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May 7, 2026

8 entries on this date.

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.