Daily Update | October 27, 2017
On Versus Trump Podcast, Charlie Gerstein and Easha Anand discuss Garza v. Hargan, in which the en banc DC Circuit held that an undocumented migrant in federal custody had the right to obtain an abortion. The Congressional Accountability Office will investigate the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The federal government moved toward releasing 2,800 documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. The State Department is set to begin implementing new Russian sanctions after lawmakers in both parties raised questions about a weeks-long delay.
IMMIGRATION
On Versus Trump Podcast, Charlie Gerstein and Easha Anand discuss Garza v. Hargan, in which the en banc DC Circuit held that an undocumented migrant in federal custody had the right to obtain an abortion (Take Care).
- In Garza v. Hargan, the D.C. Circuit faced three choices: enforce, upend, or hollow out precedent, writes Amy Myrick at ACSBlog.
- The undocumented minor’s pursuit of an abortion has re-energized both sides in the decades-long battle over reproductive rights (USA Today).
- Brigitte Amiri writes that this case illustrates the Trump administration’s threat to all women’s reproductive rights.
- Patricia Millett, the D.C. Circuit judge who drafted a dissent and then a concurrence in support of an unaccompanied minor’s abortion rights, should be the Democrats’ next Supreme Court nominee, writes Mark Joseph Stern at Slate.
A 10-year old girl with cerebral palsy was detained by federal immigration officials in Texas after passing through a Border Patrol checkpoint on her way to emergency gallbladder surgery (NYT, WaPo).
The new restrictions on certain groups of refugees will all but stop the resettlement process, writes Betsy Fisher (ACLU).
The Washington Post has uncovered the previously-unnamed 11 countries covered by the restrictions.
DHS unveiled prototypes for the border wall (NYT, WSJ).
- The proposal for a solar-paneled border wall appears to be dead.
CIVIL RIGHTS
The ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 would make the ADA almost impossible to enforce, writes Matan Koch (ACLU).
DEMOCRACY
Days after a lawsuit was filed regarding the security of election systems in Georgia, the university housing the election servers erased all of the data (The Hill; Ars Technica; AP).
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina has appointed a special master to help redraw North Carolina legislative districts.
- The order is available here.
Democrats may lose their only tool to block President Trump’s judicial nominees: the blue-slip, writes Jeffrey Toobin at The New Yorker.
Chief Justice John Roberts’ concerns about the politicization of the Supreme Court may affect his position in Gill v. Whitford and other looming cases, writes Linda Greenhouse at The New York Times.
The Congressional Accountability Office will investigate the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (Newsweek).
- Democrats on the Commission have called for more transparency.
The federal government moved toward releasing 2,800 documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (NYT).
- These documents may shed light on some of the mysteries surrounding the assassination.
- Some documents will remain secret due to national security concerns (LA Times, WaPo).
- Philip Bump writes that such bipartisan conspiracy theories are rare these days.
- Politico offers guidance on how to read the documents.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The change in DOJ’s position on the scope of the “savings clause” makes little sense, write Leah Litman and Lark Turner at Take Care.
President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency (NYT, WSJ, The Hill, LA Times, WaPo).
- Rep. Tom Marino writes that the truth about the crisis is complicated.
- Fentanyl fueled a 21% rise in total drug-overdose deaths in 2016 (WSJ).
- The Wall Street Journal examines the victims of the crisis.
- FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has proposed a larger role for the FDA in combating the crisis (WSJ).
- The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal writes that innovation is the answer.
- The L.A. Times looks at what’s behind the crisis.
Congress’s failure to pass a budget and full-year appropriations bill before the start of the fiscal year hurts national defense, writes John B. Wood at The Hill.
The Jones Act is causing delays in getting Puerto Rico necessary supplies (WSJ).
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the United States wants Syria to remain a unified country, but that peace talks must involve the departure of President Bashar al-Assad (WaPo).
Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed frustration with the incremental revelation of information in the media regarding the attack on U.S. soldiers in Niger (WaPo).
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s lack of transparency in voting on the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is the wrong approach to surveillance reform, writes Neema Singh Guliani (ACLU).
A coalition of conservative groups are urging Congress to pass a bi-partisan bill that would create a new legal framework for law enforcement to access U.S. electronic communications held on foreign servers (The Hill).
Members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee are pressing the White House for information regarding the use of software produced by Kaspersky Lab, a Russian company, following reports that Russian hackers exploited the firm’s anti-virus product to steal U.S. secrets (The Hill) .
American cybersecurity firm McAfee will no longer let U.S. or foreign governments review its source code (The Hill).
Ten years after the passage of the Patriot Act, the Act’s unintended malignant effects are widespread, writes Patrick Eddington at JustSecurity.
