Daily Update | July 6, 2018
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has resigned over numerous corruption investigations. Nearly 3,000 migrant children remain separated from their parents; 100 are under the age of 5. President Trump has narrowed down the list of potential replacements for Justice Anthony Kennedy to three front-runners. Retired U.S. military officers and former national security officers have joined states attorneys general, medical associations, and civil rights organizations in submitting amicus briefs to the Ninth Circuit urging the court to uphold the injunction on implementation of the transgender military ban. The U.S. and China are preparing for a trade battle.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS & LITIGATION
Although the special counsel regulations can probably be revoked by the administration that created them, there is enough doubt that courts could sufficiently impede the president’s recission power to raise a separation-of-powers problem, writes Josh Blackman at Lawfare.
New York citizens should remind the governor, Manhattan district attorney, State Police, and state tax authorities that they have a duty to initiate a thorough criminal investigation of President Trump’s state and city tax returns, writes David Cay Johnston at NYT.
IMMIGRATION
Judge John A. Mendez of the Eastern District of California denied a request by the administration to suspend California’s ‘sanctuary’ policies that limit cooperation between federal immigration authorities and state and local law enforcement (NYT, LA Times, Politico).
- Read the order here.
Nearly 3,000 migrant children remain separated from their parents; 100 are under the age of 5 (NYT).
- The Trump administration says it is doing all it can to reunite families by the court deadline (WSJ).
- The family separation crisis exposes the U.S.’s addition to incarceration, writes Somil Trevedi at ACLU.
Immigration law has, for some time, devalued immigrant humanity and family integrity for immigrants, writes Anita Ortiz Maddali at Crimmigration.
Mass detention of asylum seekers and migrants flies in the face of numerous studies, writes Eleanor Acer at Just Security.
CIVIL RIGHTS
A new Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade in several different ways, writes Leah Litman at Take Care.
- Reversing Roe won’t help Republicans, writes Carol Sanger at NYT.
- Sen. Susan Collins reiterated that she would not support any Supreme Court nominee who has shown hostility to Roe in the past (The Hill).
- The focus on Roe obscures the fact that a new Supreme Court could also affect the right to privacy, contraception, sterilization, artificial insemination, and embryonic cell research/medication, writes Marci A. Hamilton at Verdict.
- It’s time for Sens. Collins and Murkowski to leave the Republican Party, writes Susan Faludi at NYT.
- The new nominee may mean that a long era of judge-made law may come to an end, writes Daniel Henninger at WSJ.
The heart of the Supreme Court’s recent application of the deregulatory First Amendment stems from ‘recyclable sentences’ in earlier opinions, writes Nikolas Bowie at Take Care.
- This is the second post in a series on Take Care about the uses and abuses of the First Amendment as a deregulatory tool. See the first post here.
Maybe the most we can hope for is that when the new Supreme Court invalidates laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination as applied to people religiously opposed to same-sex marriage, it does so plainly and without artifice, writes Sherry Colb at Dorf on Law.
The White House is tearing down the wall between church and state, writes Susan Jacoby at NYT.
DEMOCRACY
The federal court’s approval of the settlement in Kentucky requiring the state to clean up its voter rolls is not as dire as it seems, writes Justin Levitt at Take Care.
Justice Kennedy’s successor could also play a role in voting rights (NPR).
The Texas redistricting fight is not over yet and may potentially lead to Texas being “bailed in” under Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act, writes Justin Levitt at Election Law Blog.
U.S. campaign finance laws cannot be solved by a constitutional convention, writes Fred Wertheimer at The Hill.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
President Trump has narrowed down the list of potential replacements for Justice Anthony Kennedy to three front-runners (WSJ).
- President Trump should consult with Democratic congresspeople about the nominees, writes Carl Tobias at The Hill.
- Vice President Mike Pence met with several potential nominees (The Hill).
- Amy Howe profiles potential Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett (SCOTUSBlog).
- Sen. Chuck Schumer privately appealed to President Trump to pick Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee, as a way to unify the country (CNN).
- Five incumbent Democrats running in states won by President Trump will be at the foreground in the upcoming Senate confirmation process (Politico).
If the Supreme Court nominee refuses to answer honestly about his or her opinions on Supreme Court decisions, Democratic senators should make sure the public understands that such a refusal flouts both tradition and democratic accountability, writes Linda Greenhouse at NYT.
Retired U.S. military officers and former national security officers have joined states attorneys general, medical associations, and civil rights organizations in submitting amicus briefs to the Ninth Circuit urging the court to uphold the injunction on implementation of the transgender military ban (Lambda Legal).
The U.S.-led coalition has finally admitted that its strike on a boarding school in Syria killed dozens of civilians, however the statement is inadequate, writes Nadim Houry at Just Security.
The U.S. must cease giving weapons to the warring parties in Yemen and end impunity for violations and abuses, writes Stephen J. Rapp at Just Security.
A group of steel importers filed a new challenge to the administration’s steel tariffs (Lawfare).
The U.S. and China are preparing for a trade battle (WSJ).
- There is not much that the Federal Reserve can do to to counter economic damage from a trade war, writes Neil Irwin at NYT.
- Companies are responding to tariffs in different ways (NYT).
The future of U.S.-Mexico relations is uncertain, writes Rep. Francis Rooney at The Hill.
- Mexico has imposed retaliatory tariffs on dozens of U.S. goods (Politico).
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has resigned over numerous corruption investigations (NYT, LA Times, WSJ, Politico).
- What’s next for the EPA could be worse, writes Eli Savit at Take Care.
- Pruitt’s actions have managed to cast doubt on a once-bright political future, write Alex Guillén and Andrew Restuccia at Politico.
- The acting EPA chief is now Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, who is expected to continue to further President Trump’s deregulatory agenda (NYT, Legal Planet).
- Environmentalists warn that Wheeler is scarier than Pruitt (Politico).
- Pruitt failed to sabotage the EPA, but Wheeler will be masterful at it, writes Mark Joseph Stern at Slate.
- The fight to replace Pruitt could fire up Democrats looking to counter the administration’s environmental policies, writes Jon Healey at LA Times.
- Politico has compiled a complete list of Pruitt’s ethical issues.
- Read Pruitt’s resignation letter here.
An EPA aide was fired after questioning the deletion of sensitive information about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s public schedule (NYT).
Many of the nonprofits, corporations, and religious groups watching over migrant children at the border have particularly strong ties to the administration (NYT).
REGULATION
The Supreme Court’s decision in Ohio v. American Express has made America’s major market problem worse, writes Lina Khan at Take Care.
Now that the Affordable Care Act’s penalty has been set to $0, the severability analysis presents difficult issues that have been dismissed far too easily, writes Josh Blackman.
President Trump’s plan to prop up uneconomic coal and nuclear plants is unlikely to have more than a temporary effect, writes Dan Farber at Legal Planet.
The EPA has drafted a new rule to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants that is significantly less stringent than the Clean Power Plan (NYT).
CHECKS & BALANCES
Court-packing would be neither feasible nor judicious, writes Josh Blackman at National Review.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle dismissed the lawsuit alleging that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia and WikiLeaks to publish hacked Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 presidential campaign, due to a lack of jurisdiction (The Hill).
President Trump plans to raise the issue of Russia interfering in U.S. elections when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month (WSJ).
Tags:
Immigration Conflicts Checks & Balances Regulation Democracy Civil Rights Justice & Safety Russian Interference