Tag: virginia

Tom’s Report on the State of America’s Democratic Health

As of May 9, 2025

I apologize for skipping a week (or two), but was traveling out of town. I also needed a short mental holiday.

The courts are doing their job for the most part. Congress….not so much.

A federal Judge ordered the release of detained Turkish PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, who is attending Tuft’s University on a student visa, following the submission of a Writ of Habeas Corpus. In its usual measured response to adverse court orders, Trump advisor Stephen Miller said the White House is actively considering revoking the Writ of Habeas Corpus for ‘migrants.’ The Constitution clearly states that the writ may not be suspended “unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public safety may require it.” Please see my earlier April 2 essay on Habeas Corpus for a more in-depth discussion on the writ.

In another ruling, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary pause on DOGE’s bulldozing of government agencies and mass firings. Congress did not authorize such activity, per the judge: “As history demonstrates, the President may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress.”

In further court activity regarding Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly detained and deported to El Salvador’s terrorism prison, government lawyers are once again stonewalling the Federal Judge overseeing the case. Government lawyers invoked the ‘State Secrets Privilege.’ This privilege (a Supreme Court invention) lets the government withhold information from a court during civil litigation if the information could damage national security. Unless the information the government lawyers have contain military invasion plans of El Salvador, it is a bullshit ploy. And they know it. Start throwing these bums in jail Judge! Maybe Alcatraz?

Overall, there has been a slight lull in the war on the Constitution, but I think that is because Trump is busy cleaning up his self inflicted tariff mess. If his nomination of Fox host and TV pundit Jeannie Pirro to be the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia — replacing the outgoing interim U.S. Attorney who can’t get confirmed — is any indication, the war on decency and rule of law is entering a new low point. She has not worked in the law field in over two decades and her only previous experience was at a local elected judge and then local prosecutor in the early 90s. She will also be the 23rd Fox News personality to get a Trump administration job.

I imagine as the American economy stalls and the U.S. becomes increasingly isolated as a global pariah, Trump will double down on his autocratic tendencies. He pretty much has usurped Congress’ authority, now he needs to go hard and fast after independent new organizations. I expect to see a slew of FCC preliminary investigative reports and license revocations within the next month or two.

Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments: How The Supreme Court, Trump, and the Far Right intend to undermine the First Amendment

The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments whether Oklahoma state tax dollars must be used to fund religious-based charter schools.  The state denied a Catholic Church school’s request for public funding.  During the arguments, most justices seem inclined to require that states provide taxpayer dollars to religious charter schools, if they meet all the other charter school requirements.  If the Court decides to require public funds go to support religious-based charter schools, this would be a fundamental reinterpretation of the 1st Amendment, what Thomas Jefferson called the “wall of separation” between church and state in his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.

I don’t think it a coincidence that a week or so after the Supreme Courts’ arguments, Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Religious Liberty Commission.”  The purpose of the commission is outlined in the instructions:

“The Commission shall produce a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, the impact of religious liberty on American society, current threats to domestic religious liberty, strategies to preserve and enhance religious liberty protections for future generations, and programs to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism. Specific topics to be considered by the Commission under these categories shall include the following areas: the First Amendment rights of pastors, religious leaders, houses of worship, faith-based institutions, and religious speakers; attacks across America on houses of worship of many religions; debanking of religious entities; the First Amendment rights of teachers, students, military chaplains, service members, employers, and employees; conscience protections in the health care field and concerning vaccine mandates; parents’ authority to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children, including the right to choose a religious education; permitting time for voluntary prayer and religious instruction at public schools; Government displays with religious imagery; and the right of all Americans to freely exercise their faith without fear or Government censorship or retaliation.”

While the language seems religion neutral, we all know this is about Christian religious freedoms and establishing Christianity as America’s established religion.  I don’t see Islamic or Buddhist or Hindu religious imagery being displayed next to the Ten Commandments at public schools.  Do you?  Be very afraid.   Our founding generation was fearful of the establishment of a religious state.  This fear animated two of Virginia’s most influential writers and thinkers:  James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.  

When Virginia’s General Assembly wanted to impose a ‘religious assessment,’ basically a tax to support churches, Madison and Jefferson opposed the measure.  As did the Baptist’s who suffered intolerable abuse by the Anglican Church prior to the Revolution.  In the “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments” Madison penned a cogent argument that is a relevant today as it was in 1785.  

I think it one of the seminal documents in our history as both Virginians and Americans.  As such, I have summarized Madison’s 15 key arguments below. They are worth a close read.

  1.  Religious liberty was “in its nature an unalienable right….because the opinions of men, depending only upon the evidence contemplated by their own minds, cannot follow the dictates of other men….  Religion is wholly exempt from the cognizance [of civil society].”
  2. “Since civil society itself had not right to interfere with religion, certainly the legislature, its creature, had no such right.”
  3. “It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties… Who does no see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same case any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?”
  4. “The exercise of religion implies the right to believe in no religion at all, so even the most permissive tax to support religion might violate some consciences.”
  5. “Civil magistrates can properly neither judge religious truth nor subordinate religion to public purposes.”
  6. The Christian religion did not need civil support, it had often “existed and flourished, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them.”
  7. “’Ecclesiastical establishment,’ far from promoting religious purity and efficacy, had nearly always corrupted and stultified it.”
  8. “Rather than promoting order and freedom in civil society, religious establishments had ordinarily been malignant and oppressive.”
  9. “The assessment marked a first step toward bigotry, differing from the ‘inquisition…in degree,’ and would make Virginia no longer the asylum for the persecuted.”
  10. “Good and useful citizens would be driven from the state or deterred from coming there by a religious tax.”
  11. “Religious strife and violence would be encouraged by laws touching religion.”
  12. “The policy of the bill is adverse to the diffusion of the light of Christianity…. The bill with an ignoble and unchristian timidity would circumscribe it, with a wall of defence, against the encroachment of error.”
  13. “An attempt to enforce a religious assessment obnoxious to many citizens would weaken respect for law and order generally.”
  14. “Evidence was strong that a majority of the people opposed the assessment.”
  15. “Because, finally, the equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his Religion according to the dictates of conscience is held by the same tenure with all our other rights…. Either we must say, that they may control the freedom of the press, may abolish trial by jury, may swallow up the Executive and Judiciary powers of the State, may that they may despoil us of our very right to suffrage and erect themselves into an independent and hereditary assembly: or we must say, that they have no authority to enact into law the Bill under consideration.”

