Take Care  //  3/22/17  //  Daily Update

Analysis of President Trump's immigration policies, from the entry ban to sanctuary cities, continues. The U.S. and U.K. announced limits on the in-flight carrying of electronic devices on planes from selected Muslim-majority nations. And the Trump Administration is preparing to roll back key Obama-era climate change rules.

IMMIGRATION

Analysis of President Trump's revised entry ban continues.

• Angel Cabrera offers criticism in the Washington Post.
• The U.S. skipped hearings at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because they involved topics related to the revised entry ban (Just Security).
• Deloram Farzaneh explores the effect of the entry bans on Iranian perceptions of the United States at Just Security.
• At The Atlantic, Garrett Epps investigates whether judges should consider a president’s statements when analyzing the meaning of an executive order.  Bob Bauer also addresses this question on his blog.
• Ciara Torres-Spelliscy (Brennan Center) argues that Judge Gorsuch might vote against the entry ban on grounds of religious freedom.

President Trump's promised "border wall" raises legal questions about federal aquisition of private land, as Tracy Jan explains in the Washington Post. 

Federal threats to withdraw funds from sanctuary cities are unconstitutional, according to many legal experts.

• On Take Care, Nikolas Bowie analyzes (and ultimately rejects) the Justice Department's defense of President Trump’s executive order.
• Nearly 300 scholars wrote to President Trump demanding that he rescind E.O. 13768 § 9(a), which directs the termination of federal funding to sanctuary cities, since it violates the Spending Clause and 10th Amendment (ImmigrationProfBlog).
• Domenic Powell (ACLU) discusses the Administration's effort to "name and shame local and state police departments that won't do their bidding."

DEMOCRACY

Lincoln Kaplan offers a thoughtful analysis of how the First Amendment applies to Donald Trump's presidency.

CIVIL RIGHTS

The Trump Administration is targeting vulnerable LGBTQ populations, according to Christine Grimaldi (Rewire).

JUSTICE & SAFETY

Yesterday, America and Britain banned airplane passengers traveling from several Muslim-majority countries from bringing electronic devices larger than a cellphone on their flights (NYT) (WSJ) (WaPo).

• The U.S. ban applies to airports in eight Muslim-majority countries: Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
• U.S. officials began explaining the new rules to carriers Sunday (WaPo).
• A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fact sheet can be found here.
• Sean Spicer briefly addressed questions about the ban at a press conference.
• Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman suggest the electronics ban may aim to create an advantage for U.S. carriers rather than to increase traveler security (WaPo).  Zaid Jilani of The Intercept agrees.
• Scholars and technologists have identified flaws in TSA's new policy (The Guardian).
• The Telegraph reports on the UK's adoption of a similar policy.
• Ryan Goodman discusses the new policy with former Obama Advisor Lisa Monaco (Just Security).

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

A New Yorker piece about the Trump Organization’s controversial deal in Azerbaijan contained “confused and potentially misleading” arguments, according to a critique by Matthew Stephenson at the The Global Anticorruption Blog.

Jared Kushner’s White House role as Senior Advisor to the President is complicating a Kushner family skyscraper deal, according to Peter Grant (WSJ).

REGULATION

The new Republican majority at the Federal Communications Commission will cut back on net neutrality, argues Daniel Deacon on Take Care.

Organized labor is likely to face “challenges and threats” from the Trump Administration, particularly due to looming changes in the composition of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), explains Charlotte Garden on Take Care.

• At Bloomberg, Josh Eidelson provides background on President Trump’s latest nominee for Secretary of Labor

The Trump Administration is set to roll back a number of Obama-era regulations and executive orders aimed at curbing climate change, according to Coral Davenport (NYT).

• Chris Mooney (Washington Post) analyzes the Trump Administration’s potential defunding of an important climate change report and argues that the report is obligatory under the Global Change Research Act.
• James Rubin (The Hill) argues that the Trump Administration’s proposed budget would make EPA secondary to states in regulating the environment.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Edward Snowden’s disclosure of NSA files may have encouraged Russia to engage in covert operations surrounding the 2016 election, argues Edward Jay Epstein (Lawfare).

A Ukrainian lawmaker alleges that newly released financial documents demonstrate that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort laundered payments from a Ukrainian political party with ties to Moscow (Washington Post).

This post reflects the hard work and diligence of Alexandra Widas and Ryan Hayward. 

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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