Token launch exemptions
Registration exemptions for digital token offerings with disclosure and anti-fraud requirements.
August 17–23, 2026 · Sunday Edition · shadow docket
26A203
Chief Justice Roberts · Aug 21, 2026 · pending further order
Six days after the National Trust filed its response, Chief Justice John Roberts stayed Judge Richard Leon's preliminary injunction — allowing above-ground construction of the $400 million White House ballroom to continue while the Supreme Court considers the administration's emergency application.
Sources: SCOTUS — order Aug 21 · SCOTUSblog — Amy Howe
Follow-up · emergency docket · Aug 18–21
The National Trust filed its opposition on Aug. 18, urging the justices to leave Leon's injunction in place and arguing the administration's "point of no return" rhetoric was self-inflicted. Three days later, Roberts issued a one-page order staying the injunction without recorded dissent — a procedural victory for the administration that does not resolve whether Congress must authorize the 90,000-square-foot structure.
National Trust response filed; challengers argue standing and NEPA claims survive.
Roberts stays April 16 preliminary injunction pending further order.
Full Court may refer application for merits briefing or issue further shadow-docket orders.
Sources: SCOTUSblog — opposition · All Rise News — Aug 22 analysis
"IT IS ORDERED that the preliminary injunction entered on April 16, 2026 … is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court."
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. · No. 26A203 · Aug 21, 2026
DOJ · Title III · Aug 17, 2026
0–0
district court losses in the voter-roll campaign
Judge Katherine Menendez on Monday became the 23rd district judge to reject DOJ's demand for unredacted statewide voter rolls under Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960. Menendez held the statute was enacted to investigate racist election officials — not to give the attorney general a general auditing power over state voter databases — and that the Help America Vote Act already governs list maintenance.
Sources: Democracy Docket — Menendez order · Democracy Docket — new appeals
SCOTUS signal · Aug 17–18
Newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC News Sunday that appealing to the Supreme Court is "a possibility." Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon cited "very powerful dissents" after the full Sixth Circuit declined en banc rehearing in the Michigan case. DOJ filed fresh appeals in Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, and D.C. the same week.
Sources: Democracy Docket — SCOTUS strategy
Final
$0.00M
The Supreme Court on Aug. 18 denied rehearing of Trump's appeal of the E. Jean Carroll defamation verdict — without noted dissent, closing the last legal avenue to challenge the Manhattan jury's finding of sexual abuse and defamation. The judgment plus accrued interest was already disbursed from escrow after the Court's initial denial in June.
Cert petition · No. 26-223 · docketed Aug 20
Trump asked the Supreme Court to revive his defamation suit over CNN's use of the phrase "Big Lie" to describe his 2020 election challenges. The petition, filed Aug. 14 and docketed Thursday, argues the Eleventh Circuit misapplied Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. by treating the epithet as subjective opinion rather than conveying provably false factual accusations. CNN's response is due Sept. 21.
Question presented
Whether the First Amendment protects a publisher from defamation liability when it conveys provably false factual accusations through a pejorative label and accompanying inflammatory imagery.
Sources: SCOTUSblog — petition · SCOTUS — No. 26-223
Cert petition · docketed Aug 18
Florida Republicans — including Rep. Byron Donalds, the state's GOP gubernatorial nominee — asked the Supreme Court to review a Middle District of Florida ruling that dismissed their challenge to Census Bureau statistical methods they say cost Florida a congressional seat after the 2020 count. The petition invokes Utah v. Evans (2002), arguing the Eleventh Circuit erred in finding no standing because contacting 18.8 million undercounted persons is "exceedingly impracticable." The Census Bureau's response is due Sept. 17.
Eleventh Circuit
No standing — challengers failed to plausibly allege statistical methods caused Florida's undercount; remedy impracticable five years post-census.
Petitioners' theory
Utah v. Evans controls — injunction requiring recalculation could, as a practical matter, yield more favorable apportionment.
Source: SCOTUSblog — Aug 19
SEC · proposed rulemaking · Aug 18, 2026
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pages of proposed digital-asset offering rules
Token launch exemptions
Registration exemptions for digital token offerings with disclosure and anti-fraud requirements.
Decentralization safe harbor
Codifies the March 2026 joint SEC-CFTC interpretive release for teams that fully decentralize.
Broker-dealer custody
Custody treatment for digital assets held by registered broker-dealers.
Trading venue structure
Framework for regulated trading venues as Congress stalls on H.R. 3633.
The SEC published the full text one week after the Senate adjourned for August recess without voting on the CLARITY Act — filling the regulatory vacuum Chair Paul Atkins described as necessary regardless of congressional action. The 60-day comment period runs through mid-October, overlapping the Senate's Sept. 15 cloture vote on H.R. 3633.
Sources: CryptoNews — Regulation Crypto analysis · Bitcoin.com — CLARITY Act timeline
SEC Corporation Finance · Aug 14, 2026
November 2025 policy
Limited no-action responses to Rule 14a-8(i)(1) state-law challenges; "no objection" letters available with unqualified representations.
