The Trump Administration and the MAGA monstrosity were dealt a succession of judicial blows yesterday on multiple fronts. Who knows what will happen if/when these rulings wind their way to the Supreme Court, but maybe, just maybe, the Supreme Court justices — most of them anyway — will have had enough of this bullshit by then. Probably not, but let’s enjoy the news and the fact that Trump, if he’s even been made aware of these setbacks by his handlers, is a four-time loser today, and he knows it.
⚖️ Three federal judges with the Court of International Trade ruled yesterday that Trump does not have the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs on other countries. No, they said, Trump’s muddled understanding of international trade does not constitute a “national emergency.” Therefore, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to capriciously set and lift tariffs according to the whims of his hateful brain chemistry and, I don’t know, indigestion.
⚖️ Speaking of indigestion (and y’all know this one’s my favorite), another judge determined that Trump cannot, in fact, use his executive power to punish or threaten law firms associated with Democrats or causes the petulant president dislikes. In the course of his ruling, the judge employed 27 exclamation points and a heartburn-inducing gumbo recipe. I really want that recipe for judging purposes of my own.
⚖️ In New Jersey, a judge ruled that Trump likely exceeded his executive authority in attempting to deport Palestinian student protestor Mahmoud Khalil. While the judgement does not, unfortunately, require Khalil to be released from detention, it is the first time a judge has weighed in on whether the constitution allows Trump’s team to use “threat to US foreign policy” as a cudgel in this way, and the judge said, quite clearly, nope!
⚖️ Finally, a Boston judge ruled yesterday that Trump’s “pause for review” of visa applications for over 800,000 immigrants living in America on short-term permits for humanitarian parole serves as a de facto indefinite suspension, and he can’t do that. The judgement says the Department of Homeland Security orders are unlikely to withstand legal challenge, in part because they offer “no reasoned explanation” (because the “reasoned explanation” is racism and just plain meanness). The length and impact of this ruling remain to be seen, but for now, at least, Stephen Miller does not get his way.
So all of that makes today a good day, right? I did just wake up, so if any of the above is inaccurate, please let me know — ditto if any of the hastily gathered sources need shoring up. Otherwise, let’s hope the Judiciary, whether through commitment to justice and the rule of law or through sheer self preservation as the last, er, polite bulwark against Trump’s authoritarian overreach, continues to shut the chump down.
Have a great Thursday, Politicados! Be safe and kind out there, and lay off Mayor McSquirrel lest the mods, too, develop an unrelenting thirst for judgement. 🙂