, Raquel Dominguez  //  6/27/17  //  Daily Update

A unanimous Supreme Court agreed to take up the challenge to President Trump’s travel ban, while allowing portions of the ban to go into effect. The Supreme Court also ruled that excluding churches from secular state funding programs violates the First Amendment. And the Court accepted a case addressing the tension between religious freedom and antidiscrimination laws. Jared Kushner has hired another criminal defense attorney to represent him in connection with Robert Mueller's investigation and other congressional inquiries.

IMMIGRATION

A unanimous Supreme Court agreed to take up the challenge to President Trump’s travel ban and stayed portions of the injunctions prohibiting its implementation (NYT, WaPo, CNN).

• The Supreme Court’s order is here.
• Attorney General Jeff Sessions described the decision to reinstate portions of the travel ban as a victory for the separation of powers (The Hill).
• Leah Litman outlines ramifications of the partial stay of the lower courts’ injunctions at Take Care.    
• Marty Lederman, also writing at Take Care, counts that continued protection of foreign nationals with “credible claim[s] of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States” is a victory for the plaintiffs.
• Ilya Shapiro argued that the Court’s order demonstrates a desire to get back to a “presumption of regularity” (Cato Institute).

David Bacon describes the growing trend of cities, schools, and workplaces exploring sanctuary status (ImmigrationProf Blog).

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will press President Trump to continue the H-1B visa that benefits skilled Indian workers in the United States (Bloomberg, CNN).

• President Trump previously called for a review of the program in his Buy American Hire American Executive Order.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The Emoluments Clause lawsuits are justiciable and the Congressional Consent Clause does not suggest otherwise, argues Zachary Clopton for Take Care.

CIVIL RIGHTS

The Supreme Court will consider the tension between religious freedom and antidiscrimination laws in a case involving a Denver baker who refuse to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple (NYT, WaPo).

The Supreme Court held that excluding churches from state programs that provide funds for secular groups violates the First Amendment (NYT, The Atlantic).

• The opinion is here.
• Sarah Pullman Bailey discusses the possible import of the decision in future cases (WaPo).

Robert Chesney explains why the Trump Administration may not bring new detainees to Guantanamo Bay in the near future (Lawfare).

SAFETY AND JUSTICE

Senior officials and key allies of President Trump are be calling for regime change in Iran (Politico).

• Eric Pelofsky cautions against any explicit United States policy of regime change at Just Security.

Dustin Lewis, Naz Modirzadeh, and Gabriella Blum highlight how increased military use of artificial intelligence could force deviations from traditional legal frameworks (Lawfare).

REGULATION

In a series of essays, The Regulatory Review presents a debate over the constitutionality of the “two-in-one-out” rule of Executive Order 13,771.

The Congressional Budget Office has scored the Senate health bill, saying it would result in 22 million people without health insurance by by 2026 (NYT).

• The bill would make it more difficult for women to access birth control and family planning services, writes Julia Belluz (Vox).
• One of the bill’s strangest features is broad provisions allowing states to obtain waivers of many Affordable Care Act rules, explains Nick Bagley at Take Care.
• The American Health Care Act would unravel health care standards designed to maximize child development and well-being, argues David Rubin for the Health Affairs Blog.

Scott Pruitt will testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee subpanel on Tuesday regarding President Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget (The Hill).

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Jared Kushner has hired Abbe Lowell, a leading criminal defense attorney, to represent him in connection with the special counsel’s investigation and congressional inquiries (Politico).

Carter Page, a former President Trump campaign foreign policy advisor, revealed that he has been interviewed by the FBI as part of its Russia investigation (Politico).

President Trump’s charges that President Obama failed to respond to Russian interference in the 2016 election contradict his own past comments, notes Linda Qiu (NYT).

Some congressional Republicans are prepared to oppose efforts by the White House to lessen sanctions on Russia, reports Susan Glasser (Politico Magazine).

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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