Barack Obama said elections have consequences, and today the Supreme Court proved it again.
Senate Republicans refused to let Obama fill a court vacancy during his second term and held it open for a year, then handed it to Trump, who filled it and named two more. That refusal created the 6 to 3 majority now ruling on the country’s biggest questions.
Four years ago this week, that majority took a basic right from every woman in the country when it overturned Roe. Today it ruled that people fleeing for their lives can be turned back at the border before they ever set foot on American soil, with no right to even ask for asylum. The Statue of Liberty still invites the world to send us its tired and its poor. This court just told them not to bother.
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Trump headlines his own Great American State Fair on the National Mall after musical acts quit over the event's partisan tone, declaring a once "dead" America now the world's hottest country.
Today’s GovBrief News
The FEMA official who claimed he teleported to a Waffle House and that millions voted illegally in 2016 steps away from leading the agency's disaster-response office as hurricane season begins.
Source: Alabama Media Group
June 25, 2026
Iran's Revolutionary Guard strikes a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz for using the U.S.-approved route, challenging the deal that just reopened the waterway.
Source: CBS News
June 25, 2026
A federal judge orders the Justice Department to release unredacted Epstein files by July 2 or justify every withholding, after an independent journalist sued over redactions she calls illegal.
Source: Newsweek
June 25, 2026
The fired Stars and Stripes ombudsman sues the Pentagon, alleging she was dismissed days after a column criticizing its efforts to control the military paper's editorial independence.
Source: The Washington Post [gift link]
June 25, 2026
The administration asks OpenAI to limit its next model to government-approved partners before any public release, the first time Washington has preemptively restricted an AI model's launch.
Source: Axios
June 25, 2026
An Associated Press investigation finds the DEA let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills reach New Mexico streets from 2023 to 2025 to build bigger trafficking cases.
Source: NPR
June 25, 2026
The Supreme Court rules 7-2 that federal pesticide law bars consumers from suing Monsanto for failing to warn that Roundup may cause cancer, ending tens of thousands of state lawsuits.
Source: SCOTUS blog
June 25, 2026
The Supreme Court strikes down Hawaii's law requiring permission before carrying firearms into stores and other businesses open to the public.
Source: The Hawaii Tribune-Herald
June 25, 2026
A Tennessee judge temporarily blocks the state from handing immigration enforcement the names of about 400 chronically ill undocumented children before a law forcing the disclosure takes effect.
Source: NBC News
June 25, 2026
DeSantis declares the Everglades migrant lockup "Alligator Alcatraz" a success as he confirms its shutdown after less than a year and at least $1 billion in contracts.
Source: The Florida Phoenix
June 25, 2026
Senator Wyden warns the administration is preparing to fast-track the removal of more than 500 unaccompanied migrant children, a year after a judge halted a similar overnight attempt.
Source: The Associated Press
June 25, 2026
The Supreme Court clears the way for Trump to physically block migrants at the border from setting foot on U.S. soil and seeking asylum.
Source: Courthouse News Service
June 25, 2026
A federal judge blocks the Education Department's rule narrowing which graduate degrees count as "professional," restoring access to doubled federal loan limits for fields like nursing.
Source: Higher Ed Dive
June 25, 2026
FCC Chairman Carr opens a proceeding that could shrink or end E-Rate, the $2 billion program connecting schools and libraries to the internet, citing student screen time.
Source: Ars Technica
June 25, 2026
Rep. Kean (R-NJ), who hasn't voted or appeared in public since March 5, won his primary in absentia and returns June 30 to hold a fundraiser the same day.
Source: Politico
June 25, 2026
The Senate rejects a measure to restrain Trump's Iran war powers, reversing the bipartisan rebuke it approved two days earlier as Republican swing votes retreat under White House pressure.
Source: The Hill
June 25, 2026
A National Park Service official swears in a court filing that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was cut with a knife, backing Trump's vandalism claims days after he made them.
Source: CNN
June 25, 2026
New York City's Rent Guidelines Board freezes rents on roughly one million stabilized apartments, the first freeze since 2020 and delivering on a central Mamdani campaign promise.
Source: WPIX New York
June 25, 2026
A federal judge blocks the Postal Service from refusing to mail ballots in states that won't hand the federal government their voter rolls, one day after the postmaster general defended the plan to senators.
Source: UPI
June 25, 2026