President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump has proposed a budget that would cut funding for programs that help poor, rural Americans, including access to free lawyers in civil cases, The Washington Post's Steven Mufson and Tracy Jan report. All funding would be slashed for the Legal Services Corporation, which funds legal aid agencies like the one that employs me. Funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps many of my clients get through the winter, would be cut. The plan would also cut funding for Meals on Wheels, which is one of the programs paid for by HUD's Community Development Block Grant program. The bottom line: "If you’re a poor person in America, President Trump’s budget proposal is not for you," The Post reports.

President Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to "expand access to drug treatment, strengthen prevention options and address the scourge of drug addiction after hearing about many Americans' struggle with opiate abuse," CNN's Dan Merica reports. But the Republican health care plan Trump backs would end the requirement that states that have expanded Medicaid cover addiction-treatment services and mental health treatment.

Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, told CNN the proposed change is a "step in the wrong direction at a time when America's most urgent public health crisis is an addictive disorder."

It's not just the shape of the U.S. Supreme Court's jurisprudence that President-Elect Donald Trump will get to shape. The Economist reports that he will be able to appoint lawyers to 96 judgeships in district courts and 16 on the nation’s circuit courts. Russell Wheeler of the Brookings Institution projects that Trump appointments will lead to half of district-court seats being held by Republican appointees.

This is important because "the courts are Democrats’ last refuge in a political system where both houses of Congress, the White House, 32 statehouses and 33 governorships lie in Republican hands," The Economist reports.