50501 FRIDAY BRIEFING | JULY 24, 2026
Good Trouble, Courts, and Almost Nothing from ICE Oversight this Week.
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Monday
Good Trouble was everywhere
Good Trouble Lives On weekend of action of July 17-19 saw over 600 communities around the country hold nonviolent, nonpartisan actions of service and learning to honor the life and work of Congressman John Lewis.
The Transformative Justice Coalition and other partners organized Good Trouble Lives On around the theme of Teach, Reach, Preach.
Friday night held teach-ins, vigils and voter education activities. Saturday and Sunday were filled with voter registration activities and community gatherings including gatherings at congregations where clergy taught about voting rights and the moral obligation to participate in our democracy and protect it.
A federal judge threw out the RNC’s demand for New Jersey voter data
US District Court Judge Georgette Castner threw out a lawsuit brought by the Republican National Committee to force the State of New Jersey to hand over sensitive information regarding all of its voters.
In her opinion, the RNC had failed to allege “concrete plans for how it intends to use the specific records” sought in the lawsuit. Castner observed that her court’s situation was “strikingly similar” to that of a Pennsylvania case that had been recently rejected by the Third Circuit and therefore she was dismissing the RNC’s lawsuit as well.
The court dismissed the case because the RNC didn’t show a concrete injury or adequately explained how it planned to use the records.
Tuesday
Tens of thousands of immigrants kept the right to work
Boston U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton granted a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) that blocks the Trump administration from yanking work authorization from tens of thousands of asylum seekers and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders scheduled to expire this summer under new retroactive terms of their status.
Gorton didn’t rule on the new asylum application fee that USCIS is charging, he ruled that the severe consequences of not paying the fee, i.e. the rejection of an application, the termination of a work authorization, and the initiation of removal proceedings against an individual, are potentially severe and thus warrant a temporary injunction to be decided by August 5. The judge is a George H.W. Bush appointee, so let’s not go down that partisan road here. People who go through the proper process to earn a living in this country should be able to continue to do so until their case is fully heard.
Wednesday
ICE has 56 excessive force complaints and one referral
The House Homeland Security Committee Democrats received a closed door briefing today from ICE officials.
After the briefing the Democrats released some figures that “defy belief.” There are 56 complaints of excessive force lodged against ICE officers, with 32 of them cleared.
One officer was referred for possible disciplinary action and the rest are currently under investigation. That one officer could possibly be disciplined for excessive force out of all of the incidents that have occurred in the last year and a half of surges and deaths of civilians by ICE officers “defies belief” said Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI).
There were two separate shootings in the past week, in Maine and in Houston, that resulted in the deaths of two people. Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement began increasing the number of deportations of immigrants living in the US without legal permission in 2025, there have been a rise in deaths in immigration encounters.
Thompson said he had expected more answers from Wednesday’s hearing but found himself with more questions. Most fundamentally, Thompson said, is who investigates complaints of excessive force by immigration officers. Sometimes the FBI does. Sometimes it’s Homeland Security Investigations. Officials gave inconsistent answers about which agency investigates officers use of force.
The two shootings of people in cars that triggered the new policy of stopping cars only when there is no alternative and using lights and sirens before approaching the car had been conveyed to officers orally, and had not been reduced to a written directive.
The suspension of most vehicle stops, announced after the shooting in Maine, had been reversed the next day by the President’s statement that he wanted officers to continue stopping cars to check for immigrants.
Thursday
Twenty five states sued rather than trade elections for disaster money
Twenty five states and the District of Columbia sued the federal government over FEMA and DHS policies to condition billions of dollars in disaster and homeland security grants on changes to voting and immigration laws.
Twenty five states and the District of Columbia filed a federal lawsuit in a Rhode Island court challenging the conditions imposed by the federal government on billions of dollars in funding each year for disaster relief and homeland security grants.
Under the conditions imposed by FEMA and DHS, the states must convert to paper ballot systems, conduct manual audits of their voting systems, reconcile their voter registration lists, and verify the citizenship of every registered voter in their databases.
In addition, the states must assist DHS in enforcing immigration laws and DHS can withdraw all grants at will.
The lawsuit challenges conditions attached to several FEMA and DHS grant programs. As noted above, states that refuse to comply with Trump’s demands risk losing at least 20% of their HSGP funding and that’s because HSGP funds are intended to help states and localities prepare for and respond to a wide range of threats, including cyber attacks and terrorism.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that the Trump administration is “unlawfully withholding billions in critical funding” from states that refuse to give in to the administration’s election and immigration demands.
A federal panel let Tennessee split Memphis three ways
A panel of three judges yesterday declined to block the new congressional district map for Tennessee’s upcoming August 6 primary elections.
The map splits the majority Black population of Memphis into three different districts, including one currently held by Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), who announced his retirement from the House of Representatives after the new maps were passed by the state legislature.
The three-judge panel that will hear the lawsuit challenging the new congressional district maps drawn by the Republican majority in the Tennessee state legislature consists of two Trump appointees and one Obama appointee.
The two sides presented their arguments and the panel expressed skepticism towards the plaintiffs’ claims that the maps as drawn will dilute the voting power of Black citizens in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The case follows the Supreme Court’s April decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down Louisiana’s second majority-Black congressional district as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Tennessee is among eight Republican-led states that have redrawn congressional districts since last year.
Amber Sherman, a Memphis voter and plaintiff, called the ruling painful and said, “When our voting power is diluted, our neighborhoods have a harder time making their voices heard on the issues that shape our daily lives.”
Good Trouble Lives On Official Weekend of Action and Press Releases
Democracy Docket Federal Judge Dismisses RNC Voter-Roll Lawsuit in New Jersey
Reuters Judge Temporarily Blocks the Administration From Stripping Immigrants of Work Permits
Associated Press ICE Discloses 56 Excessive-Force Complaints and One Disciplinary Referral
Democracy Docket Legal Challenge to Trump’s Mail-Voting Order Can Continue
The Guardian States Sue Over Election and Immigration Conditions Attached to FEMA Funding
Associated Press Federal Judges Allow Tennessee’s New Congressional Map
There can be no "ICE oversight" they must be dissolved and every single person among their rank investigated.
Ice officer's who shoot and kill innocent people should be deported to Sudan with no due process and never allowed to return to the states or anywhere else.