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National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 17 (May 12–18)

May 21, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

The news seems stuck on a spin cycle for another week, which means a lot of us are waiting for something — anything — to improve, and in the meantime there’s a lot of disappointment. I’m here if anyone needs to talk, and so is my ice cream. (Although the ice cream won’t talk back. It’s rude that way.)

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 tariff! — 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:

This week was a bit quieter on the Russia Investigation front, but there was still a fair amount of movement. Here’s what I have for you:

Ongoing Obvious Obstruction (Again).* The ongoing fight between the White House and Congress continued this week, with the Treasury rejecting a subpoena for Trump’s tax returns and the White House telling Don McGahn that he’s not allowed to testify before Congress. Meanwhile, a federal judge has told the administration to knock it off already, investigators are examining Trump’s odd relationship with Deutsche Bank, and even Republicans are starting to join the general muttering about impeachment proceedings. And given the beginning of this paragraph, I can’t say I blame them.
Panhandle Hacks.* Following a closed-doors meeting with the FBI, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Russian Intelligence used a spearfishing scheme to gain access to voting records for two counties in Florida in the 2016 election — a scenario that Former Governor Rick Scott openly derided when it was suggested at the time by his opponent. Scott maintains his faith in the election system, even as his colleagues in the House demand better disclosure from government agencies.
Chelsea Manning Held in Contempt. Chelsea Manning was held in contempt of court this week for refusing to testify to a grand jury, and the penalties are unusually high — she’ll be held without bail until either she agrees to testify or the grand jury subpoena ends in a year and a half, and steep fines of $500 per day (and, eventually, $1,000 per day) will kick in after the thirty-day mark. It’s believed that the order is so extreme because they really want her to testify about Julian Assange. But given the contempt ruckus happening with Congress right now, selectively imposing incarceration and steep fines on the transgender veteran — and nobody else — is really seriously not a great look for federal prosecutors.

It’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish Disregard of Governing Norms from the Russia Investigation circus above, but we still do see a couple of power moves each week that stand on their own. Here’s what happened:

Online Extremism Exclusion.* This week, the White House refused to endorse an international call, led by New Zealand in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, to fight online extremism. The White House claimed it was a violation of free speech to follow the terms of the Call, which included such draconian suggestions as — hang on, let me check my notes here — “respect[ing] . . . human rights” and “consider[ing] appropriate action to prevent the use of online services to disseminate terrorism.” (The introduction also stressed the need to act “without compromising human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression.” Although to be fair, the odds are good that Trump didn’t know that, because he didn’t read it.) Despite 45’s embarrassing display, the call did get the support of eighteen governments and five American tech firms — including Twitter, so that will be fun to watch.
This Week’s Trump Trash.* I’m rapidly starting to feel like this is a weekly refrain, but Trump did a bunch of other messed up stuff this week as well. First there was the White House official solicitation for complaints about social media censorship, which just so happens to also ask about everything from your email address to your citizenship status to permission to use your screenshots, you know, Just in Case They Ever Need It. (This from the administration that refuses to try to stop online terrorism because something something free speech, yeesh.) Then Trump pardoned Conrad Black — a buddy of his who wrote a sycophantic biography of him last year — despite Black’s conviction for embezzling $60M from his own company. And presumably because he could, Trump went on to signal that he plans to pardon servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes like murdering civilians and desecrating corpses. He then capped off the week by complaining that nobody warned him about Michael Flynn, even though it’s a matter of public record that he was warned by Obama and his own Justice Department.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Star Ted vs. The Space Pirates. Folks, there are no witticisms I could come up with that are more surprisingly hilarious than this news summary itself, which is that Ted Cruz wants to protect us from Space Pirates. Though quick to reassure us that his xenophobia won’t be extraterrestrial anytime soon, the Internet Did What the Internet Does and held an impromptu roast of the $2 billion proposal. Cruz tried to play off the criticism, but seemed a bit put out that no one was taking him seriously. Sorry Ted, but just think about how smug you can act when the Zebesian Armada arrives on our doorstep and the ISS is crawling with metroids.
Dems by the Dozens. As Montana Governor Steve Bullock and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio enter the race, there are now twenty-three confirmed Democratic hopefuls and two more potentially waiting in the wings. About half of the candidates are polling below 2 percent and every one has a different idea of how to gain an edge, worrying some members of a party that struggles to present a unified front against the GOP. Few of these strategies go outside efforts to be publicly available, visible, and brand aware (and Bullock in particular suggested that reporters plug his website). But Elizabeth Warren has embraced the apparently unlikely tactic of speaking and listening directly to one of the most disenfranchised voting blocs in America: Black women. Expect more news soon, because there sure are enough sources of it.

The Bad:

Additional Extreme Heartbeat Bills. The trend of new heartbeat bills that I documented last week continued for another week, with Alabama’s bill signed into law on Wednesday by the state’s (female) Governor. Then Missouri passed its own bill later in the week (though that one at least doesn’t criminalize undergoing the procedure, only performing it, which makes the bill slightly less scary than other versions). This brings the total number of states with heartbeat bills up to seven, and that is way too high a number when we’re discussing laws that intentionally violate our Constitution — it shows that states don’t expect the Supreme Court to function properly as a check on their overreach. Improbably, several key conservative figures and even televangelist Pat Robertson appear to agree with me, saying that the Alabama bill and others like it go too far.
Frightening Foreign Affairs.* Unfortunately, we also saw a continuation of scary foreign policy. The Trump administration recalled all non-essential personnel from our embassy in Iraq, which doesn’t exactly comfort people about our situation with Iran. Meanwhile, Trump seems confused that John “Are We Bombing Iran Yet” Bolton seems to want a war with Iran, and the rest of the world seems confused about what the heck is happening in the White House. Sadly, the news on China tariffs isn’t much better, because China retaliated and the situation is threatening to destabilize all kinds of things on our end as well as things on theirs. Trump did lift some tariffs on other countries though, so there’s that.
Immigration Updates. There’s more immigration news this week, and as usual, it’s not great. The U.S. military is building six more tent cities at the border, though the tent cities will be managed by ICE. And Trump introduced his legislation proposing “merit-based immigration,” which is a pretty sanitized way of saying “we don’t like immigrants of color and we’re gonna make applicants take a civics exam about it.” (For those folks playing the home game, we do require a civics exam and English proficiency to become a citizen, but that’s after the applicant has lived in the United States for years. This proposed bill would require passing a civics exam just to get permission to travel here.) Thankfully, basically nobody appears to enjoy his warped view of immigration, so we’re not likely to see movement on this. And speaking of lack of movement, apparently the acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Resident Jewish Nazi Stephen Miller have been having “an immigration knife fight” in the White House as they duke it out for department dominance. Honestly, this has probably kept them preoccupied over the past few weeks, so I’m not complaining about that part. I am, however, complaining about this administration straight-up lying to a federal judge about the proposed wall, claiming that just because Congress refused to allocate funding for the wall, that didn’t really mean they refused to allocate funding. And it’s not like they put aside their differences to vote down his attempt to seize funding by emergency declaration, am I right? (You know what, this administration observes Opposite Day so often that I’m starting to feel like it’s not a holiday anymore.)

The Good:

San Francisco Software Safety. Making a stand on cybersecurity, San Francisco has banned the use of facial recognition software by police, drawing ire from police and tech organizations. This is a big deal, because cybersecurity is known to be less accurate when used against defendants of color, exacerbating existing problems with false conviction. So now other cities are considering similar bans, and a larger conversation concerning surveillance technology is picking up speed.
Marriage Equality in Taiwan. Two years ago, the Taiwanese Courts struck down a law mandating that marriage was between a man and a woman only, drawing ire from conservative groups. But even with a public referendum indicating that a majority of voters oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage, on May 24th the parliament passed a bill legally recognizing same-sex unions. It’s a landmark decision for the continent that may open the door to more civil rights victories, so it’s very exciting!

So that’s what I have for this week, and boy howdy was that a lot of garbage news. For making it through, you deserve this this If Harry Potter Had Google slideshow and this concern doggo and her butterfly and also an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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 opportunities to nap!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 16 (May 5–11)

May 15, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Another week, another round of “did this really happen or am I having a fever dream?” I am sad to report, friends, that all of these things really happened. (But on the plus side, that does mean you can eat jalapeno pizza before bed in peace.)

