Derek Reinbold  //  10/17/17  //  Daily Update

A lawsuit has been filed against the groups that organized the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, which resulted in one death and many injuries. Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in anticipation of white supremacist Richard Spencer’s scheduled speech at the University of Florida. President Trump is considering abandoning his nominee for drug czar, Tom Marino, after reports emerged that Marino pushed legislation that would make it more difficult to stop the flow of painkillers to the black market. A group of mental-health professionals has launched “Duty to Warn,” a group advocating for the removal of President Trump using the Twenty-fifth Amendment. And, according to the New Yorker, President Trump “joked,” describing Vice President Pence’s views on gay people, that “he wants to hang the all.”    

IMMIGRATION

Like many of his predecessors, President Trump has found immigration issues more difficult than he imagined they would be (NPR).

CIVIL RIGHTS

Critics should not write off a lawsuit filed against the organizers of the Charlottesville rally—it’s a serious suit and deserves to be covered as such, write Leah Litman and Lark Turner at Take Care.

President Trump reportedly “joked” that Vice President Pence “wants to hang” gay people (New Yorker).

• Chad Griffin, President of the Human Rights Campaign, responded, calling the remark “disturbing” and “sickening” (HRC).

Lambda Legal and other LGBT advocacy groups spoke out against President Trump’s nomination of Jeff Mateer to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Lambda Legal).

DEMOCRACY

Responding to reports of false information and foreign infiltration in America, China has increased its online censorship efforts (NYTimes).

Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency ahead of white supremacist Richard Spencer’s scheduled speech at the University of Florida (Miami Herald).

JUSTICE & SAFETY

European Union Foreign Ministers condemned President Trump’s decision to pull backing for the Iran nuclear agreement (WSJ).

• President Trump has reportedly succeeded in uniting Iranians across the political spectrum (CNN).

North Korean officials claim they will not engage in diplomacy with the U.S. until they have long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. East Coast (CNN).

Guantanamo military commissions operate under the cover of darkness, leaving a “nearly unbroken record of futility and failure,” writes Joseph Margulies at Justia Verdict.

• Margulies discusses the case of Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, whose case the Supreme Court has just turned down (Lyle Denniston Law News).

REGULATION

President Trump has declared open war on the Affordable Care Act and we’ll all get hurt, writes Nicholas Bagley at Take Care.

President Trump is considering abandoning his nominee for drug czar, Tom Marino, after reports emerged that Marino pushed legislation that would make it more difficult to stop the flow of painkillers to the black market (NYTimes).

• President Trump has also promised a “major announcement” about how his administration plans to take on the opioid crisis (WaPo).

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said that Congress was nearing a deal to ease Dodd-Frank banking rules by the end of 2017 (The Hill).

Recent extreme weather events highlight the need for incremental progress on mitigating disaster risks, writes Dan Farber at LegalPlanet.

• These changes require political leaders to look beyond the politics of the moment and make long-term decisions to help society, write Jeffrey Czajkowski, Kevin Simmons, and James Done at The Regulatory Review.

The Department of Homeland Security announced that it would require federal agencies to increase security for outgoing email and website traffic (The Hill).

The Department of Homeland Security uncovered a flaw that makes Wi-Fi vulnerable to hacking (Reuters).

Congress has until November 13 to pass a disapproval resolution under the Congressional Review Act to override the CFPB arbitration rule (Consumer Finance Monitor).

• Additionally, finance industry groups have filed a lawsuit to overturn the final arbitration rule (Consumer Finance Monitor).

CHECKS & BALANCES

Greg Katsas, deputy White House counsel, is expected to face stiff scrutiny from the Judiciary Committee as President Trump’s nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals (Politico).

• While Katsas’s political activities make him unlikely to sail to confirmation, skeptical Senators may support his confirmation; hearings Tuesday will provide more information, writes Harsh Voruganti at The Vetting Room.

The Supreme Court agreed to decide United States v. Microsoft, which asks whether federal prosecutors can force technology companies to turn over data stored outside the United States (NYTimes).

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

The Founders designed impeachment precisely for someone like President Trump, writes Barbara Radnofsky at the Washington Post.

President Trump’s allies worry that losing the House of Representatives in 2018 would mean impeachment (CNN).

A group of mental-health professionals has launched “Duty to Warn,” which advocates for the removal of President Trump using the Twenty-fifth Amendment (New Yorker).

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Artin Afkhami, writing at Just Security, offers a comprehensive timeline of President Trump and obstruction of justice.

Hillary Clinton called Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, a “tool of Russian Intelligence” (Politico).