It’s bad enough, if unsurprising, that the non-lawyers in the Trump administration, like Karoline Leavitt, spew nonsense designed to make people stupider about law. After all, they’re regurgitating what they’re told, and when they’re told nonsense, they spew nonsense. But the attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, is a lawyer. Attorney General Bondi is supposed to know better.

The part of the Alien Enemies Act, 50 USC § 21, that has been the focus of most discussion, although it’s routinely misstated by omission to play upon the simpleton’s belief that there is some cool trick that makes it applicable upon the president’s whim even when we’re not at war because of the disjunctive “or” clause. It’s not. Continue reading →

Merely a few days ago, Trump called criticism of judges “totally illegal” in a speech before a hand-picked group of loyalists at the Department of Justice. But that was a few days ago. This was yesterday.

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To be frank, before yesterday I had never heard of the United States Institute of Peace. I suspect the same may be true for many of you, although I’ve no doubt that there will be someone who believes they know everything there is to know about it. According to its website, it exists by “unique” congressional mandate.

Congress founded the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1984 as a nonpartisan, independent organization dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.

Congress provided USIP with a unique status to enable the organization to operate in sensitive areas where diplomats and military units are often constrained for practical or political reasons.

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Before moving forth to the nuts and bolts, let’s clear the air. Mahmoud Khalil is not in this country on a visa. Rather, he is a legal permanent resident (aka LPR) of the United States. The government pretty much* concedes that he is an LPR in the Notice to Appear filed with the Immigration Court against Khalil. A Notice to Appear is the immigration court equivalent of an indictment, and it contains the charges of deportation to which Khalil must respond in Court.

No one is “revoking” his visa or green card. To be removed from the country, one of two things must happen: (i) Khalil stipulates to the order of deportation; or (ii) there is a final hearing in immigration court, and Khalil loses.** Continue reading →

Twenty-seven year old Saint Anselm college graduate Karoline Leavitt possesses the two most important qualifications for serving as press secretary to the president. First, she’s loyal. Second, she’s shameless. This isn’t to say these are bad things, at least as far as being press secretary goes, but the one thing she is not is a lawyer. Not that it stops her from authoritatively stating the law.

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There is a maxim, Inter arma enim silent leges, meaning “In times of war, the law falls silent.” Its embodiment is in the last remaining vestige of the dreaded Alien and Sedition Acts, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which authorizes a president, in times of war, to take action against the soldiers of a foreign government engaged in acts of war against the United States. It was this law invoked by Executive Proclamation that Trump loaded five Venezuelans on planes. They were, he said, member of the Tren de Aragua.

Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States. TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking. TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States.

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When it was about representing Trump, the left had no qualms about vilifying the lawyers who would deign to defend such a bad man. If they did so unethically or criminally, fair enough, but if they did so ethically and within the bounds of the law, they were wrong. That’s what lawyers do, represent people. Even people the woke despised. Even Trump.

But then, the attacks weren’t coming from the White House and didn’t carry with them the power of the government  to prevent the firms from being lawyers, doing the job of lawyers. There was “moral condemnation,” as the woke castigated lawyers for making the volitional decision to defend Darth Cheeto, but nobody stripped away their security clearance, barred government lawyers from talking to them and forbid their entry into government buildings. Continue reading →

Prefatory Note: Look, I didn’t ask for this. Nobody wakes up thinking, “Today’s the day my eye turns into a weepy, crusty traitor.” But here we are, and since I’m stuck with it, you’re stuck with me telling you about it. Blame the universe, or maybe that sketchy gas station burrito. Either way, buckle up—CLS

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your eyes—well, maybe not, because one of mine’s currently staging a revolt that’d make a toddler jealous. It’s Wednesday morning as I type this, and I’m sitting here with a case of pinkeye that hit me harder than a linebacker on a quarterback with no offensive line. You know, the kind of surprise that makes you wonder if life’s just a cosmic prank show, and I’m the guy who didn’t read the fine print. Continue reading →

The merits issue is birthright citizenship, but the petitions submitted to the Supreme Court aren’t really about the merits issue, but the process by which three courts have prevented an Executive Order from fundamentally changing the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution: Universal injunctions.

Lawyers for President Trump asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift a nationwide pause imposed on the president’s order ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and foreign residents.

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Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone” strategy is brilliant, in a truly evil sort of way. One can barely keep up with the daily malfeasance, no less spend more than a few minutes thinking about it before the next day’s malfeasance takes its place on the front burner. For some, at least there is an effort made at rationalizing the impropriety, but there’s no excuse for the email directing the remaining staff at the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, to take the documents in its safe and shred them, and when the shredder breaks, burn them.

A senior official at the main U.S. aid agency, which is being dismantled by the Trump administration, told employees to clear safes holding classified documents and personnel files by shredding the papers or putting them into bags for burning, according to an email sent to the staff. Continue reading →