美眾院告川普 史無前例法律戰

Democrats took control of the House this year promising to use legislation and investigations to check President Donald Trump. But facing substantial roadblocks to each, they are increasingly opposing him in a different way: Eight months into their majority, the House is going to court at a tempo never seen before.

美國民主黨今年掌控眾議院，承諾要用立法和調查權節制川普總統，卻在兩方面皆面臨巨大障礙，因此他們日益改採另一種不同的方法反對他：在民主黨成為多數黨的八個月來，眾院以前所未見的快節奏走向法院。

Fighting in courtrooms as much as in hearing rooms, the House has already become a party to nine separate lawsuits this year, while also filing briefs for judges in four others. More lawsuits are being drafted, according to a senior aide to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

眾院今年在法庭奮戰和在聽證會場一樣賣力，迄今已成為九件不同訴訟案的當事人，另有四案正向法官提告中。眾院議長南西．波洛西的一名資深幕僚表示，更多訴訟正在起草中。

The fights include efforts to reveal Trump’s hidden financial dealings, force his aides to testify about his attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation, challenge his invocation of emergency powers to spend more taxpayer money on a border wall than Congress approved and defend laws like the Affordable Care Act that his Justice Department abandoned.

這些爭戰包括設法揭露川普隱藏的財務交易，強迫他的幕僚就他試圖妨礙通俄門案調查一事作證，挑戰他行使緊急狀態權力、花費超過國會批準額度的納稅人金錢在邊界築牆的適法性，以及捍衛遭川普的司法部廢止的法律，如平價醫療法。

While it is routine for the executive branch to be in court, it was once vanishingly rare for Congress, which has typically used its authority to pass laws, appropriate funds and investigate the executive branch, to balance out the president’s power.

行政部門上法院是例行公事，對國會來說卻曾屬難得一見，國會通常會行使其立法，撥款及調查行政部門的權力，用以制衡總統的權力。

Now, as Senate Republicans refuse to take up the bills they pass, Trump administration witnesses refuse to show up for their hearings and the president levels his own highly unusual lawsuits against the House’s oversight requests, two of the three branches of government are regularly facing off before the third, creating a new stress with uncertain consequences for the political system.

“It is unprecedented,” said Charles Tiefer, a former longtime House lawyer who is now a University of Baltimore law professor. “The challenges for the House counsel ebb and flow over time, but this is like nothing else in history.”

「這是前所未見的。」曾長期擔任眾院律師，現為巴爾的摩大學法律教授的提佛說，「眾院法律顧問面對的挑戰會隨著時間而起起伏伏，但這可是史無前例的。」

The consequences of the specific disputes could be significant. In the short term, they could determine whether House Democrats are able to drag information to light about Trump that could lead to his impeachment or damage his reelection prospects. And potential decisions by the higher courts could clarify the long-ambiguous line between a president’s secrecy power and Congress’s oversight authority — determining whether future presidents can systematically stonewall congressional subpoenas.

這些特定爭論可能會有很重要的影響。短期而言，它們可能決定眾院民主黨人能否揭露可能讓川普被彈劾，或損害他連任前景的資訊。而且較上層法院可能做出的判決，也可能釐清總統機密權與國會監督權之間長期模糊的界線，並決定未來的總統是否可以有系統地拒絕國會傳喚。

But the broader phenomenon is also significant.

As an immediate matter, the surge in litigation is a consequence of Trump’s norm-busting presidency.

不過更明顯的現象同樣也很重要。

近在眼前的事情是，訴訟激增是川普任內打破常規造成的結果。

說文解字看新聞

本文的單字多與「總統制」（presidential system）有關，像是介紹「權力分立」（separation of powers）的制度，美國聯邦政府有三大分支（branch），包括白宮為首的行政（executive）部門、參議院 （The Senate）和眾議院 （The House of Representatives）代表的立法（legislative）部門，以及聯邦最高法院以降的司法（judicial）部門。

監督與制衡（checks and balances）則是三權分立的核心概念。此與「議會內閣制」（parliamentary system）中，國會多數黨掌握執政權，行政立法一體的情形不同。

國會的監督權（oversight authority）與總統的機密特權（secrecy power），何者為重？兩方都在等司法機關給答案。Authority指伴隨正式職位而來的權力，就是「職權」。Oversight在本文指「監督」，但也指「疏忽失察」。Appropriate既是撥款的撥用，也指占用、擅用，甚至是後現代藝術的手法「挪用」（postmodern appropriation）。意指為何，須從上下文判斷。

受虐遭棄… 印度寡婦庇護所 她們找到新家

Like thousands of other widows exiled from their homes to a city in northern India, Nirmala Maheshwari said she was abused by her family after her husband died.