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 subpoena! — 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:

Y’all, it’s another messed up week of Russia Investigation news — basically, pretty much everyone doubled down at once. I’ll do my best to unpack the confusion; here’s what I have for you:

Obvious Obstruction Assists.* After the mess that was last week, the House Judiciary Committee was pretty displeased with current Attorney General William Barr, and voted to hold him in contempt of Congress along party lines. In apparent response, Barr told Trump to claim the Mueller report was privileged — which is some weaksauce nonsense, but I’ll get to that below — and Trump started talking about having Barr investigate Joe Biden. (I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Biden is a frontrunning candidate for the Democrats’ Presidential nomination.) Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell was in the news for saying that “[the Mueller] case [was] closed” and people should stop investigating Trump — an idea so laughable, given Trump’s prevention of Mueller’s testimony in real time this week, that SNL made McConnell’s behavior their cold open. Nonetheless, Trump advisers claimed that his behavior wasn’t obstruction because “he just wants this to be over.” (Uh, yeah, wanting proceedings to stop is generally what motivates obstruction. You know, obstruction? The act of trying to impede proceedings?) Needless to say, fed-up Dems are starting to talk about bundling their contempt resolutions and fining uncooperative Cabinet members daily until they comply.
Trump-Related Travesties.* As mentioned above, Trump took a Mulligan this week and decided to block Mueller from testifying, or at least signal he’d make it difficult much like he did (and continues to do) for his former counsel Don McGahn. Mueller’s testimony ended up being postponed as a result. Trump also claimed that he has executive privilege over the unredacted Mueller report and therefore wouldn’t be sharing it with Congress. (Spoiler: He really, really doesn’t; though he might have more of a point with Don McGahn). And news came out that Trump asked Don McGahn to say Trump never obstructed justice — which McGahn quite sensibly declined to do, because he doesn’t work for Trump anymore, Trump keeps badmouthing him, and he was probably still annoyed about last week’s subpoena orders. And speaking of subpoenas, the Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr., which has been an interesting development since it’s not a Dem-led committee. But since Trump is currently blocking over 20 separate Congressional probes, maybe some Republicans have had enough already.
Rap Sheets of the Rich and Famous.* This week, over 800 former prosecutors signed a letter explaining exactly how and why Trump would be criminally charged if he weren’t President. Against that backdrop, it’s not surprising that Trump is again calling to ‘investigate the investigators’ — he’s probably trying to plan for his own future. What’s perhaps more surprising is that Barr appears to be listening, and is starting up said investigation — we need to keep an eye on that.

It’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish Disregard of Governing Norms from the Russia Investigation circus above, but we did see a couple of power moves that stand on their own. Here’s what happened:

Pelosi’s Concerns.* Current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has expressed a lot of concerns about Trump lately, though as far as I know she’s still not calling for impeachment. As I mentioned last week, she warned Democrats that she worried Trump would refuse to leave office if his loss margin was too narrow in 2020. This week, she conceded that the country was in a constitutional crisis. (Just one?) Then she called Trump “almost self-impeaching” because he kept obstructing justice daily. Madame Speaker, self-impeaching isn’t a thing; you still gotta pass those articles.
Tax Return Trials Continue. Welp, another week, another round of arguing about Trump’s tax returns. This week Mnuchin refused to cough up documents (again), and he’s now being subpoenaed alongside the IRS Commissioner. The New York Times ran an article outlining all the money Trump lost between 1985 and 1994, which turned out to total over one billion dollars. Then just today, a federal judge heard arguments on whether Congress can subpoena tax records, and likely will issue a decision sometime after Saturday.
Hard Pass on ‘Hard’ Passes.* The White House revoked a large number of “hard” press passes this week, making it significantly harder for regular visitors to attend press conferences. The purge was so comprehensive, according to journalists who were affected, that almost the entire White House press corps was caught up in it. Now, those still being granted access have “exceptions” to rules that screen out virtually everyone, and that means their passes can be revoked at any time. Needless to say, this kind of reduced access is frightening and unprecedented.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Heartbeat Bill Chaos. Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio were all in the news for heartbeat bill issues this week, and the stories are as strange as they are horrifying. (You may recall that Ohio already has a stringent heartbeat law on the books from last month; this measure would intensify it.) Alabama’s legislature had to push back their vote when senators started shouting at each other, but the bill was voted into law this evening. Meanwhile, Ohio was in the news because a Congressman made up medical procedures to support his anti-abortion bill. And Georgia passed its own heartbeat bill, which won’t go into effect until 2020 but has some of the most stringent provisions in the nation. Folks, these bills are incredibly concerning regardless of your opinion on right to choose, because they are intentionally engineered to be illegal — the whole point is to create laws that violate Roe v Wade so that the issue goes before the Supreme Court and Roe v Wade gets overturned. With so much of our governmental structure under threat, we really do all need to care about intentionally illegal laws.

The Bad:

Colorado Shooting. There was yet another school shooting this past week, this time in Colorado. The shooting resulted in one death and eight injuries, and yet again the death involved a student who likely saved many others’ lives by taking assailants down. This emergent pattern of children forced to engage in threat containment is horrifying, and a measure of just how much prior generations are failing them. Our kids deserve better than this — we all do.
Frightening Foreign Affairs. This was a really rough week for our foreign policy and the resulting repercussions. North Korea tested short-range missiles repeatedly throughout the week, and we seized one of their ships because it carried coal in violation of U.N. sanctions. Meanwhile, our market started tanking right alongside China’s after Trump threatened tariffs again last week, and it didn’t help things when China threatened to retaliate. (Though Trump claimed “farmers would be very happy,” he ended up having to float the idea of a bailout to keep them from rebelling.) And on top of all of that, we issued sanctions against Iran as they threatened to step back from the existing nuclear deal — which, to be fair, Trump withdrew from a year ago. Both sides are saying that they don’t want a war, but this is a very tense time and we’ll need to watch developments carefully.
Immigration Updates. Immigration remained in the news this week, and just like every other week it remained bananapants. News broke that Trump had been pressuring his more moderate DHS staffers to arrest thousands of families in coordinated raids before he eventually fired them all. Meanwhile, conditions are so bad at the border that detainees are being flown to other sites, but despite the severe overcrowding Lindsey Graham wants to introduce a law to hold kids in detention indefinitely. And Ben Carson is moving forward with his plan to evict mixed status families from public housing, so now we officially can leave a public comment telling him how pointlessly mean this proposal is.

The Good:

Public Option Becomes a Reality. This week, Washington State became the first state to offer a public option for health insurance, which will be available to residents of all income levels. Health insurer participation will be optional, but this is nonetheless a groundbreaking development in the health sector. It’s a grand experiment the nation will be watching, and I’m tentatively very excited.
Recent New York Resilience. The New York State Senate passed legislation this week authorizing the state to share Trump’s state tax returns with Congress. The bill still needs to pass through the State Assembly, but would potentially be an alternate route to much of the same information Congress is currently stuck subpoenaing, so it’s a pretty big deal even at this early stage.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve Topiary Cats and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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 days with sunshine!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 15 (April 28 — May 4)

May 7, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

We had yet another chaotic, weird week this week. The news lately is like watching Salvador Dali paint off-handed after four martinis; it’s a vague, overblown mess I’m already dreading mopping up. (Honestly, after reviewing all of this week’s content, I kind of want four martinis myself. But I’ll have to settle for comfort ice cream, because the roundup isn’t going to draft itself!)

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 subpoena! — 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:

Y’all, I follow the news closely and even I can barely track the Russia Investigation and its related aftermath this week. I’ll do my best to unpack the confusion; here’s what I have for you:

Barr (and Trump) Battle Mueller.* This story has many messy aspects, so bear with me here — I’m going to try to separate them out by topic and timing. At the top of last week, news began circulating that Mueller had written Barr an angry letter about Barr’s four-page summary of the report. And once that letter came to light, unsurprisingly Congress wanted Mueller to testify as well. Mueller was willing, and at first it looked like Trump would let Barr be the one to make the call. But then once Barr made it clear he’d facilitate, Trump did a take-backsie and decided to block Mueller from testifying, or at least signal he’d make it difficult much like he did for his former counsel Don McGahn. So we’ll have to see where we end up on that.
Barr Battles Congress.* Also last week, and around the same time the Mueller letter leaked, Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee for several hours regarding the Mueller report. This would have been noteworthy enough, but sometime in the middle of the testimony Senator Kamala Harris got him to admit he didn’t actually analyze any evidence to reach his conclusions, and Democrats started calling for Barr to resign. Barr retaliated by refusing to attend the House hearing the next day, which he’d been threatening to do for some time. So now, Speaker of the House Nancy is saying Barr has perjured himself, people are starting to talk about impeaching Barr, and there’s a contempt of Congress vote on Wednesday.
Erik Prince Purgatory.* The House Intelligence Committee formally referred Erik Prince for criminal investigation this week, which may or may not result in consequences for him — after all, they have to refer him to William “I Refuse to Show Up” Barr for further action. We’ll need to keep an eye on this, because it has a number of different potential implications, and many of them are very important.
Looking to 2020.* With all this chaos floating around at the same time folks gear up for the 2020 election, it’s inevitable that we’d eventually start talking about how to keep Russia from interfering in that one too — and equally unsurprising that Trump wants no parts of it. What is surprising is that outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was literally told not to talk to Trump about it before she left office, because it wasn’t a welcome topic. (Apparently that’s true even if you’re Putin, because Trump refused to talk to him about it this week either.) Presidential hopeful Julian Castro publicly speculated that Trump wants Russia’s help, but Nancy Pelosi did him one better and said she worried Trump would refuse to leave office if his loss margin was too narrow. And lest anybody think she’s being paranoid, he did tweet this week that he thinks he should get two extra years because “2 years of my term were stollen [sic].” Which is a terrifying tweet on many, many levels, so let’s hope he doesn’t latch onto that one too hard.

