Tennessee House Speaker strips entire Democratic caucus of all committee assignments in retaliation for May 7 floor protest of anti-Black gerrymander

On May 12, 2026, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) removed every member of the state House Democratic caucus from every standing committee and subcommittee assignment. The stated reason was the caucus's conduct during the May 7 special session, where Democrats protested the passage of a new congressional map eliminating Memphis's majority-Black 9th district. The blanket scope of the action — caucus-wide rather than targeting individual members for specific procedural violations — is what makes this distinct from routine legislative discipline and an exercise of institutional power against the minority party itself.

Alabama AG Marshall subpoenaed Southern Poverty Law Center's donor and hate-group records in civil probe

On May 11, 2026, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall opened a civil investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center and issued a civil investigative subpoena demanding the group's donor records, its disbursements to informants, and payment records tied to organizations in its "extremist files" and "hate map," with documents due June 1. Marshall invoked Alabama's Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the group's pending federal fraud indictment, saying the office had "always suspected that they were monetizing hate." The subpoena's reach into records connected to SPLC's hate-group designations extended state investigative power into the watchdog's advocacy work.

BIA fast-tracked Mahmoud Khalil's deportation case in 9-day 'unprecedented' turnaround

Internal Department of Justice case-tracking documents obtained by The New York Times and reported publicly on May 11, 2026 reveal that the Board of Immigration Appeals — an appellate body housed within the DOJ — fast-tracked the deportation case of Palestinian Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil along a procedural track that a former BIA member called "unprecedented." Per the internal documents, the case was flagged high-priority before the board officially received it; a staff note instructed handling Khalil's case as if he were still in detention even though he had been released several days earlier; the BIA's April 9, 2026 decision authorizing Khalil's deportation came just nine days after paperwork was submitted; and at least three judges recused themselves from the proceedings.

DOJ subpoenas Wall Street Journal reporters' records over Iran-war leaks after Trump hands acting AG Blanche stack of articles marked 'Treason'

On May 11, 2026, The Wall Street Journal publicly disclosed that the Justice Department had issued grand jury subpoenas for its reporters' records, tied to a February 23, 2026 WSJ article — five days before the Iran war began — that reported on Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and other Pentagon officials warning President Trump about the risks of an extended military campaign against Iran. CNN reported the same day that Trump personally pushed the DOJ to issue the subpoenas, delivering the directive to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at a White House meeting in the form of a stack of printed articles topped by a sticky note reading "Treason" in Sharpie. CNN further reported that other news outlets have also received DOJ subpoenas in recent months.

Hegseth calls for second Pentagon investigation of Sen. Mark Kelly over weapons-stockpile remarks

On Sunday, May 10, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly called for a second Pentagon investigation of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) over Kelly's comments on CBS' "Face the Nation" about depleted U.S. munitions stockpiles amid the Iran war, posting that the Pentagon's legal counsel would review whether Kelly had "violate[d] his oath." Kelly, a retired Navy captain who sits on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, responded that the substance of his remarks was not classified and pointed to Hegseth's own prior public testimony about the same stockpile-depletion timeline. The referral came days after a D.C. Circuit panel appeared poised to reject Hegseth's first effort to punish Kelly — an administrative action to reduce Kelly's retired military rank over a November video urging service members to refuse illegal orders.

Interior official Karen Budd-Falen worked on federal grazing rules benefiting her family's ranches despite a signed recusal

On May 9, 2026, The Washington Post reported that Karen Budd-Falen, the Interior Department's third-ranking official, had acknowledged working on relaxed federal grazing regulations — including a categorical exclusion easing grazing-permit approvals — that benefit her family's cattle operations and federal grazing allotments across roughly a quarter-million acres of Bureau of Land Management land. Budd-Falen had signed a 2018 recusal from grazing matters, but the Interior Department issued her an ethics waiver on March 11, 2026 permitting her to work on matters affecting her financial interests. The watchdog Campaign for Accountability and congressional Democrats asked Interior's Inspector General and congressional committees to investigate the conflict.

Hegseth replaces Congressionally-mandated Military Justice Review Panel with open-ended Pentagon legal-system review under his own general counsel

On May 8, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a two-page memo directing the creation of an "ongoing, long-term, department-wide review of all aspects of the military legal system," convened by Department of Defense General Counsel Earl Matthews and reporting directly to Hegseth. The new panel substitutes for the Military Justice Review Panel — the 13-member independent oversight body created by Congress in April 2022 to report to Congress, which Hegseth disbanded in 2025 after it delivered a 238-page review of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Current and former JAGs describe the move as completing a transfer of military-legal oversight from an independent, Congressionally-created body to an executive-controlled panel staffed by political appointees.

