Derek Reinbold , Ian Eppler  //  6/16/17  //  Daily Update

The latest episode of Versus Trump discusses a suit challenging Trump's financial disclosure form. President Trump modified the "effective date" provisions of the revised travel ban. Analysis continues of the Emoluments Clause suits filed against Trump this week. Special counsel Robert Mueller has requested interviews with high-ranking intelligence officials, suggesting that he will investigate whether President Trump obstructed justice. DHS Secretary John Kelly rescinded President Obama's DAPA program.

PODCAST

The latest episode of Versus Trump discusses Lovitky v. Trump, where the plaintiff claims that Trump's financial disclosure form violates the Ethics In Government Act.  This episode also includes a wide-ranging discussion with Leah Litman (Take Care).

IMMIGRATION

Despite President Trump’s modification to the revised entry ban, there is still no reason for the Supreme Court to grant review in any of the challenges to the ban, argues Marty Lederman at Take Care.

Also at Take Care, Steve Vladeck and Leah Litman explain how President Trump’s "clarifying" memo undermines the arguments supporting the revised entry ban.

Challenges to “Blaine Amendments," and arguments over anti-Catholic animus, shed valuable light on motive analysis in challenges to the revised entry ban, suggests Jim Oleske at Take Care.

DHS Secretary John Kelly signed an order rescinding DAPA, an Obama-era plan to spare some illegal immigrant parents of children who are lawful permanent residents from being deported (Reuters).

The lack of deference courts are showing President Trump is nothing new; what’s new is the chaos surrounding the executive order on immigration and the President who signed it, argues Deborah Pearlstein at Balkinization. 

At Slate, Seth Freed Wessler documents “sixty scenes of immigration enforcement in the age of Trump.”

California’s new budget will authorize the state attorney general to monitor conditions in federal immigration detention facilities in the state, and prohibits municipalities from entering into contracts with ICE to house immigration detainees (Rewire).

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

President Trump is ushering in a kleptocracy; that’s why he’s being sued, argued Joshua Matz yesterday at Take Care.

"[T]he latest lawsuit invoking the emoluments clause may be the most powerful if only because it demonstrates the degree to which Trump and the GOP-led Congress dismiss the plain language of the Constitution they swear to uphold," explains Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post.

"The emoluments litigation has already put Trump on the defensive and forced his lawyers to justify presidential enrichment; it now poses a real threat of unveiling his secretive business dealings as well."  So concludes Mark Joseph Stern (Slate).

President Trump's emoluments troubles only continue to mount, argue Steve Mazie and Elizabeth Winkler (Economist).

The NYT Editorial Board weighs in, concluding that "Mr. Trump’s callous disregard for ethical norms is exactly the attitude that the founders sought to protect the country against, through the emoluments clauses they put into the Constitution."

Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating Jared Kushner’s business dealings (WaPo).

History and standing are difficult barriers for the emoluments cases to overcome, even after DC and Maryland join the fray, argues Eugene Kontorovich at Volokh Conspiracy.

CIVIL RIGHTS

The Department of Justice is turning away from consent decrees as part of the Trump administration’s pullback from federal civil rights enforcement, notes Jessica Huseman and Annie Waldman at ABAJournal.

The Department of Commerce has excluded sexual orientation and gender identity from its 2017 Equal Employment Opportunity statement (Human Rights Campaign).

DEMOCRACY

Norms, not a provision of the Espionage Act, prevent use of the Act to prosecute reporters who receive leaked documents; but that norm may change under President Trump, argues Grayson Clary at EFF Deeplinks.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

President Trump is reportedly planning to issue a directive to scale back Obama-era Cuba policy, including a re-tightening of loosened travel regulations to the country (WSJ).

The Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill that would expand sanctions on Russia, and which limits the White House’s ability to lift restrictions (WSJ).

The creation of the “deconfliction zone” that was established by the U.S. military in Syria may have violated domestic and international law, writes Tess Bridgeman at Just Security.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf wrote a letter urging the Trump administration to avoid interfering with the state’s medical marijuana program and threatening legal action in the event of attempted interference (Penn Live).

Despite the damage done by the Trump administration to U.S. relationships with European allies, the Privacy Shield facilitating transatlantic data flows remains intact, argues former Obama administration official Robert Litt at Lawfare.

REGULATION

Senate Republicans continue their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act in secret, facing criticism from both Republicans and Democrats (NYT).

The House Appropriations Subcommittee gave EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt an icy reception, calling the Trump Administration’s proposed 30% cut to the agency’s budget untenable (The Hill).

After President Trump’s term in office fades from memory, the increased carbon emissions resulting from his science-free policies will be an enduring monument to his presidency, writes Dan Farber at LegalPlanet.

The United States is lagging far behind other developed countries in terms of carbon pricing, which is expressly provided for in the Paris Climate Accord (Vox).

The Department of Education rescinded Obama-era rules designed to expand a system for erasing federal loan debt of students defrauded by for-profit colleges (NYT).

Pro-family policies pushed by Ivanka Trump are woefully inadequate argue family leave activists (Rewire).

Netflix rejoined the fight for net neutrality, changing course after a brief withdrawal from the debate, writes Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica.

RULE OF LAW

Special counsel Robert Mueller has requested interviews with high-ranking intelligence officials, suggesting that he will investigate whether President Trump obstructed justice (NYT).

• Obstruction of justice is a difficult charge to prove, but if reported facts are true, there is a strong case against President Trump, argue Daniel Hemel and Eric Posner in a New York Times Op-ed.
• Ken Starr, the former independent counsel investigating Bill Clinton, disagrees (The Hill)
• A majority of Americans think President Trump tried to interfere into the Russia investigation (The Hill)

Although President Trump has the authority to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, he has a legal duty not to do so for the purposes of obstructing justice, a distinction too often missed, notes Scott Shapiro at Balkinization.

CHECKS & BALANCES

The Senate Intelligence Committee will not investigate whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice, leaving the inquiry to special counsel Robert Mueller (The Hill).

Questions remain about the legal basis for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s refusal to answer questions before the Senate Intelligence Committee this week, writes Charlie Savage at the New York Times.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Representative Joseph Kennedy of Massachusetts introduced legislation to create a response center to combat Russian cyber attacks (The Hill).

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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