A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments [Tuesday] afternoon in a case challenging President Trump’s order pausing immigration from seven nations known to be hotbeds of radical Islamic terrorism. A decision is expected at any time. To most observers, the judges seemed hostile to the government’s position.

Speaking to a conference of police chiefs [yesterday], President Trump lamented how “political” the court appeared to be. “I listened to lawyers on both sides last night, they were talking about things that had nothing to do with [the order]… But courts seem to be so political,” Mr. Trump said. “A bad high school student would understand this,” he added.

Yet for all the media’s histrionics, voters are on Donald Trump’s side. A new poll finds that 55% of voters support the president’s order, while just 38% oppose it.

Obama’s Legacy

While we’re on the subject of national security, there was a shocking report this week that documented the decline of our military over the past eight years. Here’s the headline: “Nearly Two-thirds of U.S. Navy’s Strike Fighters Can’t Fly.”

But that’s not all. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff General Stephen Wilson told members of Congress that “54% of our aircraft major weapons systems” are so old that they “now qualify for antique vehicle license plates.” Gen. Wilson added that the Air Force today is now “one of the smallest, oldest-equipped, and least ready forces … in our service history.”

Senate Showdown

There was an extraordinarily unusual showdown in the Senate [Tuesday] night. During debate on Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination to be attorney general, Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren started to read a letter opposing Sessions’ 1986 nomination to the federal court.

While Sessions’ nomination was defeated, it is widely understood that he was “borked,” falsely smeared by then-Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy.

[Tuesday] night, Warren channeled her inner Ted Kennedy and proceeded to slander Sen. Sessions on the Senate floor. The Senate, however, has very strict rules about not just procedure but also the tone and tenor of debate.

Rule 19 states, “No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.” The rule was adopted more than 100 years ago after a fistfight broke out on the Senate floor.

Warren was warned that her comments opposing Sen. Sessions crossed the line, but she did not stop her attack. So Majority Leader Mitch McConnell came to the floor and invoked Rule 19, which prohibits her from speaking again on the Senate floor while Sen. Session’s nomination is under debate.

Of course, the Left and its media allies are outraged at McConnell and are accusing Republicans of totalitarian tactics. That’s really rich coming after the violence and intimidation that we witnessed during last year’s campaign and at Berkeley last week! The Left seems to think it can say and do whatever it wants, while conservatives have to shut up and take it.

Mitch McConnell did exactly what he should have done. At a time when Washington is gripped by hyper-partisanship and rancor, McConnell enforced the rules on decorum and shut down a bully.

Speaking of Bullying…

As we are constantly told, there is an epidemic of bullying in our schools. The Left is always lashing out against bullying, and who could possibly be for it? But the Left’s concern extends only to certain favored victims.

Meanwhile, there is no doubt that there is a bullying epidemic in our schools with an undercurrent of racism to it. Students who support Donald Trump are being regularly bullied and attacked.

A front page story in [yesterday’s] Washington Times cites multiple examples of students “mimicking violent adults.” For example:

12 year-old Gavin Cortina was attacked on his school bus over his “Make America Great Again” hat.

California high school sophomore Jade Armenio had her earrings ripped out after posting her support of Donald Trump on Facebook.

Connor Mullen, a high school sophomore in Maine, said, “I knew kids would pick on me about [my support for Trump] but when the adults [including a teacher] started doing it, I thought that was problematic. This is a school that preaches equality.”

As we saw at Berkeley, it is much worse on college campuses. In fact, at one Florida college, the “Knights for Socialism” are holding “a series of self-defense clinics for anyone that wants to learn how to BASH THE FASH (Fascist)… This event is open to everyone and anyone, EXCEPT REPUBLICANS.”

Using force to intimidate political speech and opinions is the very definition of fascism.