Daily Update | June 23, 2017
Ian Eppler, // 6/23/17 //
The Senate released its draft health care bill, which includes significant Medicaid cuts. The Environmental Protection Agency has declined to renew the terms of 38 members of its Board of Scientific Counselors (Science). In a series of tweets, President Trump stated that he never recorded his conversations with former FBI director James Comey.
PODCAST
On the latest episode of Versus Trump, Glenda Aldana Madrid discusses NWIRP v. Sessions, in which her organization has successfully blocked the Administration's attempt to curb the right to counsel in immigration courts.
IMMIGRATION
The Supreme Court ruled in Maslenjak v. U.S. that a naturalized immigrant can lose his citizenship for lying to the government only if the lie would have led officials to deny citizenship or obscured facts likely to lead to a denial. (SCOTUSblog, Politico, WaPo)
- The opinion is here.
Take Care's coverage of the revised travel ban can be found in one post here.
CIVIL RIGHTS
The Supreme Court's decision in Ziglar v. Abbassi "offers a thin, unconvincing view of separation of powers that never takes seriously that the judiciary has an affirmative role to play in the Constitution’s system of separation of powers," explains David Gans on Take Care.
- Adding to his criticism of Ziglar v. Abbasi based on historical and doctrinal foundations, Steve Vladeck criticizes Justice Kennedy’s normative case against Bivens.
The Trump administration should acknowledge the need for federal law enforcement to conduct an independent review of Philando Castile’s shooting, writes the WaPo editorial board.
DEMOCRACY
Two recent Supreme Court decisions bolster arguments that President Trump’s blocking of Twitter followers violates the First Amendment, argues Amanda Shanor at Take Care.
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Matal v. Tam puts important limits on the “government speech” doctrine, writes Michael Dorf at Take Care.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The U.S. has escalated against Iran, Russia, Syria, and “pro-regime” forces this year, argues Hannah Ryan at Just Security.
The U.S. can succeed in Afghanistan only if it makes a sustainable commitment to send more troops, argue David Petraeus and Michael O’Hanlon.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The Trump administration’s hire of Lynne Patton, a former charitable fundraiser and wedding planner for the Trump family, for a senior role at HUD raises conflict of interest concerns (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington).
REGULATION
The Senate released its draft health care bill, which includes significant Medicaid cuts (NYTimes).
- The NYTimes compares the draft bill with the Affordable Care Act.
- Hospital and medical associations slammed the bill (The Hill).
- So did former President Obama (WaPo).
- And four Republican senators—Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Ron Johnson—have announced that they will not vote for it (The Hill).
- An updated list of senators’ stated positions on the bill is here.
- In the New York Times, Jennifer Steinhauer argues that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may be satisfied with failure of the Senate bill.
- And in the Washington Post, Amy Goldstein suggests the bill may not help struggling individual markets.
- Several disability rights advocates were arrested in protests of the bill (WaPo).
- Meanwhile, Michael Cannon argues in Cato@Liberty that the Senate bill “preserve[s] and expand[s] Obamacare.”
The Environmental Protection Agency has declined to renew the terms of 38 members of its Board of Scientific Counselors (Science).
- EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s call for “EPA originalism” is incoherent, argues David Roberts at Vox.
- And three possible candidates for deputy administrator of the EPA have differing views on climate change (Climatewire).
- Energy CEOs who met with Pruitt recently expressed support for the Clean Power Plan (Climatewire).
At Legal Planet, Dan Farber outlines a post-Trump environmental agenda.
A regulatory reform bill proposed by Senators Rob Portman and Heidi Heitkamp deserves support, suggests Cass Sunstein at Bloomberg View.
In a meeting with technology executives, President Trump reiterated his promise to eliminate regulations (The Hill).
- The Department of Education has announced that it intends to review over 150 regulations (The Hill).
Energy Secretary Rick Perry reiterated support for nuclear power (CNBC).
- And reiterated climate change skepticism in a Congressional hearing (Climatewire).
At On Labor, Andrew Strom describes how three proposed House bills pose a threat to unions.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke faced criticism from members of Congress over sexual assault within the agency (The Hill).
RULE OF LAW
In a series of tweets, President Trump stated that he never recorded his conversations with former FBI director James Comey (ABA Journal, NYTimes, Washington Post).
- At Balkinization, Gerard Magliocca suggests that President Trump’s tweets on the alleged tapes reflect the influence of his attorneys.
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.
If you have any feedback, please let us know here.