Tag: virginia

“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. 

The Rule of Law:   Are Trump’s Executive Orders the New Bills of Attainder?

You may have noticed the term ‘Bill of Attainder’ recently in newspaper articles or streaming news services.  

A federal district Judge this week imposed a temporary restraining order on Trump’s Executive Order punishing a law firm that represents Democratic Party clients in general, and former special counsel Jack Smith in particular.  The Executive Order barred the firm, Perkins Cole, from federal contracts, stripped security clearances, and prohibited federal employees from retaining the firm for legal services.  The judge compared the Executive Order to a Bill of Attainder, writing that the Order ‘sent chills down her spine.’  Two things.  First, thank God someone has a spine in Washington DC, and two, it should send chills down everyone’s spines.

So, what is a Bill of Attainder?  Like many things in American Constitutional law, it has its roots in England.  William Blackstone’s mid-18th century “Commentaries on the Laws of England” provides the go to legal description of a Bill of Attainder.  Basically, Parliament could sentence a person to death, without a trial, through legislative fiat. Normally, for treasonous acts.  Execution for treason was a ritual in England and other monarchies.  After burning at the stake was banned in late 18th century, hanging, disembowelment while still alive, beheading  and quartering, became standard in England. Parliament could also seize property or banish a person from England simply through legislative acts, sometimes called Bills of Pain or Penalties.  America’s founders thought this a bad idea.  

The Constitution specifically prohibits Bills of Attainder.  At the Constitutional Convention, on Aug 22, delegates Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and James McHenry or Maryland introduced the clause “The Legislature shall pass no Bill of Attainder nor any ex post facto law.”  There was practically no debate, with most of the discussion on whether the latter part of the clause was necessary.  Which suggests they thought it not controversial to ban Bills of Attainder.  Nonetheless, coming very late in the convention, and before air conditioning, I imagine the urge to debate was wanning.  That said, many of the delegates were very familiar with Blackstone’s commentaries and some even had a copy in their personal library and thought the ban necessary.

In Article 1, which enumerates the powers of Congress, section 9, the Constitution states, “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.  In section 10, States were prohibited from enacting Bills of Attainder as well. While the proscriptions apply to Congress and State legislative bodies, it seems that the intent of the ban – and the spirit of the law — would also apply to Executive Orders.  An Executive Order, according the Chief Information Officers Council ( CIO.gov),  has, and I quote, “the force of law.”

I am not a lawyer or Constitutional scholar, but it seems to me that President Trump has weaponized Executive Orders to punish and impose pain on his political and culture war enemies.  Trump’s Bills of Pain and Punishment.

For instance, the creation of DOGE, an extra-legal government agency, to target and eliminate congressionally mandated and funded government programs.  Basically, hanging, gutting, and quartering the career civil service along with executive department and independent agencies without meaningful congressional oversight, public comment, or legal restraint. 

Another example, is the order to ban birthright citizenship through executive order: “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.”  An Order that blatantly lied about the Supreme Court’s century old interpretation of the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship.  More on that in a forthcoming Blog on birthright citizenship. That order is motivated, it appears, by racial animus and is meant to punish the current wave of immigrants to America — which are overwhelmingly brown or black from, as Trump would say, “Shit Hole countries” — by making their children born in America stateless.

And finally, the Executive Order to “Protect the US from Foreign Terrorist and Other National Security or Public Safety Threats,” was used recently as a pre textual basis to detain a permanent legal resident and Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil as a national security risk. After his arrest he was sent to an immigration detention facility hundreds of miles away in Louisiana, even barring him from access to lawyers.  A judge stayed his deportation temporarily. That should scare the crap out of everyone.

Thankfully the courts have countered some of these executive orders, but will the Supreme Court sustain these lower court rulings.  That remains uncertain, even birthright citizenship is in jeopardy, I believe, given the present makeup of the Supreme Court.  If the Supreme Court decides to take up the Birthright case, and not let lower court rulings stand, that should send shivers of fear down every American’s spine.   

