The Trump administration's executive order restricting travel to the U.S. set off at least four legal challenges, an international contagion of protests, and the harshest Republican rebukes yet to a Trump White House action. But it's not yet clear how many people have been affected by the ban or exactly what it requires. Ben Johnson, head of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, calls the policy "as ill-conceived as it is wrong."

For the Spiel, we could block out the sun with all the supposed trial balloons for autocracy floated in the past week.

Today's sponsor:

Betterment, the largest automated investing service. Get one month managed free when you go to Betterment.com/gist.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices