斯蒂芬·米勒在周一接替苏西·怀尔斯出任特朗普总统幕僚长时，已是华盛顿最有权势的人物之一，这一职位进一步扩大了他对雷厉风行的行政部门的非凡影响力。但这位好斗的前圣莫尼卡高中“维京人”能否兑现其作为特朗普新任得力助手的强硬威胁，仍是一个悬而未决的问题——法院已开始给出答案，即便评论界意见不一。
Stephen Miller was already one of the most powerful people in Washington when he stepped in to replace Susie Wiles as President Trump's chief of staff on Monday, a position that expands his extraordinary influence over the hard-charging executive. But whether the bellicose former Santa Monica High School Viking can make good on his muscular threats as Trump's new right-hand man remains an open question — one the courts have begun to answer, even as pundits disagree.
“这一宣布传递出的象征意义和给民主党释放的信号，是最大的看点，”保守派倡导组织“第三条项目”的高级顾问乔什·哈默说，该组织誓言要“带上铜指套对抗左派的法律战”。米勒长期以来主张监禁记者、削弱法官权威、将武装士兵大量部署到美国街头，并暂停人身保护令——这一法律程序允许移民对其拘留提出质疑。但哈默表示，尽管米勒有着“达斯·维达西斯大帝般的人设”，新任白宫幕僚长可能会发现自己受限于官僚的角色。
"The single biggest takeaway of this whole announcement is what it symbolizes and the message it sends to Democrats," said Josh Hammer, senior counsel for the Article III Project, a conservative advocacy organization that promises to "bring brass knuckles to fight leftist lawfare." Miller has long sought to jail journalists, undermine the authority of judges, surge armed soldiers into American streets and suspend the writ of habeas corpus, a legal process that allows immigrants to challenge their detention. But despite his "Darth Vader Sith lord persona," Hammer said, the new White House chief of staff may find himself hemmed in by the role of a bureaucrat.
“我无法想象任何类似事情被列入考虑范围，”哈默说，“他自己会第一个承认，他本质上是作为一名操盘手存在的。”
"I can’t imagine anything like that is remotely under consideration," Hammer said. "He’d be the first to admit that he’s essentially there as an operative."
许多批评者也表达了类似看法，但带有保留意见。“斯蒂芬·米勒一直在主导许多决策，”记者自由委员会主席布鲁斯·D·布朗说，“他的晋升加上司法部国家安全部门的震荡，表明在政府剩余两年任期内，我们可能面临一段颠簸的旅程。”不过，在其所属政党在中期选举中惨败后，米勒为总统报复的能力可能受到限制。
Many critics echoed that assessment, with caveats. "Stephen Miller has been calling a lot of the shots already," said Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "The combination of his elevation and the shake-up in the national security division at the Justice Department suggests that we might be in for a rocky ride in the remaining two years of the administration." Still, Miller's power to avenge the president may be limited after his party was pummeled in the midterms.
这次惨败已经让这两人在米勒备受诟病的大规模驱逐计划上产生分歧，特朗普在周日接受罗斯·杜萨特在《60分钟》节目中的采访时承认该计划“太严厉了”。“我很想在移民问题上做点什么，”特朗普说。“我认为这实际上是可行的。”这可能会激怒作为该计划设计师的米勒。“这是他的心血，”哈默说。“我确信他会仔细研究数据，试图劝阻总统”不要收回成命。
The drubbing has already put the pair at odds over Miller's much-maligned mass deportation program, which Trump acknowledged "was too tough," in an interview Sunday with Ross Douthat on "60 Minutes." "I'd love to do something on immigration," Trump said. "I think that's something that's actually doable." That could inflame Miller, the effort's architect. "This is his baby," Hammer said. "I’m sure he’ll be poring over the data to try to talk the president out of" walking it back.
米勒还面临法院对其愿望清单日益增长的反对，近期上诉法院在新闻泄密和军事部署方面的裁决都对他的对手有利。10月，特朗普提名的一位第九巡回上诉法院法官与一位拜登提名的法官联手，否决了任何未来在不援引《叛乱法》的情况下将国民警卫队联邦化的企图——总统经常威胁采取这一举措，但从未真正付诸实施。
Miller also faces growing opposition from the courts to his wish list, with recent appellate decisions on press leaks and military deployments breaking in his opponents' favor. In October, one of Trump's 9th Circuit Court nominees joined a Biden pick in quashing any future attempt to federalize National Guard troops without invoking the Insurrection Act — a move the president has regularly threatened but never yet followed through on.
然后，周二，第四巡回上诉法院一个合议庭裁定，司法部不能强制领英交出大量记录，司法部原本希望借此追查泄密者，法庭指出“新闻自由是全球独裁者视为对其统治地位构成威胁的事物之一”。“这一裁决意义重大，将迅速成为该领域的主要判例之一，”布朗说。“法院认识到，机密消息来源是调查性报道的‘命脉’，而向科技公司发出的大网式要求以揭露这些来源违反了法律。”
Then, on Tuesday, a 4th Circuit panel ruled the Justice Department could not compel LinkedIn to hand over a trove of records that the department hoped would help it ferret out leaks, noting that "press freedom is among those things viewed by autocrats worldwide as a threat to their grip on power." "This ruling is a big deal and will quickly become one of the leading opinions in the area," Brown said. "The court recognized that confidential sources are the 'lifeblood' of investigative reporting and that dragnet demands from technology companies to reveal those sources violate the law."
