Government – National News Roundup

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 48.5 (December 16–26)

December 27, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Still life — Boot on newspaper, by Ernest Blaikley [Public domain]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1X1ruUXNnpSufbkxYOSdb84N_ERsWKZft

This week was a dumpster fire for everyone, including the Trump administration — there are no real winners with a government shutdown and half the administration on its way out the door. And while it’s nice to at least see some collateral damage, I still recommend grabbing a comfort food before you dig into this week’s news — it’s definitely not The Most Wonderful News of the Year, y’all. (I delayed a couple of days to give everyone a holiday break, and also have moved the Good to the beginning of this draft accordingly.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a shutdown! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

The Good:

Asylum Assist. It’s just after Christmas, and a lot of things are going wrong, but I can at least bring you good news for those seeking refuge in this country. Jeff Sessions’s changes to asylum law from this summer, which blocked asylum claims due to gang violence or interpersonal violence, were successfully challenged in federal district court this week. The judge based his holding on the idea that Sessions ignored checks and balances, which might be a starting place for larger precedent on the topic. And on a separate asylum issue, the Supreme Court held by 5–4 decision to deny the federal government a stay that would allow them to block interior asylum applications. Among the people to vote in the majority: Chief Justice Roberts, who has been moving to a more centrist posture to preserve the Supreme Court as an institution, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who voted from a hospital bed because she had just undergone surgery.
Bump Stock Ban. Proving that even a stopped clock is right twice a day, the Trump administration passed regulations banning bump stocks, which were the gun modification that made the Las Vegas shooting possible. It would still be a good idea for Congress to pass a bill banning them, but this is definitely progress.

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We’re inching ever-closer to a reckoning with the Russia Investigation, but several things are going on pause for the holiday before resolution. Here are the things to know and track while we’re paused:

Russian Attempts at Influence (Redux).* A new report prepared for the Senate this past week shows that we grossly underestimated the scope of Russia’s media campaign, which spanned Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. We also learned that Russia targeted Mueller with a disinformation campaign after his appointment in 2017, tweeting about him over 500 times. With the Senate adjourned until Thursday at the earliest (and more on that below), it’s not clear what, precisely, the Senate will do with that news in the meantime. But at least they (and by extension we) have it, which is better than what was happening before.
Trump Foundation and Other 45 Fiascoes.* The Trump Foundation was ordered disbanded this week, with all remaining assets being donated to actual charities, as part of the ongoing New York investigation into the foundation’s many, many illegal actions. (The New York Attorney General called the Foundation’s pattern of behavior ‘shocking,’ which is definitely fake news, because nothing 45 does shocks us anymore.) She also noted that the investigation will continue after the organization disbands, and she’s seeking millions in restitution. And speaking of seeking millions, we also learned that the 2016 Trump campaign may have illegally coordinated ads with the NRA, with the latter ponying up about $25M for said ads — and that funding, in case you were curious, was about five thousand times the legal limit for funding coordinated ads, and frankly may have come from Russian donors. This bit of news makes it extra exciting that Trump is taking the unprecedented step of merging his 2020 campaign — which by the way, is likely also illegally coordinating with the NRA — with the Republican National Committee. We also learned this week that Trump signed a letter of intent for the Moscow Trump Tower in late 2015, despite Rudy Giuliani’s claims to the contrary — and counter to his follow-up opinion, it isn’t a meaningless development. But given everything else in this paragraph, it kind of feels like one by contrast.
Mueller Investigation Miscellany.* There’s so much Mueller news this week that it’s tough to catch all the odds and ends, but here’s a quick dive through the remaining action: Michael Flynn attempted a sentencing colloquy this week, but wasn’t able to complete it due to the judge’s insistence that he prove he deserved to skip the jail sentence. (As my researcher notes, it’s never a good sign when the judge wants to confirm the prosecutors are really extra sure they don’t want to charge the guy with treason.) Meanwhile, Mueller is getting a copy of Roger Stone’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker is refusing to recuse himself despite ethics official advice to the contrary because Trump-era advisers told him not to, and Senate Republicans blocked a Mueller protection bill for a third time.

