Emily Morrow  //  11/4/19  //  Daily Update

The Ninth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from stripping federal funds from sanctuary cities. A federal judge also blocked the Trump Administration from implementing a policy of denying visas to immigrants who cannot prove they have health care or the ability to pay for it. Chad Wolf will be the new Acting Secretary of the DHS. HHS announced a proposed rule rolling back regulations that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion. And according to newly released documents from the Mueller investigation, Paul Manafort suggested as early as summer 2016 that Ukraine, rather than Russia, might have hacked the DNC during the presidential campaign.

IMMIGRATION

The Ninth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from stripping federal funds from sanctuary cities since the challenged conditions were not authorized by Congress and thus unlawful (ImmigrationProf Blog).

• Judge Wardlaw’s concurrence, arguing that DOJ’s power should be interpreted even more narrowly, “may well be justified,” writes Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy.

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from implementing a policy of denying visas to immigrants who cannot prove they have health insurnace or the ability to pay for health care (NYT, WSJ).

• The ruling can be found here.

Chad Wolf, the current Acting Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Strategy, Policy, and Plans, will be the new Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (NYT; ImmigrationProf Blog).

Protect Democracy and others have sued the DHS, challenging new rules which would make it harder for applicants to qualify for a fee waiver in the naturalization process (ImmigrationProf Blog).

President Trump released the Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2020, stating that the Administration will admit no more than 18,000 refugees over the fiscal year (ImmigrationProf Blog).

• The memois available here.

The National Partnership for New Americans introduced the New Deal for New Americans Act which would reduce application fees, support inclusion activities, and expand refugee resettlement (ImmigrationProfBlog).

REGULATION

President Trump nominated Stephen Hahn to be Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (The Hill).

The Department of Education finalized rules which relax accreditation standards for institutions of higher education (The Hill).

DEMOCRACY

To deter disinformation campaigns and enhance transparency, candidates should be prohibited from microtargeting but not from selling political ads online altogether, argues FEC Chair Ellen L. Weintraub in The Washington Post.

• Congress could restrict targeting to the level of the electoral district of a given race, writes Siva Vaidhyanathan in The New York Times.

To respond to the risk of foreign interference in elections, Congress should prioritize areas with bipartisan support such as addressing interference from Beijing, enhancing financial transparency and regulating technology companies, writes Jessica Brandt at Lawfare.

The plaintiffs in Common Cause v. Lewis are seeking review in the North Carolina Supreme Court of the Superior Court’s approval of eight gerrymandered districts that they say are still gerrymandered, despite an earlier ruling requiring neutrality (Election Law Blog).

• The petition is available here.

CIVIL RIGHTS

The Department of Health and Human Services announced a proposed rule rolling back regulations that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion for entities receiving federal funding (NYT; Lambda Legal).

IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

Paul Manafort suggested that Ukraine hacked the DNC during the presidential campaign as early as summer 2016, according to documents released following lawsuits brought by BuzzFeed and CNN (Buzzfeed; WaPo).

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testified that John Eisenberg, legal adviser for the NSC, instructed him not to discuss President Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine with anyone outside the White House (NYT; Politico; WSJ).

Complaints that the impeachment inquiry is illegitimate because it failed to follow the rules of criminal proceedings fundamentally misunderstand the Constitution, write Neal Katyal and Sam Koppelman in The Washington Post.

Because the impeachment process is unlike a criminal trial, Mitch McConnell will have broad flexibility to call witnesses, direct the pace, and even change trial process rules, outlines Amber Phillips at The Washington Post.

An impeachment inquiry that focuses on the “broadly understood offense of bribery” may be more politically palatable than one focused on “high Crimes and Misdemeanors,”argues Aaron Blake in The Washington Post.