Karen Kadish  //  3/26/19  //  Daily Update

Following the release of Attorney General William Barr’s summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, officials and observers have differing opinions about the impact of Mueller’s report and what consequences may follow from the report. President Trump and members of the Republican party have stated that they will “pursue and even punish those responsible for the Russia investigation” following the submission of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Several inland checkpoints along the southern border have been closed in order to reassign staff to checkpoints at the border where there are greater numbers of immigrants crossing into the United States. Coastal communities are urging the EPA to update oil-spill regulations in the face of expanded off-shore drilling and an oil-spill policy that was last revised in 1994.

TRUMP: INVESTIGATION AND LITIGATION

Following the release of Attorney General William Barr’s summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, officials and observers have differing opinions about the impact of Mueller’s report and what consequences may follow from the report (Just Security; WaPo; Vox).

• One key matter of discussion is the fact that Attorney General Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made a very quick determination that President Trump had not obstructed justice (WaPo).
• A close analysis of Barr’s summary also opens the possibility that there is evidence to support the fact that the Trump Campaign coordinated with Russia, but that there was not enough evidence to support criminal charges, writes Robert Litt at Lawfare.
• President Trump has signaled that he would support the public release of the full report (WSJ).

President Trump and members of the Republican party have stated that they will “pursue and even punish those responsible for the Russia investigation” following the submission of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, write Peter Baker and Nicholas Fandos at The New York Times.

Tangentially, The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from an unnamed company that resisted a grand jury subpoena issued by Mueller (NYT; WaPo).

IMMIGRATION 

Several inland checkpoints along the southern border have been closed in order to reassign staff to checkpoints at the border where there are greater numbers of immigrants crossing into the United States (NYT).

CIVIL RIGHTS 

The Bladensburg Cross and other government-sponsored Christian displays contribute to Christian nationalism and shows an unconstitutional governmental preference for Christianity, writes Caroline Mala Corbin at Take Care Blog.

DEMOCRACY

Kyle Skinner and Leah Litman at Take Care Blog analyze the government’s arguments in a lawsuit regarding President Trump’s ability to block followers on Twitter.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Courts deciding lawsuits alleging that President Trump has violated the Emoluments Clause should not rely on legal formalism, but should rather take broad principles and apply them to the facts in the case, paralleling other constitutional law decisions, asserts Eric Segall at Dorf on Law.

REGULATION 

Coastal communities are urging the EPA to update oil-spill regulations in the face of expanded off-shore drilling and an oil-spill policy that was last revised in 1994, write Purba Mukerjee and Camila Gonzalez at Legal Planet.

President Trump recently chose an acting Director of OIRA, Paul Ray, who is very inexperienced and may not be able to effectively oversee the regulatory process or stand up to pressures from other executive officials, such as Mick Mulvaney, writes Dan Farber at Legal Planet.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Mueller’s report may have communicated to 2020 presidential candidates that there is a lot of leeway for candidates who countenance or even encourage foreign interference in U.S. elections, writes Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog.

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