Raquel Dominguez , Ryan Hayward  //  7/27/17  //  Daily Update

President Trump tweets a new prohibition on transgender individuals serving in the military.  Congress pushes forward with a “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act.  And the Trump Administration attempts to pull federal funding from sanctuary cities.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Via Twitter, President Trump announces a new policy prohibiting transgender individuals from serving in the military (NYT, The Hill, Fox, BuzzFeed News, USA Today).

• Jamal Greene for Take Care challenges the policy’s constitutionality.
• Richard Primus argues that President Trump’s ban on transgender service-members is “flatly unconstitutional” in Politico Magazine.
•  David Cohen, writing for Rolling Stone, thinks the policy may run be unconstitutional.
•  The new policy may be tied to funding for President Trump’s border wall (Politico).
• The medical costs of transgender service-members is minimal(WaPo, Scientific American).
•  The announcement comes on the anniversary of President Truman’s desegregation of the military (NYT).

The policy announcement took many, including the Pentagon, by surprise (WSJ).

• It’s unclear whether the new policy will be a hit or a boon for the GOP come election time (WaPo).
• Some Republican Congress-members have expressed dismay over the policy (WaPo).
• Representative Scott Peters has filed an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations bill to overturn President Trump’s policy (Huffington Post).
• Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator John McCain have both criticized the announcement.
• Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that such a policy “has no place in our military.”

Various organizations have issued public statements decrying the decision and promising to fight it.

• The Human Rights Campaign expressed their alarm at the decision and set out a call for action.
• The ACLU and GLAD remain ready to help any individual affected.
• The Human Rights Watch summarized the issues.

Service-members flock to share their personal stories in opposition to the policy decision.

• Drawing on his own experiences in and the history of the military, Bishop Garrison, writing for Just Security, criticizes the decision.
• Kristin Beck, a transgender veteran, spoke out against the policy and issued a personal challenge to President Trump.
• Buzzfeed posted an illustration of transgender servicemembers’ personal stories.

Civil forfeiture procedures should be reformed with added due process, argues Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner in an opinion for The Hill.

IMMIGRATION

States continue to react to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s attempt to withhold federal grant money from sanctuary cities (Boston Globe, Politico, Vox).

At an Ohio rally, President Trump celebrated the crack down on immigrant gangs (News Week).

One of the individuals who died in the San Antonio truck catastrophe was a DACA recipient who was deported at the age of nineteen (WaPo).

DEMOCRACY

Maine’s Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap confirmed his intent to continue serving on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (Atlantic).

• Brian Tashman, writing for the ACLU, details Kansas’s Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s worrisome history.

The House has passed sanctions on Russia and garnered mixed reactions (NYT, WaPo).

• The Russia Sanctions Bill violates the presentment clause, asserts Daniel Hemel on Take Care.
• The EU and Russia are not in favor of the terms (Reuters).

New White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci says that while he is not firing anyone for now, he will lay off the entire staff if information leaks continue (Politico).

• The DOJ, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, will launch an investigation into the leaks of the past six months (Politico).

We need both lawyers and social activists in order to enact real change, writes Michael Dorf for Dorf on Law.

The War on Data has not yet materialized, with only one significant dataset taken down in the past six months (Politico).

Chaos is President Trump’s comfort zone (Politico).

SAFETY AND JUSTICE

Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he has been following the recommendations of the violent crime task force set up earlier this year (The Hill).

• The DOJ press release can be found here.
• Douglas Berman analyzes the press release on Sentencing Law and Policy. 
• Meanwhile, Senior Advisor Jared Kushner is exploring potential changes to the criminal justice system at direct odds with Attorney General Jeff Sessions tough-on-crime approach (WSJ).
• It seems unlikely Attorney General Jeff Sessions can appease President Trump’s anger (Bloomberg).

It is dangerous for the CIA to take aggressive action overseas without a clear strategy and political support in place, warns David Ignatius in an opinion for the Washington Post.