Original Flavor Trump Slime.* With his back against a wall, Trump fell back on a lot of his own greatest hits this week. He continued to make news for suing more of his banks to try to keep them from releasing information about his taxes, for one. And he also started calling for investigations into the people who investigated him, because nothing says “probably guilty” like “career prosecutor with a squeaky-clean record that spans decades.”
Emoluments Encore. In good ole fashioned emoluments news,apparently Trump World Tower condos were rented by seven foreign governments in 2017 without approval from Congress. Incredibly, the Trump Organization’s defense was that this was somehow misleading because the Trump World Tower wasn’t really owned by the Trump Organization.
Chatting with Putin about the Russia ‘Hoax’.* Trump may have refused to bring up election meddling with Putin, but that didn’t stop him from talking with the Russian leader for an hour about the Mueller investigation ‘hoax.’ He apparently also discussed the current situation in Venezuela, as well as China and North Korea.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Sanction Sparring. North Korea launched new projectile missiles this week, testing both their arsenal and presumably Trump’s ability to keep claiming he and Kim are BFFs after he refused to remove sanctions in February. Meanwhile, Trump has announced he’s imposing new tariffs on China, leading Chinese social media to compare him to Thanos because he’s wiping out half their stock market. So not a great week for our shaky relationships in Asia.
Baby Beluga Charm Offensive. Okay, fine, there’s no evidence that the friendly whale with a harness stamped ‘Property [of] St Petersburg’ was a juvenile, but ‘the world’s friendliest escaped Russian spy’ was in the news for being adorable nonetheless. Apparently the budding spy has taken it upon itself to defect to Norway, and is now refusing to leave. And bugs the locals for pets on the snout. (As military discharge plans go, I gotta say that one is pretty good.)
Facebook Eats Crow. Facebook made a big show of banning extremists like Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos this week, presumably to distract from last week’s hefty fine fiasco. It’s a big step in the right direction, though “related” content is still allowed because, y’know, we apparently can’t treat white supremacists like they’re actually dangerous.

The Bad:

UNC Shooting. There was yet another school shooting this past week, this time at UNC Charlotte. The shooting resulted in two deaths and four injuries, including the death of a student who likely saved many others’ lives by taking the gunman down. It’s unclear what motivated this shooter, as he left no manifesto and hasn’t issued a statement.
ACA Awfulness (Again). The Trump administration filed a formal request to invalidate the Affordable Care Act this week, despite basically no backing from Congress, because a recent court case created a new opportunity for them to seize. I’ll be honest, it’s hard to get worked up about this Groundhog Day bonanza by the fifty-seventh viewing, but we should still probably track this. If the attempt succeeded, ACA repeal would be devastating for millions.
Your Painfully Regular Bad Immigration Updates. This was another bad week for immigration, which is a phrase I seem to type every week nowadays. At the start of the week, Trump imposed more restrictions on asylum applicants, ordering DHS to impose application fees and bar work authorization. (This is, shall we say, not in the spirit of humanitarian aid, and will almost certainly be challenged in the courts.) Meanwhile, former DHS Secretary John Kelly was in the news for joining the board of the company that runs the largest shelter for migrant kids in the country. And the Trump administration is considering deporting people for lawfully accessing public benefits, because I guess the words ‘public charge’ weren’t sufficiently scaring immigrants anymore.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. In more positive news, a panel of judges in Ohio decided that the state’s congressional map was unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering — their words, not mine! — and therefore impermissible. This is a big deal, both in and of itself and because it’s unusual for courts to consider cases like this when there’s an open Supreme Court case. And California is suing the Trump administration over its ‘conscientious objection’ healthcare rule, which allows healthcare providers to refuse to treat certain patients. So courts are remaining an important way for people to get their rights enforced.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve capybaras making friends with other critters and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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 the ability to take more naps!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 14 (April 21–27)

April 30, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week, hoooo boy — I can’t tell if the entire Trump administration did a bunch of mushrooms or somebody snuck some in my cereal and I’m the one that’s high. I’ll do my best to break it down, but this week was pretty much one long, bad trip through Wonderland. And we didn’t even get to meet a dormouse.

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 booster shot! — 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 Corner

Somehow, the Russia Investigation and its related aftermath just remain the gift that keeps on giving. Here’s what I have for you this week:

Remember the Russia Bit of ‘Russia Investigation?’* (Apparently nobody in this administration does, if this past week was any indication.) Russian operative Maria Butina was given an eighteen-month sentence this week, but she was credited with significant time already due to being held pretrial, so she’ll be sent back to Russia in only about nine months. Meanwhile, this administration refuses to rule out using hacked info in their reelection campaign, and no serious changes to election practices have been suggested despite news in the Mueller report that Russian operatives successfully targeted and hacked at least one Florida county government in 2016. And Trump called the Russia investigation, not Russian espionage, “an attempted overthrow of the U.S. government” even though Mueller literally found evidence that Russia hacked us to override our election process. The move had former CIA Director, John Brennan, dismissing his statements as “sociopathic ramblings,” and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein just straight-up quit instead. That last bit won’t mean anything good, so I’ll keep folks posted on developments from here.
Further Weird Mueller Aftermath.* Trump’s behavior continued to be all over the place this week, but it took some wild turns on matters Mueller-related in particular. First he tweeted fifty times in a 24-hour period about the investigation, which apparently even Twitter thought was excessive because they removed 5,000 of his best fake followers afterwards. Joke’s on Jack Dorsey, though, because then he was forced to sit through a meeting with Trump where 45 outlined all his complaints, which is definitely how a leader of the free world should spend his time. Then Trump got into some protracted fights with Congress, which I’m outlining separately below, and followed that up by taking to the Twitters again to announce that he’ll sue Congress if they manage to impeach him. That’s… not how it works, in case anyone was curious.

There was only one major story regarding Disregard of Governing Norms, but it’s a new level of egregious. Here’s what happened:

Oversight? More like Over That, Amirite* The White House went obstruction-happy this week in an unprecedented way, ordering first former White House personnel security director Carl Kline not to testify before Congress and then extending that order out to include basically everybody who has ever worked for this administration. Then Congress started threatening to hold everybody in contempt if they refused to comply, which made the White House change its tune. But then after all that, Attorney General Barr started refusing to testify before Congress because they plan to have actual lawyers question him about his treatment of the Mueller report. So now Congress is threatening to subpoena him. After all that, it’s no wonder that Rosenstein threw up his hands and quit, yeesh.

Your “Normal” Weird:

International Ickiness. In gross international news, Benjamin Netanyahu, who against all odds is somehow still Prime Minister of Israel, announced that he wanted to name a settlement in Golan Heights after Donald Trump. And news also broke that North Korea billed the United States $2M for the care of comatose prisoner Otto Warmbier. Trump’s insisting he didn’t pay them, but Trump never pays anybody if he can avoid it so that’s not saying much.
20 Candidates and Counting. Joe Biden announced his presidential candidacy this week, bringing us to an even 20 candidates for the Democratic nomination. Five of those candidates had a televised town hall this past week, and the biggest takeaway was definitely several candidates’ opinions about enfranchisement of incarcerated constituents. (It turns out that Sanders is for enfranchisement, Buttigieg is against it, and Harris isn’t sure. I’m judging you, Pete Buttigieg.)
SCOTUS Scuttlebutt. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the proposed census citizenship question this week, and the conservative majority asked a lot of questions that suggest they will let the citizenship question stand. (That’s not great news for Team Civil Rights, because it’s likely to have all kinds of ill effects for noncitizen denizens.) Against that backdrop, it’s pretty nerve-wracking that they also agreed to hear a case about whether gay and trans people have workplace protections, but we’ll have to see how that one goes.

