On Wednesday, President Trump ended the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (PACEI), which had been plagued by lawsuits from liberal organizations and even one of the Commission's own Democratic members.  Liberals are touting their victory in "resisting" an initiative started by President Trump, but conservatives have also responded.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) released its annual report on speech codes on college campuses:

Despite the critical importance of free speech on campus, too many universities — in policy and in practice — chill, censor, and punish students’ and faculty members’ expressive activity. One way that universities do this is through the use of speech codes: policies prohibiting speech that, outside the bounds of campus, would be protected by the First Amendment.

After Virginia's state and local elections on November 7, there were four extremely close House of Delegates' races.  Here is what happened and the status of each of them:

Today, Senator Orrin Hatch announced his retirement at the end of this term. 

RNLA Executive Director Michael Thielen said: “Orrin Hatch has long has been a great friend of the RNLA since our founding in 1985.  It was Senator Hatch who first said: ‘If you are a lawyer and you are a Republican, you should be a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association.’  Thank you Senator Hatch.” 

Last Friday, we had the top posts of the year, numbers 10-6.  Today, it is the top 5 posts that unfortunately have a common theme:  Democrats' hyper-partisan obstruction of the Trump Administration.  This is so over the top it would be funny if it was not hurting the governing of our country.   The number one post shows the complete hypocrisy of the Democrats opposition to the Trump Administration.  They are hurting good people for the sake of appeasing their far-left base.  

Last week, the Department of the Interior (DOI) took a little-known but important step to undo an eleventh-hour expansion of the law by the Obama Administration.  In a memorandum issued January 10, 2017, the DOI Solicitor determined that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) prohibits the accidental or "incidental" taking of migratory birds.  The practical effects of this opinion were very broad, but fortunately it was suspended pending review on February, and the DOI Solicitor officially rescinded it last Friday.

Looking forward to next year, the Supreme Court will be hearing arguments on a free speech case at the end of February. The case seems simple: can unions force a non-member to pay dues when the non-member disagrees and does not support what the union espouses? However, it is pitting two giants of American society against one another in a novel way.

Senator James Lankford went to the Senate floor and laid out the case against the unprecedented Democrat Obstruction of President Trump’s nominees.  We are not talking high profile nominees like Supreme Court Justices or Cabinet Secretaries, but basically all the ones appointed by the President that need to be confirmed by the Senate.

Today and next Friday, the RNLA will highlight the top blog posts of the Republican Lawyer Blog for 2017.  This is part 1: Top RepLawyer Posts for 2017, numbers 10-6.  Today’s post will focus on Justice Neil Gorsuch and election law.  No reasonable lawyers’ group can look back on 2017 and not celebrate the confirmation of Justice Gorsuch.  On elections, it is unfortunate that Democrats continue to use the race card and fight against those trying to make elections more open, fair, and honest for all.  

The General Services Administration (GSA) may have improperly turned over documents, including private and privileged documents, from the Trump transition team to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.  RNLA member Kory Langhofer, counsel to Trump for America (TFA), the 501(c)(4) organization that supported the Trump Presidential transition, wrote: