At Law School, Sally Yates explains why she lost job as acting attorney general
Sally Yates, the acting attorney general whom President Trump fired for refusing to enforce his tightened strictures on entering the country, said Wednesday that she acted out of a belief that defending the executive order would have meant falsely claiming it was not directed at Muslims. Speaking at Harvard Law School’s Class Day ceremony, Yates depicted the episode as an example of “an unexpected moment when the law and conscience intersected.” The partial travel ban, which was blocked by the courts, would have restricted travel from seven Muslim-dominated countries. Yates said she concluded that “defending the constitutionality of the travel ban would require the Department of Justice to argue that the executive order had nothing to do with religion, that it was not intended to disfavor Muslims … despite the numerous prior statements that had been made by the president and his surrogates regarding his intent to effectuate a Muslim ban.” “I believed...