We also saw a few stories on the Disregard of Governing Norms front. Here are the main things to know from this past week:

Staff Shuffle Circus (Redux).* On the heels of all of the last few weeks’ departures, we also saw a rapidly-escalating Department of Defense meltdown this week. First Secretary of Defense Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis threw down a resignation letter over developments in Syria (which caused our envoy to countering ISIS to quit also, though it received less publicity). His resignation was supposed to be effective February 28, but after Trump actually read the letter and noted to aides that the resignation letter “was not positive to him,” he forced Mattis out two months early. And this story just keeps getting better, because the interim replacement will be Patrick Shanahan, who has deep ties to Boeing but no defense (or even prior government) experience. So now the Pentagon (and the rest of us) are stuck sailing without a rudder, and we’re already seeing repercussions of that — which we’ll talk about below.
Government Shutdown Sure Is Happening.* Despite a successfully-passed Senate resolution that would have funded the government through February 8, combined House and Trump shenanigans launched us into a government shutdown on Friday night (because something something wall funding). It’s looking like the absolute earliest it may end is Thursday of this upcoming week, which is when the Senate will convene again. In reality, it may last much longer than that, particularly because Trump keeps insisting he’ll refuse to sign unless there’s at least $2.5B in “border security” funding. The shutdown has a lot of repercussions, from unpaid federal workers to the Violence Against Women Act expiring to world market implications, but Trump has spent the shutdown so far dodging blame, complaining that he’s ‘all alone’ at the White House, and asking a seven-year-old child who called NORAD if she still believes in Santa. It’s super fun being governed by Krampus, let me tell you.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Unsinkable AZ Candidate.* Temporary Arizona Senate appointee John Kyl announced he was stepping down this week, clearing the path for former GOP candidate Martha McSally to be appointed — which means she’s going to have to work with the Democrat who beat her in the election for the Senate seat she was seeking. In another week, this kind of “too bad you lost your bid for the Senate, here, have the Senate seat that belonged to a dead guy you alienated” would probably fall under the purview of Casual Disregard of Governing Norms. But let’s be honest, it’s crowded enough up there already, and either way, it’s plenty weird, so into the Weird column it goes.
Bipartisan Criminal Reform? Okay, so a bill passed with bipartisan support through the Senate by 87–12 vote and the House by 358–36 this week, and Trump signed it into law on Friday. All by itself, that’s a little weird these days, but that’s not the part that is really confusing me — it’s that it’s a reasonable bill on criminal justice reform that was architected by Jared Kushner and even Fox News likes it. I haven’t had a chance to review the bill in depth yet, and that means I’m not yet sure what the deal is, though enough people adjacent to the Trumps lose money on this that I’m not sure why they’ve set this up. I’m hoping to review it in more depth soon, and I will definitely report back once I have a better idea.

The Bad:

Dow Drops Like a Stone.* The stock market is having a rough, rough time right now, likely from of all the instability created by our illustrious leader’s excellent decisions, and closed on one of the worst Christmas Eves ever. Unsurprisingly, people are getting nervous that we may be heading towards another recession, and White House methods of coping seem to mostly involve either scaring people further or looking for scapegoats. But Trump eventually remembered he can’t actually fire the federal reserve guy, and somehow the market recovered a bit, managing to climb back out of the previous week’s pit in an unprecedented recovery on Wednesday. So things are looking up, at least a bit, as I write this.
Kavanaugh Complaints Tossed. With Brett Kavanaugh officially sitting on the SCOTUS bench, and therefore a member of the highest court in the land, his appellate level complaints were thrown out without being assessed this week. As far as I can tell, it is in fact true that this move was procedurally necessary, because the Tenth Circuit has no authority to censure a sitting Supreme Court Justice. But these complaints really could (and should!) have been addressed before he was sitting on the bench. I know I personally plan to die mad about this, though I can’t speak for other members of the bar.
Withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan.* Trump ordered troops withdrawn from Syria this week, abandoning Kurdish allies there and falsely claiming we’ve “won against ISIS”. This move is so ill-advised that it made our envoy on the subject rage quit and our Secretary of Defense wasn’t far behind, but hey, I hear Russia’s pretty happy. Trump eventually walked back the claim that we had won, but not the decision to leave, which is frankly a pretty good summary of the Trump presidency all around.
Immigration Updates. Quelle surprise, this was another rough week for immigration (although we did see some silver linings, which are outlined below). First it was confirmed that a deal was definitely reached with Mexico to force asylum seekers to wait there pending their applications, which as I mentioned in earlier roundups can have serious safety risks for people fleeing dangerous situations further south. News also broke that ICE dropped off 400 asylum seekers at a bus depot in El Paso with no money and no shelter just before Christmas, and another young Guatemalan child died in CBP custody on Christmas Day. The boy had arrived at the border on December 18, which means he had been in CBP custody for over twice the intended length of time when he died. CBP has ordered medical checks on all the children in its custody, but they would be better served by examining their illegal detention practices.

What We Can Do:

Shutdown Shouting. Celeste Pewter continues to be an excellent resource on who to call about what; in particular, she recommends calling both sets of reps to say no money should be given to the wall, and she recommends you also call House reps about back pay for furloughed government workers. For both sets of calls, you can check the #ShutdownStories hashtag for inspiration as well. This is an issue where calling reps really, really matters, because our reps have a huge amount of ability to decide what happens next. So it’s worth a call or three!