The Bad:

Awful California Violence.* A gunman entered a synagogue in San Diego during Passover Shabbat services on Saturday and started shooting, killing one person and injuring three more. It’s the second instance of gun violence in a synagogue in about six months, and just like last time, Trump took the uncharacteristic step of actually condemning the shooting. His statements make an odd counterpoint in the same week he announced he stands by his Charlottesville remarks — and for that matter, the same week that Netanyahu announced Golan Heights will be named after him — but highlight 45’s complex relationship with American Jewish people.
Social Media Screwups.* Facebook and Twitter appear to be competing for people’s ill will this week, which has been kind of morbidly fascinating. Facebook is expecting a record-setting $5B fine this week for its many, many privacy violations, though the axe hasn’t yet dropped at the time that I type this. Meanwhile, Twitter is gaining attention for refusing to use the same algorithm to remove white supremacists that it used to weed out ISIS supporters. According to the Motherboard article that first flagged the issue, the source of reluctance was the belief that the algorithm would pick up Republicans. (Well, you know, if it quacks like a Nazi…)
Iffy Medical News. Measles outbreaks are in the news again, with officials saying that we’ve reached a 25-year record high in documented cases. Hundreds of students and staff have been quarantined at UCLA, and officials are saying that people born before 1989 should get a booster shot. Apparently Trump agrees, and I enjoy thinking about what that will do to his voting base.
Your Painfully Regular Bad Immigration Updates. The week in “how am I not making this up” news, the administration apparently considered putting migrant kids in Guantanamo Bay before dismissing the idea as bad optics (gee, you think?). Then Trump issued a memorandum threatening to mess with the visa process of 20 different countries — ostensibly because these countries have people who overstay their visas and fall out of status, but for the most part these countries aren’t the biggest sources of undocumented immigrants; they’re just — big shocker — a bunch of countries with populations of color. (The biggest source of immigrants who overstay visas, by the way, is actually Canada, who sends over about 88,000 people who fall out of status per year.) And a Massachusetts judge and clerk have been federally charged with obstruction of justice for helping a criminal defendant avoid ICE — which is a very big deal, because to my knowledge it’s the first time a public official has been charged this way. We’ll need to keep an eye on this, even though Massachusetts is rallying around the officials.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. In positive court news, the Kansas Supreme Judicial Court found that the Kansas constitution protects women’s right to choose. This is excellent news, because it guarantees that the state will retain the right even if SCOTUS rules otherwise — a state supreme judicial court is the highest authority on that state’s constitution. And on the federal side, an abortion gag rule put in place by the Trump administration was enjoined by a federal judge this week, which means it will be blocked until the case is resolved. So it was a bad week for measles, but a good week for reproductive rights.

So that’s what I have for this week, and some of last as well. For making it through, you deserve this squid checkup poetry and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 13 (April 14–20)

April 23, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week was full of dark, strange freaky funhouse mirror news — and the Mueller report’s release took it to a whole new level. There’s a lot of abyss to look into this week, but we’ll get through it all.

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 redacted report! — 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:

Okay, this was a big week for the Russia Investigation both before and after the Mueller report was released (albeit in redacted form). Here’s what I have for you:

Mueller Report Rumblings.* Before the report was even released, the circus had several attractions — of particular note are Trump’s insistence that someone should “investigate the investigators” and Attorney General William Barr’s wild press conference bonanza on the morning the report was released. Against that backdrop, it’s no surprise that the House was immediately making it rain subpoenas — for both the full unredacted report and related underlying evidence. Then everybody had time to actually read and analyze the 400-page redacted report, and all heck broke loose.
(Redacted) Mueller Report Released.* Okay bear with me y’all, because this is going to be incredibly long — 400 pages is a lot of stuff. The report is separated out into two volumes; the first volume deals with Russian interference (and the question of collusion) in the 2016 Presidential election, and the second volume deals with Trump’s obstruction of the first investigation. Everybody and their kid sister has written a takeaway piece, and a few outlets have also outlined how much was redacted (Spoiler: A lot, particularly relating to prosecutorial decisions, but not as much of the obstruction section as we’d feared). There were some noteworthy things about collusion, but the real meat of the report is in the obstruction section, where Mueller looked at ten different incidents to determine if any of them were obstruction of justice. And the report makes clear that the answer is complicated, or at least more complicated than Barr depicted in his summary, in part because Mueller uncovered a lot of evidence but believed he couldn’t indict a sitting President. As a result, some outlets describe him as “punting [the issue] to Congress” or “[writing] a road map to impeachment.” In short: Trump did a bunch of bad stuff, y’all, but Mueller thought his hands were tied.
Mueller Report Reverberations.* Needless to say, we’re seeing a lot of stuff in the wake of the information above. One obvious and predictable outcome is that Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest rate of 2019, hanging out at 37%. But Democrats are also divided on whether to impeach Trump, given what we’ve learned about his conduct, and in the meantime they plan to conduct further investigations as they hash that out. Sarah Sanders is catching flak for obviously lying in press briefings, Betsy DeVos’s brother Erik Prince is back on the radar, we learned at least one voting county was successfully hacked in 2016, and the pee tapes might be real. More attention is also being paid by both sides to the eight people who refused to obstruct justice for Trump — in everything from angry 45 Twitter rants to House subpoenas to testify. And Rudy Giuliani is publicly announcing that “there’s nothing wrong with taking information from Russia.” So this is definitely not the end of the story, and I’ll keep y’all posted.

Ironically, it was a fairly quiet week for Disregard of Governing Norms, simply because all eyes were on the Russia investigation. But we did see a bit of tax return balderdash. Here’s what I have for you:

Tax Return Fight.* In this week’s installment of As The Tax ReTurns, the House Democrats subpoenaed nine banks, Trump’s accounting firm, and various financial records. Trump responded by — no joke, y’all — suing his own accounting firm as well as the House Oversight Committee Chairman, Elijah Cummings, and the Oversight Committee’s investigative counsel. As said House committee chairman notes, there is no valid legal basis to this suit as far as I can tell. But this is pretty obviously just another skirmish in what’s going to be a loooong war.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Bill Weld Joins the 2020 Fray. Former Mass Governor Bill Weld announced he’s joining the 2020 primary this week — on the GOP side. Given his oddly progressive stances, his current position as a partner at Mintz Levin, and the general…everything of the current GOP, this is an odd choice. But who am I to look a gift party-divide in the mouth?

The Bad:

Awful International Violence.* On Easter Sunday, a coordinated terrorist attack on three churches and two hotels in Sri Lanka resulted in almost 300 deaths and another 500 people injured. Though the country has a lengthy history of civil war, this is the deadliest attack in over a decade. The Sri Lankan government has blocked social media and imposed a curfew in response. Meanwhile, this week also saw violent protests in Paris and riots in Londonderry.
Trump’s Stellar Foreign Policy.* Trump’s foreign policy was embarrassingly scattered this week, which is nothing new but did have some repercussions. First he praised the Libyan insurgents marching on Trinidad, even though we installed the government they’re marching on, and ultimately spoke with the insurgent general. He also vetoed a Congressional bill to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen war, and imposed sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. And just to top everything off, North Korea announced that it tested a new weapon.
Iffy Medical News. In horrifying opiate news, 60 people in seven states were charged this week with trading sex and cash for opioid prescriptions as the Department of Justice brings a giant suit for opioid malfeasance. The charges allege that over 32 million pills illegally changed hands. And in other iffy legality medical news, Ohio became the sixth state this week to pass a “heartbeat” law, a type of anti-abortion law commonly understood to be illegal but which conservatives are hoping will result in a challenge to Roe v. Wade.
Your Painfully Regular Bad Immigration Updates. Immigration news this week is particularly godawful, which for this administration and the past month is saying something. Attorney General William Barr ordered immigration courts this week to withhold bail from asylum seekers who have already passed a credible fear interview — in other words, who have shown evidence of valid asylum claims — because he figures rotting in jail will deter people from coming here and claiming asylum. Meanwhile, Trump has ordered even more troops to the border and is considering travel restrictions for several more African countries as well as Cuba. He also wants to make it harder for immigrants to live in public housing and wants legal work in the marijuana industry to indicate ‘a lack of moral character’ for citizen applicants. And a vigilante group in New Mexico kidnapped 200 migrants at gunpoint near the border, claiming that they were ‘detaining’ them until CBP could arrive. Eventually the FBI arrested the head of the group for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. And the Trump administration is now temporarily allowed to again ship asylum applicants to Mexico to await the results of their application due to a stay of the injunction at the appeal stage. (Although I’m not sure if they plan to bother, since apparently the new plan is to just keep asylees in jails.)

