Elias Celebrates a Records Lawsuit Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket and chair of the Elias Law Group, celebrated the NAACP’s lawsuit against the Trump Justice Department’s plan to place roughly 1,000 federal election monitors at polling places for the November 3 midterms. In an October 5, 2026, post, Elias called the case breaking news and linked to a report from his own outlet. The lawsuit is not an order stopping the monitors. It is a Freedom of Information Act case, NAACP v. Dhillon, filed October 2 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon is the defendant in her official capacity as head of the Civil Rights Division. The applause was quick. So were the replies. https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/2107183773490065832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw DOJ Says the Monitors Are Not Armed Agents Dhillon has called the effort the largest DOJ election-observer operation in history and said the department was nearing 1,000 personnel. The monitors are being drawn from department lawyers and other trained legal staff. That would exceed the roughly 289 monitors sent during the 2022 midterms and the 714 sent during the 2024 presidential election. Dhillon also said monitors had already covered 11 states and hundreds of polling…

A Report Maps California's Parallel Benefit System California's welfare system is already enormous, and a new report says it has built a separate track for illegal immigrants. City Journal fellow Christopher Rufo, working with Kenneth Schrupp and Austen Hufford, describes the arrangement as a “shadow welfare system.” The report says the benefits can include health care, rental assistance, college grants, tax credits, low-cost car insurance, and smartphones paid for by taxpayers. Researchers visited four California welfare offices and said employees told them illegal immigrants can receive benefits or accept them on behalf of their children. The report places total subsidies for illegal immigrants at $11 billion during the previous fiscal year. That is a broad program estimate, not a claim that every recipient collects every benefit. Still, the spreadsheet is doing plenty of talking. The Benefits Can Follow Children The report's most eye-catching example involves a household with two illegal-immigrant parents, two children born in the United States, and one grandparent living in the country illegally. According to the report, that family could receive $100,000 in welfare per year. The claimed mechanism is simple: benefits may be available for eligible children even when a parent does not qualify. A Los…