Take Care  //  7/31/17  //  Daily Update

The EEOC and the DOJ have filed amicus briefs on opposite sides of a case on whether sexual orientation is protected under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In a speech at the Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, President Trump vowed to end gang violence while also endorsing police brutality. A new Republican health care effort being led by Senator Lindsey Graham would block grant federal funding. Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has resigned and will be replaced by the Secretary of Homeland Security, John F. Kelly.

IMMIGRATION

The immigration courts are becoming increasingly backlogged due to the Trump Administration’s decision to end prosecutorial discretion, argues Kevin R. Johnson at ImmigrationProf Blog.

CIVIL RIGHTS

The EEOC and the DOJ have filed amicus briefs on opposite sides of a case on whether sexual orientation is protected under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Reuters).

• Both the transgender member service ban and the DOJ’s assertion that sexual orientation is not protected under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act could run afoul of established case law, argues Joan Biskupic at CNN.
• The transgender member service ban was implemented by President Trump to secure secure funding for his proposed border wall, asserts Faiz Shakir at the ACLU.

DEMOCRACY

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach continues to fight efforts to release documents related to the investigation into voter fraud by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Integrity (HuffPo).

A public official’s social media pages can be public forums under the 1st Amendment, a district court judge ruled in a case against the chairwoman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors in Virginia (Ars Technica).

JUSTICE & SAFETY

The Department of Justice announced that firearm prosecutions were up 23% after Attorney General Jeff Sessions authored a memorandum prioritizing those offenses (Press Release).

In a speech at the Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, President Trump vowed to end gang violence while also endorsing police brutality (NYT).

The President’s comments are disgraceful and anathema to responsible policing and the rule of law, argues Jonothan Blanks at the CATO Institute.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Conflicts of interest are governed by well-defined rules and are not in the eye of the beholder, argues David Sklankey at Take Care.

REGULATION

The Affordable Care Act has resulted in the transformation and entrenchment of norms beyond the four corners of the statute itself, argues Abbe Gluck at Take Care.

A new Republican health care effort being led by Senator Lindsey Graham would block grant federal funding (Politico).

• Reviewing votes from the last failed health care effort reveals that this new effort has a fighting chance, argues Jed Shugerman at ShugerBlog.

Individuals who still support the replace and repeal effort of the Affordable Care Act are doing so because they can’t accept that the Republican party does not have a better alternative, argues Michael Dorf at Dorf on Law.

RULE OF LAW

Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has resigned and will be replaced by the Secretary of Homeland Security, John F. Kelly (NYT).

• This promotion will be a disaster for immigrants, argues Julianne Hing at The Nation.

President Trump’s Twitter usage continues to prompt commentary on its relationship to the rule of law.

• A tweet is a direct order, argues Phillip Carter at Slate.
• Direct orders must meet a test of specificity--and President Trump’s tweet regarding transgender service officers does not, argues Eugene R. Fidell at Just Security.

President Trump’s willful misunderstanding of the obligations of an Attorney General reflects his apparent belief that his appointees owe their loyalty to him personally, rather than to the nation’s Constitution and its laws, argues Jeffrey Toobin at The New Yorker.

CHECKS & BALANCES

Several regulations regarding the appointment of an acting Attorney General will come into play if the Attorney General is fired, explains John E. Bles at Lawfare.

“The Trump Presidency is a strange combination of menacing and impotent.  It is also fractured internally like no presidency in American history.”  So begins a post by Jack Goldsmith at Lawfare.

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity is pushing the boundaries of the ‘no inappropriate influence mandate’ enacted under the Federal Advisory Committee ACT in 1972, argue Anne Weismann and Damien Markham at CREW.

Donald Trump can’t close the deal, contends Kevin D. Williamson in National Review.

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

President Trump is unfit for office, argues the Observer.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Vladimir Putin has expelled 755 American diplomatic personnel from Russia (The Hill).

Senator Lindsay Graham has warned President Trump against moving Jeff Sessions to the Department of Homeland Security (The Hill).