jonathan turley, now let's go to the larger point. did the white house, did the administration have a right to replace an acting justice department official that would not enact their order? >> they absolutely had that right. there's no question at all about that. this is a very curious move by the former acting attorney general in some respects. as you know, i think this executive order was a terrible mistake. i said that seconds after it was signed. but on the constitutional basis, the law favors trump on constitutionality. >> that's what i was going to ask you. yesterday we had this discussion and i was asleep for only half of my two constitutional law classes in law school. it does seem like this will not be overturned by courts. there may be parts that are modified here and there but it's not going to be overturned. so the second she said she wasn't going to enforce this, this did seem, did it not, to be a political decision on her part which certainly was within her right but a curious decision for a justice department official

. >> we're joined now by jonathan turley, law professor at george washington university. jonathan, i want to look at the legal side of this with you and examine where this may or may not conflict with american law and the american constitution. what do you think? >> well, first of all, the judge likely issued the stay because people were going to be put into an irreparable situation where they would be sent home. so often judges will freeze the action of a case, say all right, stop, let's take a look at this before anyone has anything done to them that won't be easy to reverse. so the stay has to be considered separately from the merits in a sense. ultimately -- >> so essentially they decided to put the whole situation regarding immigrants and refugees on pause until such time as they could rule on the merits of the case? is that what you're saying? >> right, in order to get a preliminary injunction, the aclu will have to establish they're likely to prevail upon the merits. that's a very tough standard because what president trump is using here is a historic power by presi

with david milibrand, jonathan turley, rula jebreal, and anthony romero.'re from rome, you grew up in israel, worked in egypt and italy and now in the united states. what do you make of this and, by the way, what happens to you? you're in rome. are you going to come back? >> well, if they will allow me. if they will not deport me. obviously i'm a european muslim. if there would be a religious test, probably you and i, fareed, will be on that list. be careful if you leave, actually. it's not only ordinary muslim. i heard the conversation before. i want to tell jonathan, any law that is divorce from justice, it's not law. it's an instrument of tyranny. this is sanctions, government sanctions, religious persecution and it will not keep america safe. it's not about national security. this is about white supremacists. it's clear. in the executive order that the president signed, he mentioned 9/11 three times. however, none of the countries that were on that list had citizens who were involved in 9/11. there were saudis and rock a ird others. it's not really abo

george washington university law professor jonathan turley joins me from washington. thank you for coming on the program. and let me begin with this. we know at this moment the aclu is in a u.s. district court in brooklyn tonight seeking a nationwide stay, trying to block this. what are the chances you that think they'll be successful? >> well, it's very, very difficult to prevail on a stay of that kind. you have to show a likelihood of prevailing on the merits. the court precedent actually supports president trump. i don't like this rule. i don't support it. i think it's a real mistake. but whether it is unlawful, whether it's unconstitutional is a different question. the courts have historically granted presidents a great deal of deference. this country has excluded people in the past on these types of orders. it has often been directed toward, for example, asians and chinese individuals. these were terrible periods during our country. but those actions were not found to be unconstitutional. even president obama argued to the court just last year that executive powe

get two views, from neal katyal, a former acting solicitor general under president obama; and jonathan turley, a law professor at george washington university. jonathan, let's begin with you. let's talk about the law. 1965, immigration and nationality act. what does it say, and how might it impact this executive order? >> well, i think it can can have an impact. there's no question that the law says that you cannot discriminate on the basis of nationality or place of origin. and that certainly helps the challenges are. but like much nels this debate, much of that law has been distorted. it only takes you so far. first of all, the law doesn't apply to refugees. it applies to immigrants. it's used when you have visa issues. also, it doesn't cover religious discrimination. also, in 1990, the act was amended to exclude procedural changes as a form of discrimination. that-- that reduces the use of the 1965 law, i think, as a serious challenge. and, also tmeans that much of that order that is being challenged doesn't fall under the law. so even if one aspect moeb challenged successfully, the other

