Federal judge halts arrests at immigration courts, Department of Justice cracks down on health care fraud, and more…

IN THE NEWS 

• A federal judge issued an order that prohibits the federal government from making immigration arrests at immigration courts. The Trump Administration had been making arrests outside courtrooms following immigration hearings since early in the President’s second term. Judge P. Casey Pitts of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California cited the potential “chilling effect” of these arrests on defendants’ attendance at hearings as part of the reasoning for his decision. Although an earlier decision banned such arrests in New York State, this decision immediately takes effect across the country.

• A federal judge on the 

  U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusettsallowed

   a lawsuit to continue after the federal government tried to dismiss the case against an 

  executive order

   issued by President Donald J. Trump that would restrict the use of mail-in ballots for future elections. Judge 

  Indira Talwani found

  that states would struggle to update the election procedures in time for the November elections due to the requirements that each state must take under the executive order.. Judge Talwani noted that some states have already begun to prepare for the upcoming election, and the executive order would add multiple steps to the election preparation in those states. Judge Talwani 

  dismissed

   claims relating to any elections after November 2026, however, stating that there will be enough time for states to implement the executive order after November.

• The 

  U.S. Department of Justiceannounced

   the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, charging 455 defendants across 45 states with allegedly submitting over $6.5 billion in false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. The alleged schemes

  included

   fraudulent billing, providing medically unnecessary services, and illegal distributing opioids. The Takedown involved what the Justice Department

  described

   as unprecedented international cooperation, resulting in the apprehension of fugitive defendants in Estonia, the Philippines, and Cyprus, as well as the seizure of over $182 million in cash and other assets. The Justice Department

  described

   the action as the largest Medicaid fraud enforcement operation in its history.

• The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) filed a 

  lawsuit

   in the 

  U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

   against the 

  Commodity Futures Trading Commission

   (CFTC) and its Chairman 

  Michael Selig

  , 

  challenging

   the Commission’s 

  order

   approving Kalshi’s BTCPERP contract as a futures contract rather than a swap. The 

  BTCPERP contract

   is a cash-settled Bitcoin derivative that tracks the real-time U.S. dollar price of Bitcoin with no fixed expiration date. The distinction between 

  futures

   and 

  swaps

   matters because swaps face stricter regulation, including more demanding reporting requirements and less favorable tax treatment. CME 

  contended

   that the CFTC departed from its prior policy of regulating such contracts as swaps without acknowledging or explaining that reversal and asked the district court to strike down the order.

• The FDA

  approved

  the first single dose generic treatment for influenza, for use by patients who are at least five years old. The manufacturer, Genetech, Inc., previously trademarked the medication under the name Xofluza. In the United States, 90% of prescriptions are 

  filled

  using the generic medication, rather than the name brand. In its press release the FDA

  stated

   that approving the generic medication would lead to a growth in competition in the marketplace for flu medication, which could lower cost of the medication for patients.

• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 

  decision

   that 

  U.S. Customs and Border Protection

  agents may place green card holders who face criminal charges on parole when the green card holders attempt to enter the United States. When green card holders are placed on parole, they

  lose

   access to certain legal rights afforded to them by the green card, such as the right to work. Immigrant advocates

  argued

   that border agents need clear evidence to place a green card holder on parole, while the government 

  claimed

  that border agents only need a “good faith belief” that the green card holder has a qualifying offence. The dissenting justices

  stated

   this decision could lead to green card holders losing their status based on assumptions, with later court dates set, allowing the prosecution to gather evidence in the meantime.

• The 

  National Collegiate Athletic Association’sDivision I cabinetapproved

   a new age-based eligibility model allowing Division I athletes a continuous five-year eligibility period for intercollegiate sports, beginning when they first enroll full time in college or at the start of the academic year following their 19th birthday, instead of the previous standard of four seasons within five years. The rule 

  replaced

   the prior eligibility framework with an age-based model and eliminates redshirts, sport-specific eligibility rules, and eligibility extension waivers. Current athletes and students enrolling in fall 2026 may 

  choose

  the most favorable eligibility rule, while the new model exclusively applies to students enrolling in fall 2027 or later. Athletes have reportedly filed multiple lawsuits seeking an additional year of eligibility under the prior standard.

WHAT WE’RE READING 

• In a recent Center for American Progress (CAP) report, Bobby Kogan, the senior director of federal budget policy at CAP, and Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at CAP, identified the impacts of the increased national debt on those living in the United States and argued that policymakers should not rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to solve the growing national debt gap. Kogan and Bernstein claimed that although wages will still increase by 2055, they estimated a 45 percent increase rather than a 50 percent increase given a lower national debt. They recommended that Congress take action and not rely on AI productivity growth to close the rising national debt. They argued that Congress has to enacted policies now that will close the gap. The problem with Congress acting after the gaps grows is that Congress will be forced to close the gap quickly by raising taxes by 15% or cutting programs such as Medicare or Medicaid.

• In a recent

  Brookings Institutioncommentary

  ,

  Peter Dreier,

  the E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics at

  Occidental College

  , and

  Mike Bonin

  , the executive director of the

  Pat Brown Institute at Cal State Los Angeles

  ,

  examined

   the integrity of California’s mail-in ballot system amid President Trump’s claims of election fraud. Dreier and Bonin

  argued

   that California’s lengthy counting process reflects the state’s rigorous signature verification, ballot curing, and postmark deadline requirements rather than mismanagement, and that President Trump’s claims of cheating following the June 2026 Los Angeles mayoral primary were unfounded. Dreier and Bonin 

  contended

   that a greater threat to election integrity would come from a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision that could prevent states from counting ballots received after Election Day, potentially disenfranchising over 400,000 California voters. Dreier and Bonin

  recommended

   increasing funding for local election offices to speed up ballot processing rather than weakening California’s election safeguards.

• In a recent 

  report

  , the

  U.S. Governmental Accountability Office

   argued that better coordination between federal agencies is necessary to identify and serve rural American communities that currently lack access to adequate drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. Due to statutory constraints on its regulatory power, the 

  U.S. Environmental Protection Agencycan

   only collect comprehensive data on water systems that are public, have at least 15 service connections, or “regularly serve at least 25 people.” Similarly, the

  U.S. Department of Agriculture

   only 

  collects

   data necessary to manage its grants and loans. GAO contended that joint efforts such as 

  Closing America’s Wastewater Gap

  , a pilot program 

  led

  by both agencies aimed at outreach and data sharing, can bridge gaps and help identify and address infrastructure problems in communities that remain unserved.

EDITOR’S CHOICE 

• In an essay in The Regulatory Review, Mikaela Wells, Cross Conrad, and Karson Taylor evaluated the ethical considerations of FDA’s accelerated approval mechanism for life-saving medication. They considered the implications of allowing terminally ill patients to receive accelerated approval for medication without the medication going through the traditional FDA approval process. Rather than relying on the onerous, often decade-long process normally used, researchers now can look to the surrogate endpoint, a medical indicator that a treatment is “reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit,” to seek approval for a particular medicine. Critics of the policy argue that the lower standard and delays in confirmatory studies increase drug prices and may lead to an increase in unknown side effects or other poor outcomes for patients.