The Courts Are Holding

Arguably the most disturbing aspect of the Trump Restoration has been the complete and utter disregard for the red letter of the law. They aren't pushing against the laws and looking for weaknesses, cracks that they might exploit. They are just openly and brazenly breaking the law.

One current issue surrounds the deportation of Venezuelans in contradiction of a direct orders from a federal judge. John Roberts has actually begun to push back against the attacks on the Judiciary as a whole that are coming from the White House. While Trump's brazen lawlessness is largely a product of his own creation, maybe he's beginning to realize what this could mean for the judiciary as a whole. He might not give a shit about you and me, but he cares about his own clout. 

Meanwhile, Musk's feeding of the service branch of Social Security into the wood chipper is also pretty lawless. The difference here is that defending Venezuelans - some of whom might actually BE gang members - is about defending an abstraction. Defending Social Security is an immediate priority for people who depend on Social Security. Once we get more cases of lawful recipients being denied coverage, both the courts of law and public opinion should come down firmly against Musk - as indeed they already have on multiple occasions.

We can expect no help from Congress - and this has nothing to do with Chuck Schumer. Democrats have almost zero ability to stop the Executive Branch from being a shitshow of cruelty, hatred and incompetence. However, repeated violations of the courts only plays to Trump's feral base of haters. I'm not expecting Susan Collins to grow a spine, but at some point, even Republican Senators have to worry about Trump openly violating court orders.

This is it, this is the crux of the future of American democracy. Trump is behaving unlawfully, unconstitutionally. At some point, he and Musk are going to break something really important, perhaps Social Security, perhaps education...something; they can't help themselves. The Courts are telling him to stop.

Will he? And if he doesn't, what happens then, both in Congress and on American streets?

UPDATE: Jamelle Bouie calls Trump's actions not unconstitutional but anti-constitutional.