The Justice Department has filed lawsuits against both California and Virginia over the states’ gun restrictions. On Wednesday, the Justice Department sued to stop California’s newly enacted ban on Glocks, a popular handgun. The California law that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in June would ban the retail purchase of common handguns manufactured by Glock and other guns with similar firing mechanisms. The federal lawsuit also seeks to stop enforcement of the state’s “Handgun Roster” of limited legal firearms available for purchase. “The Second Amendment is a sacred right belonging to all Americans, even those in California,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “California cannot ban the most popular type of handgun in America. We will work to stop this blatant trampling of our rights by the California government to protect the rights of lawful gun owners.” Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who also served as the state’s U.S. senator and attorney general, said during her 2024 presidential campaign that she owned a Glock. Newsom spokeswoman Diana Crofts-Pelayo said, “The Trump administration is once again trying to dismantle California’s commonsense gun safety laws.” “These laws save lives. California has proven that strong, evidence-based gun safety measures can reduce gun violence while respecting the rights of responsible gun owners,” Crofts-Pelayo told the Daily Signal in an email statement. “That’s why we have one of the lowest gun death rates in America and historically low crime rates across the board. We won’t be intimidated by another politically motivated lawsuit. We’ll continue defending the laws that protect Californians and keep dangerous weapons off our streets.” The Justice Department also filed a lawsuit against Virginia and the Virginia State Police over the state’s ban on purchases of high-capacity semiautomatic weapons, such as the AR-15 rifle. “On April 10, I promised Gov. Spanberger that we would sue Virginia if she signed this unconstitutional weapons ban into law. I keep my promises,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement. “Law-abiding Americans should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction for simply exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms owned by millions of their fellow citizens,” Dhillon added. The lawsuits follow a Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment and 14th Amendment protect the right to carry handguns in public accommodations, in a case that came out of Hawaii. The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would be hearing a case in its next session about whether state or local governments can ban semiautomatic rifles such as AR-15s. Spokespersons for neither Newsom nor California Attorney General Rob Bonta responded to the Daily Signal for this story by publication time. Spokespersons for neither Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger nor Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones responded to inquiries from the Daily Signal by publication time.

A Texas congressman who co-founded the Sharia Free America Caucus is introducing legislation aimed at preventing foreign customs and religious laws from conflicting with the U.S. Constitution. The Daily Signal has learned that Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, is introducing the Preserving Our Constitution Act to prohibit federal courts and adjudicative bodies from recognizing or enforcing foreign or religious laws, customs, or practices that conflict with the Constitution or federal law. According to the bill text obtained by the Daily Signal, its purpose is to protect “the individual rights and liberties guaranteed and protected by the Constitution of the United States of America.” A press release from Self’s office shared with the Daily Signal claims the legislation would reinforce constitutional liberties by identifying practices deemed incompatible with American legal principles. Those include forced or underage marriage, polygamy, female genital mutilation, restrictions on speech, religion, or religious conversion, discriminatory treatment based on sex, religion, ethnicity, or caste, and punishments prohibited under the Eighth Amendment. Furthermore, the bill would also seek to protect constitutional rights in international litigation by preventing courts from dismissing cases in favor of foreign jurisdictions unless those jurisdictions provide adequate due process and equal protection safeguards. Self argues that existing federal law lacks sufficient safeguards against the enforcement of foreign or religious legal systems that could interfere with constitutional protections. “The Constitution is the supreme law of the land,” Self told the Daily Signal in a written statement. “Any legal or political doctrine that places itself above the Constitution threatens the stability and unity of the nation, and that’s exactly what Sharia Law does.” “The rule of law requires one standard that applies to every person,” Self continued. “The Constitution provides that standard. Allowing any competing legal system would erode the authority of the courts, weaken the protection of individual rights, and fracture our country.” Self’s bill adds that the legislation serves as a reminder of the responsibility elected officials have to preserve the constitutional freedoms handed down by the nation’s founders. “The role of elected officials of the United States is to secure and protect for its citizens as well as subsequent generations the liberties provided to us by our Founders,” the bill reads. The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Clay Higgins, R-La., Scott Perry, R-Pa., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., Barry Moore, R-Ala., and Pat Harrigan, R-N.C. Recently, Self and his colleague Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, founded the Sharia Free America Caucus to make Americans aware of the rise of Islam and Sharia Law in the United States. “We are educating ourselves, and our constituents, and our wider audience,” Self previously told the Daily Signal. “Islam is going to go on the offensive, because they think they got the upper hand.”

