In Control

Trump watch: In the State of Washington v. Trump, the Ninth Circuit panel ruling notes that the administration had claimed that its decision to ban immigration from certain countries was “unreviewable.” Nicely, the court ruling reminds the executive that it lacks “the power to switch the Constitution on or off at will.” It also reminds us that “federal courts routinely review the constitutionality of—and even invalidate—actions taken by the executive to promote national security, and have done so even in times of conflict.”

Equally important, the judges’ ruling said that Trump’s “numerous statements…about his intent to implement a ‘Muslim ban'” can be used as evidence for an intent to discriminate, as Terry Moran of ABC News points out.

It appears Trump’s National Security Advisor Michael Flynn violated the Logan Act (at a minimum) by discussing last fall with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak the likelihood that the U.S. would lift sanctions against Russia, Greg Miller, Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima report for The Washington Post. The contacts between Flynn and Kislyak started before the election and continued during the transition.

The White House’s chief information security officer, Cory Louie, an Obama appointee, has been removed from his position, Zack Whitaker reports for ZDNet. His office is in charge of the security of all White House internal networks. There is no word on his replacement.

The gang that couldn’t shoot straight? “Trump often asks simple questions about policies, proposals and personnel,” report Alex Eisenstadt, Kenneth Vogel and Josh Dawsey for Politico. “And, when discussions get bogged down in details, the president has been known to quickly change the subject — to ‘seem in control at all times,’ one senior government official said — or direct questions about details to his chief strategist Steve Bannon, his son-in-law Jared Kushner or House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump has privately expressed disbelief over the ability of judges, bureaucrats or lawmakers to delay — or even stop — him from filling positions and implementing policies.”

Showing the eensiest bit of spine, House Oversight committee chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has joined with his Democratic colleague Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to ask the head of the Office of Government Ethics to review White House adviser Kellyanne Conway’s use of her government office to plug Ivanka Trump’s clothing line. Chaffetz cited this action during a rowdy town hall meeting in his home district last night, but according to Elana Schor’s report in Politico, the crowd in attendance demanded much stronger action on the administration’s conflicts of interest.

Opposition news: With reports from many cities that immigration police are raiding homes, United We Dream is building the “#HereToStay” network and asking people to make pledges to physically show up for immigrants in their community when needed.

NBC News Alex Seitz-Wald offers a short list of apps that people are using to organize their resistance to Trump.

The New York Times’ Brian Chen zeroes in on a couple of useful tech tools that, while not complicated, can help people who want to get more politically active in the current moment. Well-deservedly at the top of the list: Josh Tauberer’s GovTrack.

Looks like some Democratic politicians are still obsessed with data, as Paul Kane shows with this story in The Washington Post on the 350 data points being used by Rep. Sean Maloney (D-NY) as he conducts a review of what House candidates did right and wrong in 2016. Maloney’s data suggests that a district’s unemployment rate doesn’t matter as much as how rural it is, how educated it is, and how diverse it is.

This is civic tech: Fast Company’s David Zax catches up with PopVox founder Marci Harris. “We’re expecting this to be a growth year,” she says.

SeeClickFix gets profiled in Curbed.com. Ya think?

Our friends at GovLab have launched the Data Justice Network, which is designed to “help criminal justice policymakers share innovation experiences and learn from each other.”

Registration for the annual conference for E-Democracy and Open Government at Danube University, taking place May 17-19, is now open.

The Knight Foundation has announced $1.2 million in new support for Blacktech Week, an annual event in Miami that connects people of color to the startup and tech ecosystem, Nancy Dahlberg reports for The Miami Herald.

Good news: The House of Representatives unanimously passed the Email Privacy Act, but as ZDNet’s Steven Vaughan-Nichols reports, it’s far from clear it will make it through the Senate or get signed by Trump.

Monday and Tuesday you can tune in to watch the Knight Foundation’s Media Learning Seminar. Lots of great speakers, including Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ethan Zuckerman, Marty Baron, and Amy Webb.