ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Sally Yates was wrong and should have resigned.

An attorney general, like any citizen, has the right to disagree with a presidential order, but unless it is clear that the order is unlawful, she has no authority to order the Justice Department to refuse to enforce it. This order is multifaceted and complex. It raises serious constitutional and legal issues that deserved nuanced and calibrated consideration from the nation’s highest law officer.

There are significant differences between the constitutional status of green card holders on the one hand, and potential visitors from another country who are seeking visas. Moreover, there are statutory issues in addition to constitutional ones. A blanket order to refuse to defend any part of the statute is overkill. If she strongly disagreed with the policies underlying the order, she should have resigned in protest, and left it to others within the Justice Department to defend those parts of the order that are legally defensible.

Honor is as rare in former President Obama’s high-level Justice Department appointees as it is among thieves.

GOOD LORD: Executive Order Separates Badly Burned Iraqi Boy From Family.

After a heater exploded in the Iraqi refugee camp where he was sleeping, an aid group got two travel visas and rushed the boy to Shriner’s Hospital in Boston along with his father.

After preliminary surgery, his dad returned to their war-ravaged country to be with his wife as she gave birth to Dilbreen’s little brother. It was November 8th an hour before Donald Trump won the election. They named the baby ‘Trump.’

Dilbreen was set for a second surgery this month. His family was set to stay at the Peace House in Ipswich. Then they got the news their visas were suddenly revoked.

“So they are stranded in Iraq,” Schuchardt said. “The child is here. The need for surgery is pressing.”

RELATED: 5 Year-Old Iranian-American Boy Handcuffed, Held at Dulles Airport for Hours.

Even the most reasonable policy can have horrifying results when the rollout is rushed and not fully thought through.

THANKS, OBAMA: Iran confirms new missile test, says not against nuclear deal.

“The recent test was in line with our plans and we will not allow foreigners to interfere in our defense affairs,” Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan said, according to Tasnim news agency.

“The test did not violate the nuclear deal or the (U.N.)resolution 2231,” he said.

A U.S. official said on Monday that Iran test-launched a medium-range ballistic missile on Sunday and it exploded after traveling 630 miles (1,010 km).

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif neither confirmed nor denied the U.S. report, but said on Tuesday that Tehran would never use its ballistic missiles to attack another country.

Meanwhile 220 Iranian lawmakers supported Tehran’s missile program, calling international condemnation of the tests “illogical”.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is against weapons of mass destruction, so its missile capability is the only available deterrence against enemy hostility,” the parliamentarians said in a statement carried on state media on Wednesday.

You can believe Iran’s words about weapons of mass destruction, or place your trust in their actions.

A THAW? Israel’s Top Diplomat to Visit Turkey for First Talks Since Reconciliation.

Yuval Rotem will head the three-day Israeli delegation to Turkey, where they will meet with Turkish officials across government agencies, Israeli embassy staff, and Jewish community representatives.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry said that “the political dialogue sends a positive message on the commitment of both sides to deepen the relationship between the two countries,” and added that the talks will “allow for comprehensive discussion, after six years of … challenges, on the drastic changes in the region.”

Diplomatic ties between Israel and Turkey were cut following the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010, during which ten Turkish citizens were killed on a Gaza-bound protest ship attempting to prevent Israeli commandos from boarding the vessel.

Turkey and Israel acted as de facto allies, prior to Recep Erdogan sabotaging the special relationship with stunts like the Gaza “protest” ship — two natural, democratic friends swimming in a sea of often-hostile Arab (and one Persian) autocracies.

Now that Turkey has chosen the path of autocracy and creeping Islamism, it’s difficult to imagine those two countries becoming as close as they had been in this century’s first decade.

I LIKE THE CUT OF THIS MAN’S ROBE:

CLAUDIA ROSETT: Spare Us Iran’s Pieties on U.S. Immigration Policy.

According to the State Department’s most recent report on State Sponsors of Terrorism, covering 2015, “Iran continued its terrorist related activity… including support for Hizballah, Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and various groups in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.” State noted that Iran views the terror-sponsoring Assad regime in Syria as “a crucial ally,”; that Tehran-backed Shia terrorist groups have “exacerbated sectarian tensions in Iraq and have committed serious human rights abuses,” that “Iran has also provided weapons, funding and to Shia militants in Bahrain,” including such gee-gaws as “a bomb-making facility” which, when discovered by the Bahraini government, was housing 1.5 tons of high-grade explosives.

As for Zarif’s charges that the Trump administration is imperiling the friendship between the people of Iran and the people of America, let’s recall that Iran’s Islamic Republic, from the year of its inception right up to the present has made a practice of seizing and holding Americans as de facto hostages — the latest batch released in Jan. 2016 coincident (or, as it now appears, no coincidence?) as President Obama secretly hustled to Iran’s terror-sponsoring government $1.7 billion in cash. Nor does it help the cause of friendship that Iran — despite its official promise to abjure a nuclear weapons program — continues, as it did just last week, to test ballistic missiles (for which the only realistic use is delivering nuclear weapons).

