Since my last post about the role of Department of Justice lawyers in the refugee executive order, more information has come out, not all of it consistent. But Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News has finally found a “senior DOJ official” willing to say that the White House at least sought review by the Office of Legal Counsel for “form and legality” (which are magic words describing the traditional OLC role).

In any event, you might reasonably be wondering why, of all of the questions to ask this weekend, one would care whether OLC reviewed the order. After all, the order is what it is. It doesn’t get better in substance if we learn more about where it came from. (Full disclosure: I interviewed, and was rejected for, jobs at OLC on two different occasions under two different administrations. But I don’t think that affects my judgment.)

But understanding how the Trump administration works may help us predict how it will behave in the future. Those predictions have been particularly hard to make given the unprecedented nature of the administration, and so some of us are grasping at whatever info we can get.

With respect to lawyers in particular, here is what I mean. Consider two possible models of the Trump administration:

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