美国助理司法部长 T. Elliott Gaiser（T·埃利奥特·盖泽）在 2027 年将是一个非常忙碌的人。在新一届国会于 1 月到来之前，唐纳德·特朗普总统应要求盖泽及其团队就几个极其重要的法律问题提供详细答复。
United States Assistant Attorney General T. Elliott Gaiser is going to be a very busy man in 2027. Before the new Congress arrives in January, President Donald Trump should require Gaiser and his team to provide detailed answers to a few very important questions of law.
11 月 6 日星期五下午 3 点 29 分，即将出任众议院监督委员会主席的加利福尼亚州民主党众议员罗伯特·加西亚（Robert Garcia）发帖，向新任白宫幕僚长斯蒂芬·米勒（Stephen Miller）发出了一个几乎不加掩饰的威胁，以建议的形式出现：“Steven Miller should lawyer up.”（斯蒂芬·米勒最好请律师。）当天下午 6 点 10 分，美国司法部长托德·布兰奇（Todd Blanche）发帖回应：“幕僚长已经有律师了。美国司法部长和司法部。”欢迎来到未来两年。
On Friday, November 6, at 3:29 p.m., Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, posted a threat barely disguised as advice directed at new White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller: "Steven Miller should lawyer up." At 6:10 p.m. that same day, United States Attorney General Todd Blanche posted a response: "The Chief of Staff already has a lawyer. The Attorney General of the United States and the Department of Justice."
根据宪法第一条赋予国会的权力与根据第二条赋予特朗普总统的权力之间，一场史诗般的冲突即将到来。最高法院将担任这场冲突的裁判，但冲突很快就会开始，而关键参与者之一将是法律顾问办公室（OLC）助理司法部长盖泽先生。
Welcome to the next two years. There is an epic clash coming between the powers of Congress under Article I of the Constitution and the powers of President Trump under Article II. The Supreme Court will referee the clash, but it will start soon, and one of the key participants will be Mr. Gaiser, the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).
法律顾问办公室是美国司法部的一个部门，担任总统和行政部门的首席法律顾问。助理司法部长盖泽于 2025 年 7 月 30 日经参议院确认。据所有说法，他是一位杰出的律师。盖泽领导着一个由约二十几名律师组成的办公室，他们作为一个整体被广泛认为是国内顶尖的法律人才之一。该办公室由职业官员和政治任命官员组成，但所有人都是严肃的法学学者。
OLC is the division of the U.S. Department of Justice that serves as the principal legal adviser to the president and the executive branch. AAG Gaiser was confirmed by the Senate on July 30, 2025. By all accounts, he is a brilliant lawyer. Gaiser helms an office of about two dozen lawyers who are collectively widely regarded as among the top legal minds in the country. The office is a mix of career and political appointees, but all are serious legal scholars.
法律顾问办公室处理特朗普总统或布兰奇司法部长要求其回答的问题，在时间允许且总统和司法部长批准的情况下，也可为内阁部长和军方领导人提供解答。最高法院不对尚未触及或尚不成熟（案件尚未“成熟”可供裁决）的潜在争议发布咨询意见，但法律顾问办公室会。
OLC tackles questions President Trump or Attorney General Blanche require it to answer, and it can also supply answers to questions from Cabinet officers and military leaders, as time allows and the president and the AG permit. The Supreme Court does not issue advisory opinions on possible controversies that have not reached it at all or that are premature (cases that are not yet "ripe" for decision), but OLC does.
最近的一例是：今年8月10日，OLC认为，“只要总统与私人顾问的通信（1）涉及总统官方决策，（2）涉及或反映与总统或其直接顾问的通信，（3）属于机密，行政特权就可以适用于总统与私人顾问的通信。”随着新的民主党多数派无法立即强迫就总统特朗普主张“行政特权”的事项作证，一大批关于行政特权的问题即将涌来。但在行政特权辩论开始之前，OLC还可以就“扩大法院”、哥伦比亚特区建州以及全国普选州际协议的合宪性等其他紧迫问题提出并回答。
One recent example: On August 10 of this year, OLC opined that "executive privilege can apply to presidential communications with private advisers so long as the communications (1) relate to official presidential decision making, (2) involve or reflect communications with the President or his direct advisers, and (3) are confidential." There is going to be a raft of additional executive privilege questions incoming, as the new Democratic majorities cannot immediately compel testimony about matters over which President Trump has asserted "executive privilege." But there are other pressing questions about "court packing," statehood for the District of Columbia and the constitutionality of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact that can be asked and answered by OLC before the executive privilege debates begin.
