Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A case worth watching: “Democratic attorneys general on Tuesday filed lawsuits in Massachusetts and Washington state seeking to block President Donald Trump’s attempt to revoke the right to automatic birthright citizenship.”
* Unsettling reporting on the DOJ: “The Trump administration fired four top officials at the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, which oversees U.S. immigration courts, late Monday. … All were civil servants, not political appointees.”
* Judge Cannon does what Judge Cannon does: “A federal judge on Tuesday barred the Justice Department from sharing former special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on the classified documents case against Donald Trump with members of Congress. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, found there was no urgent need for the Justice Department to share the report with the chair and ranking members of the House and Senate judiciary committees while an appeal involving Trump’s co-defendants in the case is still pending.”
* Indefensible: “Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S., including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump’s order suspending U.S. refugee programs … The group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the U.S. as well as Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution because they fought for the former U.S.-backed Afghan government, said Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups and the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.”
* Among the dozens of deeply unfortunate things Trump did on Inauguration Day: “President Donald Trump will pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, according to an executive order he signed Monday as one of his first acts after he took office.”
* The vote in the Senate was unanimous: “The Republican-led Senate hit the ground running Monday with newly inaugurated President Donald Trump’s nominations, confirming Marco Rubio as secretary of state. With cooperation from Democrats, GOP leaders moved quickly to bring Rubio, currently a senator from Florida, to the floor for a vote after he was unanimously reported out the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.” * From a political perspective, a highly memorable sermon: “At the inaugural prayer service, the Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, made a direct appeal to President Donald Trump to have mercy on the LGBTQ+ community and undocumented migrant workers. Referencing Trump’s belief that he was saved by God from assassination, Budde said, ‘You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.’” * The video of the gesture won’t soon be forgotten: “Tesla CEO Elon Musk faced immediate backlash on Monday for a gesture he made while addressing a crowd at a Donald Trump inauguration event, renewing attention to his past antisemitic remarks and his far-right beliefs.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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