Category: Federal

  • U.S. Supreme Court declines 5-3 to resuscitate nondelegation doctrine; Justice Gorsuch strongly dissents

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    In Gundy v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) did not violate the nondelegation doctrine, the constitutional principle forbidding Congress from delegating its legislative powers to the executive.   Justice Elena Kagan’s majority opinion noted that the court has only declared delegations of authority…

  • Bullock is 21st Democrat to qualify for second 20-person set of debates

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    Montana Governor Steve Bullock’s campaign announced on June 18 that he had met the polling threshold to participate in the second set of Democratic presidential primary debates. The two CNN-hosted debates will take place July 30 and 31 in Detroit, Michigan.   Bullock is the 21st candidate to meet at least one of the two…

  • U.S. Senators Lee and Hawley propose increasing presidential control of agency officials

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    U.S. Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a bill that would give presidents more control over the administrative state. The Take Care Act, introduced on June 5, 2019, would repeal limitations on the president’s authority to remove Senate-confirmed officials in the executive branch and at independent agencies. The bill aims to make…

  • Federal Register weekly update; lowest weekly proposed rule total since April

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    The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity.   During the week of June 10 to June 14, the number of pages in the Federal Register increased by 1,168 pages, bringing…

  • A closer look at Trump’s twice-nominated judge: Peter Phipps

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    President Donald Trump (R) has announced 190 Article III judicial nominations since taking office on January 20, 2017. Two of those individuals, Peter Phipps and A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., were nominated twice to different courts.   On February 15, 2018, Trump first nominated Phipps to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Western District…

  • Sixteen Democratic presidential candidates have called for Donald Trump impeachment proceedings

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    Sixteen of the 24 noteworthy Democratic candidates for president have called for President Donald Trump’s (R) impeachment.   The most recent candidates to join in impeachment calls did so last Friday. Both Bill de Blasio and Amy Klobuchar called for impeachment following statements made by Trump last week on ABC News. In an interview, Trump…

  • Presidential pageviews update: Buttigieg receives most Ballotpedia pageviews, followed by Biden and Yang

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    Each week, we report the number of pageviews received by 2020 presidential candidates on Ballotpedia. These numbers show which candidates are getting our readers’ attention.   South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg racked up 3,771 pageviews for the week of June 9-15. That represents 8.1 percent of the pageviews for all Democratic campaigns during the…

  • 2020 Democratic presidential field split on impeachment

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    Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) became the fourteenth Democratic presidential candidate to support initiating impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump (R) Thursday.   The first calls for impeachment proceedings came in April after the U.S. Department of Justice released special counsel Robert Mueller’s report investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, coordination between…

  • House committee holds Trump officials in contempt for refusal to release citizenship question documents

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    The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted 24-15 on June 12, 2019, to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas requesting documents related to the decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.   The vote occurred hours after President…

  • A new way to look at the presidential field

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      Long before candidates such as Donald Trump (R) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) won their elections, they had bested their opponents in pageviews on Ballotpedia.   What trends might emerge from this year’s political contests? As part of our 2020 election coverage, we will be publishing our weekly pageview statistics for presidential campaigns. These numbers…