[T]he
Government has taken the position that the President’s decisions about
immigration policy, particularly when motivated by national security
concerns, are unreviewable, even if those actions potentially contravene
constitutional rights and protections. The Government indeed asserts
that it violates separation of powers for the judiciary to entertain a
constitutional challenge to executive actions such as this one.
There
is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability, which runs
contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy.
See Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. 723, 765 (2008) (rejecting the idea
that, even by congressional statute, Congress and the Executive could
eliminate federal court habeas jurisdiction over enemy combatants,
because the “political branches” lack “the power to switch the
Constitution on or off at will”). Within our system, it is the role of
the judiciary to interpret the law, a duty that will sometimes require
the “[r]esolution of litigation challenging the constitutional authority
of one of the three branches.” Zivotofsky ex rel. Zivotofsky v.
Clinton, 566 U.S. 189, 196 (2012) (quoting INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919,
943 (1983)). We are called upon to perform that duty in this case.
This evening: OH HERE IT IS. WaPo has nine sources who say Mike Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador during
the campaign. Flynn has said he didn’t. Mike Pence said there had been
no contact between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Neither
of those assertions is consistent with the fuller account of Flynn’s
contacts with Kislyak provided by officials who had access to reports
from U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that routinely
monitor the communications of Russian diplomats. Nine current and former
officials, who were in senior positions at multiple agencies at the
time of the calls, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss
intelligence matters.
When
Putin raised the possibility of extending the 2010 treaty, known as New
START, Trump paused to ask his aides in an aside what the treaty was,
these sources said.
Trump then told Putin the treaty was one of
several bad deals negotiated by the Obama administration, saying that
New START favored Russia. Trump also talked about his own popularity,
the sources said.
Kushner,
36, has no traditional foreign policy experience yet has become the
primary point of contact for presidents, ministers and ambassadors from
more than two dozen countries, helping lay the groundwork for deals. His
influence extends throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and
the Asia-Pacific region.
Alabama
Gov. Robert Bentley has managed to sideline a key player in the ongoing
effort to investigate – and potentially impeach or prosecute – him by
appointing the state’s attorney general to succeed Sen. Jeff Sessions
in the US Senate. … The governor, who denies doing anything illegal,
now gets to name Strange’s replacement, an opportunity he could use to
install an official less interested in pursuing a case against him.
A
number of observers noted that Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, was
chief executive of the pharmaceutical company Mylan when it dramatically hiked the price of EpiPens. The matter is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice, which Sessions will now helm.
Empowering
Patients makes the individual market more advantageous for healthier
people. It eliminates the essential health benefits package, which
mandated that all insurers cover a set of 10 different types of care,
including maternity services and pediatric care. Empowering Patients
would allow insurers to cut whatever benefits they no longer want to
cover — they could stop covering maternity benefits, for example, to
make their plans less attractive to women who plan to become pregnant.
This would likely benefit healthy people, who generally want less robust
coverage at a cheaper price. But it’ll send the cost of more
comprehensive plans — the plans sicker people need — skyrocketing. And
it could leave someone who wants, say, health insurance to cover her
maternity costs completely out of luck.
His confirmation vote has been scheduled for 2a.m. tonight. We see you, Mitch McConnell.
Meg's Mumbles 