October 1, 2026 — Court Watch / Today’s News The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) announced on October 1 that it had filed a federal lawsuit challenging New York City’s Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) certification program. The organization alleges that race- and sex-based certification requirements and contracting benefits violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s…
October 1, 2026 — Court Watch The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on October 1 to hear Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, No. 26-104, a dispute over whether federal immigration law requires detention without a bond hearing for people present in the United States without having been admitted, including people arrested in the interior years after…
Filed: September 30, 2026Reported: October 1, 2026Procedural status: Multistate lawsuit filed; no court ruling on the claims. California and six other states—Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon—filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s withholding of congressionally appropriated funds, including approximately $810 million targeted in a late-fiscal-year rescission request. The case was filed…
Decision issued: September 29, 2026Publicly reported: September 30, 2026Procedural status: Immigration-court removability ruling. Salah Sarsour has not been deported. Further proceedings concerning his fear of torture and a planned appeal remain pending. An immigration judge has ruled that Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, is removable from the United States on foreign-policy…
Event and filing date: September 30, 2026Reported: September 30, 2026, 1:33 p.m. CentralProcedural status: Settled; parties filed a joint dismissal. No court finding of discrimination. Settlement terms have not been publicly reported. McDermott Will & Schulte has resolved a racial-discrimination and retaliation lawsuit brought by former associate Ashley Ogedegbe. Attorneys for both parties filed a…
Event: September 29, 2026Reported: September 29, 2026, approximately 7:45 p.m. CentralProcedural status: Judge announced termination of federal monitoring and the consent decree at a court hearing; a final written order is reportedly forthcoming. U.S. District Judge William Orrick announced the end of 23 years of federal oversight of the Oakland Police Department. The monitoring arose…
Filed: September 29, 2026Reported: September 30, 2026Procedural status: Federal subpoena-enforcement proceeding; no finding of discrimination has been made. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to compel Harvard University to produce records for an investigation into alleged systemic race- and sex-based employment discrimination. EEOC Chair…
Decision date: September 28, 2026 Procedural status: Published appellate ruling reversing summary judgment on two hostile-work-environment claims and returning them to the district court. This is not a finding that Seattle discriminated or that the allegations are true. What the court decided A unanimous Ninth Circuit panel ruled that former Seattle Human Services Department employee…
Decision and publication date: September 29, 2026Procedural status: Temporary Supreme Court stay pending full review—not a final merits ruling. Oral arguments are expected in December. Summary The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without the notice and opportunity to raise country-specific persecution or torture…
