The Supreme Court rejected a last-minute plea from Donald Trump’s Justice Department on Monday, one day before the election, without a single noted dissent.
For years, career Justice Department lawyers kept prosecutors on the sidelines until the votes were certified. The department sued California and Alaska in the last three weeks of this campaign, and Trump said he personally ordered the Alaska lawsuit. Every court to rule on either case has said no.
Judge David Carter turned down the California request after more than 3.7 million people there had already voted. “Never before in American history,” he wrote, had the federal government, on the eve of an election, “sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch.”
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Justice Department urges contempt review of an immigrant rights group that found over 40% of the department’s California noncitizen-voter list off state rolls.
Today’s GovBrief News
FBI charges a January 6 defendant Trump pardoned with threatening federal judges, after a Facebook post saying all January 6 judges “will be executed.”
Source: Mediaite
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US strikes Iran’s Qeshm Island on midterm eve, part of a series of recent attacks the administration kept secret, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Source: The Guardian
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New York reports its first measles death in more than 30 years, a child in rural Lewis County, as US cases top 4,800.
Source: NBC News
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Washington state resident dies of bird flu after exposure on an infected dairy farm, the third US death since the virus jumped to cows.
Source: Ars Technica
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Federal judge rejects Democrats’ bid to stop the Homeland Security Department pressing four states to screen ballots, saying the states already rebuffed its “browbeating.”
Source: The New York Times [gift link]
November 2, 2026Details
Supreme Court rejects Trump administration’s last-minute bid to make California set aside ballots from over 20,000 voters it calls likely noncitizens, with no noted dissents.
Source: https://go.govbrief.today/scotus-ca-ballots
November 2, 2026Details
Ex-Chicago FBI chief sues, saying FBI Director Patel forced him out after the US attorney blamed him for the collapsed Broadview Six protester case.
Source: The Chicago Sun-Times
November 2, 2026Details
Federal magistrate tosses charges that two ex-FBI supervisors lied to Congress about Hunter Biden’s laptop, calling the case FBI Director Patel launched “weaponization.”
Source: Roll Call
November 2, 2026Details
Federal judge orders notice within an hour of any approval for Trump’s arch, as the administration eyes a Nov. 5 construction start.
Source: The Associated Press
November 2, 2026Details
Federal judge tosses Justice Department suit demanding Harvard’s race-related admissions data, ruling it sued before trying to get the records voluntarily.
Source: Courthouse News Service
November 2, 2026Details
Trump administration’s plan for DC’s public East Potomac golf course lists no cost or funding, and faces federal review weeks after its planned Nov. 15 closing.
Source: The Washington Post
November 2, 2026Details
Trump vows to “protect” Musk, who spent nearly half a billion dollars against Democrats, if they investigate him, and floats pre-emptive staff pardons.
Source: Axios
November 2, 2026Details
Trump’s closing midterm speech spends about 20 minutes on the reopened Reflecting Pool, shut for months by algae and liner tears from the renovation he ordered.
Source: The Hill
November 2, 2026Details
Tungsten miner with Trump’s sons as investors plans a $2 billion public listing as US agencies weigh up to $1.6 billion in funding.
Source: The Wall Street Journal [gift link]
November 2, 2026Details
Nashville judge temporarily blocks Tennessee from refusing driver’s licenses to immigrants with federal work permits, after hundreds were denied in recent weeks.
Source: The Tennessee Lookout
November 2, 2026Details