Today in One Sentence. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to let it enforce new mail-in voting restrictions ahead of the midterms; a Missouri Supreme Court unanimously blocked the state’s new Republican-drawn congressional map from being used in the midterm elections; a federal judge blocked Trump’s second attempt to restrict birthright citizenship; the Justice Department threatened to withhold federal funding from states that don’t report undocumented immigrants; a federal grand jury indicted an ICE officer for lying to the FBI about shooting a Venezuelan man in the leg in Minnesota; the Treasury Department and IRS proposed stripping tax-exempt status from schools if they consider race in admissions, scholarships, financial aid, athletics, or other programs; JD Vance downplayed Trump’s seven-month war in Iran, saying he wouldn’t describe it as “a war” because “right now there’s no active shooting”; and 89% of Americans say corruption is widespread in the U.S. government.

1/ The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to let it enforce new mail-in voting restrictions ahead of the midterms. Last week, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani blocked the Postal Service rule that would require states to submit lists of mail-ballot voters and use approved envelopes with unique barcodes. The rule also lets the agency refuse delivery of ballots that don’t comply. Talwani, however, said the rule was likely unconstitutional and warned that it could cause “major disenfranchisement.” (Politico / Reuters / CNN / CBS News / Bloomberg / New York Times

2/ The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously blocked the state’s new Republican-drawn congressional map from being used in the midterm elections. The map was redrawn at Trump’s request outside the usual once-a-decade cycle and designed to improve Republicans’ chances of picking up a House seat. The court, however, placed the new districts on hold after citizens submitted more than 300,000 signatures seeking a referendum and that the redrawn map won’t “go into effect and will not go into effect unless and until approved by the voters.” Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said she will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Associated Press / St. Louis Public Radio / NBC News / New York Times / CBS News)

3/ A federal judge blocked Trump’s second attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, ruling that his August executive order is “almost certainly unconstitutional.” U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman accused the administration of adopting a “distorted interpretation” of the Supreme Court’s June decision that struck down Trump’s 2025 executive order that denied citizenship to children born to parents who were in the U.S. temporarily or unlawfully. “No Presidential Executive Order can undo what the Supreme Court has done,” Boardman wrote. Attorney General Todd Blanche maintained that the administration will continue fighting the case and “if we have to go back to the Supreme Court, we will.” (Washington Post / CBS News / New York Times / NBC News / CNN / Bloomberg)

4/ The Justice Department threatened to withhold federal funding from states that don’t report undocumented immigrants. The Office of Legal Counsel reversed a 1998 interpretation that limited the reporting requirement to agencies administering Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Supplemental Security Income. It extends the requirement to every state agency when a state accepts funding for either program, and applies only to future funding. (CNBC / CNN)

5/ A federal grand jury indicted an ICE officer for lying to the FBI about shooting a Venezuelan man in the leg in Minnesota. Christian Castro faces six counts of making false statements to federal officials. Federal prosecutors had initially charged the man Castro shot and another man with assaulting officers, but later dropped the charges after video evidence contradicted the officers’ account. It’s the first known federal prosecution of an immigration officer for conduct during the Trump administration’s Minneapolis immigration operation. (Politico / NPR / New York Times / Washington Post / CNN / Associated Press)

6/ The Treasury Department and IRS proposed stripping tax-exempt status from schools if they consider race in admissions, scholarships, financial aid, athletics, or other programs. The rules would apply to private schools, colleges, and universities and the agencies estimate as many as 18,000 institutions could be affected. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said schools “rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature.” The proposal, however, doesn’t detail exactly what practices the administration would consider discriminatory. (Washington Post / New York Times / ABC News / Politico / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg)

7/ JD Vance downplayed Trump’s seven-month war in Iran, saying he wouldn’t describe it as “a war” because “right now there’s no active shooting.” The U.S. and Iran, however, exchanged strikes earlier this week. When asked when the conflict would end, Vance replied that “the reality is I don’t know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians.” Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly called the conflict a war, including earlier today. (Reuters / New York Times / Bloomberg / Washington Post)

poll/ 89% of Americans say corruption is widespread in the U.S. government – up 10 percentage points from last year and the highest level recorded in two decades. (Gallup)

⏰ Dept. of I Ran Out of Time Today: House Democrats blocked a Republican-proposed constitutional amendment to limit the Supreme Court to nine justices; Elon Musk plans to spend at least $100 million in more than a dozen competitive House and Senate races; Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are investigating whether any troops died from Covid-19 vaccines; the U.S. Forest Service is closing 23 research and development stations in more than a dozen states; Trump floated renaming the Strait of Hormuz to the “TRUMP STRAIT”; the U.S. Mint started selling gold-color $1 Trump coins for between about $1.55 and $2.44 apiece, depending on quantity; and Gloria Steinem, the journalist and activist who devoted her life to fighting for women’s rights, died at 92.

The 2026 midterms are in 61 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 796 days.