The Constitutional Crisis Is Upon Us

 I have been insistent that you should not let yourself get outraged by the various deranged utterances of the Trumpists. They say outlandish things as a form of "flooding the zone", as a way to distract and diffuse outrage. The chirping blond harridans at the press briefings are designed in a lab to focus outrage on words and not deeds.

The deeds, however, are getting worse and worse. Yes, the Muskenjugend rampaging through the government have been and will continue to be awful. However, it sure looks like the Administration has crossed yet another Rubicon.

As Richardson catalogs, Trump has used the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport a host of people without due process. The Alien Enemies Act was used to suppress French citizens from dragging America into the war surrounding the French Revolution, at a time when a weak America was striving to maintain its neutrality. It has been used in times of war, notably the War of 1812 and both World Wars. Trump is arguing that migration constitutes an invasion equal to a war and therefore he is justified in deporting people without a hearing.

So far, this is just Trump's extremist immigration ideas (many of which, sadly, enjoy broad support in the abstract). What follows is the crux of the crisis. A Federal judge issued a restraining order on the deportation of five Venezuelans who may or may not be in gangs. We have no way of knowing. Basically, the judge was saying that there had to be a deportation hearing.

The Trump Administration violated the restraining order.

This has always been the critical fear. At this moment, the one thin strand protecting the American Republic is the court system. Congress is useless, and not because Chuck Schumer is feckless, but because Republicans control it. It is only the courts that can protect the laws that protect Americans and even non-Americans from tyrannical actions. 

The problem that has always been lurking is that the Courts rely on the Executive to carry out their orders. If a court issues an order, the Executive can appeal it, but they cannot simply ignore it. 

That's where we are now.

The Trumpists are banking on the unsympathetic nature of gang members turning this issue to their advantage. That's not a terrible wager, as people are stridently anti-crime at the moment, even as crime has fallen back to pre-pandemic levels. 

However, given the free ranging incompetence of the Trump Administration, I have to wonder if they won't be deporting anyone with the same name as a gang member. One Julio Arias is a gang member, the other is a line cook; the line cook gets deported. This is precisely the point of the hearings. 

I despair of the American people really seeing the importance of Constitutional principles. These are the people who elected a felon to enforce our laws.  Maybe people will get upset about the lawless deportations, the violations of court orders. But sooner or later, a gang member from Latin America will kill someone and we will the Laken Riley kabuki all over again.

As of today, Trump stands in violation of the very first indictment in the Declaration of Independence against King George III: "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."