President Donald Trump will be able to appoint another member of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, as Judge Kurt Engelhardt will take senior status.

Engelhardt, appointed to the influential and conservative federal appeals court by President Donald Trump during his first term, has told the White House of his intention to step back from the court, according to a person familiar with the correspondence.

A person who answered the phone in Engelhardt’s chambers declined to comment.

Engelhardt’s seat is based out of New Orleans, meaning Louisiana’s Republican senators may have input on whoever fills the vacancy.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is once again making waves as he bucks Democrat norms and gives the go-ahead for President Donald Trump's pick for federal judge in Pennsylvania to move forward.

Last week, the Pennsylvania member of Congress turned in his form, colloquially known as a "blue slip," to the Senate Judiciary Committee, clearing the way for Trump-nominee Antonio Pozos to move forward to possibly serve as judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, according to Reuters.

Fetterman hasn't commented on the move, and ultimately, Pozos still has to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Fetterman breaks from Dems, clears way for Trump pick to be federal judge in PA

Fetterman turned in a "blue slip" to make way for Senate consideration of Pozos, Trump's pick to serve as judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Reuters reported on June 5. The Eastern District has court locations in Allentown, Easton, Philadelphia and Reading.

In late November in Jamnagar, India, the scions of two of the most powerful families in the world stood face-to-face. On one side was 30-year-old Anant Ambani, son of one the richest men in Asia. On the other was Donald Trump Jr. For months, the Trump administration had been on the offensive against the sprawling Ambani energy empire, placing it at the center of an escalating tariff campaign against India. But after Trump Jr. touched down, the two men toured the Ambanis’ private zoo, and at night they performed a Gujarati folk dance, grinning as they moved together to the music.

Four months later, an obscure Texas startup called America First Refining announced that it had received a nine-figure investment from the Ambanis’ company. The deal puzzled numerous energy investors familiar with the project, which aims to build the first major new oil refinery in the U.S. in about 50 years. The company is run by a serial entrepreneur with a history of bankruptcy and lawsuits alleging fraud. After more than a decade of failed attempts to raise money, blown deadlines and rebrands, it had been floundering.

America First Refining’s unexpected breakthrough came after it forged a previously unreported relationship with Trump Jr., who secretly acquired a stake in the startup, according to records and seven people familiar with the company. The new details reveal the role the president’s son has played in a theme of Trump’s second term: overseas investors with interests before the administration putting money into the Trump family’s business interests.

Over the past year and a half, Trump Jr. has amassed a fortune from stakes in companies ranging from crypto startups to a drone business to a firearms retailer. Some firms tied to the president’s son have received contracts or other support from the federal government, part of what critics describe as a run of Trump family self-dealing. In December, Forbes estimated that Trump Jr.’s net worth had rocketed from roughly $50 million to $300 million since the election. But the Forbes figures were based on the investments that have been publicly disclosed. The America First Refining episode suggests there is much about the family business that remains secret.

Republican lawmakers and the state of Florida filed briefs Monday ahead of an imminent Florida Supreme Court ruling that could clear the way for the GOP to use a gerrymandered congressional map this year — and invalidate the state’s voter-approved ban on gerrymandering.

Florida voters and voting advocates are challenging the new map — which could net four more GOP seats in Congress — arguing that it violates Florida’s voter-approved Fair Districts Amendment (FDA).

But in their latest court filing, Republican state representatives argued the court should find the FDA unconstitutional and strike down the amendment, which was passed by voters in 2010, in its entirety.

Republican lawmakers insisted Monday that the court should invalidate the whole amendment, arguing “(t)he removal of one standard alters the recipe the voters approved.”

Trump administration officials earlier this year killed a federal criminal investigation into the coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia and a close ally of the president’s.

The investigation examined potential criminal violations of the Clean Water Act by the multistate mining operations largely run by Justice’s son, Jay, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter.

The criminal probe was a significant escalation in the yearslong effort to police serial pollution offenses by Virginia-based Southern Coal and dozens of affiliated mining operations controlled by the family. In the past decade, Southern Coal and other Justice corporations have racked up tens of thousands of alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and have been sued repeatedly by state and federal prosecutors over their failure to properly follow environmental laws at their mining sites.

The investigation shuttered by the Trump administration was a joint effort by prosecutors and investigators with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Virginia to probe whether the incessant violations of antipollution laws had risen to the level of criminal behavior, people familiar with the matter said.

People familiar with the investigation told ProPublica that prosecutors believed they had a strong case. They initially had the blessing of Robert Tracci, President Donald Trump’s top official in the Western District of Virginia, to move forward.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has ended his campaign for Florida governor after announcing he is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

Demings was one of only two Democrats who had been polling competitively against likely Republican nominee Byron Donalds in recent independent surveys.

The decision reshapes the Democratic field and leaves former Congressman David Jolly as the party's most prominent remaining contender, potentially shifting how undecided voters and strategists approach the race.

Demings revealed his diagnosis during his final State of the County address, saying he would suspend his campaign to focus on his health. "I received some bad news from my doctor, who confirmed that I have prostate cancer," he said, according to local station WKMG, adding that he intends to complete his term as Orange County mayor before leaving office in November. His exit removes a well‑known Central Florida figure from a race that had already shown signs of being more competitive than Florida's recent statewide elections.

Pro-voting groups asked the Florida Supreme Court Thursday to block the state’s new GOP congressional gerrymander and let the 2026 elections move forward under the 2022 map, warning that Republican officials are trying to run out the clock before voters can get relief.

The emergency filing marks a dramatic escalation in the fight over Florida’s 2026 congressional map, which voting rights advocates say was drawn to lock in Republican power before the midterms.

The petitioners* are asking the state Supreme Court to step in now — before congressional qualifying begins Monday — after lower courts refused to stop the map from being used this cycle.

“This petition presents a simple question: whether Florida’s political branches can openly defy the Florida Constitution and escape judicial review for an entire election cycle simply by attempting to run out the clock,” the petitioners wrote. “The answer from this Court should be a resounding no.”

At issue is Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment, the anti-gerrymandering reform voters approved in 2010 to stop politicians from drawing congressional districts to benefit themselves or their party.

The petitioners argue that the 2026 map was drawn in open defiance of that constitutional protection and that the Florida Supreme Court must act before the election calendar makes meaningful relief impossible.