Focusing on the subject of North Korea while planning a strategic approach to US-China relations is shortsighted, advises Jamie Fly on Foreign Policy.

• The United States will look at sanctioning Chinese entities that violate UN rules regarding North Korea (WSJ).
• North Korea threatened to launch a nuclear missile at the United States should America try to oust Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un (CNN).

Speaking at a press conference with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri, President Trump called Syria’s leader Bashar al-Assad a “menace” who has done “horrible” things (Al Jazeera).

The United States should fight to retain the Office of Global Criminal Justice due to the immense need for the office and important role the office has historically played, proposes Jane Stromseth at Just Security.

• The United States has sanctioned thirteen high-ranking Venezuelan officials for human rights violations (WSJ).

Criminal justice reform advocates encourage the Senate Judiciary Committee to closely examine each of President Trump’s U.S. Attorney nominees (The Hill).

REGULATION

Discussion of Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act continues.

• Republican senators who argue their health-care vote is just to go to conference with the House are being disingenuous, argues Rachel E. Sachs (Take Care, Bill of Health).
• At Balkanization, David Super provides an overview of the “reconciliation” rules that will constrain the health-care bill currently under debate in the Senate.
• At Slate, Jordan Weissmann provides further detail on how a reconciliation bill presents procedural hurdles to the GOP.
• GOP efforts to use the reconciliation process to fast-track a healthcare bill are backfiring, argues Robert Pear (NYT).

The path forward on health-care legislation remains largely unclear.

• The Senate on Wednesday rejected a proposal that would have repealed major parts of the Affordable Care Act without replacing it (WaPo, NYT).
• To the alleged chagrin of the House, the Senate is considering a so-called “skinny repeal” that would repeal less of the ACA than would other recent proposed bills (WaPo, Politico).
• The “skinny repeal” could take away health insurance from 16 million people (Politico).
• Skinny repeal could end up looking much like the unpopular BCRA bill that has thus far been discarded (Slate).
• And many Republican politicians apparently believe that bill lacks the votes to pass (Politico).

EPA is receiving public comments on a proposal to repeal a Obama-era rule intended to reduce water pollution (The Hill).

RULE OF LAW

Discussion of President Trump’s public campaign against Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues.

• President Trump’s firing of James Comey provides a template for how he will fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, explains Leah Litman (Take Care).
• White House aides and Republican senators have been pressuring the president to stop his campaign against Sessions and to not fire him (NYT, WaPo, Politico).
• Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley stated there is “no way” the Senate would approve a new Attorney General this year (CNBC).
• President Trump is pondering a recess appointment of an Attorney General replacement for Sessions (WaPo).
• At the New York Times, Charlie Savage provides an overview of legal questions and answers surrounding a possible firing of Sessions.

At Lawfare, Ben Wittes explains why officials’ decision to resign is a critical means of maintaining the rule of law.

• In contrast, Carrie Cordero argues at Lawfare that Jeff Sessions should not resign but rather force the president to fire him.

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

Congress’ impeachment power is just as absolute as President Trump has suggested the pardon power is, argues Michael Stokes Paulsen (National Review).

At Lawfare, Keith E. Whittington provides an overview of the possible downsides of failing to impeach a president, in the face of impeachable offenses.

President Trump is so “clearly impaired” that his behavior might justify removal under the 25th Amendment, argues Ross Douthat (NYT).

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Granting pardons to those connected to the Russia investigation may paradoxically aid prosecutory efforts, explains Keith Harper (Just Security).

Even if President Trump fires Jeff Sessions and Bob Mueller, the investigation will go on, argues Isaac Chotiner (Slate).

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

President Trump appears likely to violate the Domestic Emoluments Clause, if he has not already, argues Brianne J. Gorod (Take Care).

FEDERALISM

The Trump Administration is ramping up its efforts to defund cities that don’t provide local jail access to ICE agents (Vox, Boston Globe).

• Future grants will require more cooperation with federal efforts to track illegal aliens (Politico).
• This effort is probably illegal, argues Mark Joseph Stern (Slate).