Derek Reinbold  //  9/7/17  //  Daily Update

Fifteen states sue the Trump Administration over the announced revocation of DACA. A group of prominent conservatives file an amicus brief in the Supreme Court urging the Court to rule partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional. And commentary on, and opposition to, President Trump's recent judicial nominations continues.

IMMIGRATION

Attorneys General from 15 states and the District of Columbia sued over the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program (WaPo, NYTimes).

President Trump sent a mixed message on DACA, saying he would revisit the issue if Congress failed to act (NYTimes).

Immigrants shouldn’t have to be talented to be welcome, writes Masha Gessen at The New York Times.

DACA legislation is both an economic imperative and a humanitarian necessity, writes Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft, at ACSblog.

Deporting ‘Dreamers’ would have a disproportionate impact on the health care and educational sector, where one fifth of Dreamers work (NYTimes). 

CIVIL RIGHTS

Members of the President’s Election Commission, led by Kris Kobach, have been using personal email to communicate, potentially in violation of the Presidential Records Act (The Hill).

Lambda Legal and 27 other LGBT groups wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee strongly opposing confirmation of Stephen Schwartz to the Court of Federal Claims, citing Schwartz’s history of undermining the rights of LGBT Americans (Lambda Legal).

A new bill in the House of Representatives would shift the burden of ADA compliance from businesses to the individuals being denied access, undermining the civil rights of people with disabilities, writes Tyler Ray for the ACLU.

DEMOCRACY

A group of prominent politicians, including Senator John McCain of Arizona and Governor John Kasich of Ohio, filed briefs urging the Supreme Court to rule that partisan gerrymanders violate the Constitution (NYTimes).

JUSTICE & SAFETY 

The Pentagon is expected to announce an increase of 3,500 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan (WaPo).

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a U.S. proposal to cut off fuel supplies to North Korea, stating that sanctions would not deter North Korea’s nuclear testing (NYTimes).

The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing a report that identifies a hacking effort targeting the U.S. energy sector (The Hill).

President Trump is increasingly using trade as a leverage point in matters of national security and foreign affairs (The Hill).

In most states, police body camera footage is not a matter of public record, and transparency varies widely from state to state (Ars Technica).

The United States sanctioned South Sudan officials for enriching themselves amid civil war and famine (WaPo).

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Dozens of lobbyists, contractors, and others pay to join President Trump’s private golf clubs, giving them close access to the President (USA Today).

On Saturday, September 23rd, Harvard Law School will host a one-day conference entitled “Populist Plutocrats: Lessons from Around the World,” which will focus on leaders who exploit anti-elite sentiment in order to gain power, but then use that power for profit (Take Care).

REGULATION

President Trump struck a deal with Democratic congressional leaders to avert a fiscal showdown over raising the budget ceiling and funding Hurricane Harvey relief (NYTimes, WSJ).

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will make an announcement Thursday on the department’s enforcement of Title IX, the federal sex discrimination law (The Hill).

Congress must act to strengthen election cybersecurity, writes Michael Chertoff in the Wall Street Journal.

Congress is once again failing the possibility of stumbling into economic catastrophe if it fails to raise the debt ceiling by the end of this month; it should not raise it but repeal it, writes Jack Balkin at Balkinization.

The Department of Education has now dissolved at 2016 arrangement under which the Consumer FInancial Protection Bureau accepted federal student loan complaints (Consumer Finance Monitor).

The House of Representatives approved legislation designed to streamline rules governing self-driving cars, preempting state laws on the subject (Ars Technica, The Hill).

Stanley Fischer, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, will step down in mid-October (NYTimes).

• Fischer’s resignation marks the first time in the Fed’s history that we have only three sitting Governors, a situation made more complicated by the “towering legislative agenda” before Congress, notes Peter Conti-Brown at Notice & Comment.

Disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Harvey poses great risk for waste and fraud; Congress and the administration should insist on oversight, writes Nick Schwellenbach at POGO.

RULE OF LAW

There must be judicial review of security clearance decisions to ensure that people are not losing their jobs because of their political viewpoints or because of discrimination, writes Heidi Gilchrist at Just Security.

After a spectacularly unsuccessful start of a presidency, is President Trump normalizing?, asks Eric Posner on his blog.

The task of interpreting the Equal Rights Amendment, should that amendment be ratified, will be made more difficult by the long time span between its proposal and ratification, writes Gerard Magliocca at Concurring Opinions.

CHECKS & BALANCES

President Trump is set to remake the federal judiciary, putting that branch in serious jeopardy, writes Lena Zwarensteyn at ACSblog.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Facebook confirmed a report indicating that its ad sales team had sold advertising to a “shadowy Russian company” ahead of the 2016 Presidential election.

• Most of the ads focused on divisive social issues such as race, gay rights, gun control, and immigration (NYTimes).

If reports are true that Vice President Pence heard President Trump’s “screed” regarding former FBI Director James Comey’s handling of the Russian probe, then Pence may be in legal jeopardy for obstruction of justice, argues Jed Shugerman at Take Care.

Donald Trump Jr. will meet with the Senate Judiciary Committee behind closed doors on Thursday (The Hill).

Wednesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee interviewed former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice as part of its investigation into Russian interference (The Hill).

A former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, John Sipher, examined the Steele dossier, concluding that its information on campaign collusion is generally credible despite some factual errors (Just Security).