, Ian Eppler  //  6/15/17  //  Daily Update

Four people were shot at baseball practice for Congressional Republicans. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s list of interview subjects indicates that he is investigating the President for obstruction of justice. The Senate Intelligence Committee will investigate the circumstances of former FBI Director Jim Comey’s firing. Members of President Trump’s transition team joined firms lobbying for the privatization of the US air-traffic-control system weeks before Trump announced his support for privatization. And the Federal Reserve Bank raised the benchmark interest rate.  

IMMIGRATION

Discussion continues of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling largely upholding a lower court’s order enjoining President Trump’s revised entry ban.

• Neither federal injunction has addressed the argument that the travel ban has expired. President Trump issued a memo saying that the 90-day ban won’t start until court orders currently blocking it are lifted. Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall characterized this announcement as a clarification, not a revision (Bloomberg Politics, The Hill, WaPo, Lyle Denniston’s blog).
• Although the travel ban remains on hold, the number of people admitted from the six named countries is down by half from last year. (WSJ).

DEMOCRACY

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley’s decision to schedule two circuit court nominees for one hearing tomorrow, without the support of the minority party, breaks a norm promoting thorough vetting, argues Christopher Kang at HuffPo.

Yesterday’s shooting of four at a baseball practice for Congressional Republicans supports the need for a constitutional amendment allowing representatives to be replaced by gubernatorial appointment in case of a mass attack, argues Gerard Magliocca at Balkinization.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

After Rep. Gabby Giffords’ shooting and the mass shooting in Newtown didn’t move the dial on gun control, Democrats are wary of reviving the debate after the shooting in Virginia today (Politico).

After the Senate defeated a bipartisan bid to block weapons sales to Saudi Arabia yesterday, Qatar signed a deal to buy 36 F-15 jets from the U.S. today as the two countries navigate tensions over the president’s backing for a Saudi-led coalition’s attempt to isolate Qatar for supporting terrorism (Bloomberg Politics, Al Jazeera).

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson testified before the House Foreign Relations Committee today before a vote on Russia sanctions and after lawmakers recently criticized the president’s plan to cut the State Department’s budget by 30%, arguing that labeling the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror group is problematic. (Al Jazeera).

President Trump’s rumored plans to restore trade and travel restrictions on Cuba will harm U.S. interests, argues Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) at The Hill.

The U.S. should take responsibility for more drone strikes, which have increased fourfold since President Trump took office, notes Murtaza Hussain at the Intercept.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Hundreds of congressional Democrats announced plans to sue President Trump, alleging violations of the emoluments clause (ABA Journal, WaPo).

• Mark Joseph Stern analyzes the merits of the three ongoing emoluments clause lawsuits (by Congressional Democrats, by Maryland and the District of Columbia, and by a group of individual plaintiffs) in Slate.
• At Cato@Liberty, Ilya Shapiro argues that the ongoing emoluments clause lawsuits are frivolous.

In the weeks leading up to President Trump’s proposal to privatize the U.S. air traffic control system, former members of President Trump’s transition team joined lobbying firms advocating for the proposal (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Blog).

REGULATION

The Federal Reserve raised the benchmark interest rate (Vox).

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin walked back a statement he made last year that the president's tax plan would offer no absolute tax cuts to the wealthy(Bloomberg Politics).

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ actuary has released its report on the proposed American Health Care Act, concluding that both coverage loss and government savings would be less significant than the Congressional Budget Office estimated (Health Affairs).

Jeff Sessions asked Congress to repeal a 2014 law prohibiting the DOJ from using federal funds to prosecute marijuana violations that are legal under state medical-marijuana laws. He argued that this step was necessary because of the "historic drug epidemic," which involves opiates, not marijuana (WaPo).

The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed implementation of an Obama-era rule regulating methane emissions from oil and gas drilling on public land, and may seek to eliminate the rule (Legal Planet, The Hill).

The Department of Education is planning to revise or eliminate Obama-era rules creating protections for students who use federal student loans to attend for-profit colleges (The Hill).

Eleven states have sued the Trump administration for failing to enact required energy efficiency standards (Ars Technica).

• The complaint is here.

The Department of Labor’s plan to rescind the “persuader rule” governing anti-union activities will harm workers, writes Marni von Wilpert at ACS Blog.

Despite President Trump’s announcement that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the United States may remain on the board of the Green Climate Fund (Climate Wire).

President Trump called the mayor of Tangier Island, a small, low-lying island in the Chesapeake Bay, and told him “not to worry” about climate change (Climate Wire).

RULE OF LAW, RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE, AND REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating possible obstruction of justice by President Trump (NPR, The Hill, WaPo).

The Senate Intelligence Committee has announced plans to investigate the circumstances of President Trump’s firing of former FBI director James Comey (ABA Journal).

Former FBI director James Comey’s Senate testimony is indicative of the need for strong whistleblower protections, argues Jason Zuckerman at ACS Blog.

In Vox, Dara Lind argues that the Trump administration’s relationship to Russian interference is still scandalous even if no clear evidence of collusion is found, because the administration has behaved unethically in attempting to prevent the truth of Russian interference from being discovered.  

President Trump will likely be impeached if Democrats win back the House of Representatives in 2018, writes Jonah Goldberg in National Review.

And that's our update today!  Thanks for reading.  We cover a lot of ground, so our updates are inevitably a partial selection of relevant legal commentary.  

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