The Standing Record
A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —8 entries on this date.
ICE Director David Venturella unilaterally reversed torture-based deportation protections for a group of Mexican nationals who had proven to an immigration court they would likely face torture if returned, and the Trump administration deported them in early August 2026. DHS said the move relied on Mexican government assurances the deportees would not be harmed.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced on August 7, 2026 that Duke University School of Law intentionally discriminated based on race in admitting its 2023, 2024, and 2025 incoming classes, violating Title VI and the Supreme Court's 2023 SFFA v. Harvard ruling. It is the first law school, following prior findings against UCLA, Yale, and UC Davis medical schools, that the Civil Rights Division has found in violation of SFFA.
On August 7, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission voted 2-0 to adopt a policy statement declaring it will no longer pursue "disparate-impact" or "unfair discrimination" claims under any statute it enforces, including credit-discrimination cases under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Chairman Andrew Ferguson said disparate-impact liability "imposes liability for discrimination without any evidence that anyone intended to discriminate" and that the Commission "never had authority" to apply it. As part of the policy, the FTC reviewed and modified compliance obligations in three already-settled auto-dealer discrimination cases -- Napleton Inc. ($10 million), Passport Auto Group ($3.3 million), and an individual formerly of Coulter Motor Co. -- that had relied in part on statistical evidence of discriminatory effect.
The Pentagon revoked former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall's eligibility to access classified information and barred him from holding any sensitive position on August 7, 2026, alleging he disclosed classified details about the Qatari-donated Air Force One replacement's capabilities to a media outlet. The action followed New York Times reporting, in which Kendall was quoted on the record, that the new jet lacked its predecessor's advanced antimissile defenses. Kendall told the Associated Press he was "completely mystified" by the revocation and said no one had specified what he was accused of disclosing.
The Savannah Police Department terminated four sworn officers and two civilian employees on or about August 7, 2026, after an internal investigation found they used the department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader system to run searches on personal acquaintances and family members unrelated to law enforcement purposes. One of the six also gave an outside law-enforcement agency unauthorized access to the system. SPD opened the investigation July 27, 2026, and referred all six cases to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for an ongoing independent criminal review; the employees' names have not been released pending that investigation and an appeals process.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested former Polk County Police Department Officer Tracey Royston, 51, of Cedartown, Georgia, on August 7, 2026, on four misdemeanor counts of misuse of a license plate reader system. Royston, while detached to the GBI-managed Northwest Georgia Drug Task Force, used the access that assignment gave her to the Cedartown Police Department's Flock Safety system to search it multiple times between 2024 and 2025 for non-law-enforcement purposes, after Cedartown police asked the GBI to investigate on July 31, 2026.
On August 7, 2026, Mississippi Department of Corrections officials revoked personal tablet access for all 34 men held in Unit 17, the death row unit at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, within two hours of Mississippi Today publishing a story about the men's advocacy work with the nonprofit Humans Remain. The men said officials cited the unit's restricted status, advocate Liz McCann's use of the devices to contact the men, and the story's publication itself as reasons for the removal; MDOC did not respond to a request for comment on the action or when access might be restored. One month later, the tablets had not been returned.
On August 7, 2026, Ohio Capital Journal reported that Josh Rubin, chairman of the JobsOhio board and principal of lobbying firm The CJR Group, continued lobbying Gov. Mike DeWine's office and other executive agencies on behalf of Intel after joining the board in September 2023, despite pledging to the governor's office that he and his firm would cease work for clients with matters before JobsOhio. JobsOhio, the quasi-private Ohio economic-development agency Rubin chairs, disbursed more than $2 million to Intel in fiscal years 2023-2024 as part of a $150 million incentive package for the company's delayed Ohio chip plant. Ohio Ethics Commission Executive Director Paul Nick said Rubin's continued lobbying registrations and active work for Intel appeared to violate his 2023 pledge.