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Judge Christopher Cooper (D.D.C.) on Thursday denied Rep. Joyce Beatty’s motion for an emergency hearing on the Kennedy Center’s temporary closure, but ordered the government to file a detailed status report on the closure and to provide at least 30 days’ notice before implementing any changes to the administration’s plans for the Center, “including but not limited to any ‘demolition’ of the Center’s main building.” (Order.) (The Hill.)
Judge Emmet Sullivan (D.D.C.) on Wednesday ordered the Justice Department to submit to the court for in camera review the interview notes underlying certain FBI interview reports in the Epstein files, and to begin reviewing and producing foreign-language materials in the files. (Memorandum Opinion and Order.) (The Hill.)
Judge Mary Kay Lanthier (D. Vt.) on Thursday dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Vermont’s secretary of state, which sought a copy of Vermont’s statewide voter registration list. (Order.)
President Trump on Wednesday issued a memorandum directing the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Trade Representative to remove Canadian-origin items from the federal civil procurement system to the extent practicable and permitted by law. (Memorandum.)
Hannah Bloch-Wehba argued that “the Privacy Act is ill-equipped to address contemporary privacy risks, much less to constrain an executive branch determined to use the data in its possession for new purposes,” and recommended reforms. (Just Security.)
David Chen argued that the anti-coercion principle articulated in NFIB v. Sebelius should be understood as a federalism constraint, not a Spending Clause constraint, given that the federal government “offers a variety of inducements to states beyond conditional spending,” such as “criminally investigating state and local officials who refuse to cooperate with its immigration enforcement agenda, refusing to deliver ballots in states that will not hand over voter data, and even surging armed agents into cities with disfavored policies.” (SSRN.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Department of Homeland Security v. League of Women Voters: The government filed an application to the Supreme Court on September 8 seeking a stay pending appeal of a June 22 order issued by Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan (D.D.C.) that vacated a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program that used Social Security data to verify voters’ citizenship status. The League of Women Voters filed a response on September 15, and DHS filed its reply on September 16.