Not too long ago, there was growing consensus that the “Warrior Cop” as described by Radley Balko’s seminal work was a bad thing, creating the mentality of police against citizenry rather than police as protectors of the people. Police carried weapons of war, drove armored vehicles and wore gear best suited to causing fear and loathing. If that was a problem then, what happened in Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park was nothing short of a siege, albeit one without an enemy in sight or a purpose other than to perform for the cameras.

It had been a quiet morning in MacArthur Park, a hub in one of Los Angeles’s most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. Children at a summer camp were playing outside, but the park was otherwise largely empty. Continue reading →

Remember when the co-president was thought to be Elon Musk, before he decided to start a new political party because he was such a popular and charismatic figure in American politics? We were, apparently, quite wrong, as the real president was hiding in the shadows all along. He was a 39-year-old son of wealthy California Democrats whose formulative years were spent blaming janitors for not picking up the trash he tossed to the ground. And in the second Trump administration, he appears to have more power than pretty much anyone else. His name is Stephen Miller.

It was during his formative years that Mr. Miller developed a broader critique of society. He watched the left take over California and, in his view, turn it into a failed state — failures that he believed were directly attributable to immigration. As he explained years later, it was his experience in California that led him to conclude that “mass migration turns politics leftward” and that mass migration was turning the United States into California.

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Whether or not it’s feasible, the fact remains that a couple of Trump’s most adoring congressional representatives want his face on Mount Rushmore, beside Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. And nobody loves the idea more than Trump.

Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, at the time running for South Dakota governor, recalled in a 2018 interview with a Coyote State newspaper that during her first meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, he told her it was his “dream” to be immortalized on the monument someday.

“I started laughing,” Noem, at the time a Republican member of Congress, told the Argus Leader. “He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.”

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As regular readers of SJ know, I am surprisingly patriotic for someone who occasionally criticizes my nation and its officials, both right and left. It’s harder this year than it has been in the past. It’s not that my love of country has waned, but that too many within the MAGA fold who call themselves “patriots” care little about the Constitution, that thing that makes us Americans.

But I refuse to give up, either on this nation or its Constitution, even if we just saw Congress fold like a cheap suit to the whims of a vulgar, deceitful, vindictive, narcissistic ignoramus. And so, I celebrate today, the Fourth of July, in the 249 year of our independence. I celebrate the Americans who gave their lives for their country. I celebrate the blessings of liberty we enjoy, even as armed masked men snatch people off the street for looking swarthy. Continue reading →

When Skink sent me the decision yesterday, without comment, I opened it to see a mere 38-page ruling from the Eleventh Circuit. In the grand scheme of judicial decisions nowadays, meaning since the advent of computers allowing the facile regurgitation of formulaic and prolix writing, a mere 38-page decision is considered relatively succinct. But still, it came from the swamp and rarely does anything good come from the swamp.*

And so I read, without further introduction, about someone named Katie Woods suing the Florida Department of Education, and the Hillsborough Board of Education. Suddenly the strains of Harper Valley PTA started swirling in my head, because as I dove further and further into the decision, I realized what a petty, absurd and ridiculous case this was. Continue reading →

Zohran Mamdani and Elon Musk have two things in common. They are both naturalized American citizens, and they have both been mentioned as targets of denaturalization by Trump in the past few days. More to the point, the Department of Justice under the auspices of Attorney General Pam Bondi has issued a memorandum as to its civil enforcement that makes denaturalization of American citizens a priority.

The Civil Division shall prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence. To promote the pursuit of all viable denaturalization cases available under 8 U.S.C. § 1451 and maintain the integrity of the naturalization system while simultaneously ensuring an appropriate allocation of resources, the Civil Division has established the following categories of priorities for denaturalization cases: Continue reading →

Putting aside whether you believe the Supreme Court of the United States is a bunch of Trump-loving partisan hacks or a more conservative court, but still one that prizes legal principle and integrity despite Justice Thomas’ RV, a secondary problem arises out of its decision staying the universal injunction in Trump v. CASA.

Bear in mind that the Court takes on a relative handful of cases, and even then tends to go no further than absolutely necessary to address the issue before the Court. What this means is that thousands of cases go unreviewed by the Supreme Court, and tens of thousand of issues go unresolved, left to some other day in the future that may never come. The latter is called judicial humility. The former is called laziness. Continue reading →

Simon Cameron said “A good politician is one who, when he gets bought, stays bought.” But Thom Tillis, senator from North Carolina, wasn’t bought by Trump and decided that he’d had enough of being owned by him. He opposed the Big Beautiful omnibus reconciliation bill, and within a day learned that Trump would crush him for his disloyalty. Tillis’ response was to announce that he would not be running for Senate again. This bill crossed the threshold of shame for Tillis, even if confirming Hegseth, Gabbard, RFJ Jr. and K$sh Patel did not.

David French ekes out an explanation for the Senate Republicans confirming Trump’s cabinet and high office choices, notwithstanding the Constitution’s placing the onus on the Senate to “advise and consent” so that a malignant president didn’t appoint wholly unqualified but unquestionably loyal hacks to those offices. Continue reading →

Bush hated them. Obama and Biden too. But as Congress became increasingly paralyzed and incapable of real bipartisanship to do the people’s work, president found themselves in the position of either filling the gap by Executive Order or sitting around in the Oval counting their toes in a government incapable of doing much of anything. And so presidents reacted as the most powerful man in the world was wont to do. They grabbed their pen and phone and ran a government.

And when their efforts exceeded their authority, they were smacked with an injunction by a district court judge when someone challenged their authority to act. They hated it. But they complied with it and appealed. No more. Continue reading →

On behalf of the United States, the Department of Justice has done the bizarre, incomprehensible and incoherent. In the District of Maryland, Trump has sued its political enemies, all 15 judges of the Maryland district court.

In a 22-page complaint, lawyers for the Justice Department noted — as many administration officials have in recent weeks — that courts across the country have issued an avalanche of injunctions against various parts of President Trump’s agenda almost from the moment that he returned to office.

The lawyers sought to set their suit against Judge Russell and his colleagues in that context, saying that the new standing rule intruded on the White House’s inherent powers to “enforce the nation’s immigration laws.”

District of Maryland Chief Judge George Russell III issued a standing order that directed the clerk to automatically enter an injunction in all habeas petitions prohibiting the government from removing aliens for a period of . . . one day.

This lawsuit involves yet another regrettable example of the unlawful use of equitable powers to restrain the Executive. Specifically, Defendants have instituted an avowedly automatic injunction against the federal government, issued outside the context of any particular case or controversy.

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