The Bill did not pass and a year later, Jefferson’s Statute for Religious freedom passed into law.  We must remain vigilant against trespasses against the 1st Amendment.  It is the cornerstone of why religiosity thrives in America.  It is the absence of state control in public spaces that permits churches, and mosques and synagogues and tabernacles and temples to spread and flourish across this country.  

“Hands Off” Louisa, Virginia Rally

Hands Off Signs

As part of nation-wide Hands Off protests and rallies, residents of Louisa, Virginia, assembled at the Court House steps this Saturday to add their voices to a growing chorus across America, and the world, excoriating Trump’s attacks on democracy.

Organized by the Louisa County Democratic Party, the rally was one of the largest gatherings, as I understand it, in memory. The diverse and enthusiastic participants focused on wide ranging issues: Constitutional rights, Education, Healthcare, Human and Civil Rights, Immigration, Justice, LGBTQ rights, Social Security, and Veteran Services. This wasn’t a one issue rally.

Boos and Jeers for Trump

Speeches, songs, and chants filled the Court Houses front steps from noon to two. Homemade signs expressed patriotism and anger. A number of speakers derided Trump’s attacks on democracy and also on our congressional district’s representative John McGuire (R) lack of honesty and integrity in the face of constituent questions.

A song or two
A Louisa Veteran

Speakers repeatedly called to protect social security, medicare, and medicaid –which assists Americas most vulnerable populations — from being cut to fund trillions in taxes cuts for the millionaire class. Boos and catcalls followed mentions of Trump’s tariffs. One speaker addressed the serious threats to veterans and their health services because of massive layoffs and program cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Trump, Musk, and McGuire the villains of the day.

A number of participants volunteered to speak to the assembled crowd. One told of his still living mom’s experiences in Nazi occupied France — she was 11 when they invaded — and her fear that America is heading towards fascism. I can relate to that as my mom and her family lived under Nazis occupation as well. She sees parallels today.

Tom’s Report on the State of America’s Democratic Health

As of April 4, 2025

Weekly Summary of Democratic Backsliding and Erosion

Trump’s pace has slowed but the damage to liberal democracy continues to accumulate, like DDT did in Bald Eagles once.  I mention the tariffs now, not because they are a backsliding of liberal democracy, but as they fail and economic chaos engulfs us, Trump will become more erratic and authoritarian thus accelerating the erosion of democratic values and norms.   

I would also be wary of federal government economic data.  The Departments that report the data, and offices that compile economic and labor data sets, are firmly in Trump’s hand.  Any bad economic data, I fear will be subjected to Trump’s SHARPIE statistical methodology.   

On the positive side, the lower courts for the most part are holding firm. There is the possibility that the judge overseeing the Venezuelan deportation case will hold the Trump administration in contempt this coming week. Stay tuned. Appeal Courts also seem leery of the constitutionality of many of Trump’s executive orders. As a reminder, written arguments for sustaining a pause on Trump’s Birthright citizenship order are due soon.

Below is this week’s summary.  To see the cumulative backsliding list click the benchmark or menu link above.

Diagnosis: Critical.  

Prognosis: Uncertain

Military Loyalty Tests

Trump fires General Timothy Haugh and Wendy Noble, Chief and Deputy Chief of the National Security Agency, America’s critical signals intelligence agency. As a reminder, the NSA is forbidden by law from technical eaves dropping on American citizens.

They were fired at the request of right-wing pundit Laura Loomer for not being sufficiently ‘loyal’ to Trump: Loomer posted on X they were fired for being disloyal to Trump.  Trump in a statement on AF1 heading to Florida, stated people will be fired because we don’t like them or “people that may have loyalties to someone else.”  As the robot in the mid-60s ‘Lost in Space’ TV used to sa, with arms flailing about: “Danger, Danger, Will Robinson.”

These firings come after the firing of several National Security Council Staff earlier in the week, also worryingly at the behest of Laura Loomer.  Press reports indicate Haugh testified in a closed hearing recently and was asked about the Signal scandal.  

Whether the President was angry at Haugh for not giving the party line regarding Signal is unknown but the most likely cause for the firings.  Nonetheless, Trump may have been looking for a reason to fire Haugh and Noble.  Not saying Trump ordered Haugh and Noble to eaves drop on American politicians and others, but that option certainly is a possibility given the rogue nature of these first months of his administration. Frankly, I ask why and how a right-wing pundit with no security clearances may have knowledge of Haugh’s closed door testimony to the Senate. And even more worrisome, why the hell is Trump having sensitive national security discussions with her.

Continued Human and Civil Rights Violations

ICE admits wrongfully detaining Maryland man, says they can’t return him to US from El Salvador prison. Calling it an “administrative error.” Worse, they say they can’t get him back. This man from Maryland — married to an American, and father of a 5-year-old autistic child — was rounded up as part of the Trump’s press event, AKA the mass deportation of Venezuelan gang members.  He was deported back to El Salvador, a country he fled because of gang threats without due process.

