Trump vs. the Supremes

The largest stress test yet of the U.S. Constitution

Friends,

The showdown is nearly upon us.

Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump regime cannot deport a group of Venezuelans while the matter is being litigated in the courts. The regime can’t merely allege that they’re members of a violent gang; it must give them sufficient time to challenge their deportations. And it can’t merely assume that the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act gives it authority. Both the facts of these cases and the law have to be hashed out in lower courts.

The justices called the detainees’ interests “particularly weighty” because of the risk of removal to a notorious prison in El Salvador where the migrants could face indefinite detention.

Score a big one for the rule of law.

Of course, Justice Samuel Alito dissented, joined by Clarence Thomas. The two have moved so far into the dense fog of irrational right-wing legal blather that they have lost all credibility.

The big news is that the three Trump appointees — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — joined the chief justice and the three Democratic appointees to set a limit on Trump.

I call this a showdown because Trump cannot abide limits.

He reacted in fury to the ruling: “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” he wrote on social media, and in a subsequent post said, “The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.” And he called it “a bad and dangerous day for America.”

Trump’s outrage has three unfortunate consequences.

It establishes that Trump and the nation’s highest court are on a collision course on what Trump considers a central goal of his regime — what he “was elected to do.”

It also increases the possibility that Trump will do what JD Vance and others in the White House have urged him to do all along — announce that he will not be bound by the court’s rulings.

This would be momentous. If enough Americans (and their constituents) are horrified by this — as we should be — it could spell the end of Trump. Openly defying a Supreme Court decision is surely enough to warrant an impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate.

The third consequence of Trump’s rage is to expose the nine justices — and the judiciary in general — to even more harassment, including death threats. Online threats toward judges and justices are growing.

Last Sunday, Trump criticized what he called “a radicalized and incompetent Court System,” which he said was standing in the way of his mass deportation agenda.

Paul Redmond Michel, a former federal appeals court judge appointed by Ronald Reagan, said the increasing threats to judges highlighted an urgent need for Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and other administration officials to make clear that they will follow court orders, regardless of the outcome, and prioritize judges’ safety.

“We know from the January 6, 2021, rioters that there are people out there who are perfectly prepared to be extremely violent and damaging and threatening,” said Michel. “Judges have to feel confident enough in being protected that they can make decisions without looking over their shoulders and worrying about whether the decision, if it’s unpleasing to the administration, might cause them some kind of harm.”

This week, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate the increasing number of threats to federal judges, which “threaten not only judges and their families, but also judicial independence and the rule of law,” Durbin wrote.

But there’s no question what’s fueling the threats — as Trump’s outburst against the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday shows.

The Trump regime is not content to merely castigate judges and justices. It is now arresting judges.

On Tuesday, it indicted Judge Hannah C. Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court on charges of obstructing federal agents from arresting a suspected undocumented immigrant who was appearing in her courtroom.

In fact, Dugan was simply trying to maintain the legal sanctity of that courtroom.

Attorney General Bondi says the regime will target judges who oppose the president’s growing immigration crackdown:

“What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me. The [judges] are deranged is all I can think of. I think some of these judges think that they are beyond and above the law. They are not, and we are sending a very strong message today ... if you are harboring a fugitive… we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”

Judges and justices cannot be “beyond and above the law” because they are the final arbiters of the law. They have also become the last firewall against a Trump dictatorship — which presumably is why the regime is now taking them on.

Yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court needs to be understood in this larger context. The coming showdown between Trump and the Supreme Court will be the largest stress test yet of our constitutional system.