Democrat representative Ilhan Omar faces a widening federal criminal probe. Litigation over DOGE records goes to the Supreme Court. A federal judge harshly rebuked the Trump Administration for making improvements to a golf course. And we highlight two important cases involving a Florida law protecting minors from addictive social media and California’s attempt to micromanage federal law enforcement officers.
The Ilhan Omar probe widens
The New York Post reports that relatives of Minnesota Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar have been “issued subpoenas as part of the federal probe into the Somalia-born congresswoman’s immigration paperwork.” One of these subpoenas was issued to Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, who runs a consulting firm that has secured “more than $20 million in funding for health initiatives and consulted on projects backed by” U.S. Government agencies.
These subpoenas follow the search of Omar’s D.C. home by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which “stems from a criminal fraud investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman’s immigration paperwork, which was filled out by her late father when she was a child.” Omar’s father was a colonel “in the truly genocidal army of Somali dictator Siad Barre.” It is suspected that her father, who died in 2020, lied about his background to secure U.S. citizenship.
Omar has her own immigration concerns. Her staff “helped her get her birthdate changed” after Omar was elected to Congress in 2018 to allegedly “secure US citizens citizenship.” Immigrations and Customers Enforcement (ICE) has interviewed journalist and attorney Scott Johnson of Powerlineblog back in January of 2026. According to Johnson, ICE was interested in Omar’s father and her “marriage to her brother,” which has long been documented by Powerlineblog and David Steinberg. After years of public outcry over Omar, it seems the federal government has finally taken notice.
DOGE goes to the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court will review whether a federal district court may order broad discovery against the U.S. DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) Service to determine whether DOGE is subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). [FOIA is important for transparency in government, but costs a fortune to implement and is a huge paid for agencies to deal with. Anyone can file a FOIA request. I’m sure DOGE would be more efficient without it, but it could be very interesting to get a glimpse behind the curtain. It’s a mixed bag.]
This case – U.S. Doge Service v. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia – arises out of a FOIA request submitted to DOGE. The district court allowed for extensive discovery into the DOGE operations, including all directives to its employees, personal details of its employees, and a deposition of the DOGE Administrator. The district court ordered this discovery for the purpose of determining whether DOGE was an “agency” that is subject to FOIA. The D.C. Circuit mostly upheld this order, even after the Supreme Court previously intervened and ordered the D.C. Circuit to “narrow” discovery.
To the Trump Administration, the burdensome discovery into the inner-workings of DOGE – which serves as an advisory body for the President – “implicates the separations of powers,” threatens the autonomy of the Executive Branch, and risks ending “Presidential confidentiality” that has been protected for generations. It also orders that DOGE does not meet the definition of an “agency” under FOIA and is thus exempt from FOIA requests. We expect the Supreme Court to agree.
The fight over East Potomac Golf Course
United States District Court Judge Ana Reyes has granted a temporary restraining order that prohibits the Trump Administration from removing any trees from the East Potomac Golf Course. She also ordered that the Government must provide advance notice “prior to making any irreparable modification to any permanent form or feature of the East Potomac Golf Course.” In support of that order, she found that the Trump Administration likely failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.
This comes after the National Park Service removed approximately 430 trees from East Potomac as part of the Trump Administration’s effort to renovate the course. This led to a fiery hearing on October 12, where Judge Reyes “screamed” at Government lawyers and told them they had “lost credibility” for not informing the Court of the plans to remove those trees.
Many of these trees were not part of the original design of the course but instead had slowly encroached on the property over time. Their removal is part of a larger renovation plan, led by renowned golf course architect Tom Fazio, that will improve this neglected golf course and make it worthy of championship-level events. For now, that renovation will remain on hold as the Trump Administration will likely appeal this decision. [So for now, a federal judge is controlling a golf course!]
In other news:
In a 3-0 opinion, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Florida law that “imposes age-restriction requirements” on social-media platforms “that use addictive features” such as endless scrolling and push notifications. The Eleventh Circuit reasoned that the Florida law, though it implicates the First Amendment, “advances an important state interest” in protecting minors and that the law is “appropriately tailored” to advancing that interest.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals enjoined [stopped] the State of California from requiring federal law enforcement officers to “visibly display identification” while performing law enforcement duties. In its 3-0 opinion, the Ninth Circuit held that the United States Government was “certain to succeed” in its challenge to that law because under the Supremacy Clause to the Constitution, a state may not “regulate the United States in its performance of governmental functions.”
