Ian Eppler, Jacqueline Sahlberg  //  10/25/17  //  Daily Update

The Supreme Court dismissed Hawaii’s challenge to the second Travel Ban as moot and vacated the 9th Circuit decision. The en banc Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered that an undocumented pregnant teenager in federal custody could obtain an abortion. The Senate approved a resolution to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule limiting forced arbitration. The Federal Communications Commission has repealed a regulation requiring broadcasters to maintain a studio in the area from which they broadcast. State election officials asked members of Congress for additional resources to secure election systems in advance of the 2018 election.

IMMIGRATION

The Supreme Court dismissed Hawaii’s challenge to the second Travel Ban as moot and vacated the 9th Circuit decision (NYTimes,Politico)

• Read the order here.
• The Atlantic provides an analysis of the Maryland case over Travel Ban 3.0.
• The US will resume refugee admissions with tougher, delayed screening for individuals from 11 “high-risk nations” (WSJ, WaPo, Reuters).

The en banc Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered that an undocumented pregnant teenager in federal custody could obtain an abortion (WSJ, LA Times).

• Read the order here.
• The case reflects the Administration’s efforts to curtail reproductive rights and could be headed to the Supreme Court, writes Joan Biskupic at CNN.

Oregon Senators are demanding to know why the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a man without a warrant (NYTimes, Seattle Times).

CIVIL RIGHTS 

The Trump Administration has settled lawsuits with groups that sued over the Obamacare contraception mandate (Buzzfeed).

DEMOCRACY

Buzzfeed has filed suit against Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the head of Trump’s voter commission, seeking a court order requiring Kobach to provide records pursuant to the Kansas Open Records Act (Topeka Capital-Journal).

JUSTICE & SAFETY

The Justice Department announced a move to end the standard gag orders that prohibit technology companies from telling customers when the government has requested their data (WaPo, ARSTechnica).

• Read the memo here.

Following the ambush in Niger, Senator John McCain is calling on Congress to update the President’s legal authority for U.S. military operations overseas (Politico).

• Congressional oversight following the Niger attack should be scaled appropriately, writes Andy Wright at Just Security.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Whitefish Energy, a small Montana-based company with only two full-time employees based in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s small home town, was awarded a $300 million contract to repair Puerto Rico’s power grid, raising questions about improper influence, report Steven Mufson, Jack Gillum, Aaron C. Davis and Arelis R. Hernández in the Washington Post.

• A senior Democrat has called for an investigation (PBS).
• Prior to his nomination, Secretary Zinke raised millions of dollars for questionable Republican PACs (Politico).

REGULATION

The Senate approved a resolution to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule limiting forced arbitration (NYT).

Business lobbyists are growing increasingly concerned that the Trump administration will withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NYTimes).

The Federal Communications Commission has repealed a regulation requiring broadcasters to maintain a studio in the area from which they broadcast (WaPo).

Members of President Trump’s regulatory task forces told members of Congress that the task forces had identified dozens of regulations that could be repealed, but Congressional Democrats criticized the task forces’ lack of transparency (The Hill).

The Department of Agriculture plans to repeal an Obama-era regulation that allowed independent livestock farmers to sue large producers over deceptive practices (The Hill).

The Trump administration’s demand that trade agreements be “reciprocal” is incoherent and would likely harm the American economy, argue Simon Lester and Inu Manak at Cato@Liberty.

RULE OF LAW

The tax status of legal defense funds, such as the one set up by President Trump, is unclear, notes Ellen Aprill at Take Care.

CHECKS & BALANCES

Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced his retirement from the Senate in a speech on the Senate floor that sharply criticized President Trump (NYTimes, Politico, WaPo).

• The text of the speech is available here.
• Senator Flake’s retirement is a “sad day for the Republic,” writes David Boaz at Cato@Liberty.
• The retirement is a “white flag in the face of Trumpism,” contends Aaron Blake at the Washington Post.
• The speech was one of the great speeches in recent Senate history, writes Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, testified before the House Intelligence Committee regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election (NBC).

The Steele dossier on President Trump’s Russia ties was funded in part by the Clinton campaign and the DNC, report Adam Entous, Devlin Barrett and Rosalind S. Helderman in the Washington Post.

After criticism of its role in facilitating Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election, Twitter announced plans to disclose data on political advertisement purchasers (NYTimes, Politico).

State election officials asked members of Congress for additional resources to secure election systems in advance of the 2018 election (The Hill).

Russian online “troll farms” were assisted by a New York-based web hosting company, report Katie Zavadski, Ben Collins, Kevin Poulsen, and Spencer Ackerman in The Daily Beast.

After criticism, the Department of Homeland Security removed travel restrictions on Bill Browder, a British businessman and frequent critic of Vladimir Putin (WaPo).