I’ve heard a lot of people describe the past week as an intentional shock doctrine campaign, and frankly, that’s a good framing for what just happened. We had such a barrage of the everything that I want to give people some grounding and context–while I definitely won’t be able to put out the NNR weekly, we’re doing back-to-back summaries for Week 1. Frankly, this week needs it.
Standard standing reminders still apply: we may be starting my ninth year of journalism, but I summarize news within my areas of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a federal employee!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!
Spills in Aisle 47:
Things are chaotic and scary enough that for the foreseeable future, we’re going to give Presidential Project 2025 actions their own section. Expect this category to cover everything implementing Project 2025 from executive orders to memoranda to, y’know, general cheeto overflow.
- From the Department of Destroying Health. Boy howdy, was this week a weird time to work in national healthcare. The administration ordered a communication freeze, which is just a fancy way of saying “you’re not allowed to talk to anybody about anything,” for the Center for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, and National Institutes of Health through February 1. At NIH, reports began trickling in that this included NIH study sessions, which is how the NIH reviews grant applications, as well as advisory committees. People and outlets also described NIH conferences that ended mid-conference and restrictions on travel and hiring. Guidance was eventually issued that said that clinical trials could continue but the NIH still wasn’t allowed to talk about them, and people remained confused about their funding. Meanwhile, the CDC can’t issue health alerts, which is not great when we currently have an outbreak of bird flu in several states (side note–apparently it is killing bald eagles, which feels like quite an apt metaphor at the moment). The CDC was also directed today to stop working with the World Health Organization immediately, which precludes a controlled withdrawal and likely isn’t legal. The FDA has scrubbed lots of clinical data that relates to diversity in clinical trials as well, though we’ll talk more about that below. Trump rounded out the week by threatening to pull FEMA funding as a first step for destroying the agency, and he did indeed order on Friday that FEMA be “assessed”. Looking ahead, RFK’s hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, and now is a great time to call your Senator to demand they quash his HHS nomination.
- Immigration Roundups. A huge amount has happened on the immigration front, which isn’t surprising when it was such a flagship issue for 47 but is still plenty disturbing. Trump did indeed issue an executive order that illegally revoked birthright citizenship, which he then argued in court applied to Indigenous peoples–and reports began trickling in of Navajo Nation citizens being detained by ICE. In apparent response on Tuesday, Bishop Mariann Budde gave an inaugural service sermon to Trump urging him not to be horrible to immigrants, which naturally was so offensive that Trump questioned her credentials and demanded an apology. This served to set something of a tone for the rest of the week, as for an encore he canceled entrance for thousands of approved refugees–which, for those of you playing the home game, definitionally involves people who are legally entering the United States due to credible risk of torture or death if they stay where they are. This was followed by revoking the Sensitive Location doctrine, which is a rule from 2011 stating that ICE can’t invade churches and schools, and this is already leading to massive raids. And just today he instated abhorrent quotas requiring ICE to arrest a thousand immigrants per day–a massive increase, as ICE detained 11,000 people total last year. When combined with a recent law by Congress that permits deportation due to arrest for crimes like minor theft, the capacity for abuse is massive. Now is a great time to donate to immigration advocacy groups, print red cards for community use, and share Know Your Rights documents generally.
- License to Discriminate. By far, the executive documents I have spent the most quality time with this week are the orders, as foretold by prophecy, which suppress all federal DEI efforts and revoke recognition of transgender people existing. The anti-trans order features a lot of bizarro junk science and a reference to fetal personhood, but nonetheless has very real implications for trans and gender diverse people living in the United States. It’s particularly dangerous for incarcerated trans people, but people are also already reporting their passport applications getting pulled if they requested an X marker or a gender marker change. Meanwhile, all DEI-related staff are being fired by January 31, equity-related data is getting scrubbed, and federal employees are being told to rat out their coworkers if they suspect them of engaging in DEI activities, lest employees face “adverse consequences” for failing to snitch. He also revoked sixty-year-old protections that prohibited discrimination in federal contracts, extending these rules to the private sector and higher education. Both of these orders, incidentally, are part of the Project 2025 agenda–so that’s fun. On a related note, the Justice Department has frozen civil rights work, which likely indicates less, shall we say, robust enforcement under the new regime. Now’s a great time to support trans resource groups.
The Latest Fashy:
- Orange is the New Bleak. We also saw a bunch of stuff this week that is violent or advancing fascism but not, like, in a Project 2025 kind of way. I’m sure most folks have heard by now that Trump has pardoned all of the January 6 insurrectionists, some of whom were frankly very scary people. What’s less well-known is that he’s also now investigating the Jan 6 prosecutors–a move that’s particularly concerning when he also fired fifteen independent inspectors general in the middle of the night this week. It also comes at the same time that he is ending telework for federal employees, removing employee protections from firing, installing loyalty measures, and just generally made career federal employees’ lives miserable. We’ll want to keep an eye on all of these things, though I don’t have any immediate suggestions for action on them.
Silver Linings:
- Recent Judicial Resilience. At least we’re already starting to see inroads through litigation – in one of the many lawsuits brought on the subject, a federal judge has already blocked the birthright citizenship order. (Said judge called it ‘blatantly unconstitutional,‘ which is absolutely correct, but it’s nice to see a Reagan-appointed judge willing to say it.) And just today, a group of Quakers brought a lawsuit challenging the removal of the sensitive locations doctrine. Hopefully an injunction will be granted in that case, as well. And finally, a trans woman in federal prison is suing the administration over the blatantly dangerous provisions of the anti-trans executive order. Newsweek, of all places, has a good summary of all the litigation popping up against Trump this week, and it’s worth taking a look.
So that’s what I have for you, and I’m sorry, there are still no news refunds.
For making it through, you deserve these beach buddies and a more functional government. I’ll be back next time with more and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours in the day!
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