Problem when using actingAs and my middleware

Hi there,

I've created a middleware to check if a user has been banned. If so, the user is being logged out and redirected to login with an error message.

This is my middleware (CheckBanned)

public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next): Response|RedirectResponse|JsonResponse
    {
        if (Auth::check() && ! Auth::user()->active){
            Auth::logout();

            $request->session()->invalidate();
            $request->session()->regenerateToken();
            return redirect()
                ->route('login')
                ->with('modalMessage', [
                    __('auth.suspended.msg.information.headline'),
                    __('auth.suspended.msg.information.body'),
                    'error'
                ]);
        }
        return $next($request);
    }

In kernel.php I've added CheckBanned::class to $middlewareGroups['web'].

This works perfectly. However, my tests which are using actingAs are now broken.

my user model (minimum example)

class User extends Authenticatable implements MustVerifyEmail
{
    use HasApiTokens, HasFactory, Notifiable, CanResetPassword;

    public static function boot()
    {
        parent::boot();

        static::creating(function ($model) {
            $model->uuid = Str::uuid();
        });
    }
}

An example for a test

public function test_email_verification_screen_can_be_rendered()
    {
        $this->refreshApplicationWithLocale('en');

        $user = User::factory()->create([
            'email_verified_at' => null,
        ]);

        $response = $this->actingAs($user)->get(route('verification.notice'));
        $response->assertStatus(200);
    }

This one failes. After debugging I found out, that $response->showContent is showing redirecting to login.... Debugging further I found the problem:

dd($user) is showing that $user->active == true.

However, Auth::user()->active inside CheckBanned is false.

Because of that the user gets logged out and I see the redirect inside my test (!).

Can anyone point me to the right direction how to solve this problem and explain to me please, why Auth::user()->active == false when my dd($user) tells me it is not?

Thanks in advance