Poli Alert Politics & Civics

A draft White House memo argues that furloughed federal employees may not be legally entitled to back pay once the government shutdown ends, press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday, setting off sharp pushback from unions and lawmakers who say the stance defies federal law. The memo, first reported by Axios, …

Authorities in South Carolina are investigating a weekend fire that injured at least three people at the Edisto Island home of Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein and her husband, former state Sen. Arnold Goodstein, officials said Monday. Mark Keel, chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), said in …

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, entered the Republican primary for U.S. Senate on Monday, complicating an already contentious race between two of the biggest names in Texas Republican politics. Hunt, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has laid the groundwork for a potential run for months. While the second-term congressman …

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., broke with Republican leadership Monday by calling for Congress to act before year’s end to prevent Affordable Care Act subsidies from expiring — a move that could cause health insurance premiums to double for millions of Americans. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Greene …

Illinois officials filed a lawsuit Monday to stop the Trump administration from deploying federalized National Guard troops to Chicago, arguing that the move is unconstitutional and represents a dangerous overreach of presidential power. The complaint, filed in federal court by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on behalf of the state …

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal of her 2021 conviction and 20-year prison sentence for aiding Jeffrey Epstein in the sexual exploitation of underage girls, leaving her punishment intact and closing one of the final legal chapters in the decades-long Epstein saga. Maxwell, 63, had …

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has once again become the focus of controversy after publicly suggesting that the Court should revisit several major rulings tied to Americans’ personal privacy rights: including those protecting same-sex marriage and access to birth control. The comments stem from Thomas’s 2022 concurring opinion in Dobbs …

President Donald Trump has ordered hundreds of California National Guard troops into Oregon, defying a federal court order and igniting new legal and political battles with Democratic governors who accuse the White House of abusing military power for political ends. At least 200 federalized California National Guard members arrived in …

Federal immigration raids in Chicago have escalated into chaotic scenes of helicopters, chemical agents and mass detentions, sparking outrage from Illinois officials and civil rights advocates who say the Trump administration’s tactics resemble a “military invasion” of U.S. neighborhoods. Residents awoke last week to federal agents rappelling from helicopters onto …

The Trump administration announced Saturday it will deploy 300 National Guard troops to Illinois, marking the latest flashpoint in a growing standoff between the White House and Democratic-led states over the president’s use of military forces to quell unrest in major cities. “Amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local …

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday released draft images of a new $1 commemorative coin featuring President Donald Trump, part of a forthcoming series to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The coin, which the U.S. Mint is preparing under the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of …

A California woman who traveled to Maryland in 2022 intending to assassinate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was sentenced Friday to just over eight years in federal prison — a punishment dramatically lower than the 30 years sought by the Justice Department. Sophie Roske, 29, a transgender woman charged …

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that the Trump administration cannot deny citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily, dealing another major legal blow to the president’s controversial birthright order. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit …

The U.S. government shutdown entered its third day Friday with no sign of resolution, as both the House and Senate departed Washington without a deal to reopen federal agencies. Republicans and Democrats remain entrenched in their positions, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed and key government services frozen. …

President Donald Trump has given Hamas until 6 p.m. Sunday to accept a U.S.-brokered ceasefire proposal aimed at ending the war in Gaza, warning that “all hell” will break loose if the militant group refuses. In a post Friday on Truth Social, Trump called the ultimatum a “LAST CHANCE” for …