Supreme Court’s October Term Single Issue: Uphold or Repeal Democracy

      

Portland October 4th, Tear Gas, Federal Troops, No Civilians

Supreme Court’s October Term Single Issue: Uphold or Repeal Democracy

Trump Approach: Provoke, Provoke, Provoke, Lie, Lie, Lie

"I appointed the judge and he goes like that, so I wasn't served well. Obviously, I don't know the judge. But if he made that kind of a decision — Portland is burning to the ground. You have agitators, instigators, all you have to do is look at the television, turn on your television, read your newspapers. It's burning to the ground. The governor, the mayor, the politicians, they're petrified for their lives…. That judge ought to be ashamed of himself." 

Donald Trump, October 5th against his own appointment, Oregon-based U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut, a woman, not a “he.” after her ruling that there was no evidence of a violent insurrection in Portland meriting the deployment of federal troops.

“Chicago is a war zone.” 

Kristi Noem, October 4th

The above photograph shows federal agents and troops deploying tear gas, creating a photo op, but there are no civilians there. Portland conducted its annual marathon, as runners passed ICE agents. While folks avoided tear-gassed regions, weekend diners, in a very peaceful Portland, enjoyed meals in their favorite restaurants. Of course there were protestors, virtually all very peaceful, as is their right under the First Amendment. That only 2 protestors were arrested over the October 3rd to 6th weekend, only 36 over the preceding 4 months, suggests that, just perhaps, Portland is not burning down to the ground.

A Trump appointed “federal judge in Portland, Ore. temporarily blocked President Trump from federalizing 200 members of the state's National Guard… U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut ruled that the government didn't meet the threshold for declaring recent ongoing protests outside an ICE facility in Portland a rebellion. She noted in her ruling that the Portland Police Bureau's 812 officers are trained in crowd management and First Amendment law. She also noted their mutual aid agreements with neighboring law enforcement agencies, as well as with the Oregon State Police and federal law enforcement, signaling that they had protests well in hand.” NPR, October 4th.

In those federal court proceedings challenging Trump’s justifications for sending federalized troops into Portland, Judge Immergut reviewed the on-the-ground reality, hard evidence, to sustain her ruling. The only evidence posted by the Trump administration were Trump assertions and social media postings of his stated opinion… without substantiating facts. Invoking the word “insurrection,” mega-insecure megalomaniac architect of Trump’s extremism, Stephen Miller, pronounced Judge Immergut’s ruling “legal insurrection.” In his warped mind, once the President makes a statement, there is no justification for a court to challenge his opinion, no right to inquire as to the factual basis for such presidential statements. The above quote underscores Trump belief that his judicial appointments are expected to “serve” him personally. Loyalty to him trumps the Constitution and laws passed pursuant to that founding document?

All this was happening as, on October 4th, the President authorized the deployment of an initial contingent of 300 federalized National Guard troops to Chicago despite firm opposition from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker or Chicago’s mayor, both of whom have spoken out strongly against the move. The move came amid mounting criticism that Trump is using law enforcement and military powers to assert political control over Democrat-run cities.

Just days before this declaration, Blackhawk helicopters had hovered above an apartment building on Chicago’s South Shore Drive, federal agents in military fatigues descended by ropes, while others broke into the building and smashed through doors with flash-bangs, dragged residents into the street in zip ties (some of them naked), and left families outside for hours while apartments were trashed. Eyewitnesses say children were zip-tied together. While most in the roughly 25%-30% of the US MAGA minority that support Trump’s veer into autocracy, his plunging polls on point (under 30% approval rating according to Gallup) tell you that the vast majority of Americans are appalled at this military takeover.

“[T]he backlash you are seeing to these ICE raids is not coming primarily from Antifa or whatever other left-wing boogeyman they're pushing on Fox News. When you put an army of masked, anonymous, poorly trained and heavily armed men on the streets to snatch people from their homes, cars and jobs you are going to provoke a response from regular Americans — because this is un-American behavior. There is a way to carry out Trump's promise of deportations that abides by our laws and norms and this is not it.” Carlo Versano, writing for the October 6th Newsweek feed. On October 6th, Illinois and Chicago sued the Trump administration over an “unlawful” move to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, escalating tensions between the White House and Democratic-led states.

So much of this “emergency docket” driven, Trump reconfigured, US Supreme Court will now have to refocus on merit-based, fully briefed and to be argued cases, which will determine if Article II of the Constitution can be reinterpreted to sustain the autocracy Trump and his MAGA minority believe is justified or if the constitutional guardrails will continue our democracy. With a fearful, Trump-controlled rubber stamp GOP, controlling Congress, only the Supreme Court stands between the end of American democracy and the harsh rule of Donald John Trump, a President whose mental faculties are increasingly the topic of congressional leaders and major members of the press.

The Supreme Court cases that will make this determination include the President’s right to deploy federal troops based on Trump’s say-so on rebellion, how far warrantless arrests by anonymous masked federal agents can go, how far the President can go negate prior passed budget allocations and fire congressionally-protected agency appointments, whether President can condition federal aid and college research endowments in exchange for ceding curriculum and student composition control to his administration, if the President can simply declare an “emergency” and assume the complete right to set and reset tariffs, whether any portion of the remaining Voting Rights Act can be used to guarantee unrigged elections… in short whether the United States of America will remain a republic governed by the people or even for the people anymore.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as most of the rest of the world now hates us, even raising barriers against Americans traveling overseas, I truly wish that the Supreme Court will prove them wrong, that we are and will remain a constitutional democracy… but that issue is very much in doubt.