Legal News
Reports on lawmaking, constitutional issues, and court cases. The Daily Signal combines news reporting with conservative commentary and legal analysis.
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news
‘Retribution and Lawfare’: Democrats Eye Supreme Court Subpoenas and Probes
Leading Democrats have promised to investigate and issue subpoenas to Supreme Court justices, and they will be in a position to do just that when they assume the majority in Congress in January. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., expected to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, previously said he and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., expected… -
news
CAIR Closes Up Shop in Florida After Federal Court Defeat
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has suspended operations in Florida after a federal court rejected its request to block the state’s designation of the organization as a domestic terrorist group. Earlier Thursday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier posted on X: “This morning, a federal court upheld Florida’s Domestic Terrorist Organization law and rejected CAIR’s attempt… -
opinion
Winners and Losers From the 2026 Midterms
There’s no sugar-coating it: Republicans lost badly in the 2026 midterms, suffering stunning defeats in states once considered reliably red and seeing Democrats take control of both chambers of Congress. President Donald Trump encouraged Americans to vote like he was on the ballot, and many may have done so. Democratic socialists and a resurgent religious… -
opinion
Victor Davis Hanson: The Left Tried to Bury Trump. Instead, It Fueled His Greatest Comeback.
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. I haven’t talked much about my latest book that came out Sept. 8, roughly seven weeks… -
news
Legal Whiplash: Trump Scores Win in California Voter Roll Fight Over 20,000 Noncitizens
In an Election Day win for President Donald Trump’s administration, a judicial game of ping-pong in California has moved in his favor. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for the Justice Department to continue its probe of California voter rolls, including a warning to election workers against counting illegal votes. The… -
news
Supreme Court Hears Contentious Arguments on Religious Freedom Fight Over Preschool Program
The Supreme Court could deliver another blow to Colorado in a religious liberty case over the state’s exclusion of a Catholic church from a “universal” preschool program. Justices heard oral arguments in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy on Tuesday. “This is not a zero-sum game. Letting families use universal preschool funding at Catholic schools… -
news
These Election Eve Court Fights Could Reshape the Midterm Vote
Lawsuits on the eve of Election Day are giving courts a brief time window to make influential decisions before final votes are cast. The Supreme Court on Monday denied a last-minute emergency appeal by the Justice Department to set aside more than 20,000 ballots of suspected noncitizens in California. Meanwhile, lower court judges are still… -
news
Supreme Court Rejects DOJ Petition to Intervene in California’s 20,000 ‘Likely’ Noncitizen Ballot Dispute
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request from the Trump administration’s Justice Department to temporarily block the counting of more than 20,000 mail ballots from suspected noncitizens in California. Last month, the department demanded that California temporarily set aside the ballots for the midterm elections until the citizenship of registered voters could be verified. … -
opinion
Pretending the Justice Department Was Never Partisan Under Democrats
The most obnoxious lie that erupts routinely in the “independent media” is that President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is weaponized in a way that no Democrat has ever contemplated. It’s like they all observed everything that the Biden Justice Department did to put Trump and his allies in jail and considered it to be… -
opinion
What’s in a Name? Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Law School Name Change
Summary What’s a name worth? A lot, according to a case the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear. In 1878, more than 145 years before this dispute, California’s first chief justice, Serranus Clinton Hastings—who made a small fortune from various real estate ventures—agreed to fund the establishment of a new law school in San… -
analysis
Trump’s Deportation Opponents Just Lost a Key Legal Weapon
Almost 90,000 immigrants have tried a legal maneuver to escape detention, but an appeals court ruling just significantly undermined that part of the Left’s anti-deportation strategy. ProPublica has tracked 89,170 cases in which immigrants filed writs of habeas corpus, challenging the lawfulness of their detention or imprisonment. The scale is extraordinary. Immigrants filed more habeas… -
news
Democrat-Run Cities Tried to Salvage a Biden Anti-Deportation Policy. SCOTUS Says No.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an application by three Democrat-run cities to restore a Biden-era rule that would postpone deportations of illegal aliens. The unsigned order, in the case of City of Baltimore v. Texas, had no noted dissents and left in place lower court rulings denying the cities’ request for interim relief. At… -
opinion
Bringing a Knife to a Gun Fight: 5th Circuit Declares Switchblades Are ‘Arms’ Protected
Are knives—or at least certain types of bladed weapons—presumptively protected by the Second Amendment? That’s the question the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently answered in the affirmative. This dispute dates all the way back to 1958, when Congress, worried about juvenile delinquency in the aftermath of the then-scandalous movie “Rebel Without a Cause”… -
news
DOJ Charges James Comey for Third Time, This Time Over Alleged Leak of National Defense Information
The Justice Department has charged former FBI Director James Comey with unlawfully communicating national defense information and conspiring to disclose such information. The charges mark the third time the Justice Department has brought a criminal case against Comey during President Donald Trump’s second term. Comey is already under indictment on charges that he threatened the… -
news
5th Circuit Rules Illegal Immigrants Not Entitled to Bond Hearings
Summary The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 10-7 that detained illegal immigrants do not have a right to bond hearings, marking an immigration win for the Trump administration. The ruling, filed on Oct. 23, states that while illegal aliens are in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and are going through deportation proceedings, they… -
opinion
Want to Stop Judicial Activism? Start at the Ballot Box
Activist judges are a huge obstacle to enacting the Trump administration’s agenda. Americans can point to case after case where a judge appears to put personal or political preferences ahead of the law. When courts stop applying the law as written and begin making policy from the bench, voters are right to ask what they… -
news
SCOTUS Has a Shot to Take a Major First Amendment, Free Press Case. Here’s What’s at Stake.
An investigative reporter is asking the Supreme Court to review a court order to identify the sources behind her reporting. In a case that could set a new precedent on the First Amendment, former Fox News and CBS News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge is appealing a lower court’s order to pay an $800-per-day contempt fee… -
opinion
Is Cooking for a Terrorist Organization Enough to Deny Immigration Benefits?
What constitutes “material support … to a terrorist organization” under federal law? That’s the question the Supreme Court of the United States will decide in Blanche v. Ozurumba. This matters because the Immigration and Nationality Act makes clear that those who provide such support to terrorist organizations are ineligible for asylum and other immigration benefits… -
analysis
The Raised Eyebrow and the Closed Account
Summary In Washington, power is most potent when it’s least visible. A statute can be read, a regulation challenged, an order defied in court. But a regulator’s arched eyebrow leaves no paper trail, invites no judicial review, and is, for a bank that must face the same examiners year after year, every bit as persuasive… -
opinion
Why George Washington Would Deport Mahmoud Khalil
Summary Mahmoud Khalil wants to take the case against his deportation all the way to the Supreme Court—and if the justices accept it, they will be deciding one of the oldest and most controversial questions in American politics, a dispute more than 200 years old. Khalil is not an American: He’s a Syrian-born Palestinian, but…