,  //  6/20/17  //  Daily Update

The Supreme Court rejected a Bivens suit brought by plaintiffs alleging unconstitutional detention and abuse in the wake of 9/11. The U.S. military shot down a Syrian plane for the first time since the start of the conflict in that country. Energy Secretary Rick Perry stated on Monday that carbon dioxide emissions are not the “primary control knob” behind climate change. And criticism is building of the handling of public business behind closed doors during the Trump Administration -- including the health care bill being drafted in secret in the Senate.

IMMIGRATION

The government’s latest filing in the travel ban case effectively provides support for striking down the ban on statutory grounds, argues Marty Lederman at Just Security.

CIVIL RIGHTS

The Supreme Court ruled in Ziglar vs. Abbasi that there was no Bivens action against Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former FBI Director Robert Mueller, for post-9/11 policies that resulted in hundreds of immigrants being swept into a Brooklyn detention facility, where the plaintiffs alleged they were subjected to beatings and other abuses (NYT, SCOTUSblog).

• The opinion is here.
• Justice Breyer argued in his dissent that the plaintiffs’ claims would not extend Bivens, and that even if they did, they should be permitted to go forward.
• Steve Vladeck at Just Security argues that Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion was “flawed and depressing.”
• Looking back, Jamiles Lartey wrote in the Guardian in December that litigation like Ziglar could be a “critical strategy for protecting and expanding civil rights” during the Trump Administration.

JUSTICE AND SAFETY

On Sunday, the U.S. military shot down a Syrian plane for the first time since the start of the conflict in that country. This action arguably represents the escalation of a conflict with Bashar al-Assad and Russia, not ISIS (Just Security, Vox).

• Russia has responded by closing a communication channel with the U.S.-led coalition meant to avoid air conflicts and threatening to treat coalition planes as targets if they fly west of the Euphrates river.
• Just last month, Defense Secretary James Mattis described the U.S. strategy in Syria as focused on ISIS.

Here is a list of national security-related hearings this week, including a Senate hearing tomorrow on the AUMF.  

• For commentary on the use of the AUMF as the legal basis for dispersed military operations sixteen years after 9/11, look no further.

The U.S. should support under-resourced police departments and prosecutors’ offices to succeed in the fight against ISIS, argues Kim Cragin at Lawfare.

CUBA

Discussion of President Trump’s new Cuba policy continues.  The President’s new policy leaves in place diplomatic relations, though it curtails Americans’ ability to travel to Cuba and prohibits commercial dealings with the Cuban military.

• While Cuban Foreign Relations Minister Bruno Rodriguez said today that President Trump’s speech was a “grotesque spectacle straight from the Cold War,” he noted that Cuba will continue to engage in relations with the U.S.
• Cuba also refused the president’s demand to return American fugitives.
• Some commentators argue that President Trump’s new policy is not a major change from President Obama’s, as the most important part of President Obama’s agreement with Cuba was the reestablishment of diplomatic relations.  However, others view the dampening of tourism as significant, and interpret what’s happened so far to mean there will be little high-level U.S.-Cuba negotiation during the Trump Administration (The Guardian).

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller will hold talks this week with senior Senate Judiciary Committee members to ensure there is no conflict between his investigation and theirs (Reuters).

REGULATION

Energy Secretary Rick Perry stated on Monday that carbon dioxide emissions are not the “primary control knob” behind climate change (The Hill).

Technology industry leaders met with President Trump on Monday to discuss how the Administration could adopt best practices from the private sector (Bloomberg).

• This meeting comes at a time when President Trump has called for a more than $1 trillion in savings during the next 10 years by overhauling outdated computer systems and improving information technology (WSJ).

Americans are better off with strong regulations in the consumer financial services market despite the White House’s attempt to dismantle them, argues David Reiss in The Hill.

President Trump intends to nominate congressional aide James Clinger to be a chairman of the FDIC for a five-year term (WSJ).

President Trump is likely to nominate former EPA official Jeff Holmstead to be the agency’s deputy administrator (The Hill).

RULE OF LAW

Public business is increasingly being handled behind closed doors in the Trump Administration, explain Philip Rucker and Ed O’Keefe for the Washington Post.

• The small band of Senate Republicans working -- in secret -- on a fast-tracked health insurance bill that could slash health insurance for millions of Americans is a good example, asserts Jamelle Bouie for Slate.
• The Senate Democrats protested this secrecy on the Senate floor in a series of motions, inquiries, and lengthy speeches (Reuters).

CHECKS & BALANCES

Two ranking members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs sent a letter to Michael Flynn’s consulting firm and two businesses that Flynn worked with, requesting documents relating to his work on a Saudi-Russian nuclear proposal.

• Read the letter here.

Republican members of Congress are quietly advancing what appears to be a foreign policy at odds with President Trump’s -- tougher on Russia and friendlier to NATO and Europe, reports the New York Times.