It is the Tehran regime itself that is the prime cause of misery for people who would like to travel from Iran to America, or vice versa.

Read the whole thing.

NICK BILTON: Why Hollywood as We Know It Is Already Over.

In the mid-90s, the first time I downloaded an MP3, I realized that the music industry was in grave trouble. People who were my age (I wasn’t old enough to legally drink yet) didn’t want to spend $20 on a whole compact disc when all we coveted was a single song on the album. Moreover, we wanted our music immediately: we preferred to download it (illegally) from Napster or eventually (legally) from iTunes without the hassle of finding the nearest Sam Goody. It turned out that this proclivity for efficiency—customizing your music and facilitating the point of sale—was far from a generational instinct. It explains why the music industry is roughly half the size it was one decade ago.

These preferences weren’t confined to music, either. I also felt the raindrop moment firsthand when I began working at The New York Times, in the early 2000s. Back then, the newspaper’s Web site was treated like a vagrant, banished to a separate building blocks away from the paper’s newsroom on West 43rd Street. Up-and-coming blogs—Gizmodo, Instapundit, and Daily Kos, which were setting the stage for bigger and more advanced entities, such as Business Insider and BuzzFeed—were simultaneously springing up across the country. Yet they were largely ignored by the Times as well as by editors and publishers at other news outlets. More often than not, tech-related advances—including e-readers and free online blogging platforms, such as WordPress and Tumblr—were laughed at as drivel by the entire industry, just as Napster had been years earlier.

Of course, the same logic that had decimated music would undermine print publishing: readers didn’t want to travel to a newsstand to buy a whole newspaper when they were interested only in one story or two. And, in so many cases, they really didn’t care all that much whose byline was at the top of the piece. Subsequently, newspaper advertising revenues fell from $67 billion in 2000 to $19.9 billion in 2014.

Wrenching change is coming whether Hollywood wants it or not. And given the huge size of their megaphone — still, for now — the shouting will drown out anything you’ve heard from the newspaper or music industries.

NONIE DARWISH: On Boycotting Radical Islamic Nations.

Early this morning an Arabic radio station in the Middle East called asking my opinion about President Trump’s ban on refugees and citizens of seven Muslim nations. The radio host, who sounded angry over the ban, was a Christian Arab. She was surprised to hear that I supported the ban and think that it should have taken place the day after 9/11.

She then asked me if I knew any Arab American activist who was against the ban because she wanted to interview someone against the ban. She seemed shocked to hear that I do not have any Arab or Muslim friends who are protesting the ban, and that many immigrants of Islamic and Middle East origin support the ban and are fed up and embarrassed by what jihadists are doing.

She said that all she sees on CNN and other channels are riots that portray almost all Americans supporting Muslims and against Trump. I am upset over the success of the leftist propaganda all over the Middle East. It brings back memories of the life of the hate indoctrination and misinformation I lived under for most of my life.

Read the whole thing — and keep in mind that the progressive left produces heat and noise all out of proportion to its actual size, and that it is treated overseas (and by our own, sympathetic news media) with far more respect than it deserves.

YES! WE! CAN! Making America’s ICBMs Great Again.

DEMS GIRD FOR SUPREME COURT BATTLE: A central question is whether Senate Democrats, under pressure from the party’s base, will try to block Judge Gorsuch.

It likely will take days before the intensity of the Democratic opposition becomes apparent. A number of Democratic senators quickly said they opposed the nomination, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. Mr. Merkley announced his stance even before Mr. Trump disclosed the selection.

But other Democrats were more restrained. “I still believe we must evaluate Judge Gorsuch’s record, legal qualifications and judicial philosophy,” said Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a centrist Democrat hailing from a state won by Mr. Trump last year. “I urge my colleagues to put partisan politics aside and allow the vetting process to proceed.”

Warren and Merkley are both from deep blue states, and although Brown is from Ohio, he isn’t up for reelection until 2020. Manchin seems the most reasonable — and he ought to be, coming from a state Donald Trump won by a whopping 42 points.

Claire McCaskill, another Red State/Blue Senator, tweeted that she favors “a full confirmation process” hours before Gorsuch’s name was revealed.

Mitch McConnell will presumably keep the Nuclear Option in his back pocket. It would make a potent threat: Vote honestly on Gorsuch, or pave the way for a majority vote on Trump’s next SCOTUS nominee, who might be even more conservative.

That’s roughly equivalent to the game former President Obama played by nominating Merrick Garland last year. Obama dared the GOP to consent to someone somewhat conservative, but hostile to the 2nd Amendment — or risk an even worse selection made by President Hillary Clinton.

CORRECTION: Brown is up for reelection in 2018, not 2020. Of course I regret the error, and will try in the future to refrain from doing simple addition before a second cup of coffee.

NEVER AGAIN: Jewish Community Centers Face Third Wave of Bomb Threats Nationwide.

CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI: What Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s SCOTUS Pick, Means for American Women.

Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump’s nominee for the vacancy on the Supreme Court, is a consistently conservative judge who’d enter the court at a critical moment for reproductive rights. Though Gorsuch, a federal judge on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has never ruled on an abortion rights case, his record shows him to be hostile to women’s health care and willing to give broad leeway to institutions that want to discriminate against them.

Women will be affected by every decision that comes out of the next iteration of the Supreme Court, of course, whether the cases deal with voting rights, labor issues, immigrant rights, civil liberties, criminal justice, or any other area of law. Because women make less money than men, shoulder the bulk of home and family responsibilities, and have less access to traditional spheres of power, they are in fact particularly dependent on legal protections, and they will likely be disproportionately impacted by any harm that comes from the court’s decisions.

Just ten days ago, lefties participated in a women’s march that was in part organized, led, and addressed by that proponent of sharia law, Linda Sarsour.

Paying for your own birth control versus the veil — or worse — should not be a difficult choice, ladies.

NOAH ROTHMAN: The Smallness of Barack Obama.

Eventually, the scales will fall from Democratic eyes. Their gauzy recollections of the Obama years will one day give way to a realization that he presided over the immolation of their party. Obama knows this. Why else would he commit himself to a course defined by such smallness? The president, the most powerful man on earth, was reduced in his final days in office to drumming up enthusiasm for state assembly races. Today, when he should be focusing on building his library and serving as a sagacious ambassador to the world, he lowers himself to offer a muted and impotent burble of opposition to his successor. On Monday, the former leader of the free world endorsed Sophia King in the race for alderman of Chicago’s Fourth Ward.

Obama cannot withdraw from the political realm. If he does, he risks allowing the narrative to get away from him. Any sober liberal reflection on the president’s legacy will necessarily yield to despair over all the opportunities that were lost. So Obama will speak, endorse, and issue statements. He will posture and preen and do whatever he can to make sure the Democratic Party’s next leader is cast in his mold. So long as Obama can fill the silence, Democrats won’t have time to reflect on the president’s legacy.

We shouldn’t have Barack Obama to kick around anymore, but we probably always will.

THE TRUMPOCALYPSE BEGINS: Virginia brewery releases Oreo flavored beer.

FOR A GUY WHOSE ADMINISTRATION IS ALREADY UNDER SIEGE AND IN DISARRAY AND ALL THAT, President Trump seemed awfully relaxed tonight, didn’t he?

TIMELY: 5 Things You Should Know About Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch.

WRONG NOSE: Cocaine found in nose cone of American Airlines jet.

ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: ‘Friends’ Live-Streamed Sexual Assault of Teen on Snapchat While She Slept.

I THINK WE’RE ALL AGREED THAT VELOCIRAPTORS ARE OFF THE LIST: How to decide which extinct species we should resurrect.

EMBRACE THE HEALING POWER OF “AND.” Is The New York Times Hysterical Or Just Lazy?

DON’T LISTEN TO WHAT THEY SAY; WATCH WHAT THEY DO: NBC wants to be ‘the next Fox News,’ insiders say.

“He believes he’s building MSNBC and NBC into the next Fox. It seems the network wants to take a more conservative tone,” a source said.

Kelly was hired at NBC without an official time slot, but Page Six exclusively revealed she would be taking over the “9 a.m. or 10 a.m. hour” of “Today” in September.

We’re told she is getting paid about $12 million a year for the gig, which will include a Sunday talk show.

Some fear Kelly may not be worth the bucks since her Fox replacement Tucker Carlson nearly doubled her ratings on Fox News after her departure.

We hear MSNBC anchor Joy Reid may also be on the chopping block.

That report dovetails with Andrew Klavan’s question, “Is The Left Over?“

GRIM MILESTONE: After Eight Years Military Casualties Are Front Page News Again.

CONSUMER CHOICE: Sales Of Short-Term Insurance Plans Could Surge If Health Law Is Relaxed.

After the Affordable Care Act was enacted, some people gravitated toward the short-term plans because they were willing to trade comprehensive coverage for a cheaper sticker price — even if it meant paying a tax penalty for not having the comprehensive coverage required in the law. Sales increased sharply.

Now, as Republicans look for ways to loosen the health law’s coverage requirements and explore the possibility of not enforcing the requirement that people have health insurance, sales of short-term plans may be poised to grow even more. If that happens, consumer advocates say it could be bad for consumers.

And what do these “advocates” say is so bad for consumers?

As the policies’ name suggests, short-term plans provide coverage for a limited period, often six months or less. They generally don’t cover such things as pre-existing conditions, maternity services or prescription drugs. The policies typically have maximum coverage limits of about $1 million.

In short, the same kind of plans consumers were so crazy about that ObamaCare had to mandate them.

Leave it to the experts to tell people what they really want.

BECAUSE TRUMP IS LITERALLY HITLER: Boy Scouts allows transgender kids into boys-only programs.

SCAREMONGERING: Patients brace for post-Obamacare out-of-pocket health costs.

Me and my typical American family of four are still waiting for our promised $2,500 annual savings.

We’d also like to get back the doctor we lost.