, Julia Sherman  //  4/11/17  //  Daily Update

The Fourth Circuit decides that the appeal in the travel ban case will initially be heard by the full, en banc court. A new lawsuit is filed that seeks to force the Trump Administration to disclose visitor logs to the White House and Trump’s homes in New York and Florida. A federal judge in Texas finds that Texas’s Voter ID Law was passed with discriminatory purpose. And the debate continues over the legality of the strikes in Syria.

IMMIGRATION

The Fourth Circuit has voted to hear the Trump Administration’s appeal regarding the revised travel ban en banc, with oral arguments still set for May 8 (BuzzFeed News). 

• Here is the order. 

The Trump Administration will temporarily stop publishing controversial weekly reports on the immigration cooperation of cities and counties (NYT).

Customs and Border Protection is looking to use drones with facial recognition capabilities to prevent illegal immigration, writes Matthew Feeney (CATO Institute).

CIVIL RIGHTS

On Monday, a federal judge in Texas found that the Texas Voter ID law was passed with discriminatory purpose, in violation of the Voting Rights Act (NYT, WaPo, Dallas News, Election Law Blog). 

• The decision can be found here.
• More information about the legal history of the Texas Voter ID case can be found here and here. 

A congressional bill, H.J. Res 43, that has now passed both chambers of Congress will hurt access to public health, argues the ACLU. 

JUSTICE & SAFETY

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that the U.S. would punish those “who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in he world.” (NYT)

The debate among legal experts over the legality of the Syria strikes continues, and Marko Milanovic writes that the strikes maybe be illegal but legitimate (EJIL: Talk!).

• President Trump must reveal his reasoning and the Administrations’ legal justifications for the Syria strikes, writes Joshua Matz at Take Care.
• Congress needs to act now to prevent forfeiting its roll as a constitutional check on the President’s war powers forever, argues Peter M. Shane at Take Care. 
• At EJIL: Talk! Anthea Roberts warns that the U.S.’s failure to legally justify its actions in Syria will incentivize China and Russia to ignore international law. 
• At Opinio Juris, Jens David Ohlin elaborates on his previous post on the right to self-defense and humanitarian intervention. 
• The Trump Administration’s military action against Syria last week was markedly different from President Obama’s plans in 2013, explains Ryan Goodman (Just Security).  

Following military strikes last week, the Trump Administration has told Russia to end its support for Syrian President Assad (WaPo). 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided not to renew the National Commission on Forensic Science, a program meant to raise standards in forensic science (WaPo, Jurist). 

• Here is the letter from scientists on the commission urging the Attorney General to renew the program.

The Attorney General has also ordered Department of Justice officials to review reform agreements with police departments nationwide (Rewire). 

A bipartisan bill has been introduced in the Senate to advance accountability for international crimes committed in Syria (CSPAN).

• The full bill can be found here. 
• At Just Security, Beth van Schaack outlines the key elements of the legislation. 

A group calling itself the Shadow Brokers dumped a cache of stolen NSA hacking tools on Saturday, a leak Grayson Clary finds rather underwhelming (Lawfare).

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

A new lawsuit is demanding the public release of the log of visitors to the White House and President Trump’s homes in New York and Florida (Politico).

• Read the complaint here.

Overhauling the tax code gives Democrats the chance to bring up President Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns and to press for details of how his business deals are financed, notes the New York Times.

The NYT graphs the array of conflicts of interest facing the Trump Presidency.

Joshua Kushner, the liberal brother of Jared Kushner and founder of Thrive Capital, has found himself doing a post-election damage control tour disclaiming any personal ties to the administration, reports Steve Bertoni at Forbes.

REGULATION

A lot more is at stake than just climate change with the proposed EPA budget cuts, argues Hiroko Tabuchi in the New York Times.

• The budget cut that will eliminate four of NASA’s climate science missions is worrying scientists (NYT).

The Trump Administration is willing to keep paying subsidies to insurers under Obamacare, even though House Republicans claim the payments are illegal (NYT).

The US delayed a joint climate statement at the end of the G7 summit because the Trump Administration is reviewing its policies (The Hill).

Consumer groups and congressional Democrats will likely put up a fight over the rollback of net-neutrality rules, reports the Wall Street Journal.

President Trump’s infrastructure proposal is running into familiar roadblocks: suspicious Democrats, a divided GOP, and questions about the math (Politico).

Trump Appointees in a variety of environmental and land-use posts do not have much subject-area expertise, but they do have fossil fuel connections, alleges the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

CHECKS & BALANCES 

There were both principled and pragmatic reasons for Senate Democrats not to filibuster the Gorsuch nomination, even if one believes he will be a bad justice, argues Daniel P. Tokaji on Take Care.

No one should weep for the destruction of the filibuster, argues Peter S. Kalikow in The Hill.

Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice (NYT).

• Watch a video of the swearing in here.
• Jess Bravin argues that Neil Gorsuch’s appointment sets the high water mark for politicization.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

The NYT breaks down the Russian hacking in 200 words.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called on the Kremlin to “confront” its meddling in the 2016 U.S. Election (WaPo).

And that's our update today!  Thanks for reading.  We cover a lot of ground, so our updates are inevitably a partial selection of relevant legal commentary.  

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