In one of the more amusing headlines one might see at Salon.com, readers learn from the front-page teaser that Donald Trump’s vetting plan for illegals is “illegal & insane.” The sub-headline on the front and with the story tells us the “extreme" plan is “ pretty clearly illegal.”

“Pretty clearly?”

Writer Simon Malloy then tells us that Trump’s “flagrant nativism” and “galling xenophobia, etc.,” is “patently illegal” because Greg Sargent at The Washington Post says so. He thinks the plan is “crazy.”

And who is Greg Sargent? He writes “The Plum Line" blog, a reported opinion blog with a liberal slant — what you might call ‘opinionated reporting’ from the left.”

Well, if so august a legal thinker as Greg Sargent says it’s illegal, that’s “pretty clearly” good enough for anyone who isn't “insane.”