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June 23, 2026

13 entries on this date.

U.S. State Department bypassed congressional review of a $700 million fighter-engine sale to Turkey without invoking emergency authority

On June 23, 2026, the U.S. Department of State informed the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that it would bypass the congressional review process for a sale of roughly 80 GE F110 fighter-jet engines to Turkey worth more than $700 million, and would immediately proceed to formal notification of the sale. According to the ranking member, the department invoked no emergency authority, presented no written rationale, and had for months declined to brief the committee on the sale's implications, including Turkey's continued possession of the Russian S-400 air-defense system. The Arms Export Control Act provides Congress a statutory review period before major foreign military sales may proceed.

Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that criminal suspicion alone justifies immigration parole of lawful permanent residents

On June 23, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the Trump administration, holding that an immigration officer's unverified allegation of criminal wrongdoing is sufficient to place a lawful permanent resident on immigration parole at a border crossing. The majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, found that border officers need not establish criminal activity by clear and convincing evidence before restricting a green card holder's rights. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissent, joined by both other liberal justices, warned the ruling handed the government a "massive blank check" to weaken due-process protections for the approximately 13.5 million lawful permanent residents in the United States.

ICE detained Colombian asylum-seeker Diana Socha Torres and her 8-year-old son at their Wisconsin Dells home, transferring them to a Texas facility

On June 23, 2026, ICE agents detained Diana Socha Torres, a 43-year-old Colombian asylum-seeker with a pending case, and her 8-year-old son at their Wisconsin Dells home after telling the family they were coming to change her ankle monitor. The pair were taken to ICE's Milwaukee office and, by the next morning, the online detainee locator listed Socha Torres at the Dilley immigration processing center in Texas. ICE cited an in-absentia removal order entered after she missed a hearing; she says she never received notice of it.

Acting DNI Pulte fired six political appointees and removed dozens of career intelligence officers in first ODNI purge round

On June 23, 2026, acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte carried out the first round of removals under his ODNI purge: six political appointees installed by former Director Tulsi Gabbard were fired, and roughly 45 career intelligence officers on joint-duty assignment were stripped of their details and sent back to their home agencies, with additional career officials removed from their positions, according to CNN and CBS News. The cuts followed Pulte's June 22 directive ordering ODNI offices to submit ranked lists of personnel for removal.

DOJ sued New York to block state law requiring ICE agents to unmask and display identification

On June 23, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul, and Attorney General Letitia James, seeking to block a New York law requiring federal law enforcement officers, including ICE agents, to unmask during operations and display individual identifying information. The law, scheduled to take effect June 26, also bars 287(g) cooperative agreements in jurisdictions that maintain mask bans. DOJ argues the law violates the Supremacy Clause and poses officer safety risks; Hochul and James filed a countersuit the same day seeking to preserve the law.

HHS created new pathway to share TANF recipients' Social Security numbers and immigration status with DHS

On June 23, 2026, HHS's Office of Family Assistance published a Federal Register notice modifying the TANF Data system of records to add a new routine use authorizing disclosure of recipients' Social Security numbers and immigration/citizenship status to DHS and other agencies, effective July 23, 2026. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia sued in federal court in Washington, D.C. on August 3, 2026, seeking to block the rule before states begin releasing data on August 11, 2026.

OPM moved to collect health insurance claims data on 8 million federal workers and retirees, retaining the right to re-identify pseudonymized records

On June 23, 2026, the Office of Personnel Management published a Federal Register notice establishing a modified system of records that authorizes the agency to collect health insurance claims data—including diagnoses, prescriptions, and payment details—from 65 insurance carriers covering over 8 million federal workers, retirees, and their family members enrolled in FEHB and PSHB programs. The notice added pseudonymization provisions in response to earlier criticism—removing names, Social Security numbers, and addresses before analyst review—but expressly reserved OPM's right to re-identify records and set an effective date of July 23, 2026 for new data-sharing provisions. Health privacy lawyers warned that pseudonymization was insufficient given that medical conditions alone can identify individuals, and Senate Democrats called on OPM to work with Congress before implementation.

Supreme Court 6-3 eliminated human rights claims under Alien Tort Statute in Cisco Systems v. Doe, overruling Sosa

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 23, 2026 in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe that federal courts may no longer hear any human rights claims under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), categorically overruling Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain (2004) and ending 46 years of ATS human rights litigation. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the conservative majority; Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson dissented. The ruling also held that aiding-and-abetting liability is not available under the Torture Victim Protection Act.

Supreme Court ruled 6-3 prisoners cannot sue individual guards for money damages under RLUIPA, eliminating key religious-freedom remedy

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 23, 2026 that prisoners cannot sue individual prison guards for money damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), leaving only injunctive relief as a remedy for religious freedom violations by prison staff. The case arose from Damon Landor, a Rastafarian man whose dreadlocks were forcibly cut by Louisiana prison guards in 2020. The conservative majority held that individual guards did not consent to personal liability under RLUIPA, while the dissent warned the ruling leaves prisoners with "little reason to expect guards to abide by legal protections."

DOJ issued grand jury subpoenas compelling Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporters to testify about sources

On June 23, 2026, the Justice Department issued grand jury subpoenas ordering reporters at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal to testify about their confidential sources, then withdrew the subpoenas after they became public. The Associated Press confirmed the issuance and withdrawal via sources familiar with the matter. The subpoenas targeted newsgathering activity, not disclosures of classified information, making them a direct threat to press-source confidentiality at two of the country's largest newspapers.

Federal prosecutors secured 30–100 year sentences for eight Prairieland Nine protesters on domestic terrorism charges

On June 23, 2026, federal judges Mark Pittman and Reed O'Connor sentenced eight defendants in the Prairieland Nine case to prison terms ranging from 30 to 100 years in Fort Worth, Texas, for a combined total of 450 years. The sentences followed a March 13, 2026 jury conviction on charges including providing material support for terrorism under the NSPM-7 domestic terrorism framework, stemming from a July 4, 2025 protest outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas. Benjamin Song, who fired a handgun that wounded an Alvarado police officer, received the longest sentence of 100 years; the remaining seven defendants received 30–70 years for conduct prosecutors characterized as terrorism, including wearing black clothing, using encrypted messaging, and distributing antifascist literature. On July 1 and July 6, 2026, the same judges sentenced eight additional co-defendants in the same prosecution — including a ninth trial defendant and seven who pleaded guilty — bringing the cumulative total across all Prairieland-related defendants to approximately 562 years.

DHS agents visited Rochester man's home and tracked him to NYC hotel over email criticizing ICE director

On June 23, 2026, Homeland Security Investigations agents visited the Rochester, New York home of David Streever while he was traveling in Finland, leaving his wife a warning notice that an email Streever had sent five months earlier to then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons constituted a "credible threat." Two days later, when Streever landed at JFK International Airport on his return, a Homeland Security Investigations agent tracked him to the airport hotel where he was staying and left a business card with the front desk. No criminal charges were filed; attorneys representing Streever called the federal visits unconstitutional government intimidation of protected political speech.

Department of Education opened Title IX investigations into Maryland state agency and three school districts over trans-inclusive policies

On June 23, 2026, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights opened Title IX investigations into the Maryland State Department of Education and three of the state's largest districts — Montgomery County, Prince George's County, and Frederick County Public Schools — over guidance and policies that let transgender students use facilities and join athletic teams matching their gender identity. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey called gender-identity-based access "deeply troubling" and pledged to "take appropriate action to ensure compliance," announcing the probes on the fifty-fourth anniversary of Title IX. The investigations continued a coordinated wave of OCR enforcement against trans-inclusive school policies across multiple states.