无论是共和党总统还是民主党总统，都曾在令国会愤怒的情况下主张其特权。有时最高法院或哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院支持总统，有时支持国会。
Both Republican and Democratic presidents have asserted their privilege in situations that have angered Congress. Sometimes the Supreme Court or the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has sided with the president, and sometimes it has sided with Congress.
面对要求提供其与代笔作家接受特别检察官罗伯特·赫尔采访的音频录音的要求，拜登总统于2024年5月15日寻求并获得了一份OLC意见，询问他是否可以就这些录音主张行政特权。OLC认为拜登可以。针对该意见和拜登总统不公开录音的决定提起了诉讼，特朗普政府决定公开这些录音。
President Biden, facing a demand for the audio recordings of his and his ghostwriter’s interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur, sought and received an OLC opinion on May 15, 2024, on whether he could assert executive privilege over those recordings. OLC opined that Biden could. Lawsuits were filed challenging that opinion and President Biden’s decision not to release the recordings, and the Trump administration decided to release the recordings.
克林顿总统主张了一种新颖的特勤局保护职能特权以及白宫律师-当事人特权，这两项特权均被哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院全部或在实质部分上驳回。奥巴马总统就“快与怒”调查中的材料主张行政特权，随后诉讼随之而来，在法院作出裁决前达成了和解。
President Clinton asserted a novel Secret Service protective-function privilege as well as a White House attorney-client privilege, both of which were rejected in whole or in material part by the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. President Obama made claims of executive privilege over materials in the "Fast and Furious" investigation, and when litigation followed, a settlement was reached before a court decision was made.
所有人都应预料到，特朗普总统将效仿克林顿、奥巴马和拜登总统的先例，对加西亚议员和马里兰州民主党众议员杰米·拉斯金等人已宣布的对行政部门行为的大规模调查进行全方位防御。拉斯金将担任众议院司法委员会主席。两个委员会都拥有传票权。
Everyone should expect President Trump to follow the examples of Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden and play full-court defense against what have already been announced as sweeping inquiries into executive branch conduct by such members as Garcia and Congressman Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who will chair the House Judiciary Committee. Both committees have subpoena powers.
特朗普总统可能需要根据《美国法典》第28编第511条，向司法部长寻求法律意见。当提出此类要求时，司法部长会求助于OLC。在特朗普总统和布兰奇司法部长于2027年就行政特权在行政部门范围内的适用范围向OLC涌送大量请求之前，总统可以在新国会于1月3日宣誓就职之前，争取获得一些重要的OLC意见。
President Trump may require a legal opinion from the attorney general under 28 U.S.C. § 511, and when such a demand is made, the AG turns to OLC. Before OLC is deluged with requests from President Trump and A.G. Blanche in 2027 on the scope of executive privilege across the executive branch, the president could secure some important OLC opinions between now and January 3, when the new Congress is sworn in.
鉴于上周民主党在全国范围内取得的大规模胜利，以及竞选众议院或参议院席位的民主党人常常提出的极端立场，有三个问题值得考虑。
Three such questions come to mind in light of last week's sweeping Democratic wins across the country and the often very extreme positions put forward by Democrats campaigning for House or Senate seats.
首先，也许也是最重要的问题：国会将最高法院扩大到超过目前的九位大法官，是否真的合宪？有一个有力的论点认为，在第十四修正案批准以及随后次年四月几乎立即通过的《1869年司法法案》之后，“扩院”仅仅是违宪的。
First and perhaps most important: Is it in fact constitutional for Congress to expand the Supreme Court to more than the current nine justices? There is a strong argument that, in the wake of the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment and the almost immediate passage of the Judiciary Act of 1869 the following April, "court packing" is simply unconstitutional.
