11/17/17  //  Daily Update

The House of Representatives passed the Republican tax reform proposal. Richard Cordray has announced his impending resignation as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines to eliminate rules limiting the ability of broadcast media outlets to merge. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced that he would begin holding hearings on certain judicial nominees without “blue slips” from home state senators. The Senate Judiciary Committee announced that Jared Kushner had undisclosed contacts with Wikileaks and individuals tied to the Russian government.

11/1/17  //  Daily Update

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is scheduled to interview White House Communications Director Hope Hicks. Trump attorney Jay Sekulow claimed that “pardons are not on the table” in the wake of the Special Counsel’s indictments. Executives from Facebook, Google, and Twitter testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding Russian influence operations on their platforms during the 2016 election. The ACLU is suing the Trump Administration for the release of a ten-year-old girl with cerebral palsy detained by ICE after undergoing surgery. The EPA has eliminated the ability of scientists receiving EPA research funding to serve on the agency’s advisory committees, a move that will likely increase the influence of industry-funded scientists.

10/26/17  //  Daily Update

Following a ruling in her favor, the undocumented teen at the heart of a recent court battle over reproductive rights gained access to care. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is investigating possible money laundering by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. New details have emerged regarding the Clinton campaign’s funding of a controversial dossier regarding President Trump’s Russia ties.

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 The Federal Communications Commission has repealed a regulation requiring broadcasters to maintain a studio in the area from which they broadcast.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

10/24/17  //  Daily Update

Experts say Trump’s Voter Fraud Commission may not be able to secure voter data. President Trump unsuccessfully attempted to secure the arrest of Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire living in the United States, after Steve Wynn, a businessman and Trump donor with ties to the Chinese government, hand-delivered a letter from the Chinese government to President Trump requesting Guo’s arrest. The Department of the Treasury issued a report criticizing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s forced arbitration rule. The House Intelligence Committee will interview Brad Parscale, digital director of President Trump’s 2016 campaign, as part of its investigation into Russia’s influence operation on social media.

10/23/17  //  Daily Update

President Trump previously called for eliminating tax breaks to the NFL because of the protests, and now the Republican tax bill proposes to cut tax breaks for stadiums. President Trump has pushed the death penalty for Saipov, which could threaten the defendant’s chance for a fair trial. A group of House Democrats have filed a lawsuit to acquire documents from the General Services Administration on the Trump hotel in Washington. President Trump announced Jerome Powell as his nominee for chair of the Federal Reserve. Jared Kushner has turned over documents to the Special Counsel as part of its investigation into obstruction of justice in the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

10/11/17  //  Daily Update

A challenge to the administration's second travel ban has been dismissed by the Supreme Court as moot. Hawaii has filed a legal challenge to the third travel ban. On Twitter, Trump threatened to revoke the NFL’s tax exemption and attacked an ESPN journalist who had criticized his response to national anthem protests. The EPA seeks to undo Clean Air regulations. And the GAO finds that the Trump transition team violated ethics rules. And a comprehensive new report concludes that President Trump likely committed criminal obstruction of justice through his efforts to impede the Russia investigation, including by firing former FBI Director James Comey.

10/3/17  //  Daily Update

Los Angeles filed suit against the Department of Justice, arguing that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to withhold funds because of the city’s immigration policy. Over 90 civil rights groups are preparing to challenge the Trump administration’s decision to halt an equal pay rule, which required companies to submit data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Following the Las Vegas shooting, the White House said it was too soon to discuss gun control measures. Leaked emails reveal that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort attempted to use his campaign position to solicit money from Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Russian government.

9/18/17  //  Daily Update

A federal court granted a nationwide preliminary injunction, ruling against Justice Department’s effort to withhold funding from sanctuary cities. The Pentagon issued guidance stating that transgender troops serving in the military can re-enlist, while the Defense Department determines how to enact Trump’s transgender troops ban. The Department of Justice has moved to dismiss a lawsuit by over 200 members of Congress that challenged President Trump’s failure to divest from his business as violative of the Emoluments Clause. California’s Assembly approved a bill that would require presidential candidates to release tax returns in order to appear on the primary ballot.

9/14/17  //  Daily Update

Coverage and analysis of the Supreme Court’s allowance of parts of the travel ban continues. The ACLU will challenge warrantless searches of phones and laptops at the border. President Trump nominated Trey Trainor, a Texas lawyer and opponent of campaign finance regulation, to the Federal Election Commission. The House has voted to curb federal asset forfeitures, a program Attorney General Jeff Sessions had reinstated. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed a proposal to eliminate the “blue slip” procedure that would allow Democrats to block President Trump’s circuit court nominees from their home state.

9/12/17  //  Daily Update

The Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s emergency request to stay the Ninth Circuit’s travel ban ruling, which would enable about 24,000 refugees with formal assurances from U.S. resettlement agencies to enter the country. Attorneys General from California, Maine, Minnesota and Maryland have filed suit in federal district court for the Northern District of California alleging that President Trump violated the Constitution when the administration ended DACA. A bipartisan group of senators released legislation to block the Trump administration’s proposal to prohibit transgender people from serving in the military. Two advocacy groups have filed briefs arguing that President Trump’s pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is unconstitutional.

9/6/17  //  Daily Update

The Trump Administration announces an end to DACA—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration non-enforcement program—and commentary and analysis about what might happen next ensues. Transgender service members sue the Trump Administration to block the order barring military service by transgender individuals. And President Trump continues to nominate reliable conservatives to open positions on the federal bench, which prompts media commentary and a Facebook message from Senator Al Franken about his opposition to one nominee to the Eighth Circuit.

8/24/17  //  Daily Update

President Trump held a campaign rally in Phoenix during which he threatened a government shutdown if Congress does not fund a wall along the Mexican border. The Trump Administration announced that it will withhold almost $100 million in aid to Egypt in response to that country’s human-rights abuses and support for North Korea. And Congressional investigators have discovered an email in which a Trump campaign official discussed attempts to set up a meeting between the campaign and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

8/18/17  //  Daily Update

Thirteen people were killed and over eighty injured when a suspected terrorist drove a van through a crowd of tourists in Barcelona. President Trump, in response, tweeted that Americans should study what “General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught,” a reference to a false story about an American general who dipped bullets in pigs’ blood and used them to kill unarmed prisoners of war. Three days after white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched on Charlottesville, VA, killing one and injuring many others, President Trump tweeted that removing “beautiful” confederate statues was “foolish,” and that doing so would risk our country’s “history and culture.” Meanwhile, President Trump’s personal attorney, John Dowd, forwarded an email claiming that there is “literally no difference” between Robert E. Lee and George Washington.

8/16/17  //  Daily Update

President Trump reverted to his earlier statement on Charlottesville, saying “both sides” are to blame for the violence. California is joining the city of San Francisco in its sanctuary city suit against the Trump Administration. The Justice Department is demanding information on visitors to a website used to protest President Trump’s inauguration. The Congressional Budget Office concluded that President Trump’s proposal to cut cost-sharing reduction payments to health insurers under the Affordable Care Act would increase premiums and the federal deficit.