Karen Kadish  //  1/11/19  //  Daily Update

Federal workers are suing the Trump administration for being forced to work without pay. Michael Cohen has agreed to testify to Congress on February 07. President Trump visited the United States-Mexico border on Thursday to advocate for a wall along the southern border. The White House has asked the United States Army Corps of Engineers to look into ways to divert funding toward building the border wall. The Department of Labor is soliciting feedback on a regulation that would encourage states to conduct blanket drug testing for individuals seeking unemployment insurance. A new report examines how presidential candidates ignore campaign finance laws and recommends that the FEC repeal its regulation exempting presidential candidates from certain campaign finance laws when they are “testing the waters” of a campaign. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claims that the United States will be taking ana activist role in the Middle East, contradicting President Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria.

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Many federal agencies, including agencies focused on cybersecurity and other security needs, are feeling the effect of the twenty-day long government shutdown (WaPo; The Hill).

Federal workers are suing the Trump administration for being forced to work without pay.

• The complaint is available here.

D.C. Circuit judges, starting to hear cases dealing with the government shutdown, have disagreed about the proper judicial response to the shutdown.

• An order from a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit regarding expediting a case dealing with the shutdown is available here.

This week’s episode of Versus Trump focuses on the government shutdown (Take Care Blog).

TRUMP: INVESTIGATION AND LITIGATION

A recent court filing alleging the Paul Manafort shared presidential campaign polling data with a Russian citizen tied to Russian intelligence could deepen the legal jeopardy of the Trump Campaign, writes Paul Seamus Ryan at Just Security.

Michael Cohen has agreed to testify to Congress on February 07 (NYT).

Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare writes about how Robert Mueller can write a final report on his investigation that the DOJ cannot suppress.

IMMIGRATION

President Trump visited the United States-Mexico border on Thursday to advocate for a wall along the southern border (NYT).

• See some of his remarks here.

President Trump’s proposal to declare a national emergency in order to fund the border wall could end the shutdown of the national government, but it is an abuse of power, writes Charlie Savage at The New York Times. 

• Several analysts have stated that using emergency powers to build the border wall will set a bad precedent (The Volokh Conspiracy; NYT).

The White House has asked the United States Army Corps of Engineers to look into ways to divert funding toward building the border wall (WSJ).

While the opioid crisis has featured in President Trump’s rhetoric around the border wall, it has not been a policy priority for the Trump Administration, writes Vann R. Newkirk II at The Atlantic.

Another legal hurdle facing the border wall is the fact that hundreds of miles of the wall would require the government to seize private property by way of eminent domain – a seizure which many Texan landowners will fight (WaPo).

• A new bill would force the federal government to pay for these seizures immediately, rather than allowing it to delay payment for years (CATO Institute).

A federal judge has argued that prosecuting individuals who reenter the United States illegally is not a good use of judicial resources (ImmigrationProf Blog).

The Ninth Circuit extended a Bivens remedy to a Mexican citizen killed in Mexico by a United States border agent standing on American soil; this decision departs from SCOTUS’s traditional treatment of Bivens and creates a circuit split (ImmigrationProf Blog).

CIVIL RIGHTS

The Department of Labor is soliciting feedback on a regulation that would encourage states to conduct blanket drug testing for individuals seeking unemployment insurance (ACLU).

DEMOCRACY 

H.R. 1, the omnibus electoral reform bill recently introduced in the House, would have a significant impact on voting rights and gerrymandering, writes Nicholas Stephanopoulos on Election Law Blog.

A new report examines how presidential candidates ignore campaign finance laws and recommends that the FEC repeal its regulation exempting presidential candidates from certain campaign finance laws when they are “testing the waters” of a campaign (Election Law Blog).

• The report is available here.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

William Barr, nominee for attorney general, is expected to express his support of the FIRST STEP Act to the Senate, despite a professional record of being “tough on crime,” report Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan at Reuters.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claims that the United States will be taking ana activist role in the Middle East, contradicting President Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria, write Declan Walsh and David E. Sanger at The New York Times.

REGULATION

Federal agencies’ proposals to deregulate do not go under the same cost-benefit analysis that their proposals to enact regulations do, leading to questions about the utility of cost-benefit analysis and its vulnerability to ideological skew (Legal Planet).

Recent policy changes adopted by the Trump Administration may leave the public exposed to dangerous railroad accidents, despite legislation demanding improved rail safety (The Regulatory Review).

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