An Accelerating Tyranny

Less than two months into his second term in office, Trump is making good on his mass deportation and "revenge tour" pledges. Many of the lawsuits filed to try to overturn his targeting of legal permanent residents, law firms that have had his political opponents and critics as clients, and federal workers summarily dismissed en masse without due process will almost certainly reach the Supreme Court. Now, Trump has openly defied a federal judge's ruling blocking the deportation of Venezuelan gang members under the seldom used and absolutely infamous Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The much talked about constitutional crisis is now clearly at hand.

As I noted elsewhere last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio's radically expansive Federal Register announcement on Friday of a massive assertion of Executive branch authority to engage in due process free fast track deportations was a harbinger of things to come.

On Saturday, just hours after Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expel a number of Venezuelan gang members, DC. Circuit Judge James Boasberg barred the regime from expelling the Venezuelans under the Act pending further judicial proceedings. Trumps Attorney General, Pam Bondi, then issued a statement openly attacking Boasberg in incendiary language:

Tonight, a DC trial judge supported Tren de Aragua terrorists over the safety of Americans. TdA is represented by the ACLU. This order disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump’s power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk. The Department of Justice is undeterred in its efforts to work with the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and all of our partners to stop this invasion and Make America Safe Again.

One of the first things any first-year law student learns is that everyone in this country is entitled to due process under the Constitution and relevant laws, whether they are Americans (native born or naturalized) or foreign nationals. Boasberg wasn't supporting alleged terrorists; he was upholding the law, the Constitution, and basic due process rights--legal responsibilities that Bondi is now actively subverting in service to her Orange Fuhrer.

Notice also how Bondi used another decades-old Cold War era smear against an American domestic civil liberties organization--the ACLU. Throughout its over 100-year history, the ACLU has represented communists and Nazis, along with lots of other individuals and groups from across the political spectrum. The revival and renaissance of First and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence over the last century was ignited by cases brought by the ACLU.

Every criminal defendant is entitled to legal representation in our justice system, something else Bondi presumably learned in law school. But her allegiance is clearly not to the rule of law, but to the rule of one man--Trump.

Indeed, it now seems clear that Trump, Bondi, Rubio, and DHS Secretary Noem were prepared in advance to ignore Boasberg's injunction.

As the New York Times reported late yesterday:

In a hastily scheduled hearing sought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the judge said he did not believe federal law allowed the president’s action, and ordered that any flights that had departed with Venezuelan immigrants under Trump’s executive order return to the United States “however that’s accomplished — whether turning around the plane or not.”

“This is something you need to make sure is complied with immediately,” he said.

The regime did exactly the opposite. Again, per the Times:

Judge Boasberg’s order to turn flights around came after he told the government earlier on Saturday not to deport five Venezuelan men who were the initial focus of the legal fight. The Trump administration is appealing Judge Boasberg’s order.

On Sunday, Mr. Bukele posted a screenshot on social media about Judge Boasberg’s order and wrote, “Oopsie… Too late.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio later shared Mr. Bukele’s post from his personal account.

Nayib Bukele is the president of El Salvador, one of the countries being compensated by the regime to house individuals deported from the United States.

Every week since Trump's return to power, he and his key cabinet-level officials have simultaneously escalated their political retaliatory measures against disfavored individuals, groups, and organizations--in virtually every instance in defiance of the law, the Constitution, and now federal courts.

Trump's imaginary grievance-infused "revenge tour" is in full swing. It will take far more than harsh language to stop him.

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