The Best Apps To Track Trump’s Legal Changes

A Biglaw firm, a T-14 law school and more get in on the action.

 (Photo by Andrew Harrer - Pool/Getty Images)

(Photo by Andrew Harrer – Pool/Getty Images)

Whatever your opinion of Donald Trump, there is no denying that he has promised an ambitious agenda for his first 100 days as president. While people all across the country have personal and political interests in keeping up with Trump’s pronouncements and policies, lawyers also have a professional interest in tracking it all. After all, whether it is financial regulations or immigration policies, we represent the clients who the changes affect.

But how can you keep up with it all? Not surprisingly, several websites and applications have sprung up to help keep track of Trump’s changes.

CadwaladerCabinent

Cadwalader’s site tracks legal and regulatory developments.

For lawyers, probably the most sophisticated and comprehensive of these is the Cabinet Center for Administrative Transition (CCAT) from the law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. It is specifically designed to help businesses and legal professionals keep current with Trump administration legal and regulatory developments and get perspective on those developments through expert commentary.

CCAT describes itself as a “curated repository of pronouncements, position papers, policy statements, and requirements as to legislative and regulatory change related to the financial service agenda of the President, the new administration and the new Congress.” It tracks legislative developments, executive orders, policy positions, regulations, the regulators themselves, and relevant Trump administration news.

Although CCAT is part of a broader Cadwalader subscription service, the firm is not charging for access to it. All that is required for access is to complete a free registration. The broader service, Cadwalader Cabinet, is a legal research, news and intelligence platform focused on financial regulation and compliance.

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Columbia's site tracks human rights issues.

Columbia’s site tracks human rights issues.

In contrast to CCAT’s focus on business law, a tracker out of Columbia Law School is devoted to human rights issues. The Trump Human Rights Tracker follows the administration’s actions and their implications for human rights. It is a project of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review and Columbia Law School’s RightslinkHuman Rights Clinic and Human Rights Institute.

The site lists each action taken by the administration, provides an explanation of the action, describes its human rights implications, and provides links to sources and further information. For example, with regard to the administration’s withdrawal of federal protection for transgender students, the site describes the implications as undermining rights to non-discrimination, education, sanitation, privacy and security. It then links to articles describing those implications in more detail.

Track Trump follows the administration's first 100 days.

Track Trump follows the administration’s first 100 days.

Tracking Trump’s first 100 days – which end April 29 – is the focus of Track Trump, a site that follows the administration’s progress in implementing the promises Trump made last October in his Contract with the American Voter. It provides both a day-by-day timeline view of the administration’s actions as well as a promise-by-promise list. Labels and color-coding show items as implemented, in progress or having no action.

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A key financial backer of the site is Sam Altman, president of the venture firm Y Combinator. The site’s four founders say their goal is to isolate actual policy changes from rhetoric and political theater and to hold the administration accountable for the promises it made.

Trump Tracker uses a Reddit group to crowdsource updates.

Trump Tracker uses a Reddit group to crowdsource updates.

Similar in its purpose to Track Trump but broader in its coverage is Trump Tracker, a site that tracks the status of a list of Trump’s promises that currently numbers 186 items. Included are promises Trump made in his Contract with the American Voter as well as promises he made in campaign speeches and other places.

The site operates in conjunction with a Reddit group (or subreddit), r/TrumpTracker. Members of the subreddit help keep track of the administration’s promises and execution, and the Trump Tracker website displays it all using color codes to show whether promises have been started, are in progress or achieved, or were broken or compromised. Each promise contains links to sources where the promise was made or reported. Each action on a promise is linked to the subreddit discussion of that action.

A more modest Trump tracker comes from one of the president’s favorite sources, the “failing” New York Times. Its regularly updated feature, Tracking Trump’s Agenda, Step by Step, follows the progress of several of Trump’s major priorities, such as the nomination of a Supreme Court justice and the building of the border wall.

The feature shows the paths these priorities would be likely to follow towards implementation and tracks their progress along those paths, with links to the Times’ coverage at each step.

None of the sites I’ve described are intended exclusively for lawyers, of course. But for lawyers who have a professional interest in tracking Trump’s legal moves, these sites make it easier.


Robert Ambrogi Bob AmbrogiRobert Ambrogi is a Massachusetts lawyer and journalist who has been covering legal technology and the web for more than 20 years, primarily through his blog LawSites.com. Former editor-in-chief of several legal newspapers, he is a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and an inaugural Fastcase 50 honoree. He can be reached by email at ambrogi@gmail.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@BobAmbrogi).