jonathan turley teaches law at george washington university.ritical of the deed legitimize her's. why? >> i think if there is, a concerted effort to create political mythology to suggest that president trump is some type of pretender and office. i think it is a dangerous thing. my house was filled with friend and family that came to protest the inauguration and i didn't join them, nor did my kids. i taught them that the fourth of july is an important holiday but it was basically a declaration to a foreign leader. the inauguration day is far more important. that is where we keep a promise to each other. even when we are divisive, even when we are hateful and elections, we come together on that day, every four years, and reaffirm what is really a leap of faith under our system. to see all of those members of congress boycotting this inauguration, i thought was shameful. >> bill: what do you think is driving, i've named it now, the trump derangement syndrome, what is driving that? >> [laughs] i think part of it is that there are a lot of folks in

i talked to jonathan turley. i said, hey, what's the point of having nepotism laws if you can appoint your son in law senior adviser in the white house. well, when they built these nepotism laws, they did not consider the white house a federal agency in those laws, that's what the trump transition team is saying, because the white house is not an agency, and the president has broad discretion to name the advisers he wants, he can do this. >> richard, you're the perfect person to ask this. the trump team asked you -- what questions are they asking to make sure they're on solid ground ethically and what are you telling them? >> well, i'm not working at all with the trump team, i have asked questions of lawyers who represent various people who are up for positions in the administration, and i've given my honest opinion on that. it's debatable. whether it applies to an appointment by the president in the white house it certainly applies to the president making an appointment outside the white house. one point i've em

votes of any of the 20 would be very similar to justice scalia. >> jeffrey toobin, professor jonathan turleyank you. coming up, it's the kind of record no city wants to break. 2016 was the deadliest in nearly two decades in chicago. 762 murders. what the city is planning to do about it next. ♪ if you're gonna make an entrance... [car driving upon the water] ♪ wis that they contourt tempur-peto your body.s... it keeps us comfortable and asleep at night. start the new year off right with the best sleep of your life. buy your tempur-pedic now for as low as $25 a month and a 90-night free trial. call or click today. >>> new numbers from the chicago police department tell a very grim story. 2016 was the deadliest year in nearly two decades with 762 murders in the city, more than 4300 shooting victims. in parts of chicago, gun violence is a sad fact of life affecting everyone including the city's youngest residents. rosa florez reports. >> i knew it was a gunshot because when i hear, i know it wasn't firecrackers. and that's why i know it was like gunshots. >> reporter: she was sitting on her gran

jonathan turley is a constitutional law scholar. in the middle east, italy and the united states and anthony romero is back with us. david, you have dealt with policy at the highest levels. you're a foreign minister in the british cabinet. just the execution of this policy look to you and where do you think the trump administration goes from here? >> hasty process always produce harmful policy. the confusion of the immigration issue that's effecting 100 google employees and british mps, green card holders is being confused with the policy on refugees. 60,000 refugees, we think, around the world have passed the extensive vetting system for anyone wanting to enter. the toughest way to get to the u.s. is a refugee. they are left in limbo. they will be knocking on the doors of embassies saying where do i stand. >> expand. the toughest way to get into the u.s. is to apply to be a refugee. it's a two to three years process. >> they have 12 to 18 months of extensive interviews and study 12 to 15 government departments scrutinize every aspe

. >>> we're joined now by jonathan turley, law professor at george washington university. i want to look at the legal side of this with you and examine where this may or may not conflict with american law and the american contusion. what do you think? >> well, first of all, the judge likely issued the stay because people were going to be put in an irreparable situation where they would be sent home. so often judges will freeze the action of a case, say, all right, stop, let's take a look at this before anyone has anything done to them that won't be easy to reverse. the stay has to be considered separately from the merits in the sense. >> so essentially that means they decided to put the whole situation regarding immigrants and refugees on pause until such time they could rule on the merits of the case? is that what you're saying? >> right. the aclu is going to have to establish that they're likely to prevail upon the merits. that's a tough standard. what president trump is using here is historic power by the presidents. and unfortunately our history is replete with immigra

jonathan turley, thank you so much. good to see you tonight.t, we ask you to tweet is that hashtag #first100 on your thoughts at what donald trump should do in the first day in office. here are some of your responses. "to start getting prices for wall building." "health care, health care, health care, and more fixing of our health care system." "please, please, take care of the small business asap. give us some breathing room." "break the day after the super bowl a national holiday." i am in favor of that. keep those comments coming, tweet me at @marthamaccallum using the hashtag #first100. while we are on the topic of tweets, we want to share with you a quote for the evening. this one from none other than donald trump. it came on july of 2014. he said "i try to learn from the past but i plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. that is where the fun is." on the front tonight is at union station. thank you for watching, everybody. we will see you tomorrow night at 7:00 and i'll take tomorrow with bret baier for inaugural cover

