Daily Update | April 23, 2019
The Supreme Court granted certiorari on a trio of cases that will decide whether Title VII protects LGBTQ workers from employment discrimination. President Trump and the Trump Organization sued the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in an effort to prevent the committee from subpoenaing the company’s financial records. The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to former White House Counsel Don McGahn as part of its investigation into obstruction of justice by President Trump. Mississippi’s arguments in defense of its ban on abortions at or after 15 weeks of pregnancy underscore how aggressively some states are seeking to evade constitutional precedent on abortion jurisprudence without overturning it.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
President Trump and the Trump Organization sued the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in an effort to prevent the committee from subpoenaing the company’s financial records (NYT, WaPo, WSJ).
- Read the complaint here.
The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to former White House Counsel Don McGahn as part of its investigation into obstruction of justice by President Trump, Andrew Desiderio writes in Politico.
- Read the subpoena here.
The Mueller report makes clear that observers should not expect the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to act on President Trump’s potential criminal liability while he is in office, Richard L. Hasen argues in Slate.
The Mueller report does not lay out the Special Counsel’s counterintelligence findings, concerns with Congress must continue investigating on behalf of the American public, argues Adam B. Schiff in the Washington Post.
The Mueller report makes clear that the Special Counsel thinks President Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice once he is out of office, Jeremy Stahl writes in Slate.
CIVIL RIGHTS
The Supreme Court granted certiorari on a trio of cases that will decide whether Title VII protects LGBTQ workers from employment discrimination, writes Amy Howe in SCOTUSBlog.
Current employment law rules governing criminal history background checks are inadequate to protect workers from racial discrimination, Joe Ruckert argues in On Labor.
DEMOCRACY
The lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the census highlights the fact that courts should be especially willing to exercise judicial review—and accord less deference when doing so—of administrative agencies when election administration is implicated, Jennifer Nou argues in Take Care.
- New research confirms that the addition of a citizenship question to the census would lead to a significant undercount, particularly for Hispanic and immigrant populations, Matt Barreto, Chris Warshaw, Matthew A. Baum, Bryce J. Dietrich, Rebecca Goldstein, and Maya Sen write in the Washington Post.
- The citizenship question represents an attempt to weaponize the census, Caroline Fredrickson argues in ACSBlog.
- The case presents an opportunity for the Supreme Court’s conservative justices to either demonstrate their professed skepticism of unchecked administrative agency action or reveal their political stripes, William W. Buzbee argues in the New York Times.
Following high turnout in the 2018 midterms, Republicans in several states are considering measures that would make voting more difficult, report Ashley Lopez, Bret Jaspers, and Sergio Martínez-Beltrán report in NPR.
Justice Frankfurter’s dissent in Baker v. Carr is frequently misinterpreted by proponents of the view that courts should not intervene in partisan gerrymandering cases, Or Bassok argues in Balkinization.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
President Trump signaled support for Khalifa Haftar, a U.S. citizen turned Libyan warlord—even though, as an American citizen he remains subject to the provisions of U.S. law that make it illegal to violate the laws of war, notes Ryan Goodman in Just Security.
The Fourth Circuit rejected Chelsea Manning’s appeal of a district court order finding her in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury, Katelyn Polantz writes in CNN.
- Read the court’s order here.
REGULATION
Mississippi’s arguments in defense of its ban on abortions at or after 15 weeks of pregnancy underscore how aggressively some states are seeking to evade constitutional precedent on abortion jurisprudence without overturning it, Leah Litman writes in Take Care.
A federal judge blocked the Trump Administration’s decision to lease additional federal land for fossil fuel extraction for failing to conduct a review of the decision’s impacts, Megan Geuss reports in Ars Technica.
- Read the opinion here.
RULE OF LAW
The Supreme Court’s recent jurisprudence has provided inconsistent guidance on how courts should treat pretextual reasons offered by government actors to explain government actions, Michael C. Dorf argues in his eponymous blog.
Attorney General Bill Barr’s conduct in rolling out and misrepresenting the Mueller report is inexcusable, Michael J. Stern writes in USA Today.
CHECKS & BALANCES
The Mueller report highlights just how mystifying Rod Rosenstein’s decision to draft the 2017 memo criticizing former FBI Director James Comey—thereby participating in Comey’s firing—is, argues Marty Lederman in Slate.
REMOVAL FROM OFFICE
Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that House Democrats do not have any immediate plans to move to impeach President Trump, Rachael Bade, Karoun Demirjian, and Jacquelin Alemany report in the Washington Post.
- If House Democrats believe Trump has violated his constitutional responsibilities, they have a constitutional obligation to pursue impeachment, argues Jamelle Bouie in the New York Times.
- Democrats should move cautiously, and conduct a series of deep-dive hearings via the House Judiciary, Intelligence, Homeland Security, and Ways and Means Committees to lay the groundwork for possible impeachment, Norm Ornstein argues in the Atlantic.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
The Mueller report does not establish that there was no collusion between Russians and the Trump Campaign in the 2016 election, Trevor Potter argues in The Hill.
In the wake of the Mueller report, Americans need to demand that Congress take steps to protect American elections from foreign interference, Bradley W. Hart writes in The Hill.
Tags:
Rule of Law Checks & Balances Regulation Democracy Civil Rights Justice & Safety Removal from Office Russian Interference