Daily Update | September 25, 2017
President Trump issued a proclamation modifying and extending the travel ban. The pending Supreme Court cases challenging Trump's second revised travel ban might now be moot. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded two Obama-era policies relating to college sexual-assault investigations. The federal government alerted twenty-one states that hackers targeted their voting systems in the 2016 presidential election. HHS Secretary Tom Price is under investigation for use of government funds to pay for private flights. Jared Kushner has used private e-mail accounts for some White House business since taking office. Finally, President Trump tweeted criticism of the NFL and certain players; these tweets were met with a firestorm of criticism.
IMMIGRATION
The revised travel ban ended ended on Sunday, likely rendering the cases against it moot, writes Marty Lederman on Take Care.
- The SG has filed a letter at the Supreme Court proposing additional briefs in light of the President's new proclamation.
- Lawrence Hurley at Reuters analyzes these developments.
The Trump administration has instituted a new travel ban that creates restrictions varying by country (NYT, WaPo).
- At Just Security, Marty Lederman analyzes the new ban and associated legal questions.
- Lawfare has gathered helpful information about the new ban.
- Administration officials have described the new regulations as “tough” but “tailored” (WaPo).
- The administration is also increasingly targeting parents who pay to have their children smuggled into the United States (NYT).
The back and forth on DACA is leaving young undocumented immigrants adrift (NYT).
- Frank Bruni highlights the intellectual contributions of immigrants (NYT).
- The lives of Dreamers who were deported under President Obama could provide a glimpse into the future for those currently covered by DACA (The Hill).
Motel-6 introduced a policy forbidding employees from sharing guest lists with law enforcement unless they are compelled to do so (NYT).
DEMOCRACY
Although President Trump’s comments that NFL players who protest during the national anthem should be fired reflect a disregard for First Amendment-protected speech, he has not crossed legal lines (WaPo).
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The U.S. and Korea continued to trade tough messages as U.S. warplanes flew closer to the North Korean border than any American aircraft has flown since the North Korean government began testing ballistic missiles in the 1990s (WSJ).
- Over the weekend, North Korea threatened to detonate a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean (WSJ).
- The North Korean foreign minister called a strike against the U.S. mainland “inevitable” (WaPo).Commentators were critical of President Trump’s use of personal insults in the international stand-off with the North Korean government (NYT).
- Pyongyang released propaganda videos showing U.S. planes and an aircraft carrier under attack (WaPo).
- New sanctions signal U.S. willingness to take a more aggressive approach to cutting off North Korea and would allow the U.S. to unilaterally enforce a trade embargo against North Korea (WaPo).
- Megan Reiss argues that many of the provisions in the new sanctions against North Korea are actually aimed at China (Lawfare).
China said Saturday that it would ban some exports and imports to and from North Korea to comply with new U.N. Security Council sanctions (NYT).
Leaders of other countries warned President Trump that failure to abide by the terms of the nuclear agreement with Iran would adversely affect prospects for negotiations with the North Korean government (WSJ).
- European allies differ sharply from President Trump and hope to build upon, rather than rescind, the nuclear agreement with Iran (WSJ).
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is reportedly urging President Trump to certify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal (WSJ, The Hill).
President Trump denied a request from a Beijing-backed fund for permission to purchase an American semiconductor chip company after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. had already blocked the transaction (WSJ).
The Trump administration’s changes to the drone strike policy affect the policy, rather than the legal, framework for drone strikes, argues Robert Chesney at Lawfare.
- The Trump administration’s new drone strike policy is not as bad as we imagined, Luke Hartig writes for Just Security.
- In contrast, Hina Shamsi of the ACLU argues that the new policy will allow the Trump administration to kill more people in more places and will leave the world less safe.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
DOJ’s new, narrower definition of “emolument” is unconvincing, argues Marty Lederman at Take Care.
Conor Friedersdorf provides a list of examples of “swampy” ethical behavior in the Trump administration (The Atlantic).
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price has pledged to fly only on commercial airlines until the inspector general’s review of his use of government funds for private planes is completed (NYT, WaPo).
Jed Shugerman posted an apology to Seth Barrett Tillman and Josh Blackman for some of his statements concerning their use of historical sources in an emoluments brief. (ShugerBlog)
REGULATION
The funding formula at the heart of the proposed Graham-Cassidy legislation makes it unconstitutional, argues Michael Dorf at Take Care.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinded two sets of guidelines on campus sexual assault and removed an Obama administration requirement that a low standard of proof (“preponderance of the evidence”) be applied in determining whether a student was responsible for sexual assault (NYT, The Hill).
- Such a change will make it more difficult for survivors of sexual assault to receive justice, Nick Morrow argues at Human Rights Campaign, particularly LGBTQ survivors.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
Jared Kushner has used private e-mail accounts for some White House business since taking office (WaPo).
Ethics experts warn that President Trump’s reliance on Republican party and campaign accounts for legal fees related to the Russia investigation could raise issues (WSJ).
- The funds come from a handful of wealthy donors, including “a billionaire investor, a property developer seeking U.S. government visas and a Ukrainian-born American who has made billions of dollars doing business with Russian oligarchs.”
The federal government alerted twenty-one state governments that hackers targeted their voting systems in the 2016 presidential election (NYT).
- Michael P. McDonald highlights the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council at DHS and notes the ways in which it is superior to President Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity (USA Today).
President Trump referred to the multiple investigations into the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a “hoax” and blamed “Fake News” for increasing support for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton (NYT).
A new non-profit organization seeking to raise awareness about Russian interference in the election, the Committee to Investigate Russia, released a video starring Morgan Freeman that generated criticism from the Russian government (NYT).
Facebook has effectively taken on the job of the Federal Election Commission, Paul Blumenthal argues at the Huffington Post.
The FBI had two separate FISA surveillance orders on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, which may indicate that Manafort was working on behalf of the Russians, Asha Rangappa writes at Just Security.
Special Counsel Mueller’s decision to use a warrant to request information from Facebook about Russia-backed ads, rather than a subpoena or an order under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, indicates he sought copies of the Russian ads as well as subscriber and billing information for relevant accounts, Ali Cooper-Ponte notes on Just Security.
- The Russian government denied using Facebook ads to affect the 2016 election (The Hill).