James Taranto

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | James Taranto

The Oval Office, like a judge’s chambers, is off-limits to the other government branches. ‘It’s a huge victory for both the AP and the free press,” Axios’s Sara Fischer wrote of the preliminary injunction Judge Trevor McFadden issued Tuesday in Associated Press v. Budowich. But the victory may prove fleeting—Judge McFadden stayed his order until Sunday to allow for an appeal—and there’s less to it than meets the eye.

1 month ago | wsj.com | James Taranto

Mr. Trump can cement his civil-rights legacy by enlisting the most fearsome agency of the U.S. government: the Internal Revenue Service. In the process, he can help the Supreme Court clean up a messy bit of jurisprudence from the Burger era: Bob Jones University v. U.S. (1983).

1 month ago | wsj.com | James Taranto

Nobody ever accused Donald Trump of being high-minded, and I decline the opportunity to be the first to do so. But many of his early second-term actions serve an elevated purpose: restoring constitutional integrity and democratic accountability to the U.S. government. In this effort Mr. Trump is working in resonance, although not in concert, with Chief Justice John Roberts.

1 month ago | wsj.com | James Taranto

It’s Trump 1, Associated Press 0. On Monday Judge Trevor McFadden rejected the wire service’s petition for an order compelling the White House to readmit AP reporters to the Oval Office and Air Force One. Officials withdrew that access over the AP’s refusal to fall in line with the new official name “Gulf of America” and over other, more substantial complaints about bias and dishonesty in the influential AP Stylebook. The case isn’t over, and another hearing is set for March 20.

1 month ago | wsj.com | James Taranto

There’s often a deeper meaning to Donald Trump’s absurdist comedy, and the president’s current dustup with the Associated Press is a case in point. On Inauguration Day Mr. Trump impishly announced that the U.S. would change the Gulf of Mexico’s name to “Gulf of America.” The AP was not amused. “The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years,” it declared in a Jan. 23 “style guidance” dispatch.