Daily Update | May 1, 2017
Take Care // 5/1/17 //
Courts keep taking Trump at his word and invalidating programs on that basis. Assessments of Trump's first 100 days focused on his regulatory agenda. EPA has removed the climate change page from its website. The NSA has announced the suspension of the "About" program.
IMMIGRATION
Shortly after opening, the Trump Administration's new Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office (VOICE) was overwhelmed by calls reporting "aliens" (from space) (Immigration Prof Blog).
Trump's proposed border wall has cast a shadow over 15 milions residents in Southwest border communities (ACLU).
Courts have taken Trump at his word and this has caused major trouble for the Administration (WaPo).
CIVIL RIGHTS
President Trump has nominated the former President and CEO of Americans United for Life to a senior position at the Department of Health & Human Services (ReWire).
REGULATION
Many assessments of Trump's first 100 days in office covered his regulatory agendas.
- Ars Technica focused on tech and science.
- CATO covers the militarization of U.S. foreign policy.
- Rewire addresses immigrant women and families; so does the Intercept.
- NYT offers a fact check of Trump's first 100 days.
President Trump issued an executive order requiring a review of his predecessors' use of the Antiquities Act to create national monuments; it is suspected he will seek to undo existing protections (The Hill).
- On Take Care, Michael Burger argues that Trump's order is unlawful.
- Commentators at Legal Planet also think the order is illegal.
EPA has removed the main climate change page from its website (The Hill).
The President can paralyze agencies through attrition, by refusing to nominate officers, argues Robert Chesney (Lawfare).
Obama didn't crush U.S. coal and Trump can't save it (Vox).
DEMOCRACY
President Trump is above the law of incitement, argues Quinta Jurecic on Lawfare.
Derek Muller has written an essay about election law decisions in the early Trump Administration (Election Law Blog).
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Arguments against standing in the CREW v. Trump emoluments litigation rest upon distinctions without a difference, explains Leah Litman on Take Care.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The NSA has announced that it will "no longer collect certain internet communications that merely mention a foreign intelligence target. … Instead, NSA will limit such collection to internet communications that are sent directly to or from a foreign target" (WaPo).
- Analysis comes from EFF, ACLU, Just Security, Ars Technica, The Intercept, Lawfare.
President Trump could seek to boost state-level capital punishment, explains Ian Eppler (Take Care).
CHECKS & BALANCES
Commentators weighed in on Trump's latest round of judge bashing (McClatchy, Slate, Verdict).
Trump has issued executive orders at an unprecedented pace (The Hill).
It is difficult to assess whether Trump has increased the powers of the presidency, contends Eric Posner.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
Rep. Elijah Cummings has struck back at Trump's efforts to blame the Obama Administration for vetting former National Security Advisor Flynn.
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.