sally yates says she can t go forward dftd-of-defending the president on these executive orders. let me read sentences on her statements. i am responsible ensuring the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right at present. i m not convinced the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities, nor am i convinced the executive order is lawful. lawful. that s the word she uses. consequently, for as long as i m acting attorney general, the department of justice will not present arguments in defense of the executive order unless and until i become convinced it is appropriate to do so. powerful words from this acting attorney general. very powerful. and a hint of what we re likely to see as this moves through the courts regardless of what happens. these arguments don t go away. exactly. they don t disappear. even if the new attorney general comes in, jeff sessions c
very different the way he carries out orders as opposed to the career people. laurie coats, cnn legal analyst, former u.s. attorney herself. pretty extraordinary this news evan is reporting, laura. i m anxious to get your reaction. i m absolutely astounded to see sally yates has taken such swift action, particularly in the fact she s acting attorney general and knows she will be replaced by presumably jeff sessions. what this speaks to that this at its core is a civil rights issue. the department is unwilling to put its credibility behind. remember, every time the justice department speaks in court or on behalf of the government, it is incumbent on them to preserve ability of justice department, preserve their argument for later times. when you have an order ambiguous at best and short coming of
including several delayed, democrats using the rules of the senate to delay a final confirmation vote. donald trump may have to wait a little while to get the rest of his cabinet confirmed. it does look like tillerson will be confirmed presumably on wednesday. manu, i want to you stand by. we re getting brbz coming into the situation room right now. i want to bring in evan. you re learning new details on procedures under way at the justice department to deal with the legal challenges to the president s orders. that s right. at this moment attorney general sally yates, acting attorney general appointed by barack obama. she just instructed lawyers not to defend the executive order issued by president trump last friday dealing with immigration and refugees. she has just told her lawyers, essentially, this is a law an executive order she doesn t believe is legally defensible by the justice department. this has the effect of basically
the clearest indication that the right-hand did not know what the left-hand was doing and the left-hand, of course, the one holding the justice department s hammer. so i m surprised that trump s administration, excuse me, failed to actually clear and wait until the proper time when they have all direct support. again, i don t think even if you had this exact order in place when sessions came in, the ambiguity would remain as would the constitutional conundrum that exists. i don t think it would change depending on who was there. it would be even more of an uphill battle to try to defend unless you have more clarity and you resolve the issue of whether or not it is supporting or preferring a religion and whether or not this is an indication where there is a discriminatory clause of an order relating to national origin. it wouldn t change depending on who is in office and who is the attorney general, it would be a harder fight. dana, acting attorney general
who it s for underscore not obama appointee but career justice official does not see this as something important to implement as it is written now. the fact that you saw five ports, i believe, issue stays on this, there is a feeling in the legal and justice community that the way this executive order was written and lots of questions about the way that it was implemented or not implemented means that a second look should be taken and maybe a third and fourth before it goes forward. evan, i defer to you. you re the expert. you broke this news. you know, it also is, perhaps, telling that jeff sessions, the attorney general nominee is not in there. it also begs the question of why