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A federal judge has declined to temporarily block President Trump's executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail.

The ruling released Thursday by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump nominee based in Washington, D.C., leaves in place — at least for now — an executive order on voting that tests the limits of the president's power under the Constitution. A separate, 2025 executive order on voting was halted by courts.

The latest executive order, issued March 31, calls for the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Social Security Administration to create lists of adult U.S. citizens in each state, and to send those lists to state election officials. It also calls for the U.S. Postal Service — a federal agency that's independent of a president's administration — to come up with lists of eligible voters and to only deliver mail-in ballots to people on those lists.

"The Court recognizes that the Postal Service may ultimately issue a final rule that directly affects Plaintiffs or their members, or that the Government may develop State Citizenship Lists that omit specific individuals due to particularized flaws. Plaintiffs may, of course, renew their motions if and when those future actions occur. Until then, however, Plaintiffs cannot show that preliminary injunctive relief is warranted," Nichols wrote about the decision not to block the order.

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The US Treasury Department confirmed the removal of Albanese's name from its sanctions list in an update on its website on Wednesday, under the heading “International Criminal Court-related Designation Removal”.

The move came a week after US district judge Richard Leon issued a temporary injunction against the sanctions, finding that the Trump administration had sought to regulate Albanese's speech because of the "idea or message expressed".

In an opinion granting the preliminary injunction, Leon said "protecting the freedom of speech is 'always' in the public interest".

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in February by Albanese's husband, Massimiliano Cali, a senior economist for the World Bank in Tunisia, which argued that the measures were intended as a punishment for her public criticism of Israel's genocide in Gaza.

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A bipartisan group of 35 federal judges asked a federal court in Florida to reopen the legal case between President Donald Trump and the Internal Revenue Service and investigate whether the two parties' out-of-court settlement was an act of fraud against the court.

"The Court was deceived," the 24-page motion reads, adding that the settlement "commandeers the contrived sum of $1.776 billion from the United States Treasury, to be handed out to recipients chosen by a commission effectively controlled by the President."

Trump effectively sued the government that he leads when he filed suit against the IRS and Treasury Department in January seeking $10 billion in damages over the agency's past leak of his tax returns.

Voluntarily withdrawing the lawsuit meant the judge assigned to the case, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, did not rule on the case's merits ‒ nor did the judge weigh in on the settlement that plaintiffs reached with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal attorney.

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The Trump administration has mass-deleted information about prosecutions tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including cases of defendants who assaulted police officers. The removals mark the latest phase of President Trump's effort to rewrite the history of the violent riot.

Justice Department news releases that detailed guilty pleas, jury verdicts and prison sentences abruptly disappeared from government websites last week.

On social media, the Justice Department defended the move, saying, "We are proud to reverse the DOJ's weaponization under the Biden administration. We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ's website of partisan propaganda."

A review by NPR found that the deleted material included information about some of the most serious assaults on law enforcement that occurred that day. NPR maintains the most complete database and visual archive of the Jan. 6 prosecutions.

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Ken Paxton, the Donald Trump-backed Texas attorney general, triumphed over incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff for senator. His victory signals that even a scandal-plagued candidate can win over the deep red state with the support of the president.

“After a public service career lasting more than four decades and 18 consecutive campaign wins, tonight we’ve come up short in this primary runoff,” Cornyn said shortly after the race was called. “I’ve always supported the GOP ticket. I intend to do so again this general election.”

The race had wide implications for Trump’s strength heading into November’s midterm elections, where Paxton will now face James Talarico, a Democratic pastor and state legislator whose message of peace and populism has attracted much attention. If he wins, Talarico would become the first Democrat in more than 30 years to win statewide office in Texas.

Midterm elections often serve as a referendum on the sitting president and tend to help the opposing party. This year Democrats are favored to win the House of Representatives, though a supreme court decision that decimated the Voting Rights Act could allow for more Republican-leaning districts and complicate the picture. The race for Senate remains in flux, though candidatessuch as Talarico, Graham Platner in Maine, as well as purple states such as Ohio and Michigan, could upset the Republican lead.

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A three-judge panel on Tuesday blocked Alabama Republicans’ congressional map that would’ve given the party a potential pickup opportunity in the midterms.

The judges ruled the Supreme Court’s recent blockbuster decision narrowing the Voting Rights Act does not impact their finding that the map intentionally discriminates against Black voters in violation of the Constitution.

It means Alabama cannot use its design this year unless Republican leaders appeal directly to the Supreme Court, which they have vowed to do.

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the ruling reads.

“And under the unusual circumstances of this case, we conclude that a limited order requiring the Secretary to continue using this Court’s race-blind map will not disrupt Alabama’s elections,” it continued.

Tuesday’s panel included U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, an appointee of former President Clinton, along with U.S. District Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer, who were both appointed by President Trump.

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