Rise of the Government Informer Class

Vigilante surveillance of pro-Palestinian activists on university campus(es).  Pro-Israeli activists are using AI facial recognition to identify and report pro -Palestinian activists/protestors to ICE for deportation, per NBC reporting.  The AI facial recognition was developed for this purpose.  A far-right group — Betar USA –claimed credit for one arrest, per WGBH reporting.

Acts of Cowardice Continue

In an act cowardice and self-censorship, the White House Correspondents Association cancelled comedian Amber Ruffin’s appearance at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, stating that they had “unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year.”  This ends a 42-year history.

To avoid executive orders sanctioning them, several more law firms reached agreements with the White House, to include the law firm Wilkie Farr and Gallagher that Kamal Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, works for. They offered up $100 million in pro bono work for Trump priorities to avoid possible executive order sanctions.  Through these dragnets, Trump has almost garnered a quarter billion dollars in pro bono legal work for Trump initiatives.

New Punitive Investigations

The FCC began an investigation into ABC’s DEI practices. ABC is part of Disney.

Destroying Civil Society and a blow to Labor Unions

Tens of thousands of additional federal employee layoffs announced.  In addition, Trump bans federal government unions collectively bargaining ability. Agencies included in the ban are the Departments of State, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Health and Human Services, Treasury, Justice and Commerce and the part of Homeland Security responsible for border security. Police and firefighters will continue to collectively bargain. Another blow to labor unions.

Per CBS, senior officials at NIH terminated or reassigned:  “Senior leaders at multiple agencies were removed, multiple health officials said, including Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo. Marrazzo replaced Dr. Anthony Fauci as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, senior officials put on leave and reassigned to the Indian Health Service include Dr. Karen Hacker, head of the agency’s chronic disease teams, Kayla Laserson, head of its global health center and Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC’s STD and HIV/AIDS center.”

In a new executive order, President Trump targeted the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the federal agency charged with distributing Congressionally approved funds to state libraries and to library, museum, and archives program grant recipients.  The National Endowment for the arts was also targeted for layoffs and funding cuts.

“Vexation:” A Short History of Habeas Corpus in America

The Scene, Act 1

Imagine driving down Fredericks Hall Road in the early hours heading to work, sipping coffee, a black suburban following too close for comfort. Minutes later a sheriff’s deputy car pulls in between you and the suburban, turns on his or her emergency lights.  You pull over into the B&L Mart parking lot, the suburban following the deputy’s car into the lot.  

Out jump agents in camouflage vests, long guns at the ready.  They order you out of the car, pushing you to the ground, cuffing you, your body violated in every sense as they search you.  Before you know it your whisked away in an unmarked van to a non-descript detention center.  Your “Why am I being arrested?” protests ignored. Demands for a lawyers rebuffed. No Miranda warnings. Requests to make phone calls denied.  Within hours a flight, then a prison in a foreign country.

At best this sounds like a screenplay for a cheap, low budget film.  At worst, a nightmare.  Unfortunately, it’s the latter.  The Trump administration has used similar tactics repeatedly over several weeks.  One Maryland man, who was in the U.S. on protected status, was grabbed from the streets, detained, denied due process, and ended up in an El Salvadoran maximum security prison.  The government admitted later he was detained because of an “administrative error,” adding it was powerless to have him returned to the U.S. and his American wife and 5-year-old autistic child.   Several other persons legally in the U.S. have also been individually detained, imprisoned, and marked for deportation without due process.  

In a larger multi-state operation, hundreds of persons were detained and deported during arrests allegedly targeting Venezuelan gang members when Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.  Despite a federal judge’s order to stop the deportations pending court hearings, even ordering the return of flights in progress, the government willfully ignored the order and let the deportations proceed apace, citing that some of the planes were over international waters and therefore beyond their jurisdiction to recall. 

Newsfeeds showed the deportees led off the planes in shackles, moved from point to point by soldiers forcibly doubling them over, heads shaved for TV crew consumption.  A chilling display of dehumanization reminiscent of Nazi deathcamps.  

At the core of these detentions is the secretive nature of the arrests and reluctance and outright vexatious refusal to respond to federal judges’ orders to produce the body in court: The Writ of Habeas Corpus.

Habeas Corpus

Habeas Corpus’s roots go back to Anglo-Saxon times, evolving after the Norman Invasion in 1066, enshrined in the 39th clause of the Magna Carta in the 13th century, and in 1679, put into English law with the Habeas Corpus Act.  The reason for the 1679 Act, from what I can gather from its text, is that Sheriffs and others were claiming not to have received or misplaced writs of Habeas Corpus, causing “great delayes” and “long detaining’s in Prison….to their great charge and vexation.”   Sound familiar to Trump’s government lawyers?

You must put the 1679 Act within the 17th century’s context of the power politics between King and Parliament in England, eventually being settled as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688/89 and the birth of the English Bill of Rights.  One mustn’t lose one’s head over this history (a little pun off the top of my head), but it is worth recalling.

Americans thought it such a great idea they put it in our Constitution, not once by twice.  It can only be suspended in cases of invasion or rebellion.   The 1789 legislative act creating America’s judicial system gave federal judges the right to issue writs of Habeas Corpus but limited to federal matters.  This power to issue Habeas Corpus writs was expanded after the Civil War in 1867, to include State detentions.  

Rebellion

At the outset of the Civil War, President Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus in certain regions in April 1861. After the arrest of Marylander John Merryman, who was spirited off to a military fort, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney (of Dred Scott infamy) — who also oversaw Maryland’s federal circuit court – issued a writ of Habeas Corpus, demanding Merryman be brought before a judge.  Taney argued that only Congress can suspend Habeas Corpus, not the President.  Lincoln refused.

