When the Trump administration’s travel ban hit the nation’s airports over the weekend, I read about a lawyer wandering the hallways and concourses of one of the big international airports with a poster board bearing the legend, “I Am a Lawyer and I Can Help.” That is so great in so many ways.
Like him or hate him, Trump and his crew have shaken things up with their impulsive, poorly executed, and seemingly uncoordinated executive orders on everything from refugee travel to promulgating new federal regulations. Once the magic marker is dry, he waves the most recent diktat at the cameras and pronounced it a “yuge” success, he loses interest, and the burden falls on government employees—many of whom are lawyers—to figure out what it is he has done, whether or not it is legal, and how to implement, modify, or resist it.