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. A federal judge held that the Trump administration can’t go forward on their plan to overturn an Obama-era prohibition on mining coal in public spaces. With all of the mess above, it’s nice to see the courts continue to challenge Trump on things, though I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of it in the coming weeks.
Warren Lights Up The Campaign Trail. This week, Elizabeth Warren has impressed a lot of people — and raised a lot of money — by insisting on impeaching Trump and revealing a plan to ease the costs of higher education. Her campaign plan would be complex and interesting enough, given its ambitious scope. But her call for impeachment kept the conversation going and likely contributed to the House’s deliberations on its next steps.

So that’s what I have for this week, and some of last as well. For making it through, you deserve this review of the Mueller report on GoodReads and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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 better immigration news!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 12 (April 7–13)

April 16, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Jeez, I leave the country for like five days and everything goes bananas — the news over the past week or two has been utterly wild. I’m including some news from the previous week, when the NNR was dark, to create further context. Sadly, none of it makes any of this make more sense.

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 indictment! — 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:

For what feels like the zillionth week in a row, the Russia Investigation continues to be an incredible tug-of-war between Trump’s camp and Congressional Democrats. Here’s what has happened over the past week and a half or so:

Where’s the Report (Redux)? This past week has been an absolute bonanza on the William-Barr-Mueller-Report front. Barr represented in his testimony on Tuesday that he would release a redacted report ‘within a week,’ but Mueller’s team started expressing frustration with his summary and the House started asking him to release summaries Mueller had drafted. Now the word on the street is that a redacted copy will be out on Thursday, and Trump is already planning to ignore it. The whole thing is so bananas that we’ll have to keep watching it closely because it’s anybody’s guess where we go from here.
Nonspecific Spying Allegations (Maybe).* As alluded to above, William Barr testified in front of Congress for two days this past week, but most attention has gone to him telling Congress that the government “spied” on the Trump campaign in 2016. Though he didn’t particularly give any specifics, he did follow up by putting a team together to look into it, saying he “wasn’t putting a panel together,” and walking the whole thing back. So… that happened.
Assange and Avenetti Arrests. Julian Assange was unceremoniously arrested this week when the Ecuadoran embassy in London kicked him out, apparently because he was a truly insufferable tenant who didn’t clean up after his cat or himself. Trump, predictably, has responded to the news with “New indictment, who wikileaks?” Meanwhile, in other Trump-adjacent news, Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenetti was charged with 36 new counts of embezzlement, fraud, and generally being a sketchy dude. So it’s been something of a strange week on the arrest and indictment front.

This was a similarly weird week for Disregard of Governing Norms stories, unfortunately. Here’s what I have for you:

Tax Return Fight.* The tax return fight happening between Congress and the Trump administration has been pretty wild as well, taking all kinds of twists and turns over the past couple of weeks. First Trump’s lawyer asserted presidential privilege at the top of last week, saying the IRS shouldn’t respond because he’s the President. Then the administration said they wouldn’t respond while Trump was under audit. When that didn’t keep Congress at bay, Trump’s lawyer also told the Treasury not to respond until it received a legal opinion from the Justice Department (and the IRS did indeed miss a deadline last Wednesday). Then news broke that White House attorneys had already illegally consulted with the Treasury before the request was even made, and at that point the administration got more openly belligerent. By the time that I write this, Trump’s acting chief of staff had announced that Congress will “never” see the tax returns that they weren’t “smart enough” to see anyway, Congress has subpoenaed Trump’s accounting firm, and eighteen states have passed legislation keeping 45 off the ballot if he doesn’t cough up some tax information.
Ilhan Omar Attacks. The other incredible thing to happen this week was yet another round of Ilhan Omar attacks, this time because she correctly called Stephen Miller a white nationalist and her month-old quote about 9/11 was taken out of context. (I feel the need to note, incidentally, that it’s not inherently antisemitic to call a xenophobic spade a spade, even if he happens to also be The Country’s Worst Jew.) This ultimately culminated in a pinned tweet from 45 that “we will never forget,” an apparently successful appeal to Islamophobia that several people cited as they made threats on Omar’s life. (To be fair to 45, Twitter immediately proved that we won’t ever forget his actual real-time response to 9/11, which involved bragging that he now has the tallest tower in Lower Manhattan — a claim that, by the way, wasn’t even true).

Your “Normal” Weird:

Measles and Mandatory Vaccination.* As more and more measles outbreaks are reported nationally, New York City fields an outbreak so severe that the city has ordered mandatory vaccinations. It’s likely the strictest rule regarding measles vaccines in three decades, and was implemented in part due to an uptick in “measles parties” in the area. Unsurprisingly, some parents are already suing the city over the mandate. We’ll have to see if other cities follow suit, and also keep an eye on the unusually high outbreak numbers.
Fires in Two National Treasures.* The famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris suffered a very serious fire today, resulting in the total collapse of the main spire and roof and severe damage to the wooden interior. As of this evening, outlets were reporting that the bell towers and exterior frame were saved along with several major pieces of art, and French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault has already stepped forward to pledge €100m towards rebuilding. In an odd coincidence, Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque suffered a fire on the same day, though thankfully with much less extensive damage to the structure. Authorities are still not sure what caused either fire.

The Bad:

Problematic Pipelines.* In literal pipeline news, Trump signed an executive order this week designed to make it easier to build oil and gas pipes in the United States. In figurative pipeline news, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell changed appointment rules to get conservative judges approved after only two hours of debate. Neither of these are especially welcome news, for obvious reason.
Immigration Updates. Immigration news is reaching new heights of “how is this our government” this week, which by this point is saying something. Trump started out by walking back his threat to close the Mexican border, swapping instead to car tariff threats — but by midweek he had decided to withdraw a nomination for ICE head because he thought his pick was too moderate. Then he followed that up by forcing out current Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielson, putting the head of CBP in charge of DHS and the white nationalist who engineered the Zero Tolerance policy, Stephen Miller, in charge of immigration policy generally. It’s looking like these changes are part of a larger plan to purge DHS staffers who were associated with John Kelly. And once he’d gotten rid of the moderating influence, all kinds of bananas rumors about asylum started cropping up (which I’ve outlined below).
Harebrained Asylum Ideas. Per several news outlets and also the White House, here are several things that this administration is considering telling CBP to do: 1) evaluate asylum claims directly (instead of having, y’know, the people trained to do this do it; 2) send all asylees to sanctuary cities as a way to punish local governments that don’t cooperate; or 3) refuse admittance to asylees entirely by closing the entire border (which I bet you’re all shocked to know is super illegal). On that latter point, by the way, Trump allegedly told the head of CBP — who as I noted above, is also now in charge of the whole Department of Homeland Security — that if he was sent to jail for illegally refusing entry to asylees, Trump would simply pardon him. Absolutely no reason to suspect this guy of obstruction of justice, amirite?

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. Despite the bevy of bad immigration news above, we did see some good court cases this week. A third federal court in Maryland blocked the Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, and another federal judge blocked the Trump administration from requiring asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while they wait for their cases to be heard.
Black Hole Pics.* We saw a major scientific breakthrough recently when the first-ever photos were taken of a supermassive black hole. (This has historically been difficult to do due to the nature of black holes, which is why it’s a big deal.) The black hole photographed, now named Powehi, was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope project. Yay science!
Recent House Resilience. The House passed a bill renewing the Violence Against Women Act this week, which was originally passed in 2009 but expired in February of this year. The new version incorporates gun control provisions that are unpopular with the GOP, so we’ll need to see what happens in the Senate from here. (They also passed a bill that would revive net neutrality, which is an important symbolic measure even though this one is considerably less likely to actually see the Senate floor.)

So that’s what I have for this week, and some of last as well. For making it through, you deserve this video of a cat letting its dog friend into the house and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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 better immigration news!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 10 (March 24–30)

April 2, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Over years of doing this Roundup, I’ve noticed certain trends — nothing as certain as death or tax cuts, because this administration is bananas, but the tea leaves do tend to have some patterns. Unfortunately, this week reflects a pattern further on the “I live in the desk fort now” spectrum than I would like: Whenever this administration has had a “major win” recently, something awful happens on a policy front. You will not enjoy the immigration updates this week, but I have room in my desk fort if you’d like to join me. We have cookies.

