Julia Sherman,  //  3/27/17  //  Daily Update

Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act have failed, for now. President Trump's immigration agents are targeting sanctuary cities. A district judge has upheld the revised travel ban. Proposed budget cuts to the State Department have drawn heavy criticism. And President Trump has approved the Keystone XL pipeline.

IMMIGRATION

On Friday, District Court Judge Anthony Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia denied a request to block President Trump’s revised entry ban, claiming he would not analyze the president’s motives (Bloomberg).

• Peter Margulies on Lawfare and Lyle Denniston analyze Judge Trenga’s decision.
• On Verdict, Vikram David Amar and Alan E. Brownstein discuss the complexities of a motive analysis in challenging President Trump’s executive order on immigration.
• On Lawfare, Jane Chong argues that courts should consider the relationship between national security considerations and religious animus.

DOJ has filed a brief in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals defending the revised entry ban, which "seems to implicitly admit some measure of doubt as to whether Trump’s [Oath of Office] will be accepted at face value" (Lawfare).

CNN reports that ICE is targeting sanctuary cities with increased enforcement operations.

• On NPR, Karen Grigsby Bates reports that police departments in sanctuary cities worry that fear of deportation discourages immigrants from reporting crimes.
• On the Immigration Professor Blog, Bill O. Hing discusses several incidents of ICE retaliating against activists for immigration advocacy.
• Also on the Immigration Professor Blog, Kit Johnson notes that after an ICE raid in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a public school in that community saw a sixty percent spike in absences compared to the previous week.

Leah Litman explains, on Take Care, how President Trump’s recent executive orders make the Supreme Court’s decision in Jennings v. Rodriguez even more important.

• In Jennings, the Court will decide whether the government must afford a bond hearing to all persons detained for immigration-related reasons for longer than six months.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has announced that anyone who has set foot in a territory controlled by the Islamic State must undergo a mandatory social media review before obtaining a visa to enter the United States (WaPo).

A podcast on the Washington Post breaks down the dangers of using eminent domain to seize the large amount of property that would be necessary for President Trump’s proposed border wall.

• California Governor Jerry Brown claims he will fight back against the proposed border wall strategically, but will not be running to the courthouse (Politico).

CIVIL RIGHTS

President Trump’s proposed elimination of all funding for the Legal Services Corporation will hurt the poor, rural voters who helped elect him, according to Kit Johnson (Immigration Professor Blog).

Many LGBTQ groups are outraged by President Trump’s appointment of Roger Severino to lead the division charged with enforcing civil rights at the Department of Health and Human Services (Human Rights Campaign, Rewire, Huffington Post).

DEMOCRACY

From wire-tapping claims to his interview with Time Magazine, President Trump is making us fight for the truth, writes Kate Brannen at Just Security.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

As many as 200 civilians may have been killed by recent American airstrikes in Mosul (NYT, WaPo).

• At The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald argues that these civilian casualties indicate that President Trump is keeping his campaign promise to liberate the U.S. military from Obama-era legal constraints.

Individuals who relied on Obama-era immigration and marijuana non-enforcement policies should be protected against sudden enforcement by the Trump Administration, writes Zachary Price at Take Care.

On Sunday, EPA Administrator Scottu Pruitt called the Paris Agreement on climate change a “bad deal” (The Hill).

After the United States failed to appear before hearings at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights last week, Johanna Kalb questions whether the Trump Administration believes in the rule of law (Brennan Center for Justice).

President Trump's proposed cuts to the State Department budget would be irresponsible, short-sighted, and harmful to U.S. foreign policy, writes Rep. Joaquin Castro at The Hill.

• At Just Security, Alexandra Bell describes the proposed State Department cuts as “national security malpractice.”

REGULATION

Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act failed on Friday (NYT, WSJ, WaPo).

• President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan have announced that they are moving on from efforts to repeal the ACA, leaving the legislation intact, for now (NYT).
• Yet President Trump may try to hasten the ACA’s demise, writes Josh Blackman.

California may thwart President Trump’s plan to gut fuel emissions standards issued by the Obama-era EPA, writes Gabriel Daly at Take Care.

Hearings for his Secretary of Labor nominee demonstrated that President Trump’s budget proposal threatens even popular and effective government programs, as Charlotte Garden explains for Take Care.

As Republican turn to tax reform, Jon Barela argues that they should reject the Border Adjustment Tax (The Hill).

President Trump approved the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, reversing an Obama Administration policy (NYT, Reuters).

• Brad Plumer notes that significant legal hurdles to construction remain (Vox).

Republicans and the Trump Administration are using the Congressional Review Act to expedite the repeal of Obama-era regulations, explains Tim Devaney at The Hill.

CHECKS & BALANCES

Last week, the Supreme Court warned against the appointment of “unfit characters” and “family connection,” and as Niko Bowie explains here, that warning is relevant to several legally dubious Trump Administration appointments (Take Care).

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

A public hearing with Obama-era officials about the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference was abruptly cancelled on Friday, a decision that Democrats denounced as an attempt to cut off public access to information (The Hill).

Democrats have been stepping up claims that Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election was an act of war, reports Morgan Chalfant at The Hill.

• Discussing potential U.S. collaboration with Russian interference, Steve Vladeck cautions at Just Security against using the word “treason.”

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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