, Ari Hoffman  //  11/30/17  //  Daily Update

Tax reform continues to gain steam in the Senate. President Trump has pledged a new wave of major sanctions against North Korea in response to the country’s latest intercontinental missile test. He also shared videos from a fringe British ultranationalist party purportedly showing Muslims committing acts of violence.

IMMIGRATION

Americans’ views on immigration depend on whether the potential immigrant is a man, woman, or child, write Timothy S. Rich and Maggie Sullivan at WaPo.

It will take a minimum of seven months to implement any legislation aimed at protecting beneficiaries of the rescinded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act, write Jacinta Ma and Kristie de Peña at The Hill.

A merit-based immigration system would help Americans and skilled foreigners, writes Deena Flinchum at The Hill. 

U.S. citizens can be mistakenly targeted for deportation, write Joel Rubin and Paige St. John at the L.A. Times.

CIVIL RIGHTS

President Trump shared videos from a fringe British ultranationalist party purportedly showing Muslims committing acts of violence (NYT, WSJ).

• The New York Times describes what is known about the videos.
• British Prime Minister Theresa May’s office sharply rebuked President Trump.
• Muslims and non-Muslims alike should be horrified, writes Yair Rosenberg.
• This is different from President Trump’s other tweets, writes the L.A. Times Editorial Board.

The House has passed a bill removing outdated references to racial minorities from federal regulations (The Hill).

The Masterpiece Cakeshop case is not about religious freedom, writes Jennifer Finney Boylan at NYT.

The House Republican proposal to tax the tuition waivers of graduate students represents a serious threat to diversity among academia, writes Steven W. Thrasher at NYT.

President Trump’s use of ‘Pocahontas’ to refer to Senator Elizabeth Warren reflects a long history of issues between the federal government and Native Americans, writes Jaweed Kaleem at the L.A. Times.

DEMOCRACY

Protect Democracy filed suit against the Trump Administration for documents related to plans for the 2020 Census, following refusals by the Commerce Department and the Office of the Management and Budget to comply with FOIA requests (Protect Democracy).

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said that some voters have received erroneous messages saying that they are not registered to vote (AL.com).

Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton has retreated from earlier claims of voter fraud during this past May’s special election (Montana Public Radio).

Louisiana senator John Kennedy has decided to oppose Brett Talley, President Trump’s judicial nominee (Politico).

When it comes to court-packing, we should be careful not to let short-term political gains drive action that threatens the constitutional order, writes Keith E. Whittington at Balkinization.

• The Obama Administration judicial legacy supposedly addressed by Professors Calabresi and Hirji’s proposed judicial nomination plan resulted from the natural occurrences of a recent two-term presidency, not a court-packing scheme, writes Asher Steinberg at The Narrowest Grounds.

The criminalization of political differences is a worrisome trend, writes Alan Dershowitz at NYT.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

The Cyber Diplomacy Act of 2017 puts the State Department in a better position to protect security in cyberspace and promote digital communications (Lawfare).

The proposal to close the “backdoor search loophole,” which allows the FBI to query information obtained under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, rests on incorrect premises about the data, writes Asha Rangappa at Just Security.

Different labels for the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar trigger different legal obligations and responses, writes Sahar Khan at Cato. 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced stepped-up efforts to address the opioid crisis (WaPo).

• Read the press release here.
• This includes support for new legislation to strengthen DEA enforcement.

President Trump has pledged a new wave of major sanctions against North Korea in response to the country’s latest intercontinental missile test (WaPo, Politico).

• Hawaii is testing an attack warning signal in response to the launch.
• The WSJ Editorial Board writes that the U.S. and China still haven’t imposed the toughest sanctions.

Despite President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s comments to the contrary, Iran’s actions are not a serious threat to U.S. security or interests and do not warrant ending the Iran nuclear agreement, writes John Glaser at WaPo.

President Trump is bringing U.S. foreign policy ‘back to Earth,’ writes Walter Russell Mead at WSJ.

Gun thefts lead to violent crime, but federal law makes it challenging to confront the problem, writes the Editorial Board of the L.A. Times.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The Administration’s handling of the CFPB constitute President Trump’s “swampiest move yet,”writes Dana Milbank in The Washington Post.

• This is just the beginning of the political fights surrounding the agency, writes Lorraine Woellert at Politico.

REGULATION

Tax reform continues to gain steam in the Senate (NYT).

• The tax reform proposal barreling through the Senate rewards those who move money offshore, writes Jesse Drucker in the New York Times.
• The White House debate on the bill became a family affair (NYT) with the potential to reshape American life (NYT)
• The Republican tax plan should not be raising taxes on anyone, Marc Thiessen writes in The Washington Post.
• The last minute wrangling over the bill reflects tensions within the GOP over how seriously to take deficits (WP).
• However, including automatic triggers down the line is bad policy (WSJ)

Carpenter highlights the increasingly central role of cell phones in modern life (Wired)

The end of net neutrality spells doom for the Internet as we know it, writes Farhad Manjoo in The New York Times.

RULE OF LAW

The Airforce has failed to report dozens of service members to the federal gun background database, as required by law (NYT).

The F.B.I should not need a search warrant for a certain kind of FISA request, Asha Rangappa writes in Just Security.

A foreign policy based on “celebrity populism” holds significant pitfalls, writes Robert Zoellick in The Washington Post.

Can a government official block you on Twitter? (ACLU)

CHECKS & BALANCES

The bipartisan Cyber Diplomacy Act is an essential legislative response to the ‘redesign’ at the State Department (Lawfare)

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

The President is no longer certain that those Access Hollywood audio recordings from the campaign trail are authentic, after all (NYT).

President Trump’s inclination towards conspiracy theories is grounds for removal from office, writes Richard Cohen in The Washington Post.

The 25^th Amendment option for removal from office should be on the table, writes Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

President Trump increasingly believes the Mueller investigation will wrap up by the end of the year (WP).