January 2

Sunrise Wind and Revolution Wind file lawsuits challenging Interior Department stop-work orders

Sunrise Wind LLC, the developer of an offshore wind project approximately 30 miles east of Long Island, filed a lawsuit in January 2026 challenging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's December 2025 order suspending work on the project. Revolution Wind LLC filed a similar complaint. The lawsuits asserted claims under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, alleging that the orders posed immediate threats to energy, environmental, and public health benefits the projects would generate. Sunrise Wind had received over 20 approvals from relevant federal, state, and local agencies and had spent or committed over $7 billion to develop the project, which was nearly 45% complete. The lawsuits challenged Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's July 29, 2025 Secretarial Order implementing a presidential memorandum that required the Interior Assistant Secretary to provide a report on the effects of taxpayer-funded subsidies on the wind industry.

Biden approves disaster aid for the Native Village of Kipnuk after August 2024 storm and flooding

President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for the Native Village of Kipnuk on January 2, 2025, after a severe storm and flooding hit the Tribal Nation from August 16 to August 18, 2024. The declaration made federal funding available to the Native Village of Kipnuk and certain private nonprofits for emergency work and repair or replacement of damaged facilities. It also made hazard-mitigation funding available for the Tribal Nation. The action mattered because tribal disaster declarations recognize a Tribal Nation’s direct relationship with the federal government and can unlock recovery support without routing every request through a state government.

Harvard President Claudine Gay resigns after coordinated plagiarism and DEI backlash campaign

Harvard University accepted President Claudine Gay's resignation, making her the shortest-serving Harvard president in the university's history. Gay had come under fire at the December 2023 congressional hearing. The campaign against her combined plagiarism allegations — amplified heavily by conservative activist Christopher Rufo — with criticism rooted in opposition to her identity as a Black woman appointed through what critics called a DEI-driven process. Academic integrity experts noted that many of the plagiarism allegations involved citation issues far below the threshold normally applied in tenure or misconduct reviews. The coordinated nature of the campaign — using congressional pressure, institutional donor calls, and media amplification — established a replicable model for removing university leaders through political rather than academic processes.

FDA bans flavored pod-based vapes but exempts menthol

The FDA issued enforcement guidance on January 2, 2020, prohibiting the manufacture and distribution of fruit- and mint-flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes, acting under pressure from parent groups, pediatricians, and Congress. However, the policy exempted menthol-flavored pods and all open-system "tank" devices, a carve-out that critics said undermined the policy's public health rationale. The guidance was issued as regulatory policy rather than formal rulemaking, limiting its legal durability.

Palmer raids deport 556 radicals during the first Red Scare

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, working with J. Edgar Hoover's General Intelligence Division, launched coordinated raids on November 7, 1919 and January 2, 1920, arresting up to 10,000 suspected anarchists and communists across 36 cities. The Justice Department deported 556 foreign nationals, including Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, aboard a ship the press dubbed the "Soviet Ark," invoking the Immigration Act of 1918 to remove noncitizens for political beliefs. Acting Secretary of Labor Louis Post reversed more than 70 percent of deportation warrants, exposing the raids' lack of legal foundation. The episode established a precedent that immigration law could be weaponized against political dissidents lacking citizenship.