Lincoln’s Proclamation 94, issued in 1862, further expanded the geographic scope of the suspension of Habeas Corpus.  Congress debated the issue of whether the president or congress can suspend Habeas Corpus, as the Constitution is silent on this matter, but came to no definitive conclusion.  In 1863, nonetheless, Congress passed an Act Suspending Habeas Corpus to give Lincoln’s acts legal cover.  Lincoln signed the bill.

Alien Enemies Act 1798

Unfortunately, the Alien Enemies Act has been used to short circuit Habeas Corpus.  The Act has several parts, it includes a declaration of war, or invasion or predatory incursion by a foreign nation or government.  Only then can aliens of these invading nations be rounded up, or as the act states, “shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as enemy aliens.”  The west coast roundup of Japanese aliens and citizens of Japanese ancestry and their interment in prison camps during the Second World War is one example.  

The round up of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act is absurd.    The gang is not a nation state, it is not part of an invading army or force, and a state of war between the U.S. and Venezuela does not exist.  And by the way, only Congress can declare war.

The War Mindset

This recent short circuiting of Habeas Corpus reveals the mindset of Trump and his administration.  They are at war with parts of America.  And they are using war-time emergency powers such as the Alien Enemies Act to dilute and nullify the Constitution.   Trump is on a war footing where no war exists, and Americans need to take notice.  If you think he will stop at non-citizens or legal permanent residents, I would think long and hard about that proposition.  Just as insidious are those lining up to inform on folks.  Are we heading to a police state?

Think about our neighbors.  Migrants live and work in our community.  Their kids go to our schools. They are a vibrant part of our community and economy.  They build and repair homes, own businesses such as restaurants, gas stations, construction and landscape companies. They pay taxes and shop at local stores. They have the same right to the constitutional protections that we enjoy from unreasonable search and seizure, due process, their day in court.   They should not have to live in fear of disappearing from Fredricks Hall Road and ending up in an El Salvadoran maximum security prison.

Lastly, what can we do?  We have agency, so talk to your representative and express your concerns.  Stress the need for legislative reform.  Ask them to introduce reform bills.  I would start with repealing the Alien Enemies Act and clarify through legislative action who can suspend Habeas Corpus, Congress or the President.  Talk to your neighbors and friends.  Let them know what is going on and what is at stake.

For those on the other side of the aisle who think that Trump is doing is great, I ask you to think down the road.  Restraining a president with expanded Kingly powers will be like holding a wolf by the ears.  The next president may not like you. I hope your Spanish is good.

A dear John Letter: A Response to a Letter from Representative John McGuire

Below is a response to an email I received from Virginia’s 5th Congressional District Representative John McGuire. It was written in response to a letter or email I sent to him. I am appreciative and grateful for his response. I expected it would be one of those form letters, pandering and short on substance.

To my delight it was long, specific, and expressed his world view and take on recent controversial actions by the Trump administration, in particular the alleged unlawful deportation of hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador’s maximum security prison. To my dismay, it demonstrates a fundamental break in who is and who is not entitled to basic constitutional rights.

The letter below is my response. I will mail him a hard copy.

Dear Mr. McGuire:

Thank you for your email dated March 28, regarding the recent deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans alleged to belong to a criminal gang to an El Salvadoran maximum security prison. I appreciate your candor and directly addressing my concerns. However, I would like you to consider some of my observations regarding your response. They are based on my 29 years of federal law enforcement experiences.

In your letter you stated that “Law enforcement spent weeks drafting the list of deportees to make sure all were connected to the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.”  Adding, that if some were mistakenly identified as a gang member, it really didn’t matter because they were in the country illegally: “I am aware there has been some discourse surrounding whether all those deported were connected to Tren de Aragua. I have full faith in our law enforcement, but on the rare chance that some of those who were deported happen to not be gang members they were still here illegally and therefore have committed a crime.”   

I would rather have 150 guilty men go free than imprison 50 innocent men.  It is cruel to send someone who would maybe get six months in a U.S. minimum security prison, than an indefinite stay at a high risk maximum security prison in El Salvador. Cruel and unusual punishment don’t you think?

What you didn’t mention is that despite a Federal District judges order to stop the deportations and return the flights pending hearings for the deportees, the government deported them anyway.  Claiming they were over ‘international waters.’  How could this be if they were over the Gulf of America?  

I believe your claim that you venerate our Constitution, but you seem unaware that our great Constitution has a Habeas Corpus clause.  That is the government must produce “the body” in a court so that the defendant has a right to challenge the charges and their detention.  Basically, that their arrest and confinement were legal.  This fundamental legal concept goes all the way back to the Magna Carta.  That is an 850-year-old tradition bequeathed to us by the British.  And Trump throws it out like yesterday’s trash.  The Judge’s order to stop the deportation was basically a Writ of Habeas Corpus in name and spirit.

I think we can both agree with the proposition that all inhabitants of the United States, regardless of citizenship or immigrant status have the following basic, fundamental human rights we cherish as a nation:

  • The presumption of innocence
  • To be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures (an arrest is a seizure)
  • The right to counsel
  • Right to a speedy and public trial
  • Not to be deprived of life, liberty, property, without due process of law
  • Not subjected to cruel and unusual punishment

The Venezuelans, it appears, were denied every one of these rights enumerated above. I am curious then, why you think these rights do not apply to them?

The arrests and deportations of these Venezuelans is the exact opposite of how our judicial system is supposed to work. The law enforcement agency making the arrests – the ones you have ‘full faith in’ – are not the prosecutor or the judge or the jury.  Our system is designed to be adversarial, where the government must present evidence, to either a grand jury or magistrate before an arrest is made; or, after a warrantless arrest brought before a judge, and in the end convince a jury.

Even the basic right to challenge the government’s assertions of either criminality or being in the country illegally, was denied the Venezuelans, it appears.  From what I can gather, the government presented no evidence.  The court decides whether their detention is legal not ICE or you or Trump.  I can see the discussion now:  Judge, “What proof do you have that the defendant is a gang member?” Agent: “He has gang tattoos.”  Judge: “WTF! Get out of my Court.”  And it goes downhill from there.  