Idaho National Guard troops pinned and detained Purple Heart veteran Anna King outside her D.C. home without a warrant

On May 8, 2026, three federalized Idaho National Guard members detained Anna King, a retired Army captain and Purple Heart recipient, outside her Washington, D.C. home, pinning her to the ground, kneeling on her back, and handcuffing her without producing a warrant or explaining the legal basis. King, who had criticized the National Guard's deployment in the city with signs on her patio, suffered wrist injuries that later required surgery. She was never charged over the prior incident the guardsmen cited to justify the stop, though D.C. prosecutors separately charged her with two misdemeanor counts of assaulting an officer for her resistance during the May 8 encounter, a charge she disputes and has pleaded not guilty to.

JTF Southern Spear killed two aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; ~58th strike, ~192 campaign deaths

On May 8, 2026, U.S. Southern Command struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean that it described as a suspected drug-trafficking boat, killing two people and leaving one survivor. SOUTHCOM said it notified the U.S. Coast Guard to begin search-and-rescue operations and called the boat a narcotrafficker but provided no public evidence; the strike is the third deadly attack in five days and brings the open-ended campaign's reported death toll to roughly 192 people across the eastern Pacific and Caribbean theaters.

CNN reveals DOJ shakeup of Brennan probe: career prosecutors warned case was too weak, told 'that's not good enough'

On May 8, 2026, CNN published an investigation detailing how the Justice Department restructured the criminal probe of former CIA Director John Brennan after career prosecutors told leadership the evidence did not support charges. At a Washington meeting earlier in 2026 attended by Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones, lead prosecutor Maria Medetis Long told acting Deputy Attorney General Colin McDonald and his top deputy Trent McCotter the case against Brennan was too weak to bring; the reply, per two people briefed on the meeting, was "that's not good enough." Medetis Long was removed days later. CNN reports that with Trump ally Joe diGenova installed in Fort Pierce, Florida, the investigation has been "essentially reset" into a broader conspiracy probe, more than 150 subpoenas have been issued, and another round of subpoenas targeting officials close to Brennan is expected. CBS News corroborates that DOJ veterans fear the probe is being staffed with Trump loyalists.

The National Science Foundation suspended at least 18 UC Berkeley research grants over a disputed foreign-funding claim despite a court injunction

In early May 2026, the National Science Foundation suspended at least 18 active research grants held by University of California, Berkeley scientists, citing unspecified "foreign funding" concerns that affected researchers say do not apply to their projects. The suspensions were imposed despite a standing court injunction restricting such actions, and at least one grant had been canceled by NSF and restored by a court before being suspended again. Berkeley researchers, who have brought a class-action challenge, said they were given almost no information about what NSF considered problematic.

Omaha police shocked special-education student with electric-shock compliance glove during school crisis

On May 8, 2026, an Omaha Police Department school resource officer twice shocked a middle-school special-education student's forearm with an electric-shock "G.L.O.V.E." compliance glove at Omaha Public Schools' Integrated Learning Program, after the student threw a chair and struck a security guard and the officer during a behavioral crisis. Compliant Technologies, the glove's manufacturer, warns against using the device on children or people with disabilities, but OPD's internal use-of-force review cleared the incident as within policy. The incident became public at an August 17, 2026 school board meeting, prompting objections from parents and the Arc of Nebraska.

Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democratic-led mid-decade congressional gerrymander

Virginia's Democratic-led General Assembly advanced a mid-decade redraw of the state's 11 U.S. House districts, first stripping congressional map-drawing power from the voter-established bipartisan redistricting commission through a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly ratified 52% to 48% on April 21, 2026. On May 8, 2026, the Supreme Court of Virginia struck the amendment down, ruling that the legislature had violated the state constitution's multi-step process for placing amendments on the ballot and rendering the referendum null and void. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to revive the plan on May 15, leaving Virginia's existing court-drawn map in place; the Democratic-drawn map, engineered to flip as many as four Republican-held seats, never took effect.

BIA reinstates deportation proceedings against Columbia activist Mohsen Mahdawi

The Board of Immigration Appeals reinstated removal proceedings against Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian lawful permanent resident and Columbia University student activist, overturning an immigration judge's February dismissal of the case. The government had pursued Mahdawi's deportation under a rarely used foreign-policy provision invoked by the Secretary of State, after he was detained in 2025 over his pro-Palestinian advocacy and released by a federal court without being charged with any crime.

