I would not pretend to be a constitutional scholar when it comes to Iran, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is just about the last expert I would cite on anything, other than how to have a disastrous funeral. (It’s understandable that mourners might want a souvenir or keepsake from the ceremony, but it’s problematic when they try to walk off with the corpse.)

How Kristi Noem’s ‘Chief’ Corey Lewandowski Ran Her DHS Tenure into the Ground

No, Unconditional Surrender Is Not a Green Light for Rape

DHS: The Island of Misfit Toys

But the declaration that Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will be Iran’s next Supreme Leader does make the country’s leadership look a bit more like a hereditary monarchy.

Ayatollah Khomeini wrote in 1970, “Islam proclaims monarchy and hereditary succession wrong and invalid… Islam, then, does not recognize monarchy and hereditary succession; they have no place in Islam.” Under the Iranian Constitution, when there is an opening in the position of Supreme Leader, the Assembly of Experts is supposed to find the figure........

© National Review