Almost all of Virginia remains under a drought advisory ahead of the hot July 4 holiday weekend. Rainfall earlier this week provided some relief in central regions of the state, but it wasn’t enough to bring stream and groundwater levels back to anywhere near normal. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality warned that “precipitation is approximately 8.5 inches below normal on average throughout the state for the water year, which began on Oct. 1, 2025.” In response to the dry weather, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula announced that the city will implement voluntary conservation measures. “Everybody’s got to do their part to keep the water levels where we need them,” he said on WWBT. “If the James River flow drops below 750 cubic feet per second over 14 days, we’ll have to take the next step” to reduce water use. The river is currently running at about 1,200 cubic feet per second. Henrico County officials said they are releasing 64 million gallons of water per day from the Cobbs Creek reservoir to maintain supplies. Other counties, including Louisa and Caroline, have already imposed mandatory water-use restrictions. “As communities across the Commonwealth—particularly in Southside and Central Virginia—continue to be impacted by these conditions, it is important that we take commonsense steps to meet this challenge,” Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced in mid-June. “All Virginians can play a role in protecting our water supply during this historic dry period,” the worst since 1941. In Northern Virginia, parts of Fairfax are in a severe drought, but county leaders urged Spanberger to exempt the Potomac River if she decides to declare a state of emergency. While the Potomac, like most streams in the region, remains near a record low. Still, “we support Fairfax Water’s request for the Potomac River to be excluded from any statewide drought declaration, as to avoid unnecessary hardship for millions of Northern Virginia residents and businesses,” the chair of the Board of Supervisors, Jeff McKay, wrote in a letter to the governor. Amid the drought, forecasters warned that dangerous heat and humidity is expected in Virginia throughout the holiday weekend. Thursday and Friday are expected to set temperature records. In the longer-term forecast, a developing El Niño may bring slightly cooler temperatures in the months ahead and may also make for a less severe hurricane season this fall. The Virginia Drought Monitoring Task Force will meet again on Tuesday, July 7 to update its reports.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Ahead of midterm elections that will determine which party controls the Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is launching an ad series targeting Senate Democrats for choosing illegal immigrants over working American families. The new ads will run across key battleground states, including Ohio, Michigan, Alaska, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Georgia. The latest to drop targets Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for reelection in the U.S. Senate representing Georgia. “Democrats wanted to tax Americans’ hard-earned tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits in order to protect taxpayer-funded benefits like free health care for illegal aliens,” NRSC National Press Secretary Bernadette Breslin told the Daily Signal. “Under Joe Biden, Democrats let in millions of illegal immigrants, straining resources, putting communities at risk, and [Georgia Sen.] Jon Ossoff chose them over you, voting to increase taxes on working class families by $250 per month to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants,” a narrator says in a new ad. The narrator concludes, “Dangerous criminals got the benefits you earned and now Jon Ossoff wants your vote again? No way.” Last July, Ossoff voted against a Republican-crafted budget bill that prevented the expiration of tax cuts enacted during Trump’s first term. Ossoff is seeking reelection in a state President Donald Trump won in 2024. The senator was first elected in 2020, unseating incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue by a one-point margin. While Ossoff ran unopposed in the Democrat primary, Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., won the Republican nomination in June, with President Donald Trump’s endorsement. The two will go head-to-head in November in a race that could determine the upper chamber majority. Ossoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The socialist wave tearing through Democratic Party bastions washed through Colorado Tuesday night. Establishment Democrats fell to insurgent leftist candidates and even Sen. John Hickenlooper barely staved off a challenge from his left flank. An undeniable pattern is emerging that extends well beyond New York City. The Democrat base demands a more militant, open declaration of commitment to socialist ideals. Putting forward “moderate” candidates who will deliver left-wing policies once in power just isn’t going to cut it with them anymore. Just as importantly, a pathological obsession with hating Israel has become a litmus test in cases where there are two left-wing candidates for office. The boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel that’s all the rage on college campuses is fast becoming mainstream Democrat policy. The out and proud socialist Melat Kiros who ousted longtime incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette in the race for a Colorado House seat is a good example of that. DeGette is hardly a moderate. She’s been a member of the House Progressive Caucus. That wasn’t good enough for her constituents. DeGette has also defended Israel’s right to defend itself, a big no-no apparently. Kiros, a 29-year-old Ethiopian immigrant and former lawyer, promoted a bevy of leftwing positions on the campaign trail, like abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and promoting amnesty for all illegal immigrants. But her passion is clearly hating Israel. Kiros was fired from her corporate law job because she signed onto an open letter defending pro-Hamas protesters following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. She has previously called the attack an “an inevitable consequence of apartheid, of occupation, decades of occupation,” by Israel and refused to back away from the statement. “It’s about understanding the conditions in which violence and war happen, right?” Kiros said in an interview with Next9News. “Israel is a country that has been accused of apartheid and occupation for decades now and has been able to resist any kind of change despite all of the frustration on the world stage that people have had for the conditions that Palestinians have been living in.” She made it clear in her victory speech Tuesday night, that she won’t “flinch” in commitment to her anti-Israel views. Recalling how she was fired from her law firm after refusing to remove a letter defending pro-Palestinian student protesters, Melat Kiros said, “I didn’t flinch because I stood by every word and I always will.”She added: “I know that will not be the only moment where those… pic.twitter.com/iI41zQp5wn— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 1, 2026 It should be no surprise that on top of her dedication to opposing Israel, Kiros also has a deep streak of anti-Americanism. She said that the terrorist attack on 9/11 was the “inevitable consequence” of U.S. foreign policy. “Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,” Kiros said in the Next9News interview. Kiros, like the hordes of other socialists who’ve triumphed over Democrat establishment candidates as of late, made it clear that she and her socialist friends intend to steamroll any Democrat who won’t back her demands. Melat Kiros says she wants to get rid of all democrats ideologically opposed to her:“The only way we get Medicare For All passed is by getting rid of the Democrats that are actively standing in that way." pic.twitter.com/w38DMAJ8BH— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) June 28, 2026 Whether or not this socialist wave will crash out or crash the country is, of course, yet to be determined. It’s clear that this model of insurgency is going to be replayed in elections across the country as Democrat incumbents are washed away by a militant red tide. The socialist winners are then commandeering the Democratic Party apparatus to secure their gains and keep up the momentum as has happened in New York. This will have a dramatic impact on the course of the Democratic Party in coming years as strident socialism goes to the forefront of party messaging. So far, Democratic Party leaders have only mustered occasional squeaks of opposition. Their current strategy appears to be a combination of denying that what is happening is happening, playing dead, and kneeling before their new masters. The open question is now how much this new leftist model works outside of the bluest of blue bastions. Will a majority of Americans embrace socialism and, frankly, national suicide? Let’s hope not. But the answer is not quite as certain as it once was.