This is the online version of From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, we have a deeply reported look at Stephen Miller’s wide-ranging influence at the White House. Plus, we explore how President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda has put a renewed focus on the Bill of Rights.

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— Adam Wollner

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Stephen Miller’s White House reach goes well beyond immigration

By Peter Nicholas, Matt Dixon and Katherine Doyle

Most people know Stephen Miller as the steely face of Donald Trump’s deportation push.

But Miller has other jobs inside the West Wing — lots of other jobs.

Miller’s portfolio: A given day might find Miller pressing to fix the dry, malfunctioning fountains in Washington, D.C., or to replace broken security cameras on the city’s streets, a senior administration official said. He is also helping drive the president’s effort to force changes on college campuses meant to uproot what Trump believes is an embedded liberal culture.

At 10 a.m., Miller runs a daily meeting with senior federal officials where the topic might be sinking a boat in the Caribbean that the administration deems suspicious or breaking up a drug cartel.

Marco Rubio may have the most titles in Trump’s second term (four at one point), but Miller appears to carry the biggest jumble of assignments. He is both the White House’s homeland security adviser and policy chief — a long leash that allows him to burrow into almost any foreign or domestic priority that Trump puts forward.

Interviews with 13 present and past Trump administration officials and lawmakers — many of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly — suggest that the sheer sweep of Miller’s portfolio may partly account for his staying power in Trump world. He looks to have survived a national uproar over federal agents’ killing of two Americans in Minnesota who were protesting the immigration crackdown he championed, and which the administration has recently loosened.

‘The hammer’: Another reason for Miller’s longevity may be just that — his longevity. Many of the people who were part of Trump’s first campaign in 2016 are long gone: They’ve become peripheral figures in Trump world or been exiled altogether. Miller is an original and one of the few left standing — “the hammer” tasked with propelling Trump’s promises to fruition, as former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon described it in an interview.

After years in Trump’s company, Miller has made himself pretty much indispensable.

“All the executive orders signed on Day 1, Week 1, Month 1 are things that Stephen selected as executive orders that would be written, reviewed, edited and followed up on,” a former White House official said.

Read more →

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Bill of Rights put to the test over Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota

By Allan Smith and Scott Wong

In and out of court, more than half of the amendments enshrined in the Bill of Rights are being fought over as a direct result of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota.

In his second term, Trump and his administration have been aggressive in stretching the boundaries of political conventions, resulting in a number of court challenges. Trump’s pushes to eliminate birthright citizenship, freeze federal funds and bypass Congress through executive orders have tested the separation of powers.

The Twin Cities campaign, though, has been a flashpoint, with fights over at least six — the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and 10th — of the first 10 amendments. Conservative-leaning scholars see both lawyers and judges overstepping their bounds in fiery filings and opinions, while liberal-leaning counterparts see a notable disregard by the Trump administration for Bill of Rights provisions.

Randy Barnett, director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, said he saw the battle over the Bill of Rights in Minneapolis as “unprecedented” for how many far-fetched claims he believes advocates have made that have gained traction with district court judges.

In court, the Fourth, Fifth and 10th amendments have been core to legal battles over specific immigration enforcement actions.

John Yoo, who served in President George W. Bush’s Justice Department, said many of the constitutional fights are taking place because of how unsettled areas of immigration law are.

“There’s very few Supreme Court cases about it, and very few about the responsibility of the federal and state government,” said Yoo, a strong advocate for presidential power who helped author the “torture memos” on interrogation after the Sept. 11 attacks. “So whenever you have that kind of uncertainty, that’s where people step in — lower courts, litigants — and just start getting creative.”

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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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