19 hours Ago
By Todd Buchanan With few exceptions, Republican members of Congress and Trump appointees in the executive branch who have sworn oaths to defend the Constitution are failing to do so. Instead, they either owe their allegiance to President Trump or are deterred by his menacing tactics. Thus, the burden of checking a president bent on usurping power has largely fallen on the judiciary.
Many in the legislative and executive branches have chosen to overlook or even deny the fact that Donald Trump, after losing the 2020 election, in multiple ways used fraud and deceit in an attempt to overturn the election results and retain power, culminating in his incitement of a violent assault on Congress to halt the certification of the election. Donald Trump never apologized for the resulting deaths or the trauma he caused members of Congress and the Nation. Indeed, he has sought to glorify that day, even calling it a “day of love.
” Now, a second and emboldened Trump Administration, including many Senate-confirmed loyalists, is demonstrating its utter contempt for the Constitution. The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is one of many examples. Having wrongly deported Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador, the administration claims to have no obligation to see to his prompt and safe return to his family.
This administration asserts the right to determine the extent of its own authority. But as Chief Justice John Marshall put it so clearly in 1803: “It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” I find some cause for optimism in some of the Court’s decisions, notably its April 10 order in the Abrego Garcia case.
But by stopping short of actually ordering Abrego Garcia’s return , it left a loophole the administration was happy to exploit. To date, any word of caution the Court may have intended for the White House has not been received, so intent is Trump on revenge and remaking the Country in his image. I understand the need to decide cases with the long-term in mind.
But for the long-term to have a chance we need to survive this hour of peril. Far more than a bold and energetic chief executive, Donald Trump is the man our Founders feared. I believe the Court’s decision regarding presidential immunity in Trump v.
United States only encouraged his authoritarian aspirations. He seems to have no concept of the public trust, or the national interest. Former Attorney General William Barr called Trump “a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s.
” This president believes that power derives from the capacity to instill fear. From the outset, he has stoked division and appealed to our most base instincts. His cabinet appointments of sycophants like Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Kristi Noam and Pete Hegseth demonstrate William Barr’s point.
Would any of these people recognize an illegal order if they received one? Whether our democracy survives Donald Trump will depend largely on the courage of the Court. If it will clearly lay down the law with this president, we can hope that more legislators of his own party will muster the courage to take their oaths seriously. The Court might not want this responsibility to make clear to Donald Trump that he is not above the law, but I am afraid it has no choice if American democracy is to survive.
Please write to the Supreme Court at: 1 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20543. Todd Buchanan lives in Eldora..
