Jeffrey Stein  //  12/3/17  //  Topic Update

Reports from the White House indicate that President Trump will soon replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with the C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo (NYT).

• The Washington Post writes that Tillerson has ignored these reports.
• Politico writes that Defense Secretary James Mattis has similarly dismissed the story.
• Sentencing Law & Policy explores how sentencing reform could become easier if Senator Tom Cotton moves into the CIA directorship.
• Politico discusses Senator Cotton’s rise to prominence. 

President Trump has not lived up to his promises about smaller government, asserts M. Reed Hopper at The Hill.

Protect Democracy filed suit against the Trump Administration for documents related to plans for the 2020 Census, following refusals by the Commerce Department and the Office of the Management and Budget to comply with FOIA requests (Protect Democracy).

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said that some voters have received erroneous messages saying that they are not registered to vote (AL.com).

Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton has retreated from earlier claims of voter fraud during this past May’s special election (Montana Public Radio).

Louisiana senator John Kennedy has decided to oppose Brett Talley, President Trump’s judicial nominee (Politico).

The criminalization of political differences is a worrisome trend, writes Alan Dershowitz at NYT.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked DOJ to investigate whether Kris Kobach is improperly benefiting from his role as vice chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (Washington Examiner).

• Kobach has not been successful in his home state of Kansas, writes Ari Berman at Mother Jones.

The D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected a challenge to separate federal campaign contribution limits in primary and general elections (D.C. Circuit).

Internet libel takedown orders that purport to bar search engines from posting the orders on an archive of takedown requests violate the search engines’ First Amendment rights, writes Eugene Volokh (Volokh Conspiracy).

The government should not politicize the 2020 Census, argues LDF Senior Counsel Leah Aden at ACSblog.

With a federal consent decree set to expire soon, President Trump may have an opportunity to ramp up voter suppression (Slate).

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