. >> martha: that is the word i was thinking.t jonathan turley, thank you so much.e you tonight. finally, tonight, we ask you toi tweet is that hashtag #first100 on your thoughts at what donald trump should do in the first day in office. here are some of your responses. "to start getting prices for wall building." "health care, health care, health care, and more fixing of our health care system." "please, please, take care of the small business asap. give us some breathing room." "break the day after the super bowl a national holiday." i am in favor of that. keep those comments coming, tweet me at @marthamaccallum using the hashtag #first100. while we are on the topic of tweets, we want to share with you a quote for the evening. this one from none other than donald trump. it came on july of 2014. he said "i try to learn from the past but i plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. that is where the fun is." on the front tonight is at union station. thank you for watching, everybody. we will see you tomorrow night at 7:00 and i'll take tomorrow with

jonathan turley, you know him, a well-known legal scholar was on this morning on "morning joe" saying to your point it's very difficult for a judge to say i'm going to supersede the decision of the country that the national security is at stake and i'm going to put a stop to this, so all of these questions are roiling out there. >> absolutely. this is a case that could go to the supreme court. in the meantime this is the law of the land, the rule. that's why we saw the problems or chaos or according to the trump administration just a little bit of sorting out, whatever words you want to use. that's why we saw the action of the airport it was being implemented and partial injunction in court only as to those people in limbo in the airport. the bulk of this thing is the law of the land and donald trump citing christians it is not true christians are not given refugee or asylum status. the united states in the modern era has a tradition of giving asylum to groups facing persecution, it includes christian in muslim majority areas and isis controled areas where there's lethal isis attacks

jonathan turley has written about this. it's just powerful. certainly an objective voice in american juris prudence, and he says that congress has just fallen down on its job. of course, there are two ways. one of them is that it writes laws that are too broad. i urge all of you to be sure that when we pass a law or you pass a law, if i'm confirmed, that that law is clear and sets limits. when it doesn't set limits, then you can have the secretary of this agency or that agency claiming they have certain authorities and you end up with a muddled litigation maybe resulting from it. re-establishing the proper separation of powers and fidelity to law and to limits is an important issue, and i think hopefully -- i think that's what you are suggesting. >> could you tell me under what circumstances, if any, you think the department of justice can fail to enforce a law? >> well, it can fail to enforce it by setting prosecutorial policies with regard to declining to prosecute whole chunks of cases and, in fact, eliminate a statute. if a new tax is pass

professor turley, jonathan turley has written about this. it's just powerful. it's certainly an objective royce in american jurisprudence and he says congress has just fallen down on its job and of course there are two ways. one of them, that it writes laws that are too broad and i urge all of you to be sure that when we pass a law, or you pass a law, if i'm confirmed, that that law is clear and sets limits. when it doesn't set limits, then you can have the secretary of this agency or that agency claiming they have certain authorities and you end up with a very muddled litigation maybe resulting from it. so reestablishing the proper separation of powers, and fidelity to law, and to limits is an important issue, and i think hopefully i think that's what you're suggesting. >> could you tell me under what circumstances if any you think the department of justice can fail to enforce a law? >> well, it can fail to enforce it by setting prosecutorial policies with regard to declining to prosecute whole chunks of cases and in fact eliminate a statute. if a new tax is p

jonathan turley of the george washington university law school, and our chief political analyst gloria borger. what do you make that the strong statement 5% chance those tears were real on the part of the democratic leader in the senate. he did get emotional. we all saw that. >> he did. i don't know how you can make that charge. it's kind of ridiculous, and we should sort of move on from it. chuck schumer did what he did, and i think it was heart felt, and, you know, the president also said that the confusion was not only because of chuck schumer and the misinformation coming out of the democrats and the fake tears, but it was also because delta airlines had an outage and let me just point this out. the executive order was friday night. delta airlines' outage was sunday night. the two things have nothing to do with each other. there was a huge public outcry that the president didn't want to address as either relevant or real in his little press appearance today. >> delta had a computer outage. that was sunday night. a lot of those problems were already well, well underway. >> exactly.

i talked to jonathan turley at george washington and said what's the point of having nepotism laws if you can appoint your son-in-law senior advicener the white house? he said when they by the laws, they did not consider the white house a federal agency in those laws. and so that's what the trump transition team is saying, because the white house is not an agency and the president has broad discretion to name visors he wants, he can do this. so far it appears that is going to pass the test. >> richard, you're the perfect person to ask this. you were a white house ethics lawyer. the trump team asked to you review their plans. what questions are they asking to make sure they're on solid ground ethically and what are you telling them? >> well, i'm not working at all for the trump team. i have asked questions of lawyers who represent various people who are up for positions in the administration. and i've given my honest opinion on that. i think on the nepotism statute, it's debatable whether it applies to an pointment by the president in the white house. it certainly applies to the presid

let's speak to professor jonathan turley — he's a legal scholar from george washington university lawn ban?” law on president trump's side with this immigration ban? i think he definitely has the advantage. part of the problem we are seeing is there is plenty to disagree about this executive order. i happen to think it is a terrible mistake, but what the court looks like is not a policy or how it is rolled out, but whether a president has the authority to suspend entries at the border. for the president, authority to suspend entries at the border. forthe president, his powers at the border, courts have generally deferred to presidents. it is ironic to hear president 0bama object because last year he told the supreme court that he doesn't believe the federal courts should be second—guessing his policies on ed immigration. he said he fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals based on theirfaith or religion. could that get president trump into legal trouble?” religion. could that get president trump into legal trouble? i think it is going to be difficu

let's get legal add viegs from law professor, jonathan turley, lauren kocoates, paige pates. is this a political move by acting attorney general? the right legal move? >> i don't think it is the right legal move. i have a great deal of respect for ms. yates. wonderful career, recognized as a true career prosecutor. and that's why it surprises me a bit abut this. she hasn't explained why she thinks it is unlawful. at best i think the law is unclear. there is arguments on both sides. if anything, i think, the administration has the stronger argument based on past cases. also, she cites statements made before the executive order was signed. presumably, statements by mr., by president trump during the campaign, and by rudy giuliani. the justice department has routinely opposed those types of statements from being considered in litigation. i have been in litigation against the justice department where they insist motivations behind legislation and other policies are not relevant. so it is very surprising to see that in the letter. it departs from the long standing principles of th

but on the merits as what they're doing, liberal scholars like jonathan turley, george twillger fromt ten days on this immigration stuff. he said he was going to do this. steve: yep. >> and he's doing it. but the message i think can be a lot more positive and not quite so at times negative, and i think we could bring people along to understanding what exactly they're doing and how they're doing it in a more better way. steve: they're only ten days into it. tonight, just about ten hours from now, the president of the united states will be in the east room. he's going to announce his nomination pick for the supreme court. but, you know, the democrats are already bracing for a fight. there's a senator from the great state of oregon who said unless it's merrick garland, i'm going to filibuster the guy or the gal. >> yeah. part of the on going resistance. steve: the party you know. >> yeah. it's part of the resistance. it's to get the american people understand why you're doing certain things. whether it's the immigration pause, the refugee pause, or whether this particular nominee is bes

jonathan turley, thank you very much for being on. >> thank you, jonathan.es and different branches to this is almost hard to get your arms around. >>> still ahead on "morning joe," the white house press secretary sean spicer will be here at the table. two of the outspoken voices on the travel ban, senator chris murphy and congressman keith ellison will join us. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. this is 100% useful for a 100% fresh mouth. just ask listerine® users. the very people we studied in the study of bold. people who are statistically more likely to stand up to a bully. do a yoga handstand. and be in a magician's act. listerine® kills 99% of bad breath germs so you can feel 100% in life. bring out the bold™. also try listerine® pocketpaks for fresh breath on the go. the market.redict but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price... ...we've helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. audi pilotless vehicles have conquered highways, mountains, and rac