As of April 11, 2025
Benchmarks of Democratic Backsliding and Erosion
The chaos and mayhem continue. While everyone was glued to the self-inflicted and manufactured tariff crises, democratic erosion and backsliding continued.
Of note this week were two Supreme Court’s rulings, one regarding a challenge to the government’s interpretation of the Alien Enemies Act and the other on returning a man wrongly deported to an El Salvadoran prison (also related to the the Alien Enemies Act), and two unprecedented executive orders directing the Attorney General and the Department of Homeland security to coordinate investigations on two former first term Trump administration appointees.
Trump added comedian Bill Maher to his trophy wall.
Attacks on academia, science, and books/ideas continued.
On April 7, the Supreme Court sided with Trump regarding the use of using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans associated with a criminal gang designated a foreign terrorist organization by, guess who, Trump. Incredibly, the Court basically held that government actions under the Alien Enemies Act are largely not subject to judicial review. The court sidestepped the constitutionality of using the Act in peacetime. The following is a summation of the ruling:
- The plaintiffs according to the Court used the wrong argument. The plaintiffs challenged the government’s “interpretation” of the Alien Enemies Act. Citing a 1948 case, the Court stated that Alien Enemies Act is largely not subject to judicial review, or as they wrote, “preclude[s] judicial review.
- The plaintiffs should have used the Write of Habeas Corpus, which they did initially, but changed their argument.
- The Court also removed the US District Court’s jurisdiction to hear the case. Stating that challenges must be heard in the district of confinement. In this case Texas, the epitome of fairness and paragon of justice.
- The Court did say that detainees must be given notice of deportation and that they be afforded an “opportunity to be heard.”
The Court also issued a separate ruling directing the government to return a man improperly deported to an El Salvadoran prison be returned. However, the Court’s language in the ruling was so poorly and imprecisely worded giving the government wiggle room, which apparently they exploited because the following day, at a lower court hearing, the government refused to comply with lower court judge’s order to update the court on the government’s plans to return the man. The government’s lawyer stating he had no information to relay to the court. Can’t make this stuff up.
In an unprecedented and grim move, Trump signed two executive orders directing criminal investigation into two former political appointees from his first term, Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs. The two did not support publicly support Trump’s assertion that the 2020 election was stolen and asserted that there were not indications that the election was stolen. This is meant to silence every federal employee and every Trump appointee.
You can go to menu or benchmarks above to see the full cumulative list of benchmarks being tracked.
