One of the ways that President Donald Trump has moved so quickly to consolidate his power is to declare an emergency about whatever he wants to control and then use emergency presidential powers granted from past laws to do what he wants. He has already done this 11 times in his first 9 months in office. Probably the most dramatic use of this is his assertion that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows for the speedy deportation of foreign born enemies during an invasion, permits him to deport Venezuelan gang members without a trial. Unfortunately, that act, which was passed over 200 years ago, was unspecific about what counts as an invasion, the Trump administration has made the dubious assertion that gang members are actually invading our country like soldiers.
Recently, Trump's power grab has been hitting some snags; in the past two weeks, lower court rulings have been against him. First, a move to deport Guatemalan children was held up by a judge in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. Then Trump's sending of members of the US military to the city of Los Angeles was found to be illegal by the Federal District Court of San Francisco. Also, his attempt to withhold billions of dollars in research funds to Harvard University was voided by the US District Court in Boston. And then, in the most dramatic of these rulings, just last Friday a federal panel of judges ruled that most of Trump's tariffs, the cornerstone of his economic polity, are illegal and will be voided next month.
While all of these rulings make sense on the face of them, together they more importantly show that, despite all the Trump excusing Republicans holding congress, the American system may still be able to put some restraint on Trump's authoritarian views through the courts. The ruling against his tariffs, for example, makes perfect sense when you consider that Trump asserts that he has the right to pass any tariffs he wants against any other country based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. But that act also says that the president can only do so against an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” The administration claims that our trade deficit with other countries is a threat, even though it has existed for years and has never stopped the US from having the world's biggest economy. It's almost laughable how Trump doesn't seem to understand what a trade deficit is; countries that we have a trade deficit with simply sell us more of their goods than they buy of ours. This is hardly a threat when you consider that a country like Canada has almost 300 million less people living in it! So imposing tariffs that could cripple Canada's economy is hardly being done in response to a threat. Again, this ruling just feels like common sense.
But, then there's the Supreme Court, the same court that now has a 6-3 conservative majority, with 3 of those 6 conservative judges being appointed by Trump himself. Inevitably, the Trump administration is going to appeal these rulings form lower courts to the Supreme Court (he's already requested a ruling on the Tariff decision as soon as next Wednesday). So the question is, will this extremist court side with our extremist president? It's tough to say.
This year, there have been two rulings by the Supreme Court against Trump: the first was a presidential order voiding birthright citizenship (that was a no brainer even for this court; birthright citizenship is in the constitution). The second involved cuts to the. US AID program. Now, on the other side of the ledger, the court has sided with the Trump administration 7 times, on cases allowing for mass deportations, stricter immigration rules, and the gutting of the federal Department of Education. Along with these rulings, last year the court made what appeared to be a peremptory decision when it ruled for him while he was out of office, stating that any president would have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts committed within their "core constitutional powers." Basically giving him a blank check to try anything in his second term without fear of criminal charges. Really, the court is now so pro Trump, that one has to fear that his stated desire to be able to run for a third term (which has gone from a joke to a serious threat) may actually be upheld. In other words, while I was glad that the lower courts ruled the way that they did, there's no guarantee that Trump's unprecedented attempt to run this country with absolute power won't be upheld by our highest court. Yes, we live in very frightening times in this country.
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