Matthew Lunny Duffy, Jacob Miller  //  8/30/18  //  Daily Update

The Trump Administration is challenging the citizenship of thousands of Hispanic Americans living along the U.S. border. It appears likely that ICE has wrongfully detained thousands of U.S. citizens.  Education Secretary is preparing to release new rules to protect students accused of sexual harassment or assault. The Fourth Circuit once again rules that North Carolina’s congressional map is unconstitutional, setting up a new battle at the Supreme Court this fall. The U.S. Embassy in South Africa released information contradicting President Trump’s claims regarding happenings in the country.

TRUMP: LITIGATION AND INVESTIGATIONS

President Trump announced that White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II will be leave his job in the fall as McGahn continues to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation (NYT, WaPo, LATimes, WSJ).

President Trump’s allies have expressed growing concern that his current legal team may be ill equipped to handle increasing Congressional investigations (WaPo).

Special Counsel Robert Mueller requested additional time to decide whether to retry Paul Manafort on the 10 charges that a jury remained deadlocked on in his first trial (Politico).

IMMIGRATION

The Trump Administration is challenging the citizenship of thousands of Hispanic Americans living along the border and refusing to issue them passports, Kevin Sieff reports in the Washington Post.

ICE likely sought to detail at least 3,500 U.S. citizens since 2006, a figure which probably underestimates how often ICE is wrongfully detaining citizens, David Bier writes in the Washington Post.

The outsized influence of White House Policy Advisor Stephen Miller over U.S. immigration policy can, in part, be attributed to "sheer bureaucratic cunning," reports Nahal Toosi at Politico.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is preparing to release new rules which will reduce the responsibility of schools to address sexual harassment complaints and make it more difficult to discipline students accused sexual misconduct, Erica L. Green reports in the New York Times.

DEMOCRACY

The Fourth Circuit ruled, once again, that North Carolina’s congressional map is an unconstitutional political gerrymander---the case will likely end up at the Supreme Court this fall (NYT, WaPo)

If there is still a vacancy, the Court could deadlock 4-4, leaving new maps in place for 2018; alternatively, a newly appointed Justice Kavanaugh could join conservative justices and declare partisan gerrymandering nonjusticiable (WaPo, Slate)

JUSTICE & SECURITY

The United States Embassy in South Africa reporting that murder rates on white-owned South African farms were the lowest level in 19-years, implicitly pushing back on the President’s claims to the contrary, Robbie Gramer andColum Lynch write in Foreign Policy.

The Second Circuit should find that evidence obtained by the government via mass data collection under Section 702 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) violates the constitution in United States v. Hasbajrami, Sharon Bradford Franklin argues in Just Security.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, stated that he was paid by a global consulting firm for his advocacy in Romania, in contrast to what the U.S. State Department has claimed (Politico).

REGULATION

The United States International Trade Commission overturned the Trump administration’s imposing of tariffs on Canadian newsprint by a vote of five to zero (NYT).

The Trump administration is reconsidering regulations on mercury emissions passed during the Obama (NYT).

A bi-partisan group of senators confirmed long-time Justice Department attorney Joseph H. Hunt to lead the Department’s civil division (NYT).

CHECKS & BALANCES

President Trump potentially firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions could set off a string of complicated legal battles, writes Aaron Blake for the Washington Post.

FEDERALISM

California legislators have proposed legislation to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in Courtrooms within the state as part of ongoing tension between the federal agency and the state government (LATimes).