, Derek Reinbold  //  7/11/17  //  Daily Update

The Kobach "election integrity" commission remains under siege. Christopher Wray, President Trump's nominee for Director of the FBI, will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. The CFPB issued a final rule that prohibits class action waivers in consumer arbitration agreements. President Trump will nominate Randal Quarles, an investment-fund manager and former Treasury official, to the Federal Reserve. Analysis continues of revelations that, during the campaign, Donald Trump, Jr. met with a lawyer linked to the Russian government who promised to provide negative information about Hillary Clinton.

IMMIGRATION

Democratic Congressmen from New York have proposed protections against deportations for undocumented immigrants who helped after the September 11 attacks (NYT).

There is a battle emerging inside the Trump Administration over who controls immigration and refugee issues, reports Josh Rogin for the Washington Post.

President Trump has started to dismantle an Obama-era visa program that would allow more foreigners to start businesses in the U.S., writes Joe Mullin for Ars Technica.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Defunding Planned Parenthood is unconstitutional, argues Priscilla Smith at Balkinization.

President Trump has repeatedly broken his promises to the LGBTQ community (Teen Vogue).

DEMOCRACY

Texas’s strict photo ID law was written with the purpose of burdening minority voters, and the Department of Justice should not be arguing in favor of that discriminatory law, writes Danielle Lang at Take Care.

The Kobach commission is distracting from serious voting rights issues, including felon disenfranchisement, which must be a part of any reform agenda, notes Nancy Leong at Take Care.

President Trump’s election commission is facing mounting pushback from states and privacy advocates (WSJ).

• The ACLU filed a lawsuit on Monday against President Trump, VP Pence and the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (Politico, The Hill).

JUSTICE & SAFETY

The Trump Administration is preparing to unilaterally tighten sanctions on North Korea, specifically targeting Chinese enterprises that provide money to Pyongyang’s nuclear program (WSJ).

Current and former agents say Christopher Wray, President Trump's nominee for Director of the FBI, is exactly what the agency needs (WSJ).

• Wray will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week (The Hill).
• Benjamin Wittes offers 20 questions for senators to ask Wray at Lawfare.
• The top two questions for Wray are: Did he set any conditions before getting the nod? And did Trump?, writes Dan Froomkin at ACSblog.

An active duty Army soldier has been arrested by the FBI in Hawaii on terrorism charges (NYT).

The Trump Administration has cancelled a decade-long plan to replace the crumbling FBI headquarters in DC (WaPo).

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson launched an invigorated mission in Kuwait to defuse a crisis between Qatar and its Persian Gulf neighbors (LA Times).

President Trump has defended Ivanka Trump's breach of diplomatic protocol at the G-20 Summit (WaPo).

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Failing to accord standing in the congressional emoluments case would undermine separation-of-powers principles, argues G. Michael Parsons at Take Care.

Congressional Democrats are demanding more information about potential conflicts of interest stemming from President Trump’s ownership of a federally subsidized housing complex, which stands to benefit from decisions made by HUD (NYT).

REGULATION

The CFPB issued a final rule that prohibits class action waivers in consumer arbitration agreements (NYT, The Hill, Consumer Finance Monitor).

President Trump will nominate Randal Quarles, an investment-fund manager and former Treasury official, to the Federal Reserve (WSJ).

The State Department is scrubbing resources like the EOIR Benchbook — a practice manual for immigration courts — potentially violating provisions of the APA, argues Geoffrey Hoffman at Notice & Comment.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

During the campaign, Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met with a lawyer linked to the Russian government who promised to provide negative information on Hillary Clinton (NYT, WaPo).

• This meeting potentially constitutes a criminal violation of federal campaign finance laws, argues Bob Bauer at Just Security.
• Donald Trump Jr. has retained private counsel and pledged to work with Congress (WSJ).
• NBC has created a Trump-Russia timeline to offer perspective on the latest news (available here).
• Trump allies have repeatedly denied or obscured links to Russia, observes Philip Bump in the Washington Post.