FEB 2025 - Legal Update [Legacy Content]
- Current Signal
- Feb 1, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 13
LAW
(Legislation, Legal Rulings, Executive Orders & Regulations)
The flurry of executive orders President Trump signed during his first week in office had an immediate impact on the federal workforce and their ability to provide certain public services. In response to one such order intended to enforce the use of “clear and accurate language” as it related to gender and sex, the State Department stopped processing new passport applications and passport renewals for people who:
The new policy is also likely to negatively impact anyone who was issued a passport as a minor if the gender on that passport is inconsistent with the gender on their current application. While the impact of this particular policy change is limited to folks in or around the trans community, there are reports that the lack of clarity around how to handle these applications has delayed processing for all applicants, and the precedent is concerning. It’s possible that in the coming months the State Department may find other reasons to halt application processing for select groups of people, further limiting access to this critical document that is required for international travel. |
Another executive order was intended to end the practice of granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States whose parents are in the USA illegally or temporarily. This order has been temporarily blocked due to challenges from multiple individuals, rights groups, and 22 different states; but there is a parallel legislative effort in congress to restrict citizenship. While the executive order isn’t explicitly retroactive, filings in support of the EO by the justice department question the citizenship of Native Americans which it says aren’t subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. This argument explicitly ignores the American Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 which granted citizenship to Native Americans born in the United States.
In an attempt to quickly deliver on its promise to reduce the size of the federal government and government spending, the Trump administration instructed each federal agency to pause distribution of federal grants and loans until they completed a “comprehensive analysis” of their federal assistance programs. The explicit goal of these reviews is to restrict spending by ensuring that federal dollars are not allocated to causes that would “advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies”. While the order was temporarily paused by a federal judge before being reversed by the Office of Management & Budget, a separate initiative to reduce the size of the federal workforce could make disbursement and administration of existing federal funds extremely difficult: Per a memo published on Tuesday, The Office of Personnel Management is currently offering all federal employees who voluntarily resign by 6 February eight months of additional pay. While there are serious questions about how the federal government would even honor such an offer given that it is currently only funded through 14 March, if a significant percentage of the 3 million employees who received the email decided to exit the workforce at once there would be severe and negative administrative and economic impact. |
ACTION ITEMS:
Request / Renew Your US Passport
Check Your Eligibility For Citizenship In Other Countries
If You Have Or Are Eligible For Dual Citizenship, Request A Backup Passport
Find Out How Much Of Your State Budget Is Dependent On Federal Funds, How Those Funds Are Distributed, And Which Services They Support
SOCIAL MEDIA SPOTLIGHT
Reddit / Fednews - “It's Now A Hostile Work Environment for entire fed government”(post recovered after deletion by moderators) |