Daily Update | February 9, 2018
Derek Reinbold // 2/9/18 //
On this week’s Versus Trump, Charlie Gerstein and Easha Anand discussed the Russia investigation, the Nunes memo, and whether President Trump will be interviewed by the Special Counsel. The White House has advised government agencies to prepare for a government shutdown as Congress struggles to pass a budget before the midnight deadline. ICE officials are reportedly looking into the agency joining the Intelligence Community. Buried in the White House and House Intelligence Committee’s back-and-forth over the Nunes memo is an effort by White House Counsel Don McGahn to weaken congressional oversight.
PODCAST
On this week’s Versus Trump, Charlie Gerstein and Easha Anand discussed the Russia investigation, the Nunes memo, and whether President Trump will be interviewed by the Special Counsel (Take Care).
IMMIGRATION
President Trump’s immigration policies would have banned over half of all legal immigrants since 1965, nearly 23 million people, fundamentally changing America’s population, economy, and culture, writes David Bier for Cato @ Liberty.
ICE officials are reportedly looking into the agency joining the Intelligence Community. Allowing this would be a mistake, putting our civil liberties at risk, writes Matthew Feeney at Cato @ Liberty.
A Rhode Island woman appeared for an immigration interview and ended up in ICE detention; a federal judge has stayed her deportation pending review of the petition challenging her detention (ACLU).
Conservative politicians rushed to make political hay out of the death of Border Patrol agent Rogelio Martinez, blaming his death on an attack, but an FBI investigation uncovered no evidence of an attack, writes Alex Nowrasteh for Cato @ Liberty.
- President Trump had used the agent’s death to call for border wall funding (WaPo).
CIVIL RIGHTS
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Howard Nielson Jr., who is nominated to the federal District Court in Utah, over accusations of anti-LGBT bias (Washington Times).
- Lamba Legal issued a statement decrying Nielson’s anti-LGBT record.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
President Trump nominated Emory Rounds for head of the Office of Government Ethics. Rounds is that office’s current associate counsel (Politico).
- Rounds drew praise, but he will face a challenging context (Sunlight Foundation).
- The Sunlight Foundation ran down “This Week in Conflicts,” detailing significant conflicts of interest within the Trump administration (Sunlight Foundation).
There is no cause of action for a suit against the President in his individual capacity for violations of the Emoluments Clauses, argue Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman at The Volokh Conspiracy.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is trying to take America’s criminal justice system back to the days of harsh penalties for crime and hardline drug laws, writes Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux for FiveThirtyEight.
Facing stiff resistance from diplomats and lawmakers, Secretary of State Tillerson is scaling back his plans to restructure the State Department (Politico).
Governors in capital cases seem to give weight to capital jurors who call for a commutation, writes Douglas Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy, detailing a recent reprieve issued by Ohio Governor John Kasich.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) asked for comments about bump stocks—which the Las Vegas gunman used to massacre almost 60 people—and received more than 36,000 responses. The ATF has not yet proposed any specific regulations (The Hill).
RULE OF LAW
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has taken another hit to his credibility after he defended Rob Porter, an aide accused of domestic violence (WaPo).
- White House officials said they regret the way they handled the accusations against Rob Porter (NYTimes).
REGULATION
The White House has advised government agencies to prepare for a government shutdown as Congress struggles to pass a budget before the midnight deadline (WaPo).
- The New York Times ran through the provisions hidden in the Senate’s budget bill (NYTimes).
More than 30 senators are asking the CFPB for details about the agency’s investigation into Equifax’s 2017 data breach following reports that the agency has been dragging its feet (The Hill).
Marvin Goodfriend, President Trump’s pick for a Federal Reserve Board seat, faces a tough route to Senate confirmation after several Republican Senators signalled their opposition (The Hill).
The Trump administration has taken bold steps in rolling back climate policies, but it has had eight major setbacks, writes Dan Farber for LegalPlanet.
The recent boom in cryptocurrencies has sent federal officials scrambling (The Hill).
Anti-union challengers are on the verge of Supreme Court victory, writes Richard Wolf for USA Today.
The Department of Homeland Security is falling short in managing contractors who waste or abuse taxpayer resources, writes Neil Gordon at POGO.
CHECKS & BALANCES
The United States Supreme Court remains “ludicrously[] opposed to cameras” in the courtroom, writes Jeffrey Toobin for the New Yorker, highlighting the effect of cameras in the Larry Nassar trial.
REMOVAL FROM OFFICE
At this stage, it is not necessary or helpful to seek to “lock up” President Trump, writes Jed Shugerman at his blog, commenting on the question of whether a federal prosecutor can indict a sitting president.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
Text messages between two FBI employees show that President Obama wanted an update on Russia, not the Clinton probe as a GOP Senator suggested (WSJ).
- President Trump had described the tweets as “BOMBSHELLS” (WaPo).
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote a public letter asking committee chairman Senator Chuck Grassley for public hearings on Russia’s election meddling (Politico, The Hill).
There are really big questions waiting for answers in the Trump-Russia investigation, writes Kate Brannen at Just Security, running through the investigation’s “known unknowns.”
Buried in the White House and House Intelligence Committee’s back-and-forth over the Nunes memo is an effort by White House Counsel Don McGahn to weaken congressional oversight, writes Daniel Schuman for Just Security.
Latin America needs to prepare now for Russian election meddling, write Tim Mauerer and Agustin Rossi for Lawfare.
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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Tags:
Immigration Rule of Law Conflicts Checks & Balances Regulation Civil Rights Justice & Safety Removal from Office Russian Interference Versus Trump Podcast