MAGA King
Donald Trump is defying court rulings
When Trump went to court arguing he had presidential immunity from charges when he tried to steal the 2020 election and instigated an insurrection, he was stalling for time. The Supreme Court helped Trump out by agreeing to hear the case after the Court of Appeals ruled against him. SCOTUS took more than two months to decide the case before ruling along partisan lines that Trump was above the law.
Last weekend (notice they didn’t do it on a weekday), the Trump administration (sic) quietly invoked the Alien Enemies Act and sneakily deported at least 100 Venezuelans they claimed were terrorists) and other immigrants on three airplanes to a “mega” prison in El Salvador without hearings or assessments AFTER advocates for immigrants filed a legal challenge.
The Trump administration rushed to get the planes in the air before a judge could rule on it. Federal District Court Judge James Boasberg put a 14-day stay on the deportations that Trump disobeyed.
Trump and his lawyers are claiming the ruling didn’t apply because the plane was out of the country at the time which put it out of the judge’s jurisdiction. But the administration made sure the planes were in the air before a ruling could be given. They anticipated it would go against them…and then they lied during the hearing.
Today, the judge said the use of the Alien Enemies Act seemed “problematic and concerning.” The act is for wartime and homeland invasions. The last invasion of United States territory on North American soil was on the Aleutian Islands in 1943.
“Why was this proclamation essentially signed in the dark?” Boasberg said of Trump’s executive order. “Then these people rushed onto planes. It seems to me the only reason to do that is if you know it’s a problem and you want to get them out of the country.” That’s exactly what they were doing.
Trump created an Executive Order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport alleged gang members without due process. The act has only been enacted three times before in the nation’s history, always during wartime. It was invoked in the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. It was used for the internment of Japanese-American citizens. Even the precedent of the act is racist.
During the first half of Saturday’s hearing, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign told the judge he did not have details about any flights deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members leaving the country. The judge called a recess for Ensign to find out. When the hearing resumed, Ensign said he didn’t have any information on departing flights despite there being two already in the air. Kids, that’s called lying, and Ensign, Trump’s lawyer in this, did it to a federal judge.
Friday, the judge asked, “Your clients had you come argue this but kept you in the dark about all this?” Ensign could only play dumb.
Ensign and others could be held in Contempt of Court over this, but that would have to go through the Justice Department, which is led by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Bondi went on Fox News to accuse the judge of “meddling in our government,” not realizing he is a part of our government, and said, “And the question should be, why is the judge trying to protect terrorists who invaded our country over American citizens?” Bondi also promised that the Trump Administration (sic) will continue to defy the judge’s order, saying, “These are foreign terrorists, that the president has identified them, and designated them as such, and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act.”
Again, we have not been invaded.
Trump and his allies have called for Boasberg’s impeachment over the ruling, with one House member starting impeachment hearings. Chief Justice John G. Roberts issued a statement saying the appeals process, not removal from the bench, is the way to object to a legal decision, not impeachment.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen “Baby Goebbels” Miller said, “It is without doubt the most unlawful order a judge has issued in our lifetimes.” He continued, “A district court judge has no authority to direct the national security operations of the executive branch. The president has operated the absolute apex of his constitutional authority.”
JD Vance and Marco Rubio also mocked the judge. Rubio retweeted a post from El Salvador’s president with a smiley face emoji, saying, “Oopsie… Too late.” The president of El Salvador is NOT a U.S. citizen and isn’t required to understand and respect American law, but Rubio is.
White House spokesgoon Karoline Leavitt issued a statement saying, “Federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion.” Again, not an invasion.
Leavitte, who is NOT a lawyer, also said, “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.” My right-wing colleagues seized on this, with Eric Allie arguing that a Federal District Judge has no authority. Lisa Benson also took issue with the ruling coming from a district court, as did Chip Bok….Twice.
Colleagues, this was a FEDERAL district court. Its rulings don’t just apply to its district. A ruling in a FEDERAL court applies to the entire nation. It’s one thing for one MAGA cartoonist to be this stupid, but all of them?
Trump doesn’t want to be president. He wants to be king. He wants judges removed who stand in his way of being a king, and they’re trying to do that. Chief Justice Roberts understands that which is why he broke his silence. His goons don’t respect democracy or the Constitution either and want Trump to be a king.
The people truly trying to destroy our nation didn’t invade, they were born here.
Creative note: I wanted to do this issue all week, but each day, I kept thinking of other ideas on other subjects that I really liked. That happened for a fifth time today, but I put it aside to hit this very important subject. You’ll get that one tomorrow.
Blast from the past: Today, my former publisher, Rupert Howell, posted this on Facebook. It was published in 1991 in The Panolian (my first job) in Batesville, Mississippi. Everything I drew for The Panolian was local and there was a flower scandal this week.
This was not a slow news week. This was an extremely hot issue in Batesville.
Music note: I listened to The Raconteurs.
Drawn in 30 seconds:
Timelapse:
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Good blog Clay, but you left out the reasons why the SCOTUS isn't going to back Trump this time.
First, Roberts has already dressed them down for attacking a Federal judge.
Second, open defiance of the courts allowed by the SCOTUS is going to mean he'll defy the SCOTUS eventually, so they'd probably rather start the fight before he's further down the road.
And third, Boasberg's not some unknown liberal judge to the top nine, he's known very well to at least one of them, his college roommate was named Kavanaugh.
So there's every reason to think they'll tell Trump to bring em' back, no matter what lies he's telling. And then the fun will start.
And we should take notice of the fact that judges can send lawyers to the Bar Association for misbehavior, and a flock of Trump lawyers losing their license to practice would certainly put a chill on the lying in court. And there's no pardon from that punishment.
Fucked up twenty-one ways from Sunday.
I'll take, "What is the trump administration?" for $500.