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Blog 4.3 - Census

1. What question will be added to the Census in 2020? The 2020 census will ask every American household to record which members of their family are US citizens. 2. How does the government justify this addition? The government’s justification for the question sounds simple enough: Asking about citizenship will provide more information about who is in the United States, and more information is always good. 3. Why do people have a problem with this addition? The critics are skeptical that the Trump administration intends to use citizenship data for good reasons. The not-so-subtle implication, critics say, is that that it’s part of a broader project by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and company to take America back to the pre-civil rights era. 4. Why is it important to states that the undocumented immigrants that live there answer the Census? The census is used to determine congressional apportionment for the next decade, allocate federal funding for infrastructure, an
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Blog 4.2 Alec Mueller

1.  Why does Shira Scheindlin argue that due process rights for men like Rob Porter have not been violated? The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides, inter alia, that “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.” This legal standard means what it says. Certainly, Rob Porter and others who have been accused of sexual abuse or harassment are not being deprived of their life or their liberty as a result of the allegations made against them. 2.  How does she describe the steps in the process when a legal action is brought against a person? The due process of a court action is often a very complicated and lengthy affair, involving pretrial discovery, witnesses, and a judicial proceeding. But given the stakes of loss of life or liberty, that makes sense. In context, the accusations that cause a person to lose his job must be evaluated by the employer, who must make a judgment call based on the strength of those allegations.
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Blog 4.1 - Alec Mueller

1. Why was it strange for the Democratic candidate to win in the Pennsylvania district? One reason that the results are especially scary for Republicans — Democrat Conor Lamb is the apparent winner in a district that President Trump won by 20 percentage points — is because it came on reasonably high turnout, the sort of turnout one might expect in this year’s midterms. 2. On the chart, what is "Democratic swing"? Democratic swing is the difference between the special election result and the district’s partisan lean. Partisan lean is the average difference between how the constituency voted and how the country voted overall in the last two presidential elections. 3. Which special elections so far have had the largest Democratic swing? Alabama U.S. Senate election, Kansas 4th election, and the Pennsylvania 18th election 4. How is the generic ballot polling different from the results to far in these special elections? Those special election results consist of actual pe
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Blog 3.5

1. Where do the district court and appellate court fit into the organization of the federal courts? T he district court is a trial court within the Ninth Circuit; the appellate court is one step higher on the ladder and oversees all individual districts. 2. What makes the 9th Circuit stand out from the other circuit courts? The Ninth Circuit is by far the largest federal appellate court, with 29 judges. (The Fifth Circuit, covering Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, is second, with 17.) The Ninth covers a population of 64.3 million people, according to the latest Census data, or nearly 20 percent of the US. 3. What historical cause may make this Circuit Court more liberal than others? The Court’s reputation arguably derives from its transformation under President Jimmy Carter. While Carter was the only the fourth president to make no appointments to the Supreme Court, he did appoint 15 people to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, out of 23 judges total at the time. 4. Give two
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Blog 3.4 - Alec Mueller

1. What are the disadvantages for Scott Pruitt of using rule making? Much of EPA’s work is governed by statute, so dismantling most environmental regulations requires an arduous rule-making process that requires public comments, as well as new rules to comply with the law. The whole endeavor is inevitably beset by lawsuits at every step. 2. How has the enforcement of environmental regulations changed from the Obama Administration to the Trump Administration? During the Obama Administration, environmental policy was far more enforced than it has been during the Trump Administration. Environmental law enforcement has declined. By September, the Trump administration launched 30 percent fewer cases and collected about 60 percent fewer fines than in the same period under President Obama. 3. What change has Pruitt made to the process for investigating potential violations of environmental regulations? The agency’s enforcement division now has to get approval from headquarters before in
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Blog 3.3- Alec Mueller

1. What action (or lack of action) caused the government shut down? The most basic reason for the shutdown is that the government gets funded by laws that have to go through Congress — and this time, Congress failed to pass a new government funding law before the old one expired. 2. In a shutdown, which government functions continue? Which ones stop? The entire federal government certainly doesn’t shut down. Military and law enforcement activities continue. Social Security checks still go out. Air traffic controllers still go to work. Activities the government has deemed “nonessential” stop, and employees tasked with those activities are furloughed. 3. How were Democrats able to force Republicans to address the DACA issue? One obvious point of potential leverage over Republicans is that Democratic votes are needed to fund the government. So these activists argued that Democrats shouldn’t vote for any government funding bill without a DACA deal. 4. Why were some Democ
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Blog Post 3.2 Alec Mueller

1.  If the vice president and majority of the cabinet decide the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, what step do they take first? The amendment states that if, for whatever reason, the vice president and a majority of sitting Cabinet secretaries decide that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” they can simply put that down in writing and send it to two people — the speaker of the House and the Senate’s president pro tempore. 2. How many people does it take to make the vice president the acting president? One vice president and any eight Cabinet officers can, theoretically, decide to knock the president out of power at any time. Nine people. 3. What happens if the president disagrees with the VP & cabinet? If the president wants to dispute this move, he can, but then it would be up to Congress to settle the matter with a vote. A two-thirds majority in both houses would be necessary to keep the vice p
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