2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

Timeline › 2026 › January › 5

January 5, 2026

5 entries on this date.

U.S. District Court dismissed DeSoto Parish's 1967 school desegregation order at DOJ, Louisiana AG's request, without a desegregation finding

On January 5, 2026, U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. granted a joint motion by the U.S. Department of Justice and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill's office to dismiss a 1967 federal desegregation order governing the roughly 5,000-student DeSoto Parish School Board in northwest Louisiana. It was the second Louisiana desegregation decree the Trump administration and Murrill's office have had dismissed through "joint stipulated dismissals" that require no finding that a district actually ended segregation, following an earlier dismissal of a 1966 Plaquemines Parish order. Murrill said the ruling gives DeSoto Parish "its school system back"; no independent finding that segregation had been eliminated in the district was reported.

Hegseth censured Sen. Mark Kelly and moved to cut his military retirement pay over 'illegal orders' video

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a formal censure letter against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a retired Navy captain, on January 5, 2026, accusing him of "seditious statements" and initiating administrative proceedings to reduce Kelly's military retirement rank and pension. The action punished Kelly for a November 2025 video in which he and five other Democratic lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds reminded U.S. servicemembers they may lawfully refuse illegal orders. Kelly sued Hegseth, the Pentagon, the Navy, and Navy Secretary John Phelan on January 12, 2026, arguing the censure and rank-reduction proceedings violate his First Amendment rights and the Constitution's Speech and Debate Clause.

ICE agents arrested handcuffed Hempstead, NY man whose head struck brick wall during arrest; agency and officials dispute cause

On January 5, 2026, ICE agents arrested Isai Santos Caceres, 35, outside a supermarket in Hempstead, New York, and bystander video shows his head striking a brick wall while he was handcuffed. ICE said Caceres fled, resisted arrest, and "fell into the side of the building," while Nassau County Legislator Viviana Russel and the civic group Islip Forward said the footage shows agents using his head as a "battering ram" against the wall. Islip Forward said Caceres was later transferred to ICE detention in Maryland.

ICE agents forcibly detained man who says he is a naturalized U.S. citizen in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, leaving him hospitalized

On January 5, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped Emmanuel Sackie, who says he is a Liberian-born naturalized U.S. citizen, in a Family Dollar parking lot in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, after questioning his fiancee about a vehicle agents believed was registered to someone else. When Sackie's driver's license did not satisfy agents' demand for further proof of citizenship, the encounter turned into a physical struggle captured on video; agents handcuffed him and took him to an undisclosed location before he was hospitalized with bruising. ICE had not responded to a request for comment as of publication.

Echols County, Georgia sheriff's office secretary arrested, charged with stalking after misusing Flock database to track two people she knew

Anna Altobello, 33, a secretary at the Echols County, Georgia Sheriff's Office, was arrested Monday, January 5, 2026 and booked into the Lowndes County Jail after a Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe found she had repeatedly searched the department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader system for two people she knew personally, outside any law-enforcement purpose. Sheriff Randy Courson had requested the GBI investigation on December 18, 2025, after receiving information about the misuse. Altobello was charged with eight counts of misuse of license plate data, stalking, stalking-family violence, and violation of oath of office, with additional charges expected as the investigation continues.