With their mealy-mouthed, milk-toast decision this week in the Abrego-Garcia case, to return a green-card holder sent to prison in El Salvador by “mistake,” the US Supreme Court has made itself completely irrelevant.
Here’s the Fox News video of the reaction from Trump, his minions and the dictator of El Salvador. If you don’t have the 90-seconds to watch, I’ll summarize:
“Fuck you, we do what we want.”
Trump even talks about “homegrown” criminals being abducted and disappeared to El Salvador in the same way…
If you follow a few details of this case, that same way means pulled off the street, no hearing, no due process — just a ticket straight to a gulag with no hope of return.
I’m not going to defend Abrego-Garcia. He may well be a criminal. A good example for Trump and his fascists to attack. But freedom only comes when we are all free — not just the people who “may be” a criminal. The government is supposed to prove he is a criminal before they send him “home.” A prison sentence is only supposed to come after a trial.
I highly suspect, Trump will do everything to keep this man in prison, so he never shares his stories of the horrors he has no doubt already endured.
I am going to defend the power of the courts, because they are supposed to defend us — at least our “rights” that are disappearing as fast as it takes to load another plane full of people off to El Salvador.
Abrego-Garcia had a court order that he MUST stay in this country. Trump and his enablers ignored it. When they got caught, they lied and obfuscated and have kept him in prison for more than a month.
We all know Trump could bring him back in 10 minutes.
We all know he should follow the court’s ruling, but he’s just creating his own definition of “facilitate” and creating a loophole that destroys the US Constitution and our rule of law.
Roberts and his majority have been bringing about their own irrelevance for years. First with Citizens United to empower billionaires to buy elections. Then in protecting Trump from criminal convictions, giving him immunity and now failing to write an order that must be followed.
In Abrego-Garcia’s case, the supremes were unanimous (9-0) that the government is wrong. But the majority, split hairs over “facilitate” his return versus “effectuate”. I won’t go into the details because it’s all semantic bullshit. A word-salad veneer for relegating the court to “concerned bystander.”
What the Supreme Court must do is fully support the district court holding Trump officials in contempt. Up to and including putting Marco Rubio, Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem in jail until Abrego-Garcia is returned. Right now, they are the only criminals in this case. They have kidnapped a legal US resident without due process and have falsely claimed they are powerless to fix it.
If Trump’s cronies successfully ignore the court, your lack of pigment, your accent, and your place of birth will not save you from Trump’s masked thugs snagging you off the streets and sending you to El Salvador in the middle of a weekend night.
If the Supreme Court cannot impose its will in this case, it will not be able to “rule” on anything, anymore. It will become a legal fig leaf for Trump’s “Mad King” decisions on everything from crime and punishment to tariffs and taxes.
I can only hope, the supremes will fight this case in their own self-interest. Unlike Congress, where the Republicans have completely surrendered their power, the Supreme Court has a lot of reasons to see they are not ignored.
Somebody needs to tell Clarence Thomas that he will have to start paying rent on his mother’s house, his RV will get repossessed, and his spot on the yacht will go to Don Jr or Eric if he doesn’t do something to “effectuate” the court’s decisions.
Clarence, Harlan Crow doesn’t support you because he likes you. He supports you because you give him access to power. If your decisions are ignored, he will ignore you. And his wife won’t have to be nice to the “darkie” anymore.
Sam Alito can kiss his $1000 bottles of red wine goodbye. He will never catch another fish in Alaska again.
Gorsuch, Roberts and the others can kiss their staff’s goodbye as well. How many staffers does it take to rubber-stamp Trump’s decisions? You can bet, DOGE will be making some cuts to make the court more “efficient.”
The framers of the US Constitution knew that people won’t do the right thing unless it directly benefits them — hence the checks and balances and sharing power among three branches. But 250 years later, that system is falling apart. The Executive Branch is corrupt. The Congressional Branch has surrendered, and now the Judicial Branch is at the edge.
When the inevitable appeals (in this case and others) come, the court will have to decide whether to find ways to enforce its decisions or go along for the ride as we slide into Trump’s fascism.
Based on this court’s past, I’m not hopeful they will do the right thing because it is the “right thing.”
God Damn, I hope I’m wrong, and that these conservatives are selfish enough and greedy enough to save us all.
Hell, there’s been so damn much corruption in our government, regardless of which side is running it, that this event is nothing to me.
And fascist? No, I don’t think Trump is a fascist. He allows free speech, after all. Or at least more so than Biden, and his censorship campaign with social media.
But corrupt? Hell yeah. They’re all corrupt, right down to their bones.
Trump free speech for whom? Not law firms, not universities, not students on visas. This abrego-Garcia case is the definition of fascism — sending a legal resident to a concentration camp without even a hearing.
The Biden “request” for social media companies to not promote lies isn’t even close enough to be compared.
If trump is not a fascist, can you give me a definition of fascism that he does not fit — or has not said he would like to do? I honestly can’t.
Couldn’t agree more.
I guess you and I are not in agreement on this. I see a lot more free speech (less censorship) from Trump than Biden.
Yeah we are not going to agree on that free speech issue. ..
Last political thread we ended agreeing that trump needed to obey the courts. But here we are. He is openly disobeying a 9-0 Supreme Court decision I’m surprised you are both-sidesing this issue. It seems simple enough to bring the man back and give him his day in court. Deport him if you have evidence he is a criminal. If he has no rights, the government could and will do the same to you and me.
I think he’s relying on a technicality to avoid the order. He’s supposed to “facilitate” the man’s return, not effectuate. He can’t facilitate unless the government of El Salvador effectuates. But the Supreme Court can’t tell the government of El Salvador what to do, and “technically” neither can Trump. And the El Salvador government is (wink-wink) not cooperating, which doesn’t seem to leave Trump feeling very upset.
Yeah. That’s the definition of bullshit. And the intent is fascist. Absolute power to imprison from the executive with no judicial recourse. If trump stopped paying the bill, El Salvador would release him immediately. Trump didn’t even ask. That’s some evil shit. And a test case and “fuck you” to the court and democracy.
Sad to say, Trump, with a little help from Mitch McConnell, created this court, didn’t he. They’ve made themselves irrelevant.
Like so many things with this regime the “right” just says some bullshit like “ah he tried to bring him back” or “that guy was a criminal”. trump knows what he is doing he is testing this case to see what he can get away with. Happens in every dictatorship. I think some of these guys dont actually understand this is the end of the American experiment. You destroy all the branches of government and put all the power in the executive -with one man. THAT is a dictatorship. Then you control the message and destroy any enemies that may speak out -use funding like a gun, grab persons that dont follow your regime and ship them off.
It happening. NOW!
-Butterpants
It’s so obvious it hurts.