Christina Ford, Kate Berry  //  1/25/18  //  Daily Update

The Justice Department threatened to subpoena documents from sanctuary cities, leading mayors to cancel meetings with President Trump. A federal judge ruled that the Trump Administration must give the ACLU notice before transferring a United States citizen who has been imprisoned in Iraq as an enemy combatant for more than four months. The Government Accountability Office will investigate alleged fraud during the comment period on the FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules. President Trump announced he is “looking forward” to speaking under oath with special counsel Robert Mueller.

IMMIGRATION

The Trump Administration's criminal threats against sanctuary cities are baseless, but the rhetoric is dangerous, argues Eli Savit at Take Care.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department threatened to subpoena documents from sanctuary cities, leading mayors to cancel meetings with President Trump (NYT; WaPo; The Hill)

• You can read the letter the Justice Department sent to 23 cities and states here.

A report shows that Customs and Border Protection repeatedly violated court orders issued during the first week of the travel ban litigation (ACLU).

Litigation against the travel ban should be considered a success, regardless of the final result at the Supreme Court, argues Michael C. Dorf at Justia.

DEMOCRACY

Potential citizenship questions on the 2020 Census could shift the balance of political power towards rural areas and give Republicans a new advantage in drawing electoral boundaries (WaPo).

Several of President Trump’s financial backers are profiting off Trump campaign entities, raising campaign finance concerns in the process (Buzzfeed).

JUSTICE & SAFETY

President Trump’s Guantánamo “policy” is best understood as an extension of his anti-Muslim bigotry, write Nimra Azmi and Sirine Shebaya at Take Care.

A federal judge ruled that the Trump Administration must give the ACLU notice before transferring a United States citizen who has been imprisoned in Iraq as an enemy combatant for more than four months (NYT; Lawfare).  

• You can read the opinion from Judge Chutkan here.

The United States introduced new sanctions on individuals and companies suspected of facilitating North Korea’s weapons programs by smuggling goods to the regime (WaPo).

The Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy contains notable omissions related to climate change and the use of special operations forces (Lawfare).

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

President Trump reportedly asked Andrew McCabe how he voted in the 2016 presidential election while McCabe was under consideration as James Comey’s temporary replacement at the FBI (NYT).

• Senators shared reactions with the Washington Post, available here.

REGULATION

The Government Accountability Office will investigate alleged fraud during the comment period on the FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules (WSJ, ArsTechnica).

• House Democrats asked the DOJ and FBI to expand the investigation to include potential comment fraud in comments to other agencies (The Hill).

California is challenging the Interior Department’s repeal of standards for fracking on federal land (The Hill).

The CFPB requested comments on its civil investigative demands process, used to subpoena companies during investigations (The Hill).

A new tariff on solar cells and modules threatens the success of the solar industry (NYT).

The Senate confirmed former drug company executive Alex M. Azar II as the new secretary of Health and Human Services (NYT, WSJ).

Securities regulators opened an investigation into GE’s accounting practices (WSJ).

The Trump administration has a negative impact on environmental protection and regulatory economics, according to Daniel Farber at The Regulatory Review.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

President Trump announced he is “looking forward” to speaking under oath with special counsel Robert Mueller (NYT, WaPo, LA Times).

• Half of Americans believe the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, according to a new survey (WaPo).

Thousands of FBI-issued phones failed to save text messages, including those between two former lawyers on the Mueller investigation who sent messages that were allegedly critical of President Trump (WaPo).

• Some text messages expressing skepticism of the investigation were released today (WaPo).