Raquel Dominguez , Kate Berry  //  9/8/17  //  Daily Update

Sixteen Democratic attorneys general have filed suit in Federal District Court in Brooklyn alleging that President Trump has improperly ended DACA. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will rescind 2011 Title IX guidance relating to how schools should address sexual assault and harassment. The United States proposed stiffer United Nations sanctions against North Korea. Donald Trump Jr. told Senate Judiciary Committee investigators that he met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 to determine if she possessed information about Hillary Clinton’s fitness for office.

IMMIGRATION

President Trump endorsed a pathway to legal status for youthful immigrants, coupled with increased border security (LA Times).

• Republican Congress members face a tough decision about what to support: a popular, flexible approach to minority communities or the Republican Party’s traditional nativist supporters (LA Times).

Sixteen Democratic attorneys general have filed suit in Federal District Court in Brooklyn alleging that President Trump has improperly ended DACA (NYT, LA Times).

• DACA suits’ reliance on campaign-statements could cause problems for travel-ban opponents, as courts could shy away from widely curtailing candidates’ policies based on campaign statements (Politico).

President Trump tweeted that Congress has six months to legalize DACA or he will “revisit” the issue (NYT, LA Times).

• Denouncing DACA as illegal limits President Trump’s ability to “revisit” the issue, argues Josh Blackman on his blog.
• Immigrant and native-born workers are not perfect substitutes, belying the White House’s claim that dreamers take jobs from Americans (WaPo).
• The end of DACA has consequences for public school teachers in New York (NYT) and for military service members (WaPo).
• César Hernández on Crimmigration outlines the provisions of the Dream Act of 2017, a current Senate proposal.
• Charles M. Blow, in an opinion for the New York Times, claims ending DACA is only one of many racist acts on the part of President Trump.

Violent crime is at an all-time low and increasing legal immigration will help curtail violence even further, argues Rachel Kleinfeld on Just Security.

Houses of worship and religious organizations could grant sanctuary to immigrants but doing so entails some risk, outlines Ellen P. Aprill in her legal studies research paper.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Eric Dreiband, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, faced stiff scrutiny from the Senate Judiciary Committee (Fox, CNN, NPR).

Lambda Legal has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case of Jameka Evans, seeking a nationwide ruling that sexual orientation discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Lambda Legal).

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will rescind 2011 Title IX guidance relating to how schools should address sexual assault and harassment, reports the Human Rights Campaign.

DEMOCRACY

President Trump shows signs of normalizing his presidency, describes Eric Posner on his blog.

Some Republicans, in reference to the Wisconsin gerrymandering case, have urged the Supreme Court to find extreme partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional (WaPo).

• Rick Hasen on Election Law Blog has a full list, with links, to amicus briefs filed in support of the appellees.

A new Harvard study shows that voter identity theft constitutes a real threat to electronic voting systems (Phys.org).

SAFETY AND JUSTICE

Russia-linked hackers may have been targeting the U.S. energy sector (The Hill).

Twitter will give a report of Russian activity to Congress (The Hill).

The House Homeland Security Committee advanced a bill to protect United States ports from cyberattacks (The Hill).

The House Intelligence Committee interviewed former national security adviser Susan Rice behind closed doors regarding unmasking, the process by which officials can request to know the identity of American caught in U.S. surveillance (The Hill).

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., met with Senate investigators on Thursday (The Hill).

The United States proposed stiffer United Nations sanctions against North Korea, including an embargo on the country’s oil and textile trade (WSJ).

• China seems to support the U.N. adopting further sanctions against North Korea (Reuters).
• Putin, on the other hand, opposes cutting off North Korea’s oil supply (NYT).

REGULATION

President Trump confirmed to reporters that he suggested terminating the Congressional debt ceiling approval process in a meeting with Congressional leadership (Politico).

The EPA plans to submit its review of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan this fall, according to a court filing (The Hill).

RULE OF LAW 

President Trump may engage in intimidating witnesses via his Twitter account, writes Hannah Ryan at Just Security.

CHECKS & BALANCES

President Trump submitted 16 nominations for the federal judiciary, including current deputy White House Counsel George Katsas (The Hill).

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE 

Donald Trump Jr. told Senate Judiciary Committee investigators that he met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 to determine if she possessed information about Hillary Clinton’s fitness for office (NYT).

FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that he has not seen any indications of Trump administration interference with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian involvement with the 2016 elections (WaPo, The Hill).

Special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly seeks to interview White House staffers regarding Donald Trump Jr.’s initial statement about the June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer (The Hill).