Rachel Chung, Kate Berry  //  10/13/17  //  Daily Update

Attorney General Jeff Session urged Congress to enact stricter asylum rules. A bill enhancing whistleblower protections for federal employees is headed to President Trump for signature, following unanimous passage by the House. President Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to develop regulations to expand access to health insurance policies that are less expensive and comprehensive than those currently on the market. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged Congress to adopt legislation to restrict the preemptive use of nuclear weapons.

PODCAST
On this week’s episode of Versus Trump, Easha and Jason discuss the Administration's drastic expansion of the number of companies that may now offer health insurance that does not cover birth control, as well as several lawsuits that were immediately filed challenging these new regulations. 

IMMIGRATION

Courts should reject the argument that the president has exceptional powers simply because an issue relates to national security or foreign affairs, argue Ganesh Sitaraman and Ingrid Wuerth at Lawfare.

Attorney General Jeff Session urged Congress to enact stricter asylum rules, arguing that current policies have too many loopholes and suffer from “rampant abuse and fraud” (WaPo).

The Administration is urging Congress to overhaul immigration laws, but the Department of Homeland Security is also looking into how it could transform the U.S. immigration system on its own (Immigration Prof Blog).

The ACLU is suing DHS and Customs and Border Protection over a February 2017 incident where agents required passengers to show their documents to deboard after a domestic flight (WaPo, The Hill).

• The ACLU’s press release is here.

CIVIL RIGHTS

The Trump Administration is taking cues from ultra-conservative Mississippi to enact policies that m religiously motivated discrimination against LGBT people, argues Marci Hamilton at Verdict.

President Trump has urged NFL team owners to fire team members who take a knee during the national anthem, but federal labor law might protect the players, writes Noam Scheiber at the New York Times.

DEMOCRACY

Several legally sound solutions could protect the institutional press from threats posed by third-party funded litigation, contends Lark Turner at Take Care.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

European allies and fellow Republicans are increasingly pressuring President Trump to preserve the Iran nuclear deal (NYT, WSJ).

The Trump Administration worked with the Pakistani Government to free Caitlan Coleman, an American woman who along with her husband and their three children was held hostage by militants in Afghanistan (NYT).

President Trump again suggested that Puerto Rico is partly to blame for its current crisis and threatened to abandon recovery efforts on the island (NYT, WaPo).

A bill enhancing whistleblower protections for federal employees is headed to President Trump for signature, following unanimous passage by the House (The Hill).

REGULATION

President Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to develop regulations to expand access to health insurance policies that are less expensive and comprehensive than those currently on the market (NYT, WaPo, L.A. Times, WSJ).

• Full text of the executive order is available here.
• Video of the executive order signing here.
• The New York Times outlines eleven ways President Trump has weakened the Affordable Care Act since taking office.
• The Washington Post explains key provisions of the executive order and their effect on the Affordable Care Act.
• The effects of the order will not be apparent for several months, writes The Los Angeles Times.
• The Wall Street Journal notes that while the executive order may have negative impacts on some insurance companies, it will be a positive development for others.
• Changes following from the executive order will not undermine Obamacare, argues Michael Cannon at Cato at Liberty.

The Trump Administration will end a critical Obamacare subsidy and the results will be diastrous, explains Nicholas Bagley (Take Care).

A rule to require opioid testing for certain groups of transportation workers is undergoing final review by the Department of Transportation (The Hill).

The EPA must share its rationale for discarding the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, writes Cass Sunstein at Bloomberg.

A House subcommittee questioned Energy Secretary Rick Perry about his recent proposal to provide support to coal and nuclear power plants (The Hill). 

IRS suspended a contract with Equifax in light of the company’s recent data breach (The Hill).

CHECKS & BALANCES

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged Congress to adopt legislation to restrict the preemptive use of nuclear weapons (The Hill).

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

Other members of the House of Representatives may introduce impeachment articles in the coming weeks, writes Nicholas Fandos at The New York Times.

• Full text of Congressman Al Green’s impeachment resolution is available here.

When is President Trump’s apparent inability or unwillingness to fulfill his Presidential responsibilities a ground for impeachment?, asks Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post.

President Trump is more likely to be removed from office via the 25th Amendment than through impeachment, writes Paul Waldman at The Washington Post.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Lawyers for President Trump may permit, or even encourage, special counsel Robert Mueller to interview the president (Politico).

The public record contains substantial evidence that President Trump attempted to obstruct justice by interfering with various Russia-related investigations, write Barry H. Berke, Noah Bookbinder and Norman Eisen at ACSBlog.

Pinterest joins the growing list of internet companies who report their websites were used by Russian actors to influence the 2016 election (The Hill).

The House Intelligence Committee requested information from data mining firm Cambridge Analytica for its investigation into Russian interference in the election (The Hill).

Facebook acknowledged misuse of its services by Russian actors in the election and will cooperate with investigations  (WSJ).

Facebook removed a significant number of posts and advertisements involved in the Russian interference, making them no longer available to the public or to researchers (WaPo).