The Standing Record

This is the Standing Record for July 16, 2026. We recorded 1 event from July 15, 2026 that erode our democratic ideals and added 45 more from earlier dates — 384 so far this month, bringing the total archive to 934. If you saw something happen — yesterday, or any other day — that belongs here, send it to our tip line.

Trump ordered a fifth day of Iran strikes as CENTCOM reimposed the Strait of Hormuz blockade, again defying the war-powers resolution

Event: July 15, 2026 Location: Washington, D.C. Jurisdiction: Federal Abuses: Executive overreach, Bypassing Congress

On July 15, 2026, U.S. forces struck Iranian targets for a fifth consecutive day and U.S. Central Command reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, in a round Iran's Health Ministry said wounded more than 260 people, the highest single-day toll reported since the campaign resumed. Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened to halt all Middle East energy exports in response and launched retaliatory missiles and drones at U.S.-hosting states including Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan. The strikes and blockade continued a campaign Congress had directed the administration to end through a bicameral War Powers Resolution passed in June 2026, without new congressional authorization.

People & Organizations: - Donald Trump (President) - U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/07/15/federal-executive-overreach-86f85fd7/ Primary source: Tehran threatens to halt all Mideast energy exports after U.S. reimposes blockade on Iran

Filling out the archive

We're steadily backfilling the archive — working backward through the record so the timeline is complete, not just current. These are older events we archived yesterday. If you know of something from months or years back that belongs here, send it to our tip line.

• March 20, 2024 — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB129, banning DEI offices and programs at public colleges and mandating sex-based restrooms
• April 8, 2024 — Idaho Gov. Little signed H0538 barring compelled use of preferred pronouns for government employees and students
• April 9, 2024 — Idaho Gov. Little signed HB 421, defining sex and gender as binary biological categories across state code
• February 14, 2025 — Utah Gov. Cox signed HB269 restricting transgender access to sex-designated spaces and college housing
• February 27, 2025 — Wyoming enacted SF0077 barring state and local government from requiring employees to use colleagues' preferred pronouns
• March 3, 2025 — Wyoming Gov. Gordon signed HB 72 requiring birth-sex use of public restrooms, prison sleeping quarters, and college facilities
• March 3, 2025 — Wyoming Gov. Gordon signed SF0062 requiring K-12 students to use restrooms and facilities matching sex assigned at birth
• March 12, 2025 — West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed SB456, defining sex by birth and barring transgender people from single-sex spaces
• March 13, 2025 — Wyoming Gov. Gordon signed SF0044 barring transgender college athletes from women's sports teams
• March 14, 2025 — Wyoming Legislature enacted the "What Is a Woman Act," defining sex by biology at birth and requiring birth-sex-based accommodations
• March 19, 2025 — Utah Gov. Cox signed HB283 shielding foster parents who refuse children and limiting care for youth in custody
• March 19, 2025 — Utah Gov. Cox signed HB252, barring gender-affirming care for transgender people in state custody
• March 19, 2025 — Wyoming Gov. Gordon signed HB 164 excluding gender-affirming care for minors from new off-label prescribing protections
• March 25, 2025 — Utah enacted S.B. 74 barring people in state custody from legal name and birth-certificate sex-designation changes
• March 26, 2025 — Utah enacted H.B. 424 tightening the commission that bars transgender students from sex-designated school sports
• March 27, 2025 — Utah enacted HB77, banning Pride flags from public schools and government buildings; first such state ban
• April 30, 2025 — West Virginia Gov. Morrisey signed SB154 restricting school LGBTQ instruction and requiring staff to disclose students' gender identity to parents
• April 30, 2025 — West Virginia Gov. Morrisey signed SB299, closing the suicide-risk exception in the state's ban on gender-affirming care for minors
• April 30, 2025 — West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed SB474, ending DEI programs statewide and shielding school staff who refuse transgender students' pronouns
• May 19, 2025 — Texas enacted SB 412, exposing teachers and librarians to prosecution by removing 'harmful material' defenses
• May 24, 2025 — Texas enacted SB 1257 requiring plans that cover gender-transition care to also cover detransition and lifelong monitoring
• June 20, 2025 — Texas enacted SB 12 barring public-school instruction and student clubs on sexual orientation or gender identity
• June 20, 2025 — Texas Gov. Abbott signed HB 229 writing a binary biological-sex definition into state government code and excluding gender identity from recognition
• June 20, 2025 — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 1188, requiring an unalterable 'biological sex' field in every electronic health record
• June 30, 2025 — Ohio Gov. DeWine signed HB96, barring Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care and enacting two-sexes policy
• September 12, 2025 — ICE agent fatally shot Silverio Villegas-González during a traffic stop in Franklin Park, Illinois
• September 22, 2025 — Texas enacted SB 8 requiring birth-sex use of restrooms in government buildings, schools, and prisons
• December 18, 2025 — President Trump signed the FY2026 NDAA, barring transgender athletes at military academies and ending Pentagon DEI offices
• December 19, 2025 — HHS proposed barring Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors
• March 9, 2026 — Wyoming enacted a 2026 budget footnote barring public funds, including Medicaid, from gender-affirming care
• April 21, 2026 — ICE detained two Congolese teenage brothers on lawful student visas outside their Mississippi home
• April 27, 2026 — Washington Post investigation found DOJ hired immigration judges for ideological alignment, two-thirds lacking immigration-law experience
• April 30, 2026 — ICE deported Axel Rios, an 18-year-old Dunwoody High School student, to Honduras after denying a stay of removal
• April 30, 2026 — DOJ anti-Christian bias task force published report urging federal realignment toward Christian religious-liberty claims
• May 4, 2026 — Department of Education opened a Title IX investigation into Smith College over its transgender admissions policy
• May 5, 2026 — EEOC sued The New York Times, alleging its DEI practices discriminated against a white male employee
• May 6, 2026 — DOJ Civil Rights Division found UCLA medical school discriminated based on race in admissions
• May 11, 2026 — Alabama AG Marshall subpoenaed Southern Poverty Law Center's donor and hate-group records in civil probe
• June 1, 2026 — Pentagon barred journalists from its press office after redesignating it a classified 'SCIF'
• July 2, 2026 — DHS and CBP waived Rivers and Harbors Act levee-safety review to keep building the Big Bend border wall amid a flood-risk lawsuit
• July 13, 2026 — Trump reduced Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by roughly 90%
• July 14, 2026 — Trump extended federal National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C. through January 2029
• July 14, 2026 — Trump ordered a fourth day of Iran strikes as CENTCOM reinstated the Strait of Hormuz blockade, again defying the war-powers resolution
• July 14, 2026 — Trump personally received $2 million from a South Korean company facing a U.S. trade investigation
• July 14, 2026 — American Oversight records showed Deputy AG Blanche personally directed the DOJ's 'Weaponization Working Group'

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