米勒还提出过撤换“疯狂的共产党”联邦法官，或暂停人身保护令权利，后者越来越多地被关押在联邦拘留设施中的移民用来请求法官下令释放他们。林肯总统曾采取暂停人身保护令这一非常手段，以便在美国内战期间拘留南方邦联同情者、间谍和破坏分子。
Miller has also floated removing "crazy communist" federal judges or suspending the right of habeas corpus, which has increasingly been used by immigrants held in federal detention facilities to petition judges to order their release. President Lincoln took the extraordinary step of suspending habeas corpus in order to detain Confederate sympathizers, spies and saboteurs during the U.S. Civil War — a move that earned him the epithet "King Lincoln" and spurred bitter court fights and ugly battles in Congress.
《内战》——这一举动使他获得了“林肯王”的绰号，并引发了激烈的法庭争议和国会中的丑陋斗争。米勒认为，特朗普有权暂停该法律，因为抵达边境的移民构成“入侵”——这一说法法律依据站不住脚，尤其是特朗普喜欢吹嘘边境比以往任何时候都更安全。专家表示，米勒将面临来自最高法院和新民主党控制的国会的几乎不可逾越的反对，双方都可能主张，弹劾法官或暂停基本权利的权力属于国会山。
Miller has argued that Trump has the authority to suspend the law because immigrants arriving at the border constitute an "invasion" — a legally dubious claim, especially as the president likes to boast that the border is more secure than ever. Miller would face almost insurmountable opposition from both the Supreme Court and a newly Democratic Congress, both of which are likely to argue the power to impeach judges or suspend basic rights belong to Capitol Hill, experts said.
“你不能仅仅因为不喜欢联邦法官的所作所为就把他们解雇，”退休的美国地区法官、Keep Our Republic“第三条联盟”成员杰里米·福格尔说。“我们与英国开战的原因之一，是国王不喜欢法官的裁决就不断解雇法官。”他说，在土耳其和匈牙利等国家，在司法界播撒不信任并将法官从法官席上驱逐，已成为专制者的常用手段。
"You can’t just fire a federal judge because you don’t like what they’re doing," said retired U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of Keep Our Republic’s Article III Coalition. "One of the reasons we went to war with Britain is because the king kept firing judges because he didn’t like their rulings." Sowing distrust in the judiciary and sweeping judges off the bench have become a go-to play for autocrats in countries such as Turkey and Hungary, he said.
近年来，以色列和墨西哥也曾因类似尝试引发广泛的街头抗议。“这并非只有我们国家会出现这类冲突，但我们独特之处在于，我们可能拥有更强的护栏，”福格尔说。他和其他人担心，米勒帮助定义的那种粗暴的修辞风格，即使在罢免法官或封杀记者的法律努力失败后，仍可能继续造成问题。“当法官被称为流氓或激进分子时，不久之后你就会在社交媒体上看到说那个人应该被杀死的表情包，”福格尔说。“我确信记者将继续被贬低，”布朗表示同意。
Similar attempts have sparked widespread street protests in Israel and Mexico in recent years. "It’s not like we’re the only country where these kinds of conflicts come up, but what’s unique about us is we probably have stronger guardrails," Fogel said. He and others worried the rough-and-tumble rhetorical style Miller helped define could continue to cause problems, even if legal efforts to remove judges or muzzle journalists fail. "When judges are called rogues or radicals, not long after that you start seeing memes on social media saying that person should be dead," Fogel said. "I'm sure the debasement of journalists will continue," Brown agreed.
“这一威胁仍然是最高优先事项。”尽管米勒发表了好斗的言论，但他最好的选择或许是进行安静的幕后交易，以巩固共和党剩余的权力——包括在年底前推动确认特朗普尚未获批的司法提名人。“起码要确认那些待定的下级法院提名人——这本该是最容易实现的目标，”哈默说。“现在正是时候。这是一场赛跑。”目前有11名地方法院提名人待定，此外还有十多个空缺职位，一旦新国会于1月3日宣誓就职，特朗普可能难以填补这些空缺。
"That threat continues to be the highest priority." Despite Miller's pugnacious pronouncements, his best bet may be quiet backroom dealing to consolidate what remains of Republican power — including efforts to push through confirmation of Trump's pending judicial nominees before the end of the year. "At a bare minimum, the pending lower court nominations have to be confirmed — it should be the lowest of the low-hanging fruit," Hammer said. "Now’s really the time. This is the race." There are currently 11 District Court nominees pending, and more than a dozen additional vacancies Trump could struggle to fill once the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3.
届时，评论人士预测将出现大量官方调查，可能波及许多政府高层官员，包括米勒本人。“斯蒂芬·米勒是政府重大政策决策的核心人物，”众议员罗伯特·加西亚（民主党-长滩）表示，他明年将领导众议院监督委员会。“我们认为他是违宪、不公正且可能违法行为的核心参与者，所以我们当然会对此展开调查。”
After that, pundits predict a flurry of official inquiries that could sweep up many top administration officials, including Miller himself. "Stephen Miller is at the center of the major policy decisions happening in the administration," said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), who will head the House Oversight Committee next year. "We believe he's been at the center of actions that are unconstitutional, unjust and possibly illegal, so we're of course going to investigate that."