FBI opens criminal leak probe targeting the sources behind The Atlantic's reporting on Kash Patel

In early May 2026, MS NOW reported — with corroboration from PBS NewsHour, TheWrap, Poynter and Democracy Now — that the FBI had opened a criminal "insider threat" investigation into the sourcing behind Atlantic reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick's story documenting FBI Director Kash Patel's excessive drinking and erratic conduct. The probe is highly unusual: it does not stem from any disclosure of classified information and instead targets leaks to a journalist, a posture in which reporters have historically been treated only as witnesses. FBI agents assigned to the matter reportedly objected that they were not supposed to pursue it, and the bureau publicly denied the investigation.

DOJ served a sealed grand jury subpoena on Lucile Packard Children's Hospital seeking transgender minors' medical records

On May 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice served a sealed grand jury subpoena on Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, demanding the identities, diagnoses, treatment histories, and parental consent forms of patients who received gender-affirming care as minors. Prosecutors obtained the subpoena in the Northern District of Texas, a venue with no connection to the California hospital, patients, or care, after at least eight courts had quashed the department's earlier administrative subpoenas for the same records. Affected families were given no notice.

Oklahoma Gov. Stitt signed HB 3586 shielding refusal to affirm a child's gender transition in adoption and foster placements

On May 7, 2026, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 3586, the "Parents Protection Act of 2026," which bars the state from denying or delaying an adoption or foster placement because a prospective parent declines to support a child's gender transition, and provides that raising a child consistent with their biological sex does not constitute child abuse or neglect. The measure amends the Oklahoma Children's Code and adoption statutes and takes effect November 1, 2026.

Oklahoma Gov. Stitt signed HB 1225 requiring birth certificates to list sex assigned at birth and barring gender-identity amendments

On May 7, 2026, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 1225, which requires state birth certificates to record a person's biological sex as male or female as identified at birth and prohibits amending that designation to reflect gender identity, a nonbinary status, or an "X" marker. The law amends Oklahoma's vital-records statutes governing birth-certificate filing, amendments, and post-adoption certificates, and carried an emergency clause making it effective on approval.

Tennessee enacted HB1271, requiring state and local governments to define sex by birth anatomy over gender identity

On May 7, 2026, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB1271 (Public Chapter 938) into law, amending Titles 1 through 8 of the Tennessee Code relative to "biological sex." The law requires every governmental entity in the state — including local governments — to revise its ordinances, resolutions, rules, policies, and procedures so that any reference to sex or gender is defined as the immutable characteristics of a person's reproductive system as determined by anatomy and genetics at birth, overriding local recognition of gender identity. The House passed the bill 72-16 on March 30 and the Senate 24-6 on April 22, 2026, and it took effect on signing.

Tennessee enacts mid-decade congressional map eliminating Memphis majority-Black 9th district

On May 7, 2026, the Tennessee General Assembly passed and Governor Bill Lee signed a new congressional district map that splits Memphis — the population core of Tennessee's only majority-Black, Democratic-held U.S. House district — among three Republican-leaning districts. The action followed by eight days the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which substantially weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and removed a key legal constraint on mid-decade racial-vote-dilution maps.

Texas AG Paxton opened investigations into roughly two dozen school districts to enforce Ten Commandments and prayer laws

On May 7, 2026, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced investigations into roughly two dozen public school districts to enforce state laws requiring Ten Commandments displays in classrooms and school-board votes on designated prayer time. The districts were ordered to produce records showing compliance with Senate Bills 10 and 11, both enacted in 2025. Paxton, then a U.S. Senate candidate, framed the effort as protecting students' right to pray and to learn from the Ten Commandments daily.

DOJ Civil Rights Division found UCLA medical school discriminated based on race in admissions

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced on May 6, 2026 that the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA intentionally discriminated based on race in its admissions process, in violation of the Supreme Court's 2023 SFFA v. Harvard ruling. DOJ said its investigation found admitted Black and Hispanic applicants had consistently lower academic qualifications than their white and Asian counterparts, and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said the school focused on "racial demographics at the expense of merit and excellence." The finding was part of a broader Civil Rights Division campaign targeting medical-school admissions that also produced actions against Yale and UC Davis.

DOJ Civil Rights Division opened investigation into elected Fairfax prosecutor over immigrant-defendant policies

On May 6, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division opened a formal investigation into Fairfax County, Virginia, Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano, an elected Democratic prosecutor, over his office's charging, plea-bargaining, and sentencing policies toward immigrant defendants. The Division said it would examine whether the office gave immigrant defendants preferential treatment in violation of federal civil-rights law. The probe was announced about a week before Descano's scheduled congressional testimony.

ICE agents injure a U.S. citizen in a Bronx takedown of the wrong person

On May 6, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducting an enforcement operation in the Norwood section of the Bronx tackled, handcuffed, and detained Jeury Concepcion, a U.S. citizen who was not the person they were seeking. Bystander cellphone video captured the takedown; Concepcion was left bleeding from a head wound that required several stitches, and agents released him after checking his ID and phone and determining he was not their target. The Department of Homeland Security disputes the "wrongful arrest" characterization, saying officers ran a targeted operation, that Concepcion matched the target's description and became combative, and that he was briefly detained and promptly released.

Monroe County pulled tourism funding from Key West Pride events, citing Florida's DEI law before its effective date

On May 6, 2026, Monroe County, Florida withdrew roughly $200,000 in annual tourism funding, including about $75,000 in marketing support for Key West Pride, from LGBTQ events organized through the Key West Business Guild. A senior assistant county attorney's letter to the Guild cited Senate Bill 1134, the state law barring local governments from funding or promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion activity, as the basis, even though that law does not take effect until January 1, 2027.

FDA authorized flavored e-cigarettes without required public-comment period, bypassing its own career staff

On May 5, 2026, the FDA finalized enforcement-discretion guidance authorizing four flavored Glas e-cigarette products, skipping the legally required draft-guidance and public-comment period; FDA career staff were not consulted and learned of the change the night before publication. The action followed a $5 million donation from a Reynolds American subsidiary to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. and a Mar-a-Lago lunch with Trump and Reynolds executives days earlier.

DOJ in Puerto Rico halted drugs-for-votes election-fraud probe after Trump win

On May 5, 2026, ProPublica disclosed that in November 2024 — days after Donald Trump won the presidency and Jenniffer González-Colón clinched Puerto Rico's governorship — supervisors at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Puerto Rico ordered line prosecutors to drop voting-fraud counts and all charges against prison staff from a built-out drugs-for-votes indictment, and after Trump took office told them to abandon the probe of any campaign ties entirely. The pulled charges arose from evidence that the Los Tiburones prison gang traded drugs for inmate votes for González-Colón in 2024 and that the candidate had communicated with a gang leader on WhatsApp during the primary. In the weeks that followed, Puerto Rico's resident commissioner and four U.S. House Democrats publicly called for a DOJ Inspector General and congressional investigation; González-Colón has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged.

VA investigated employees who attended vigils for slain colleague Alex Pretti and spoke to the press

CNN reported on May 5, 2026 that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs opened internal investigations into employees who attended vigils for Alex Pretti — a VA nurse killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January 2026 — and who spoke to the news media about him. Becky Halioua, a recreational therapist and union leader at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, was investigated for giving a media interview without prior approval; investigators emailed her news photographs of herself at the January 28 vigil with her face circled and labeled. At least three other VA employees were investigated over press contacts, and unions called the probes a "scare tactic" to silence outspoken staff.

EEOC sued The New York Times, alleging its DEI practices discriminated against a white male employee

On May 5, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against The New York Times, alleging the newspaper discriminated against a white male employee passed over for promotion as part of its diversity practices. EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas publicly framed the case as challenging DEI "on behalf of white workers" and as a reorientation of civil-rights enforcement. The action deployed federal legal power against a news organization the administration regularly criticizes.

Former Coffee County, Ga. deputy Chris Ashley Rozar indicted on 8 counts for Flock, GCIC database misuse and stalking

On May 5, 2026, a Coffee County, Georgia grand jury indicted former sheriff's deputy Chris Ashley Rozar, 49, on eight counts -- four counts of violation of oath by a public officer, two of computer invasion of privacy, one of prohibited use of captured license-plate data, and one of stalking -- after a two-year GBI investigation found he misused the sheriff's office's Flock camera and tag-reader system and the state GCIC database for personal reasons, including to track a woman, between April 10 and May 1, 2024. Rozar was booked and released on bond the same day; he had been terminated from the sheriff's office when the investigation began.

