Editorial: Deal rescinds order unworthy of state he leads

Bravo to Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, who opted for the law, in both letter and spirit, and simple human decency in a formal opinion on his governor's effort to stop Syrian refugees from resettling in the state.

Gov. Nathan Deal was one of about half the nation's governors who opposed President Obama's policy of sanctuary for fugitives from war-ravaged Syria. Deal's executive order prohibited state agencies from processing any documents, providing public benefits or having any other involvement in accepting or assisting Syrian refugees.

It's not hard to conclude (indeed, it's all but impossible not to conclude) that this GOP gubernatorial coalition, like most such partisan posses, had little or nothing to do with policy and everything to do with a politically mandatory institutional loathing for the president associated with it.

In any case, Olens wrote that his office was "unaware of any law or agreement that would permit a state to carve out refugees from particular countries" who are in this country legally, for exclusion from state processing "no matter how well-intended or justified the desire to carve out such refugees might be." (It's neither.)

"Accordingly," the AG wrote, "It is my official opinion that both federal law and the State's agreement to act as the state resettlement coordinator prevent the State from denying federally funded benefits to Syrian refugees lawfully admitted into the United States."

The governor, citing Olens' opinion, quietly and without fanfare withdrew his order Monday in a one-sentence statement with no further comment. That was probably his wisest decision in this whole regrettable and misbegotten episode.

Blowing smoke

Volkswagen's "clean diesel" engines are anything but. Or so it's been discovered in at least 600,000 of the cars sold in the U.S.

The German automaker was ostensibly rigging emissions-testing software to pass federal standards, then shutting down the "cleaning" technology to make the vehicles perform better on the road. The level of pollution in actual driving conditions reached 40 times the federal standard, not to mention the bogus "clean" standard in the tests.

It seems VW could have taught Atlanta Public Schools miscreants a thing or two about cheating ... except that Volkswagen might not get away with it, either. The Justice Department filed a civil complaint against VW on Monday that could cost the company billions in Clean Air Act violation fines.

"Car manufacturers that fail to properly certify their cars and that defeat emission control systems," the suit alleges, "breach the public trust, endanger public health and disadvantage competitors."

VW executives could also face criminal charges. We're not holding our breath on that one.

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Editorial: Deal rescinds order unworthy of state he leads ."