当国会在1869年将大法官人数定为九位——在1863年曾扩增至十位，随后在1866年又暂时削减至七位——时，正处于新通过的第十四修正案所保障的“正当法律程序”阴影之下。美国国务院法律顾问办公室（OLC）应当由特朗普总统指派，评估“法官增员”是否违反该正当程序的保障，或是否构成对司法审查的违宪夺取。司法审查一直在宪法中隐含赋予联邦法院，直至1803年最高法院在马伯里诉马迪逊案中明确确认，距宪法批准已有近十五年之久。
When Congress set the number of justices at nine in 1869 after expanding it to 10 justices in 1863, and then temporarily reducing it to seven in 1866, Congress and President Grant did so in the shadow of the new Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of "due process of law." OLC ought to be tasked by President Trump with weighing in on whether "court packing" violates that guarantee of due process and/or whether packing the court is an unconstitutional attempt to seize control of judicial review, which has always been implicitly vested in the federal courts by the Constitution but which was only made explicit by the Supreme Court in 1803 in the case of Marbury v. Madison, almost a decade and a half after the Constitution was ratified.
民主党人还希望将华盛顿特区和波多黎各设为州。美国宪法第二十三修正案涉及华盛顿特区，OLC应当就特区成为州是否需要另一项修正案发表意见。
Democrats also want to make the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico states. The Twenty-Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution deals with the District of Columbia, and OLC ought to opine on whether statehood for D.C. would require another amendment.
乔治·华盛顿大学法学院教授、福克斯新闻撰稿人乔纳森·特尔利已提出另一重要议题：特尔利最近在福克斯新闻的专栏文章中写道，“在密歇根、内华达、宾夕法尼亚和威斯康星等州实现一党控制后，民主党已准备让这些州加入全国普选州际协定。”
George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley has already raised another important issue: "With one-party control in states like Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the [Democratic] party is ready to get states to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact," Turley wrote recently in an op-ed for Fox News.
特尔利解释称，“根据该协定，各州同意将全部选举人票交给在全国普选中获胜的总统候选人。” “该协定的合宪性显然尚未受到检验，”特尔利写道。
"Under the Compact," Turley explained, "states agree to give all their electoral votes to the presidential ticket that wins the national popular vote." "The constitutionality of the Compact has obviously not been tested," Turley wrote.
与“法院扩容”一样，OLC从未就哥伦比亚特区建州或《紧缩协定》发表过意见。盖瑟助理司法部长及其法律专家团队可以研究这些问题，并为行政部门提供首份全面分析，包括谁有资格对这三项方案提起宪法诉讼，以及此类诉讼何时具备受理条件。当然，OLC意见不具约束力，但将对法院之前的辩论产生重要影响。
As with "court packing," OLC has never weighed in on either statehood for D.C. or the Compact. AAG Gaiser and his team of big legal brains can study these issues and provide the first comprehensive analysis for the executive branch, including who would have "standing" to bring constitutional challenges to all three schemes and when such challenges would be ripe. Of course, OLC opinions would not bind federal courts, but they would be instrumental in shaping the debate before the courts.
休·休伊特是福克斯新闻的撰稿人，也是《休·休伊特秀》的主持人，该节目工作日下午3点至6点（东部时间）在塞勒姆广播电台网络播出，并在塞勒姆新闻频道（SNC）同步直播。休伊特通过全美400多家附属电台，以及所有可以收看到SNC的流媒体平台，让美国东海岸的听众在回家路上收听，让西海岸的听众在午餐时收听。
Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel (SNC). Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen.
他经常出席福克斯新闻频道由布雷特·拜尔主持的工作日晚间6点（东部时间）新闻圆桌节目。休伊特是俄亥俄州人，毕业于哈佛学院和密歇根大学法学院，自1996年起一直是查普曼大学福勒法学院的法学教授，教授宪法。休伊特于1990年从洛杉矶开办了以他名字命名的广播节目。休伊特经常出现在各大美国全国新闻电视网络上，曾为PBS和MSNBC主持电视节目，为各大美国报纸撰稿，撰写过十几本书，主持过数十场共和党候选人辩论，最近一次是2023年11月在迈阿密举行的共和党总统辩论，以及2015-16年周期中的四场共和党总统辩论。
He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle.
休伊特的广播节目和专栏聚焦宪法、国家安全、美国政治以及克利夫兰布朗队和守护者队。在40年的广播生涯中，休伊特采访了成千上万的嘉宾，从民主党的希拉里·克林顿和约翰·克里，到共和党总统乔治·W·布什和唐纳德·特朗普。本专栏预览了将驱动他今日广播/电视节目的头条新闻。
Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests, from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.