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BEMUSEMENT was a widespread reaction to 47 US senators – Republicans all – posting an "open letter" to Iran in early March, advising the country that it was wasting its time hammering out a deal to limit its nuclear activities with US president Barack Obama and five other leaders (22 November 2014, p 7). Without the approval of Congress, they wrote, it would be a mere executive agreement that Congress could change or a future president nullify at will. As legal experts stampeded to point out, none of that is true.
Many of these senators are lawyers. All employ them. Surely, they knew that? Sadly for New Scientist readers – and other members of what a senior adviser to Republican president George W. Bush dismissively and disparagingly called "the reality-based ...
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