Kim Davis Was No Hero and Neither Is Sally Yates

Tim Carney makes a really, really good point in the Washington Examiner today.

“Sally Yates is correct about President Trump’s immigration order,” he begins, but then goes on to point out that Yates refusing to do her job as acting U.S. Attorney General is not at all unlike a certain court clerk in Kentucky who didn’t want to issue licenses for same sex marriages.

“Instead of doing her job, she went the same route as Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples,” Carney writes. “Taking a stand on conscience is great. But if we are to be a nation of laws, agents of the government need to enforce the law, not their own consciences.”

I’m a bit lukewarm on Trump’s immigration orders.

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]…Yates deserves zero respect for refusing to do her job while remaining in her job.[/mks_pullquote]

I really like that he’s initiated a review of the refugee resettlement programs with an eye toward better vetting. I hope he also looks at the local fiscal impacts of resettlement which have become a hot button issue here in North Dakota. Our friends on the left have so politicized this issue that even finding the facts of resettlement impacts on things like education budgets, law enforcement, and social programs is all but impossible.

I’m a bit dubious as to the efficacy of pausing resettlement while this review is taking place. We’ve already been doing it for years, is a 120 day pause really going to make us safer? I’m doubtful. It seems a needlessly provocative move.

I also think the Trump administration’s roll out of the executive order was abysmal. While much of the confusion and rancor was ginned up by left wing activists who were going to protest no matter how Trump approached this, a great deal of it was also owing to the abrupt manner in which Trump issued his order.

He could have given local security and customs officials time to understand and implement the policy. He didn’t.

He also initially included people holding green cards in his order, which was just plain unacceptable.

All that said, Yates deserves zero respect for refusing to do her job while remaining in her job. If she felt she could not in good conscience pursue the President’s policies she should have resigned. Outside of that, it is not her job to undermine her boss the President.

She’s been fired now, and rightfully so.

Kim Davis was no hero, and neither is Sally Yates.