Lifeboat:  A recap of John McGuire’s call-in Town Hall

Representative John McGuire of Virginia’s 5th Congressional District held a call-in town hall meeting recently.  I don’t know how many folks attended the town hall, but I do know that when folks were selected to ask McGuire questions the majority queried him about Medicaid cuts and DOGE. Funny, no talks of eggs.

McGuire started the town hall by asking listeners to participate in a poll.  The first question was, “do they want to root out waste, fraud, and abuse? “ That’s like asking Medieval folks if they want to root out Black Death, the plague.  Of course they did.  It’s the methodology that they had quibbles over.  In 17th century England, if a household member got plague, the whole household was locked inside the house for 30 or 45 days, a guard posted outside.  That quarantine was extended as other household members sickened and died.  Normally, everyone perished.  Sounds a bit like DOGE’s methodology regarding USAID and lifesaving anti-viral drugs for millions of Africans. 

But back to the town hall.  The first question McGuire was asked sounded the alarm about the proposed $880 billion dollar cut to government agencies overseen by the energy and commerce committee.  This would entail massive cuts to Medicaid, the caller thought.  McGuire’s response was to happily, almost joyfully, point out that Medicaid was not mentioned once in the proposed budget blueprint.  Duh!  The New York Times reported that if the committee cut all other non-safety net programs under their oversight, they would still have to eliminate an additional $600 billion in funding.  That means Medicaid would be hit….hard.

Another caller, a preacher, pointed out that 24 percent of his district receives Medicaid.   I asked myself, did it ever dawn on McGuire to ask himself, “why do so many folks who work full-time jobs in my district can’t afford medical insurance or care? “ Piss poor wages dude!  Nationwide, over 64 percent of Medicaid recipients work.  In Louisa County, 17 percent receive Medicaid, and this is in a county where unemployment is just a smidge over 2 percent. According to Virginia law, if Medicaid expansion funding from the Federal government drops to a certain level, the program is abandoned.  Yes, abandoned.  That would mean 600,000 Virginians would lose access to health care, many of whom are kids.  Later callers, it was clear, weren’t buying McGuire’s Trumpian responses.

The same went for DOGE.  Near universal condemnation of DOGE’s chainsaw approach, many pointing out its cold-heartedness.  One caller, from the Charlottesville area, said folks in her organization – which she specified — were worried about the haphazard cuts and potential cuts to come.  In perhaps a Freudian slip, McGuire spoke of her position and organization in the past tense.   Which he corrected quickly.  I am sure that that slip was noted by listeners.

During overwhelmingly negative comments and questions regarding DOGE’s incompetence and draconian Medicaid cuts, McGuire’s aid interjected and offered an email question.  The email question was quite flattering of McGuire.  Really, were not dumb!

Overall, McGuire got an earful, but I don’t think he listened.  Too often he used rehearsed and prepared talking points (you heard papers shuffling) instead of genuine concern.  Given the tenure of other town halls I seen or heard about, I was surprised at how calm the questioners were.  Very civil, very polite, but direct as well.  McGuire was civil himself, but too often resorting to the same phrase, saying, ‘I still love you even though we disagree.’  

I think McGuire forgot a cardinal rule in politics:  He forgot who he works for.  We expect our politicians to omit and lie and obfuscate, but we don’t expect them to work against our interests.  It was obvious he works for Trump and not us.  Ben Franklin at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 said it best I think:  “In free governments, the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.”

You may be wondering why Lifeboat” is in the title of this essay. I remember as a kid watching a black and white war movie telling the story of the survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship.  The drama takes place in the overcrowded lifeboat: too many people, not enough space, too little food or water.  As time passed people died or were killed.  I realized later with age and little bit of wisdom, that the lifeboat was a parable about class and society.  The passengers represented a spectrum of society:  a wealthy socialite, working class ship hands, upper class passengers, the young and elderly, a vulnerable woman with a dead child, an enemy portrayed by the German U-boat captain. Conflicts ensued as resources, and hope, dwindled.  Winners and losers.  Everyone dead or morally tainted.