Niger may soon join the short list of locations where the U.S government uses lethal force, provoking several questions, writes Robert Chesney at LawFare.
Encryption should be a priority, writes Dan Richman at LawFare.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions criticized federal judges who have blocked Trump administration policies (Politico).
The U.S. nuclear arsenal is far larger than the country could ever need, writes the Editorial Board of The New York Times.
The military’s role as the most trusted institution in America could be coming to an end, writes Daniel W. Drezner at the Washington Post.
Senators who attended a closed-door Pentagon briefing on the Niger attack asked for more information (WaPo).
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Jeffrey Rosen, Josh Blackman, and Jed Shugerman examine President Trump’s alleged violation of the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses (We The People).
REGULATION
Raising the threshold for strict regulation from $50 billion to $250 for banks under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act could lead to another financial crisis, writes Sen. Elizabeth Warren at The Hill.
There is a leadership vaccuum in the White House that will make tax reform more difficult to pass, writes John Gilmour at The Hill.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced a large overhaul of media ownership rules, including a vote to end a rule that prevents joint ownership of newspapers and TV or radio stations in the same geographical market (Ars Technica).
The FTC entered a proposed consent order with a company accused of engaging in deceptive practices to promote post-secondary schools to veterans and servicemembers (Consumer Finance Monitor).
DOJ has settled lawsuits concerning the IRS’s failure to certify Tea Party groups as tax-exempt organizations (The Hill, WSJ, WaPo).
EPA has announced that it will re-examine its process for issuing Clean Air Act permits for new facilities, with the goal of reducing regulatory burdens for companies (The Hill).
President Trump nominated J. Steven Gardner, the president of a coal engineering firm, to be the director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (The Hill).
The Solicitor General’s office filed a brief siding the NFL in its support of a federal law that bans gambling on sports in all but four states (AP).
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry’s proposal to revise non-discriminatory open access tariffs would reverse forty years of progress in energy market regulation (The Reg Review).
HHS has published a release seeking comment on removal of barriers to full participation in HHS programs by faith-based organizations (Religion Clause).
The tax plan proposed by the Trump administration would result in a windfall of around $700 billion for wealthy foreign investors, writes Paul Krugman at The New York Times.
The Trump administration’s policies regarding coal mining have put several Utah dinosaur findings at risk (LA Times).
Contrary to the claims of many deniers, fighting climate change isn’t futile, writes Stephen Stromberg at the Washington Post.
The Trump administration is considering raising the price of admission to many national parks (WaPo).
Looking for health insurance has become more challenging since the Trump administration rescinded insurer subsidies and limited Obamacare advertising (WaPo).
President Trump has nominated Kenneth L. Marcus, the president of a Jewish center for human rights, as the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education (WaPo).
President Trump has largely settled on nominating either Jerome Powell or John Taylor to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve (WaPo).
A leaked document shows that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is attempting to centralize foreign policy decisionmaking within a small group of senior aides (Politico).
RULE OF LAW
White House officials could save “a lot” of money by flying commercial instead of on government planes, write Katie Rogers and Karen Yourish at The New York Times.
CHECKS & BALANCES
The ideal level of transparency in high-level corruption investigations is uncertain, writes Matthew Stephenson at The Global Anticorruption Blog.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
The Trump administration sent Congress a list of organizations and persons associated with Russia that Congress will use to determine new sanctions (NYT).
- The list is here.
The State Department is set to begin implementing new Russian sanctions after lawmakers in both parties raised questions about a weeks-long delay (Politico).
The application of campaign finance statutes to the allegations regarding the Clinton campaign and the Steele dossier is ambiguous, writes Jed Shugerman at Shugerblog.
- Coverage regarding the Clinton campaign’s connection to the Steele dossier frequently overlooks the fact that the dossier played no-role in the assessment of Russian interference in the election, writes Robert Litt at LawFare.
- The FBI is set to turn over information related to the Steele Dossier to Congress at the end of the week (WSJ, Politico).
Twitter has announced its intention to block paid advertisements by Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik, but the companies will still be able to post original tweets on their own accounts (Ars Technica).
The Honest Ads Act is the best first step to address Russian interference in U.S. elections, write Timothy Roemer and Zachary Wamp at The Hill.
- Facebook has increased its lobbying efforts following scrutiny over Russian interference (WSJ).
A full investigation is needed into the role of the Democratic Party and the FBI in sowing distrust related to Russian interference in the U.S. election, writes the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal.
Republican members of Congress are setting up for a fight over the budget for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation (Politico).
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein questioned the extent to which Russian ads could sway American voters (Politico).