---

Karen Kadish  //  5/20/19  //  Daily Update

---

The federal government’s ban on spending federal funds on abortions means that Medicaid recipients cannot access abortion, creating a burden on women of color and women living in poverty. A new rule proposed by the Trump administration would prohibit families from obtaining subsidized housing if any family member is undocumented. The Fourth Circuit found that the Trump administration’s decision to rescind DACA was arbitrary and capricious – and therefore unlawful – because it was not adequately explained and the administration did not address the impact of this decision on DACA-recipients’ reliance interests. The White House has released a new tool to solicit information from people who believe that their social media posts have been censored by politically biased social media companies.

TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION

The D.C. district court unsealed several documents in the Michael Flynn case, including an addendum to the government’s sentencing memo, a memo recording an unidentified individual’s communications with Flynn in January 2017, and an interview of Peter Strzok by the special counsel’s office. (Lawfare)

There was a dramatic increase of public confidence in the Mueller investigation this spring, report Mieke Eoyang, Ben Freeman, Ryan Pouglales, and Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare. 

Congress should question Special Counsel Robert Mueller about the process of his investigation, his counterintelligence analysis, his obstruction of justice analysis, and what he expected Congress to do with his findings, write Joshua Geltzer, Ryan Goodman, and Asha Rangappa at Just Security.

Former White House Counsel Donald McGahn’s chief of staff, Annie Donaldson, may be a key witness in Congress’s investigation following the Mueller report because she had first-hand knowledge of many of the President’s discussions on the Mueller investigation and she is incentivized to cooperate with Congress, suggests Anne Tindall at Just Security.

Josh Blackman gives an analysis of the Clear Statement Rule, which is at the center of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s constitutional analysis. (Lawfare)

 

IMMIGRATION

President Trump’s new immigration plan was met with mixed reviews. The immigration plan prioritizes visas for potential immigrants with specialized skills and deprioritizes family reunification.

• The plan may show that advocates for immigration are succeeding because the proposed plan cuts only 10% of the system as opposed to the original plan which proposed a 50% cut. (CATO)
• Skills-based immigration may benefit prospective immigrants because immigrants are generally better educated than their native-born counterparts, writes Omer Aziz at The New York Times.
• However, many of President Trump’s proposals have long been opposed by Democrats and it does not address the administration’s approach to undocumented immigrants who are already in the United States. (NYT) 

The Fourth Circuit found that the Trump administration’s decision to rescind DACA was arbitrary and capricious – and therefore unlawful – because it was not adequately explained and the administration did not address the impact of this decision on DACA-recipients’ reliance interests. (ImmigrationProf Blog; The Hill)

Overcrowding at the southern border has led to immigrants languishing in poor conditions and the Department of Homeland Security has requested aid from the Transportation Security to Administration in response to the overcrowding. (NYT)

The Trump administration has also begun flying migrants from South Texas to holding cells in California and DHS anticipates sending asylum seekers to processing centers throughout the United States. (NYT)

A new rule proposed by the Trump administration would prohibit families from obtaining subsidized housing if any family member is undocumented, reports Luis Ferré-Sadurni at The New York Times.

The Trump administration is sending letters to employers that identify employees whose names do not match their social security numbers, which may force companies to dismiss those workers, writes Miriam Jordan at The New York Times.

 

CIVIL RIGHTS

The federal government’s ban on spending federal funds on abortions means that Medicaid recipients cannot access abortion, creating a burden on women of color and women living in poverty, writes David S. Cohen at Take Care Blog.

There is a religious-liberty argument to supporting abortion access because government restrictions on abortion can enshrine a particular religious doctrine’s moral reasoning and burden people of different faiths or who do not adhere to any faith by forcing them to adhere to that doctrine’s reasoning while devaluing their moral decisions regarding abortion, writes Elizabeth Sepper at Take Care Blog.

The White House has released a new tool to solicit information from people who believe that their social media posts have been censored by politically biased social media companies. (Cato; ArsTechnica)

 

JUSTICE & SAFETY

Conflict between the United States and Iran could lead to physical, economic, and governance challenges for Iraq, which the United States should work to alleviate, write Rahman Al-Jebouri and Richard Kraemer at Just Security.

President Trump’s selection of the U.S. ambassador to Qatar may have been influenced by lobbyists employed by Qatar, reports Eli Lee at CREW.

 

RULE OF LAW

The United States’ continued role in the Yemen conflict violates the War Powers Act, especially because Congress passed a Resolution trying to end US involvement, and it raises the specter of authoritarianism because it enables an individual person (the President) to initiate war, argues Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy.

 

CHECKS & BALANCES

By misusing formal presidential powers, President Trump may weaken the presidency and disrupt the balance of powers, writes Keith E. Whittington at Lawfare.

The “balanced bench” proposal from presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke can be done in a constitutional fashion, argue Daniel Epps and Ganesh Sitaraman at Take Care Blog.

 

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

A potential impeachment of President Trump should be analyzed in comparison to the Nixon impeachment, in terms of the potential to unify the country and investigate true abuses of presidential power, argues Elizabeth Holtzman at Just Security.

Congressional Democrats should impeach President Trump because public hearings are necessary to allow the public and the Senate to judge President Trum’s culpability and because failing to hold President Trump accountable for widescale obstruction is perilous to our democracy, argues Hill Wine-Banks at Just Security.

 

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

While the United States may be able to cut off Russia’s access to the Internet in response to cyberattacks, it is a clear escalation of hostilities and may have too many legal and political disadvantages to be a viable cybersecurity option, write Robert Morgus and Justin Sherman at Just Security.

 

Tags:

Immigration Rule of Law Checks & Balances Civil Rights Justice & Safety Removal from Office Russian Interference

 

VIEW MORE