Trump and Musk seem to think that they can do whatever they want to whomever they want. As far as Congress is concerned, they are right because the Republican majority seems to be quite willing to roll over for the two of them and be subservient to their whims, abandoning their constitutional role of being an independent branch of government to serve as a check and balance on executive power.
It is the courts that can do something and they have, up to a point.
A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s bid to deprive federal funding from programs that incorporate “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives.
U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson ruled that Trump’s policy likely violates the First Amendment because it penalizes private organizations based on their viewpoints. And the judge said the policy is written so vaguely that it chills the free speech of federal contractors concerned they will be punished if they don’t eliminate programs meant to encourage a diverse workforce.
Abelson, a Baltimore-based appointee of former President Joe Biden, said longstanding court precedent bars the federal government from “leveraging its funding to restrict federal contractors and grantees from otherwise exercising their First Amendment rights.”
The ruling is the latest blow to Trump’s early policy and personnel moves meant to impose a sweeping overhaul of the federal government and its funding priorities. Within minutes of Abelson’s order, another federal judge barred Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” and other political appointees from accessing sensitive U.S. Treasury databases, warning that they posed a serious risk of breaches. And minutes before that, the Supreme Court maintained a short-term block on Trump’s ability to fire a powerful ethics watchdog.Several other Trump policies remain on hold as a result of court rulings, including his effort to slash funds marked for National Institutes of Health research and his bid to abruptly curtail contracts for foreign assistance programs. Trump did score one major legal win Friday, however; a Washington, D.C. federal judge allowed Trump to move forward with a plan to dismantle the workforce at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Trump will undoubtedly attack any judge who blocks his acts. It will start with vitriolic language. The question is whether he will try to go further than that, by threatening them with impeachment or have his goons physically threaten them in order to intimidate them. Trump will undoubtedly attack any judge who blocks his acts. It will start with vitriolic language. The question is whether he will try to go further than that, by threatening them with impeachment or have his goons physically threaten them in order to intimidate them. [UPDATE: Musk has already called for the impeachment of judge Abelson.]
Think I am being unduly alarmist? I am merely going by the steady decline in democratic values and institutions that occurred in Sri Lanka over the past decades that I said the US seemed to be following. Threatening the judiciary was the next step.
The real test will be when these cases end up before the Supreme Court.
I’m reminded of the probably apocryphal statement by Andrew Jackson after Worcester v. Georgia: “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!” Similarly, Stalin’s statement when told that the Pope disapproved of his actions: “The Pope! How many divisions has he got?”
Stating that his actions are illegal is irrelevant unless you actually have the power to physically stop him from doing it. Are the Courts going to send someone to arrest him? And are those people going to obey? I don’t think you’re being alarmist; in fact, you’re not nearly worried enough.
MAGA-cop calculus now becomes “if I am asked to break the law to support my current Dear Leader, there’s a chance I’m so small he won’t pardon me. But if there’s lots of us, he might pay attention… if he feels like it that day. But if there’s too many of us, will we be prosecuted in so many different small ways and places that he doesn’t pay attention and leave most of us languishing? Or does none of that matter if I truly have the confidence that the wokerati are just chicken? Wow: calculus is hard! What does Fox TV tell me to do?”
maga using death threats against republicans to get them to toe the line, something something clear and present danger, something something sworn to uphold the constitution, yadda yadda that feel when the news makes you wish for a military coup
billionaires already ran this country, but that wasn’t enough for them, had to invest their wealth in decades of fascist propaganda, normalizing straightup nazism because they think it’ll allow them to hold onto more of their wealth… there were a lot of places for moral bravery to keep it from coming this far, and the first block would have been decent billionaires spending their loot to counter murdoch mvsc et al. but no, decency and billionairism is one of those venn diagrams lookin like snake eyes.
I agree with Ørjan Hoem @#1.
Anne Applebaum at The Atlantic wrote an interesting article: How regime change happens in America
Not at all.
Yes, and my fear is that SCOTUS’ Gang of Six will have Trump’s back for anything he wants to do without exception.
Lawyers, at least when they have their advocate hats on, craft arguments given conclusions; and the Gang of Six are clearly advocates for the far right. (There might be smaller cases that we never hear about in which they exhibit basic human decency; but in cases that are big enough to make the news, they’ve shown themselves to be utterly shameless.)
I’d like to say, “I hope that I’m wrong”, but I don’t feel particularly hopeful right now. I guess I can say that I’ll be happy if I’m wrong.
Musk has already called for the impeachment of judge Abelson.
Live by the executive order -- die by the executive order.
It is a bit awkward that right now the thread our democracy is hanging on is whether or not a bunch of scumbag right wing authoritarians in Congress and the courts will greedily hold onto their own power or hand it over to a conman. I have much less faith in their talking points about patriotism, the constitution, etc. than I do in their naked greed.
You and many others have spent years reassuring readers here that it’s all over now for Trump and he can’t possibly escape impeachment, can’t possibly escape impeachment again, can’t escape justice for January 6th, can’t possibly hope to escape justice for rape, can’t possibly escape justice for the hush money trial finding, can’t possibly now become Republican candidate, can’t win a debate against Joe Biden, can’t win a debate against Kamala Harris, can’t possibly win the election.
As usual, I don’t think you’re being alarmist enough. It’s nice to see you being alarmist at all, finally.