August 2026 statement
Division will not respond to any no-action requests — including 14a-8(i)(1) — or issue "no objection" letters on Rule 14a-8(j) notices.
Companies must still file Rule 14a-8(j) exclusion notices via the online Shareholder Proposal Form — but will receive no staff guidance. The Division cited resource constraints and decades of published guidance as sufficient for companies to make their own exclusion determinations.
Sources: SEC.gov — Corporation Finance statement · Morrison Foerster — analysis
"Indiana officials may disagree with the purposes behind plaintiff's speech and with the laws and policies of other states. They cannot, however, make it illegal to provide information about how to obtain a lawful abortion in other states."
Judge David F. Hamilton · 7th Cir. · Planned Parenthood of Indiana & Kentucky v. Box · Aug 18, 2026
7th Circuit · Aug 18, 2026
A unanimous panel affirmed a permanent injunction barring Indiana from penalizing Planned Parenthood for referring pregnant minors to out-of-state abortion providers. The court held that factual information and referrals are protected speech under the First Amendment — and that Indiana cannot require its parental-consent regime as a precondition to receiving information about lawful procedures elsewhere. The decision leaves intact SEA 404's aid-or-assist provision as permanently enjoined.
Sources: Indiana Capital Chronicle · 7th Cir. — No. 24-1897
4th Circuit · Aug 19, 2026
A three-judge panel upheld Judge Theodore Chuang's preliminary injunction requiring DHS to follow Biden-era "sensitive places" guidance at more than 1,400 houses of worship across 33 states and D.C. that sued over the Trump administration's reversal. The panel found congregations likely to succeed on claims that aggressive enforcement would decrease worship attendance — while Judge Agee's concurrence emphasized the injunction's narrow scope applies only to plaintiff congregations.
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houses of worship covered
33 states + D.C.
2nd Circuit · Aug 18, 2026
Established right
Keith Massimino had a First Amendment right to film the Waterbury, Connecticut police station from a public sidewalk — making the 2nd Circuit the ninth circuit to recognize the right, binding Connecticut, New York, and Vermont.
Qualified immunity
Officers who arrested Massimino in 2018 are immune because the right was not clearly established at the time — though future identical arrests will not enjoy the same protection.
Follow-up · M.D. Ala. · Aug 19–22
Beirich arraigned virtually
Former Intelligence Project Director Heidi Beirich entered no plea at her Aug. 19 arraignment on wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering charges in the broader SPLC case.
Discovery dispute escalates
SPLC moved for an order compelling DOJ to produce records of the nonprofit's decades-long cooperation with federal law enforcement — information prosecutors have declined to disclose ahead of an October trial.
Trial on horizon
Judge Emily Marks faces a motion to compel as the government's fraud case against the civil rights organization heads toward a possible Oct. 5 trial start.
Sources: CBS News — Beirich indictment · All Rise News — discovery stonewall
Awaiting order · Nos. 26A124 & 26A139
The mail-voting stay applications remain pending as of Sunday — fully briefed since Aug. 3, with the administration's Aug. 12 supplemental brief urging action before the midterm clock runs out. Unlike the ballroom application, Roberts has not yet ruled.
Source: SCOTUSblog — supplemental brief
FTC · E.D. Va. · trial opens Aug 24
$0M
The FTC's only antitrust conduct trial of 2026 opens Monday before Judge Anthony J. Trenga — testing whether Zillow's $100 million payment to become Redfin's exclusive multifamily rental listings provider was a lawful syndication deal or an illegal market exit. Five states joined the challenge; Trenga denied the FTC's motion to declare the deal presumptively unlawful in July.
Sources: Real Estate News — trial preview · Law360 — Case No. 1:25-cv-01638
State highlight · Indiana
The Seventh Circuit's Aug. 18 ruling leaves Indiana's decade-old aid-or-assist law permanently enjoined as applied to out-of-state abortion referrals — a post-Dobbs test of whether states can criminalize information about lawful procedures elsewhere. Indiana officials may still enforce in-state abortion restrictions; they cannot penalize providers for pointing minors to other jurisdictions.
Antitrust bench trial opens in E.D. Va. before Judge Trenga on the $100M Redfin syndication deal.
Earliest House action on Senate-passed continuing resolution before Oct. 1 fiscal deadline.
Third summer order list expected — mail-voting stay, ballroom merits referral, and cert grants may appear.
Three-week window before midterm campaign travel consumes floor time; CLARITY Act on calendar.
Senate cloture on motion to proceed to H.R. 3633 at 2:15 p.m. EDT — first floor test for crypto market-structure bill.
Government response deadline in USF College Republicans v. Lutnick cert petition.
CNN's brief in opposition due in Trump v. Cable News Network, Inc., No. 26-223.
Earliest trial date in DOJ fraud case against Southern Poverty Law Center, M.D. Ala.