President Trump and his friends have been busy wreaking havoc on our political system by shutting down independent government agencies, using the Justice Department to advance their political agenda, firing inspector generals, and flat-out ignoring court orders. His team has taken to hallucinating favorable legal interpretations, going as far as saying that there is no judicial check on the executive branch.
Following U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s temporary restraining order against the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport immigrants, Trump adviser Stephen Miller claimed during an interview with CNN that, “[the Alien Enemies Act was] written explicitly to give the president the authority to repel an alien invasion of the United States. That is not something that a district court judge has any authority whatsoever to interfere with, to enjoin, to restrict, or to restrain in any way. You can read the law yourself. There’s not one clause in that law that makes it subject to judicial review, let alone district court review.”
Right, if any law doesn’t specifically say that its use is subject to review by a judge, then it isn’t. Nevermind that judicial review, including district court review, is a power that traces nearly all the way back to the nation’s founding. A federal court of appeals disagreed with Miller on Wednesday, refusing to lift Boasberg’s order.
Trump’s Border czar, Tom Homan stated, “We’re not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.”
If we’re being sensible about it, Miller’s claims are obviously false. Judicial review of executive actions is perfectly established and is basically a bedrock principle of our nation. It doesn’t get any more basic than that.
What is conspicuous about this administration’s willingness to dramatically expand the president’s power is how little regard they are giving to the precedents they are establishing for future Democrat presidents to exploit.
Republicans do not seem to be worried at all about all of the terrible precedents they are setting, which will undoubtedly be used by the “radical left-wing nut-jobs” that they despise to bring an end to their golden age.
Among the reasons presidents have resisted the temptation to flout executive limits is because they’ve assumed and respected the fact that they don’t have the power, but also importantly, because they’re aware that if they push the boundaries too much, it’ll give the opposing party similar powers when they regain the presidency. The Trump administration though seems to not be concerned about this at all.
It prompts an obvious question: why don’t they care? Granted, it’s likely that congressional Republicans do care about the future power that Trump’s actions are conferring on Democrats but they’re unwilling to stick their necks out and go public with their concern. Reportedly, many Republicans are secretly troubled about Trump’s tariffs and firings. The more important question is, why doesn’t Trump care?
As I see it, there are two explanations that are likelier than the rest of the possibility space.
The first is that Trump simply doesn’t care about what happens after his presidency. He wants to be able to claim that he won during his presidency and that, according to his misguided and fabricated metrics, the country was doing well while he was in charge. So, who cares if all of his cuts are reversed during a Democratic presidency, that right-wing media is barred from the White House, or that Democrats ignore court orders to push a leftist agenda?
The second and more sinister possibility is that Trump and his lackeys do not think that the Democrats will regain power any time soon, presumably because they’ll somehow ensure that Trump and Republicans stay in the White House despite the two-term limit in the Constitution. Looking at this claim in isolation, it sounds like something someone would believe only if they are suffering from the worst case of what MAGAs call, “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
It sure sounds like a deranged thing to accuse the president of planning, if only Trump hadn’t attempted a desperate insurrection after losing to Joe Biden. It would be laughable if only Republicans hadn’t already proposed a resolution to amend the Constitution to allow for three terms and hadn’t been openly talking about how they intend for Trump to stay in office.
The feeling of derangement is somewhat eased by Trump’s recent attempt to gain control over how elections are conducted – a recent executive order imposes the president’s will on matters such as proof of citizenship and voting machines. If I were prone to conspiratorial thinking, I’d say that this may be an initial step toward compromising federal elections in Trump’s favor.
Very soon, we can expect Trump to start claiming that the 22nd amendment (the part of the Constitution that very clearly specifies a two-term limit) does not apply to non-consecutive terms. As Trump has been demonstrating in his attack on the judicial branch, if all else fails, a mandate from the people is the ultimate law of the land.
Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group.