News & Current Events

A divided Fourth Circuit ruled on July 23 that federal district courts retain jurisdiction to hear habeas challenges to immigration detention even when removal proceedings are pending, keeping Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri's release order intact. The decision directly conflicts with Third and Second Circuit rulings in the Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi cases, which held that such claims must proceed through the immigration system's petition-for-review process. The split concerns only the procedural question of where detainees may challenge their confinement, not whether the government may ultimately remove any of the three men.

Jordan's air defenses and Royal Air Force aircraft shot down seven missiles and six drones on July 24, 2026, with no casualties or material damage confirmed. The intercept is part of a documented pattern since July 8, during which Jordan has neutralized dozens of Iranian missiles and drones across multiple engagements. Iran has claimed its strikes targeted specific U.S.-linked air bases in Jordan, but those damage and casualty assertions remain unverified by Jordanian, U.S., or independent sources.

A federal three-judge panel on July 23 denied a preliminary injunction against Tennessee's redrawn congressional map, which divides Memphis and Shelby County among three districts, replacing a configuration that kept the county within a single majority-Black district. The panel found plaintiffs unlikely to succeed on their Equal Protection claim because the map's effects could be explained by the legislature's stated partisan goal of securing a 9-0 Republican delegation, and plaintiffs failed to offer an alternative map achieving that political objective without the same racial effects. The underlying lawsuit in Sherman v. Hargett remains active, and the ACLU of Tennessee has stated its intent to continue pursuing permanent relief.