Updates

Supreme Court Blocks Trump’s Citizenship Question on the U.S. Census

Declaration 17analysis, voting

On June 27, 2019 the Supreme Court of the United States by a vote of 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority decision, ruled the government cannot add the question of citizenship to the U.S. census. The court concluded the current explanation given for the reinstatement of the question is not a “genuine justification,” therefore, it cannot be added to the census unless the government is able to provide legitimate justification. Consequently, the court “affirmed in part and reversed in part” the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

According to the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, the citizenship question was requested to be added on the census by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in order to enhance the data on “citizen voting-age population for purposes of enforcing the Voting Rights Act”. Unfortunately, out of fear, many noncitizens would not reply to the census if a citizenship question were to be added.

Read more

Circuit Court Affirms that Trump Cannot Block People from his Twitter Account

Declaration 17analysis, free speech

On July 9th, 2019, the U.S Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judgement of  the District Court for the Southern District of New York in ruling that the president cannot block people from his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account. The ruling followed a 2017 lawsuit by the Knight First Amendment Institute against the president, where they alleged that the First Amendment was violated when several plaintiffs were blocked from viewing or responding to @realDonaldTrump’s tweets.

In July of 2017, seven plaintiffs along with the Knight Institute sued President Donald Trump, White House Director of Social Media Daniel Scavino, and two other White House Staff members for blocking their access to what they believed to be a “public forum”.

Read more

Appeals Court Confirms Block Trump’s on Abortion Ban for Unaccompanied Minors

Declaration 17analysis, immigration

On June 14, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the District Court’s “preliminary injunction against the government’s blanket denial access to abortion for unaccompanied minors,” with Judge Laurence H. Silberman dissenting. The court “vacate[d] and remand[ed], though, a separate aspect of the district court’s preliminary injunction, which bars disclosure to parents and others of unaccompanied minors’ pregnancies and abortion decisions.”

Read more

Two Federal Judges Reject Trump’s Attempt to Block Congressional Subpoenas for Financial Records

Declaration 17analysis

Over two days in May, federal judges one in Washington D.C. and New York City ruled that U.S. Congressional Committees have the legal authority to subpoena private companies requesting financial records relating to Donald Trump and his business affiliates.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform issued a subpoena on April 15 had requested financial records and other documents from Mazars USA LLP, a firm that Donald Trump has used for accounting services, from 2011 to. As a result, Mr. Trump and his business affiliates filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia requesting “the court, among other things, to declare that the Oversight Committee’s subpoena to Mazars ‘is invalid and unenforceable’ and to issue a ‘permanent injunction quashing Chairman Cummings’ subpoena.” (Opinion, 12).

Read more

Fourth Circuit Ruling Says Trump’s Termination of DACA Unlawful

Declaration 17analysis, immigration

On May 17, 2019, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 that the Trump administration could not rescind the DACA program protecting young undocumented immigrants from deportation. The ruling, by Judge Robert Bruce King and Judge Albert Diaz states that the government’s removal of protections for immigrants who came to the United States as children violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Judge Julius N. Richardson cast the dissenting vote.

Read more

Ninth Circuit Allows Policy that Sends Asylum-Seekers Back to Mexico

Declaration 17analysis, immigration

The Trump Administration won a battle in the Ninth Circuit this week, when a three-judge panel permitted a policy that forces asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico as their U.S. court cases proceed. On May 7, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted the government’s emergency motion to stay the preliminary injunction that had been issued in April by a California District Court.

The case was initially filed in February by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups on behalf of 11 asylum-seekers from Central America. The complaint alleged that the policy, known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP) was in violation of a bedrock principle of U.S. and international law known as “nonrefoulement,” which means that prospective asylum seekers cannot be returned to places where they may be persecuted. It further argued that the MPP was capricious and arbitrary and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

Read more

Judge’s Ruling Halts Trump’s Removal of Haitians’ Protected Status

Declaration 17analysis, immigration

A lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on May 21, 2018, challenging the Trump administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status for approximately 50,000 Haitians. On April 11, Judge William F. Kuntz II issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s decision pending the outcome of the litigation.

Read more