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 whistleblower! — 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:

After Mueller turned in his report, the Russia Investigation had many rounds about releasing the report but no knockouts on either side. Here’s what happened:

So… About That Report? After Barr released his four-page memo, six House committee chairs let him know that wasn’t going to cut it and demanded a copy of the Mueller report be made available to them by April 2. Needless to say, as I type this Barr has a day left, and it’s not looking likely that he’ll deliver. This may admittedly be because the report itself is over 300 pages long, and some of it will definitely need to be redacted — Barr did announce he’ll have a public version by mid-April. Meanwhile, in the Senate, McConnell’s refusing to even hold a vote on making the Mueller report public.
What’s Still Going? Despite a final version of the Mueller report dropping, on at least one case his grand jury investigation is continuing and that’s creating quite a rumor mill. But no matter what else is going on, we do know that Mueller has been handing off investigations all over the country, which means this isn’t the last we’ll hear of his work. Meanwhile, Trump and various House Republicans have been calling for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to resign all week because his committee is still investigating collusion with Russia, which is definitely a totally normal thing to do in a free Democratic Republic. Schiff (and various other Democrats) have all made it quite clear that he isn’t going anywhere.
House Probe and Budget Blues. Faced with an obnoxiously obstructionist White House, the other House is considering using the budget process to make them cooperate. Meanwhile, in more mundane budget news, Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump spent the week playing hot potato with unpopular proposed Special Olympics cuts.

We also saw much of the same Disregard of Governing Norms stories as last week, although the specifics look a bit different. Here’s what I have for you:

Congressional Weirdness. Between McConnell’s refusal to hold a vote on making the Mueller report public, his op-ed about how following normal process is obstruction, and a sketch phony ‘vote’ on the Green New Deal, it wasn’t a great week for governing norms in the Senate. The House unfortunately wasn’t faring much better; it failed to overturn the national emergency veto and the Department of Defense is starting to divert funds for a border wall. (Though as I noted above, six committee heads did demand a copy of the Mueller report by April 2.) That said, the Senate will need to vote on the veto override in the near future, and it could still pass there — which would potentially send it back to the House. So we may see less of a stalemate in the near future.
Clearance Clearing House. A White House whistleblower came forward today and disclosed that the Trump administration has overturned no fewer than 25 security clearance denials over a window of months against ordinary procedure. She also noted that the denials were generally issued for major concerns such as foreign influence or criminal conduct, and that when she raised concerns about this she was demoted. Needless to say, the House Oversight Committee is definitely folding this into their clearance investigation, and has already subpoenaed more information.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Jussie Smolett Story Gets Weirder. The Jussie Smolett story got even weirder this week when all his charges were dismissed — and then his record was sealed, making it impossible to really know what had even happened. Trump complained about it on Twitter, but this appears to be the end of the strange saga at least for now — if there are further developments I’ll definitely let you know.
WTF NASA. NASA canceled its first planned all-female spacewalk this week because apparently they didn’t have two spacesuits that could fit women. I… don’t even know what to say to this, NASA. Your inclusivity is bad and you should feel bad.

The Bad:

ACA Saga Continues. The Trump administration asked the Fifth Circuit to completely invalidate the ACA after a court found it unconstitutional a few months ago, which is kind of weird since the ACA is so popular and we’ve already gone through this a zillion times. Unsurprisingly, Democrats are making this a priority, and Trump is insisting he’ll replace it with something better (gosh, where have we heard that one before?). Meanwhile, the House Democrats are introducing a healthcare bill to protect the ACA, the Senate Republicans are refusing to draft any new replacement legislation, and another federal judge held that the administration can’t do an ACA run-around. So there’s almost certainly yet another ACA fight ahead; here’s hoping this one resolves the same way the last ones did.
Immigration Updates. With the threat of a Mueller report on the horizon, we enjoyed something of a respite from new immigration horrors (although Original Flavor still was more than enough). Now that Mueller has released his report and Trump thinks he has been ‘totally exonerated,’ that break is definitely over — and I can’t believe half the crap I’m typing this week. To start with, Trump is threatening to just straight-up completely close off the Mexican border, which is a phenomenally bad plan he’s been threatening for months — but this time seems to be a more credible threat, because ICE has been forced to release people and Trump is imposing a deadline. He’s also cutting off aid to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala — countries Fox News called ‘three Mexican countries,’ by the way — because he thinks too many asylees are coming to our border from those locations. (Folks, I can’t stress enough how Opposite Day this logic is, because asylees flee countries that have major problems and the aid he’s denying is designed to fix those problems.) Meanwhile, CBP is holding asylum seekers in a pen under a bridge and the migrant parents who returned to the U.S. for reunification with their kids are being detained again.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. A federal judge this week blocked the Medicaid work requirement being pioneered in Arkansas and Kentucky, which is promising in light of the ACA fight happening in general. And another federal judge in Alaska blocked the administration from drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. In Supreme Court news, the court recently protected an inmate’s right to last rites after doing the opposite last month, and Gorsuch sided with Ginsburg to preserve tribal rights in a separate case (which is weird, but I’ll take it). So there were some judicial bright spots this week, at least.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this bear in a hot tub and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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 better immigration news!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 9 (March 17–23)

March 26, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Okay, folks. The Mueller report dropped this week, which appropriately has taken a lot of our attention. But as we watch the news unfold on that, it’s important to remember that Nixon wasn’t ultimately indicted by his Special Investigator report, and his impeachment process took years. There’s not going to be one fell swoop on this administration either; we all have to keep chipping away at this mess together.

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 House investigation! — 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:

This was The Week When It Happened in the Russia Investigation, and I think we’re all pretty anxious to see what happens next. The important thing to keep in mind — and I’m talking to myself here as well as all of you — is that Mueller led the first of several separate credible investigations, which means we’re definitely not done no matter what comes next. Okay, here are the main things to know:

It’s Mueller Time?* Special prosecutor Robert Mueller released his final report to Attorney General William Barr on Friday afternoon. AG Barr initially responded with a letter promising “as much transparency as possible”, and spent the weekend reviewing the materials. Then on Sunday evening, he released a four-page public summary of the Mueller report’s findings — findings which, I feel the need to note, almost certainly spanned hundreds of pages, so a four-page summary after forty-eight hours is pretty bare bones to say the least. Nonetheless, the summary contains two pieces of information we all should track: 1) Mueller has issued no new indictments beyond the ones he has already filed (which means no indictment for Trump); and 2) Mueller punted on the obstruction of justice question, which Barr used to declare there wasn’t any. That last bit is important because Barr circulated his unsolicited iffy opinions about Mueller’s obstruction of justice investigation before he was even Attorney General, and right now nobody other than his team knows what evidence Mueller actually found. We also don’t know if Barr will release the Mueller report to anybody else.
So What Happens Now?* Democrats continue to push for a public release of the Mueller report, with sensitive information redacted — and have signaled that they are willing to subpoena Barr to testify if necessary. Trump is, unsurprisingly, gleefully announcing this exonerates him when the report literally says the opposite. Meanwhile, several investigations into Trump-related matters are still ongoing, and in particular the New York investigation has a much broader scope than Mueller’s did. So we’re definitely not done, and we may be gearing up for a court battle over the report not unlike the one Nixon caused.
House Probe Blues.* With the Mueller investigation wrapped up, it makes sense to shift focus to the House, New York, and other investigations still ongoing. Unfortunately, the House Judiciary Committee is encountering some snags in its requests for documents — by which I mean, several entities are totally refusing to send them anything. The naughty list contains lots of names you’d never expect, such as Julian Assange, Roger Stone, and the White House — by which I mean, ‘names you’d never expect to give the House Judiciary Committee any subpoenaed documents.’ Needless to say, this is probably the beginning of a protracted battle as well.

