Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday ordered a review of how the Justice Department can best deploy its resources to combat hate crimes during a surge in incidents targeting Asian Americans.

The rankings from the University of Illinois at Chicago are unchanged from 2018 — but big corruption trials are on the horizon.

Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s attorney general nominee, vowed Monday to prioritize combating extremist violence and said his first focus would be on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as he sought to assure lawmakers that the Justice Department would remain politically independent on his watch.

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth intensified their push on Wednesday to convince President Joe Biden to keep John Lausch, Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, in office until a permanent replacement is confirmed.

The decision by the U.S. Department of Justice was swiftly condemned by Illinois’ two Democratic senators, both close allies of President Joe Biden.

The U.S. government is moving to revoke the citizenship of José Vilchis, a longtime gymnastics coach who’s been accused of sexually abusing multiple underage girls over the course of three-plus decades.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago say their office is entering into a new Department of Justice initiative aimed at reducing gun violence through coordinated prosecutions and new or improved background check enforcements.

Attorney General William Barr announced a new initiative Wednesday that would better enforce the U.S. gun background check system, coordinate state and federal gun cases and ensure prosecutors quickly update databases to show when a defendant can’t possess a firearm because of mental health issues.

The Justice Department said Thursday that it will carry out executions of federal death row inmates for the first time since 2003. Five inmates who have been sentenced to death are scheduled to be executed starting in December.

The U.S. Department of Justice is violating federal law by refusing to distribute millions in funding to Illinois due to a dispute over immigration policies, according to a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general.

A new wrinkle in Chicago’s legal battle with the U.S. Department of Justice.

A scathing federal report on the Chicago Police Department outlined 99 recommendations for reform. But an analysis by an online investigative site says only six of those recommendations have been fully implemented so far. 

Attorneys for the city of Chicago on Monday hoped to convince a federal judge that plans by the U.S. Department of Justice to withhold federal grant money over immigration enforcement is unconstitutional.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan sues for federal oversight of Chicago police reform—with the city’s blessing. We discuss the lawsuit.

Chicago has taken its first step toward having judicial oversight of its efforts to reform the Police Department, but not with the federal government. It’s doing it with the state of Illinois.

On the road to reform, which path should the Chicago Police Department take: one with or without federal oversight?