And that’s what I have for this week, which was twice more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this United States of Pop 2018 mashup and an eventual better government. I’ll be back soon with more (and hopefully better) 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 peace on Earth and goodwill towards humans!

National News Roundup: Week 52 (We’ve Come Full Circle!)

January 23, 2018 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

By Polymath38 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The National News Roundup is one year old today! And what a year it’s been, ye gods. Relatedly, it’s also been quite an anniversary week — the only real bright spot is that Trump had to sulk at the White House all weekend because a government shut down forced him to skip his fancy inaugural party at Mar-A-Lago. Go ahead and drink deeply from that schadenfreude spring; we won’t judge.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not an Olympic athlete! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We actually did see a bit on the Russia Collusion Investigation front this week, but it was overshadowed by all the other rings of the circus happening simultaneously. Here’s what you may have missed:

Bannon Brouhaha Two: Electric Bugaloo.* Well, Steve Bannon did indeed testify before the House Committee this past week, but he didn’t answer any questions, claiming ‘executive privilege’ every time he was asked things about Trump and slowly making the House Committee want to strangle him. (The House Committee is considering a contempt citation, in fact, because as Rep Peter King says, ‘I have contempt for Bannon anyway.’) Then it came out that the White House instructed Bannon to be obstreperous in the hearing. Since ‘executive privilege’ isn’t exactly a thing in Bannon’s case, this is probably another instance of obstruction of justice on Trump’s part. It will definitely be interesting to see what Mueller does with this in his own questioning process.

There were unfortunately multiple other constitutional crisis moments this week as well, for the first time in a little while, and the remaining topics really get my goat. First we have a Separation of Powers issue:

You Don’t Get to Skip the Ninth Circuit. After a federal judge held last week that Trump’s rescission of DACA must be partially revoked, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to hear the case directly, attempting to skip right over the Ninth Circuit appeals court (despite being forced to file an appeal there as well). Sessions is calling this a ‘rare step,’ which is putting it mildly — in actuality, it’s probably an executive overreach. In addition to ignoring ordinary legal process, the executive branch is attacking the judicial branch with the request, because it’s trying to co-opt and subvert judicial procedure. I’m hoping the Supreme Court will just slap down the request and the case will go to the Ninth Circuit like normal, but I guess we’ll have to see what happens.

And last but not least, this week featured another round of First Amendment Attacks, because Trump finally got around to his inane Corrupt Media Awards and also made life harder for marginalized people.

Steven Colbert Was Snubbed.* After several technical difficulties, Trump did eventually have his ‘fake news awards’ this week (which did not include Steven Colbert in the proceedings, despite his best efforts). As several media outlets have noted, ‘first place’ went to an opinion-editorial, and several other ‘awards’ were given to tweeted statements or quickly-corrected early drafts of stories. But even though these awards are ridiculous, they’re also really dangerous; they normalize the idea that a sitting President is allowed to call out news organizations by name and reinforce suspicion of the President’s disfavored outlets (such as CNN). Plus, they’re really just super tacky.
Religious Freedom to Discriminate. Early in the week, Trump celebrated ‘religious freedom day’ (which is a real thing, going back to 1993) by condoning intolerance in a written statement riddled with dog whistles. Generally his dog whistles signal something, and this turned out to be no exception; later that same week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a new ‘Conscience and Religious Freedom Division’ of the Office of Civil Rights, and guess what it does? (If your guess was ‘back health workers who refuse to treat people,’ you win a prize! Unfortunately, the prize is… health workers who refuse to treat people. Better luck next time!) This decision appears to be related to this administration’s refusal to grant abortions to teenage immigrants, and was announced the day before Trump spoke at a pro-life rally — but more on that below. Unsurprisingly, the ACLU has already announced an intent to sue.

