(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Sam Alito Having Second Thoughts about Enabling Trump? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-23
USA Today opinion columnist Chris Brennan has a somewhat surprising take on Sam Alito’s otherwise blistering dissent with his fellow Justices (joined of course by Clarence Thomas) over last weekend’s middle-of-the-night emergency SCOTUS decision blocking the Trump Administration’s continuing efforts to deport non-citizens to El Salvador:
Our system of government is built on the concept of coequal branches of government keeping each other in check. So why did Alito feel compelled recently to remind the president that he must follow the law?
Trump has been two-timing his conservative allies on the Supreme Court, promising to comply with their rulings (in theory) on immigration matters while openly, flagrantly, not obeying at least one of their rulings (here in the real world).
Alito sounds nervous. His judicial thinking almost always leads him to see things Trump's way. He wouldn't feel a need to tell Trump to follow the law unless he expects Trump not to follow the law.
Justice Alito's dissent hides a warning about Trump
…
The standard Trump operating procedure for immigration issues during his first three months in office has been to break the law quickly, then complain about people pointing out the law-breaking, then shrug off the judiciary by claiming to have no power to remedy the injustice.
Alito knows all that. That's why he tacked onto the end of his dissent these words: "Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law."
He wouldn't need to say that if we could expect Trump to follow the law. Alito here, by saying that the president has to abide by the court's pause on deportations, is acknowledging the very real possibility that he will not do that.
…
Once an authoritarian regime is up and running, it can run down whoever it wants. Alito's small warning about obeying the law at the end of his peevish missive about rushing to rule on immigration matters is a signal, showing us his fear that so often green-lighting Trump's worst impulses might one day render the Supreme Court powerless to constrain him in any significant way.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/23/2318343/-Sam-Alito-Having-Second-Thoughts-about-Enabling-Trump?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