JTF Southern Spear killed 3 aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; ~56th strike, ~189 campaign deaths

On May 4, 2026, Joint Task Force Southern Spear struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three people. The strike was carried out under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's Operation Southern Spear mandate at the direction of SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, with no prior judicial process or public evidence regarding the victims.

State Department revokes U.S. visas of five La Nación board members in apparent retaliation

The U.S. State Department revoked the U.S. tourist visas of five of the seven board members of La Nación, Costa Rica's leading watchdog newspaper, in what the paper and press-freedom groups describe as retaliation for its critical editorial line. The board members received no formal notice or explanation — the department cited visa-record confidentiality — and reportedly first learned of the revocations through pro-government Costa Rican media. The move followed Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to Costa Rica and the paper's scrutiny of President Rodrigo Chaves, a Trump ally.

Department of Education opened a Title IX investigation into Smith College over its transgender admissions policy

On May 4, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights opened a Title IX investigation into Smith College, a private all-women's college in Massachusetts, over its policy of admitting transgender women. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said "an all-women's college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males," asserting that Title IX's single-sex exception applies on the basis of biological sex, not gender identity. The probe extended a coordinated wave of OCR enforcement using federal civil-rights machinery to pressure institutions over trans-inclusive policies.

DOJ filed complaint to block Minnesota's state-court climate lawsuit against oil companies

On May 4, 2026, the Department of Justice filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota seeking to halt the state's own pending lawsuit against fossil-fuel companies for climate damages, arguing the state suit was preempted by the Constitution and the Clean Air Act. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and the Environment and Natural Resources Division brought the action explicitly invoking Trump's executive order directing DOJ to "protect American energy from state overreach." The filing was the fifth such DOJ complaint against state climate accountability lawsuits, following similar actions against Hawaii, Michigan, New York, and Vermont.

Shively, Ky. police officer misused Flock camera network over 2,000 times to track ex-girlfriend's vehicles; charged with official misconduct

Shively (Kentucky) Police Officer Asad Zahir ran more than 2,048 searches on the department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader network between January 1 and May 2, 2026, tracking two vehicles registered to the mother of his child across Kentucky and Indiana. During that period Zahir also harassed the woman and made threatening comments, prompting her to obtain a protective order against him in Indiana; investigators found 241 of the searches occurred while that order was in effect. A Flock Safety AI-powered audit tool flagged the pattern in August 2026, leading to Zahir's arrest and criminal charges.

DOJ shut down San Francisco immigration court ahead of schedule after firing most judges, leaving 100,000 cases in limbo

The Justice Department closed the main San Francisco immigration court at 100 Montgomery Street on May 1, 2026, eight months ahead of the originally announced year-end date, after firing or forcing out at least 20 of the court's judges. More than 100,000 pending cases were reassigned to the Concord Immigration Court roughly an hour away; advocates said hearings on transferred cases would not begin until at least December 2026. The court had historically denied asylum at roughly half the national average rate; DOJ cited cost savings, while advocates said the closure targeted a court that had been favorable to asylum seekers.

ICE agent surveilled and arrested a person inside Cook County's Domestic Violence Courthouse, privileged from civil arrest under Illinois law

On May 1, 2026, around 9:30 a.m., a federal immigration agent entered the Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse at 555 W. Harrison Street in Chicago, telling courthouse security he "was conducting surveillance," according to an internal Cook County Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security alert. Separately, Cook County Public Defender's Office tracking of the same morning found that federal agents detained at least one person inside the courthouse. The visit was part of a pattern of at least 26 confirmed ICE appearances at Cook County courthouses between February 27 and May 8, 2026, most frequently at the domestic violence courthouse.

DOJ issues criminal subpoena to NYU Langone Health for private trans youth medical records

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas issued a criminal subpoena to NYU Langone Health, one of New York City's largest hospital systems, demanding private medical records of transgender minors who received gender-affirming care from 2020 onward — including patient identities, provider information, and whether the hospital codes gender-affirming procedures under alternative names — despite HIPAA protections. Three trans minors and two trans adults who were minors during their care, represented by the ACLU, NYCLU, and Lambda Legal, filed suit to block the disclosure; New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Law Department filed an amicus brief in their support on June 13, 2026. The subpoena is part of a coordinated multi-state DOJ effort targeting more than 20 hospital systems; federal courts in Rhode Island, Maryland, and California have already blocked similar demands. On June 24, 2026, a federal judge granted a classwide temporary restraining order blocking the DOJ from seeking or obtaining the records.