Tattoos? That would be like rounding up everyone who was near Capitol Hill on January 6 wearing a red MAGA hat and deporting them to Guantanamo without due process.  Don’t you think?

Spuriously invoking and using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the government denied their rights, disappearing them:  No due process, no right to counsel, no hearing before a judge, sent to prison in El Salvador without trial for indefinite detention.  That should scare the crap out of everyone.  Then, to top off this charade of justice, DHS Secretary Noem shows up in El Salvador for a photo opportunity.  Thank God there were not gravel pits nearby.

I know I can be pedantic about American history, but did you know that the Alien Enemies Act can only be invoked after a declaration of war?  I really, really, really, hope you are aware that only Congress has the constitutional and legal prerogative to declare war.  The President’s use of the Alien Enemies Act was therefore illegal, extra-Constitutional.

You and I both swore an oath to preserve and protect the Constitution. I did my best to uphold that oath and I expect you to faithfully execute that oath for the people of Virginia’s 5th Congressional District.  It’s your duty to challenge these trespasses and gross injustices by Trump, not excuse them.

Listen, I am not against deporting criminal aliens and believe in protecting our borders. One of the last cases I oversaw resulted in a child sex trafficker getting 25 years in federal prison. But let me ask you this, why protect our borders when a sitting president destroys the country from within by attacking the fundamental rights we agree are essential to this great country’s democracy? When police ‘gather lists’ at the direction of political leaders we are in dangerous territory. Whatever you think ails this country, strangling democracy to save it is not the right answer.

Thank you and I look forward to our continued dialog.

Lost and Found: Where in the World is John McGuire

Yesterday, the House of Representative’s DOGE Subcommittee, chaired by Marjorie Taylor Greene, provided a WWE style smackdown of senior executives from National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service.  The usual theater, chair shots, kissing up to Fox News, bullying, the outcome preordained. 

John McGuire, Virginia’s 5th Congressional District Representative, and a member of the DOGE Subcommittee was nowhere in sight.  Maybe he was teleworking?  He did not make an appearance (from what I can tell) much less ask any questions.  In an almost 3-hour hearing you would expect him to show up and ask a question or two.  He didn’t.  Was he getting his nails done?  Maybe he was on some Signal group chat. The dais where the representatives lord over the witnesses was mostly empty throughout the hearing, although I must admit, that there were more chairs than members on the Subcommittee.

It was an important hearing.  It was federal funding life or death for NPR and PBS.  Looks like death.  If the Subcommittee had its way, according to Greene, they would never get another penny of taxpayers’ money.  McGuire, I suspect would agree with the Subcommittee’s sentiments.

What galls me is that federal workers have been excoriated for allegedly not showing up for work or being lazy or wasteful, by folks like McGuire.  Justification for purging tens of thousands from federal government payrolls. The usual claptrap.  So, where was he on Wednesday?  My tax dollars, and your tax dollars, pay his salary, and I expect and demand him to put in the time and show up for committee hearings, ask questions when important issues are being discussed.

Please call or write Mr. McGuire and ask where the hell he was yesterday and why wasn’t he at the hearing to ask questions.  Finally, tell him to support NPR and PBS if you are so inclined.

Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

This past Sunday Democrats held an innovative multi-county town hall meeting in Goochland County, Virginia.  The invited guest, Rep. John McGuire (R), who represents Virginia’s 5th congressional district, did not accept the offer to speak to his beloved constituents.  In his place stood a cardboard avatar of McGuire, sporting a long, long, long, red tie, cartoon speech balloons emanated from his head. It reminded me of 18th century satirical political cartoons by William Hogarth.  

It was standing room only, a spirited, eclectic gathering.  Most were women, a good number of veterans, and a few former Republicans sprinkled among us. A microcosm of rural America: farmers, veterans, small business owners, local government employees, a few ministers, a good show of teachers, retirees, and some young’uns.   Some were in their Sunday best, either coming from or going to Church.  

McGuire’s replacement avatar and speaker was a civil rights attorney from Albemarle County.  After introductions he took questions and offered observations about McGuire and directly addressed Chuck Schumer’s about face on the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government.  I think his comments reflected the general mood of the crowd: anger and frustration at Schumer.

The overall tenor of the questions asked was one of concern, fury, and annoyance at Trump and Musk.   These concerns, anger, and frustration were not reserved only for Trump, but at national Democrat leadership in Congress as well:   Where is it?  What’s the opposition strategy?  If you did a word count of participants comments, I think “fight” would be at the top of the list.  The verb, not the noun.

My takeaways from the town hall are that folks are not only worried about Trump’s reckless assault on our Constitution but also troubled by the lack of a will to fight and take risks by national Democratic Party leadership.  Schumer’s about face and capitulation, being Exhibit A.   The lack of an articulated strategy to respond to the erosion of democracy being Exhibit B.  No mid-term election plan, Exhibit C. 

It seems folks feel rudderless in a tempest, watching the ship of state drift closer to the shoals, the captain nowhere to be found, lifeboats swept away.  I imagine leaders in local Democratic party organizations are themselves frustrated at the national leadership.  I see the fatigue in their eyes and hear it in their voices. They are leaning hard into the the headwinds trying to thwart our democracy. They deserve better from national leadership.

I get the sense that folks desperately want to participate in meaningful opposition but only have timeworn responses in their tool kit:  write letters; email or call your representatives; show up for town halls; boycott businesses that support Trump.  These measures seem futile, like using little adhesive band aids when one needs a trauma kit, a tourniquet to keep America’s democracy from bleeding out. 

When I found out a day or two after the town hall that Schumer cancelled his tour to hawk his new book because of security reasons, my first thought was, ‘book tour?” WTF? Really, Rome is burning, and he is going on a book tour.  What doesn’t he get?  It just highlights that the intellectual framework that guides his notion of being a Senator is dated, like orange shag carpets and lava lamps.  He clings to a nostalgic past to the detriment of our future. 

No need to hit the panic button, but time is not on our side, given Trump’ frantic pace to undo democracy. The mid-terms are too far off to make any real, immediate course corrections.  The national Democratic Party leadership needs to get off its’ ass.  Trust us.  We will do the right thing if given the chance, but it requires tough national leadership that is willing to take risks, carry the flag at the front.  At my infantry basic course our motto was:  “Lead, follow, or Get out of the Way.”  Mr. Schumer, get out of the way.     

Tom’s Weekly Report on the State of America’s Democratic Health

As of March 14, 2025

It was a busy week with push back by the courts. Of significance was the apparently warrantless arrest of a legally permanent resident of Palestinian origin for national security reasons. He was arrested in NYC but moved to a detention facility in Louisiana and denied access to legal counsel. Two additional search warrants were executed yesterday (or today) at Columbia University by DHS agents.

Additionally, Trump requested the Supreme Court overturn three district judge rulings staying the implementation of his Birthright Citizenship ban. If the Supreme Court sides with Trump this would nullify the 14th Amendment and fundamentally alter how we as a nation think of citizenship. Very dangerous moment in America.

BENCHMARKS OF DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING AND EROSION

Civil Society:

  • Us verse Them
    • DOD purges DEI related words from all current and previous website posts.  Words such as Gay were removed, to include reference to the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that carried he atomic bomb over Hiroshima.
    • Federal government bans a long list of words that cannot be used in official correspondence, documents, websites, etc.  
    • Republicans in the House of representatives threatened to withhold federal funding if the District of Columbia did not paint over a Black Lives Matters mural. DC obliged.
    • Musk and Shapiro lobby Trump to pardon Derick Chauvin for federal convictions for violating George Floyd’s civil rights when he murdered Floyd.
    • Trump offers expedited citizenship to white south African farmers.
    • Attacks on DEI.  Recent threat to investigate Georgetown University law school and not hire graduates who apply for federal jobs.
    • Attacks on Trans people
    • Increasing number of book bans.
    • Prohibiting teaching African American studies, curriculum
    • Mass deportations
    • Trump requests Supreme Court overturn lower courts decisions to stay the birthright citizenship executive order.  Birthright citizenship executive order.
    • DOGE attacks on career civil service
    • Political attacks on European Allies in particular
    • Tariffs on trade allies 
    • Executive Order stating English is official language
    • Threats to seize Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada
  • Legislative Attacks on Minorities
    • Criminalizing or limiting Trans gender care in states (26 states)
    • Attacks on DEI 
    • Laws restricting trans athletes (23 states)
    • Executive Orders targeting LGBTQ persons in general and the military in particular.
    • As of November 1, 2022, 16 states had passed laws restricting the ability of educators to talk about race and racism in the curriculum. In 2019, only one state had such law. All 16 states provide details of the specific concepts that cannot be taught; five states explicitly prohibit teaching “critical race theory.”
    • Seven states impose penalties for discussing race and racism in the classroom. Two of those states name specific penalties for teachers (Arizona and New Hampshire) and principals (New Hampshire).
  • Political/Military Relations
    • Trump loyalist and right-wing TV broadcaster as SecDef
    • Firing of Chairman and Joint Chiefs
    • Trump loyalist Chairman Joint Chiefs pick
    • Firing of Senior Military Service JAGs
    • Firing of women leadership
    • Purging DEI related words from DOD websites
  • Attacks on liberal democratic Institutions and values
    • Political attacks on US Ally values
    • NATO membership in doubt
    • UN (e.g., recent vote with North Korea, Russia, and Belarus to against resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine)
    • WHO withdrawal
    • Dismantling of USAID
    • Attacks on Press and First Amendment
  • Attacks on career civil service 
    • DOGE.  UPDATE:  A federal judge in San Francisco orders the reinstatement of probationary employees fired in mass layoff.  The District Judge deemed the firings “unlawful.”   
    • House Oversight Chair seeks investigation to “root out partisan staff who joined the executive branch” at the end of the Biden Administration.  Requesting names of all employees hired between Jan 1, 2024 and Jan 20, 2025.
  • Manufactured political, social, economic crises
    • DOGE
    • 2020 election result denial
    • Jan 6 insurrection and coup
    • Trans in sports
    • DEI in government, academic institutes
    • Zelenskyy/Ukraine White House televised meeting
    • Redo: Trade wars/Tariffs
  • Control/Manipulate media platforms
    • Social media companies X and Truth Social have become de facto government communications, issuing government wide edicts. 
    • X (Musk)
    • Truth Social (Trump)
    • Facebook (Zuckerburg Coopted by Trump)
    • Instagram (Zuckerburg Coopted by Trump)
  • Physical, economic, psychological coercion (trolls, social media, etc)
    • X
    • Truth Social
    • Facebook
    • Instagram 
  • Attacks on Science/Academics
    • Citing waste, fraud, and abuse, the EPA administrator canceled $20 Billion in Biden-era climate change grants. A federal judge ordered the EPA to provide an affidavit documenting evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse by Monday, March 17.  Stay tuned.
    • Trump stops $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University for allegedly not protecting Jewish students.  Additional schools on target list.
    • Trump calls for congress to “get rid” of the CHIPS and Science Act, $52 billion for increasing domestic capacity to manufacture computer chips. 
    • Trump on social media threatens to halt funding of universities or colleges that don’t expel students that protest. Threatens to deport foreign students.
    • Attacks on DEI at Universities, Research Institutions, 
    • DOGE mass firings NIH, NOAA, FDA, USDA, National Weather Service
    • WHO withdrawal
    • Eliminating science grants

Constitution:

  • Insurrection Act
    • Trump issued executive order Jan 20 requiring the Secretaries of defense and DHS to complete a report in 90-days on whether to declare a national emergency at the southern border, invoke the Insurrection Act and other measures.
  • Bills of Attainder
    • Trump Executive Order punishing a law firm that represents Democratic Party clients was rejected in part by a federal judge, who compared the executive order to a ‘Bill of Attainder,’ which is a legislative act by congress that punishes a person without a trial. Bills of attainder are banned by the Constitution (Article 1, section 8).  The judge issued a partial restraining order on the EO, writing the order ‘sent chills down her spine.’
  • Birthright Citizenship Executive Order that bans birthright citizenship, counter to the 14thAmendment and Supreme Court precedence.  Three district judges stayed the order and this week Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn the stays.  A ruling in favor of Trump would effectively nullify the 14th Amendment and throw the country in chaos.
  • Presidential Term limits
    • Trump openly discusses multiple terms. 
    • Some in Congress drafting constitutional amendment to do such
  • Erode separation of powers
    • Senate confirms unqualified nominees to all cabinet positions. 
    • DOGE, Congress surrender power of the purse
    • Congress acquiescing to Trump (executive aggrandizement)
    • Centralizing executive power (Unitary theory of executive power).
    • Executive Order for President to assume supervision over independent agencies.
    • Judge permits DOGE to take over the US African Development Foundation, an independent Agency created by Congress.  The Foundation’s mission, according to it’s website, is to “invest in African grassroots organizations, entrepreneurs and small and medium sized businesses to promote local economic development.
  • Attacks on judiciary/court rulings
    • Vance and Musk call for impeachment of judges who rule against Trump initiatives.  
    • Conservative Super Majority on SCOTUS.  Mitchell rule about nominating supreme court justices in election years.  One rule for Democrats another for Republicans.
    • While lower courts are ruling against Trumps recent executive orders, it remains unclear whether the Supreme Court will sustain these rulings. Positive news:  Supreme Court upheld decision to restore USAID funds.
    •  Additionally, Supreme Court’s last term decision to grant Trump unlimited immunity from criminal prosecution for illegal acts done as official acts.
  • Attacks on press independence  
    • Amazon Prime, owned by Bezos, paid Trump’s wife $40 million for a biopic.  Amazon Prime recently added reruns of the TV show The Apprentice to Prime TV.
    • Bezos changing opinion section in Post.  
    • Lawsuits against ABC, CBS, and Des Moines Register.  
    • FCC investigation of NPR and PBS.
    • AP Ban at White House
    • Pentagon kicking out some press agencies
    • White House controlling of who in Press Pool
  • New Unaccountable Institutions (DOGE)
    • US district judge orders DOGE to turn over documents in a ‘discovery request’ from several States AGs, citing DOGE’s “unprecedented power” and “unusual secrecy.”
    • Social media companies X and Truth Social have become de facto government communications, issuing government wide edicts. 
  • Impeachment effectiveness
    • Impeachment failed to remove Trump during his first term.  
    • Calls to impeach judges who issue rulings counter to Trump (Musk/Vance)
  • Amend constitution
    • Trump requests Supreme Court overturn lower court stays on implementing birthright citizenship Executive Order.  Birthright citizenship is major test of Supreme Court independence
    • Change presidential term limits
  • Executive aggrandizement
    • Every day

Rule of Law:

  • Investigations/arrests
    • Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, permanent resident/green card holder, arrested and threatened with deportation as a national security risk. Removed to a detention facility on Louisiana, although arrested in NYC.  Access to lawyers denied. Trump administration said more such arrests were coming.  Judge blocks deportation.  Two additional search warrants were executed at Columbia student residences by DHS agents.  No arrests.
    • Acting US Attorney District of Columbia sends target letter to Georgetown University law school regarding DEI. Threatens to not hire applicant from GT Law school for internships, etc.
    • In a setback to Trump, a court ruled that the firing of the head of the Federal Employee Labor Board, ruling the firing was unlawful.
    • Trump threatens to jail people on “domestic terrorism” charges for vandalizing Tesla cars at a White House garage sale of Tesla vehicles.
    • Trump signs Executive Order suspending security clearances of law firm Perkins Cole, a Seattle-based firm, that has long provided legal work for the DNC and other democratic and liberal groups. In an updated, a judge has issued a temporary restraining order on the executive order, comparing the Order to a “Bill of Attainder.” The judge wrote that EO sent “chills down her spine.”
    • NY Times reports that Senator Chuck Schumer is target of DOJ investigation. 
    • Operation Whirlwind, threat to investigate those that oppose DOGE by acting US Attorney District of Columbia Ed Martin.
    • NYC Mayor quid pro quo:  Drop federal corruption charges in exchange for political fealty.
    • Trump pauses enforcement of law prohibiting US businesses from bribing overseas companies, governments.
    • Trump on social truth threatens to cut funding for universities and colleges that don’t crack down on protests/free speech.  $400 million Columbia university.
    • Bank accounts frozen by DOJ of NGOs receiving funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction fund at the request of EPA admin who labeled these groups as “left wing.”  Eight recipients bank accounts frozen.  A Fed prosecutor resigned, saying she has been pressured to launch a criminal investigation despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.
    • Request by border Czar to DOJ to target Rep. Ocasio-Cortez
    • Threat to prosecute “sanctuary cities.”
    • Trump pardons all Jan 6 convicted felons.  Some of whom assaulted police officers.
    • Repeated threats to jail political opponents by Trump
    • Firing and investigation of federal prosecutors who participated in crimes committed by Trump (Jan 6, classified doc case)
    • Fire, demote, and investigate FBI agents
  • Creation of Paramilitaries
    • White Papers submitted to White House to create paramilitary forces to round up undocumented immigrants by multiple groups.  
    • This would circumvent posse comitatus (no use of military in Law enforcement)
  • Armed civilians
    • While the overall number of hate groups has dropped since 2018, the number of white supremacist groups had risen to an all-time high according the Southern Poverty Law Center.  
    • The number of reported incidents has risen, despite an overall drop in total group numbers. 
    • Pardoning of Proud Boys convicted of insurrection.
  • Mass incarcerations
    • Undocumented immigrants
    • Off-shore prison (Guantanamo)
    • Trump state willing to deport American criminals to foreign prisons

Voting Rights/Civil Rights:

  • Protecting elections from cyber attacks
    • The acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency paused “all election security activities” pending the results of an internal investigation (?).  All funding to the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis center was cut.  This center helps state and local officials monitor, analyze, and respond to cyber-attacks targeting the nation’s election hardware and software.  Critical CISA election protection staff targeted for termination.
  • Attacks on Suffrage:
    • Birthright citizenship executive order would impact suffrage
  • Attacks on Voting (state/federal laws)
    • North Carolina Supreme Court judge election:  Riggs, a Democratic justice defeated Republican challenger by 734 votes, a vote tally confirmed by two separate recounts.  Republican Griffin filed numerous legal challenges seeking to throw out more than 60,000 ballots. 
    • Trump attempt to take control of FEC and other independent agencies
    • Birthright citizenship would throw voter rolls into chaos and reduce voting rolls by tens of millions.  
    • Federal bill to require proof of citizenship when registering to vote and updating voter registration reintroduced 2025.  Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or the SAVE Act.
    • Shortened window to apply for mail-in or absentee voting (10 states since 2020)
    • Shortened window to deliver mail-in or absentee ballots (5 states since 2020)
    • New restrictive voter ID requirements (15 states since 2020)
    • Expanded laws to purge voter rolls (13 states since 2020)
    • Laws that limit number, location, and availability of ballot drop boxes (8 states since 2020)
    • Move US Postal System to Commerce Department open potential to manipulate absentee voting
  • Gerrymandering
    • Creating safe districts where there are no challengers from opposing party. See incumbency rates above.
  • incumbency (win/loss)
    • Too many safe districts.  
    • Incumbent wins reelection 95 percent.  
    • At the state level runs about 94 percent.  A number of states had 100 percent incumbent win.
  • Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights
    • Dobbs decision overturning Roe.  
    • 12 states banned abortions
    • 6 states no women’s health exceptions

Separation of Church and State, Religious Freedom

Supreme Court said States that provide taxpayer funded vouchers to private schools must also provide said vouchers to religious school students (2020).  In 2022 the Court again ruled in another case that the State could not restrict such funds within the school, that is fence off the voucher money to pay for religious instruction and worship.

State Governments establishing Christian studies, symbols, and objects at Public Schools to the exclusion of other religions 

  • Oklahoma: incorporate bible into the curriculum but no other religions’ texts.

Louisianna requires public schools display the ten commandments but no other religions’ tenets. 

No-Show Schumer:  Capitulation in the Age of a Spinless Democratic Party

Chuck Schumer’s astonishing flip flop to vote for the Continuing Resolution to fund the government through the remainder of fiscal year 2025 was if anything predictable.  It highlights Democrat’s Achilles Heel: No convictions.  What do they stand for?   Nothing, it appears.  Nothing they are willing to sacrifice for.

As America struggled with Trump’s blitzkrieg against liberal democracy during the first weeks of his presidency, I was disappointed in the silence of Democratic leaders.  A lack of any coordinated response.  I asked myself, “does America have a Navalny?”  We used to.  Folks like Martin Luther King Jr. or Euguene Debs or Lucy Burns.  Folks willing to go to jail for a principle or closely held principle. If you don’t know who Navalny is, or was, you should.  He was a Russian opposition leader and Putin’s nemesis.  Jailed and poisoned, he managed to leave Russia for medical treatment, and then returned, facing imprisonment and almost certain life in prison or death.  He was arrested on arrival, subjected to a show trial, convicted and imprisoned.  He died in 2024 at age 47.   

I was unaware of his last letter.  While watching “Letters Live” on Youtube, and by chance, I stumbled upon actor Benedict Cumberbatch reading Alexi Navalny’s last letter.  Chance being a weird word in a world of algorithms deciding what you see online.  

Navalny starts the letter by explaining why he returned:  “It’s actually very simple,” he wrote. “I have my country and my convictions and I don’t want to renounce either my country or my convictions.”  He added, “If your convictions are worth anything, you should be ready to standup for them, and, if necessary, make some sacrifices.  And if you’re not ready, then you have no convictions at all. You just think you do.  But those are not convictions and principles, just thoughts in your head.”  Navalny’s words about conviction and principle struck home. They were the confessions of a dying man.  They weren’t trivial academic utterances of someone sitting in a leather chair, safe, and on a third scotch.  This was real.

Chuck Schumer’s  words ring hollow, he has no conviction or principle.  And he is 79.  Neither it seems does the other Democratic Party leaders.  While I disagree with Trump and his party on most everything, they at least have some sort of driving conviction and principle and are willing to take risks, make mistakes, even make sacrifices.  

Americans can at times lose their ways, but deep down they have an innate common sense.  They know Trump is a con and a grifter, but to many he’s their grifter.  On another level, they hate spineless shits who are afraid of their own shadows even more.  They lose respect for those who don’t stand up for their own, don’t stand up for their convictions or principles, however, tainted or screwed up.  That is an unforgiveable sin. The Democratic Leader are just such spineless shits.