Daily Update | February 26, 2018
Immigration officers under the Trump Administration are increasingly arresting people with no criminal backgrounds. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto cancelled a planned trip to Washington after a “testy call” with President Trump ended in an impasse over whether Mexico would pay for construction of a border wall. The Supreme Court is set to hear a case, United States v. Microsoft, that will determine whether an American company must comply with a court order to turn over data stored abroad under the Stored Communications Act. Rick Gates, formerly deputy campaign manager of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy against the United States and making false statements to the FBI.
IMMIGRATION
Immigration officers under the Trump Administration are increasingly arresting people with no criminal backgrounds (AP).
March 5, 2018 is often referred to as the expiration date for DACA work permits, but it is really “an inflection point, at which the unraveling of DACA, up to that point relatively slow, would get faster,”writes Dara Lind at Vox.
A group of challengers to the most recent iteration of the “Muslim ban” from Maryland have petitioned the Supreme Court to “grant their appeal and then to put it on the same schedule as a separate case, also involving the Trump immigration order, that is now set for a hearing on April 25,” writes Lyle Denniston at his eponymous blog.
- Amy Howe covers the developments at SCOTUSBlog.
CIVIL RIGHTS
Disability discrimination claims submitted to the U.S. Department of Education have risen sharply even as civil rights complaints overall have declined, reports Michelle Diament in DisabilityScoop.
DEMOCRACY
States need to take steps to protect their voter registration systems from the possibility of foreign interference, writes Nicholas Weaver in Lawfare.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates highlights the need for western democracies to adopt stronger transparency laws governing influence-peddling, argues Thorsten Benner in The Atlantic.
A three-judge federal court denied Pennsylvania Republican legislators’ request for a temporary restraining order blocking the implementation of a new congressional map ordered by the state supreme court, writes Lyle Denniston at his eponymous blog.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The Justice Department plans to ask United States attorneys to prioritize the prosecutions of prospective gun buyers who lie on federal background check forms, report Ali Watkins and Katie Benner in The New York Times.
President Trump called for arming teachers to protect schools from mass shootings in a series of tweets (WaPo).
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto cancelled a planned trip to Washington after a “testy call” with President Trump ended in an impasse over whether Mexico would pay for construction of a border wall (WaPo, WSJ).
There have been a series of recent filings in the litigation between Kaspersky Lab and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after DHS labeled Kaspersky as an “information security risk,” writes Jordan Brunner at Lawfare.
Doe v. Mattis, a habeas challenge to the detention of an anonymous U.S. citizen in Iraq, “threatens to pull the . . . rug out from under the government’s” legal basis for conducting military operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, writes Patricia Stottlemyre in Just Security.
A ruling by a U.S. military appeals court jeopardizes the government's ability to prosecute sexual assaults that occurred prior to 2006 (WaPo).
The Supreme Court is set to hear a case, United States v. Microsoft, that will determine whether an American company must comply with a court order to turn over data stored abroad under the Stored Communications Act, writes Ellen Nakashima in the Washington Post.
- Orin Kerr shares his thoughts on the case at Lawfare.
The Trump Administration announced new sanctions against North Korea aimed at deterring the continued development of its nuclear program (WaPo).
European leaders are seeking to prevent the Trump Administration from withdrawing from the Iran Deal, reports Karen DeYoung in the Washington Post.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The majority owner of the Trump International Hotel Panama is seeking to remove President Trump’s name, and “abruptly ordered Trump employees out of the property on Thursday, triggering a confrontation in which Trump employees refused to leave and asked police to intervene,”report Anna Cerud, David A. Farenthold, and Jonathan O’Connell in the Washington Post.
REGULATION
A federal court temporarily blocked the Trump Administration’s attempt to repeal an Obama-era rule aimed at reducing methane leaks during oil production on federal land (Reuters).
If the Trump Administration allows Idaho to go ahead with its plan to allow insurers to sell health insurance that ignores the Affordable Care Act’s requirements, it could imperil health care for millions, writes Nicholas Bagley in Vox.
The Supreme Court will soon hear Janus v. AFSCME—a case which could deal a major blow to public-sector labor unions—the culmination of years of litigation funded by a well-connected group of wealthy conservative donors, report Noam Scheiber and Kenneth P. Vogel in The New York Times.
- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse also describes the litigation as being funded by “dark money” in Slate.
- David Cole and Amanda Shanor argue in The Nation that the plaintiff’s First Amendment arguments are flawed.
- The case is really about harming the Democratic Party, write Sean McElwee and Mark Joseph Stern in Slate.
The Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis could cripple a variety of federal and state employment protections, writes Garrett Epp in The Atlantic.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney are feuding over who has authority to issue regulations and guidance under the newly passed tax package (Politico).
President Trump wants to impose harsh new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports (Bloomberg).
RULE OF LAW
The White House was informed in early February that senior advisor Jared Kushner’s security clearance process would continue to be significantly delayed (WaPo, NYT).
The State Department is reviewing the legality of Republican donor Sheldon Adelson’s offer to fund the construction of a new embassy in Jerusalem, report Gardiner Harris and Isabel Kershner in The New York Times.
President Trump wants to appoint his personal pilot to head the Federal Aviation Administration, reports Jonathan Swan in Axios.
CHECKS & BALANCES
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s firing of members of the agency’s Scientific Advisory Board reveals his “inverted perception of conflict of interest,” writes Robyn Wilson in The Hill.
President Trump is decimating the Consumer Product Safety Commission, writes former CPSC chair Ann Brown in The Hill.
FEDERALISM
In a series of tweets, President Trump voiced his support for Pennsylvania Republicans’ efforts to block a ruling by the state supreme court that invalidated the state’s congressional map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander (NYT).
A growing number of governors of both parties have called for revisiting gun control and school safety laws in the wake of the shooting in Parkland, FL (WaPo).
Democratic governors and state attorneys general have joined together in several efforts to combat the Trump Administration, write Edward Isaac-Dovere and Gabriel Debenedetti in Politico.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
Rick Gates, formerly deputy campaign manager of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy against the United States and making false statements to the FBI (NYT, WaPo, WSJ).
- Find the superseding criminal information, statement of the offense, and plea agreement here.
- Rick Gates’ cooperation means Mueller is taking a big step closer to Trump, writes Philip Bump in the Washington Post.
Democrats on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee released a memo rebutting allegations made in a prior Republican memo that claimed the FBI and Justice Department had abused their power in conducting surveillance against Trump associates in 2016 (NYT, WaPo, WSJ).
- Read the memo here.
- Charlie Savage summarizes five key takeaways from the memo in The New York Times.
- The memo is devastating to the core claims made in the earlier Republican memo, write Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes in Lawfare.
President Trump’s lawyers are considering ways for him to provide testimony to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, reports Peter Nicholas in the Wall Street Journal.
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Tags:
Immigration Rule of Law Conflicts Checks & Balances Federalism Regulation Democracy Civil Rights Justice & Safety Russian Interference