Stephen Dinan
Articles by Stephen Dinan
Scammer who shut down Iraqi refugee program gets three years in prison
An Iraqi national whose fraud scheme caused the U.S. government to shut down a critical lifeline for Iraqi refugees was sentenced to a little more than three years in prison. Published June 27, 2022
Supreme Court justices apply originalism as test for constitutional challenges on abortion, guns
The Constitution became a little simpler with last week's decisions on guns and abortion, as the Supreme Court's conservative wing pared back decades of legal rule-making and declared that the founding document means what it says -- and only that. Published June 26, 2022
Abortion dissenters warn same-sex marriage, contraceptive rights could go next
Americans should fear what comes next, the three dissenting justices wrote Friday in excoriating the Supreme Court's ruling overturning nearly 50 years of abortion precedent. Published June 24, 2022
Trump: ‘I delivered’ Roe abortion victory with court picks
Former President Donald Trump said Friday that the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision establishing a national right to abortion because he was able to install three nominees on the bench during his term in office. Published June 24, 2022
Chief Justice Roberts strikes own path on abortion ruling
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. paved his own path in Friday's abortion ruling, siding with his fellow GOP-appointed justices in backing Mississippi's 15-week ban as constitutional, but saying he would not have gone as far as his colleagues did in unraveling all of Roe v. Wade. Published June 24, 2022
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, national abortion right
The Supreme Court on Friday overruled the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which gave women a national right to an abortion. Published June 24, 2022
Up to 33% of ICE catch-and-release migrants abscond: GAO audit
ICE's catch-and-release program has a high failure rate, according to a new government audit released Wednesday that found up to one-third of migrants abscond before their time is up. Published June 22, 2022
Backlog is ‘still crushing’ IRS, agency’s taxpayer advocate tells Congress
The IRS backlog has grown worse over the last year and millions of returns filed on paper this year have yet to be touched by the agency, the country's official taxpayer advocate told Congress in a new report Wednesday. Published June 22, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: ICE officers demand freedom from AFL-CIO over mismanagement, ‘defund the police’ stance
The National ICE Council says its members are sick of being labeled "Nazis" and racists by fellow unionists and is filing charges with the Labor Department to seek financial autonomy from its parent unions, the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Government Employees. Published June 21, 2022
House GOP says Biden’s border wall halt is ‘illegal’ as delay tops 500 days
At some point President Biden's delay in building any significant new sections of border wall will cross the line into being an illegal obstruction, congressional Republicans warned in a letter Tuesday to the White House demanding answers about the stall. Published June 21, 2022
Supreme Court rules religious schools can access taxpayer dollars
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Maine's tuition program allowing state funds to go only to nonreligious schools runs afoul of the First Amendment. Published June 21, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Unprecedented’ upheaval in immigration courts from Biden’s bid to reshape the agency
The Biden administration has been quietly packing the nation's immigration courts, ousting Trump-hired judges and installing judges deemed to be friendlier to the immigrants whose cases they hear, in what one Justice Department official called an "unprecedented" injection of politics into the courts. Published June 20, 2022
U.S. Marshals case puts spotlight on police cellphone tracking
The cellphone tracking tool that a federal agent allegedly used to track a former girlfriend may have been scuttled, but analysts say they fear police have even more invasive technology. Published June 19, 2022
Michael Avenatti pleads guilty to more charges of bilking clients
Michael Avenatti, the high-flying anti-Trump lawyer brought low by his criminal misdeeds, pleaded guilty Thursday to another set of charges related to bilking the IRS and embezzling money from clients. Published June 16, 2022
Border Patrol catches record number on terrorist list
Border Patrol agents recorded nabbing 15 illegal immigrants in May whose names popped a flag in Homeland Security's terrorism screening database, according to data released by Homeland Security this week that showed the free-for-all at the southern border continues unabated. Published June 16, 2022
Biden sets new monthly record for illegal border jumpers
Border authorities nabbed nearly 240,000 illegal immigrants at the southern border in May, according to numbers released late Wednesday that show the month marked a new record level of chaos for the Biden administration. Published June 15, 2022
Justices duck ruling on Trump’s ‘public charge’ policy for immigrants
The Supreme Court backed away from a case involving the Trump administration's attempt to impose a stricter financial test on would-be immigrants, with the justices ruling Wednesday that the matter became too muddied to offer a ruling at this time. Published June 15, 2022
Democrats propose marijuana amnesty for immigrants
Congressional Democrats have proposed an amnesty for immigrants with a history of marijuana use, saying those records should not be used to prevent them from gaining a more permanent legal status. Published June 15, 2022
Obama’s DACA decision reverberates 10 years after the announcement
When President Obama strode into the Rose Garden 10 years ago Wednesday to announce the DACA program, he knew it was momentous. But he couldn't have predicted just how much change it would bring. Published June 14, 2022
Feds ‘nowhere near’ understanding scope of pandemic fraud
The Secret Service has "hundreds" of investigations into international criminal syndicates suspected of stealing taxpayers' money from pandemic relief programs, the agency's top coronavirus official told Congress on Tuesday. But he and other federal investigators also said they can't yet say how much of the trillions of dollars paid out in relief was fraudulent. Published June 14, 2022
