Malevolence Tempered by Incompetence: Trumps Horrifying Executive Order on Refugees and Visas

[babylonsister]

https://lawfareblog.com/malevolence-tempered-incompetence-trumps-horrifying-executive-order-refugees-and-visas

Malevolence Tempered by Incompetence: Trump’s Horrifying Executive Order on Refugees and Visas
By Benjamin Wittes
Saturday, January 28, 2017, 10:58 PM


Omphalos: Middle East Conflict in Perspective

The malevolence of President Trump’s Executive Order on visas and refugees is mitigated chiefly—and perhaps only—by the astonishing incompetence of its drafting and construction.

NBC is reporting that the document was not reviewed by DHS, the Justice Department, the State Department, or the Department of Defense, and that National Security Council lawyers were prevented from evaluating it. Moreover, the New York Times writes that Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, the agencies tasked with carrying out the policy, were only given a briefing call while Trump was actually signing the order itself. Yesterday, the Department of Justice gave a “no comment” when asked whether the Office of Legal Counsel had reviewed Trump’s executive orders—including the order at hand. (OLC normally reviews every executive order.)

This order reads to me, frankly, as though it was not reviewed by competent counsel at all.

CNN offers extraordinary details:

snip//

In other words, the executive order sets up a reporting mechanism that will almost certainly falsify its own premise.

I would wax triumphant about the mitigating effect of incompetence on this document, but alas, I can’t do it. The president’s powers in this area are vast, as I say, and while the incompetence is likely to buy the administration a world of hurt in court and in diplomacy in the short term, this order is still going take more than a few pounds of flesh out of a lot of innocent people.

Moreover, it’s a very dangerous thing to have a White House that can’t with the remotest pretense of competence and governance put together a major policy document on a crucial set of national security issues without inducing an avalanche of litigation and wide diplomatic fallout. If the incompetence mitigates the malevolence in this case, that’ll be a blessing. But given the nature of the federal immigration powers, the mitigation may be small and the blessing short-lived; the implications of having an executive this inept are not small and won’t be short-lived.

[DinahMoeHum]

1. Seen at one of the airport sit-ins. . .

[babylonsister]

2. Love it; saw it last night

and posted to my FB page.

[malaise]

3. Please pay attention

Only I can fix it - signed Groper Don the Con

[mnhtnbb]

4. Bad link

getting an error code.

Would you please check it?

Thanks.

On edit: error code multiple times and then it did work. So...maybe overwhelmed?

[babylonsister]

5. I just clicked on it and it worked.

maybe copy/paste? It's a good/scary read.

[mnhtnbb]

6. It finally worked for me about the 5th time I clicked it.