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A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from using a revamped version of an immigration database for checking the accuracy of state voter rolls, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to boost the role of the federal government in elections ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security revamped a system it uses to verify individuals’ citizenship and immigration status to make it easier for state and local officials to use it to make sure voters were U.S. citizens.

In a 75-page decision on Monday, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., sided with voting rights and privacy advocates who argued that the overhaul of the system, known as SAVE, made it less accurate and risked disenfranchising eligible voters.

“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” wrote Sooknanan, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

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The Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook faced more than $1.3m in legal and security fees after coming under attack from the Trump administration, according to ethics disclosures that were filed on Wednesday.

The White House targeted Cook last summer as Donald Trump ramped up his unprecedented campaign to push the Fed to cut interest rates.

Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency who is set to become acting US intelligence chief on Friday, accused Cook of mortgage fraud. On social media, Pulte accused Cook of misleading lenders by listing a second home as her primary residence, which would get her a better mortgage rate.

Cook was appointed by Joe Biden in 2022, becoming the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Her term is set to end in 2038.

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A California court has dismissed a lawsuit filed ⁠by Donald Trump’s administration against Los Angeles over a city ordinance limiting ⁠its cooperation with federal ⁠immigration ​authorities.

Fernando Olguin, a judge in the central California US district court rejected the administration’s argument that the city’s policy was unconstitutional. ⁠He gave the administration permission to file an amended complaint.

The White House did not ⁠immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on the ​decision on Monday.

Los Angeles ‌city attorney Hydee ‌Feldstein Soto said in a statement on Monday that ‌the ruling was a legal victory for the city, which saw a profusion of immigration raids by ICE and border patrol agents last summer.

“This order reinforces the well-established principle that local governments have the authority to decide how to use their personnel and resources,” Feldstein Soto said in a statement released on Monday.

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The Department of the Interior on Monday said five individuals were arrested in connection to reports of vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. 

“Five individuals have been arrested for vandalism. Five additional individuals were issued federal citations,” a department spokesperson told The Hill.

The spokesperson said a total of 14 police reports have been filed for vandalism, including the alleged crimes described in President Trump’s recent Truth Social posts.

“Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP,” Trump wrote in a Monday post.

“It has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water, and the beautiful new grass field has been destroyed with a gigantic 86 47 chemically carved into it (Probably inspired by Dirty Cop, James Comey!),” he added, referring to an image posted on social media by the former FBI director last year which led to the Justice Department prosecuting Comey for threatening the president.

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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from using a database of Americans’ Social Security numbers and citizenship status, saying the administration has knowingly given inaccurate data to states that are now “actively” and “haphazardly” purging purported non-citizens from voter rolls.

“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote in a 75-page ruling. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

The White House referred USA TODAY to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters and other advocacy groups, Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, said the Trump administration’s newly modified Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system combines citizenship data and other sensitive data with information from the Social Security Administration to create a clearinghouse that Congress has expressly prohibited.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) is looking to use his political power to reshape New York’s congressional delegation less than six months after taking office.

The popular mayor has made endorsements in multiple contests ahead of Tuesday’s House primaries in New York, including for progressive challengers to two sitting Democratic congressmen. One of these picks has even put him at odds with his fellow progressives on Capitol Hill.

The primaries will offer an early test of Mamdani’s influence after his historic rise to become the leader of the country’s largest city.

“His honeymoon period as mayor has continued. He’s doing well right now,” said New York Democratic strategist Trip Yang. “He’s taking risks intentionally.”

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