Your “Normal” Weird:

This Week in Trump. This was an uncommonly weird week of Trump watching, even by our modern standards, and none of it exactly inspires confidence. First there was the hoopla around Trump’s yearly physical, which he used to get a doctor to claim that he has no cognitive or mental issues and also that he has great genes (yes, really) — though of course, this doesn’t exactly guarantee that he’s a good President. Meanwhile, the story broke that Donald Trump paid a porn star $130,000 in hush money because he didn’t want her to disclose that he slept with her during Barron’s infancy — behavior that even said porn star observed wasn’t exactly stellar. (We also learned from this story that like all people stuck in the ’80s, Trump really hates sharks.) The entire intrepid affair is disturbing, but not for the reasons getting media attention — simply put, it implies practices and personality exploitable by blackmail. Of course, both the clean bill of health and the prurient past made a very surreal backdrop when Trump eventually spoke to the March for Life on Friday and complained that the law allows babies to be born in the ninth month of pregnancy (again, yes really). One presumes that he meant to complain about… c-sections, I guess? I’m actually not even sure. All in all, this week’s Trump news gets points for originality but marks off for its execution.
Shutdown Show Down. The shutdown circus has been a wild ride, I don’t mind telling you. After early attempts at a bipartisan bill in the Senate failed, and the White House made it clear they wouldn’t play ball on reinstating DACA, Democrats started refusing to vote for the House bill because it did not provide any protection for DACA recipients. Then Mitch McConnell put severe pressure on Democrats, goading them and telling them that they had to choose whether they wanted CHIP or DACA. This made them double down, of course, and the whole thing officially went off the rails on Friday, causing an official partial shutdown. Eventually Mitch McConnell told the Democrats he definitely would allow a vote on DACA if they would just vote to turn the government back on, and managed to get enough votes to resume government action until February 8 (although 18 Democrats still voted against the measure, holding out for DACA reform). At this stage, the House has voted for the provision as well, and the White House signed it around 9:00. So the shutdown is officially over, at least for a few weeks.

The Bad:

Travel Ban v. Seventy Million. The Supreme Court announced it will hear arguments on the Travel Ban 3.0, which has a lot of valid things to legally criticize to put it mildly. But the case won’t be heard until April — which means the ban will remain in effect until at least late June, which is the earliest we’re likely to get a decision. And of course, since the current version has no end date, a junk decision could mean we’re stuck with it indefinitely. (Meanwhile, we’re supposed to hear about the fate of Syrian TPS by the end of the month, and I’m sure that will be a hoot and a half too.)
Other Immigration Updates. This was yet another truly awful week for immigration on a lot of other fronts as well. No More Deaths, a humanitarian effort based in Tuscon, published a report alleging that Border Patrol has intentionally destroyed over 3,500 gallons of potable water left for desperate migrants, as well as food and blankets, under a policy known as ‘Prevention by Deterrence.’ (The premise of the policy is simple: If you intentionally kill enough people trying to cross the border to the United States, fewer people will try it.) The report included videos of Border Patrol engaging in this practice as recently as last year. Meanwhile, Salvadorans and Haitians with temporary protected status were informed that they need to reregister within sixty days in order to keep their status, despite the programs winding down within the next eighteen months. And as an encore, Haitians were quietly removed from the list of workers eligible for seasonal visas in agriculture, creating fewer venues of lawful residence in the United States. This was, of course, only days after Trump disparaged the country in bipartisan negotiations. These policy changes, particularly taken in tandem, paint an ugly picture: An administration trying to locate all the lawfully residing Haitians and Salvadorans while systemically removing their lawful status, so that nearly 300,000 people will be easy to round up and deport as soon as they’re eligible in 2019. We need to be watching this, y’all.

The Good:

Korean Olympic News.* North and South Korea announced this week that they’ll be appearing under one flag for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Olympics, which is an exciting step. In addition to potentially signaling thawing relations, it’s also likely to be soothing to the South Koreans who have been watching an increasingly bombastic display between Trump and Kim Jong-un — it suggests that their President, Moon Jae-in, has been getting more of a voice in proceedings.
Net Neutrality Lawsuits. Attorneys general from twenty-one states filed a lawsuit to block the net neutrality repeal this week, arguing (probably correctly) that the new rule hurts consumers and oversteps their Congressional authority. The suit was only one of many to emerge, as a plethora of entities made their displeasure with the policy known; at minimum, Mozilla and the Open Technology Institute have filed as well. It will be interesting to see whether these suits go anywhere, especially as they occur while Democrats in Congress try to use the Congressional Review Act to undo the move legislatively.
Gerrymandering Jettisoned Part Deux. Following on the heels of last week’s news in North Carolina, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held today that Pennsylvania unconstitutionally gerrymandered as well, with the same issue — that the districts were drawn to intentionally favor Republicans. These districts will need to be redone before the 2018 election as well, and unlike the first case, this was based on the Pennsylvania constitution, not the federal one — so the decision is not appealable to the Supreme Court. I’m really excited to see what happens from here as a result! Also, as I noted last week, tossing district divisions based on partisan intent has historically been a very hard thing to get courts to do, so it’s nothing short of amazing that it’s suddenly raining redistricting!

And that’s all the news that I have for now! It’s been a week, but at least it’s just about over, which is probably the best I can say for it. Hang in there until next time!