Today in One Sentence. A federal judge permanently blocked Trump from enforcing an executive order that would’ve required proof of citizenship to register to vote and forced mail ballots to be received by Election Day; a federal appeals court blocked Trump’s Justice Department from obtaining Michigan’s unredacted voter rolls; Trump abruptly canceled the signing ceremony for a major bipartisan housing affordability bill, saying he won’t sign it until Congress passes the SAVE America Act; Trump berated Senate Republicans for voting to block him from continuing his war with Iran without congressional authorization; Trump asked Congress for $87.6 billion in emergency spending for his Iran war; a federal judge temporarily blocked the Justice Department from obtaining six years of transgender patients’ medical records; and 77% of Americans say the founders would be disappointed with how the country has turned out.

1/ A federal judge permanently blocked Trump from enforcing an executive order that would’ve required proof of citizenship to register to vote and forced mail ballots to be received by Election Day. U.S. District Judge Denise Casper ruled that the Constitution gives election authority to states and Congress, not the president, and said the Justice Department failed to support Trump’s claims of “widespread illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error.” The order also would have blocked states from counting mail ballots that arrive after Election Day even if postmarked on time, and threatened to withhold federal money from states that refused to comply. Separately, the Supreme Court is expected to decide whether 14 states can keep counting postmarked mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. (ABC News / Associated Press / NBC News)

2/ A federal appeals court blocked Trump’s Justice Department from obtaining Michigan’s unredacted voter rolls, ruling that the DOJ can’t use the 1960 Civil Rights Act to demand a state-created voter file containing personal data like partial Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and birth dates. Judge Andre Mathis wrote that the government once used the law “to ensure that everyone who had the right to vote could freely exercise that right,” but now invokes it “for an inverse purpose – to ensure that some people have not voted.” The 2-1 decision is the Trump administration’s first appellate court loss in its effort to obtain the voter lists from 30 states and D.C. The administration has also lost all nine trial-court rulings so far. Meanwhile, Postmaster General David Steiner told senators that, under a proposed Trump rule, USPS would restrict delivery of mail ballots in states that don’t provide voter lists. Democrats called the plan an attempt to coerce states into handing over election data before the November midterms. (Reuters / CNN / Politico / Democracy Docket)

3/ Trump abruptly canceled the signing ceremony for a major bipartisan housing affordability bill, saying he won’t sign it until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, an unrelated elections bill that Senate Republicans say doesn’t have the votes to pass. The housing bill, meant to boost supply, lower costs, and limit institutional investors from buying up single-family homes, cleared the House 358-32 and the Senate 85-5, enough to override a veto. Nevertheless, Trump posted on social media that “Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT,” calling it a “National Emergency” while dismissing the largest piece of housing legislation in decades as “of minor importance.” Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have repeatedly told Trump they won’t eliminate the filibuster and they don’t have enough votes to pass his elections bill, which would impose new proof-of-citizenship and voter ID requirements and restrict mail voting. (New York Times / NPR / Axios / Washington Post / Politico / CBS News / NBC News / Reuters / CNBC)

4/ Trump berated Senate Republicans for voting to block him from continuing his war with Iran without congressional authorization. Sen. Bill Cassidy got into a shouting match with Trump after Trump asked why any Republican would back the war powers resolution. “You have not told the American people what’s going on,” Cassidy said, adding that the war “was supposed to last four weeks,” but its “lasted four months” and that “our original objectives have not been achieved.” Trump “did not particularly care for my comments” and “raised his voice,” Cassidy said, so he “matched his tone and his volume,” later adding: “I’m not going to be bullied” and “I am voting for war powers until I get a briefing.” Sen. John Kennedy described Trump as “mad as a murder hornet” about the vote, while Sen. Roger Marshall compared the meeting to “a hospital board meeting, when a bunch of doctors are yelling at each other.” Trump, meanwhile, called it a “really great meeting,” saying “We like everybody really in the room – I don’t like a few people, but that’s OK.” (Associated Press / CNN / The Guardian / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Reuters / CBS News / Politico / Bloomberg)

5/ Trump asked Congress for $87.6 billion in emergency spending for his Iran war. The request would send $67.1 billion to the Pentagon, including $21 billion to replace missiles used in the Iran war, $17.3 billion for operations, and $12.1 billion for classified programs. The package also includes $2.4 billion for drones and $5.1 billion for cybersecurity. The White House also bundled in about $11 billion for farmers, $1.4 billion for Ebola response, $1 billion for Penn Station, and $500 million for Washington, D.C. construction. However, the request has no clear path through the Senate where it needs 60 votes and nearly all Democrats oppose funding a war Trump started without congressional authorization. Sen. Patty Murray called it an attempt to make taxpayers “pick up the tab” for a “reckless and costly war.” (CNBC / Politico / New York Times)

  • Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate oil companies for price “gouging” consumers at the pump. The Justice Department, however, declined to say whether it would open a probe, saying fuel affordability is a “national security issue” that affects “the wallet of every American.” The national average gas price is about $3.93 a gallon, down from roughly $4.50 a month ago, but still about 70 cents higher than last year. U.S. crude, meanwhile, has fallen back near $70 a barrel after peaking near $120 in March. (Politico / Axios / NBC News)

6/ A federal judge temporarily blocked the Justice Department from obtaining six years of transgender patients’ medical records, ruling that the grand jury subpoenas likely violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Judge Katherine Polk Failla said the demand for the “most sensitive medical records” of a “uniquely vulnerable group” was “most egregious,” accusing the Trump administration of trying to “demonize and eradicate an entire population of transgender” people. Failla granted class-action status to the patients and families, issued a 14-day restraining order, and set a July 8 hearing on whether to keep blocking the subpoenas. The Justice Department, meanwhile, claimed it was investigating possible “misbranding” of FDA-approved drugs. (Associated Press / Reuters / NBC News)

😏 Well, that’s fantastic. The House advanced a bill to prohibit members of Congress and their families from using prediction markets to bet on politics. (Politico)

poll/ 77% of Americans say the founders would be disappointed with how the country has turned out, while 19% say they’d be pleased. (Gallup)

The 2026 midterms are in 132 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 867 days.