Vox Sentences: Election security — a laughing matter

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The Supreme Court will finally rule on DACA; Trump and Putin joke about Russia meddling in US elections.

The Supreme Court will take up DREAMers’ case

Alex Wong/Getty Images

• The Supreme Court will finally take on a case to determine whether the Trump administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was illegal. The outcome could affect 700,000 immigrants. [Washington Post / Robert Barnes]
• DACA is a policy that allows unauthorized immigrants brought to the US as children to apply for a two-year, renewable permit that protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally. No path to citizenship is guaranteed. [Bloomberg / Erik Larson and Andrew Harris]
• Trump has been trying to end the Obama-era program since 2017. He believes Obama unlawfully enacted the program with his executive power, although lower courts have rejected that argument. [CNN / Ariane de Vogue and Priscilla Alvarez]
• While Trump hasn’t been able to fully cut DACA, there have been some rollbacks to the program. As of now, no new applications are being received, but the Department of Homeland Security is renewing the applications of those who were already enrolled in the program — more than 373,000 since 2017. [ABC News / Devin Dwyer]
• Two legal questions will be weighed in the Supreme Court: Did the Trump administration violate the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to collect proper consultation and comments prior to ending DACA? And did the administration provide the true reason behind why it wants to end the program? [Vox / Dara Lind]
• The controversy surrounding DACA has also been complicated by politics. Trump has tried to use the program as a bargaining chip to force Democrats to fund his border wall. [NPR / Nina Totenberg and Domenico Montanaro]
• The decision will come out sometime between spring and summer of 2020, at the height of the presidential campaigns. Whatever the Court rules, there’s a high likelihood that the results will energize angry voters who are unhappy with the decision. [NYT / Adam Liptak and Michael D. Shear]

Trump doesn’t seem too concerned about Russian election meddling

• Despite persistent warnings about Russia’s interference in US elections, Trump seemed to brush off these concerns during a recent meeting with President Vladimir Putin. [BBC]
• Amid the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, the two world leaders met in person for the first time since special counsel Robert Mueller concluded in his report that Russia had meddled in US elections. Neither Putin nor Trump addressed the matter of election security until a reporter asked Trump if he was going to ask Putin not to meddle in the 2020 presidential elections. [WSJ / Alex Leary]
• The New York Times’s Peter Baker and Michael Crowley describe Trump’s response as “making light of the matter”: Trump turned to Putin and, with a slight grin, jokingly told the Russian leader not meddle in the election. [NYT / Peter Baker and Michael Crowley]
• Democrats were quick to criticize Trump. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said election security is not a matter that should be taken lightly and “Putin’s the only one laughing.” [AP / Jonathan Lemire and Zeke Miller]
• Putin also brushed off concerns of election security, saying in a Thursday interview that Trump won because he was able to get in touch with American voters and claiming that liberal policies in the West are dying. [Guardian / Julian Borger]
• During their meeting, Trump and Putin also joked about getting rid of journalists, a comment that is especially alarming considering that an estimated 26 journalists have been killed in Russia during Putin’s tenure. [Vox / Jen Kirby]
• Trump’s meeting with Putin was a chance for the US president to tackle critics’ doubts about his relationship with Russia. But again, he chose not to do so. [Politico / Anita Kumar]

Miscellaneous

• The National Enquirer is finally starting to distance itself from President Donald Trump. [Daily Beast / Lachlan Markay, Asawin Suebsaeng, and Dean Sterling Jones]
• A programmer created an app that could generate nude photos of any woman from a clothed image using deepfake technology. Amid backlash, he soon shut it down, citing a high probability of misuse. (You think?) [The Verge / Jacob Kastrenakes]
• Author and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson took the stage with nine other candidates for Thursday’s Democratic debate. She ended the night as the most Googled candidate and a top trending term on Twitter. [Washington Post / Allyson Chiu]
• NASA’s going to the moon — of Saturn, that is. The space agency announced it will send a drone to Titan, the gas giant’s largest moon, in 2025 to explore the surface for possible signs of life. [Wired / Daniel Oberhaus]

Verbatim

“Trump’s attempt to rescind DACA and strip Dreamers of the protections they were promised is illegal. To Dreamers everywhere today, know this: We see you. We stand with you. We are in this fight with you.” [Kamala Harris’s response to the Supreme Court taking on the DACA case]

Watch this: The photos that ended child labor

Child labor was widely practiced until a photographer showed the public what it looked like. [YouTube / Coleman Lowndes]

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