Against the backdrop above, the Disregard of Governing Norms stories almost seem like a distraction, but it’s important that we don’t get jaded about the Trump family’s bad behavior! Here’s what I have for you:

Personal Enrichment Redux (Again). Forbes reported this week that Trump has charged his own reelection campaign $1.3M in rent, food, lodging and other expenses since taking office. As far as I can tell, this is probably legal, but it sure doesn’t help his ongoing emolument lawsuits. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported on Trump’s sketchy relationship with Deutsche Bank, including its loans of over $2B despite many, many red flags.
Other Trump Family Malfeasance. Trump’s finances made a splash, but there was plenty of other special, special Trump family news to go around this week. First Jared Kushner made headlines because he’s been using WhatsApp to communicate with foreign officials — and the inevitable AOC and HRC commiseration tweets only somewhat soften that blow. And speaking of Twitter, Trump used the platform to have a one-sided fight with a dead guy, which I think it’s fair to conclude he lost. So we continue to be governed by a family of Roald Dahl villains.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Campaign Watch 2020. Speaking of elections, there has been a lot of movement on an already-crowded field for the 2020 Presidential election, so now seems like a fine time to do a mini-roundup. Here’s a quick blow-by-blow of some recent circus: 1) A bunch more people have announced their intent to run, including Beto O’Rourke and Kirsten Gillibrand; 2) Elizabeth Warren is calling to kill the electoral college, which will be popular here in MA (though she’s from MA, so I wouldn’t write home about that); and 3) Joe Biden hasn’t even announced he’s running yet but somehow he’s still in the news for considering Stacey Abrams as a running mate.
Boeing Follow-Up.* In horrifying follow-up to the Boeing crash, Boeing has announced this week they will no longer be charging extra for safety upgrades that make their planes safer — and if you’re like me, that’s how you learned that holy crow, Boeing used to charge airlines for safety upgrades. They also apparently billed the plane as not requiring pilot training if pilots had flown earlier versions of the 737, despite, you guessed it, a bunch of differences between the MAX and earlier versions of the 737. Can I just say, this entire story is like an object lesson in Why Deregulation is Bad.
Social Media Weirdness. Social media was extra weird this week, which in 2019 is really saying something. First Facebook was in the news for finally agreeing to stop letting advertisers blatantly illegally discriminate in their targeted ad practices. (Quick lawyer context note: Among other things, Facebook was alleged to be letting advertisers promoting housing and job opportunities screen out ad recipients of color, which is super duper not legal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.) In less “would you like a cookie” and more “would you like some tea” news, former Congressdude Devin Nunes is suing Twitter over some mean tweets about him, which so far has mostly resulted in a truly wild parade of exhibits and a parody cow account gaining six million followers — which, incidentally, is more followers on Twitter than Nunes has. In case anybody is wondering whether Nunes has a valid case here…uh, no. No, he does not.

The Bad:

College “Free Speech” Executive Order. While Nunes was suing Twitter because people said mean things, Trump was signing a “free speech” executive order designed to make it easier for the alt-right to talk at universities. Needless to say, this might actually harm free speech, so it’s not awesome news.
Immigration Updates. Immigration was in the news on all kinds of unpleasant fronts this week. CBP detention centers in Texas are so overcrowded that the administration is releasing people en masse, which would be good news except that locals think they’re doing it to manufacture a crisis that will get them more funding. In the meantime, among the people CBP has detained at said border was a nine-year-old citizen they held for 30 straight hours after picking her up on her way to school and a Dreamer flight attendant they held for six straight weeks. We can expect this type of illegal detention to get worse, thanks to a recent Supreme Court case that held that immigrants can be detained without a hearing if they have a prior conviction — even if they were released to the community years ago. As Justice Breyer noted in his dissent, this decision has major potential for abuse in the current political environment, and also likely sets up a constitutional fight further down the road.
Bibi’s Trump Card. In “this definitely won’t destabilize the Middle East” news, Trump is endorsing Israel’s claim on the Golan Heights, which have been disputed territory since they were annexed by Israel over fifty years ago. This wouldn’t be great all by itself, since it overturns decades of U.S. policy, but the timing makes it look like he’s interfering with the Israeli election. And that’s particularly bad because Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, the corrupt sitting Prime Minister, is unapologetically using Trump as campaign leverage to try to keep ahead of his own scandals in a close election. So basically… Trump doesn’t like clean elections in Israel any more than he likes them here.

The Good:

Postpartum Pill. The FDA approved a drug that treats postpartum depression this week, which is the first of its kind to ever be approved. Unfortunately, it’s also quite expensive and requires a significant hospital stay, but just the fact that the drug is being developed speaks volumes about our shifting priorities in healthcare.
Recent Court Resilience. Despite the recent SCOTUS immigration case, there was a lot of positive court news this week. A federal judge halted drilling in Wyoming, asking the administration to document climate change implications, which is the first time that has ever happened. And in slightly better SCOTUS news, the court declined to hear a case about a Hawaiian B&B refusing service to a lesbian couple, which means the decision that it was an illegal action stands. And a federal district court judge issued an order telling the administration that there was still an injunction in place preventing a trans military ban — so they should scrap that new policy they just proposed, please and thank you.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry that most of it isn’t better. For making it through, you deserve this collection of stories about nice moments of human connection and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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 springtime weather!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 8 (March 10–16)

March 19, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This was a strange, stressful week for most of us, between New Zealand and key votes in Congress. About the best I can say is that it was a strange, stressful week for Trump too — a fact of which he was all too aware, if his tweet tantrum from this weekend was any indication. So at least there’s that.

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 House investigation! — 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:

There was a fair bit of activity on the Russia Investigation, though not as much as some previous weeks. Here are the main things to know:

House Investigation Activity.* This was a busy (and, frankly, kind of amazing) week for the House of Representatives. First the House Oversight Committee heard the testimony of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and AOC in particular grilled him like a cheese sandwich. Then we had a sublime moment when the entire House — seriously, literally the entire House — voted for the public release of the Mueller report. Unfortunately, we quickly came back down to Earth when Trump had a Twitter tantrum about it and Lindsay Graham blocked the vote in the Senate.
Sentencing Updates.* Paul Manafort had his second sentencing hearing this week in front of Judge Amy Berman Jackson — the same judge currently fighting with Roger Stone about his inability to follow a gag order — who gave him a slightly more severe sentence than the first one. All told, Manafort will serve a total of seven and a half years in prison, which is nothing to sneeze at when you’re his age. He was also indicted on new and unpardonable charges in New York basically as soon as he left the courtroom, so he’s far from done with criminal court. Meanwhile, Manafort’s buddy Rick Gates was not sentenced this week because he is continuing to cooperate, so they pushed out the hearing for now.

This was also a surreally awesome week for Disregard of Governing Norms, because the Senate got over itself long enough to pass some things to reinstate order. Here’s what I have for you:

National ‘Emergency’ Updates. The Senate finally voted the resolution condemning Trump’s national ‘emergency,’ which managed to sail through with a 59–41 vote (and if you think that was a typo, I had the same initial reaction.) This is a big deal, even though Trump was able to veto it, because we only knew about four GOP Senators who were definite yeses ahead of time — and then twelve of them crossed the aisle to tell Trump where to stuff it. The bill now goes back to the House for reconsideration, and since the declaration is unpopular with constituents it’s very possible we’ll get a vetoproof majority on the second go-around.
Senate Has Its Say. The Senate also voted to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war against Yemen this week, presumably because they’ve hit a breaking point with Trump’s repeated support for sketchy Saudi practices. It’s the first time the Senate has ever passed something based on the War Powers Resolution Act of 1973. If the House supports the bill as well, it will be the first time Congress has used the Act to end US military involvement in a foreign conflict since its passage forty-six years ago. So we’re still in “watch-and-see” mode but it’s potentially a big deal as well.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Fraud Styles of the Rich and Famous. The FBI charged fifty people as part of a convoluted fraudulent college admission ring this week. The indicted individuals are alleged to have faked everything from learning disabilities to athletic achievements as well as paying elaborate bribes, and two were famous celebrities — one of whom was Aunt Becky, and incidentally “Aunt Becky pulled a rich white lady crime” is definitely the most 2019 thing I’m going to type this week. The whole thing highlights major problems with the college admission process, which is heavily stacked to favor wealthy and privileged people even before you factor in fraud.
Boeing Follow-Up.* In the wake of last week’s Boeing tragedy, Trump ordered the grounding of all Boeing 737 Max flights this week. Though the FAA initially resisted, they eventually followed suit after a number of similarities were discovered between this crash and the one last fall. More attention is being given to the FAA practice of ‘self-certification’ and pilot training as well, which will hopefully lead to safer practices.

