The Marshall Project editorial newsletter

Donate Edited by Andrew Cohen View in browser 2026 2026 Community Survey Will you help shape our future reporting and strategies? Give your feedback and help make The Marshall Project better → TAKE THE SURVEY NOW Pick of the News The White House asks the U.S. Supreme Court to help it end gender-affirming care for transgender people in federal prisons. The Trump administration is trying to get around a federal trial judge’s ruling earlier this year that blocked the Bureau of Prisons from implementing a new anti-trans policy put into place last year by an executive order from President Donald Trump. Courthouse News Service U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices in Washington, D.C., in a brief filed on Monday that restrictions on gender-affirming care within the Bureau of Prisons are “necessary to maintain institutional security.” SCOTUSblog TMP Context: Is Trump’s ban on care for transgender prisoners constitutional? The Marshall Project Another resignation from the Justice Department’s weaponization investigation. Kurt Olsen, an election-denying MAGA ally of President Donald Trump, abruptly resigned on Monday amid continuing concerns about his security clearance. The New York Times Olsen’s departure came hours after Andrew Bailey, a deputy director of the FBI, abruptly resigned. The New York Times More: FBI executives demoted two veteran officials because those officials weren’t moving quickly enough to investigate threats against Katie Miller, the wife of senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller. Bloomberg Law Members of the group that hacked an FBI employee database say they have no intention of making the information public. The New York Times The quieter but no less devastating ICE surge. Expanding ICE cooperation with local police, a massive infusion of federal funding and the use of new tracking technology have helped the Trump administration expedite its mass detention and deportation campaign without the headlines that accompanied surges in Illinois and Minnesota earlier this year. The New York Times After a record hiring spree fueled by lowered training and recruitment standards, nearly 3,000 employees left ICE in the first half of 2026. USA Today More: A federal judge has again held Homeland Security officials in contempt of court for violating her orders in the case of a Salvadoran man who has twice been wrongfully deported. ABC News Immigration nation. The anatomy of an ICE detention and deportation of a Mexican man in Arizona. The Associated Press State police in Texas arrested an Austin City Council candidate on Saturday and charged him with a misdemeanor count of engaging in a riot, in connection with a protest earlier this month. Misael Ramos was arrested while walking his dog. KVUE Homeland Security agents stopped a Canadian citizen and U.S. permanent resident when she tried to return to the U.S. via Washington following a birthday party earlier this month. CBC Homeland Security officials say judicial marshals in Meriden, Connecticut, threatened and impeded the work of ICE agents during a courthouse arrest last week. CT Insider “It defines ‘justice’ in a way that I do not recognize.” More than 4,000 employees have left the Justice Department since the start of the second Trump administration. That’s about one-third of the DOJ’s workforce. Some federal prosecutors have been forced out by MAGA loyalists. Many others have resigned in protest. For some, the choice was easy. For others, it was very difficult to walk away from a career of service they had cherished. And often, the choice was stark: “Should they exit if ordered to do something illegal or unconscionable by their superiors? Or should they display loyalist behavior, not least to avoid being replaced by sycophants or opportunists who will do whatever their bosses tell them?” The New Yorker N/S/E/W It’s been a year since the start of Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration's “small-scale military incursion” into Chicago, Illi