Weekly civic intelligence report · v2.2
This week saw the Trump administration advance several measures with significant constitutional implications: using an 18th-century wartime statute to conduct mass deportations without due process protections, implementing rule changes that strip civil service protections from federal workers, and exploring mechanisms to use taxpayer funds for private legal settlements. Simultaneously, the administration's public focus has centered on criticizing a senator's meeting with a deported citizen, releasing COVID lab-leak evidence, and proposing to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status. Meanwhile, documented cases of ICE detaining U.S. citizens with valid documentation and the FDA chief's endorsement of vaccine-autism claims represent ongoing institutional shifts with public health and civil liberties implications that have received less media attention than the week's political controversies.