That’s the paradigm that sticks in my mind when I think of politics in America today.  America the Lifeboat.  Billions, tens of billions in cuts to Medicaid and other safety-net programs — mostly to working class folks – to pay for $4 trillion in tax cuts, the bulk of the dollars going to the wealthiest Americans.   I think that’s not the ‘golden age’ most folks who voted for Trump envisioned or want.

Golden, Gilded, or Gelded: America, Tech Bros, and the Age of Unchecked Constitutional Abuses

Trump promised a golden age, some see a gilded age, I see a gelded age.   That’s not to say that money doesn’t talk, it always has in politics, but I don’t see a plutocracy of tech bros calling the shots in Washington.  Even though Musk appeared to secure a co-presidency through a $270ish million-dollar donation to Trump, he will soon learn that a fool and his money are soon parted.  Anyway, technically, a billionaire occupies the White House, one who used his first term to increase his wealth and does not seem averse to using his second term to accumulate greater wealth and power.  He is a profiteer at heart, while proclaiming to be a disruptor of the Washington swamp. 

The tech bros, while appearing to leverage power through wealth much like Gilded Age titans of industry, they don’t leverage much if any real power.  A ‘like,’ a ‘post,’ a ‘search’ are ephemeral.  Except for Musk, they really don’t make anything of tactile value.  They do control the flow of information, however, and that’s what Trump wants access to.  He wants to coopt the tech bros to obliterate the difference between fact and fiction, truth and falsehood for the purpose of eroding democracy.  That’s the irony, using tech to control and manipulate the lifeblood of democracy:  An informed and educated populace.

Jefferson wrote it best in a letter to Judge William Johnson in June 1823 some two hundred years ago:  “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the peoples themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.  This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

The theater that was the inauguration said much about how Trump sees the world and the tech bros.  Those that read tea leaves saw plutocracy, a new Gilded Age, pointing to Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Sundar Pichai (Google), and Elon Musk (Tesla, Starlink, X, SpaceX) sitting behind Trump.  With Musk closest to the Trump of the four.  

What I saw was a modern version of a Roman Triumph. Way back when Rome ruled much of Europe, when a Roman general won a significant victory he was accorded a paraded through the streets of Rome.   Behind the chariot carrying the general were his warrior prisoners, marking their subjugation,  and carts of gold and silver or other tributes.  The Tech Bros, provided Trump million-dollar donations – the modern American version of tribute – to fund his inauguration.  To me, the four weren’t there as honored guests but were Trump’s display of defeated enemies.  Fortunately for the Tech Bros, they did not suffer the same fate as the defeated after the end of the procession.

How does Trump coopt them?  Simple:  Greed and fear.  Greed:  They all have multibillion dollar businesses to protect and fear Trump because he has the power to cancel their billion-dollar government contracts.  Amazon’s cloud computing contracts, for example, or, for Musk, other government investments.  Musk benefited from $38 billion in federal investments.  Zuckerberg’s fears are more focused on DOJ civil litigation threats, I think.  Fear:  They know Trump’s penchant for vengeance.  With a phone call Trump’s regulatory agencies can investigate.  Trump’s IRS can audit.  Trump’s DOJ can threaten both civil and criminal investigations, for instance, target Google’s internet search monopoly.

They all reacted differently.  Musk became the collaborator, Bezos the stooge, Zuckerberg a wet piece of toast, Pichai seems to have gone deep and silent after changing Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.    

Bezos’ behavior is comedic.  Changing and limiting the opinion section of the Washington Post, the newspaper he owns.  Recall, he pulled the Post’s endorsement of Harris before the election.  Additionally, Amazon Prime reportedly paid Melania Trump $40 million for a biopic.  More recently, Amazon Prime began streaming Trump’s reality TV show, The Apprentice.  Zuckerberg, jettisoned content moderation and fired its fact checkers and quite publicly proclaiming the end of DEI at Meta.  

Bezos, Pichai, Musk, and Zuckerberg are not part of a new Gilded Age but are part of a new Gelded Age.  An Age marked by dissolving the lines between fact and fiction, truth and falsehood so that abuses of constitutional power are unchecked.