The Bad:

Pentagon Anti-Trans Policy. The Pentagon announced a new anti-trans policy this week, which will go into effect on April 12. Though the policy technically is not a full ban, it prohibits troops from transitioning and forces them to serve under the gender they were assigned at birth, so it’s plenty traumatizing nonetheless.
Immigration Updates. The Trump administration also announced this week that they plan to close all of their 21 international immigration field offices, which will dramatically slow legal entry into the country. They also announced that they’ll take volunteers to form a militia at the border, because they have the good priorities.
New Zealand Terrorist Attack. [Author note: This story is legitimately traumatizing and was heavily publicized, so there is no shame in skipping this paragraph — do what you need to do.] A white supremacist gunman livestreamed himself shooting indiscriminately in two mosques, killing a total of fifty people during two different religious services. Because the event was livestreamed to Facebook, the video was uploaded over 1.5 million times, though social media platforms were informed by the New Zealand government that airing the video violates the country’s laws. Between the video and a lengthy manifesto published on 8chan and other fringe social media, the shooting has drawn attention to the role of social media in propagating terrorism — at least, among people who aren’t Trump. The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Arden, has called for banning semi-automatic weapons in response to the shooting.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. There were a lot of great court cases this week. A court in Ohio held that a former Apprentice contestant could sue Trump for defamation despite his current status as President, which obviously could have a number of implications down the road. The Connecticut Supreme Court also held that families who lost children to the Sandy Hook shooting could sue Remington, the gun manufacturer that makes and sells the semi-automatic used in the shooting. And a federal court issued a landmark 106-page ruling regarding insurance and mental health coverage, holding that the company breached its fiduciary duty by using discriminatory practices to save money. (That last case is heading into the remedy phase now, so there will likely be more news on it soon.)

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough! For making it through, you deserve this dog in a beekeeper suit and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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 ice cream and chocolate spoons!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 7 (March 3–9)

March 12, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

The word I would use for this week is “discombobulating” — though admittedly that may just be me, since I’m drafting this while sick again. But regardless of your fever state, there was a lot happening, much of it contradicted itself, and Congress and the Trump Administration continued to play tug-of-war with a variety of topics. I’ll do my best to unpack and outline for y’all!

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 sentencing hearing! — 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’re finally seeing a slower week on the Russia Investigation, but there were still a couple of significant news stories. Here are the main things to know:

Manafort Sentence Sadness.* Manafort’s sentencing hearing on his Virginia cases happened this week, and a lot of us found it pretty disappointing. Though sentencing guidelines suggest 19–25 years of prison time for his financial fraud convictions, he was sentenced to 47 months by a judge who described him as living “an otherwise blameless life.” He still has another sentencing hearing this week in front of Judge Amy Berman Jackson — the same judge currently fighting with Roger Stone about his inability to follow a gag order — and we might see a more severe sentence out of that hearing. That said, Judge Jackson’s case carries a maximum penalty of ten years, so we’re unlikely to see more than fourteen years total of incarceration.
Following Up on Kushner Clearance.* After I wrote last week that Trump pressured staff to grant Jared Kushner security clearance earlier in the year, news came out that he did the same thing for Ivanka, who didn’t actually pass her clearance check either. We learned this because a White House source gave documents to the House Oversight Committee in response to last Monday’s probe. So now House Democrats are arguing about how to proceed on investigating the Trump children, and there will almost certainly be more developments. I’ll keep y’all posted.

This was not a great week for Disregard of Governing Norms, particularly because Mitch McConnell dug in his heels on some major legislation. Here’s what I have for you:

Senate Slack and Showdown is Back. This week, the House Democrats passed H.R. 1, a sweeping ethics and election bill designed to address corruption and improve voting access. Though the bill contains many types of reform that benefit voters, Mitch McConnell is refusing to let it onto the Senate floor — and his stated reasoning was “Because I get to decide what we vote on.” (Someday dictionaries are gonna have a picture of him under ‘obstructionist jerkface.’) He thankfully cannot do the same on the resolution condemning Trump’s ‘national emergency,’ but the Senate still hasn’t moved on that either. That’s likely because GOP leaders are still trying to figure out a way around passing it, despite the bill’s bipartisan support. And while this is going on, Trump has introduced yet another budget that asks for billions in wall funding (among other nightmare demands such as ending subsidized FAFSA loans and making Medicare a block grant program). On the plus side, said budget is likely to wind up as toilet paper in the House, because let me tell you how much nobody wants another extensive shutdown after he’s already declared an emergency to get said funding.
This Week’s Trump Malfeasance. This week’s general Trump grossness, ho boy, where do I even start. Just like last week, we’re going with rapid-fire summary: 1) In response to last week’s report about Trump’s deep ties to Fox News, the DNC announced it officially is refusing to let Fox News host debates in 2020; 2) Relatedly, Fox-related staffer Bill Shine is resigning from his position as the White House’s top communications adviser to work on Trump’s 2020 campaign; 3) Just like last week, Trump quietly signed a sketchy executive order again, this time canceling reports of civilian deaths caused by drones; 4) News broke that Trump has ties to the woman who founded the massage parlor where Patriots owner Robert Kraft was caught soliciting sex from trafficked women; 5) Michael Cohen is suing the Trump Organization for failing to pay millions of dollars in legal fees; and 6) Trump claimed that “the Democrats hate Jewish people” at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Omar Upset Update. That last bit of Trump news above is likely a reference to ongoing conflict within the Democratic Party in the wake of Ilhan Omar’s comments last week, but it’s certainly not a fair summary of what ended up happening there. In light of some pretty awful official Islamophobic attacks on Omar as well as a generational divide within the party regarding Israel, the resolution originally planned for this week got broadened to a general anti-bigotry resolution. The resolution passed through the House and hopefully signals the end of this particular Dem fight — though incredibly, 23 Republicans refused to support the resolution, and noted in-House supremacist Steve King voted ‘present.’ (Every single Democrat, however, voted ‘yes.’)
Chelsea Manning Back in Jail. Chelsea Manning was held in contempt of court this week for refusing to testify in a grand jury for a Wikileaks case, saying that she had already given extensive testimony on the topic and that she objected to the secretive nature of the process. (It was also likely relevant that her immunity meant she could not invoke the Fifth Amendment to protect herself during testimony.) Manning will remain in jail until she decides to testify or the grand jury concludes, which could be a matter of weeks. Needless to say, given Manning’s history, this story has very complicated implications about the use of civil contempt of court against marginalized former inmates. I’ll be keeping an eye on it.

The Bad:

Immigration News. There was more immigration news this week, none of it especially great. News broke that the administration is continuing to separate families at the border despite a court order otherwise (more on that below). Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen defended the administration’s practices before Congress on Wednesday, insisting that there is a crisis at the border (and conveniently neglecting to mention that her department caused it). And ICE was in the news again, this time for keeping tabs on people who protest Trump in New York City.
North Korea Nuclearization. Shortly after Trump walked away from last week’s summit, we learned that North Korea appears to be rebuilding its missile launch facility. U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is threatening further sanctions, but Trump is simply saying that it’s “too early to see” and that he “would be very disappointed” if he decides to believe the reports. (It figures that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is the one time Trump pulls out the “I’m not mad” card as President.)
Boeing Tragedy Aftermath. Boeing 737 Max 8 planes are being grounded in many parts of the world after an aircraft crashed in Ethiopia today, resulting the deaths of all 137 passengers (including 19 United Nations staffers). This was the second deadly crash of this type of jet in the last six months, which contextualizes why many countries are leery of the jets, and there is some indication that the first crash may have been due to a lack of pilot retraining. The United States is still flying the Max 8 jets for now, though only two American airlines — American and Southwest — use them regularly.

The Good:

HIV Advances. News broke this week that scientists have successfully cured a second instance of HIV, about twelve years after their initial breakthrough. The procedure used is very complicated but suggests that a replicable cure may be possible — effectively, a second success illustrates a proof of concept. This is incredible news, even though we’re still pretty far from a widely-available cure; it represents a major milestone in research.
Recent Court Resilience. There were a lot of good court decisions this week. Another federal District Court judge ruled that Wilbur Ross violated the Constitution by trying to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, making two so far to say the move was illegal. Another federal judge held that the Trump administration is responsible for the additional families separated by the zero tolerance policy before its formal announcement last spring, including them in the class action lawsuit being brought on the subject by the ACLU. In the opinion, the judge noted, “The hallmark of a civilized society is measured by how it treats its people and those within its borders.” A Ninth Circuit judge also created more protections for asylum seekers, holding that they have a right to a habeas corpus review before deportation in certain contexts. And lastly, the Iowa Supreme Court held that Medicaid may be used to cover sex reassignment surgery, overturning a state ban on the practice.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough! For making it through, you deserve these photos from a bird photo booth and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) 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 a better system than Daylight Savings Time!