Trump: Political Genius?

This comment  is from a post at Powerline:

The whole business of the “banning” order, Judge Robart’s insolent ruling, and the appeal by radio (or telephone) for all the world to hear and for recordings to be easily made and preserved, was exactly what Trump and his people planned when they went into retreat: Issue the order, have some partisan judge stop it, have an appeal to the notorious ninth circuit, have the two most senior and competent lawyers who could argue the case for the state recuse themselves (on however flimsy grounds) so that an ill-prepared junior has to suddenly step in and muck it up and - lo and behold! - Trump has completely immunized himself from any blame when the next Muslim terrorist attack is committed in the US. No wonder some of the brighter pundits on the right are now calling Trump “a political genius”.

Of course this begs two questions:
"What does Trump and his security people know that we don't? and
"Just how far is the left willing to trash Constitutional separation of powers."

Two prior Presidents (Carter and Obama) temporarily suspended immigration from Iran and Iraq due to their hostility towards this country with no interference from the courts. .

Texas ... Yeah

Teas Gov. Greg Abbott has thrown down the gauntlet. 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott made good on his promise to challenge President Obama’s gun control initiatives Friday, calling for a Constitutional Convention of US states to create several new amendments aimed at reasserting states’ rights.

Among nine proposed amendments, “The Texas Plan” aims to prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one state. Another amendment requires Congress to balance its budget, and another allows a two-thirds majority of states to override a US Supreme Court decision.

Story here.

Unbelievable

“Obama has decimated the freakin’ Constitution, so I don’t give a damn. If he doesn’t follow the Constitution, we don’t have to.”

As a retired LEO, this truly freaks me out.

UPDATE: The cop resigned. 

What is Treason?

With the return of Sgt. Bergdahl to the US there is a great deal of talk about treason.

Treason is unlike any other crime in US jurisprudence. The NY Sun gives a well measured treatise on this matter.

Treason is the only crime the Constitution pre-empts Congress from defining. It’s also the only crime to which such authorities as the police and the FBI mayn’t take a confession. It is the only crime of which the judicial branch is barred from convicting someone through the normal rules of due process. Treason is special, made so because of abuse by the English kings. And it has often been tested in our courts in ways that guide our thinking in the current crisis.

Treason against the United States, our Constitution says, may consist only in levying war against them or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Feature the liberality of that formulation. One can, even in war, dissent from our government without committing treason. The plain language suggests that one can even adhere to an enemy without committing treason. That is, an American whose family came over from, say, Germany, could have privately rooted for Germany in World War I.

Treason is defined in Article 3, Section 3 of the US Constitution:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

The reason for this rather strict definition is that the English kings took a rather liberal view of treason which included sleeping with a woman of the Royal Family that you were not married to.

Bang the Princess and Hang... so to speak.

The Supreme Court has taken great care with treason. Bollman and Swartwout, two confederates of Aaron Burr, were let off by Chief Justice Marshall because conspiring to levy war, which they’d one, and actually levying war, which hadn’t been done, are two different things. The conviction of Tomoya Kawakita, who’d been born in America but was in Japan when World War II erupted and went to work in an arms plant, was sustained.

The plant used American POWs as labor. It seemed the courts were inclined to given Kawakita the benefit of the doubt but were horrified at evidence that he had struck American POWs. The Supreme Court sustained his conviction and his death sentence. President Eisenhower commuted it to life in prison; President Kennedy later pardoned him on the condition he be deported to Japan and banned from returning to American soil.

More here.