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I’m warning everyone on this July 4th holiday: The US Supreme Court isn’t trying to hide it anymore. It is now openly in the bag for Trump.
Chief Justice John Roberts is failing miserably in his duty to use the judiciary to protect the rule of law. The six ultra-conservatives on the nine-person court firmly control it as an institution, despite the valiant efforts of the three liberal-centrist justices (Kagan, Sotomayor, and Brown Jackson) to beat back Trump’s assault on the rule of law.
Please watch the video above for my take on what is rapidly becoming a crisis — and why a ruling one week ago in a case involving birthright citizenship portends serious problems for our liberal democracy and the rule of law. As always, thank you for the support.
Here is a short written summary:
A blockbuster Supreme Court decision last week stripped all 700 or so federal trial judges of their power to issue nationwide injunctions. This is disastrous because it eliminates the most critical legal tool to hold the Trump administration accountable on a national level for its abuses of power. It also signals the high court is now seriously considering limiting the right to birthright citizenship enshrined in the Constitution, meaning children of “immigrants” born here likely will be stateless and deported. This is a frontal attack on the very idea of a multi-ethnic society.
More deeply, the decision encourages Trump to violate constitutional rights simply by signing an executive order given that trial courts are now barred from stopping the orders on a nationwide basis. What this portends is frightening. I expect Trump to cook up all sorts of unconstitutional executive orders and then force his victims to chase him into all 94 district courts across the country to stop them on a case-by-case basis. The court has created a path that allows a bad man to turn a good country into a dystopian landscape. Stripping citizenship from “undesirables” or those who challenge Trump could be next.
This latest decision also is part of a deeply disturbing trend. In 2024, the six ultra-conservatives who control the court gave Trump immunity from criminal prosecution while in office. This put him above the law. This is all part of an unprecedented power grab by the executive branch facilitated by the very judicial branch that is supposed to keep the presidency in check. Given that Congress has abdicated its own authority, there’s now no clear way to stop Trump from becoming a full-blown autocrat. Our governing system of checks and balances is in tatters.
Bottom line: the highest court in the land is now ruling in service of an authoritarian leader. Expect other vulnerable groups — including brown and black U.S. citizens who came to this country as first-generation immigrants — to now be targeted with even more ferocity.
—Steven
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