Trump signs executive orders

It didn’t take long for the American Civil Liberties Union to respond to President Donald Trump’s executive order on Thursday setting up a commission to investigate voter fraud and vulnerabilities in election systems.The ACLU has filed a freedom of information request for information that the Trump administration is using as the basis for its claims of voter fraud.The chair of Trump’s new Presidential Commission on Election Integrity will be Vice President Mike Pence, report Reuters, the Washington Post and Politico. The vice chair will be Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has backed tough voter ID laws and taken a tough stance on immigration, according to Politico.Trump has previously claimed that between 3 million and 5 million people voted illegally in the November election. Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a press release that Trump’s voter fraud claims have been “widely debunked.”“If the Trump … [Read more...] about ACLU files information request after Trump signs executive order for election integrity commission

On Friday, Feb. 3, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order entitled, “Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System.” While the Order was widely characterized as commencing a roll-back of financial regulations, including the Dodd-Frank Act and the Fiduciary Rule,[1] the text of the actual order is more modest.  It instead sets forth a set of “Core Principles” which it directs the Secretary of the Treasury and the Financial Stability Oversight Council to consider in reviewing existing laws and regulations and to report back to the President within 120 days on steps which may be needed to support those Core Principles.  The Core Principles set forth are:empower Americans to make independent financial decisions and informed choices in the marketplace, save for retirement, and build individual wealth;prevent taxpayer-funded bailouts;foster economic growth and vibrant financial markets through more rigorous regulatory impact … [Read more...] about President Trump Signs Executive Order Establishing “Core Principles” of Financial Regulation and Addressing the DOL Fiduciary Rule

President Donald Trump signed three executive orders Thursday that underscore his campaign pledge to crack down on violent crime.Trump signed the orders after U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions was sworn in as attorney general, report the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun and Bloomberg News. Trump said he was signing the orders to “restore safety in America.”The Baltimore Sun says the executive orders were “relatively tepid, underscoring the limited ability of any president—and the federal government at large—to act on issues generally considered the purview of local government.”One order, Trump said, is intended to “break the back of the criminal cartels that have spread across our nation and are destroying the blood of our youth.” The order directs federal agencies to identify ways to fight transnational gangs.A second order authorizes the attorney general to create a task force on crime reduction and public safety that will identify strategies … [Read more...] about Trump signs executive orders intended to ‘restore safety in America’

[JURIST] US President Donald Trump signed an executive order [text] Tuesday resuming the admissions of refugees into the US but introducing heightened vetting procedures.The order states that the prior executive order [JURIST news archive] barring refugee admissions from a number of Islamic nations is no longer in effect and "the Secretary of State may resume travel of qualified and appropriately vetted refugees into the United States, and the Secretary of Homeland Security may resume adjudicating applications for refugee resettlement." The order also notes that during the 120-day review period of the initial order, the Secretary of State and Department of Homeland Security [official websites] have concluded that the barring of refugees from the aforementioned nations was no necessary "to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people." Under this order, a new 90-day review period has been initiated. During that time, the Secretary of State and the Department … [Read more...] about Trump signs executive order resuming refugee admission with heightened vetting procedures

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that directs the Environmental Protection Agency to begin rescinding and rewriting the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, designed to fight global warming by curbing carbon emissions.Trump characterized his order as a way to restore jobs in the coal industry, the New York Times, the Washington Post and Law360 (sub. req.) report.“My administration is putting an end to the war on coal,” Trump said Tuesday. “With today’s executive action, I’m taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on American energy.”The Times points out that the Clean Power Plan has not taken effect because of a Supreme Court stay. A federal appeals court is reviewing the EPA’s power to adopt the plan.Trump’s order also lifts a moratorium on new coal mining on public lands and rescinds a requirement that federal agencies consider climate change in environmental reviews.The order doesn’t … [Read more...] about Trump signs executive order rolling back climate change policy; next move is before DC Circuit