和其他數以千計被家人逐出，逃至印度北部一個城市的寡婦一樣，妮爾瑪拉．馬赫希瓦里說，丈夫去世後，她被家人虐待。

“They saw me as a burden,” Maheshwari whispered recently, recalling her first day at a new shelter for widows in Vrindavan, as other women crowded around her bed, comforting her by squeezing her shoulders and hands.

「他們認為我是個累贅。」馬赫希瓦里日前小聲說道，她回想起在沃林達文的寡婦庇護所的第一天，其他婦人聚集在她床邊，摟著肩膀或握著手安慰她。

Maheshwari said she had lost her social value in the eyes of her family, and her son and other relatives starved and beat her.

馬赫希瓦里說，她在家人眼中已不具社會價值，她的兒子和其他親戚讓她挨餓並且毆打她。

Given her lowly status at home, Maheshwari said she was shocked when she stepped into the lobby of her new home: the Krishna Kutir ashram, a government-run facility with about 1,000 beds, a freshly dug swimming pool, and free food and medicine.

因在家中地位低，馬赫希瓦里說，當她走進新家、政府營運的「克里希那庫提爾靜修院」的大廳時覺得不可置信，這裡約有1000個床位、剛挖好的游泳池、免費的食物和醫藥。

Hindu brides are often expected to live with their husbands’ families. This weakens ties with their own, and widowhood can spell disaster. Without a husband, a small portion of India’s 40 million or so widows are violently purged from their homes each year.

印度教新娘常被期待和夫家同住，這削弱了她們和娘家的連結，守寡可能意味著災難。因為少了丈夫，每年印度約4000萬名寡婦中有一小部分被以暴力趕出家門。

But many of India’s castaway widows — most of them illiterate, some married off as infants — have seen significant improvements in their quality of life over the past few years. Prodded by a flurry of public petitions and court rulings, the government and rights groups have invested tens of millions of dollars into lifting the conditions of abandoned women.

然而，印度這些大多不識字，有些嬰兒時期就被配婚的受遺棄寡婦，有許多人這些年來生活品質已大見改善。在一連串公眾請願和法院判決的激勵下，政府和人權團體已投注數千萬美元改善這些被遺棄女性的處境。

The money has gone not only into building group homes for widows, but also to funding pensions and providing work training and medical treatment.

這些錢不只用於建造寡婦的集體住所，也拿來資助養老金及提供職業訓練和醫療照護。

While some of these changes are taking place across India, they are most visible in Vrindavan.

雖然印度各地或多或少都有些改變，卻以沃林達文的改變最為顯著。

The town is a maze of narrow streets and regal, sandstone temples. All day long, thousands of pilgrims gather to pray at the base of giant statues of deities.

這個城鎮是狹窄的街道和莊嚴的沙岩寺廟組成的迷宮，終日可見數以千計的朝聖者聚集在巨大神像的基座祈禱。

It is believed that widows have gathered in the city since Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a 16th-century Bengali social reformer, brought a group of them there to escape from suttee, a now-banned practice in which Hindu widows immolated themselves on their husbands’ funeral pyres.

據信寡婦聚集在這座城市始於16世紀，孟加拉社會改革家柴坦尼亞．摩訶巴布帶了一群寡婦來此，以逃避娑提，這是一項現已禁止的習俗，印度教徒寡婦在丈夫火化時投身火堆，自焚殉葬。

For many years, the widows in Vrindavan, which is considered the childhood home of the Hindu god Krishna, have survived by singing devotional songs in temples for a few rupees a day, and by begging for money in white saris, a signifier that color had drained from their lives.

沃林達文被認為是印度教神明黑天神的兒時住所，多年來，這裡的寡婦賴以維生之計，全靠在廟宇唱祈禱歌曲一天賺幾盧比小錢，以及穿著象徵人生不再有色彩的白紗麗行乞。

Homelessness was common among Vrindavan’s widows. Some lived in doorways. When they died, garbage collectors would sometimes stuff their bodies into jute bags and throw them into the Yamuna River, according to local media reports.

在沃林達文的寡婦無家可歸者相當常見，有些人住在走廊。當地媒體報導，當她們死去後，垃圾清運者有時候會將她們的遺體塞進袋子，扔進亞穆納河。