Executive Action Trackers

Within the first two months of his second term, President Donald Trump issued more than 75 executive orders. These executive orders range in topic, leaving many lawyers and law students struggling to stay informed about evolving laws and the impact on their lives and areas of practice. A large number of these executive orders have already faced legal challenges. As lawyers work to stay abreast of these executive actions, as well as legal challenges to these actions, there are a number of resources that maintain trackers that provide users with updated information on various executive actions and their legal challenges.

Just Security

Just Security provides a Litigation Tracker – Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions as part of their wider coverage of the Trump Administration’s executive actions. This litigation tracker provides the total number of tracked cases that have been filed to challenge actions made by the Trump Administration, as well as the name and link to each case, a linked PDF of the case complaint, the date the complaint was filed, and a description of the case.

Court Watch

Court Watch also provides an updated list, Lawsuits Related to Trump Admin Actions, which includes case links to cases challenging the Trump Administration’s administrative actions. It also tracks and provides information for lawsuits filed on behalf of the Trump Administration. 

The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Chronicle of Higher Education details the impact of executive actions in the area of higher education. Specifically, The Chronicle of Higher Education tracks changes regarding DEI policies at the state and campus levels. This tracker allows readers to view state legislation on DEI and campus activity regarding DEI initiatives and includes descriptions of these changes as well as linked sources. 

Akin

Finally, the international law firm Akin (Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP) provides a Trump Executive Order Tracker. This Tracker allows users to search by keyword or to filter information by topic category (like artificial intelligence, DEI, immigration, national security & defense, etc.). Additionally, Akin’s Trump Executive Order Overview allows users to view a compiled list of all executive orders published by the Trump Administration along with a link, summary, topic overview, and release date. 

Research Tips

All of these resources allow users to sign up to receive updates directly sent to their email. Just Security invites users to sign up for their free Early Edition roundup of news as well as their end of day newsletter. Court Watch allows users to sign up for a free weekly court record roundup email. The Chronicle of Higher Education allows users to sign up to receive an email whenever the DEI Legislation and Impact Trackers are updated. Finally, Akin allows users to sign up to receive email updates to the Trump Executive Order Tracker blog. 

While these sign-up options are incredibly helpful to researchers and those looking to keep abreast of the rapidly evolving political climate, it can also be mentally draining to receive constant notifications. It is recommended that researchers consider limiting their intake of this information – like disabling political news push notifications to instead set aside a certain daily or weekly time to check in on updates on key topics or areas of research interest from reputable news resources. Selectively signing up to receive automatic updates that can be read at a certain time can help facilitate this process.